For many decades and for many reasons, the social organization of arts and culture has interested us. It is true that there is extensive literature on many topics related to the organization of arts and culture, for example, in business management and cultural economics, cultural policy analyses, arts in urban environments, artistic copyright and other legal matters, as well as …

When we talk about the social organization of arts, we are referring to two concepts that are closely linked, order and change. Social order is never static, and it is always complex. Social change is always dynamic, and it has different intensities and efficacies. Together, they are key to theorizing the social organization of arts. Theories do not explain the …

In 1982, Howard S. Becker (1928–2023) authored Art Worlds, one of the most influential books in the sociology of organizing arts. He was born in Chicago, where he grew up in a well-off, liberal middle-class family. Becker studied and graduated from the University of Chicago, home to John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, William Isaac Thomas, Ernest Watson Burgess, Robert Ezra …

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) was born in southwest France into a lower middle-class family. After finishing secondary school, he gained a place at the École Normale Supérieure, one of the elite universities in Paris, to study philosophy. During the 1950s, the French intellectual scene was characterized by a confrontation between proponents of structuralism (the assumption of social determination through structures) and …

The German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998) occupies a very different position in the academic world from that of Howard S. Becker and Pierre Bourdieu. Most English-speaking sociologists know very little, if anything, about his work, while in continental Europe Luhmann has made a significant impact. We believe that Luhmann’s theory of art as a social system belongs to the fundamental …

All three sociologists – Howard S. Becker, Pierre Bourdieu and Niklas Luhmann – are classics in the sense that their works had a major impact on sociology in general and prompted a boom in the sociology of arts in particular. Despite varying criticism, many scholars still appreciate the intellectual quality of their oeuvres. It is also appropriate to call them …

The Production of Culture Perspective is represented by a number of loosely connected, mostly North American sociologists who take an empirical approach. They focus on organizational factors that enable or impede the production of arts and culture in organizational settings. This approach is primarily associated with the name of Richard A. Peterson (1932–2010). The formation and transformation of cultural goods, …

Organizations are essential in creating and shaping art contents, art styles and art genres. The case of Duchamp’s ready-mades in the Armory Show 1913 is a well-known example (Danto 1964), but there are also many examples from the popular arts (Brown 1968; Peterson and Berger 1971). Internal and external institutional forces determine how and how much organizations influence artistic forms …

Cultural Institutions Studies represents an approach toward the social organization of arts and is widely used in German-speaking countries. This theoretical and empirical approach engages with interdisciplinary ideas that extend beyond but include an organizational sociology focused on artistic practices, structuring institutions and arts’ fragile abilities to shape their forms and contents independently from external constraints. Cultural Institutions Studies understands …