International Sociology

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Art and the State: The Visual Arts in Comparative Perspective; Sociology of
the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms
Jan Marontate
International Sociology 2007 22: 251
DOI: 10.1177/0268580907074552
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R E V I E W S : S O C I O LO G I S T S E X A M I N E A R T A N D M E D I A M AT T E R S

Victoria D. Alexander and Marilyn Rueschemeyer, Art and

the State: The Visual Arts in Comparative Perspective. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan/Oxford: St Anthonys College, 2005, 235 pp.,
ISBN 140394525X, 45.00/US$69.95.
Victoria D. Alexander, Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and
Popular Forms. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003, 366 pp., ISBN 0631230394
(hbk), 65.00/US$93.95, 0631230408 (pbk), 19.99/US$38.95.
keywords: cultural industries cultural policy music sociological theory
visual arts
This review examines two recent books in the context of developments in the field
of the sociology of the arts, a growing area of specialization concerned with the
visual arts, literature, music, drama, film, crafts and other art forms, studied from
various sociological perspectives. Research focuses on processes such as artistic
creation (or production), mediation (or distribution) and reception (or consumption), as well as the characteristics of people, networks and organizations involved
with these processes (Zolberg, 1990). While no single theoretical framework dominates the field, several approaches have particularly marked sociology of the arts
in the past 25 years, among them: Marxist and neo-Marxist approaches, notably in
connection with the contested but ever-present legacy of the Frankfurt School, in
particular the work of Theodor Adorno (DeNora, 2003; Witkin, 2002); symbolic
interactionism and other interpretative approaches, in particular Howard
Beckers highly influential model of art worlds (Becker, 1982; Crane, 1987); poststructuralist or neostructuralist critical frameworks, for example in research that
draws on concepts elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu (see Bourdieu, 1993); and the socalled production of culture approach associated with the work of Richard A.
Peterson (1997).
Researchers in the field draw on other, varied intellectual traditions and interdisciplinary approaches too, inspired by semiotics, history of art, social studies of
science, media studies and communication, political economy, management and
International Sociology March 2007 Vol 22(2): 251262
SAGE (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore)
DOI: 10.1177/0268580907074552

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International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 22 No. 2

psychology. This eclecticism has enhanced openness to diversity in ways that
favour the emergence of a truly international network of scholars working in the
field. However, researchers have not always agreed on fundamental theoretical
issues or methodologies.
One way sociologists of the arts drawing on different national or epistemological traditions have worked to build a common understanding of issues is through
focused case studies situated in specific sociohistorical contexts. Two recent books
make interesting contributions to English-language scholarship in the field by
presenting a selection of such case studies in creative ways.
In Art and the State: The Visual Arts in Comparative Perspective Victoria Alexander
and Marilyn Rueschemeyer present a collection of five case studies on the theme
of the impact of the nation-state on art institutions and artists (the first two by
Alexander and the last three by Rueschemeyer) accompanied by a co-authored
introduction and conclusion.
In the first two case studies, Alexander draws on bibliographic research in an
analysis of official documents and scholarly research publications to craft arguments about trends in public support and their implications for funding for the
visual arts in the US and the UK. In Alexanders opinion, although direct government funding for the visual arts still exists in the US at federal, state and local levels, there has been a trend towards less visible indirect public support and private
funding models (that draw on philanthropists and corporate sponsors) as a result
of widely publicized conflicts and political antagonisms. On the other hand, in the
UK, Alexander proposes that the drive towards privatization laid the foundation
for an enterprise culture to promote efficient management principles in arts
organizations and public access. In both cases, arts advocates and public administrators continue to grapple with differing fundamental principles and criteria for
measuring the success of organizational frameworks and policy initiatives. Both
case studies provide a valuable introduction to some of the key funding bodies,
policies and their history relevant for understanding the authors views about
trends in government support for the visual arts and its development in these two
very different national contexts.
Rueschemeyers methodology differs in that she combines documentary
research with fieldwork and interviews in three case studies about different
aspects of state support for the arts that compare policy trends, organizational
models and the experiences of artists, arts administrators and other art world
participants under different political regimes. In a comparative study of public
support for painting and sculpture in the Scandinavian welfare states of Norway
and Sweden, Rueschemeyer describes the historical development of the roles of
artists associations and various levels of government. Different patterns of support have developed in the two countries in response to tensions between a
deeply embedded public conception of art as an autonomous sphere of culture
and socialist agendas that promote state-wide ideals that put a premium on
cooperation with societal organizations (p. 102). Rueschemeyer concludes that
both countries have developed elaborate mechanisms to professionalize support decisions while ensuring opportunities for regional diversity and guarding against cliques by developing organizational structures and policies that

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Reviews: Sociologists Examine Art and Media Matters Marontate

promote active participation of artists associations in Nordic versions of democratic corporatism (p. 121).
In a study of East German art worlds before and after the fall of Communism,
Rueschemeyer presents a succinct history of the institutional context drawing on
vivid testimony by artists who have negotiated the transition. Although the system of state control that developed in the German Democratic Republic of the
post-Nazi era was marked by extensive political control and subsidies were
awarded on non-aesthetic grounds, some dissident artists had intensely interested
audiences prior to unification. Rueschemeyer found that many artists had very
mixed feelings about the transformation of the East German art world in the context of a market economy after unification. The transition was particularly challenging for established artists who had to deal with new pressures to conform to
contemporary tastes and a changed economic regime. Paradoxically, as political
control waned, artists also experienced an erosion of the sociopolitical relevance
of the arts and a diminution of the role of the artist in public life.
The final case study presented in the book focuses on the struggles of Russian
emigrant artists who moved to the US and Israel. Rueschemeyer observed generational differences in the career trajectories of migrs; but she shows that most of
them faced difficult challenges in sustaining their artistic careers in the context of
a market-based art world economy. As in the case of the East German study, artists
struggled to distance themselves from the pressures to conform to commercial
interests. However, the material security and political scrutiny the Russian migrs left behind had also conferred a sense of intellectual accountability and leadership. The study provides compelling testimony about the ways politics and
economics shape art worlds and artistic practice.
Overall, the case studies presented in Art and the State provide valuable insights
for a better understanding of artistic work and arts institutions in different contexts shaped by nation-states. However, in their efforts to generalize the findings,
the authors at times make observations and draw conclusions that are sure to provoke debate. One such is the astonishing assertion that Scandinavian welfare
states never engaged in radical attempts to transform society in the image of
social, political and cultural ideas (p. 191). There are also limits on the range of
issues considered relevant to arts policy in national contexts. The book focuses
heavily on funding models, and does not provide a detailed treatment of other
important policy-related issues that concern artists and arts organizations, among
them differences in state governance of intellectual property and status-of-theartist legislation. Nonetheless, the publication of the case studies in a single thematic volume is a welcome contribution to scholarship in the field.
In another recent publication, Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular
Forms, Victoria Alexander presents an introductory overview of the field for students. This textbook is divided into three parts, each with short case studies illustrating ways of thinking about the arts sociologically. Part I introduces
Alexanders views about general frameworks for examining artsociety relationships. She begins with a very brief discussion of what she considers art (in contrast to non-art) and a summary of major theoretical frameworks in sociology.
Then she identifies two different strategies for studying relationships between the

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International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 22 No. 2

arts and society, so-called reflection approaches, which she interprets as resting
on the idea that art tells us something about society, and shaping approaches,
which she associates with notions about the impact of art on society. Here it
becomes apparent that the book is aimed at undergraduate readers early in their
university careers as these sections offer very simplified interpretations of rich,
complex theoretical and methodological traditions.
Part II is organized around the notion of a cultural diamond, examining production, distribution and consumption. These are problematic terms that evoke
several different paradigms: arts management approaches, Pierre Bourdieus
poststructuralist analyses and Richard Petersons very different production of
culture perspective (see, for example, Bourdieu, 1993; Peterson, 1997). However,
in this book the terms are used interchangeably with the notions of creation,
mediation and reception, and there is little reference to alternative paradigms that
have emerged in the past decade in opposition to earlier ways of thinking about
artssociety relations (see DeNora, 2000, 2003; Griswold, 2000; Heinich, 1998a,
1998b; Hennion, 1997). Part III examines ways of studying artworks (such as textual analysis), touching on the implications of some more recent approaches to
understanding fields of artistic production, the aesthetic dimensions of the uses
of the arts. This chapter is disappointingly short given the profound influence that
theories that engage with the characteristics of artworks have had on recent
research in the field.
In each section, Alexander includes case studies that introduce elements of
debates about core issues (such as the effects of television violence on viewers, the
return of pillaged artworks to their countries of origin and a controversy on censorship). By adopting a breezy, informal tone in these sections, the author may be
trying to entice students to enter into debates. Unfortunately, the journalistic
flavour and the authors attempts to simplify the issues, to introduce humour
and to take positions, at times may serve to derail reflection on core debates rather
than enhance it. For example, on the issue of whether to return artworks such as
the Elgin Marbles (now in the British Museum) to Greece, the author argues for
the maintenance of a status quo for museum collections, taking a position in the
debates as a protagonist rather than as a sociologist. Her position is at odds with
recent trends in the social politics of international museums (for example, in wellpublicized cases of the return of works held in US museums). To wit: Return the
sculptures to Greece? Have you lost your marbles? (p. 175). The foundations of
the worlds museum collections must not be chipped away (p. 177). Despite these
drawbacks, the case studies provide an organized programme for class sessions
that will appeal to many undergraduates.
Throughout the textbook, Alexander draws on a large body of Englishlanguage scholarship, heavily influenced by American sociological research conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. Lacking are accounts of the large body of recent
research published in other languages that has reframed ways of thinking about
and studying the arts sociologically (see, for examples, Heinich, 1998a, 1998b,
1999a, 1999b; Hennion, 1993; Kirchberg, 2005; Menger, 2002; Tota, 2002). However.
this is an introductory textbook and as such provides an overview of elements
that is sure to be useful for students as they begin to learn about the sociology of
the arts.

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Reviews: Sociologists Examine Art and Media Matters Marontate

References
Becker, Howard S. (1982) Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1993) The Field of Cultural Production. New York: Columbia
University Press.
Crane, Diana (1987) The Transformation of the Avant-Garde: The New York Art World
19401985. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
DeNora, Tia (2000) Music in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DeNora, Tia (2003) After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Griswold, Wendy (2000) Bearing Witness: Readers, Writers, and the Novel in Nigeria.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Heinich, Nathalie (1998a) Ce qui lart fait la sociologie. Paris: Les ditions de
Minuit.
Heinich, Nathalie (1998b) Le triple jeu de lart contemporain. Paris: Les ditions de
Minuit.
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Jacqueline Chambon.
Heinich, Nathalie (1999b) Pour en finir avec la querelle de lart contemporain. Paris:
Lchoppe.
Heinich, Nathalie (2003) Face lart contemporain. Lettre un commissaire. Paris:
Lchoppe.
Hennion, Antoine (1993) La Passion musicale. Une sociologie de la mdiation. Paris:
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numriques, pp. 14751. Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes.
Kirchberg, Volker (2005) Gesellschaftliche Funktionen von Museen: Makro-, meso- und
mikrosoziologische Perspektiven. Wiesbaden: Verlag fr Sozialwissenschaften.
Menger, Pierre-Michel (2002) Portrait de lartiste en travailleur. La mtamorphose du
capitalisme. Paris: Seuil.
Peterson, Richard, A. (1997) Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Tota, Anna Lisa (2002) Sociologie dellarte. Dal museo tradizionale allarte multimediale. Rome: Carocci.
Witkin, Robert W. (2002) Adorno on Popular Culture. London: Routledge.
Zolberg, Vera (1990) Constructing a Sociology of the Arts. London: Cambridge
University Press.

Jan Marontate held a Canada Research Chair in Technology and Culture at Acadia
University (Wolfville, Canada) at the time of writing. She has moved to the School
of Communication at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Her current
research focuses on techno-cultural change, transdisciplinary collaboration and
contemporary strategies for preservation of new forms of artistic and scientific
work as cultural heritage.
Address: School of Communication K9671, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC,
V5A1S6, Canada. [email: jmaronta@sfu.ca]

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