Why and how do contemporary questions of culture so readily become highly charged questions of identity? The question of cultural identity lies at the heart of current debates in cultural studies and social theory. At issue is whether those identities which defined the social and cultural world of modern societies for so long - distinctive identities of gender, sexuality, race, class and nationality - are in decline, giving rise to new forms of identification and fragmenting the modern individual as a unified subject. Questions of Cultural Identity offers a wide-ranging exploration of this issue. Stuart Hall firstly outlines the reasons why the question of identity is so compelling and yet so problematic. The cast of outstanding contributors then interrogate different dimensions of the crisis of identity; in so doing, they provide both theoretical and substantive insights into different approaches to understanding identity.

斯圖亞特·霍爾(Stuart Hall，1932— )，當代文化研究之父、英國社會學教授、文化理論傢、媒體理論傢、文化研究批評傢、思想傢。1951年他以羅氏奬學金到英國牛津大學學習並取得文學碩士學位。20世紀50年代始霍爾參與創辦兩份重要左派刊物《大學和左派評論》及《新左派評論》；1964—1979年應霍加特邀請任英國伯明翰大學“當代文化研究中心”(Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies，簡稱CCCS)代理主任及主任。

霍爾的主要論著有：《電視話語中的編碼和譯碼》(1973)，《文化研究：兩種範式》(1980)，《文化、傳媒、語言》(1980)，《“意識形態”的再發現：媒介研究中被壓抑者的迴歸》(1982)，《意識形態與傳播理論》(1989)，《文化身份與族裔散居》，《文化、傳媒與“意識形態”效果》，《結構“大眾”筆記》等。

保羅·杜蓋伊(Paul du Gay)，英國華威大學教授，主要著作有《做文化研究：索尼隨身聽的故事》等。