{"title":"From Ethnic to High-End Cuisine: Recategorization and Status Change Among Restaurants in Global Cities","authors":"C. Lane, M. P. Opazo","doi":"10.1177/17499755231172825","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755231172825","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the strategies used by individuals within cultural fields to make a transition from previously low-status categories to high-status categories, in order to rise in the status hierarchy. Using the case of gastronomy in the global cities of London and New York, we investigate how the once strict boundary between high-end and ethnic restaurants is being breached, leading to field transformations. An analysis of the process of recategorization undertaken by chefs and restaurateurs reveals how strategies of category detachment and emulation are employed simultaneously: on the one side, to achieve a distancing from those held to be lower in the culinary hierarchy (ethnic restaurants/chefs) and, on the other side, to emulate those perceived to be above them in status (high-end restaurants). A third strategy identified is horizontal differentiation within the category – initiated by newcomers to ensure distinction and further secure their membership to the higher status category. Our analysis reveals the agency of producers in enacting status change by a focus on mainly material practices, while showing that recategorization is made possible by external societal and cultural transformations.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44714132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Critical Appraisal and Masculine Authority: The Boys Clubs' Derogatory Method of Reading Canadian Feminist Speculative Fiction.","authors":"Marie-Lise Drapeau-Bisson","doi":"10.1177/17499755211062654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211062654","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Culture scholars have shown that cultural intermediaries play a crucial role in the reproduction of inequalities in consecration (Corse and Westervelt, 2002; Maguire Smith and Matthews, 2012; Miller, 2014; Ridgeway, 2011; Steinberg, 1990 cited in Bourdieu, 2010). However, the analysis of gender inequalities in reception and canonization has focused on individual bias, neglecting the contribution of scholars of hegemonic masculinity about the importance of patterned practices in the reproduction of men's dominance over women (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005). Given that art worlds are not settings where typical markers of hegemonic masculinity are valued, such as money and physical prowess, what are the tools of hegemonic masculinity in art worlds? I answer this question through a comparative analysis of the reception of two iconic Canadian feminist novels: <i>L'Euguélionne</i> (2012 [1976]) by Louky Bersianik and <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> (1985) by Margaret Atwood. Building on feminist scholarship, I find that the discursive apparatus of hegemonic masculinity in art worlds consists of a derogatory method of reading employed by critics in newspapers. This method of reading is founded on three discursive components: (i) a reductive reading of feminist politics; (ii) a man-centred assessment of feminism and (iii) a questioning of women's creative credibility which belittles the contribution of feminist authors. By translating the concept of boys' club (Delvaux, 2019) and identifying its derogatory method of reading, I propose a framework that illuminates how critical appraisal shapes discursive resources available for both professional and non-professional readers to draw upon for evaluation and classification of women's cultural productions and feminist engagements.</p>","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"17 2","pages":"252-276"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10265287/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10646879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Materializing Difference: Consumer Culture, Politics, and Ethnicity among Romanian Roma","authors":"Anastasia Loukianov","doi":"10.1177/17499755221092888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221092888","url":null,"abstract":"Materializing Difference: Consumer Culture, Politics, and Ethnicity among Romanian Roma is a fascinating foray into the role of silver beakers and roofed tankards in the prestige economies, politics and in the ethnic and patrilineal identities of the Gabor Roma and, to a lesser extent, of the Cǎrhar Roma. To someone with no previous knowledge of Gabor Roma culture, it has proved both engaging and accessible. The monograph is primarily based on 33 months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Transylvania conducted over 20 years. Highlighting the lack of research on the ideologies and practices which organize inequalities among Roma people, the book sets out to understand the workings of the politics of difference. The book is organized in three parts, the first of which focuses on the importance of beakers and tankards in Gabor Roma intra-ethnic relationships and politics. Berta begins with an exposé of the strategies used by Gabors to establish hierarchies of prestige, namely, the consumption of patina-based (beakers and tankards) as well as of novelty-based (modern western consumer goods) prestige objects, marriage politics, and participation in the ethics of sociability (Chapter 1). Beakers and tankards must have particular characteristics to be considered prestige objects, which differ from those valued on antique markets. When acquired on antique markets, they must follow a process of deastheticization and dehistoricization before being reaestheticized and ethnicized to become proper prestige objects (Chapters 3 and 4). Along with aesthetic characteristics relating to decorations, size, age and material, the Gabor Roma value the ethnicized ownership history of beakers and tankards (Chapters 2 and 4). Ideally passed down from father to son for eternity, these objects are not only prestige markers but also symbols of ethnic and patrilineal identity (Chapter 4). Yet, as financial circumstances change, this state of inalienability is rarely achieved for extended periods of time and owners must part with a tankard or beaker. Among the Gabors, these retail for considerable sums (Chapter 2) and Berta covers sale management (Chapter 5). As the renown and prestige hierarchies are both fluid and only recognized by the Gabor Roma, the Gabors have to ensure a balance between politics of difference and ethics of sociability (Chapter 6). 1092888 CUS0010.1177/17499755221092888Cultural SociologyBook Reviews book-review2022","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"17 1","pages":"297 - 298"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47099156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rampant Abstraction as a Strategy of Singularization: Genre on Spotify","authors":"Mads Krogh","doi":"10.1177/17499755231172828","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755231172828","url":null,"abstract":"If processes of categorization are central to cultural sociology, then current developments as regards genre formation in the realm of music-streaming services call for attention. A double process of computerized genre analysis (producing a potentially infinite array of categories) and increasingly context-specific music recommendation (accommodating a vision of limitless personalization) challenges established, scene- and identity-based ideas about genre, as developed in popular-music studies. Drawing on Reckwitz’s (2020) theory of the society of singularities, this article argues for considering this double process as the intersection of the logics of, respectively, the general and the particular. These logics are mediated by a dynamic sense of abstraction, involved in processes of labelling, enabling levels of generality while manifesting a potential for concretion. The increased scope, acceleration, and dynamicity of such abstraction mark genre formation in digital times. The article makes this argument looking particularly at the case of Spotify – market leader and front runner in the noted developments – as a basis for engaging broader questions about musical genre theory in the context of digitized culture and current conditions of musical life.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47910385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recognition Gaps and COVID Inequality: The Case of Immigrants in Sweden","authors":"Andrea Voyer, V. Barker","doi":"10.1177/17499755231170700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755231170700","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we examine recognition gaps exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. We apply Lamont’s cultural processes of inequality framework to the critical case of COVID inequality during the first wave of the pandemic in Sweden – a period in which COVID-19 cases were concentrated among immigrants. We identify recognition gaps associated with five key cultural processes of inequality. Counter to the dominant narrative of Sweden as an open and equal society, our analysis uncovers cultural processes of inequality theorists have identified in other contexts: the racialization of immigrants; and the stigmatization and evaluation of immigrant spaces. We identify two additional cultural processes: resignification in which the State’s coronavirus response was directed toward ethnic Swedish people; and inversion, in which higher death rates among immigrants were relabeled as a natural and acceptable cause of COVID deaths. In addition to applying and extending the theory, we demonstrate the value of a focus on recognition for studies of health inequality. The recognition gaps we identify in this article are practical and solvable problems. In comparison with the challenges of managing large-scale economic redistribution or abolishing prejudice and stigmatization by addressing bias on a person-by-person basis, anticipating and counteracting the cultural processes of inequality is an actionable pathway to pursuing more just and equal societies.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44404549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Robbers and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy","authors":"Eve Ruet","doi":"10.1177/17499755231165090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755231165090","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47517753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: The Cultural Politics of COVID-19","authors":"Jeffrey Norquist","doi":"10.1177/17499755231166069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755231166069","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48419152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}