Open-ended projects still require closure and stakes to be political

Evidence

Although Cultural Studies as a project is open-ended, it can’t be simply pluralist in that way. Yes, it refuses to be a master discourse or a meta-discourse of any kind. Yes, it is a project that is always open to that which it doesn’t yet know, to that which it can’t yet name. But it does have some will to connect; it does have some stake in the choices it makes. It does matter whether Cultural Studies is this or that. It can’t be just any old thing which chooses to march under a particular banner. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 237

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: The ‘arbitrary closure’ idea echoes and extends the Gramscian notion of hegemony and necessity of political decision.
• SEED: Angle: how post-foundational intellectual work reconciles anti-master-discourse commitments with the need for staked positions and decisions.

Related

• Intellectual projects must balance committed positions with open-ended theorizing (similarity 0.84)
• Institutionalizing a critical field can strip it of political meaning (similarity 0.83)
• Cultural Studies’ identity lies in an unresolved tension between theory and politics (similarity 0.81)
• Cultural Studies must remain permanently open-ended and responsive to external influences (similarity 0.81)
• Cultural Studies must balance holding a position with open-ended ongoing theorizing. (similarity 0.80)
• Cultural Studies was politically committed intellectual work from its start (similarity 0.80)
• Effective political action requires temporary closure despite open-ended knowledge. (similarity 0.80)
• Academic success can convert a political-intellectual project into a depoliticized abstraction (similarity 0.79)
• Pluralistic institutional openness can disguise strategic defense against political attacks on humanities (similarity 0.79)
• Political practice requires provisional closure that fixes positions while never finalizing them (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Institutionalizing a critical intellectual project can strip it of its political force. #qualifies (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 127
• Institutionalizing a critical field can strip it of political meaning #qualifies (0.60)