'The problem is always one of method...': Cultural Materialism, Political Economy and Cultural Studies

In a 1995 colloquy in Critical Studies in Mass Communication and more recently in the related volume, Cultural Studies in Question, the relationship between a political economy of communications and culture and the field of cultural studies has been much in dispute. Nicholas Garnham's charges against contemporary cultural studies, Lawrence Grossberg's defence in reply and even Graham Murdock's attempted mediation all supportively invoke the work of Raymond Williams. Williams's early work in particular is seen as a common point of departure which even suggests, for Gamham, a lost unity of political economy and cultural studies. Such wholesale resort to Williams's authority thus provides a suitable entry point into consideration of the relevance and coherence of his cultural materialism.