XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

298

Theorizing and Researching the Arts and Popular Culture

RC16 Sociological Theory (host committee)

Language: English

The session explores the sociology of the arts and popular culture. Papers might include discussion of music, the visual arts, film, television and literature for example. It can also consider the producers and consumers of such materials. The session is particularly interested in efforts to move beyond now dominant perspectives (such as grounded theory ethnographies of settings and subcultures, applications of field theory, and correlations of taste with cultural capital). It is hoped to showcase how scholarship can make headway through theoretical innovation, efforts to combine sociological theory with those developed for the art forms themselves (eg. film theory, music analysis, literary theory), or the elaboration and application of concepts not generally associated with this area. The session is more interested in sociological creativity and opening risky new doors than in displaying watertight but somewhat conventional scholarship.