Seminar: Sociology of Art
Instructors: Univ-Prof. Dr. Gunnar OtteShortname: S Kultursoziologie
Course No.: 02.149.16905
Course Type: Seminar
Recommended reading list
Alexander, Victoria D. (2003): Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms. Oxford: Blackwell.Becker, Howard S. (1982): Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Menger, Pierre-Michel (2014): The Economics of Creativity. Art and Achievement under Uncertainty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Otte, Gunnar (2012): Programmatik und Bestandsaufnahme einer empirisch-analytischen Kunstsoziologie. Sociologia Internationalis 50 (1-2): 115-143.
Contents
The seminar deals with the high and popular arts from an interdisciplinary perspective and takes up classical and current research contributions to the fields of music, film, literature, performing and visual arts. Sociology has a specific approach to art in which the focus is not on individual works of art or artists, but on the social conditions of art. Three subject areas are dealt with: 1. the creative production of art; 2. the dissemination and value formation of art; 3. the consumption and reception of art. The perspective of an explanatory sociology is adopted, which is concerned with empirically describing and theoretically explaining central regularities in artistic fields.In particular, the seminar will discuss the state of research on the following questions: What is art? Who becomes an artist, what characterizes the living conditions of artists, how does creative work develop over their life courses and how can their extremely unequal career success be explained? Which organizational structures promote innovation in cultural markets? What influence does art criticism have on the selection and value formation of artworks? How is an artistic canon created? How are cultural audiences socially composed and how can individual variations in taste and cultural consumption be explained?
The seminar organization is based on weekly reading materials and requires the active participation of students in classroom discussions. Students are further expected to present the results of small research tasks on current art phenomena and sociological research findings. Additional input is provided by short presentations of the lecturer. For a graded assignment, students are required to complete a term paper on a topic of their choice.
Additional information
The seminar will be held in English in order to train English language skills for the increasingly internationalized labor markets and to make it easier for international students to participate.Successful attendance of the lecture "Introduction to Cultural Sociology" is recommended for participation in the seminar.
Dates
| Date (Day of the week) | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 04/18/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 05/02/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 05/16/2024 (Thursday) | 18:00 - 19:45 | 01 511 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 05/16/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 06/13/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 06/13/2024 (Thursday) | 18:00 - 19:45 | 01 511 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 06/20/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 06/27/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 06/27/2024 (Thursday) | 18:00 - 19:45 | 01 511 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 07/04/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 07/11/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 07/18/2024 (Thursday) | 18:00 - 19:45 | 01 511 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |
| 07/18/2024 (Thursday) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 01 721 Seminarraum 1137 - Georg-Forster-Gebäude (Sowi) |