Cultural Studies and Political Economy

This book addresses the notorious split between the two fields of cultural studies and political economy. Drawing on the works of Harold Innis, Theodor Adorno, Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart, E.P. Thompson, and other major theorists in the two fields, Robert E. Babe shows that political economy can be reconciled to certain aspects of cultural studies, particularly with regards to cultural materialism. Uniting the two fields has proven to be a complex undertaking though it makes practical sense, given the close interaction between political economy and cultural studies. Babe examines the evolution of cultural studies over time and its changing relationship with political economy. The intersections between the two fields center around three subjects: the cultural biases of money, the time/space dialectic, and the dialectic of information.

Robert Babe has clearly established himself as the leading communications scholar in Canada, following in the venerated footsteps of Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and Dallas Smythe. This book is an invaluable scholarly critique of American Cultural Studies/Poststructuralism., Babe offers a convincing, welcomed, and timely criticism of poststructuralism with its obsession with language far removed from a material context., As always, Babe unpacks the delicious debates and unexpected influences in the historiography of communication and cultural studies and in doing so provides provocative and prolific ideas for the reintegration of political economy and cultural studies.

Robert E. Babe is professor of information and media studies at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.