RN23 - Sexuality

RN24 - Science and Technology

RN25 - Social Movements

RN26 - Sociology of Social Policy and Social Welfare

RN27 - Regional Network Southern European Societies

RN28 - Society and Sports

RN29 - Social Theory

RN30 - Youth & Generation

RN31 - Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism

RN32 - Political Sociology

RN33 - Women’s and Gender Studies

RN34 - Sociology of Religion

RN35 - Sociology of Migration

RN36 - Sociology of Transformations: East and West

RN37 - Urban Sociology

All Research Networks Close

RN02 - Sociology of the Arts

The Research Network Sociology of the Arts aims to advance sociological and interdisciplinary research providing contexts for understanding the multifaceted and interwoven factors that characterize the arts in society, in the past, present, and potential futures. RN02 promotes collaboration and scholarly exchange between European-based scholars of the arts and non-European scholars whose work encompasses the arts in Europe.

The Research Network on the Sociology of the Arts was formed in August 1999 at the Amsterdam General Meeting of the European Sociological Association. Its first conference was held in Exeter in 2000. RN02 emerged thanks to the efforts of Tia DeNora, Anna Lisa Tota, Robert W. Witkin, Jan Marontate and other founding members. It grew over the years to exceed 100 regular members by 2016. RN2 has for many years an ongoing collaboration with the Arts Management Studies Research Stream (AMSRS), as well as collaborations with RN7 (Sociology of Culture) and other RNs.

The Core areas of the Research Network Sociology of the Arts are:

Sociology focused on all particular domains in the arts including architecture, urban planning, applied arts, arts within the domain of popular culture (e.g. film, television, and popular music) as well as traditional ‘high’ arts (e.g. music, visual arts, literature, theatre, etc.).
Processes of production, distribution, promotion and commercialisation of works of art, including artistic practices, the impact of technology, new means of production, forms of collaboration, the formation of art theory, the development of arts markets, the process of valuation, etc.
Processes of presentation and mediation of the arts including criticism and media publicity in all domains of the arts, museums, theatres, concerts, audience studies, attitudes towards the audience, educational programs, etc.
Professional development including vocational education, art schools, amateurs and semi-amateurs, professional differentiation, artistic income, recognition, reputation, etc.
Arts organisations (not only museums, galleries, theatres, opera-houses, publishing houses, cultural centres but also festivals, unions) – investigation of historical development, power relations, collaboration, program selection, processes within the organisations such as gate-keeping, leadership, etc.
Arts policy (especially sociological aspects thereof) including legal regulation, public and private funding, public discourse and debates (e.g. classification of art, arts and religious symbols, arts and sexuality, arts and racism), censorship, analysis of the impact of arts, sustainability, lobbying.
Social and cognitive effects of the arts e.g. identity formation, bodies, aesthetic experience, ethics, coding and decoding, gender related practices, ethnographic aspects, arts for social transformation, in communities, and as part of urban culture.
Arts from a macrosociological perspective on e.g. (de-)institutionalisation, economisation, globalisation vs. localism, digitalisation, mediamorphosis, social cohesion, ethics, hegemony, power.
Theoretical development in arts sociology e.g. the production of culture approach, (post)structuralism, field theory, system theory, complexity theories, praxeology, and methodological issues.
Arts and everyday life, including relations between art worlds and lifeworld, the experiential and the sensory, embodied and mediated elements of practice and places, the social and cultural significance of the senses, aesthetics of everyday life, sociological and interdisciplinary approaches to daily and organisational life.

2021-2023

Coordinators

Coordinator: Christopher Mathieu (University of Lund, Sweden) christopher.mathieu[at] soc.lu.se
Co-coordinator: Dafne Muntanyola Saura (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) dafne.muntanyola[at] uab.cat

Board Members

Francesca Maria Fiorella (University of Salento, Italy)
Henrik Fürst (University of Uppsala, Sweden)
Paula Guerra (University of Porto, Portugal)
Olga Kolokytha (University of Vienna, Austria)
Sara Malou Strandvad (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
Sari Karttunen as former coordinator (Center for Cultural Policy Research CUPORE, Finland)

Advisory Board Members:

Victoria Alexander (Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom)
Volker Kirchberg (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany)
Dan Ratiu (Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania)
Anna Lisa Tota (University of Rome 3, Italy)
Graciela Trajtenberg (Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Israel)
Valerie Visanich (University of Malta)
Tasos Zembylas (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria)

The Social Effects of Art - The 11th Midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association Research Network Sociology of the Arts

8-11 September 2020 -> POSTPONED UNTIL 9-12 MARCH 2021!

Online conference hosted by ESA and University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland

Information

The theme of the ESA-Arts 2020 conference is “The Social Effects of Art: Activism, Advocacy and Beyond”. The deadline for paper, panel, roundtable and workshop submissions was February 29, 2020, and we received close on 180 proposals, all highly interesting.

In the end of May 2020, due to the continued pandemic situation, the conference was postponed until 9-12 March 2021, and in October 2020, it was decided to be organised as an online conference. There will be a pre-conference workshop "From Research to Advise and Advocacy" for doctoral students on March 8. See https://sites.uniarts.fi/fi/web/esa-arts2020.

The registration for the conference is open until February 15, 2021 (early bird prices until January 31).

If you have any questions, please contact the organisers at: esa-arts2020[at] uniarts.fi

ESA-ARTS-2020-CFP-19-12-2019.pdf

Mid-Term Conferences

2021 (postponed from 2020) Mid-term Conference, Helsinki (Finland) (online), 9-12 March

2018 Joint Mid-term Conference with RN07, Valletta (Malta), 4-7 September

2016 Mid-term Conference, Porto (Portugal), 8-10 September

2014 Mid-term Conference, Cluj-Napoca (Romania), 4-6 September

2012 Mid-term Conference, Vienna (Austria), 5-8 September

2010 Mid-term Conference, Guildford (United Kingdom), 1-3 September

2008 Joint Mid-term Conference with RN07, Venice (Italy), 4-8 November

2007 Mid-term Conference, Lüneburg & Hamburg (Germany) 28 March- 1 April

2004 Mid-term Conference, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 3-5 November

2003 Interim Conference, Paris (France) 14-18 April

2000 Interim Conference, Exeter (United Kingdom) 1-3 September

Summer Schools

2016 Summer School with Centre for Social Studies (CES) at the University of Coimbra, Espinho (Portugal) 5-7 September

RN02 Biennial Report for 2017-2019
RN02 Biennial Report for 2015-2017

PhD Student Research Award in Sociology of the Arts 2021

The Research Network is proud to announce the results of the fifth edition of the biennial PhD Student Research Award in Sociology of the Arts. We received six very good submissions for the 2021 contest, all of which were professionally composed, relating to current debates, and relevant to sociology of the arts. In a blind process, after the first screening by the whole RN02 Board as well as members of the RN02 Advisory Board, the Prize Committee consisting of three Board members decided after close deliberation unanimously to choose the paper ”Power dynamics in the art world: Navigating alternative systems“ by Dr Jonathan Adeyemi as the winner of the prize in 2021. Dr Adeyemi defended his doctoral thesis, entitled Trending in the Margins: Contemporary Art from Nigeria in the Global Markets, earlier this year at the Queen’s University, Belfast. The prize (500 €) was awarded formally at the 15th Conference of the European Sociological Association in Barcelona (online), during the RN02 Business Meeting on Thursday September 2, 2021.

Jonathan Adeyemi: ”Power dynamics in the art world: Navigating alternative systems“

ABSTRACT: How have power relations configured the global art field, and how do marginalized artists achieve symbolic success? These are the questions I address in this paper through interviews and a survey of studies on the structure and dynamics of the global art world. Guided by postcolonial, feminist, and artistic field theories, this study highlights opinions such as Euro-American hegemony, the privileging of the white Western male artists, postcolonial exclusion, increasing diversity, and ascendancy of Asia. In spite of the evidence of emergent diversity, equitable representation in the art world may be elusive since exclusion has been established as a strategy in the game. Therefore, I argue that marginalized artists require unorthodox systems for inceptive visibility and validation, which are fundamental to symbolic success in the artistic field. In substantiating this, I draw on the experiences of the Impressionists and Abstract Expressionists. I also track the rise to international prominence of two West African artists, El Anatsui and Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, through unconventional systems. Contrary to the notion that focused alternative platforms signify ghettoization, I construe them as necessities for excluded artists until the art world engenders equitable representation.

Keywords: power dynamics, art world, alternative systems, symbolic success, ghettoization

Call for Papers for the 2021 PhD-Student Research Award of the ESA Research Network Sociology of the Arts

The Research Network is delighted to announce the fifth edition of the biennial PhD Student Research Award in Sociology of the Arts. PhD Students as well as recently (after and including January 2019) graduated PhDs are invited to submit an outstanding research paper for the contest. The paper is expected to be sole-authored, and either unpublished or published within the last two years (2019–2021). The jury, consisting of the Board of the Research Network, will evaluate the submitted papers in a blind review, considering the paper’s conceptualisation, methods, reasoning, use of existing literature, and scientific relevance as well as its readability.

Deadline: May 15, 2021

The Research Network Sociology of the Arts (RN02) is an integrated part of the European Sociological Association (ESA), and the winning paper will be announced during the ESA biennial conference in Barcelona, 31 August – 3 September 2021. The winner will be awarded a 500 € prize at the business meeting of RN02 at the conference.

Requirements and Eligibility

The submitted research paper may be either empirically or conceptually based and should focus on topics of arts sociology, see https://www.europeansociology.org/research-networks/rn02-sociology-arts.
The format of the research paper may be an article, a book chapter, or any other scientifically relevant publication format.
The paper should be written in English and be around 6,000–8,000 words (including all footnotes and references). Papers exceeding 8,000 words are not normally eligible for the Award and may be returned to authors unreviewed.
The paper can be unpublished or published in 2019 or later.
Papers must be authored and submitted by current PhD-students or recently (after and including January 2019) graduated PhDs.
The board members of the Research Network as well as past-award winners are ineligible.

Practical Submission Instructions

Submit two different PDFs as email attachments. The first PDF should include on the first page the author's name, full mailing and email addresses, phone number(s) and title of the paper. The research text should start on the second page beginning with the title and an abstract around 200 words followed by the research text. From the second page the author’s name should be excluded and any indication in the text that could reveal the author’s identity should be avoided. The second PDF should be identical with the first PDF excluding the first page. Use double spacing in the submissions.
All entrants must also provide a letter on organizational letterhead from one faculty member certifying that the applicant is currently student at the PhD-programme of the university or has graduated as PhD during 2019–2021, and that he / she solely wrote the paper.
Entries (accompanied by faculty letters) must be emailed to RN02 coordinator sari.karttunen[at] cupore.fi () by May 15, 2021.

Evaluation

Papers will be reviewed anonymously by the Board of the Research Network Sociology of the Arts (based on the second PDF).

The essential criteria used in the evaluation are the following:

The degree to which the paper addresses issues that are significant to the sociology of the arts,
The extent to which the paper shows consideration of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature in the sociology of the arts, and
The extent to which the paper makes a conceptual or empirical contribution to the sociology of the arts.

In the absence of submissions deemed deserving of the award, the award may be withheld.

Presentation, Announcement and Publication

The winner is expected to present the paper at a session during the ESA biennial conference 2021 (https://www.europeansociology.org/esa-conference-2021-in-barcelona) and be present at the business meeting of the Research Network Sociology of the Arts where the award will be publicly announced. The awarded paper may be published on the homepage of RN02 (https://www.europeansociology.org/research-networks/rn02-sociology-arts), if copyright regulations allow this.

Past Awards:

PhD Student Research Award in Sociology of the Arts 2017

The Research Network is delighted to announce the results of the third edition of the biennial PhD Student Research Award in Sociology of the Arts. PhD Students from Europe and Asia responded to the Call for Papers and submitted an unpublished research paper. The jury, consisting of board members of the RN Sociology of the Arts, evaluated the papers in a blind review, considering the conception, methods, references, sociological relevance and readability of the submitted papers. The jury reached a unanimous agreement on the choice of the winning paper.
The winner of the PhD Student Research Award 2017 is Ms. Svetlana Kharchenkova, Universiteit van Amsterdam (Netherlands), whose paper is titled The art market upside down: valuation practices and the function of auctions in the emerging Chinese market. The winner of the Award received a 500 € prize.
The Diploma was awarded formally at the 13th Conference of the European Sociological Association in Athens, during the Business Meeting of the Research Network Sociology of the Arts on Thursday 31st of August 2017.

The art market upside down: valuation practices and the function of auctions in the emerging Chinese market

This article analyzes valuation in an emerging cultural market: China’s contemporary art market. Based on extensive fieldwork in Beijing, it explores why new art and unestablished artists appear at auction in China. It argues that auctions act as a judgment device because of the institutional environment: the state support of auctions and a lack of trusted valorizing structures and experienced buyers. It suggests that the role of judgment devices may be temporary and contingent on the institutional environment. This article shows how value is constructed and judged in an emerging market and contributes to market sociology and sociology of valuation.

Svetlana Kharchenkova is a lecturer at Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS). She will defend her PhD thesis, entitled “White Cubes in China: A Sociological Study of China’s Emerging Market for Contemporary Art”, at the University of Amsterdam in 2017.