文化:再造社会科学 (Culture: Reinventing the Social Sciences)

文化，一方面几乎吸引了现代社会科学所有领域的目光，好像已经成了大多数舞台一成不变的布景。而另一方面，在文化转向论者那里，对于文化的再认知成为一个全新的旅程，似乎我们压根就不懂得文化。 确实，在当代的语境下，恐怕没有什么社会科学概念比“文化”更流行、更多变、也更令人费解的了。如果单凭这本名曰《文化》100余页书的表达，我们对于文化的困惑便倏然而解，恐怕是困难的，虽然受限于篇幅，作者无法展开宏大的对于文化的解析，但他对于各种复杂繁复素材的驾驭和总括，对于观点的清晰论证，仍然使我们对于其学识功底叹服不已，作者的后学科方案是否能很好地解释文化转型或作者所说的“文化回潮”，暂且不论。他有效地使用福科、阿尔都赛等人的理论符号，对于正统的文化概念进行了颠覆，并对文化的平民化提出自己的见解，反驳精英对于现代文化大众世化即是低水平同化的指控。并强调了文化研究和社会科学实践之间关系的重要性。这些观点对于我们具有启示作用的。 当然，需要指出的是，作者站在西方学者的讨论立场来谈文化问题，其认识带有很大的局限性，同时，他的许多观点具有非常明显的后现代理论的痕迹，未免失于偏重。而且，作者在论及马克思主义以及西方学者对于马克思主义理论的延伸研究时，对于相关的问题把握也不够准确。这些显然是作者的认识局限性造成的。对于这一点，希望读者在阅读过程中，坚持理性和批判的态度，取舍得当。 [From English version] How has the meaning of culture been reconsidered? What impact has this had on approaches to social enquiry? Should culture be seen as central to social science? Over the past three decades, there has been a transformation in the ways that social science has been conducted. In order to understand what is happening, we have to explore the implications of a rethinking of the meaning of culture, from a hierarchical system of classification to a contested space. This wide-ranging introduction to the concept of culture examines the ways in which we approach social enquiry, and argues that cultural theory can help to overcome problems in disciplinary and interdisciplinary analysis. Mark J. Smith explores how changes in the meaning of 'culture' have pinpointed key shifts in the way we research society, and draws on contemporary sociology, psychology, politics, geography and the study of crime to consider the ways in which cultural transformation has changed the landscape of social research. He concludes with a persuasive and focused discussion of the centrality of culture in postdisciplinary social science. This landmark text represents essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in the cultural dimension of social science