This collection of classic essays focuses on the theoretical frameworks that informed the work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham, the methodologies and working practices that the Centre developed for conducting academic research and examples of the studies carried out under the auspices of the Centre.

Introduction SECTION 1 Literature and society Introduction 1 Introduction to the French edition of Uses of Literacy 2 Literature/society: Mapping the field 3 Reading literature as culture 4 Notes on a theory of genre 5 Walter Greenwood: Working-class writer 6 Lawrence, Leavis and culture 7 The abuses of literacy 8 The hidden method: Lucien Goldmann and the sociology of literature SECTION 2 Popular culture and youth subculture Introduction 9 The Hippies: An American 'moment' 10 The meaning of Tom Jones 11 The politics of popular culture 12 Breaking out, smashing up and the social context of aspiration 13 Working class youth cultures 14 Girls and subcultures 15 Defending ski-jumpers: A critique of theories of youth sub-cultures SECTION Media, Introduction 16 The spectacular world of Whicker 17 Television news and the Social Contract 18 Housewives and the mass media 19 Newsmaking and crime 20 The 'unity' of current affairs television 21 The 'structured communication' of events 22 Encoding and decoding in the television discourse 23 Reconceptualising the media audience: Towards an ethnography of audience SECTION 4 Women's studies and feminism, Introduction 24 Images of women in the media 25 Relations of production: Relations of re-production 26 'It is well known that by nature women are inclined to be rather personal' 27 A woman's world: 'Woman' - an ideology of femininity 28 Housewives: Isolation as oppression 29 Psychoanalysis and the cultural acquisition of sexuality and subjectivity 30 The good, the bad and the ugly: Images of young women in the labour market SECTION 5 Race, Introduction: Lost in translation 31 Down these mean streets . the meaning of mugging 32 Reggae, Rastas and Rudies: Style and the subversion of form 33 On the political economy of black labour and the racial structuring of the working class in England 34 Multicultural fictions 35 The organic crisis of British capitalism and race: The experience of the seventies 36 Just plain common sense: The 'roots' of racism 37 White woman listen! Black feminism and the boundaries of sisterhood SECTION 6 History, Introduction: Entangled histories 38 Economy, culture and concept: Three approaches to marxist history 39 Out of the people: The politics of containment 1935-45, 40 The history of a working-class Methodist Chapel 41 'Ideology' and 'consciousness': Some problems in Marxist historiography 42 Women domestic servants 1919-1939: A study of a hidden Army, illustrated by servants' own recollected experiences 43 What do we mean by popular memory? SECTION 7 Education and work Introduction: The books at the end of the shelf 44 Social democracy, education and the crisis 45 Perspectives on schooling and politics 46 The Adult Literacy Campaign: Politics and practices 47 The strange fate of progressive education 48 How working class kids get working class jobs