It is a method of sorting out conceptual confusions occasioned, for example, by distinctions that make (sometimes needed) formal yet not practical differences.
With a conceptual fascination with difference, and a methodological fascination with ethnography, cultural studies have provided a significant palimpsestual overlay onto existing landscapes of knowledge.
The contextual model proposes "relational ethics" -- the ethical or justice dimension of close relationships -- as an overarching integrative conceptual and methodological principle.