Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-19DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102022
Xingshu Liu
Much of the existing research on corporate portrayals of queerness in advertising reflects liberal-centric assumptions, with limited attention to gay and lesbian marketing in tightly regulated media and cultural contexts. This study addresses this gap by examining queer representation in the mainstream marketing by Chinese companies in mainland China from 2012 to 2023. Capitalizing on public unfamiliarity with queer culture, mainstream Chinese companies strategically mobilized subcultural codes in their marketing practices. Gay and lesbian marketing in China has been shaped by gender norms, which are rooted in the country’s heteropatriarchal and patrilineal systems, resulting in distinct portrayals of gay men and lesbians in advertisements. The creative strategies and visual aesthetics of some advertisements were strongly influenced by the boom in danmei culture and the rise of the China-Chic economy. This research demonstrates how gay and lesbian marketing is embedded in the complex social fabric of contemporary China, highlighting the dynamics among state power, sociocultural norms, cultural trends, and multiple subcultural groups that mainstream marketing sought to engage.
{"title":"The embeddedness of marketing: Queer representation in advertisements by mainstream Chinese companies in mainland China, 2012–2023","authors":"Xingshu Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102022","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102022","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Much of the existing research on corporate portrayals of queerness in advertising reflects liberal-centric assumptions, with limited attention to gay and lesbian marketing in tightly regulated media and cultural contexts. This study addresses this gap by examining queer representation in the mainstream marketing by Chinese companies in mainland China from 2012 to 2023. Capitalizing on public unfamiliarity with queer culture, mainstream Chinese companies strategically mobilized subcultural codes in their marketing practices. Gay and lesbian marketing in China has been shaped by gender norms, which are rooted in the country’s heteropatriarchal and patrilineal systems, resulting in distinct portrayals of gay men and lesbians in advertisements. The creative strategies and visual aesthetics of some advertisements were strongly influenced by the boom in <em>danmei</em> culture and the rise of the China-Chic economy. This research demonstrates how gay and lesbian marketing is embedded in the complex social fabric of contemporary China, highlighting the dynamics among state power, sociocultural norms, cultural trends, and multiple subcultural groups that mainstream marketing sought to engage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102022"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145568518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-22DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102062
Isra Saymour
The trade of cultural heritage operates at the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate spaces. While provenance is widely accepted as a barrier to the trade of loot, a growing body of work finds it may enable loot to enter legitimate institutions. This study builds on literature on legitimacy and grey markets to investigate how intermediaries in the antiquities market use provenance to legitimize looted cultural heritage. Drawing on interviews with curators, dealers, and auctioneers and scripting analysis of institutional records, the study identifies three "legitimizing provenance practices": an accumulative market setting that encourages collection at all costs; exclusionary professional networks that protect permissive practices; and everyday obfuscation techniques that mask looted origins. These practices operate within a polarized landscape of competing "pro-loot" and "anti-loot" applications of provenance. This reconceptualizes provenance as a relational social process shaped by competing value systems and unequal power relations. Interpreting legitimacy and provenance through the lens of “loot” demonstrates how such practices perpetuate colonial systems of dispossession in contemporary forms.
{"title":"Loot, legitimacy, and provenance: Intermediaries and the legitimation of looted cultural objects","authors":"Isra Saymour","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102062","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102062","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The trade of cultural heritage operates at the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate spaces. While provenance is widely accepted as a barrier to the trade of loot, a growing body of work finds it may enable loot to enter legitimate institutions. This study builds on literature on legitimacy and grey markets to investigate how intermediaries in the antiquities market use provenance to legitimize looted cultural heritage. Drawing on interviews with curators, dealers, and auctioneers and scripting analysis of institutional records, the study identifies three \"legitimizing provenance practices\": an accumulative market setting that encourages collection at all costs; exclusionary professional networks that protect permissive practices; and everyday obfuscation techniques that mask looted origins. These practices operate within a polarized landscape of competing \"pro-loot\" and \"anti-loot\" applications of provenance. This reconceptualizes provenance as a relational social process shaped by competing value systems and unequal power relations. Interpreting legitimacy and provenance through the lens of “loot” demonstrates how such practices perpetuate colonial systems of dispossession in contemporary forms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102062"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145575556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-15DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102058
Kristin Van Damme, Tom Evens
Digitisation has not only impacted how media are created and distributed, but also how they are consumed. Consequently, media use has become an elusive concept. This challenges researchers, media organisations, and the audience measurement industry to conceptualize what it means to ‘use media’. The primary objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive taxonomy for delineating the various articulations that constitute media use. To do so, we extend the concept of quadruple articulation by deconstructing and operationalizing the four articulations (i.e. content, platform, object and context) as a taxonomy to study media use. We introduce the notion of ‘individual media use moments’, which we define as discrete, situated instances of media engagement shaped by content, platform, object, and context. This taxonomy complements media repertoires or ensembles approaches, as the different media use moments serve as the building blocks for media repertoires (i.e. the sum of people's frequently occurring media use moments). Although the taxonomy is rooted in digital media environments, its articulations can be extended to analogue media use when applied thoughtfully.
{"title":"Extending the quadruple articulation framework to study media use moments: Deconstructing content, platform, device and context","authors":"Kristin Van Damme, Tom Evens","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102058","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102058","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digitisation has not only impacted how media are created and distributed, but also how they are consumed. Consequently, media use has become an elusive concept. This challenges researchers, media organisations, and the audience measurement industry to conceptualize what it means to ‘use media’. The primary objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive taxonomy for delineating the various articulations that constitute media use. To do so, we extend the concept of quadruple articulation by deconstructing and operationalizing the four articulations (i.e. content, platform, object and context) as a taxonomy to study media use. We introduce the notion of ‘individual media use moments’, which we define as discrete, situated instances of media engagement shaped by content, platform, object, and context. This taxonomy complements media repertoires or ensembles approaches, as the different media use moments serve as the building blocks for media repertoires (i.e. the sum of people's frequently occurring media use moments). Although the taxonomy is rooted in digital media environments, its articulations can be extended to analogue media use when applied thoughtfully.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102058"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145325262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-08DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102055
Adrian Leguina , Anna Zsubori , Carlos Poblete-Lagos
Issues around diversity in the arts have been widely examined, revealing significant inequalities in public funding and the concentration of resources. However, studies on cultural production logics and their impact on programming diversity are limited. This paper uses Bourdieusian field analysis to provide an organisational overview of cultural production, examining how the distribution of key economic, material, and symbolic resources within cultural organisations shapes the diversity of their programming. Using survey data from publicly funded Arts Council England's (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs), we construct a field of NPO cultural production. Through multiple correspondence analysis, we investigate two key questions: (1) How are NPOs distributed in terms of resources, disciplines, and their organisational structure within the field of NPO production? (2) How strong is the association, or homology, between positions in the field of NPO cultural production and the programming of activities for diverse audiences? The resulting field is primarily shaped by economic resilience and precarity, as well as by disciplinary and organisational differences. Our analysis reveals that larger, more economically resilient organisations show a lower commitment to diversity, while these efforts are concentrated among smaller and less resilient organisations. Despite strategic calls for diversity from funding bodies, the diversity of cultural offerings is predominantly structured around economic principles. Except for programming oriented to LGBTQ+, small organisations appear to bear a heavier burden than legacy institutions in catering to groups traditionally excluded and underrepresented in the arts.
{"title":"Power, precarity and diversity in the field of publicly funded arts and culture: An analysis of Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations","authors":"Adrian Leguina , Anna Zsubori , Carlos Poblete-Lagos","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102055","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102055","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Issues around diversity in the arts have been widely examined, revealing significant inequalities in public funding and the concentration of resources. However, studies on cultural production logics and their impact on programming diversity are limited. This paper uses Bourdieusian field analysis to provide an organisational overview of cultural production, examining how the distribution of key economic, material, and symbolic resources within cultural organisations shapes the diversity of their programming. Using survey data from publicly funded Arts Council England's (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs), we construct a field of NPO cultural production. Through multiple correspondence analysis, we investigate two key questions: (1) How are NPOs distributed in terms of resources, disciplines, and their organisational structure within the field of NPO production? (2) How strong is the association, or homology, between positions in the field of NPO cultural production and the programming of activities for diverse audiences? The resulting field is primarily shaped by economic resilience and precarity, as well as by disciplinary and organisational differences. Our analysis reveals that larger, more economically resilient organisations show a lower commitment to diversity, while these efforts are concentrated among smaller and less resilient organisations. Despite strategic calls for diversity from funding bodies, the diversity of cultural offerings is predominantly structured around economic principles. Except for programming oriented to LGBTQ+, small organisations appear to bear a heavier burden than legacy institutions in catering to groups traditionally excluded and underrepresented in the arts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102055"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145267841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-03DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102042
Luuc Brans
The climate crisis compels governments to adopt sustainability policies for cultural fields with substantial ecological footprints. While it is tempting to consider this as mere market regulation, this article approaches sustainability policies as an opportunity to study political intervention in the symbolic production of culture – correcting a bias in the literature on cultural production to focus on markets over states. Taking the strategic case of fashion, this article asks how UN, EU, and Dutch sustainable fashion policies impact discourses of cultural legitimacy and the structure of the cultural field. Combining field theory with a constructionist policy approach, this article analyses 927 pages of UN, EU and Dutch policy, 7 hours of UN and EU policy meetings, and 74 Instagram posts from an EU sustainable fashion campaign. This analysis demonstrates that political intervention reproduces and restructures symbolic hierarchies in the cultural field. Political actors predominantly target commercial fast fashion, leaving high fashion untouched. Instead, they stimulate a competing discourse of legitimacy based on materiality, and recruit allies in the field to implement this discourse. Based on this analysis, I argue that green political intervention opens a third front in the cultural field, next to the autonomous aesthetic and heteronomous economic poles. Political intervention in culture through sustainability policy thus shifts cultural fields from a dual economy of art vs money to a triple economy that includes sustainability politics too. This suggests the need to reformulate or even entirely reconsider field theory for the study of culture in times of climate crisis.
{"title":"Making fast fashion past fashion? How UN, EU, and Dutch green political intervention shift a cultural field","authors":"Luuc Brans","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102042","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102042","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The climate crisis compels governments to adopt sustainability policies for cultural fields with substantial ecological footprints. While it is tempting to consider this as mere market regulation, this article approaches sustainability policies as an opportunity to study political intervention in the symbolic production of culture – correcting a bias in the literature on cultural production to focus on markets over states. Taking the strategic case of fashion, this article asks how UN, EU, and Dutch sustainable fashion policies impact discourses of cultural legitimacy and the structure of the cultural field. Combining field theory with a constructionist policy approach, this article analyses 927 pages of UN, EU and Dutch policy, 7 hours of UN and EU policy meetings, and 74 Instagram posts from an EU sustainable fashion campaign. This analysis demonstrates that political intervention reproduces and restructures symbolic hierarchies in the cultural field. Political actors predominantly target commercial fast fashion, leaving high fashion untouched. Instead, they stimulate a competing discourse of legitimacy based on materiality, and recruit allies in the field to implement this discourse. Based on this analysis, I argue that green political intervention opens a third front in the cultural field, next to the autonomous aesthetic and heteronomous economic poles. Political intervention in culture through sustainability policy thus shifts cultural fields from a dual economy of art vs money to a triple economy that includes sustainability politics too. This suggests the need to reformulate or even entirely reconsider field theory for the study of culture in times of climate crisis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102042"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144933689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-12DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102060
Dustin S. Stoltz
Social classes are, in part, the intersection of economic and intimate relations. Just as groups and individuals form a duality, social classes and marriages form a duality to the extent marriages are homogamous along class-relevant dimensions; yet analyzing homogamy through the lens of duality is largely under-exploited. Using network, geometric, and text-analytic methods, I explore the intersection of individuals and groups through the social sinews of elite marriage as represented in nearly 14,000 New York Times wedding announcements over fifty years. In particular, I find that homogamy at the level of educational organizations and surnames has increased in the last few decades among this group of elites, while homogamy by occupational organizations and titles has decreased. The technique outlined here allows us to explore fine-grained similarities, moving beyond measuring identical matches or assuming affiliations are independent, to arrive at the latent social structures that emerge from the “homogamy space” created by the dualities of marriage.
{"title":"The duality of class and love","authors":"Dustin S. Stoltz","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102060","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102060","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social classes are, in part, the intersection of economic and intimate relations. Just as groups and individuals form a duality, social classes and marriages form a duality to the extent marriages are homogamous along class-relevant dimensions; yet analyzing homogamy through the lens of duality is largely under-exploited. Using network, geometric, and text-analytic methods, I explore the intersection of individuals and groups through the social sinews of elite marriage as represented in nearly 14,000 <em>New York Times</em> wedding announcements over fifty years. In particular, I find that homogamy at the level of educational organizations and surnames has increased in the last few decades among this group of elites, while homogamy by occupational organizations and titles has decreased. The technique outlined here allows us to explore fine-grained similarities, moving beyond measuring identical matches or assuming affiliations are independent, to arrive at the latent social structures that emerge from the “homogamy space” created by the dualities of marriage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102060"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145509942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-27DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102061
Jessica E. Black
The purpose of this study was to extend the research on the potential of written fiction to decrease prejudice and improve attitudes towards outgroups in real life. Specifically, we wanted to determine whether reading fiction about refugees could change attitudes towards immigrants and beliefs about immigration policy, and, if so, whether the setting of the fictional world mattered. As such, in fall 2019, participants who had previously completed a pre-test were randomly assigned to read about a refugee from Nazi Germany, a refugee from Syria, or to a control group that completed the outcome measures first. Results indicate that reading fiction about refugees can improve attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policy. We also wanted to explore how pre-existing individual differences predisposed readers to engage with stories and thus influence potential benefits from reading. As such, we tested a series of structural equation models that included trait empathy and narrative transportation. Empathy plays an important role in facilitating transportation, which in turn predicts attitude improvement. Pre-registration and materials are available at https://bit.ly/ReadingaboutRefugees, data at https://osf.io/rz58t and https://osf.io/7wqnr.
{"title":"Reading fiction about refugee children: Contact via narrative engagement improves attitudes towards immigration","authors":"Jessica E. Black","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102061","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102061","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this study was to extend the research on the potential of written fiction to decrease prejudice and improve attitudes towards outgroups in real life. Specifically, we wanted to determine whether reading fiction about refugees could change attitudes towards immigrants and beliefs about immigration policy, and, if so, whether the setting of the fictional world mattered. As such, in fall 2019, participants who had previously completed a pre-test were randomly assigned to read about a refugee from Nazi Germany, a refugee from Syria, or to a control group that completed the outcome measures first. Results indicate that reading fiction about refugees can improve attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policy. We also wanted to explore how pre-existing individual differences predisposed readers to engage with stories and thus influence potential benefits from reading. As such, we tested a series of structural equation models that included trait empathy and narrative transportation. Empathy plays an important role in facilitating transportation, which in turn predicts attitude improvement. Pre-registration and materials are available at <span><span>https://bit.ly/ReadingaboutRefugees</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>, data at <span><span>https://osf.io/rz58t</span><svg><path></path></svg></span> and <span><span>https://osf.io/7wqnr</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102061"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145611685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102063
Henrik Fürst , Murathan Kurfalı
Book reviews are instrumental in assessing the public value of literary works. However, the path to literary recognition, considering the factors influencing why certain books are reviewed, earn acclaim, or face criticism, remains unclear. Amid ongoing discussions around the “crisis of criticism,” the study scrutinizes this discourse and employs two regression analyses to examine the occurrence and sentiment of reviews for 9814 fiction books originally in Swedish and 8340 reviews from major Swedish newspapers (2001–2018). The sentiment of book reviews is determined through a novel approach with an automated pipeline incorporating state-of-the-art natural language processing models. The article reveals enduring institutional, cultural, and demographic hierarchies that shape literary recognition through the occurrence of reviews. Key factors include literary prestige and author youth, alongside ties to elite literary networks, publication by major houses, and focus on literary fiction or poetry. Conversely, older authors with numerous books, bestsellers, or a focus on children’s literature exhibit reduced review probabilities. While review occurrence is highly predictable, sentiment proves less so. Moreover, reviews generally express positivity despite frequent reviewer discord. Our findings suggest that books are selected for review based on external factors such as reputation and credentials, thereby reflecting persistent patterns of cultural consecration. This resonates with the idea of a “conservative revolution”, where established hierarchies maintain their influence, rather than indicating a “crisis in criticism”. Nevertheless, the unpredictability of review sentiment and the lack of consistent consensus on quality underscore a deeper evaluative uncertainty that transcends the more stable hierarchies governing review selection.
{"title":"Behind the book reviews: Enduring hierarchies of occurrence and unpredictable sentiments","authors":"Henrik Fürst , Murathan Kurfalı","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102063","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102063","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Book reviews are instrumental in assessing the public value of literary works. However, the path to literary recognition, considering the factors influencing why certain books are reviewed, earn acclaim, or face criticism, remains unclear. Amid ongoing discussions around the “crisis of criticism,” the study scrutinizes this discourse and employs two regression analyses to examine the occurrence and sentiment of reviews for 9814 fiction books originally in Swedish and 8340 reviews from major Swedish newspapers (2001–2018). The sentiment of book reviews is determined through a novel approach with an automated pipeline incorporating state-of-the-art natural language processing models. The article reveals enduring institutional, cultural, and demographic hierarchies that shape literary recognition through the occurrence of reviews. Key factors include literary prestige and author youth, alongside ties to elite literary networks, publication by major houses, and focus on literary fiction or poetry. Conversely, older authors with numerous books, bestsellers, or a focus on children’s literature exhibit reduced review probabilities. While review occurrence is highly predictable, sentiment proves less so. Moreover, reviews generally express positivity despite frequent reviewer discord. Our findings suggest that books are selected for review based on external factors such as reputation and credentials, thereby reflecting persistent patterns of cultural consecration. This resonates with the idea of a “conservative revolution”, where established hierarchies maintain their influence, rather than indicating a “crisis in criticism”. Nevertheless, the unpredictability of review sentiment and the lack of consistent consensus on quality underscore a deeper evaluative uncertainty that transcends the more stable hierarchies governing review selection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102063"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145583780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-10DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102056
Federico Brandmayr
Social scientists increasingly rely on ethnographic methods to study political groups. To a greater extent than other researchers, political ethnographers grapple with dilemmas about maintaining appropriate distance from their subjects. Being too close can turn an ethnographer into an uncritical advocate, but being too far comes with the risk of reinforcing stereotypes and overlooking the complexity of their subjects. When they make decisions about research design, fieldwork, and writing, ethnographers consider the expectations their peers have about the correct distance to establish with informants, which are learned in training and informal interaction. This distance, however, is not the same for all types of informants. Informants perceived by the prevailing assumptions of the knowledge community as morally polluted, such as right-wing activists, require a greater distance than subjects that are morally pure or neutral. The article analyzes how political ethnographers use a variety of “distancing devices” to manage how readers perceive the distance they establish with their informants and preempt political and ethical challenges to their work. It does so by drawing on a content analysis of 82 ethnographic articles about left-wing and right-wing groups published since 1998. Overall, the results confirm the existence of profound asymmetries in how distance is constructed between the two types of informants.
{"title":"The left and the right in the ethnographic imagination","authors":"Federico Brandmayr","doi":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102056","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102056","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social scientists increasingly rely on ethnographic methods to study political groups. To a greater extent than other researchers, political ethnographers grapple with dilemmas about maintaining appropriate distance from their subjects. Being too close can turn an ethnographer into an uncritical advocate, but being too far comes with the risk of reinforcing stereotypes and overlooking the complexity of their subjects. When they make decisions about research design, fieldwork, and writing, ethnographers consider the expectations their peers have about the correct distance to establish with informants, which are learned in training and informal interaction. This distance, however, is not the same for all types of informants. Informants perceived by the prevailing assumptions of the knowledge community as morally polluted, such as right-wing activists, require a greater distance than subjects that are morally pure or neutral. The article analyzes how political ethnographers use a variety of “distancing devices” to manage how readers perceive the distance they establish with their informants and preempt political and ethical challenges to their work. It does so by drawing on a content analysis of 82 ethnographic articles about left-wing and right-wing groups published since 1998. Overall, the results confirm the existence of profound asymmetries in how distance is constructed between the two types of informants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47900,"journal":{"name":"Poetics","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 102056"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145267206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-08-06DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102024
Jina Lee
This study identifies the mechanisms through which gender inequality persists in literary canonization. Using a mixed-method analysis of 267 elite Korean novelists, I examine how contemporary recognition translates into long-term canonical status and find systematic disadvantages for women in this critical transition. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that while gender alone does not affect anthology inclusion when controlling for other factors, receiving professional reviews increase men’s probability of canonization significantly more than women’s, showing reward-dualism where equivalent achievements yield unequal outcomes. Qualitative analysis uncovers gendered devaluation in critical discourse: Korean literary traditions developed evaluative repertoires where both men’s and women’s autobiographical writing receives recognition for its authenticity, contradicting Western cases where authenticity is predominantly associated with women. This pattern emerged from Korea’s colonial history, which legitimized the use of personal narratives in literary writing as a means of restoring ethnic identity. However, literary scholars systematically elevate men’s contributions to universality and historical significance while confining women’s works within gender-specific categories. This demonstrates that apparent gender parity in evaluative repertoires can mask persistent inequality operating through different pathways. By documenting these culturally adapted mechanisms, this research challenges Western-centric assumptions about how gender hierarchies are maintained in artistic evaluation and contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of how gender shapes long-term artistic recognition across different cultural contexts.
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