Week 2 Discussion Questions

In Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms, Stuart Hall defines culture as “patterns of organization, those characteristics forms of human energy which can be discovered as revealing themselves- in ‘unexpected identities and correspondences’ as well as in ‘discontinuities of an unexpected kind’ - within or underlying all social practices” (60). If we examine culture through studying the “relationships between these patterns” how does counter cultural alter the patterns within cultures and subcultures? Is counter cultural rhetoric different from the analysis of the whole?  

In the op-ed article “A ‘Bad Writer’ Bites Back, the writer(s) target the usage of difficult and demanding language to express social criticism. As a writer that focuses on accessible modes of knowledge and information sharing, I often struggle to share academically dense work of scholars when sharing or teaching work for those generally interested. The challenge comes with translating as the article suggests, but that doesn’t nullify the reality of high academia. When providing translations and creating modes of accessibility, do we need a distinct understanding of culture and an individual's culture that is being taught? If so, how does Stuart Hall’s work relate to this cultural pattern in relation to the academic whole?