Confronting Culture

Confronting Culture offers a clear and accessible discussion and analysis of the complex field of the sociology of culture, and how it compares with approaches developed within cultural studies. An accessible guide to the complex field of the sociological study of culture. Unique in showing how sociological understandings of culture often differ from rival approaches in the discipline of cultural studies. Introduces the various ways of thinking sociologically about culture that have been developed over the last century. Examines the legacy of classical sociology for the sociology of culture, and situates thinking about culture within the historical, cultural and social contexts of the rival schools of thought in the US, UK, France and Germany. Examples of topics under discussion include the rise of postmodernism, the American production of culture approach, and the cultural sociology of Pierre Bourdieu.

Acknowledgements. Introduction: Sociology and Culture. 1. Setting Up the Terrain: Classical Sociology and Culture. 2. High German Seriousness: The Frankfurt School on Culture. 3. An American Tragedy? Mass Culture in the USA. 4. Reading from Right to Left: Culturalism in England. 5. The Empire of Signs: The Semiotics of Culture. 6. Phantasmagoria: Postmodernism and Culture. 7. In the French Style: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. 8. The Land of the Free? Production of Culture in America and Elsewhere. Conclusion: Globalization, Reflecivity and the Future. References. Index.