Articulation means contingent, breakable linkages between ideas and social forces, not necessary belonging.

Evidence

I always use the word “articulation,” though I don’t know whether the meaning I attribute to it is perfectly understood. In England, the term has a nice double meaning because “articulate” means to utter, to speak forth, to be articulate. It carries that sense of language-ing, of expressing, etc. But we also speak of an “articulated” lorry [truck]: a lorry where the front [cab] and back [trailer] can, but need not neces sarily, be connected to one another. The two parts are connected to each other, but through a specific linkage, that can be broken. An articulation is thus the form of the connection that can make a unity of two different elements, under certain conditions. It is a linkage which is not necessary, determined, absolute, and essential for all time. You have to ask, under what circumstances can a connection be forged or made? So the so-called “unity” of a discourse is, really, the articulation of different, distinct elements which can be re-articulated in different ways because they have no necessary “belongingness.” The “unity” which matters is a linkage between that articulated discourse and the social forces with which it can, under certain historical conditions, but need not necessarily, be connected. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 736

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition of Hall’s articulation theory via the lorry metaphor — the load-bearing term of his whole framework.
• QUESTION: How does the lorry metaphor of articulation apply to economic concepts — can economic doctrines be ‘articulated’ to political projects the way religion can?
• XREF: Theorizes how ideas get attached to movements — parallels the reader’s goal of understanding how economic thought becomes politically live. Also echoes Laclau and Mouffe.