Introducing Cultural Studies: Learning through Practice

The fundamental task facing students of cultural studies is to apply theory to critical practice.  Introducing Cultural Studies: Learning through Practice provides readers with the conceptual tools to practice cultural analysis for themselves.  Further, readers will:

• Get a basic idea of the historical development of cultural studies
• Become familiar with important critics in the British cultural studies tradition
• Get a concise but critically aware introduction to key concepts
• Become conversant with some of the main areas of interest to cultural studies
• Develop awareness of how theory can be transformed into practice
• Develop the skills required to produce well-argued and informed projects
• See, from numerous practical examples, how concepts work in practice

Each chapter has a short introduction to explain the basic content and a brief description of the main learning goals.  Chapters are concluded with brief summaries, references and advice on further reading.  The book is full of exercises to motivate readers to respond to the book in an active and enjoyable way.

This book, by combining heuristic thinking with creative-critical approaches, provides undergraduates with an assured, witty, engaging and essential introduction to cultural studies.


David Walton is affiliated with the Universidad de Murcia, and is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies.

To listen to David Walton’s musical response to Adorno's famous essay on jazz, please visit Adorno: Jazz Perennial Fashion . This song accompanies pages 64 to 66 of the book together with a series of questions designed to get readers to evaluate the positive and negative aspects of Adorno's approach.