Launch event
"Cultural Revolutions and Social Change: the Long Revolution Revisited"
12 January 2005
Official launch introduced by
Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP
Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media & Sport
(L-R) Picture of Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP; Professor Nancy Rothwell (Vice-President for Research, The University of Manchester); Professor Mike Savage (CRESC Convening Director); Professor Alan Bassindale (Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research & Staff), The Open University).KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Professor Stuart Hall (Emeritus, Open University)
Professor Sheila Rowbotham (Sociology, University of Manchester)
Professor Huw Beynon (Social Sciences, Cardiff University)
On 12th January 2005, the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, formally opened CRESC at a special launch event exploring 'The Cultural Revolution and Social Change: the Long Revolution revisited'. Over 150 people attended the event, including students and academics from the host universities as well as from further afield, as well as representatives from interested institutions, public bodies, and the private sector.
In welcoming Tessa Jowell, Centre Director Mike Savage emphasised CRESC's interest in developing an interdisciplinary research centre committed to nurturing the methodological expertise which will allow us to empirically address core issues in the wide ranging debates about the pace and nature of contemporary socio-cultural change. In saluting the ESRC's decision to fund CRESC, Tessa Jowell noted the need for further research in areas of the media, the cultural and creative industries, and emphasised that culture needs to be seen as having intrinsic value as well as being valuable for a range of policy outcomes. Professor Nancy Rothwell, Vice-President for Research at The University of Manchester responded by pointing to the way that CRESC drew on key research strengths in Humanities at the new University of Manchester. Professor Alan Bassindale, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Staff and Research) at The Open University also congratulated members of CRESC for their insight and originality and emphasised the OU's commitment to the Research Centre.
The aim of the afternoon's discussions was to take stock of debates about culture and social change which have now been rumbling for fifty years by returning to Raymond Williams's classic text The Long Revolution and considering whether his arguments remain relevant today. Williams is an important figure to CRESC's research agenda for three reasons. Firstly, as a key figure in the elaboration of what went on to become cultural studies, re-evaluation of his contribution is important in thinking about the relationship between cultural studies and similar debates about culture and social change in the core academic disciplines of anthropology, geography, history, media studies and sociology. Secondly, Williams concern with the relationship between the cultural, democratic and industrial revolutions remains one of the first sustained ways of exploring the inter-connections between these realms previously seen as disconnected. Finally, we are interested in how the idea of change itself is defined as an object of interest in Williams' work, as a means of understanding the persistent appeal of the motif in change, which has now become almost a 'constant' in our thinking. This seminar therefore helps to initiate our interests in thinking critically about claims regarding epochal change.
In addressing Williams's writings about the cultural revolution, Stuart Hall (Open University) emphasised its roots within English literature, and emphasised the epochal difference between Williams's arguments and contemporary socio-cultural relations. He noted that Williams would have been appalled to see democratic freedoms reduced to the ability to purchase and consume, and also argued that globalisation had rendered Williams's assumptions about the bounded nature of Britain redundant. Bev Skeggs, (CRESC) noted how much she agreed with Hall, and how much Williams had informed the cultural studies agenda from which she had learnt. She argued that culture, so fundamental to representation and classification, has become a central force dividing populations, and spoke also about the continued value of Williams's arguments regarding 'structures of feeling' in view of current debates about the importance of 'affect'.
In examining the democratic revolution, Sheila Rowbotham (Manchester) noted the importance of democratic practice for Williams, and emphasised his recognition of its precarious gains. She spoke about his practical concerns with democratic practice through his support of the Labour movement, and discussed the extent to which his vision was male-oriented. Elizabeth Silva (CRESC) noted the importance of creativity, everyday life, and the ordinary, in Williams' work. Finally, addressing the industrial revolution, Huw Beynon (Cardiff) spoke movingly about Williams's views about manual work, and the need to recognise the creativity in industrial production. He examined Williams's complex relationship to Welsh identities. Patrick Joyce (CRESC) responded by noting the importance of questioning the grand narrative attaching importance to the industrial revolution and class, and pointed to the need to register the significance of popular identities, especially in their relationship to the state, expert knowledge, and governmentality. Collectively, then, the afternoon's discussions acted both to take stock of old debates and to recognise new issues and interdisciplinary configurations. Our conference in July 2005, "Culture and Social Change: interdisciplinary exchanges", will offer the next chance to rejoin these areas of concern.