I don't know too much about the period you want to research, but it sounds like the linkages you want to explore are important ones. OTOH, when you say,
>I'm with you on erasing that slash. That's what interested me in the
>Meaghan Morris-type cultural studies when I went back to grad school.
>>How do major economic changes that in turn organize social and political
>>life in significant ways get implemented? It's a very important
>>question. Culture is the answer.
I'm not sure how this erases the slash. If "culture" is what explains how those economic changes could implement themselves, then you seem to be casting economics (the laws of capitalist development or something), as the motor, and culture as a separate, dependent variable. That's certainly an approach a lot of people insightful people have taken over the years, but it does sound "materialist" in the last instance. Or am I misunderstanding you?
Maureen