Political Economy Vs Cultural Economy

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Assignment 1, Option 2: What are the chief characteristics that would distinguish the traditions of political economy and cultural studies one from the other? Are there any ways in which these distinctly different traditions may actually complement each other and might a closer alliance between the two be possible? Total words: 2188 Assignment 1, Option 2 At the outset, I would like to define the two concepts that will be talked about in this essay, i.e., political economy and cultural studies. Basically, political economy is a social science that deals with the affiliation of political strategies and economics and how this affects people. Both politics and economics are taken as a single entity. The term political economy emanated in the 18th century and this field evolved from moral philosophy. Literally, it means the study of the “economy of states.” Political economy advocates that rather than land, it is labor which is the most valuable. The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia defines cultural studies as an “Interdisciplinary field concerned with the role of social institutions in the shaping of culture.” A social institution refers to groups of people having a common purpose, responsibilities, and aims and enjoying various rights and so on. However, only the group is entitled to the above-mentioned points and not individuals. In simpler words, cultural studies relates different phenomenon to aspects of culture such as nationality, gender, race and so on. The term cultural studies came about in the year 1964. The expression was coined by Richard Hoggart and this was at the time he founded the Birmingham Centre for contemporary cultural studies. He was succeeded as director by Stuart Hall, who along with other colleagues, created an academic movement. Welsh radical literary critic, Raymond Williams, who also contributed immensely to the cultural
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