Popular Culture and Everyday Life

Book excerpt: Thisbroad-ranging survey of social and cultural theory issues an audacious challenge to contemporary cultural studies' emphasis on speculation, rather than observation. Toby Miller and Alec McHoul invite the reader to question their participation in both dominant and subcultural practices by providing perspectives on the everyday through ethnography, textual reading, discourse analysis and political economy. Following a summary of key ideas on an everyday practice, such as eating' or talking', each chapter considers the discourses that construct these practices, and concludes with one or more empirical investigations, opening up the possibility of a significant departure in cultural studies. The book ends with an excellent glossary of cultural studies terms.