Study of the Arts: A Reappraisal

Sociologist tend now to shift their attention away from the meanings and expressive qualities of art and instead focus attention on the material and social conditions of art. This has resulted in a considerable advance in our understanding of the “peopled” arrangements that help to define the matrix of art production and consumption. However, the topic of art—and culture more generally—provides a unique opportunity for sociologists to investigate the connections between meanings and the social order and the way in which meanings penetrate all levels of that social order, including the level of individuals and that of the entire society. Recent scholarship that employs historical, and often quantitative, methods suggests that there are new developments along these lines.