History of Origins: Great Britain

In General Introduction by Jessica Munns and Gita Rajan, they explain the origins and the ways of cultural studies. The text explains that cultural studies evolved from a separation of cultural classes amongst countries after World War II. Distinctions became more and more apparent after "development" of certain countries above others. The distinction was made by designating countries in the "global south" the title of third world, the middle region of development to be second world, and the super powers to be the first and best. Culture and its differences has become defined now by economic development and social interaction as opposed to traditional values of indigenous regions. The text explains that "With this double agenda, with regard to cultural studies as both an academic project and a particular social formation, we hope to bring together an energetic mode of inquiry and one of the most dynamic and vital disciplines to be taught in the academy in recent years."pg. 77 Artifact and Artifice reader. This explains what separated Britain from other countries in values and what cultural studies is, which is a an extensive investigation academically of what a culture is and how it got to be that way over the course of time.

1) A useful keyword to think of when reading this article is the word development, which is a very controversial word to use when thinking about humans sustainability on this planet in which development does not really describe more successful living and could also in turn describe destruction of our surroundings. The process of development is described in the New Keywords book as "The insidious corollary to this argument (the traditional economic model of development) is the claim by authoritarian governments that economic development must and should precede social and political development. These governments point to the length of time it took for industrializing countries in hte C19 to achieve a level of economic stability, and to the fact that only later did their governments begin to focus on civil liberties and social rights."pg. 80

2) A good article to read on wikipedia would be the article on "Third World", which describes the hierarchy of nations that we see on the planet today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_world

3)This article is one that speaks of the economic development of nations during and post WWII from britannica online. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-25768/economic-development