This paper discusses the lineage of British cultural studies in relation to its historical antecedents in Britain amnd Germany, and with regard to developments in the USA, South America and Africa. Cultural and media studies are contrasted with American administrative research and the `mass society' thesis. Cultural studies seek emancipation: addministrative research contributes to social control. The paper ends with a discussion of African cultural theorists and their application of Marxism in anti-olonial struggles on the continent. Some of the problems evident in such scholars and activists as Cabral, Fanon and ngugi wa Thiong'o are examined. The paper argues that the history of cultural studies during the 20th Century is a history of the ideological mobilisation of the term `culture'.

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