Beyond the Cultural Turn: New Directions in the Study of Society and Culture (Studies on the History of Society and Culture)

Studies on the History of Society and Culture

by Victoria E. Bonnell, Lynn Hunt

Nothing has generated more controversy in the social sciences than the turn toward culture, variously known as the linguistic turn, culturalism, or postmodernism. This book examines the impact of the cultural turn on two prominent social science disciplines, history and sociology, and proposes new directions in the theory and practice of historical research.
The editors provide an introduction analyzing the origins and implications of the cultural turn and its postmodernist critiques of knowledge. Essays by leading historians and historical sociologists reflect on the uses of cultural theories and show both their promise and their limitations. The afterword by Hayden White provides an assessment of the trend toward culturalism by one its most influential proponents.
Beyond the Cultural Turn offers fresh theoretical readings of the most persistent issues created by the cultural turn and provocative empirical studies focusing on diverse social practices, the uses of narrative, and the body and self as critical junctures where culture and society intersect.

Genres: History, Sociology, Nonfiction

364 pages, Paperback

First published June 5, 1999

Reviews

[szymborskalyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an undergrad I was so very taken by the cultural turn. Now I’m distinctly unimpressed.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly not much of this book has stayed with me since I read it, although I do recall that it was a valuable introduction to the cultural approach to social science that includes contributions from some of the most important writers in the area. Glancing through it again, I feel that one of its great strengths was the "Afterward" by Hayden White - a seminal figure in cultural studies whose work is addressed by many of the other writers herein. He emphasizes that "every perspective on society, Marxist or non- or anti-Marxist, is shot through with ideology" (316) and accuses history of being a discipline "more oblivious to the 'fictionality' of what it takes to be its data" (322) than any other. As I recall, this doesn't really address the texts compiled in here directly (and therefore is questionable as an "Afterward"), but it strikes me as one of the most important things for graduate students in history to consider. I think many of the essays in this collection are similar in that they stand alone as thought-provoking, but the whole never manages to take on a distinct identity. Find the essays that relate most to what you are doing and take them as jumping-off points for further background reading, but don't feel obliged to read the entire volume, would be my advice.