{"title":"Book Review: Matters of Revolution: Urban Spaces and Symbolic Politics in Berlin and Warsaw After 1989 by Dominik Bartmanski","authors":"Dominik Želinský","doi":"10.1177/17499755221097938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221097938","url":null,"abstract":"In Matters of Revolution, Dominik Bartmanski revisits East Europe’s post-1989 transformation to explore two cases of urban metamorphosis and re-signification: Berlin and Warsaw. However, Bartmanski’s book is more than an analysis of two divergent trajectories of post-1989 urban change: it is an ambitious push towards a synthesis of cultural sociology, material anthropology and phenomenology. In my view, Bartmanski’s effort is successful: the book is (1) sociologically productive in delivering excellent thick descriptions and robust explanations (2) theoretically accomplished in merging fitting agendas and developing an intellectually independent and innovative perspective (3) stylistically excellent. In the first two chapters, Bartmanski expounds on his challenge to mainstream sociology, which – following thinkers like Weber – ‘preoccupied itself with ideas’ as ‘abstract mentalities expressed in language’ (p. 16). But to conceive of ideas as disembodied is naïve: according to Bartmanski, ‘socially vital ideas embodied and emplaced ideas. Their significance varies because of material and spatial circumstances in which they are brought to existence and made resonant’ (p. 16). Pulling on threads from structuralist and poststructuralist theories of culture (from Barthes to Alexander), anthropology (Miller or Ingold), and phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty), Bartmanski carves out an autonomous perspective that allows him to integrate abstract structures of ideas with deep sensitivity to their emplacement (or displacement) through architectural (or broadly material and embodied) performances. The result is a theory of iconicity that breaks with earlier work Bartmanski undertook with Alexander in an edited volume Iconic Power, which neatly separated the ‘relatively autonomous’ (Bartmanski, 2012: 60) depth and surface layers of iconic objects. In the present book, Bartmanski productively challenges this dualism and emphasizes that they are ‘interdependent rather than independent’ (p. 47) and never ‘concretely separated’ (p. 47). In Chapters 3 to 5, Bartmanski deploys his framework to understand post-revolutionary transformations of the East European urban landscape. In Chapter 3, he focuses on the iconic significance of the revolutions themselves, asking why the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall captured the world’s imagination in a way that overshadowed revolutions in other countries, especially Poland and Hungary. Bartmanski argues that the answer lies in 1097938 CUS0010.1177/17499755221097938Cultural SociologyBook Reviews book-review2022","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"17 1","pages":"410 - 411"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41706929","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":"The Racialised ‘Second Existence’ of Class: Class Identification and (De-/Re-)construction across the British South Asian Middle Classes","authors":"R. Saini","doi":"10.1177/17499755221076388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221076388","url":null,"abstract":"This article maps typologies of class identity for the UK-born South Asian middle classes. Using thematic analysis of interviews with 20 British South Asian professionals, it identifies culturally and socially situated forms of class (dis-)identification. It finds that ‘middle-class’ identity is not uncritically adopted or internalised by socially mobile British South Asians who, on the bases of objective socioeconomic markers, may be classified as such. Beyond existing research which has long established the dual material and symbolic nature of class, and the corresponding ‘fuzziness’ of class subjectivity, for the population of interest this can be attributed in large part to: (i) the rapid upward intergenerational social mobility of South Asian groups which is seen to defy British-specific forms of stratification and class reproduction and (ii) the racialisation of class where the symbolic power and subjective salience of middle-classness is mediated through Whiteness. In establishing this, this article argues for further theoretical and analytical reflection on the racialisation of class taking into account the ethnoracial specificities of culturally diverse ethnic minority populations.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"17 1","pages":"277 - 296"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45874135","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":"Exemplary Directors, European Imports, and the Changing Valuation of Films in Hollywood, 1961–1980","authors":"Erwin Dekker, Julien Gradoz","doi":"10.1177/17499755211070137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211070137","url":null,"abstract":"This article utilizes a novel empirical strategy, the study of exemplars, to investigate the transformation of quality conventions in the film industry during the 1960s and 1970s. Exemplars are films or directors which are used as a reference point (focal points) in the evaluation of other movies or directors. We use an original dataset of movie reviews to examine the changing quality conventions and demonstrate that during the investigated period, movies are increasingly treated as singular artistic products. This shift, around the rise of auteur theory and New Hollywood, has been analyzed by others but we provide a more fine-grained analysis of the transformation and are able to demonstrate the neglected importance of cultural trade: the import of European films. We provide evidence that these changes lead to a period of increased quality uncertainty, before a new quality regime becomes established. We explore how such qualitative changes in the market could impact industrial organization and product differentiation in the movie industry, and demonstrate how the analysis of such qualitative changes can complement existing quantitative studies of the movie industry and the determinants of film success, both economically and artistically.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"16 1","pages":"503 - 526"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45124683","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: Who Owns the Wind? Climate Crisis and the Hope of Renewable Energy","authors":"Daniel Wuebben","doi":"10.1177/17499755221083142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221083142","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"16 1","pages":"568 - 570"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42004224","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":"‘Supertanker is a Hero, the Government a Villain’: Politicization of Chile’s 2017 Forest Fires in the Media","authors":"Tomás Undurraga, P. Güell, Mario Fergnani","doi":"10.1177/17499755211067642","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211067642","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the politicization of natural disasters in the media and the narratives of crisis that contribute to these dynamics. In particular, it studies media coverage of the 2017 mega-fires in Chile and the way in which this coverage was framed by pre-existing political disputes over the performance of Michelle Bachelet’s government (2014–2018). It examines the print press coverage of the mega-fires, and the framing contests used to interpret the fire crisis. It pays special attention to the controversies that erupted over the foreign planes that were sent to help fight the fires: the American Supertanker and the Russian Ilyushin. We argue that press coverage of the mega-fires transformed a natural-social phenomenon into an emotionally charged political drama in which the Supertanker airplane was signified as the hero, and the Chilean government the villain. The Supertanker played a condensation symbol role. It was cast in the media as an external hero promising to control the fires that had overwhelmed local capabilities, and to overcome a government that was portrayed as inefficient and late to respond. The media functioned as an echo chamber for the cultural battle between the government and opposition. This article contributes to a cultural sociology of disasters, paying special attention to the role played by the symbolic representation of nature and socio-technical artefacts in political disputes.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"16 1","pages":"527 - 547"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45051853","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":"The Geo-Ecological Turn in Sociology and its Implications for the Sociology of the Arts","authors":"F. Holt","doi":"10.1177/17499755211072821","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211072821","url":null,"abstract":"Accelerating climate change has set in motion a broad change in beliefs about human life that is affecting the social sciences and humanities (SSH). A deeper understanding of the social causes and consequences of climate change is evolving in sociology, yet some of the discipline’s subfields have not responded to climate change. Is this because climate change is perceived to be irrelevant or are scholars suppressing new beliefs that could disrupt the norms of their field? The sociology of the arts provides an illustrative case. This subfield has historically ignored environmental factors, but there is mounting pressure for correcting this oversight and rethinking the beliefs and norms of the field. This article argues that climate change is relevant to the sociology of the arts and that this subfield can become more aligned with the geo-ecological turn in sociology and the SSH. This turn is part of a wider epochal and existential transformation in public consciousness in response to broad changes in society and nature. Changing beliefs about the arts are therefore not explained by endogenous dynamics in the arts field. The article provides a meta-analysis of the geo-ecological turn in sociology and in interdisciplinary arts and cultural research where pioneering arguments have emerged. The analysis uses theory of disciplinary transformation in the sociology of science to analyze largely implicit sociological claims for a transformation of ‘normal science’ beliefs about (1) aesthetic exceptionalism, illustrated by a new conception of music as a study object, and (2) the role of the arts in economic growth. Some implications for the sociology of the arts are considered.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"16 1","pages":"486 - 502"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42212786","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: Black Lives and Bathrooms: Racial and Gendered Reactions to Minority Rights Movements","authors":"Dr. Shauntey James","doi":"10.1177/17499755221082378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221082378","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"16 1","pages":"565 - 566"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49011200","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":"Artistic Production and (Re)production: Youth Arts Programmes as Enablers of Common Cultural Dispositions","authors":"F. Howard","doi":"10.1177/17499755211066371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211066371","url":null,"abstract":"Whilst the position of young people as arts consumers has been highly critiqued, the opportunities for young people to be celebrated as entrepreneurial and subcultural arts producers are often overlooked. This article explores the role of young people as agents of creation through arts programmes and the development of ‘common cultural dispositions.’ The framework – Artistic Production and (re)production – draws on and combines analytical insights and theoretical concepts from Paul Willis and Pierre Bourdieu in order to argue that young people both consume and produce artistic practices, which then leads to a reproduced social hierarchy. This combination gives additional insight into culturally reproductive cycles, which remain problematically entrenched with social class disadvantage. An ethnographic methodology is reported, which enabled an in-depth exploration of everyday creativity, self-efficacy, self-identity, and forms of resistance for the young people in this study. However, I argue that whilst Artistic Production offers hopes of transformation, in particular for working-class and marginalised groups, ‘positional suffering’ and unconscious mechanisms of reproduction were also apparent.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"16 1","pages":"468 - 485"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48253828","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":"John Locke, Private Property and the Birth of Achieved Celebrity","authors":"C. Rojek","doi":"10.1177/17499755211051835","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211051835","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that John Locke’s defence of Natural Rights and private property are prerequisites in the rise of Achieved Celebrity. It addresses how the rights of private property are anterior to taking ‘the ordinary citizen’ as an object of attention capital.","PeriodicalId":46722,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Sociology","volume":"16 1","pages":"548 - 562"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47111700","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}