Ideology is the pillar of Cultural Studies since it is intrinsically related to power, conflict, identity, subjectivity and discourse. Clifford Geertz in The Interpretation of Cultures (1973) defined culture as “the webs of significance spun by man” that he is “suspended” in. Here webs refer to networks of meaning and value. The metaphor of a spider is used to suggest that we spin our own culture; we are the creators of culture. But the word “suspended” also suggests that we are trapped in culture. The idea of common sense may be useful here. As creators of common sense we are habituated to ways of seeing and judging everyday cultural phenomena. These may be understood through Geertz's words as “webs of significance”, of meanings in which we are suspended.

It is interesting to note that according to Barker, the whole domain of Cultural Studies may even be renamed “ideological studies”, such is the importance of the term ideology in Cultural Studies.