Intellectual practices: an interview with Philip Schlesinger

What are the relations between an academic trajectory and the research field, and how do they change over time? This interview with the cultural and media sociologist, Philip Schlesinger, is part of my ongoing reflections on media research history. The role of British media research and cultural sociology is particularly interesting and important, and Philip Schlesinger is one among several of his generation who, since the 1970s, has played a significant role in the formation of the field, internationally. The interview covers part of his academic trajectory to date: his ethnographic work on the BBC and recurrent focus on media, state and national identities are discussed along with his writing on Latin American cultural theory and on the European public sphere. The interview closes with a discussion of Schlesinger’s most recent research on cultural intermediaries as well as his public engagement and longstanding academic institution building