Cultural Studies, Big Data, Scalability: Benjamin Versus Bourdieu

Abstract

Abstract This essay argues that to be true to its name, Cultural Studies relies on a Big Data tapestry of culture against which individual events may be foregrounded. In the majority of cases, this cultural background is the implied first premise of a syllogism and the scholarly argument becomes an enthymeme. Sometimes, however, the presentation of Big Data becomes the argument in and of itself. After explaining the concept of Cultural Studies with which I am working, as well as the definition and difficulties posed by Big Data, I analyze and compare two precursor works that plainly gather and analyze Big Data to explain cultural moments: Walter Benjamin’s Passagen-Werk (Arcades Project); and Pierre Bourdieu’s La distinction (Distinction). Both works raise the question of how their examples can be scaled to the totalizing visions of culture that they seek, and the two researchers take wildly different approaches to the question of scalability that always lurks behind Big Data approaches.