Political Studies and Cultural Studies

This article reviews the contribution of the discipline of Cultural Studies to that of Politics. It suggests that the study of popular culture opens up the realm of politics in a way that challenges the traditional boundaries of the discipline. By treating culture as ‘ideology’, Cultural Studies directs attention to the sites in which meaning is produced and contested. This in turn undermines any clear distinction between politics and culture and consequently demands a broader approach to ‘the political’ than has traditionally been taken by political science.