Culture and Society

David Oswell is Director of Research in the internationally renowned Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of Pleasure Principles: Explorations in Politics, Sexuality and Ethics (Lawrence & Wishart, 1993), Television, Childhood and the Home: A History of the Making of the Child Television Audience in Britain (Oxford University Press, 2002), Culture and Society: An Introduction to Cultural Studies (SAGE, 2006), The Sociology of Childhood (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) and various articles in academic journals and edited collections. His current research is focused on culture, governmentality, and the built, natural and immaterial environment.

Too often cultural studies discourse seems cut off from wider developments in social theory. As a sociologist with a strong cultural studies sensibility, David Oswell is ideally placed to put this right. Through a series of well-judged and historically nuanced readings of cultural, social theory and critical philosophy, this book provides just the bridge between cultural studies and wider debates that we needNick CouldryRedaer in Media, Communications and Culture, London School of Economics and Political Science This book is an addition to the burgeoning field of Cultural Studies and is a useful companion volume to what Oswell elegantly describes as ‘a book in a sea of other books and writings about culture’. Nevertheless, it is a useful guide where Oswell manages to decant sophisticated concepts and revisit the tropes in an imag-inative and engaging way, which should appeal to a wide readershipSociology

• Introduction: From the BeginningSemiosis: From Representation to TranslationPower: From Ideology to GovernmentPopular Culture: From People to MultitudeIdentity: Between Subject and ObjectBody: Between Nature and TechnologyEconomy: Between Structure and NetworkWorld: Between Globe and EmpireEthics: By Way of a Conclusion