PoeticsPub Date : 2025-05-31DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102006
Myriam Boualami , Camille Roth
{"title":"Investigating Musical Taxonomy in the era of Streaming Platforms: Insights from Rap music through actual consumption data","authors":"Myriam Boualami , Camille Roth","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the musical boundaries that emerge from the distinct consumption patterns of rap audiences. Using the actual listening histories of around 1000 French users of the music streaming platform Deezer, we apply dimensionality reduction and clustering methods to explore the musical boundaries that emerge from distinctive audience consumption patterns, with a particular focus on rap music. We show that these boundaries exhibit salient thematic distinctions, and each region of the map holds its own combination of themes. Focusing on six demographic groups based on age and gender, we find that each exhibits a unique pattern of music preference across the highlighted boundaries. Our findings deepen and renew our understanding of the dynamics in which music boundaries are formed, and highlight the importance of studying and comprehending these dynamics, showcasing one way to shed light on that matter.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 102006"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144178052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102014
Ronald L. Breiger , Alessandro Lomi , Francesca Pallotti
{"title":"Culture as configurations of categories: Analyzing peer effects via dual-to-regression modeling","authors":"Ronald L. Breiger , Alessandro Lomi , Francesca Pallotti","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper we reimagine linear regression modeling as a relational method for cultural analysis. Drawing on the dual-to-regression analytic approach (Schoon, Melamed & Breiger, 2024), we argue that the fundamental building blocks in a regression equation are not single variables, but configurations of variables manifested by clusters of cases. In a study of peer effects and achievement in an academic institution, we show how the regression model itself may be understood as positing a network of pairwise influence relations among social actors that produces the outcome as modeled by the regression. Moreover, this network is appropriate for studying homophily (the tendency for individuals with similar characteristics to have social network connections). We push the new, case-oriented thinking about the regression model of Schoon et al. by incorporating information on networks of social relations connecting the cases. We find that, when profile similarity boosts academic performance, high-density social network clusters are discovered. We demonstrate that it is sometimes useful to consider configurations of cases as the “variables” in a regression model. We argue that this methodological innovation has a distinctive pragmatic value and strong theoretical motivation in the specific empirical context of our study, and beyond.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 102014"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144148016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-05-22DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102007
Laura Garbes , Thomas Marlow
{"title":"“If NPR doesn’t see this as a crisis, I don’t know what it’ll take”: How journalists use digital platforms to make industry critiques","authors":"Laura Garbes , Thomas Marlow","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This Research Notes piece explores how journalists use digital platforms to shift conversations about a single event into broader critiques about their industry. In this paper, we document this shift in the case of Audie Cornish’s departure from National Public Radio. We analyze a corpus of 7886 tweets related to her 2022 move from public radio to CNN. How did journalists respond to the event via digital platforms? And what prompted a shift to critical metajournalistic discourse? We find that alongside well wishes for Cornish as an individual, journalists in this context leveraged this individual event occurring within the industry space to call attention to a structural issue in the industry: an inability to retain journalists of color. This initial critical metadiscourse occurring on Twitter gained traction through a tweet by an insider with high cultural capital: Audie Cornish’s co host, Ari Shapiro. The industry critique angle got picked up by traditional news media outlets; it was further amplified by a larger group of journalists on social media. These journalists were then able to further nuance and complicate the issue of diversity and inclusion in the public radio by calling attention to the experiences of less prominent people of color in the industry. Analyzing this discourse offers a case of how critical metajournalistic discourse may emerge on digital platforms, get consolidated and legitimated through traditional news sources, and then get amplified and further nuanced through these same digital platforms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"111 ","pages":"Article 102007"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144105810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mapping relational structures in culture","authors":"Marco Serino , Thierry Rossier , Elisa Klüger , Fabien Eloire","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Culture is a relational concept, and the empirical manifestations of culture are worth being analysed in a structural vein to unveil the patterns of relations constituting them. Critical to exploring the intersections of culture and structure are relational methodologies, especially geometric data analysis (GDA) and social network analysis (SNA). Over the years, these two perspectives – as distinct strategies or in combination with one another – have been proved well-suited to understand the inherent relationality of cultural phenomena. The present editorial takes stock of the development of such analytical frameworks to look at the recent progress in the study of cultural structures, in continuity with a tradition of sociological research most especially disseminated through <em>Poetics</em>. It develops three core elements in the sociological study of culture: the relational <em>theory</em> mobilised in such study, its relational <em>focus</em> in terms of the cultural entities studied, and its relational <em>methodologies</em>. This special issue gathers ten empirical papers that span cultural consumption, artistic and scientific fields, media usage, and knowledge production, employing various empirical tools available in GDA and SNA to map relational structures in culture. It thus offers new insights into the interplay between culture and structure and provides valuable tools and perspectives for future research in cultural sociology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 102005"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143855303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-04-17DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102004
Markus Radke , Dr. Steffen Lepa , Melissa Panlasigui
{"title":"Bach, Beethoven and Brahms again? A computational view on the de facto canon of classical orchestral music in Germany and the USA at the beginning of the 21st century","authors":"Markus Radke , Dr. Steffen Lepa , Melissa Panlasigui","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Classical music orchestras are vital to the cultural scenes of both Germany and USA. Despite ongoing discussions on musical canon, gender equality, and repertoire innovation, empirical studies on the actual frequency of performances of individual classical music works in both countries are scarce. In this study, concert programs of professional orchestras from the 2019/20 and 2023/24 seasons were collected via web scraping and enriched with metadata from the various online sources using data linkage. In addition to a detailed descriptive statistical analysis, we determined key factors of stage performance frequency using random forest models. Based on these factors, canonical repertoire types were then identified using Latent Class Analysis. Internal factors for stage success of individual works from these repertoires were subsequently determined using Mixture Regression. Results suggest that normative criteria tend to play a more decisive role for program selection in Germany, while the USA lean more towards popular criteria. Four repertoire types are distinguished, primarily based on work and artist prestige, work age and work duration. Generally, programming in the US appears to be more diverse and innovative, and a pre- and post-pandemic comparison of the combined program data from the two countries reveals little differences. These empirical results support and expand on previous musicological studies of canon and can serve as orientation knowledge for cultural policy. Furthermore, the available dataset can also be used by future studies to examine the ways of curating classical concert events and for more fine-grained sub-repertoire analyses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 102004"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143839306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-04-05DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102002
Kyle Puetz
{"title":"Duality and value realism","authors":"Kyle Puetz","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Classical Western thought presupposes a value realism, in which values and meanings are part of the “furniture of things.” Ushering in a radical change in the locus of thought, a modern dualistic metaphysics generally rejects external sources of value in favor of understanding meaning and value as a subjective projection of the individual. Because the subject's interiority is the exclusive source of meaning and value, theories of action within this tradition tend to understand action in terms of self-action. Another metaphysics of action, a metaphysics of immanence, suggests a different basis for understanding the source of meaning and value in action: the agent-environment coupling. The network-analytic principle of duality, as exemplified in the work of Roger Friedland and Pierre Bourdieu, is an invaluable conceptual resource within this alternative tradition, as it enables the mathematical formalization of processes of alignment that produce meaning and action. In my conclusion, I suggest that a modified value realism, exploiting the network-analytic principle of duality, offers an alternative explanatory paradigm in cultural sociology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 102002"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143777598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-03-28DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102003
Xinwei Xu , Alessandro Lomi , Christoph Stadtfeld
{"title":"The dual clustering of tastes and ties: Extending the notion of relational similarity in cultural fields","authors":"Xinwei Xu , Alessandro Lomi , Christoph Stadtfeld","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sociological research on culture has long conceptualized categorical differentiation in terms of relational “distances” and relied on network imagery to describe the structural properties of fields of cultural production and consumption. Partly constrained by research design, extant research on relational similarity often focuses on either one-mode social networks, or two-mode cultural affiliation networks independently. Only a few recent empirical studies have considered the multiplex interaction between affiliations to cultural artifacts or categories and social relations embedding audience members within a system of dependence relations. We extend the notion of relational similarity to consider the interplay of cultural preferences and social ties and explore how distances between cultural genres are shaped by the mutually constitutive relation linking individual preferences and social networks. Analyzing a large online network of users (N = 43,549) and their expressed music preferences, we show that considering preferences alone results in two genre clusters separated by crisp boundaries. Considering both preferences as well as social network ties yields a sparse, connected component where the boundaries of genre categories become blurred. The study provides evidence that the structure of the space spanned by musical genres varies considerably once the connectivity properties of tastes and ties are jointly considered. This happens because social connections expose individuals to a set of potential future preferences that is typically broader than the set containing their current personal tastes. We discuss the qualitative implications of this result and its significance for future research on the duality of cultural tastes and social ties.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 102003"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143715327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-03-22DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.101999
Pierre Bataille , Marc Perrenoud , Robin Casse , Carole Christe , Mathias Rota
{"title":"Case for ecumenical use of network and geometric data analyses in mapping of cultural spaces: Illustration of contemporary French-speaking Swiss theatrical productions","authors":"Pierre Bataille , Marc Perrenoud , Robin Casse , Carole Christe , Mathias Rota","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.101999","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.101999","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The cross-use of network and geometric data analyses helps understand how the circulation of symbolic goods is structured. It follows specific logic, intersecting economic and symbolic planes in shaping spaces that do not entirely align with political borders. Both help map circulation spaces and understand their operational logic, aiming to visualize the proximities and/or distances between different places/actors in the production of these symbolic goods. Accordingly, based on several datasets collected to analyze the dynamics that structure contemporary French-speaking Swiss theater production circulation, this article aims to constitute a practical case on the combined use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Geometric Data Analysis (GDA) in mapping cultural spaces in a cross-fertilization perspective. The implementation of a mixed SNA and GDA analytical approach reveals distinct clusters of venues based on linguistic boundaries, size, cultural legitimacy, and audience reach. It identifies an \"intermediate\" subspace, between <em>avant-garde</em> and commercial productions. The study highlights methodological advantages in integrating SNA and GDA for developing a nuanced view on cultural dynamics, especially in understanding the career landscape of \"ordinary\" artists who navigate between artistic autonomy and market demands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 101999"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143675619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-03-18DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102001
Neha Gondal , Allison Wigen
{"title":"Professor-writers and machinist-painter-photographers: Investigating the duality between occupational categories and artistic hobbies","authors":"Neha Gondal , Allison Wigen","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Even though participation in the arts (a.k.a. hobbies) of employed persons has risen steadily since the early twentieth century, research has not systematically explored the relationship between occupations and hobbies. We address this gap by investigating the intersection and cultural co-constitution of these two forms of engagement by drawing on Breiger's influential work on duality. We introduce a machine-learning approach called association-rules to generate a two-mode network comprising occupations and hobbies using data from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. Our analysis shows that the relationship between the two constructs is not consistent with the cultural omnivorousness model. Instead, attributes of the two constructs like temporality and degree of collaborativeness shape their association with implications for their cultural significance. Pottery and painting, generally solo hobbies, are associated with most professions, but are the exclusive domain of gendered male, blue-collar occupations that have less autonomy on working hours. Collaborative music hobbies, entailing considerable commitment, on the other hand, are exclusively associated with occupations with such autonomy. Weaving and writing, portable hobbies that have a reputation of being ‘woke,’ are connected to white- and blue-collar sedentary jobs. Sharedness of hobbies and variability in their cultural significance have implications for the erosion and maintenance of cultural and social distance between occupational groups. Degree of collaborativeness, likewise, has implications for connectedness within hobby groups as well as visibility and embeddedness of occupational groups in local communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 102001"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143643654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PoeticsPub Date : 2025-03-15DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102000
Michael Lee Wood, Travis Ashby
{"title":"Cultural power via contaminating dualities","authors":"Michael Lee Wood, Travis Ashby","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102000","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102000","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cultural objects possess varying degrees of cultural power, defined as their capacity to directly or indirectly shape beliefs and behavior. Research on cultural objects has identified various ways cultural objects possess cultural power, such as by evoking meanings and emotions and stabilizing and disrupting collective practices. This paper extends research on cultural power by investigating how the dualities of cultural objects contribute to cultural power. Cultural objects do not exist in isolation, but are connected to various persons, places, and things. For example, a TV show has a dual relation with its fans, such that the show's identity is partially constituted by its fans, and the fans’ identities by the show they watch. These dual relations facilitate “contamination,” insofar as something or someone tied to a cultural object alters the meaning of the other persons and things associated with the cultural object. We argue that these “contaminating dualities” are a form of cultural power, insofar as contamination from other nodes in cultural object networks elicits responses from contaminated parties. We illustrate the framework by analyzing a series of cases in which people respond to contamination and discuss the implications for the study of culture and action.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"110 ","pages":"Article 102000"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143629126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}