Showing papers in "Cultural Sociology in 2015"
TL;DR: This paper introduced various strands of neoinstitutionalism, with the focus on sociological institutionalism, particularly "Stanford School" sociological institutions and discursive institutionalism and pointed out that in opposing individualist rational choice theory, sociological institution takes a strong structuralist stance in which actors are depicted as agents constituted by the scripts of rationalist world culture, mindlessly enacting worldwide models.
Abstract: This article introduces various strands of neoinstitutionalism, with the focus on sociological institutionalism, particularly ‘Stanford School’ sociological institutionalism and discursive institutionalism. The article points out that in opposing individualist rational choice theory, sociological institutionalism takes a strong structuralist stance in which actors are depicted as agents constituted by the scripts of rationalist world culture, mindlessly enacting worldwide models. In contrast, discursive institutionalist scholarship focuses on research about the actual practices through which global ideas are incorporated in local contexts, as well as on the discourses that motivate actors in the modern world to behave so uniformly in several ways, even though the culture of modernity specifically celebrates individualism and sovereignty and denounces mindless compliance. These studies have highlighted the key role of local actors in the local-global interaction. Yet these orientations must not be seen as ...
60 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors distinguish between prevailing genre conventions for letter-writing in different time periods and the underlying epistolary intent and letterness involved, and so overstate the newness of the changes discussed.
Abstract: Is the letter now ‘dead’, in terminal decline because of the impact of new digital technologies? Such arguments raise important points. However, they fail to distinguish between prevailing genre conventions for letter-writing in different time periods and the underlying ‘epistolary intent’ and ‘letterness’ involved, and so overstate the newness of the changes discussed. Examples of overtime departures from ‘the letter’ but which display clear epistolary intent and deploy inventive forms of letterness are discussed, including the letters of Olive Schreiner, St Paul’s epistles, communications between Roman legionaries, Second World War love letters, an exchange involving mathematicians, and student emails.
60 citations
TL;DR: The authors conducted an empirical study of the circulation of French literature in the United States in the era of globalization, based on a quantitative analysis of all the literary titles translated from French in the U.S. between 1990 and 2003.
Abstract: The discourse about the ‘death of French literature’ which has spread throughout the Anglo-American publishing industry since the 1990s raises the question of the conditions required for a dominant national literature to maintain its symbolic capital in the era of globalization. This discourse is a sell-fulfilling prophecy used as a weapon in the international competition and struggles within the world market of translation in a context of accrued economic constraints. The present article first confronts discourse to practice through ohHan empirical study of the circulation of French literature in the United States in the era of globalization, based on a quantitative analysis of all the literary titles translated from French in the United States between 1990 and 2003, on interviews with publishers and translators, and on archives. The symbolic capital of French literature appears to be founded not only on its past achievements (classics) but also on its present production, which accounts for 40% of the tr...
60 citations
TL;DR: The authors studied composers' social networks and friendships, and found that composers generally write music alone, and we commonly understand the great figures of classical music as singular geniuses, even where composers’ social networks are of contextual relevance.
Abstract: Composers generally write music alone, and we commonly understand the great figures of classical music as singular geniuses. Even where composers’ social networks and friendships are of contextual ...
48 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the basis of the value and pleasure that participants derive from participation in music worlds and find that participants often have a great passion for those worlds and for the artists, works, and works, identit...
Abstract: What is the basis of the value and pleasure that participants derive from participation in music worlds? Participants often have a great passion for those worlds and for the artists, works, identit...
35 citations
TL;DR: The concept of scene is now a primary conceptual framework for studying the production and consumption of popular music as mentioned in this paper, and it has been used extensively in the field of music analysis and analysis.
Abstract: The concept of scene is now a primary conceptual framework for studying the production and consumption of popular music. In a formative essay, Straw (1991) offered the important observation that sc...
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the integrative nature of music education on the island, the formation of a small but influential punk scene and the global marketing of the country's music through an agile cluster of cultural agencies and intermediaries.
Abstract: Over the last three decades, Iceland’s reputation has been increasingly tied to the prominence of its popular music. Associated with an effervescent independent scene and the global successes of the band Sigur Ros and the singer Bjork, the country has been positioned as one of the world’s most vibrant cultural hotspots. With particular reference to Reykjavik, the paper aims to show how the city’s spatial configuration favours the development of dense creative networks and attendant forms of knowledge, conflict, diversity and collaboration. It assesses the integrative nature of music education on the island, the formation of a small but influential punk scene and the global marketing of the country’s music through an agile cluster of cultural agencies and intermediaries. Getting a sense of the city’s routine musical practices, it will be argued, opens an aperture on the location of place-based musics within prevailing social and economic conditions.
32 citations
TL;DR: Literary translations are worldwide predominantly made from English, which is far ahead of any other language as discussed by the authors, and while various studies have proposed interpretations of this supremacy few have examine the meaning of this dominance.
Abstract: Literary translations are worldwide predominantly made from English, which is far ahead of any other language. While various studies have proposed interpretations of this supremacy few have examine...
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of body techniques within music worlds is explored and the interplay between body techniques and other key elements of music worlds, namely networks, conventions, resources and places.
Abstract: Despite the large amount of sociological work on human embodiment very little has been done on the embodiment of music or musicking. In this paper I seek to open this area up by way of two key concepts: ‘body techniques’ and ‘music worlds’. Specifically I seek to explore the role of body techniques within music worlds. The first part of the paper engages with the work of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies on subcultures, considering how this might shed light upon the body techniques used by audiences in music worlds. The second part turns to artists, support personnel and their body techniques. In this second part specific attention is given to the interplay between body techniques and other key elements of music worlds, namely networks, conventions, resources and places.
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how critical recognition in elite newspapers is related to the recognition that authors receive from other agents in the literary field in the past half-century, using a sample of articles from 1955, 1975, 1995 and 2005 in French, German, Dutch and US elite papers (N=2,419), and further information on the extent to which fiction book authors discussed in the newspaper sample received the above forms of institutional recognition.
Abstract: __Abstact__
Contributing to research on social processes of cultural de-hierarchization, this article explores how critical recognition in elite newspapers is related to the recognition that authors receive from other agents in the literary field in the past half-century. We distinguish four types of institutional recognition: (a) long-term recognition in literary encyclopedias, (b) short-term recognition through literary awards, (c) recognition through bestseller list success, and (d) recognition through the prestige of publishers. Our study uses a sample of articles from 1955, 1975, 1995 and 2005 in French, German, Dutch and US elite papers (N=2,419), as well as further information on the extent to which fiction book authors discussed in the newspaper sample received the above forms of institutional recognition. We conduct cluster analysis to inductively establish how these forms of recognition are related, and multinomial logistic regression analysis to predict membership of clusters. Throughout the period 1955–2005 we consistently find three author categories: the unrecognized, the contemporary prestigious, and the historical prestigious. Countries differ, however, in the extent to which these categories are represented in newspaper literary coverage. Our analysis of factors determining membership of these clusters points to the lasting importance of symbolic capital, but also to the transnational nature of institutional recognition as local and international recognition show highly similar patterns.
27 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a special issue of Cultural Sociology focused on music worlds, music scenes, music fields and musically focused networks is introduced, with a focus on music scenes.
Abstract: This paper introduces a special issue of Cultural Sociology focused upon ‘music worlds’, ‘music scenes’, ‘music fields’ and musically focused ‘networks’ – the expression in the title, ‘social space...
TL;DR: The authors investigates a single thesis, following Nietzsche's insights: a central feature of the modern world is theatricalisation, and argues that this is the case in every aspect of our daily life.
Abstract: This article investigates a single thesis, following Nietzsche’s insights: a central feature of the modern world is theatricalisation. Beyond being entrapped by critiquing the ‘naive mirroring’ per...
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of book publishers in the San Francisco Bay Area, how they work to balance competing isomorphic pressures between the regional and national fields, and their strategic decoupling of identity and practice while working to maintain legitimacy both in the national field on which they depend for promotion and sales, and in the regional field for a sense of group identity and purpose.
Abstract: In sociology different streams of field theory have not been systematically integrated, despite their common intellectual heritage. Incorporating insights from three streams of field theory –Bourdieusian, neo-institutional, and strategic action fields – this work examines the oft-neglected field site of cultural production outside of geographic cores. The case is concerned with book publishers in the San Francisco Bay Area, how they work to balance competing isomorphic pressures between the regional and national fields, and their strategic decoupling of identity and practice while working to maintain legitimacy both in the national field on which they depend for promotion and sales, and in the regional field on which they depend for a sense of group identity and purpose.
TL;DR: Literature is the art form of the nation-state as discussed by the authors, and the written word was at the peak of its influence from the Enlightenment until late in the 20th century.
Abstract: Literature is the art form of the nation-state. The written word was at the peak of its influence from the Enlightenment until late in the 20th century. National literatures became central to the development of national identities and the formation of national art worlds. Moreover, they were important vehicles for the exchange of ideas. However, the central position of the nation-state has dwindled due to the centrifugal effects of globalization and regionalization. Simultaneously, literature has given way to other, mainly visual and digital, cultural forms. In the process, it has lost much of its political clout. Literature seems to pose little or no threat to those groups it may previously have worried, and is of little consequence to elites in the 21st century. Instead, it has become an object of cultural consumption, for dwindling and aging publics.
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the structure of the Dutch literary space through an analysis of 215 publishers' lists of Dutch fiction and poetry publishers and found that, besides small poetry publishers, all other publishers are part of the large-scale pole of literary production, but that this large scale pole is much more diverse and complex than conceptualised in earlier research.
Abstract: This article analyses the structure of the Dutch literary space through an analysis of 215 publishers’ lists of Dutch fiction and poetry publishers. Examining the ways in which publishers include different genre-language combinations on their lists offers a novel way to understand the structure of literary spaces. Earlier research has mainly seen analyses of the organisational field and the practices of actors, and until now has neglected the publishers’ lists of publishing houses. This neglect is critical as it has simplified ideas about what publishing houses actually publish on the different poles of contemporary literary fields. My analysis of the Dutch literary space shows that, besides small poetry publishers, all other publishers – in terms of their publishers’ lists – are part of the large-scale pole of literary production, but that this large-scale pole is much more diverse and complex than conceptualised in earlier research.
TL;DR: While parental encouragement or parent-led consumption transmits cultural practices from parents to children, the reasons parents provide regarding why they encourage cultural engagement remains unanswerable as mentioned in this paper, and the reasons for why parents promote cultural engagement remain unasked.
Abstract: While parental encouragement or parent-led consumption transmits cultural practices from parents to children, the reasons parents provide regarding why they encourage cultural engagement remains un...
TL;DR: The authors examines the history and argumentative micro-structures of the much criticized genre of sociological epochalism, and shows that sociological ontologies have their historical roots in history.
Abstract: This article examines the history and argumentative micro-structures of the much criticized genre of sociological epochalism. It is shown that sociological epochalisms have their historical roots i...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on secondary education in Flanders to study the centrality of high culture and find that both high and low cultural forms are increasingly being represented in the school context.
Abstract: Based on findings and suggestions originating from educational research, several cultural sociologists have claimed that the education system has contributed to the erosion of the institutionalized character of fine arts throughout the 20th century. However, empirical research to substantiate this claim is scarce. We focus on secondary education in Flanders to study the centrality of high culture. Our goal is twofold. First, we want to reflect on the ways the education system can – via the process of institutionalization – infuse certain cultural products with status. Second, we offer an exploratory analysis by studying whether the extent of institutionalization of traditional high culture in the education system has decreased over the course of the 20th century. Our analyses indicate that, in the period 1930–2000, both high and low cultural forms are increasingly being represented in the school context. However, we find that the increase of high culture is especially situated in the academic track – the ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the cultural left needs to explore more radical alternatives beyond the defence of comprehensive schooling which sounds both nostalgic and misplaced within our global times, and suggest that these ideas contain a powerful corrective to the increasingly authoritarian present.
Abstract: The ideas of the New Left and the recently emerged alter-globalisation movements are marginal within current policy debates concerning the English education system. Here I seek to demonstrate the interconnections between the New Left and the alter-globalisation movement and suggest that these ideas contain a powerful corrective to the increasingly authoritarian present. The next part of the article considers the development of neoliberalism both in a theoretical context and since the arrival of the new Conservative–Liberal government in the UK. Here I outline the rapid transformation of English schools under the academies programme and look at how it has been explicitly linked to ideas of ‘moral collapse’ evident in the popular discourse of ‘Broken Britain’. Especially significant in this respect has been the labelling of comprehensive schools as ‘failures’ and the explicit imposition of more authoritarian understandings of pedagogy. I seek to explore both the rapidity of this transformation in the context of the dissatisfaction with the idea of comprehensive schools shown by the political Right and the Third Way’s reworking of socialism. Finally I briefly consider more progressive alternatives for schools and education by returning to the idea of the democratic commons. In this respect, the cultural Left needs to explore more radical alternatives beyond the defence of comprehensive schooling which sounds both nostalgic and misplaced within our global times.
TL;DR: The emergence of market society in Europe prompted a major change in the social measurement of individual worth as mentioned in this paper, and the formal system of aristocratic honor culture was gradually supplanted by a bourgeoise honor culture.
Abstract: The emergence of market society in Europe prompted a major change in the social measurement of individual worth. The formal system of aristocratic honor culture was gradually supplanted by a bourge...
TL;DR: This article examined the practice of Indian publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) in 2012 and found that friendliness is a disposition that is sometimes mobili tional to publishers.
Abstract: This article examines the practice of Indian publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF). Fieldwork conducted at the FBF in 2012 suggests that friendliness is a disposition that is sometimes mobili...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at how art market actors understand the functions of discounts, focusing on "suppliers" of the market and drawing on qualitative interviews with artists and art dealers from New Delhi and Mumbai, conducted in January-April 2013.
Abstract: Although discounts in art markets are commonplace, the phenomenon remains largely unresearched. This paper looks at how art market actors understand the functions of discounts, focusing on ‘suppliers’ of the market and drawing on qualitative interviews with artists and art dealers from New Delhi and Mumbai, conducted in January–April 2013. The theoretical basis of this paper is a cultural sociological stance on the functioning of markets, showing how a shared system of norms and values affects the operation of a market. Two circuits of commerce are distinguished in the Indian art market: internationally oriented artists and dealers, whose attitude towards discounts is shaped by the desire to defend the aesthetic value of art; and locally oriented artists and dealers, who are positive about giving discounts and embrace them as a legitimate element of their national culture.
TL;DR: The authors examines the legacy of the two cultures divide in current debates about the politics and value of method in the sociology of literature and examines the most recent attempt to revitalise the field.
Abstract: The sociology of literature has a troubled history. Across the past 50 years, proposal after proposal has attempted to develop a method and bridge the cultural division between the social sciences and literary studies. Focusing on the most recent attempt to revitalise the field, this article examines the legacy of the ‘two cultures’ in current debates about the politics and value of method. Departing from the Marxist tone of preceding arguments, James F. English’s (2010) description of the sociology of literature bears the influence of the recent turn away from critique toward alternative modes of inquiry. Tracing the logic of this turn, my article questions whether an opposition between critical and ‘new’ genres is a useful step forward for the sociology of literature or a continuation of the two cultures divide its intervention aims to rethink. Furthermore, it considers what is at stake in recent disciplinary representations of critical sociology and the intellectual fate of ideology critique.
TL;DR: In this paper, a sociologically-based approach is proposed to explore the relation between aesthetic engagement and time. But the authors focus on the sweep of time that leads to the moment of engagement and not the particular moment itself.
Abstract: This article considers the relation between aesthetic engagement and time. It puts forward a sociologically-based approach that considers social time and its stratifications, and it draws attention to two intersecting temporal dimensions of aesthetic engagement: the sweep of time that leads to the moment of engagement and the particular moment of engagement itself. The sweep of time needs to be explored because individuals, in common with the cultural objects with which they engage, have histories and trajectories which when plotted over time take stable but sometimes relatively unpredictable courses. Zooming in on the particular moment of aesthetic engagement in its sustained and distracted modes will enable us to better understand the extent of engagement as other objects and tasks compete for our attention. The article also draws attention to the stratification of social time and the fact that some are more able than others to possess time and find time for sustained aesthetic engagement.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide an in-depth description of the cultural intermediaries involved in the search for, and selection of, aspiring authors in the Italian book publishing industry and why they do what they do.
Abstract: Which cultural intermediaries are involved in the search for, and selection of, aspiring authors in the Italian book publishing industry? What do they do and why? I provide an in-depth description ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a case study of the early history of the University of Tokyo Press (UTP), which was founded in 1951 as the first university press affiliated with a national university in Japan.
Abstract: This paper presents a case study of the early history of the University of Tokyo Press (UTP), which was founded in 1951 as the first university press affiliated with a national university in Japan. We concentrate on how the American model of university publishing was used in inventive and creative ways, not only to build up and manage the UTP but also to create and solidify the emerging institution of university press publishing in Japan. Drawing upon the ideas of Scandinavian institutionalist school of organizational analysis, we contend that a certain ‘translation’ of an existing organizational model often constitutes an integral part of institutional entrepreneurship. We also argue that the process of institutional translation is inseparably related to the UTP members’ search for workable missions and organizational identity within financial and institutional constraints. The UTP case suggests that to be a successful institutional entrepreneur, one has to be an effective rhetor as well.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the "scientific legend" of the "Mozart Effect", which grew to become a large-scale cultural phenomenon with political ramifications, focused on early childhood education.
Abstract: This article examines the ‘scientific legend’ of the ‘Mozart Effect’, which grew to become a large-scale cultural phenomenon with political ramifications, focused on early childhood education, duri...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on Weber's approach to the inner "developmental momentum" of the music domain through his study of the particular tension that pervaded Western harmonic music, showing how composers, performers, instrument manufacturers, art recipients and the instruments themselves had to grapple with such tension.
Abstract: Max Weber’s music writings (including his unfinished ‘Music Study’) have always mesmerized readers but their importance for analysing music as a cultural domain has only started to be acknowledged. This paper focuses on Weber’s approach to the inner ‘developmental momentum’ of the music domain through his study of the particular tension that pervaded Western harmonic music. By showing how composers, performers, instrument manufacturers, art recipients and the instruments themselves had to grapple with such tension, Weber was able to give an account of the inward connection to an art sphere and its structuring effects, whilst also bringing social, economic and technological factors to bear. In the current debate on the desirable ways for a renewed sociology of culture to develop, Weber’s music writings present us with a path at once precarious and bold, an account of inner connections and outer relations, which, against Weber himself, also provides bases for aesthetic judgement.
TL;DR: Alfred Weber (1868-1958) was one of the early German formulators of cultural sociology and the address that he gave before the Second Congress of German Sociologists in 1912 was his first formal prese...
Abstract: Alfred Weber (1868–1958) was one of the early German formulators of cultural sociology. The address that he gave before the Second Congress of German Sociologists in 1912 was his first formal prese...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the interactions and interdependencies between the political economy of waste, cultural conventions around food preparation and its consumption, as well as people's everyday reflections and moralities shape the dynamics of food wasting practices.
Abstract: hold true in a different system of provision, such as Taiwan, where cooking from scratch is less common or culturally valued (Glucksmann, 2014)? And how do the interactions and interdependencies between the political economy of waste, cultural conventions around food preparation and its consumption, as well as people’s everyday reflections and moralities shape the dynamics of food wasting practices? Without addressing such questions, there is a danger of rehearsing the familiar and, as Evans agrees, problematic narrative that places the individual consumer at the heart of interventions to promote social change. Such criticisms should not detract from what is a highly accessible, thoughtprovoking and concise work, that offers a conceptual framework that will no doubt organize and position future studies of household food waste. At just over 100 pages long, this book packs a lot in and is sure to become essential reading for academics, students and policy makers alike.