Art and artistic careers in a sociological perspective

Timetable

Detailed information on the place and time of the seminar will be provided later.

Module aim (aims)

The aim of this course is to examine the role of the arts from a sociological perspective. This involves an analysis of the role of art in society and how society in turn influences artistic production. The sociological perspective on art and artists challenges the conventional understanding of both by asking who decides what is to be considered art, how artistic production is to be valued, and which artists will become famous. We will also look at institutions related to the arts such as museums, festivals, curators and publishers.

Students will learn basic theoretical concepts from the sociology of the arts and artistic/creative professions. They will also acquire the basic skills to critically discuss social processes such as the evaluation and reception of the arts, the social conditions of artistic production, and the social relations surrounding artistic production and distribution. In addition to that, students will learn how to gather, find, synthesise and critically assess information about social problems and processes related to work dynamics in the creative/cultural industries.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Good command of English and basic knowledge of social science theories and methods.

Syllabus

 

Class 1. How to think about art sociologically? Introduction to the sociology of the art and the artist

Class 2. Theory 1: The Frankfurt School and the critique of mass culture

Class 3. Theory 2: Pierre Bourdieu and the field of cultural production

Class 4. Theory 3: Art as collective activity. Howard Becker and 'art worlds

Class 5. Whom we call an artist? The figure of the artist as a social construct

Class 6. “I love my job”. Artistic careers in the creative and cultural industries

Class 7. Sociology of artistic objects and their value

Class 8. Reception of the art

Class 9. Scandals in the arts

Class 10. Summary: art in society

 

Reading list

 

Class 1: Quemin, Alain (2017) The Sociology of Art. In: Korgen KO, ed. The Cambridge Handbook of Sociology: Specialty and Interdisciplinary Studies. Cambridge University Press, pp. 293-303.

Class 2: Benjamin, Walter (1969) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. pdf will be provided

Class 3: Entwistle, Joanne; Rocamora, Agnès (2006) The Field of Fashion Materialized: A Study of London Fashion Week. Sociology 40(4): 735-751.

Class 4: Becker, Howard (2008) The Art Worlds. University of California Press, pp. 1-40.

Class 5: Heinich, Nathalie (1996) The glory of Van Gogh: an anthropology of admiration. Princeton University Press, pp. 140-150.

Class 6: Hesmondhalgh, David; Baker, Sarah (2010) ‘A very complicated version of freedom’: Conditions and experiences of creative labour in three cultural industries, Poetics 38(1): 4-20.

Class 7: Berkers, Pauwke, Verboord, Marc, & Weij, Frank (2016) “These Critics (Still) Don’t Write Enough about Women Artists”: Gender Inequality in the Newspaper Coverage of Arts and Culture in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, 1955-2005. Gender & Society 30(3): 515-539.

Class 8: Griswold, Wendy; Wohl, Hannah (2015) Evangelists of culture: One Book programs and the agents who define literature, shape tastes, and reproduce regionalism. Poetics 50:96-109.

Class 9: Alexander, Victoria D., & Bowler, Anne. E. (2018) Scandal and the Work of Art: The Nude in an Aesthetically Inflected Sociology of the Arts. Cultural Sociology 12(3): 325-342.

Class 10: Alexander, Victoria (2020) Sociology of the arts. Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 245-263.