Comments on: Sociology of Culture

By: lago

lago — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 08:43:19 +0000

While I am pleased at the inclusion of Latour, I will note here that it is sometimes difficult for folks who haven’t been introduced to semiotics (the Greimas version) to understand why non-human agency makes sense in the liquid way Latour employs the concept in The Pasteurization of France. It tends to be confused with the Sewell-style mainstream “agency” when it is not the same thing at all, rendering Latour’s work either unintelligible or apparently trivial to someone who doesn’t understand what he’s trying to do. But hey, maybe that’s the point of reading it. As for Foucault, well, how about going really lateral and engaging, say, Maffesoli? Surely “neotribe” is a much more relevant cultural concept these days, bad SF adaptations of the idea notwithstanding?

By: DJW

DJW — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 07:05:24 +0000

Don’t fall into the trap that you need to cram everything important to the field into the course. Is it really that important to add Foucault if you’ll only have 20 minutes of seminar time to discuss on excerpt? I loves me my Foucault, but I’m just sayin… It does look like a great mix of classic social theory and contemporary research; most of my graduate seminars were one or the other, but not really a mix. I must say I’m pleasantly surprised by how ‘post-modern friendly’ the syllabus is. You don’t see much of that stuff around these parts. And I always thought Soc at Arizona was really ratcho.

By: Doug Carmichael

Doug Carmichael — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 03:58:44 +0000

Could you post a link to the prelim reading list?

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 03:37:09 +0000

Art Worlds is a classic all right. Rest assured that we make the students read it for prelims. And it’d be first on the list if this course was mainly about the Arts.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 03:32:47 +0000

Thank goodness there’s still a place for (a little) Howard S. Becker. His Art Worlds changed my life.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 01:19:33 +0000

OK, Horkheimer and Adorno are in. Also some other changes, thanks to comments from Marion href=”http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/fourcade-gourinchas/” rel=”nofollow”>http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/fourcade-gourinchas/, including some Latour and also Norbert Elias. (Is anyone in the world now named Norbert?) I need to find a way to get Foucault in there too, I suppose.

By: DJW

DJW — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 22:23:59 +0000

Good to see sociologists still read Simmel. I wish more political scientists did.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 22:07:03 +0000

Sperber’s Explaining Culture I was thinking about something from the evolutionary literature on culture but so much of it is crap href=”http://www.lrb.co.uk/v21/n12/runc02_.html” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.lrb.co.uk/v21/n12/runc02_.html that it’s hard to know where the good stuff is. I’ll have a look at this one. I enjoy boggling, from time to time, over how an Irishman might cope with the weather, culture, and landscape of Arizona Yeah I should have a week on culture shock. I don’t see anything whose title addresses taste clusters Maybe week 10? Though I’m not familiar with the specific concept of ‘taste clusters’—sounds like a marketing idea.

By: Ted K.

Ted K. — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 21:33:17 +0000

I think I am showing my total lack of formal reading in this stuff (I might steal the syllabus and do some fun reading) but I don’t see anything whose title addresses taste clusters. I find them a very useful analytical concept and would expect to see them in a class like this. Of course, if they are already there, then (cue Gilda Radnor voice) Never Mind.

By: laura

laura — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 19:07:39 +0000

I mean the syllabus doesn’t show up when I click the link. Also, as to “Deep Play.” While it may be that no graduate student should be allowed a PhD without reading it, I had to read it at least twice, possibly more, en route to the BA. The additional time or two I read it in grad school served only to irritate me.

By: laura

laura — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 18:59:56 +0000

Umm, it’s not coming up for me.

By: agm

agm — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 18:34:54 +0000

Ah, this is the sort of thing that tempts me to leap from one field to another. I wish I was more able to wrap my mind around this stuff. I must agree about the Baudrillard. Even accounting for his penchant for fragments of thought, Simulacra and Simulation is hard as hell to get through. It’s worth seeing (if nothing else for its influence on computer science), but perhaps it’s not the best use of time.

By: Mary Kay

Mary Kay — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 17:05:50 +0000

I’m not competent to comment on the course. This is just a note to say I enjoy boggling, from time to time, over how an Irishman might cope with the weather, culture, and landscape of Arizona. Oh, and I always enjoy reading your posts. MKK

By: q

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 16:42:34 +0000

Looks like a very interesting course. Kieran, would you be so kind as to put it altogether in a book “Sociology of Culture”, then those of us who cannot attend can at least buy the book? :) Maybe you could post individual subject areas on the internet to make it a groupware project or get one or two CT contributors. Six areas that spring to mind are : “Christianity and Culture” – Nietzsche on herds/nihilism/buddhism, “Race and Culture” – Very accessible and topical.* “Culture and Film” – Hollywood/Bollywood “Lost Cultures” – Aborigine/Maori “Islamic/Iranian Culture” Pre/Post 79 revolution “Trendy stuff” – SmartMobs and Generation X *see for example films “Jungle Fever” “Lost in Translation” “Japanese Story” “Bend it like Beckham” “Save the Last Dance”

By: Bill Tozier

Bill Tozier — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 13:36:47 +0000

Over the last few years I’ve often found myself touting Sperber’s Explaining Culture (and sometimes Sperber & WIlson’s Relevance) in situations where it seems like a perfect fit. And here I come upon your syllabus, and it seems a perfecter situation than most of those have been. Cosma Shalizi has a review at http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/explaining-culture/