A reading of New Cultural Studies: reflecting on theoretical aspects of cultural studies

This essay is concerned with a practice of reading a book with radical agendas, titled New Cultural Studies, which attempts to address a question in relation to the position of 'theory' in cultural studies. Today, there seems to be a call for more immediate visible achievements or results among government, industry and academia. The contemporary situation leads to an atmosphere of a disregard of more abstract and reflective thinking, which means the decline of theory in the academic world, let alone in cultural studies. Over the past two decades, theory or philosophical thought has been exposed to the transformation of its surroundings, including the rise of neoliberal economy, serious terrorist attacks, many deaths of leading theorists, etc. Under the current tide of globalization, we seem to be forced into paralyzed way of thought process, not realizing how we should proceed in the field of cultural studies. Through the reading of monographs which deal with the possibilities of new cultural studies, we discuss the meanings of facing up to theories which cultural studies has traditionally drawn upon..