Week 1- Barker, Chapter 1 (introduction to cultural studies):

Cultural studies is at the forefront of our existence. Many academic scholars and researchers have found that cultural studies is greater than a group of people in a particular environment, but that cultural studies includes language, interpretation, structuralism, post modern thoughts, and my favorite of cultural studies: deconstructionism. To have a firm grasp on culture, I think one must deconstruct theories of the past and have a holistic epistemological approach. Barker, I believe, explains in depth the heart of cultural studies, that being language. The source of structuralism, relationships, decision-making, our foundation is at the heart of our language. The language of the past and the language of the future will need to be critically analyzed and thought through to bring, as described by Barker, an ethnography as the description for which we base our examination of culture.