What should or could cultural studies look like in the 21st Century? New Cultural Studies is both an introductory reference work and an original study which explores some of the most exciting new directions currently being opened up in cultural studies. A new generation has begun to emerge from the shadow of the Birmingham School: a generation who have turned to theory as a means to think through some of the crucial problems and issues in contemporary culture. New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory collects for the first time the ideas of this generation and explains just why theory continues to be crucial for cultural studies. The book explores theory's past, present and most especially future role in cultural studies. It does so by providing an authoritative and accessible guide, for students and researchers alike, to: *some of the most interesting members of this 'post-Birmingham school' generation *the thinkers and theories currently influencing new work in cultural studies: Agamben, Badiou, Deleuze, Derrida, Hardt and Negri, Kittler, Laclau, Levinas, Zizek *the new territories being mapped out across the intersections of cultural studies and cultural theory: anti-capitalism, ethics, the posthumanities, post-Marxism, new media technologies, the transnational.