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. The study of culture is crucial for understanding many of the most important aspects of human life. Social scientists increasingly regard it as one of their central areas of interest, and sociologists have offered valuable and provocative insights into the nature of cultural life. Yet up until now, no single volume has brought together in a comprehensive fashion the array of ideas and viewpoints that together make up the specifically sociological study of culture. Confronting Culture rectifies this situation, offering a clear and accessible introduction to the complex field of the sociology of culture. Inglis and Hughson critically discuss the key contributions made to the study of culture by different streams of thought within sociology. They examine the nature of cultural matters as perceived by classical sociology, the Frankfurt School, English and American mass culture theorists, culturalists and cultural materialists, semioticians, poststructuralists and postmodernists, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, and scholars within the ‘production of culture’ paradigm. The book will appeal to those studying culture both from within sociology and from the perspectives of other disciplines, such as cultural studies, media and communication studies, anthropology and literary studies. 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.