Book Launch: Doing Cultural Studies - The Story of the Sony Walkman

CBS Public-Private Platform and the Department of Organization  hosted a joint book launch on June 21, 2013. The event launched the second edition of “Doing Cultural Studies – The Story of the Sony Walkman” by Paul du Gay, Stuart Hall, Linda Janes, Anders Koed Madsen, Hugh Mackay and Keith Negus.

The second edition of this book has been long-awaited, but on June 21 the wait was over, when the book was launched at Kilen, CBS. At this event two of the authors behind the book, Academic Director of CBS Public-Private Platform Paul du Gay and PhD Anders Koed Madsen, headed a discussion about the text. Paul du Gay first explained the idea behind the book in it is first edition in 1996. Afterwards Anders Koed Madsen explained that they decided to keep most of the original content of the book in this second edition but with ‘back to the future’ boxes through out the text to bring the original content into a modern context, relating the Sony Walkman to modern technologies such as the iPod as well as asking the reader to reflect on the cultural development since 1996 till now. The event was moderated by Associate Professor Mikkel Flyverbom, who is the facilitator of the cluster “Internet, Business and Society”. The discussion was followed by a reception and book sale at Kilen.

The first of edition of the book was published in 1996 and has since been sold widely as well as been permanent curriculum at Universities all of the world.  The publisher Sage presents the new edition in the following way: This classic textbook takes students on a journey between past and present, giving them the skills do to cultural analysis along the way. Through the notion of the 'circuit of culture', this book teaches students to critically examine what culture means, and how and why it is enmeshed with the media texts and objects in their lives. This book remains the perfect 'how to' for cultural studies. It is an essential classic, reworked for today's students in cultural studies, media studies and sociology.