*****The formatting on this article is not great; please email me if you want the PDF file: ignatow@pacs.unt.edu****** The Concept(s) of Culture WILLIAM H. SEWELL, JR. The aim of this chapter is to reflect upon the concept-or more properly the concepts-of culture in contemporary academic discourse. Trying to clarify what we mean by culture seems both imperative and impossible at a moment like the present, when the study of culture is burgeoning in virtually all fields of the human sciences. Although I glance at the varying uses of "culture" in a number of disciplines, my reflection is based above all on the extensive debates that have occurred in anthropology over the past two decades-debatesin which some have questioned the very utility of the concept.' I feel strongly that it remains as useful, indeed essential, as ever. But given the cacophony of contemporary discourse about culture, I also believe that the concept needs some reworking and clarification.s,...