Class notes
Notes: Sociology of Arts and Culture + General Sociology
- Course
- Institution
Class notes from the course CC1003 "Sociology of Arts and Culture" and an introduction to general sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
juliaaaaaaa7898
Content preview
Sociology Lecture 2: General IntroductionGeneral sociology: introduction
• The science of social life and society
• The social: set of direct and indirect relationships people engage in with each other at specific
times and contexts
• Society: complex network of all possible relationships people and groups enter and maintain
across time and space
• Sociology studies:
• How people relate to each other
• At specific times and contexts
• More general scale through time and space
• Study object: questions of society
• How people live and their problems
• How is social order possible?
• Sociological knowledge is scientific knowledge
• Nor common sense
• May clash with common (mis)conceptions
• Interaction between
• Sound and reliable research
• Theoretical models of explanation
• Sociology has many ways of operating (paradigms)
• Many sub disciplines
Sociology of arts: introduction
• Humanities
• View from the inside —> “the unique”
• Analysis of intrinsic qualities and autonomous characteristics
• Artistic quality —> Expression of genius of an individual artist
• Sociology
• View from the outside —> “the general”
• Analysis of collective process of production, distribution, reception
• Artistic quality is a social construction (power)
• What are arts and culture?
• One of the most complicated words in English language
• Distinction between
• Culture as a way of life (cultural sociology)
• Culture as a form of artistic expression and communication (sociology of culture)
• What is art (Alexander)
• Artistic product
• Tangible, visible, audible
• Communicates publicly
• Touched, seen, heard
• Experienced for enjoyment
• Pleasure, escape
• Expressive form
• Fictional to some extent
• Art is deigned by its context
• Both physical and social
• Fine arts vs. Popular/mass art vs. Folk arts
• Excluded: popular (youth) culture, non fiction media
• Arts and culture are a social construction
• Highly context dependent
• Time (example: jazz as a folk music vs. Jazz as actual music genre)
• Institutional legitimisation
• Studying how these distinctions are made
, 4 approaches to sociology
1. Positivism
• Emile Durkheim
• Modelled after natural sciences
• Nomothetic knowledge: laws and patterns, empiricism
• Reductionist: measurable variables
• Often causal relationships
2. Interpretive sociology
• Max weber
• Origin in hermeneutics
• Ideographic knowledge
• Know and understand the particular
• Holistic: meaning making in situations as a whole
• Understanding rather than predicting
3. Critical sociology
• Karl Marx
• Class struggle
• Proletariat versus capitalists
• Subjective opinion about what is wrong and needs fixing
• Praxis: point of sociology is to change society
• Hegemony, criticism on mass culture, quality is class
4. Postmodern sociology
• Michel Foucault
• All knowledge is relative
• Reflexivity
• Deconstruction
• Cultural studies
General sociology
• Sociology emerged during an era of massive change
• Relatively young science
• French and industrial revolution
• Great impact on daily life
• Different way of thinking about society
• How is social order possible in societies that are subject to such great changes?
• From the 16th century onwards social philosophers have trued to answer this question
• Initially a quest for an ideal society
• 19th century: try and understand contemporary society and how it functions
• Sociology reflected new thinking about society
• Process related to: renaissance, reformation, enlightenment, social research
• Pre-disciplinary phase
• Auguste Comte
• Introduced the term sociology
• Sociology is a science
• Looking for universal laws in society
• Social statics
• Social dynamics
• Law of 3 stages: theological, metaphysical, scientific/positivist
• Conservative: need for moral consensus and solid state
• Herbert Spencer
• Social darwinism: survival of the fittest
• Meritocracy
• Social allocation of people by achievement
• Own effort and merit not ascription
• People owe their position to themselves
• Inequality
• Emphasis on functional differentiation
• We cannot all be the same/equal
• Emphasis on individual and laissez faire + self regulation
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller juliaaaaaaa7898. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $3.23. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
67866 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now