Now that cultural studies has settled nicely into academe, cultural
analyses are appearing on a regular basis. Right on cue, here is Doing
Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman, a recent addition
to Stuart Hall's Culture, Media and Identities series. I give
this book special note, however, because a text on "doing"
cultural studies is slightly different than one that thinks about doing
cultural studies. While several excellent anthologies currently talk
about cultural studies, these are often heavy on theory with little
in the way of sustained application. In contrast, Doing Cultural
Studies shows not only how to think about cultural studies, but
how to "do" it too. Using the Sony Walkman as a case study,
du Gay and his co-authors provide a much-needed text showing cultural
studies in action.
Focusing on the "circuit of culture," the authors use key
concepts in cultural studies such as representation, identity, production,
and consumption to analyze the Walkman as a cultural artifact. Educators
will appreciate that this case study is structured so that its approach
can be "refined, expanded theoretically and applied to new objects
of cultural study" (11). Overall, the text clarifies without reducing
complex terms. Also, although the segment on globalization is a bit
thin, the section dealing with production, along with the one connecting
design to consumption and production, easily offsets that criticism.
Indeed, these two sections, in my view, illustrate cultural studies
at its best. Drawing on a variety of sources, du Gay, et al. show, in
Section II, how the Walkman's success emerged not just from clever marketing,
but also from Sony's particular hybrid culture, its corporate structure
and its production techniques. Section III neatly links consumers and
their responses to the product's ultimate design and image.
Although the book is text heavy, it includes a significant number of
photographs, sample advertisements and even statistical data for readers
to consider. The text also contains an appendix of selected readings,
including challenging theoretical works such as excerpts from Walter
Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,"
as well as more accessible articles from popular media such as Shu Ueyama's
"The Selling of the 'Walkman" from Advertising Age.
Given their orientation to British cultural studies the authors, perhaps
not surprisingly, include two selections from Raymond Williams. Better
yet, the authors have integrated the readings into the main text's structure
so that readers can move in and out of the selections in relevant ways.
Although this text could benefit by augmenting its approach with more
focus on gender, Doing Cultural Studies is a great introductory
text for instructors who want to teach cultural studies in a post secondary
setting. I would caution though, that despite its reader-friendly approach,
many secondary students might find the work overwhelming. It would,
however, be a fine resource for teachers wanting a concrete example
of doing cultural studies.
In a more academic vein, Divergent Paths, Marc Egnal's erudite
comparative analysis of economic growth in French Canada and the American
North and South, offers another sustained example of cultural analysis.
Starting with representative accounts of life in the three regions,
Egnal notes all three were roughly economically equal in the 1700s.
Then, moving beyond accounts that focus on physical resources, access
to capital or government policy, Egnal argues that "culture and
institutions shaped the divergent paths followed by the North, on the
one hand, and the South and French Canada, on the other" (viii).
According to this account, both French Canada and the American South
developed hierarchical, conservative cultures that were slow to adopt
change while the American North, from the outset, developed a more open
approach to change, especially around industrialization. These cultural
values and attitudes then shaped each region's development during the
late 19th and early 20th century.
Interestingly, Egnal contends that these values were evident in, and
produced by, the early approaches to the land and the institutions which
developed in each region: the seigneurial system in French Canada, slavery
in the American South, and independent farmers in the American North.
He follows this argument with a close comparative analysis of the three
regions in terms of education and mobility, religion and labour, and
entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual life. In Part II, he shows how
these values shaped growth until the later 20th century when these older
values were challenged and ultimately replaced. Readers will find his
analysis of the Quiet Revolution, the emergence of the Rustbelt, and
the Sunbelt's growth in the 1970s fascinating reading.
I do have two reservations. Despite Egnal's wonderful documentation
and his demarcation of controversial points, my more postmodern tendencies
wonder whether "culture" becomes too large an explanatory
force, even when contained at the regional level. I also suspect that,
although Egnal certainly attends to women and their roles in these cultures,
a more gendered story may yet be told here. These caveats notwithstanding,
Egnal's work shows how "culture" is a powerful analytical
tool.
Although these books employ "culture" differently, they provide
readers with strong evidence that although doing cultural studies might
take divergent paths, the product is always intriguing. Both are worth
reading.