Naslov
Sociogenesis, Fractality and Institutionalization: A Sociology of Cultural Studies

Autori
Fanuko, Nenad

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
Avanture kulture: kulturalni studiji u lokalnom kontekstu

Urednik/ci
Puljar D'Alessio, Sanja ; Fanuko, Nenad

Izdavač
Jesenski i Turk ; Hrvatsko sociološko društvo

Grad
Zagreb

Godina
2013

Raspon stranica
17-51

ISBN
978-953-222-438-2

Ključne riječi
Cultural studies, sociology, theory, fractality, organic intelectuals, public sociology

Sažetak
The main argument of the chapter is that sociology can offer the most comprehensive and encompassing view of modern society (both theoretically and empirically) and that all disciplines which deal with “the social” in any way imaginable are more or less remote kingdoms within the Empire. An encompassing analysis of Cultural studies undertaken from the “fractal theory” would produce very interesting and illuminating results. The theory can be applied both on the internal differentiation and divisions of the discipline of Cultural studies (with the problem, of course, of its self- indulging trans, anti, or undisciplinarity), as well as on the position of Cultural studies within social sciences or relative to the Sociological Empire. There are many dichotomies within Cultural studies that would allow description of the field as falling in either more sociological camp (Williams’ cultural materialism, ethnography, audiences, the cry for “bringing the political economy of culture back in”) or more literary camp (textualism, discourse analysis, identity construction, postmodernist “wild realism”). As the field will grow, one might expect the sharper distinctions (into “schools” maybe) and the rediscoveries of neglected concepts. As for the position of Cultural studies relative to the Sociological Empire, one could entertain Abbott’s approach to delineate borders, continuities and overlappings between, for instance, sociology of culture, cultural sociology, and Cultural studies. Sociology of culture, as it is now understood, deals primarily with the social organization of culture, with the bureaucratic, economic and political dimensions behind the production of cultural objects. The mundane aspects of cultural production are usually analyzed in positivist mode. Cultural studies fall on the other – interpretative – side. Although some of it pertains to the humanities, Cultural studies challenges sociologists to dare to see what social knowledge would look like “if we abandon or seriously rethink a modern Enlightenment framework, (...) if we no longer fetishize the Real as the primary warrant for our knowledges"”(Seidman 1997: 55). As compared to sociology of culture, Cultural studies are much looser in their theoretical and methodological aspects. Cultural sociology stays somewhere in between: it insists that “culture is not a thing but a dimension, not a object to be studied as a dependent variable but a thread that runs through, one that can be teased out of, every conceivable social form” (Alexander 2003: 7). Theoretically, cultural sociology is mostly neo-weberian and neo-durkhemian. Methodologically, it combines approaches from social sciences and humanities. So, in sum, Cultural studies relies primarily on self- reflective essays and unsystematic literary or discourse analysis, while cultural sociology relies on the systematic analysis of data, albeit within an interpretive tradition (Edles 2002).

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija

POVEZANOST RADA