This handbook defines the sociological analysis of art and culture, focusing on the visual arts, literature, music and digital culture. Leading international scholars consider the restructuring of highbrow and popular culture; aesthetic preferences; ethnicity, migration and cosmopolitanism; and the rise of screen culture using state-of-the-art methods and theoretical innovations.
The Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Arts and Culture offers a comprehensive overview of sociology of art and culture, focusing especially - though not exclusively - on the visual arts, literature, music, and digital culture. Extending, and critiquing, Bourdieu's influential analysis of cultural capital, the distinguished international contributors explore the extent to which cultural omnivorousness has eclipsed highbrow culture, the role of age, gender and class on cultural practices, the character of aesthetic preferences, the contemporary significance of screen culture, and the restructuring of popular culture. The Handbook critiques modes of sociological determinism in which cultural engagement is seen as the simple product of the educated middle classes. The contributions explore the critique of Eurocentrism and the global and cosmopolitan dimensions of cultural life. The book focuses particularly on bringing cutting edge 'relational' research methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative, to bear on these debates. This handbook not only describes the field, but also proposes an agenda for its development which will command major international interest.
The study of Art and Culture has been among the fastest growing fields of Sociology in recent years, and this Handbook both provides a timely and valuable overview and a serious intellectual engagement that will be of value to students and researchers alike. - Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK?
"The editors of this book, who have organized its 30 chapters into three sections, have three aims: defend Bourdieu's approach to cultural sociology; elaborate on a "relational" analysis of the sociology of art and culture; and emphasize that there are both quantitative and qualitative approaches to research on the culture of art...It is difficult to see any continuing argument or "flow of thought" emerging out of these diverse papers; at the same time, this is a strength of the book, in that readers are confronted with debate and hidden disagreements. Much of the book is words about words, which should be useful to students and researchers who work in the essayist style of the authors." - D. Harper, University of Rochester, CHOICE
