Observing a highly scholarly project almost unintentionally resurface has a subtle humorous quality. The British media scholar David Gauntlett, who created theory.org.uk when the internet was still a strange new place, recently removed the majority of the content he had maintained online for about 20 years. He reasoned that it was no longer necessary. He was mistaken, and the evidence showed up in a matter of hours.
Someone who was unable to locate the Theory Trading Cards sent the first message. Then more. In less than 30 minutes, Gauntlett reposted PDFs of cards he had created almost 20 years prior, which he likely believed were no longer useful. The cards themselves are an odd artifact that applies the visual grammar of Pokémon and football stickers to Deleuze, Adorno, Foucault, and Giddens. Strengths, important projects, and the theorist’s astrological sign are listed on each card for reasons that still make people smile.
| About the Project | Details |
|---|---|
| Creator | David Gauntlett |
| Original Platform | theory.org.uk (1990s–2000s) |
| Published Edition | Theory Trading Cards, AltaMira Press |
| First Published | April 1, 2004 |
| Number of Cards | 21 (printed edition); 12 (original online set) |
| Format | Two-sided physical cards, illustrated, pocket-sized |
| Featured Thinkers | Foucault, Adorno, bell hooks, Giddens, and others |
| Subject Areas | Cultural theory, media studies, gender, identity |
| Current Availability | Free PDFs reposted by the author after public demand |
| Reference Source | Jerz’s Literacy Weblog (2013) |
| Audience | Students, lecturers, theory enthusiasts |
| Rating | 4.33 / 5 (Goodreads, 6 ratings) |
It’s difficult to ignore how strangely appropriate this revival is for the present. Pocket-sized theory cards seem oddly intuitive to students who grew up on Anki decks, BookTok summaries, and meme-based learning. It seems that what was once thought of as a gimmick—Bourdieu reduced to a card—now reads like a legitimate teaching tool. The cards never attempted to take the place of reading the original texts. They were more akin to a map, a means of recalling who had said what prior to the start of the seminar.
The original online set of twelve was expanded to twenty-one in the printed edition, which was released by AltaMira Press in 2004. The Goodreads page still has six ratings and an average score of 4.33, which is the kind of rating you only get when the content is truly well-liked. The book has been out of print for a long time, and used copies can be found for odd prices. I believe that the revival’s texture is partly due to that scarcity. People are not merely sentimental. They desire the item.
Rather than feeling justified, Gauntlett himself appears amused. His landing page now reads somewhat like a curator’s note, gently pointing visitors to his more recent work, such as the publications list, his open-access page, and the second expanded edition of Making is Connecting, while acknowledging that the older material is still relevant to someone, somewhere. Academic websites seldom feel as honest as that admission. The majority of academics discreetly let their previous work go. Gauntlett paid attention to the inbox.
As this plays out, the cards reveal something about how cultural theory endures outside of academic institutions. At midnight, the students are writing essays. In fifteen minutes, the lecturer is trying to figure out how to introduce Stuart Hall. The enthusiast who merely seeks to understand what •ižek’s arguments were. Even though Gauntlett didn’t expressly state it at the time, the Theory Trading Cards were designed for those individuals. They are upbeat, a little naughty, and unafraid to be helpful.
Another question is whether the revival will continue. This might only be a minor wave that peaks and then subsides in a few months. However, the cards continue to attract new readers, and it’s likely that a student is currently leafing through them to choose which deceased theorist to quote first.
