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Creative work is governed by uncertainty. So how can customers and critics judge merit, when the disparity between superstardom and obscurity hinges on minor gaps in ability? The Economics of Creativity brings clarity to a market widely seen as either irrational or so free of standards that only power and manipulation count.
The subject of this study has two distinct but not unrelated aspects: first, an investigation into the sociology of music as an autonomous and specialized discipline; and second, an examination of certain fundamental facts that may be considered within the purview of the sociology of music itself. If an analysis and study even a preliminary one of these facts is to be properly focused and fruitful, we must first try to determine the subject and methods of the sociology of music, its position and boundaries in respect to musicology, and, most especially, its relation to the aesthetics of music and music history. It is equally indispensable to ascertain what the sociology of music as a separate scholarly discipline embraces, where its investigation leads, and, finally, to establish its position vis-a-vis sociology in general. (From the Author's Introduction.)
Work creates and transforms the social world. Its least predictable and most admired embodiment, artistic and scientific invention, seems to defy causal analysis and statistical regularities. Far more than the exploration of the conscious and infraconscious processes of individual inventiveness, the social ecology of creative work is what enables sociological analysis of work. Pierre-Menger’s analysis identifies three crucial characteristics: an unlimited differentiation of outputs, competitive mechanisms exploiting the uncertainty of success, and a disproportionate focus on gain and reputation.
The monumental Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups is the most authoritative single source available on the history, culture, and distinctive characteristics of ethnic groups in the United States. The Dimensions of Ethnicity series is designed to make this landmark scholarship available to everyone in a series of handy paperbound student editions. Selections in this series will include outstanding articles that illuminate the social dynamics of a pluralistic nation or masterfully summarize the experience of key groups. Written by the best-qualified scholars in each field, Dimensions of Ethnicity titles will reflect the complex interplay between assimilation and pluralism that is a central theme of the American experience. The tightening and loosening of ethnic identity under changing definitions of "Americanism" is emphasized in this volume.
Examines how ethnicity affects voting and party loyalty and looks at leadership among minority groups.
In Bourdieu in Question: New Directions in French Sociology of Art, Jeffrey A. Halley and Daglind E. Sonolet offer to English-speaking audiences an account of the very lively Francophone debates over Pierre Bourdieu’s work in the domain of the arts and culture, and present other directions and perspectives taken by major French researchers who extend or differ from his point of view, and who were marginalized by the Bourdieusian moment. Three generations of research are presented: contemporaries of Bourdieu, the next generation, and recent research. Themes include the art market and value, cultural politics, the reception of artworks, theory and the concept of the artwork, autonomy in art, ethnography and culture, and the critique of Bourdieu on literature. Contributors are: Howard S. Becker, Martine Burgos, Marie Buscatto, Jean-Louis Fabiani, Laurent Fleury, Florent Gaudez, Jeffrey A. Halley, Nathalie Heinich, Yvon Lamy, Jacques Leenhardt, Cécile Léonardi, Clara Lévy, Pierre-Michel Menger, Raymonde Moulin, Jean-Claude Passeron, Emmanuel Pedler, Bruno Péquignot, Alain Quemin, Cherry Schrecker, Daglind E. Sonolet.
Practicing Culture revitalizes the field of cultural sociology with an emphasis not on abstract theoretical debates but on showing how to put theoretical sources to work in empirical research. Each of the chapters in this book offer a provocative empirical case study of how culture works in practice and how practice makes and remakes culture. It is an essential tool for students and researchers of cultural theory, contemporary social theory and cultural sociology.
The term 'Popular Music' has traditionally denoted different things in France and Britain. In France, the very concept of 'popular' music has been fiercely debated and contested, whereas in Britain and more largely throughout what the French describe as the 'Anglo-saxon' world 'popular music' has been more readily accepted as a description of what people do as leisure or consume as part of the music industry, and as something that academics are legitimately entitled to study. French researchers have for some decades been keenly interested in reading British and American studies of popular culture and popular music and have often imported key concepts and methodologies into their own work on ...
Beatrice Longuenesse presents an original exploration of our understanding of ourselves and the way we talk about ourselves. In the first part of the book she discusses contemporary analyses of our use of "I" in language and thought, and compares them to Kant's account of self-consciousness,especially the type of self-consciousness expressed in the proposition "I think." According to many contemporary philosophers, necessarily, any instance of our use of "I" is backed by our consciousness of our own body. For Kant, in contrast, "I think" just expresses our consciousness of beingengaged in bringing rational unity into the contents of our mental states. In the second part of the book, Longuene...
La création est un acte de travail. Depuis l’élaboration de l’œuvre jusqu'à l'organisation des activités en marchés, en professions, en relations d'emploi et en dispositifs d'évaluation, un même principe régulateur agit : l’activité créatrice est de part en part fécondée par l’incertitude. Le travail n'est gratifiant pour l'artiste que si son déroulement demeure surprenant. Les professionnels, les critiques et les publics procèdent à d'incessantes comparaisons pour identifier les qualités des artistes et des œuvres, faute de savoir comment déterminer leur valeur absolue. Les marchés gèrent par la surproduction la recherche de l’originalité profitable. Cet ouvr...