Articulation’s double meaning creates a risk of reductionist epiphenomenalism.

Evidence

In itself, the term has an ambiguous meaning, for, in English, it can mean both “joining up” (as in the limbs of the body, or an anatomical structure) and “giving expression to” (Foster-Carter 1978). … There are, in any case, theoretical objections to the notion that one structure “gives expression to” another: since this would be tantamount to seeing the second structure as an epiphenomenon of the first (i.e., a reductionist conception), and would involve treating a social formation as an “expressive totality,” precisely the object of Althusser’s initial critique of Hegelianism. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 620

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the two senses of ‘articulation’ and why the ‘giving expression to’ sense appeals to reductionism — a term Hall uses constantly throughout his work.
• XREF: Connects to Althusser’s critique of the Hegelian ‘expressive totality’ — a concept the reader will meet again in Hall’s cultural and political essays.