Cultural Sociology
2002. Cultural Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Rating:
6
Summary:
reader on cultural sociology
The book is a collection of essays – either written for this book or excerpted from other works – illustrating the different elements of the budding field of cultural sociology. “Cultural sociology is about meaning-making. Cultural sociologists investigate how meaning-making happens, why meanings vary, how meanings influence human action, and the ways meaning-making is important in social cohesion, domination, and resistance.” (p. 1) The essays range from purely theoretical discussions of boundaries to empirically driven studies of social movement culture to postmodern reflections on capitalism.
Review:
This book is expansive enough to provide readings for a variety of cultural sociology approaches. Because it works to fill all of the possible niches, it undoubtedly also includes some essays that will not be appealing to all audiences. For instance, Fredric Jameson’s essay on Postmodernism was not particularly well-received in my class (I read this in a course on cultural sociology). But there are also likely essays included in this reader that will be clear and well-received. In my class, one of these was Eviatar Zerubavel’s essay on making distinctions.
I’m not sure I’m particularly well-suited to critique the book in terms of coverage of the major areas of cultural sociology as this course was my first exposure to this sociological approach. Even so, I found the book useful for introductory purposes and it can certainly serve as a launching point for both further reading and classroom discussion.