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Etnografi och Cultural Studies som kritisk intervention

Abstract

In the USA, Cultural Studies, by concentrating on culture, "difference" and "otherness", is in the process of establishing itself as a new academic discipline. Some see Cultural Studies as a possible alternative to both "Black Studies" and "Women's Studies". In the present article, possibilities for the development of Cultural Studies are discussed. The author warns that Cultural Studies, like the new ethnography represented by Clifford's and Marcus' anthology Writing Culture, could become yet another discipline which while theorizing about "otherness", "difference" and reflexivity, in practice continues to exclude the voice and presence of "the Other" in its research. Is Cultural Studies to become nothing more than an expression of "the latest hip racism", featuring white, predominantly male, researchers who continue to (if in a somewhat more refined manner) interpret the experiences of blacks/coloureds; or can Cultural Studies use the opportunity offered to become a meeting-place for multiple discourses from numerous different perspectives? The article concludes by exhorting the concerned researchers and university lecturers to take advantage of the anti-racist, radical potential of Culture Studies. We ought not to content ourselves with sophisticated discussions about forging new concepts about "the Other". Instead, we ought to welcome those voices which have traditionally been excluded from the academic discussion and therewith challenge the dominant power structures construed around race, sex and class.