Sociology of Arts and Culture lecture notes

Sociology of the Arts and Culture

Lecture 1.1
The ways people relate to each other in general or specific context. Trying to make more sense of our
own lives. Without taking everything for granted from a scientific point of view.

- Sociology
o Etymology
 Socius > companion, Societas > society
 Logos > reason, laws
o Sociology is the science of social life and society
- The social
o Set of direct and indirect relationships that people engage in with each other at
specific times and/or in specific contexts.
- Society
o The complex network of all possible relationships that people or groups of people
enter with each other and maintained across time and space.
- Sociology studies:
o Different ways in which people relate to each other
o At specific times, specific contexts
o More general scale through time and space
- Sciene
o Sociological knowledge is not common sense knowledge, it is scientific
o Sociology is poly-paradigmatic discipline
 Not one overarching theoretical framework, but several
 Macro-theories, middle range theories, micro theories
o Different research traditions and methods
o Many sub-disciplines

Art by Alexander:

- Artistic product
- Communicates publicly
- Experiences for enjoyment
- Expressive form
- Art is defined by its context.

‘’A work of art is if people say it is.’’

Forms of art:

1. Fine art
2. Popular (mass) arts
3. Folk arts

4 approaches in sociology:

1. Positivism
2. Interpretative sociology
3. Critical sociology
4. Postmodern sociology

,- Positivism
o Emile Durkheim: create laws that makes sense not only in behavior > science.
Measure valuables, survey research, big data of networks.
Focus on causal relationships
 Modeled after natural sciences
 Nomothetic knowledge: laws, empiricism
 Reductionist: measurable variables
 Often causal relationships
- Interpretative sociology
o Max Weber: hermeneutics.
 Idiographic knowledge: ‘the particular’
Holistic: how people make meaning in a situation in a whole. Understand
what their live is like.
Much more about understanding than predicting.
- Critical sociology
o Karl Marx: means political critical.
 Class struggle: Conflict with each other because of cultural background
 Proletariat vs capatalists
 Praxis
 The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways;
the point however is to change it
 Hegemony: criticism on mass culture and quality class
- Postmodern sociology
o Michel Foucault
 All knowledge is relative,
 reflexivity,
 deconstruction,
 cultural studies.

,Lecture 1.1
- Main events: French and Industrial revolution.
o Great impact on daily life
o Different way of thinking about society.
- How is social order possible in societies that are subject to such great changes?
Sociology = trying to understand contemporary society as it is and functions.
- Enlightenment is a man’s release form his self-incurred tutelage.
o Emphasis on rationality and reason
o Empiricism
o Belief in science
o Universalism
o Belief in progress



- Pre-disciplinary phase
o Auguste Comte
 Core idea: sociology is a science
 Looking for universal laws in society
 Social statics
 Social dynamics
 Evolutionary perspective: law of three stages
 Theological
 Metaphysical and scientific
 Positivist stage
 Conservative: the need for moral consensus and a solid state
o Herbert Spencer
 Social Darwinism: survival of the fittest
 Meritocracy
 Social allocation of people by achievement
 Own effort and merit instead of allocation by ascription
 Emphasis on the functional differentiation
 Emphasis on the individual and on laissez-faire; self-regulating society.



- Classical sociology
o Science of interplay between empiricism (mapping social reality) and theory
(explaining social reality).
o Different theoretical perspectives
o Three classical perspectives/mainstreams
 Functionalism
 Conflict theories
 Social action perspectives
o Recent perspectives
o Important distinction between Macro & Micro
 Macro: sociological perspectives that focus on the study of larger social
groups or aggregates (classes, status groups, religions etc)

,  Micro: sociological perspectives that focus on the study of the individua in
her/his social context.



- Functionalism
o Positivist movement inspired by biology
o Builds on the ideas of Comte and Spencer
o Macro-sociological perspective
o Main inspiration: Emile Durkheim, later Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton.
o Starting point:
 Society is a complex system, set of interconnected subsystems that work
together to ensure the stability of the system.
 Analogy with body where each body part had a specific function in relation
to the total organism.
 Emphasis on solidarity and social integration.
 Emphasis on balance or homeostasis.
 Individual lives are socially structured, they are embedded in different social
structures, each with their own values and norms
 Socialization is of great importance; it ensures relatively stable patterns of
social behavior over time.
 Every element of social structure has a specific function in the complex social
whole
 To ensure social order and continuity through time and space.
 Sociology’s task: map & analyze social structures or patterns; what is the
specific function of each part and how does it contribute to social order?
 Merton: manifest functions/latent functions/social dysfunctions
 Rather conservative perspective
- Conflict perspective
o Macro-sociological perspective
o Karl Marx, Frankfurter Schulde and Pierre Bourdieu
o Starting point:
 Society is battleground of differences and inequalities caused by the uneven
distribution and possession of capital, means of production of power.
 Social order is possible by suppression through self-reproducing systems of
physical and symbolic violence violence and domination.
 Increasing inequality eventually leas to conflict and thereby makes social
change possible/invitable.
 Conflict sociologists study social inequality, analyze how it is maintained and
how conflicts can cause social change.
 Engaged position: not only understand/explain social reality, but also change
it.
 Problems: objectivity and value-free research under pressure. By
focusing on conflict and contradiction there may be too little regard
for what is shared by members of a society and/or culture.
- Social action perspective
o Interpretative stream in sociology
o Micro-sociological perspective