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Cultural Studies
Chapter · August 2017
DOI: 10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0056
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1 9,192
1 author:
Gilbert Rodman
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
30 PUBLICATIONS 274 CITATIONS
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, Cultural Studies
GILBERT B. RODMAN
University of Minnesota, USA
There is no simple answer to the question of how to do cultural studies. Unlike content
analysis or ethnography, it is not a research method unto itself. Unlike economics or
political science, it is not a discipline unto itself. Instead, it is a radically interdisciplinary
form of intellectual and political work that operates both inside and outside academic
settings. Though one can find cultural studies textbooks that claim otherwise, there is
no such thing as a “cultural studies methodology”—at least not in the traditional sense
of the term. Cultural studies has a long history of poaching the research tools and theo-
retical frameworks it needs from more traditional disciplines, and its choice of research
methods is necessarily contextual, pragmatic, and question-driven. The methods it uses
are deliberately varied, eclectic, and impure. Different cultural studies research projects
may use completely different methodologies—including semiotics, ethnography, dis-
course analysis, focus groups, historical/archival research, ideological analysis, political
economy, and rhetorical analysis (to name just a few)—and individual cultural studies
practitioners may use different research methods from one project to the next. For that
matter, any single cultural studies research project may draw on multiple methodologies
and/or theoretical frameworks, and the good cultural studies practitioner must always
be open to the possibility that their research will lead their project into methodological
and/or theoretical territory that they did not expect, and perhaps could not even have
predicted, at the outset of that project.
Perhaps the best way to explain how to do cultural studies is, ironically, to avoid
the “simple” methodological questions: how to interpret media texts, how to conduct
fieldwork, how to use an archive, and so forth. These are important questions—and they
are not simple at all—but any given one of them will, at best, apply to just a fraction
of cultural studies research projects. Moreover, being fluent in one (or more) of these
methods is not, by itself a guarantee that the research one does using that method will,
in fact, count as cultural studies.
If one’s goal is to do cultural studies, what one really needs to learn is a set of gen-
eral characteristics and underlying principles associated with the larger project, rather
than a particular methodology. Understanding these characteristics and principles, and
being able to put them into practice, will make it possible to decide what the proper
methodological approach(es) for any given research project will be, while still recog-
nizing that the research one tackles at some future date may require very different
methodological choices.
The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods. Jörg Matthes (General Editor),
Christine S. Davis and Robert F. Potter (Associate Editors).
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0056
Cultural Studies
Chapter · August 2017
DOI: 10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0056
CITATION READS
1 9,192
1 author:
Gilbert Rodman
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
30 PUBLICATIONS 274 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by Gilbert Rodman on 16 November 2018.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
, Cultural Studies
GILBERT B. RODMAN
University of Minnesota, USA
There is no simple answer to the question of how to do cultural studies. Unlike content
analysis or ethnography, it is not a research method unto itself. Unlike economics or
political science, it is not a discipline unto itself. Instead, it is a radically interdisciplinary
form of intellectual and political work that operates both inside and outside academic
settings. Though one can find cultural studies textbooks that claim otherwise, there is
no such thing as a “cultural studies methodology”—at least not in the traditional sense
of the term. Cultural studies has a long history of poaching the research tools and theo-
retical frameworks it needs from more traditional disciplines, and its choice of research
methods is necessarily contextual, pragmatic, and question-driven. The methods it uses
are deliberately varied, eclectic, and impure. Different cultural studies research projects
may use completely different methodologies—including semiotics, ethnography, dis-
course analysis, focus groups, historical/archival research, ideological analysis, political
economy, and rhetorical analysis (to name just a few)—and individual cultural studies
practitioners may use different research methods from one project to the next. For that
matter, any single cultural studies research project may draw on multiple methodologies
and/or theoretical frameworks, and the good cultural studies practitioner must always
be open to the possibility that their research will lead their project into methodological
and/or theoretical territory that they did not expect, and perhaps could not even have
predicted, at the outset of that project.
Perhaps the best way to explain how to do cultural studies is, ironically, to avoid
the “simple” methodological questions: how to interpret media texts, how to conduct
fieldwork, how to use an archive, and so forth. These are important questions—and they
are not simple at all—but any given one of them will, at best, apply to just a fraction
of cultural studies research projects. Moreover, being fluent in one (or more) of these
methods is not, by itself a guarantee that the research one does using that method will,
in fact, count as cultural studies.
If one’s goal is to do cultural studies, what one really needs to learn is a set of gen-
eral characteristics and underlying principles associated with the larger project, rather
than a particular methodology. Understanding these characteristics and principles, and
being able to put them into practice, will make it possible to decide what the proper
methodological approach(es) for any given research project will be, while still recog-
nizing that the research one tackles at some future date may require very different
methodological choices.
The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods. Jörg Matthes (General Editor),
Christine S. Davis and Robert F. Potter (Associate Editors).
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0056
