Strategies of Cultural and Communication Studies: Carey, Hall, and Foucault

Abstract

傳播實踐是一個交錯著整體文化活動的現像－－包括社會、經濟、政治，及歷史等的網絡。因此我們必須以文化研究的策略來關照傳播實踐的各層面。本文將探討三種不同取向的文化研究模式：凱瑞的唯心主義文化研究，霍爾的唯物馬克斯主義的文化研究，以及福克的後現化主義文化研究。本文的分析方式是首先解析他們如何詮釋文化，社會事實，人的本質，以及如何在這個大的觀念架構下定位傳播理論和進行傳播研究。本文一方面批評唯心與唯物的文化研究不足之處，同時並試圖描繪文化研究如何邁向後現代主義的模式：以社會情境的網絡分析取代單一因果關係的分析；強調外部效力，不再追尋內在意義；重視日常生活中各層面「瑣碎」的抗爭，而非僅著眼於對權力中心所做的霸權分析。Communication needs to be conceived as a collective phenomenon fabricated closely into a larger cultural network-including the social, political, and historical context. In this paper, I will triangle Michel Foucault`s genealogical approach with the other two important approaches to cultural study: the idealistic cultural study articulated by James W. Carey, and the Marxist cultural studies best represented by Stuart Hall.My general project is to lay out how they interpret culture, reality, human beings, and locate communication theory and study within this broad theoretical framework. Particularly, I try to map out how cultural studies move toward the post-modernist strategies characterized by the rhizomatic analysis of social context rather than the search for mono-causal relationship; by the emphasis on the exterior effectivities rather than the reading of interior meanings; and by the focus on the trivial struggles in everyday resistances rather than the totalistic target of the hegemonic dominance.