50 SOCIAL SCIENTIST considerable impetus to this form of political analysis since they have been concerned with deconstructing dominant conceptualisations which help to sustain hierarchies of power. The theoretical and political inspiration for radical studies within this genre has come from thinkers like Gramsci and also from post-structuralist thinkers like Foucault. Writing within the Marxian tradition, Gramsci linked the study of culture to the notion of ideology. In his reinterpretation of the Marxist theory of ideology, ideology is seen as the world view and thinking of a class or group, it encompasses more or less the whole sphere of culture. Further, it is linked to the history, experience and interests of particular groups and classes, embodying their perspective on the world. This gives rise to the notion of dominant and subaltern cultures coexisting within a society and to a focus on the struggle between groups and classes which may take place also in the sphere of culture. The earlier Marxist notion of ideology as representing distorted thought, and the notion of false consciousness, are not given importance in this interpretation of ideology. Another insight which Gramsci contributed to the study of culture is regarding the way in which culture is embodied in language and everyday practices. Language he wrote, contains elements of a conception of the world and of culture. It also includes traces of previous meanings and understandings of reality. 'When referring to these past conceptualisations language use becomes metaphorical. Language thus serves both as a living thing and a museum of fossils of life and civilisation'.2 With Foucault and other post-structuralist thinkers, further dimensions of the interaction between culture and power were opened up for analysis. Nothing like a complete discussion of these insights would be possible within the scope of this paper and I would merely mention a few directions which cultural studies have taken within this orientation. For instance, Foucault's emphasis on understanding the micro-processes of power embodied in taken-for-granted conceptualisations and everyday practices and the way in which these constitute subjectivity has provided an important insight for many studies of cultural practices. The influence of post structuralist thinkers like Foucault, Derrida and Lacan has also been towards studying culture in action, towards a study of how subjective and collective meanings help to construct identities, how power is discursively constructed and how politics therefore is about contestation over meanings. It is assumed by such thinkers that reality can only be known through its representations and that therefore no authoritative accounts of reality are possible. Any attempt to provide such an account itself becomes a mode of power and to avoid this a politics of difference should be pursued. Within the broad orientation provided by such theories different emphases have been given in different studies. One tendency has been