Artistic Autonomy In Contemporary Challenges and Global Perspectives

Artistic autonomy has been a central concept in the sociology of the arts and aesthetic theory, but its discussion urgently needs expansion. This session invites contributions that reflect on this notion through contemporary and global perspectives. First, transformations in the art worlds and socio-political environments are challenging the idea that art and artists can and should remain autonomous. Many artists are also social activists. The “cancel culture” denies the autonomy of aesthetic value. Artificial intelligence poses as many opportunities as threats to authorship. Online fan communities mobilise unprecedented resources to influence the creative process. These social, political, and technological developments have reopened longstanding discussions about how the arts and artists should position themselves in relation to, and respond to, societal issues. Second, the visibility of diverse aesthetic and cultural traditions and epistemological perspectives that approach artistic autonomy differently is growing. While, for example, the idea of artistic autonomy emerged in the Euro-American context as a result of professionalisation, the aesthetic quality of the artworks has never been separable from the author’s moral quality in the Chinese context. In the Latin American context, politically engaged artistic practices epitomise the close relationship between the arts and social movements. Incorporating a global perspective thus reconsiders how artistic autonomy is and, more importantly, could have been variously understood, negotiated, and valued. By bringing together these two dimensions, the session seeks to explore the continued relevance of artistic autonomy as a key sociological concept with increasing intellectual power.