SOCIOLOGY AND CULTURAL-STUDIES - RHETORICS OF DISCIPLINARY IDENTITY

This article explores the interface between cultural studies and socio logy, as expressed through four scenarios which construe the 'debate' in particular ways. Two of these - 'cultural studies succession' and ' postmodernist conjuncturalist cultural studies' - unapologetically see k to dismiss sociology in favour of cultural studies, whilst a third - 'sociological revenge' - appears to turn the tables entirely. A fourt h and more productive scenario dwells synthetically on the 'cultural t urn' across the whole 'field' of the social and human sciences. All fo ur postures discussed are found to share two problematical features. T he first of these is that although rhetoric/discourse is crucial in th e construction of identities, including disciplinary identities, over- rhetorical manifestos readily generate critical doubts about their con sistency and appropriateness. Second, the focus in the four scenarios is chiefly on disciplinary homes, fields, or turns rather than, as it perhaps should be, on substantive theses or ideological positions with in these.