ABSTRACT
Among the targets against which proponents of the “cultural turn” have directed their fi re are social and legal theories that cast the modern liberal subject as an abstract individual, unencumbered by social or cultural baggage. Against liberalism, it is argued that rights are given meaning within discourses that embody subjects who can make legitimate rights claims. The legal system and processes of media regulation and censorship represent systems of meaning that enable some to be recognized as authorized subjects exercising their rights, such as that of free speech. Others, by contrast, may fi nd that their expressive acts are given no standing within this system and may even be classifi ed as social problems, in need of criticism and regulation.
