Moving beyond the Wall(s): Theorizing Corporate Identity for Global Cultural Studies

Abstract

This article examines the set of research considerations that went into investigating the relationship between the Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and Czech music culture as a means of exploring alternative avenues and frameworks for understanding and doing global cultural studies. Outlining the theoretical and methodological trajectories, as well as some of the findings, underscores the necessity for both the field of cultural studies and us as scholars to reconfigure conceptions for investigating the complexities of global phenomena. More important, it seeks to draw attention to how we might construct new alliances, stimulate new forms of activism, and enact new engagements with the logics and reality of global capital, such that the project of cultural studies can be reinvigorated within our global age.