Sociology of the Arts. Victoria D. Alexander

Sociology of the Arts - Victoria D. Alexander


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mirror of aspects it does reflect. Similarly, you know from personal experience that you are not a “cultural dope.” You might get ideas from television or novels, but you do not uncritically adopt all of them just because you saw or read them. And great painting and great music is more likely to bore than uplift you if it is forced upon you by your parents or your school.

      This chapter offers a brief critique of reflection and shaping approaches from the point of view of the “Cultural Diamond.” This model forms the basis for the sociological work covered in Part II of this book (Chapters 512). These chapters show the strength of the approach. We will address its weaknesses in Part III.

Griswold’s cultural diamond. StartSource:End Adapted from Griswold (2013: p. 15).

      Source: Adapted from Griswold (2013: p. 15).

      The cultural diamond is a heuristic or a metaphor that sets out, in general terms, the idea that relationships exist among these points. It strongly suggests that all four points are important in understanding art sociologically. As Griswold states (2013: 16),

      the cultural diamond is an accounting device intended to encourage a fuller understanding of any cultural object’s relationship to the social world…a complete understanding of a given cultural object would require understanding all four points and six links.

      The cultural diamond is not a theory, however. It does not specify what the relationships among the points on the diamond only that some relationship exists.

Modified cultural diamond.

      A final advantage of a diamond with an embedded distribution node is that it breaks the direct link, in the simple diamond, between art object and society. This link, unlike the others, is not a true link but a metaphorical one, and reminds us of the flaws of over‐simplified reflection and shaping arguments. In other words, the cultural diamond suggests that links between art and society can never be direct, as they are mediated by the creators of art on the one hand, and the receivers of it on the other. It critiques reflection and shaping approaches by pointing out, from the production side, that artistic conventions and production techniques, not to mention artists, influence the content of artworks, and the filtering effects of distribution systems determine which cultural products reach audiences. It critiques reflection and shaping approaches from the consumption side, by reminding us that cultural products are received by a variety of different audiences, not by “society,” and that people vary in what types of cultural products they consume and in what meanings they take from them. It demonstrates that sociologists are interested in studying the production and consumption of art. But the new diamond also preserves the society node, to indicate that sociologists continue to be interested in the relationships, albeit mediated ones, between art and society.

      Part IIA

      The Cultural Diamond

      The Production of Culture

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