Poetics最新文献

Recent work in the sociology of taste has begun to grapple with the relational properties of traditional survey-based data using techniques inspired by network analysis. Despite productive results from this endeavor, critics rightly question the face and ecological validity of the vague macrogenre labels included in standard arts participation surveys (e.g., Classical, Rock, Rap) which feed into these novel methods. In this paper, I propose a link-clustering approach for discovering focused microgenres from standard survey-based information on cultural tastes, exploiting the underlying relational patterns realized by the indirect connectivity structure of genres (via people) in a two-mode network. The link-clustering approach partially answers two of the challenges of macrogenre critics: The fact that actual genres are overlapping and not crisply bounded and that there is hidden heterogeneity within the broad labels we usually focus on. To showcase the fruitfulness of the proposed approach, I engage in two “case studies” featuring the vague macro genres of “Heavy Metal” and “Latin/Salsa” music and show the focused microgenres produced by the link clustering procedure are segmented in ways that help resolve puzzles that have emerged in previous work.

This study investigates the use of coagents in the book industry. To reach international markets, domestic publishers typically license a title’s rights to third-party international publishers, a practice known as 'selling rights’. Rights sellers can either choose to work directly in a local market or with intermediaries known as coagents. Using a data set of over 2000 international rights sales for Australian-authored titles of a major publisher, we examine whether employing the services of a coagent leads to superior outcomes as measured by the size of the advance. We find a positive relationship between the use of coagents and the size of the advance. This result is robust to a variety of contract lengths and international market conventions. The evidence suggests that, on average, coagents help secure better outcomes for authors and domestic publishers. More broadly, our study suggests that international intermediaries may play an important role in the export of cultural goods.

This paper explores the collaborative networks of Yacht Rock, a genre of music that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is currently experiencing a resurgence of popularity in the United States and beyond. In addition to using formal social network analysis to explore the development and transformation of Yacht Rock's collaborative musical network through time, we identify its most influential artists and musicians and highlight the most pivotal songs of the era – adding context with historical and archival approaches. The results indicate that a core group of studio musicians based in Los Angeles played an essential role in helping develop Yacht Rock. This reservoir of musical talent and the supporting "hard" infrastructure (e.g., recording studios, music labels) in Los Angeles helped bring Yacht Rock to the masses. However, much of this movement's success has roots in the "soft" infrastructure of the region (e.g., management, industry connections) and the network effects of bands like Toto and Steely Dan.

How does families’ social networks influence the transmission of cultural capital to their children? Earlier research on this process has mainly focused on within-family mechanisms, and the role of social capital as conceptualized by Pierre Bourdieu has here received little attention. This article explores this question through a study of parents’ social ties and parents’ and children's cultural, leisurely, and athletic practices, using Geometric Data Analysis and regression analysis of data on children (N = 4754) and their parents in the city of Bergen, Norway. The analysis finds that parents with social ties to higher status occupations have children that are more often exposed to traditional legitimate forms of culture, also when other familial resources are controlled for. When ties composition is heterogeneous, composed of both working class and elite ties, elite ties shape cultural consumption. The study finds evidence of Bourdieu's multiplier hypothesis, that returns from other capitals is multiplied by social capital, also that high volumes of social capital can compensate somewhat for having no cultural capital. Within-family characteristics are key to understanding the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital, but significant support for this process may be found in parents’ social networks.

How are racial representations created? I compare two kinds of jazz album cover from the 1950s and 60s to show that the production of culture approach has untapped potential for answering that question. After demonstrating that photographic and modern art-based work constructed Blackness in different ways, I account for photography's domination of the sleeve by focusing on the structure and history of occupational careers. Compared to painters, I show, photographers had (a) easier entry into and harder exit out of cover design, and (b) earlier and more regular access to jazz musicians. Based on these findings, I call for a rethinking of the role of racial projects in racial formation; an elaboration of the production of culture approach; and the expansion of the scope of the interracial coalition concept.

To foster creativity through sociality, residences put artists together. At the same time, in their quest for originality, artists often opt for individualism. Little is known on how physical collocation in residences affects artistic sociality. Addressing this gap, we draw on a combination of interviews, observations, and surveys, analysed with an innovative mixture of abductive coding, computational space analysis, and statistical network modeling. This allows us to unveil how room sharing and object usage relate to friendships and collaborations between residents. Along with explicit individualism of artists, we spot plenty of social ties between them. And these ties are positively related to joint material embeddedness. Simultaneously, the two main types of residential zones – working studios and leisure areas – appear to encourage the types of social ties inverse to our expectations. Our findings inform the practice of artistic residence organising and the proposed approach enables explanatory analysis of the relation between material space and sociality in various settings.

This study investigates the motivations and practices of information professions using a digital platform, with a focus on expanding definitions of cultural authority. While prior research has explored models such as citizen science and engaged journalism, which propose changes in the relationships between information producers, consumers, and content, limited attention has been given to professionals' practices and motivations for adopting different models. To address this gap, I conducted 78 interviews with information professionals who write digital newsletters and analyzed their professional backgrounds and newsletter texts. Through this analysis, four dominant models of generating cultural authority emerged, which are linked to how professionals use digital platforms, as well as their goals for information production. Professionals generate cultural authority as (1) hierarchical expertise to produce knowledge as a public good; (2) accountability and transparency to contest dominant discourses; (3) intimacy and trust to exercise creativity; and (4) the incorporation of positionality and multiple perspectives to foster community. The findings challenge the prevailing notion that professionals' practices are primarily influenced by access to capital, instead highlighting the significance of motivations and the redefinition of roles and goals in content production. By illuminating the shifting meanings of expertise and professionalism on new media platforms, the study contributes to ongoing debates about truth, value, public trust, and the role of information professionals in public life.

This study explores university students’ engagement with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools for creative writing and graphic storytelling, drawing on Jacques Rancière's philosophy of intellectual equality and emancipation. Qualitative data analysis from a co-curricular creative writing programme, including reflections, surveys, and focus-group interviews, reveals emerging artificial intelligence literacies and students’ improvisational aptitudes for interpreting, subverting, and transforming notions of authorship. Students decentred authorial attribution through the pragmatic adoption of the technology as a creative catalyst, negotiated creative conventions by adopting non-conventional communication strategies, and reconceptualised creativity as distributed across human and non-human agents. Our approach of student-driven learning for autonomous exploration, sense-making, and criticality with GenAI indicates the potential for promoting conditions for students to exercise intellectual equality and emancipation. The findings contribute to the understanding of authorship and creativity; begin to contour emerging GenAI literacies and competencies; and suggest that creative collaborations with GenAI may be a promising way to foster emancipatory practices in the classroom, while nurturing creative and critical skills.

This content analytical study (N = four series, 59 characters, and 2411 scenes) investigates how success stories are portrayed in work-related television series (i.e., television series centered on the working environment) that are available in several countries, namely Suits, Grey's Anatomy, The Bold Type, and The Good Doctor. Based on the ideas of cultivation theory, this study explores how such television series define (professional) success and whether the accomplishments portrayed in them adhere to the malleability narrative (i.e., a narrative in which success is portrayed as achievable by everyone provided they work hard for it). By analyzing the main and secondary characters, this study explores which character traits are associated with (professional) success and examines the presence of references to personal accountability and perseverance.

The article has a double purpose. On the one hand, it contributes to theories of cultural legitimacy and classification. Based on data about consumers’ music evaluations, it shows that taste hierarchies are configured as nested and relational classificatory systems. Nested, because rank systems of symbolic value are collectively recognized, reproduced, and negotiated by consumers not only at the level of genres, but also at lower, nested levels – e.g., sub-genre, artist, single artwork; relational, because the value attributed to music by consumers is ordinarily assessed and constructed through analogies and comparisons, and partly depends on the classifier's relative position in the social space. On the other hand, this paper makes a key methodological contribution: by analyzing large amounts of YouTube data through computational methods and in combination with survey data, it illustrates how the granularity of digital traces can advance sociological research on cultural categories, meaning structures and symbolic imaginaries.