What's at stake in the culture wars?

Abstract

Recent outbreaks of culture war have posed questions about how to respond to them politically and analytically. In this conversation we explore the ways in which culture war strategies aim to create new articulations of politics, culture and power. They do so as part of an ongoing effort to create narratives that construct and solidify political blocs and produce popular consent. We reflect on the problems such strategies cause for Labour – and for the left more generally. These are recurrent problems, reflecting a long–running distinction between 'real' politics and the ephemeral distractions of 'identity politics' and the 'merely cultural'. We suggest that this restrictive view of what constitutes 'real' politics tends to ignore the left's roots in cooperative, associational, mutual and internationalist forms of politics, perhaps for fear of being branded as 'socialist', while marginalising or refusing a diverse array of social movements and their struggles for rights and redistribution. In contrast, we argue for the importance of recognising and contesting the field of culture as a site of politics and political mobilisations, highlighting the value of building a view of how culture, politics and power are entangled. As Stuart Hall argued, a progressive politics involves crafting an identity in which we can recognise ourselves as a collective political force.