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Introduction: Conjunctures of class, culture, and the media in contemporary Greek studies
While in the introduction of the first volume we referred to main approaches and theories of class, and revised significant literature discussing class and the media, in this introduction to the second volume we examine relevant works on contemporary Greece, revising studies concerned with class questions in the country. Furthermore, we also present aspects on the state of art of contemporary critical Greek media and cultural studies. Several of the contributions of the second volume address different questions and empirical contexts that are usually discussed under the broader cultural studies perspective (such as television studies, cinema, music subcultures, or poetry). As the fields of media and culture are broad and intersect, we maintain the relative distinction between media and cultural studies only to summarize the different scholarly trajectories currently developing in the fields of culture and media in Greece.
Culture often emerges in the public sphere as an explanatory framework (however insufficient) to frame Greece, its particularities, and central challenges faced. Formative of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic narratives of Greece, such culturalist theoretical accounts reflect deep divisions, established knowledge regimes, and socio-political antagonisms regarding the imagined futures of the country, while attempting different genealogical explanations of Greece’s ills. In this introduction, we will also touch upon some important theoretical approaches addressing culture as fundamental for some of Greece’s nodal problems, and will attempt to place class in this discussion as well.