Sociology of Culture, or Cultural Sociology?

[Illusio80]

Sounds like (perhaps unsurprisingly) there are lots of culture folks out there.  I thought we could use our own hangout.  So, which is it, sociology of culture, or cultural sociology?  Choose carefully...

[barf]

The Sociology of Culture is definitely used in some areas (Greggs, Dani and Topp 1993, Dover 1995, Dover and Topp 1996, Randolph 1999, George and Paul 2007), however I think Cultural Sociology is making a comeback and interestingly has some defectors these days (Topp and Donalds 2006, Rudy, Rudy and Timm 2008, Timm and Heinzenberger 2008, Bentz 2010, 2015). But I think, despite its weakness in some areas, Sociocultural Cultiology is I think the most useful definition and lends itself well to operationalization and clear typologies of phenomenon so that's what I think is the best in actual practice (Dooring 2010, 2012, 2014, Geoff and Trainor 2015, Nietz and Goldman 2015, 2016)

[Illusio80]

43 minutes ago, barf said:

The Sociology of Culture is definitely used in some areas (Greggs, Dani and Topp 1993, Dover 1995, Dover and Topp 1996, Randolph 1999, George and Paul 2007), however I think Cultural Sociology is making a comeback and interestingly has some defectors these days (Topp and Donalds 2006, Rudy, Rudy and Timm 2008, Timm and Heinzenberger 2008, Bentz 2010, 2015). But I think, despite its weakness in some areas, Sociocultural Cultiology is I think the most useful definition and lends itself well to operationalization and clear typologies of phenomenon so that's what I think is the best in actual practice (Dooring 2010, 2012, 2014, Geoff and Trainor 2015, Nietz and Goldman 2015, 2016)

Funny.  So if you don't like to read Geertz, whom do you like to read?

[barf]

21 hours ago, Illusio80 said:

Funny.  So if you don't like to read Geertz, whom do you like to read?

 

I find like 90% of my reading through finishing an article, filing it in a Cool-Article-That-I-Liked pile or a I-Stopped-Three-Pages-In-Because-They-Talked-About-Hegel pile, and then digging through the bibliographies of the articles I liked. People who I've thrown in the Good Pile a bunch of times are Jeffrey Olick, Gary Alan Fine, John Hagan, Joachim Savelsberg, James Wertsch, and a bunch of others. I'm pretty satisfied reading about classical theorists rather than actually reading them. I'd prefer putting most of my effort into the research people have done improving on those classical theories. How bout you?

[theorynetworkculture]

Both are interesting to me, but I lean towards cultural sociology. As far as I understand it, sociology of culture tends to be about the study of cultural practice and institutions (Griswold's work on fiction comes to mind as an example), whereas cultural sociology uses culture to explain social actions, per the cultural turn.

[Illusio80]

6 hours ago, barf said:

 

I find like 90% of my reading through finishing an article, filing it in a Cool-Article-That-I-Liked pile or a I-Stopped-Three-Pages-In-Because-They-Talked-About-Hegel pile, and then digging through the bibliographies of the articles I liked. People who I've thrown in the Good Pile a bunch of times are Jeffrey Olick, Gary Alan Fine, John Hagan, Joachim Savelsberg, James Wertsch, and a bunch of others. I'm pretty satisfied reading about classical theorists rather than actually reading them. I'd prefer putting most of my effort into the research people have done improving on those classical theories. How bout you?

Mining bibliographies is a great strategy.  I like reading the classical theorists but I haven't dwelled on them much as of late.  I have been reading mostly exemplars that I could apply toward my writing sample, and works by faculty at the various schools.  Many many things that are on my radar but haven't gotten to yet.  I have drawn a lot of inspiration from Jeffrey Alexander's "The Meanings of Social Life," and find it very practically useful (and the same goes for Why War? by Philip Smith,) but I also like Eviatar Zerubavel.  I do also really like the Durkheimian and cognitive traditions in anthropological theory: Douglas, Geertz, really want to read Sahlins...  Goodenough, Strauss and Quinn...

[Illusio80]

47 minutes ago, theorynetworkculture said:

Both are interesting to me, but I lean towards cultural sociology. As far as I understand it, sociology of culture tends to be about the study of cultural practice and institutions (Griswold's work on fiction comes to mind as an example), whereas cultural sociology uses culture to explain social actions, per the cultural turn.

That is more or less how I understand the distinction (and more or less how Alexander argues the point.)  I also lean toward the latter.  I think the studies that would fall under "sociology of culture" could also be done in a way that respects the relative autonomy of culture.  But often, culture is reduced to some other structural factor.

My thought is, why concentrate one's effort on culture if it doesn't ultimately matter (have its own efficacy?)

[Illusio80]

Any Marxists / Gramscians out there want to have a fun, clean debate?