POLITICS AND CULTURE - A LESS FISSURED TERRAIN

In the past few years, the area of politics and culture has moved from the margins of cultural inquiry to its center as evidenced by the num ber of persons who identify themselves as working within the area and by its growing institutionalization within sociology. ''Politics and c ulture'' suggests that each term constitutes an autonomous social real m; whereas ''political culture'' suggests the boundaries of cultural a ction within which ordinary politics occurs. Bourdieu's emphasis on bo undary making, Foucault's disciplinary mechanisms, and Habermas's conc eption of the public are setting the research agenda of scholars who f ocus on macro-level social change. Interdisciplinary dialogues are eme rging, conducted on a landscape of historical and contemporary empiric al research. Four sub-areas have crystallized: first, political cultur e, which focuses on problems of democratization and civil society; sec ond, institutions, which includes law, religion, the state, and citize nship; third, political communication and meaning; and fourth, cultura l approaches to collective action. Promising directions for future wor k are historical ethnographies, participant observation and interview studies of political communication, and studies of political mobilizat ion that examine how emotion operates in politics. Paradigms are not y et firm within this area, suggesting that politics and culture is a di sciplinary site of theoretical, methodological, and empirical innovati on.