The Uncomfortable ‘Aesthetic Turn’: Fracturing Art-Based Sociology in Neoliberal Academia

Driven by evolving socio-political pressures, contemporary sociology increasingly over-emphasises the production of impactful and solution-driven research to address so-called global economical-environmental-political ‘(poly-)crises’. This is well-documented and countered by emerging sociological works which highlight artistic and creative sociological engagements: a trend we coin as the ‘aesthetic turn’. Recently, this ‘aesthetic turn’ has become increasingly celebrated, partly considering their ‘alternative’ impact, which often align with democratic values, including ‘transformation’, ‘justice’, and ‘decolonisation’.

This conceptual paper cautions against the often-uncritical celebration of this sociological ‘aesthetic turn’ through a threefold problematisation. First, despite acknowledging the anthropogenic nature of contemporary ‘emergencies’ and their ‘solutions’ (sociological or artistic), we trouble its/their homogeneity and lack of cultural variances, underpinned by an Anglo-Eurocentric reductionism. Second, we build upon this underpinning to argue that this ‘aesthetic turn’ centres around neoliberalism-driven professionalisation of both sociology and the arts. Both disciplines are susceptible to ‘elite capture’: prioritising superficial reforms and symbolic representation over substantive change and reappropriating existing, hegemonic power structures (Olúfẹ Táíwò, 2022) (e.g., pragmatic realities of funding and ideological conformity). Sociology’s obsession with the ‘here-and-now’ and ‘nuance’ (Healy, 2017), for instance, leads to fragmented theoretical and applied engagements with ‘the arts’, with little acknowledgement to the arts’ commonplace homogeneity and capitalisation. Third, we problematise the internalised commodification of the ‘aesthetic turn’, especially when it (inevitably) claims social progression with assumed benefits (e.g., an emancipatory anti-capitalistic vision) and thus become marketable symbols (Baudrillard, 1993). Echoing critical humanities critics (Jameson, 2005), we argue that the utopian claims made by the ‘aesthetic turn’ paradoxically perpetuate their capitalistic ‘use’. We conclude by challenging the foundational disciplinary premises of sociology, the arts, and their collective envisioning of ‘social futures’. Sociology is not ready to hasten its ‘aesthetic turn’ until we sit uncomfortably with the arts, sociology, and their inherent tensions in a neoliberal academia.