Restricted and Elaborated Modes in the Cultural Analysis of Politics

Sociological Forum, Vol. 24, No. 4, Pg. 926-934.

Brian Steensland

The "cultural turn" that swept across the social sciences a generation ago ushered in renewed attention to the cultural analysis of politics. Yet despite this growing area of research, there remains a lack of integration between cultural and noncultural studies of political phenomena. Should this state of affairs be a source of concern for cultural sociologists? I believe it should be. In this essay, I outline reasons why this is the case and what might be done to address this issue. Drawing loosely on Basil Bernstein's distinction between "restricted" and "elaborated" codes, I suggest that cultural analyses of politics need to be more "elaborated" in nature and I offer three guidelines that can orient this type of research program.

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