Description
Since sociologists returned to the study of culture in the past several decades, a pursuit all but anathema for a generation, cultural sociology has emerged as a vibrant field. Edited by three leading cultural sociologists, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology presents the full theoretical and methodological vitality of this critically significant new area.The Handbook gathers together works by authors confronting the crucial choices all cultural sociologists face today: about analytic priorities, methods, topics, epistemologies, ideologies, and even modes of writing. It is a vital collection of preeminent thinkers studying the ways in which culture, society, politics, and economy interact in the world.Organized by empirical areas of study rather than particular theories or competing intellectual strands, the Handbook addresses power, politics, and states; economics and organization; mass media; social movements; religion; aesthetics; knowledge; and health. Allowing the reader to observe tensions as well as convergences, the collection displays the value of cultural sociology not as a niche discipline but as a way to view and understand the many facets of contemporary society. The first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology offers comprehensive and immediate access to the real developments and disagreements taking place in the field, and deftly exemplifies how cultural sociology provides a new way of seeing and modeling social facts."This groundbreaking, readable handbook [is] the first single volume to attempt to unify its diverse contemporary applications in a wide range of traditional genres of sociology...Valuable for college universities and libraries supporting undergraduate and graduate degree programs in sociology and history."-CHOICE
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Cultural Sociology TodayJeffrey C. Alexander, Ronald Jacobs, and Philip SmithPART I The Cultural Method in Sociology2. Cultural Sociology as a Research Program: Post-Positivism, Meaning, and CausalityIsaac Ariail Reed3. Rationalization Processes inside Cultural SociologyRichard Biernacki4. Four Ways to Measure Culture: Social Science, Hermeneutics, and the Cultural TurnJohn Mohr and Craig RawlingsPART II The Economic as Culture5. Culture and the EconomyCarlo Tognato6. Culture and Economic LifeLyn SpillmanPART III The Political as Culture7. From Moral Sentiments to Civic Engagement: Sociological Analysis as Responsible SpectatorshipRobin Wagner-Pacifici8. Reinventing the Concept of Civic CulturePaul Lichterman9. Cultural Sociology and Civil Society in a World of Flows: Recapturing Ambiguity, Hybridity and the PoliticalGianpaolo BiaocchiPART IV The Media as Culture10. Mediatized Disasters in the Global Age: On the Ritualization of CatastropheSimon Cottle11. Media, Intellectuals, the Public Sphere, and the Story of Barack Obama in 2008Eleanor Townsely12. Entertainment Media and the Aesthetic Public SphereRonald JacobsPART V Race and Immigration as Culture13. Rethinking the Relationship of African American Men to the StreetAl Young14. Ethnicity, Race, Nationhood, Foreignness, Etc.: Prolegomena to a Cultural Sociology of Difference-Based InteractionsGiuseppe Sciortino15. Burning Schools/Building Bridges: Ethnographical Touchdowns in the Civil SphereMats TrondmanPART VI Religion as Culture16. The Constitution of Religious Political Violence: Institution, Culture and PowerRoger Friedland17. Globalization, Culture and ReligionKenneth ThompsonPART VII Social Movements as Culture18. Narrative and Social MovementsFrancesca Polletta and Bobby Chen19. The Politics of Authenticity: Civic Individualism and the Cultural Roots of Gay NormalizationSteven Seidman, Chet Meeks, and James DeanPART VIII Trauma as Culture20. Rethinking Conflict and Memory: the case of NanjingBarry Schwartz21. Cultural Trauma: Emotion and NarrationRon Eyerman22. The Chinese Construction and Repression of Trauma: The Rape of NanjingJeffrey C. Alexander and Rui GaoPART IX Events as Culture23. Events as Templates of Possibility: An Analytic Typology of Political FactsMabel Berezin24. Cultural Pragmatics and the Structure and Flow of Democratic PoliticsJason MastPART X Materiality as Culture25. Consumption as Cultural Interpretation: Taste, Performativity and Navigating The Forest Of ObjectsIan Woodward26. The Force of Embodiment: Bodies, Dispositions and CultureArthur Frank27. Music Sociology in a New KeyLisa McCormickPART XI Knowledge as Culture28. Narrating Global WarmingPhilip SmithPART XII Classification and Ambiguity as Culture29. Broadening the Strong Program in Cultural Sociology: Focus On Mundane Life in OrganizationsNina Eliasoph and Jade Lo30. Inbetweenness and AmbivalenceBernhard Giesen
