Intellectual projects must balance committed positions with open-ended theorizing

Evidence

Let me put it this way: you have to be sure about a position in order to teach a class, but you have to be open-ended enough to know that you are going to change your mind by the time you teach it next week. As a strategy, that means holding enough ground to be able to think a position but always putting it in a way which has a horizon toward open-ended theorization. Maintaining that is absolutely essential for Cultural Studies, at least if it is to remain a critical and deconstructive project. I mean that it is always self-reflectively deconstructing itself; it is always operating on the progressive/regressive movement of the need to go on theorizing. I am not interested in Theory, I am interested in going on theorizing. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 756

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes ‘Theory’ (finished paradigm) from ‘going on theorizing’ (unfinished deconstructive process) — a key Hall distinction.
• XREF: Connects to Hall’s broader concept of articulation and the non-closure of cultural studies as a critical project.