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Bridget Fowler - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • a note on nick zangwill s against the Sociology of Art
    Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2003
    Co-Authors: Bridget Fowler
    Abstract:

    Zangwill's recent Article offers a provocative & compelling account of the alleged deficiencies of the Sociology of Art. However, his main targets -- christened, respectively, 'production & skepticism' & 'consumption skepticism' -- are, in fact, only decontextualised & one-sided caricatures of the leading theories in this area. Zangwill has misrepresented some of the discipline's leading theorists including Bourdieu, Eagleton, Pollock, & Wolff. His own 'aesthetic' explanation of Artistic acts appears, at first glance, attractive, not least for its repudiation of radical sociological reductionism. But it turns out to be altogether too simplistic an alternative. Zangwill is a sociological 'primitive' who understands adequately neither how society exists in the mind itself, nor, paradoxically, in Artists' embodied sense of the right feel for the game. A less 'enchanted' approach to Artists' practices is required. This needs to stress both Artists' role in the public sphere & also their specific interests in the Artistic field.

  • A Note on Nick Zangwill's `Against the Sociology of Art':
    Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2003
    Co-Authors: Bridget Fowler
    Abstract:

    Zangwill's recent Article offers a provocative & compelling account of the alleged deficiencies of the Sociology of Art. However, his main targets -- christened, respectively, 'production & skepticism' & 'consumption skepticism' -- are, in fact, only decontextualised & one-sided caricatures of the leading theories in this area. Zangwill has misrepresented some of the discipline's leading theorists including Bourdieu, Eagleton, Pollock, & Wolff. His own 'aesthetic' explanation of Artistic acts appears, at first glance, attractive, not least for its repudiation of radical sociological reductionism. But it turns out to be altogether too simplistic an alternative. Zangwill is a sociological 'primitive' who understands adequately neither how society exists in the mind itself, nor, paradoxically, in Artists' embodied sense of the right feel for the game. A less 'enchanted' approach to Artists' practices is required. This needs to stress both Artists' role in the public sphere & also their specific interests in the Artistic field.

Ian Heywood - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Towards a Critical Sociology of Art
    Social Theories of Art, 1997
    Co-Authors: Ian Heywood
    Abstract:

    This chapter continues the consideration of sociological accounts as moral constructions. It has been argued above, with specific reference to the work of Howard Becker, that in some sociological accounts of cultural phenomena like Art there can be found a characteristic tension: a careful attention to the details of everyday, routine social life is coupled to a critique of beliefs and values so fundamental that their negation would engender a grave social crisis for the practice. Art is urged to secure itself by rejoining the familiar, everyday world from which philosophical theories and elitist attitudes have divorced it. The price of this new security is the relinquishment of its claims to be extraordinary, and of the belief that a life lived with Art is significantly different from a life lived without it, other than subjectively. To seek to return Art to its real grounds in everyday social life in the hope of avoiding dangerous and intractable disagreements about these representations is to presuppose that everyday social life reflects a real community of interest, a substantial practical agreement about fundamentals which, once established, is simply reproduced, providing the distractions and temptations of exclusive values and hierarchies are avoided. Art should not be encouraged to put itself at risk. But in every genuine Artistic act conventions and settlements with the demands and interests of everyday life are put in jeopardy; the ideas and values essential to Art demand rebirth in new forms.

  • Art’s World and the Social World
    Social Theories of Art, 1997
    Co-Authors: Ian Heywood
    Abstract:

    I begin with three sociological accounts of Art. Each springs from an influential sociological approach and is reasonably representative of that approach. The works providing these accounts are: Howard Becker’s Art Worlds (1982), Janet Wolff’s The Social Production of Art (1981) and Aesthetics and the Sociology of Art (1983), and Peter Burgers Theory of the Avant-Garde (1984). The theoretical approaches from which the accounts derive are respectively: symbolic interactionism, Marxism, and critical theory. There are, of course, other sociological approaches, and I do not intend to offer a comprehensive survey of extant sociologies of Art. However, I will argue that these works raise certain characteristic or symptomatic1 issues for a Sociology of Art per se.

  • Social theories of Art : a critique
    1997
    Co-Authors: Ian Heywood
    Abstract:

    List of Illustrations - Acknowledgements - Introduction - Art's World and the Social World - Towards a Critical Sociology of Art? - The Critical Theory of Art: Modernism and Violence - Pragmatism, Individuation and Totalisation - Fields, Movements and Histories - Varieties of Theory and Practice - Reflection, Theory and Language - Hermeneutics, Aesthetics and Art: Gadamer and Modernism - Language and the Singularity of Art - Conclusion

Eduardo De La Fuente - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • BOTH-AND: On the need for a 'textural' Sociology of Art
    Caderno CRH, 2019
    Co-Authors: Eduardo De La Fuente
    Abstract:

    One of the recurring dilemmas in the Sociology of Art has been how to balance “internalist” and “externalist” accounts of aesthetic phenomena (i.e., aesthetic and social explanations); or, what this paper terms the necessity of moving from an either-or model of Art and society to adopting a both-and logic. In the last few years, the conceptual dilemmas have been further heightened by developments such as capitalism becoming more explicitly cultural; and knowledges about Art and aesthetics moving from the realm of the ‘grand’ and the high cultural to the more prosaic and the everyday. This paper proposes that a solution to the ongoing dilemmas of the Sociology of Art, and the current challenge of the proliferation of Arts/aesthetics-knowledge bases, is to adopt a textural rather than textual mode of thinking. The textural paradigm was first developed in thinking about place and is well-suited to thinking through problems in the Sociology of architecture and urbanism – including the problem of how the urban fabric, at times, stArts to unravel; or why some unlikely architectural styles stage comebacks (e.g., post-war Brutalism). TANTO... QUANTO: sobre a necessidade de uma sociologia textural da Arte Um dos dilemas recorrentes na sociologia da Arte tem sido como balancear abordagens internalistas e externalistas dos fenomenos esteticos (isto e, explicacoes esteticas e sociais); ou o que este Artigo caracteriza como a necessidade de sair de um modelo “ou Arte ou sociedade” para um modelo de logica “tanto Arte quanto sociedade”. Nos ultimos anos, os dilemas conceituais foram intensificados por uma tendencia de o capitalismo se tornar um fenomeno mais explicitamente cultural. Ao mesmo tempo, os conhecimentos sobre Arte e estetica sairam da esfera da grandiosidade e da alta cultura para o mundo prosaico do dia a dia. Este Artigo propoe que a solucao para os dilemas em curso da sociologia da Arte, e para o atual desafio das bases da Arte e do conhecimento estetico e adotar um paradigma textural, ao inves de um modo de pensar textual. O paradigma textural foi desenvolvido primeiramente no pensamento sobre lugar e e adequado para pensar os problemas da sociologia da arquitetura e do urbanismo – incluindo o problema de como o tecido urbano, as vezes, comeca a desemaranhar; ou porque alguns estilos arquitetonicos improvaveis voltam a moda (como, por exemplo, o brutalismo pos-guerra). Palavras-chave: Texturas. Sociologia da Arte. Ingold. Lefebvre. Arquitetura e Urbanismo. TELLEMENT ... COMBIEN: sur la necessite d’unesociologie de la texture de l’Art L’un des dilemmes le plus recurrent dans la sociologie de l’Art c’est de savoir comment equilibrer les approches “internalistes” et “externalistes” des phenomenes esthetiques (c’est-a-dire des explications esthetiques et sociales); ou ce que cet Article definit comme la necessite de sortir d’un modele “d’un Art ou d’une societe” pour un modele logique “a la fois l’Art et societe”. Au cours des dernieres annees, les dilemmes conceptuels ont ete aggraves par la tendance du capitalisme a devenir un phenomene plus explicitement culturel; au meme temps, la connaissance de l’Art et de l’esthetique est passee de la sphere de la grandeur et de la haute culture au monde prosaique de la vie quotidienne. Cet Article propose que la solution aux dilemmes actuels de la sociologie de l’Art et au defi actuel des fondements de la connaissance de l’Art et de l’esthetique consiste a adopter un paradigme textural plutot qu’un mode de pensee textuel. Le paradigme de la texture a ete developpe pour la premiere fois en pensant sur le lieu et convient aux problemes sociologiques de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme, y compris comment, le tissu urbain commence parfois a se demeler; ou comme certains styles architecturaux improbables sont revenus a la mode (comme le brutalisme d’apres-guerre). Mots-cles: Textures. Sociologie de l’Art. Ingold. Lefebvre. Architecture et Urbanisme.

  • The Artwork made me do it: introduction to the new Sociology of Art
    Thesis Eleven, 2010
    Co-Authors: Eduardo De La Fuente
    Abstract:

    The Sociology of Art has experienced a significant revival during the last three decades. However, in the first instance, this renewed interest was dominated by the 'production of culture' perspective and was heavily focused on contextual factors such as the social organization of Artistic markets and careers, and displays of 'cultural capital' through consumption of the Arts. In this Article, I outline a new mode of approaching Art sociologically that begins with Alfred Gell's (1998) Art and Agency, but comes to full fruition in what I am calling the 'new Sociology of Art'. A major theoretical statement that captures many of the aspirations of the new approach is Jeffrey Alexander's essay: 'Iconic Consciousness: The Material Feeling of Meaning'. It is suggested that the new Sociology of Art has much in common with material culture studies, and that a more robust concept of the Artwork's agency is needed now that Art has well and truly taken on a social and cultural life well beyond those institutions traditionally understood as the 'Art world'.

  • In defence of theoretical and methodological pluralism in the Sociology of Art: a critique of Georgina Born's programmatic essay
    Cultural Sociology, 2010
    Co-Authors: Eduardo De La Fuente
    Abstract:

    This Article welcomes Born’s proposal that the Sociology of Art learn from ‘adjacent fields’ that can ‘augment the sociological repertoire’. It agrees especially that sociologists can learn much from the anthropology of Art and material culture studies. However, it challenges Born’s claim that the Sociology of Art has ‘seen little progress in recent years’ and thus questions certain aspects of her proposal for a ‘post-Bourdieuian theory of cultural production’. The central argument is: rather than an ‘analytics of mediation’ — which Born recommends — the Sociology of Art can benefit from studying material ‘mediators’ at work in concrete Artistic networks, and the role of aesthetic agency and Art in the constitution of social life more generally. The ar ticle concludes that the path forward for a Sociology of Art may lie precisely in not trying to force a reconciliation between macro and micro approaches, or between humanities and social science perspectives.

  • The Artwork made me do it: Alfred Gell and Jeff Alexander on aesthetic agency
    2008
    Co-Authors: Eduardo De La Fuente
    Abstract:

    The Sociology of Art has entered an interesting new phase where social scientists studying the Arts are less content to focus on contextual factors. A characteristic of what might be called 'the new Sociology of Art' is a return to the Artwork and its aesthetic properties, including the affective, cognitive and material dimensions of Art objects. But how are we to theorize the Artwork without resorting to the assumption that Art simply consists of a special category of objects? This paper considers two recent theoretical responses to this challenge: the late British anthropologist Alfred Gell's Art and Agency; and the unfolding interest in 'iconic consciousness' in the work of American sociological theorist Jeffrey Alexander, especially his essay, 'Iconic Experience in Art and Life: Beginning with Giacometti's Standing Woman'. The paper uses certain empirical situations, involving a heightened sense of the agency of Artworks, to compare and contrast their respective positions.

  • The `New Sociology of Art': Putting Art Back into Social Science Approaches to the Arts
    Cultural Sociology, 2007
    Co-Authors: Eduardo De La Fuente
    Abstract:

    This Article maps recent developments in social science writing about the Arts and argues for seeing this work in terms of the label the `new Sociology of Art'. It considers four major lines of re-assessment being carried out by sociologists studying the Arts: firstly, a reconsideration of the relationship between sociological and other disciplinary approaches to Art; secondly, the possibility of an Art-Sociology as against a Sociology of Art; thirdly, the application of insights from the Sociology of Art to non-Art `stuff '; and, fourthly, the Sociology of the Artwork conceived as a contingent social fact. The argument is made that these developments represent an advance on the tendency to limit sociological investigations of the Arts to contextual or external factors. The `new Sociology of Art' is praised for framing questions about the aesthetic properties of Art and Artworks in a way that is compatible with social constructionsim.

Sara Malou Strandvad - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Analyzing Production from a Socio-material Perspective
    Behind the Screen, 2013
    Co-Authors: Sara Malou Strandvad
    Abstract:

    While film studies is showing growing interest in production studies, the Sociology of Art and cultural production is turning its attention to the role of Artworks.1 As sociologists have begun to emphasize the organizational implications of material products, film studies have stArted to highlight the social dimensions of the way production is organized. In this chapter, I aim to pursue and combine these lines of thought to suggest that the social analyses of cultural production could be taken further by including objects as potential actors, thereby developing what may be called a socio-material perspective. This perspective is well developed within science and technology studies (STS). My proposal for a socio-material perspective on cultural production therefore implies drawing on insights from developments within this field. Others have made similar transfers of ideas, by comparing the laboratory and the studio for instance.2 By considering Artworks as objects, the socio-material perspective questions the traditional distinction between the Sociology of Art and Art studies. I will therefore begin this chapter by outlining this distinction and by suggesting that it should be transgressed. I will then present three examples of the socio-material analyses of cultural products to show how this perspective can be used in cultural production analyses. These examples are taken from the work of cultural sociologists who have carried out music, architecture, and film production analyses from a socio-material perspective. Finally, I will briefly discuss some of the potential criticisms and limitations linked to this perspective.

  • Attached by the Product: A Socio-Material Direction in the Sociology of Art
    Cultural Sociology, 2012
    Co-Authors: Sara Malou Strandvad
    Abstract:

    The Sociology of Art tends to reduce the cultural product to an outcome of social causality. As an alternative, this Article pursues the aim of developing a cultural sociological approach which includes both sociality and materiality. The Article builds on an empirical analysis of a case about the development of a film project, which ends in a devastating quarrel and consequently no film. In the analysis, the evolving product is portrayed as a mediator of the social relations around it. The Article suggests that the human pArticipants are attached or detached to the project based on their experiences of the evolving product. Thus the argument proposes that the product and the social relations are being co-produced, and that this is overlooked if the product is not included in the socialogical analysis.

Jeremy Tanner - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • michael baxandall and the sociological interpretation of Art
    Cultural Sociology, 2010
    Co-Authors: Jeremy Tanner
    Abstract:

    Art historian Michael Baxandall’s writings have played a key role in defining the major paradigms in the Sociology of Art: the production of culture perspective, Bourdieu’s critical Sociology of Art, Hennion and DeNora’s ‘new Sociology of Art’. Although making fruitful use of Baxandall’s focus on markets, material visual practices and the concept of the period eye, these appropriations have overlooked the centrality to Baxandall’s work of the concept of Art as an institution. This institutional focus permits Baxandall to integrate social, cultural and visual analysis in a way which shows not only how visual Art is socially constructed, but also how it plays an active role in the construction of social orders on a variety of levels of emergence, from the interaction order to larger social structures.

  • Sociology of Art : A Reader
    2004
    Co-Authors: Jeremy Tanner
    Abstract:

    © 2003 Jeremy Tanner for selection and editorial matter; the contributors and publishers for their chapters (as specified in the Acknowledgements). All rights reserved. Introducing the fundamental theories and debates in the Sociology of Art, this broad ranging book, the only edited reader of the Sociology of Art available, uses extracts from the core foundational and most influential contemporary writers in the field. As such it is essential reading both for students of the Sociology of Art, and of Art history. Divided into five sections, it explores the following key themes: * classical sociological theory and the Sociology of Art * the social production of Art * the Sociology of the Artist * museums and the social construction of high culture * Sociology aesthetic form and the specificity of Art. With the addition of an introductory essay that contextualizes the readings within the traditions of Sociology and Art history, and draws fascinating parallels between the origins and development of these two disciplines, this book opens up a productive interdisciplinary dialogue between Sociology and Art history as well as providing a fascinating introduction to the subject.

  • the Sociology of Art a reader
    2003
    Co-Authors: Jeremy Tanner
    Abstract:

    1. Classical Sociological Theory and the Sociology of Art 2. The Social Production of Art 3. The Sociology of the Artist Commentary 4. Museums and the Social Construction of High Culture Commentary 5. Sociology, Aesthetic Form and the Specificity of Art