Contemporary Cultural Theories

This lecture series introduces classical as well as contemporary developments in the field of cultural theory, thereby offering a theoretical and intellectual historical basis for joint research and projects in connection with the university’s research core area 'Cultural History and Interpretations of Europe' at the University of Graz.
The aim of the series is to encourage and provide a basis for interdisciplinary discussions in the research area ‘Cultural theories and methods’.

All participants in the research core area are invited, as are all those interested in cultural theories.
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Conception and project direction
Ulla Kriebernegg, Gerald Lamprecht, Stephan Moebius

Details
Looking at the development of cultural theories (see Moebius 2010; Moebius/ Quadflieg 2011), it is possible to see enormous variation in cultural theoretical enquiry and research, in particular since the 'cultural turn' of the 1970s. Today, it is especially the various 'studies' – e.g. cultural studies, ageing studies, science studies, soundscape, mobilities, postcolonial, governmentality and visual studies – that define the cultural theoretical field and that are undergoing increasing specification and expansion.
Concerning the particular features and originality of contemporary cultural research, the following can be observed: first, that research in the various branches of contemporary cultural studies is characterized by the more or less explicit reference to post-structuralist theories (especially those of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler). The attempt is made to operationalize these through applying them to a wide range of research questions and research areas. Second, that this operationalization is often accompanied by an innovative connection with other theoretical conceptions from the cultural theoretical field, so that – as in the 'extreme case' of contemporary cultural studies – poststructuralist, pragmatic, praxis-theoretical and social-critical perspectives go hand in hand. And third, that the 'studies' extend the focus on symbolic orders and relations between humans, dominant until now in the social and cultural sciences, to the (hybrid) relations between humans, objects and artefacts. Here, images, media technologies, bodies, technical things and spaces take on particular significance.