Academic success can convert a political-intellectual project into a depoliticized abstraction

Evidence

For Stuart, this rapid process of the internationalization, institutionalization, and professionalization of Cultural Studies was not simply an index of success but was also, as he described it, a “moment of profound danger.” It seemed to him that what had been both an intellectual and a political project, designed to produce provisional forms of analysis of a particular situation by means of an ongoing dialogic process, was being converted into a decontextualized (and effectively depoliticized) form of abstracted cultural theory. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 127

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The insight that a movement’s institutional success can neutralize its political charge by decontextualizing it resists easy summary and rewards long sitting.
• XREF: Echoes the reader’s interest in how ideas move from lived political projects into academic or market forms, connecting to the broader arc of how Hall’s essays bear on economic thought. — connects to: Technocratic illusion legitimizes depoliticization by presenting policy as mere administration — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2699; Intellectual openness can subvert an institution’s founding purpose. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 55; Successful institutions can dissolve from their own premature success — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 314 (+2 more)