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Arts and Identities. Claims, assignations, denials, transgressions

Arts et identités. Revendications, assignations, négations, transgressions

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Published on Monday, October 24, 2022

Abstract

The aim of this issue of L'Année sociologique is to offer an overview of current research in the sociology of the arts and culture from the perspective of identities, whether they are denied, claimed, assigned or transgressed by the various members of the observed art worlds—artists, critics, audiences, producers, distributors... All artistic disciplines - music, visual arts, literature, dance, circus, cinema, etc.—are a priori concerned, whether they are studied as such, or combined in the analysis. The article can relate to production, reception and/or mediation.

Announcement

Argument

The themes of art and culture have been slow to take root and flourish in the field of sociological research and production, since they did not correspond to the primary concerns of the precursors and founding fathers of the discipline. However, from the 1960s-1970s, notably under the impetus of the essential work of French sociologists Raymonde Moulin and Pierre Bourdieu, artistic and cultural questions were explored from multiple (and sometimes contradictory) theoretical angles. They have then frequently been backed up by the analysis of empirical data collected on diversified research fields. Over the decades, research in the sociology of the arts and culture, becoming more and more legitimate institutionally, has expanded and crossed the issues addressed not only in the French context but also in other national contexts, and sometimes with a strong comparative perspective.

The objective of this issue of L’Année Sociologique is to offer an overview of current research in these fields from the perspective of identities, whether they are denied, claimed, assigned or transgressed by the various members of the observed art worlds—artists, critics, audiences, producers, distributors... All artistic disciplines - music, visual arts, literature, dance, circus, cinema, etc.—are a priori concerned, whether they are studied as such, or combined in the analysis. The article can relate to production, reception and/or mediation.

Identities has been chosen as our main focus for several reasons. First of all, even a superficial knowledge of art worlds reveals a recurrent use of this term to promote a work of art, to explain its creation, to account for its reception, to valorize or to denigrate it... Which meaning is to be given to these uses from a sociological (and distanced) standpoint? Moreover, voluntarily or not, the artistic and cultural questions frequently cross the questions of identity, whether a given identity is assigned, claimed, denied, transgressed or deconstructed as well by the artists as by the cultural intermediaries, the producers or the consumers of the artworks. How can we account for these identity games and, more broadly, what do they tell us about the ways in which art worlds are organized and constructed in contemporary societies? Indeed, through the analysis of identity games raised by the production, the reception and the mediation of artworks, we aim at reaching what is more deeply played in the social process of artistic production, mediation and reception. Moreover, adopting an identity angle allows us to take into account recent researches which precisely deal with, and sometimes even by combining them, the multiple identity facets intervening, one way or the other, in the artistic practices. Finally, the definition of social identities can be so broad that it allows to approach many fields of investigation and theoretical questions in the sociology of the arts and culture.

The three following lines of research can be explored, without being exhaustive.

  1. A first axis refers to geographically situated cultural identities. Local, regional and national identities, in an era of intense international and transnational circulation, continue to play a major role in the artistic spaces. Artists are thus sometimes set up as representatives of a particular territory (city, region, country) of which they claim to be part of and/or which claim them when they reach a certain level of fame and recognition. The artistic production can then become the archetypal symbol of the local or national entity to which it is attached - even if it is in fact the result of a whole series of mixes, combinations and confrontations with artistic productions from other geographical and cultural frameworks that contribute just as much to shaping them. It can still lock the concerned artists in a limited territorial recognition when they aspire to a universal recognition.
  2. A second axis relates to the identities of gender, class and “race”, in particular in those works in which the concept of intersectionality has imposed itself over time. This concept is indeed more and more mobilized in the social sciences—and in particular in the sociology of the arts—to account for the production as well as the mediation and the reception of artworks in relation to certain intertwined social characteristics of the artists or the public. For example, many studies on rap music are now available that cross-reference the variables of gender (and even sexual orientation), social origins and “ethnic” origins, both for the artists and for their audiences. The simultaneous consideration of these social determinants is also preponderant for other art worlds, be it literature, visual arts, cinema, circus or dance.
  3. A third axis will allow us to take into account the professional identities of producers and mediators of cultural goods, as well as the identities in terms of self-construction by the consumers of these same goods. On the side of the producers and the mediators, an identity is elaborated and linked to a profession and to the possible ways of exercising it. On the side of the consumers of the artworks, a connection to these goods is sometimes established, and this connection participates fully in the identity construction of the individuals appropriating cultural goods, whether they are legitimate or less valued in contemporary societies.

Submission of manuscript proposals and calendar

Proposals for contributions, in French or in English, should present the empirical cases being studied as well as the theoretical questions associated with them. These proposals, with a maximum of 5000 signs (excluding bibliography), must be sent by email to the two co-editors of this special issue, Marie Buscatto (marie.buscatto@orange.fr) and Clara Lévy (clevy.paris@gmail.com)

before December 1st, 2022.

If your proposal is being accepted (answers will be sent at the beginning of January 2023), you must submit a first version of your article by May 15th, 2023. The length should not exceed 65,000 signs (including spaces, bibliography and figures). Based on the editors’ initial comments and suggestions, and once agreed upon by the two co-editors, a new version will be sent by the author on September 1st, 2023 to Delphine Renard (delphine.renard@sorbonne-universite.fr). Each article will then be evaluated anonymously by the editorial board of L’Année sociologique Journal.

We invite interested authors to consult the rules of submission on the page of L'Année sociologique (PUF website). The issue is expected to be published in Spring 2024.

Scientific coordination and Correspondance

  • Marie Buscatto (Paris I) marie.buscatto@orange.fr
  • Clara Lévy (Paris VIII) clevy.paris@gmail.com

L’Année sociologique

Delphine Renard

Maison de la Recherche - 28 rue Serpente - 75006 Paris (France)

delphine.renard@sorbonne-universite.fr

Places

  • L'Année sociologique - Maison de la recherche de Sorbonne Université - 28 rue Serpente
    Paris, France (75006)

Date(s)

  • Thursday, December 01, 2022

Keywords

  • sociologie, culture, art, identité, artiste

Contact(s)

  • Delphine Renard
    courriel : delphine [dot] renard [at] sorbonne-universite [dot] fr

Information source

  • Delphine Renard
    courriel : delphine [dot] renard [at] sorbonne-universite [dot] fr

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Arts and Identities. Claims, assignations, denials, transgressions », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, October 24, 2022, https://calenda.org/1025738

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