The Politics of Culture

This article provides an overview over the evolution of thinking about "culture" in the work of Raymond Williams. With the introduction of Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony culture came to be understood as consisting of not only shared, but contested meanings as well. On the basis of this redefinition by Williams, cultural studies was able to delineate culture as the production, circulation, and consumption of meanings that become embodied and embedded in social practice.