Publications by Eduardo de la Fuente
Symbolic Interaction, 2021
In this article, we synthesize Goffman's microsociology with recent developments in fields such a... more In this article, we synthesize Goffman's microsociology with recent developments in fields such as aesthetics, geography, and urban studies labeled "atmosphere theory." Our central rationale is if microsociol-ogy is to deepen its account of embodiment and the noncognitive it needs a theory of spatialized moods. In the second half, we develop our synthesis with respect to musical atmospheres and conclude by drawing on our own research regarding how social actors use music to shape "involvements" and "disinvolvements" in the spatial ambiances of public transportation, the street, the workplace, and the home.
Regional Cultures, Economies and Creativity: Innovating through Place in Australia and Beyond, 2020
The city-regional binary that underpins many academic, policy and media discourses elides the com... more The city-regional binary that underpins many academic, policy and media discourses elides the complexity of creative work and industries in the regions. As Bell and Jayne (2010: 209) point out, the last decade or two have seen the “fostering, celebrating, maintaining and measuring of ‘The Creative City’ across a range of policy and academic publication[s], conferences and workshops”, an agenda designed to “achieve post-industrial growth and cultural vitality” in cities and regions “throughout Europe, Australia, Canada, Singapore, the USA, New Zealand, and more recently in Africa, China and Latin America”. But, as leading scholars in the application of concepts of the “creative economy” to “small cities” (Bell and Jayne 2006) and the “countryside” (Bell and Jayne 2010: 209), Bell and Jayne are also all too aware that these “academic research and policy intervention” have predominantly tended to focus on large metropolitan centres and/or urban forms with certain generic conditions (for e.g., a capacity for 'clustering' of IT firms). In this introduction, we show that research in Australia has led to the way in suggesting important counter-narratives and also in paying qreater attention to the qualities and 'textures' of non-metropolitan places. We use the work of the Wollongong 'school of cultural geography' and of scolars of remote, regional and rural cultural work, such as Sue Luckman, to suggest meaningful ways of discussing the affordances of place. We also discuss how the case studies in this book, which range from 'New World' wines to regional screen production, sculpture festivals set in coastal locations through to Fab Labs in small regional towns, are tapping into some of the local symbolic and material resources present in places; and, in the process, forging new ways of doing creativity in non-metropolitan contexts.
Regional Cultures, Economies and Creativity: Innovating Through Place in Australia and Beyond, 2020
This chapter explores the cultural economies of landscape associated with the Blue Mountains, New... more This chapter explores the cultural economies of landscape associated with the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, and – following Wylie – suggests landscape-as-tension is central to the cultural, tourism and economic practices surrounding the landscape in question. The type of tension Wylie identifies is that between landscape as something to be “looked at” versus something to “immerse oneself in”; or what recent geographical and landscape theory have termed the representational and nonrepresentational modes of engaging with landscape. The argument is developed that, in the case of “the Mountains” (as Sydneysiders call them), the practices of landscape-as-representation have underpinned a cultural economy aligned with what Urry (1990) termed the “tourist gaze” and its visual emphasis on lookouts, photography, souvenirs and visual artefacts. Landscape-as-nonrepresentation, on the other hand, has tended to revolve around practices such as walking in the forests and canyons, and activities that “elevate the senses”. More recently, the nonrepresentational economy has also given rise to micro-entrepreneurs who create gastronomic and other “lifestyle” goods based on perceived local qualities (e.g. craft beer). However, the Blue Mountains has also recently spawned community and grassroot activities such as foraging and the creation of “edible gardens”, both of which problematise and enlarge what creativity and growing/making “things”’ means in the context of landscape.
Sociological Review, 2019
This article proposes the social sciences consider texture-rather than text − as the important le... more This article proposes the social sciences consider texture-rather than text − as the important legacy of the 'cultural turn' in the social sciences. The article considers texture in the literal sense of surface-patterns, as well as texture as a metaphor for the 'dynamic' and hard-to-capture qualities of social life. The article draws on the philosopher Stephen C. Pepper and the anthropologist Tim Ingold, the 'practice turn' in organizational studies and recent developments in geography and cultural research to map out different textural frameworks. While sociologists have lagged behind their counterparts in other fields in embracing a textural sensibility, the article considers the writings of Georg Simmel and the Yale School of Cultural Sociology as prominent exceptions to that rule. The article concludes by encouraging sociologists to consider the textural as a way into a 'theoretical'-as against a purely 'methodological' conception-of the qualitative.
Housing, Theory and Society, 2019
Drawing upon Goffman’s notion of the interaction order we propose
that home and homeliness pertai... more Drawing upon Goffman’s notion of the interaction order we propose
that home and homeliness pertain to the degree to which we
can control our auditory involvements with the world and with
others. What we term “homely listening” concerns the use of
music to make oneself feel at home, in some cases, through seclusion
and immersion, and, in others, through either the musical
ordering of mundane routines or the use of music to engage in
sociality with others. Drawing on 29 in-depth qualitative interviews
concerning mundane instances of musical listening, we propose
the home is a complex sonic order involving territoriality as well as
the aesthetic framing of activity through musical and non-musical
sounds. We argue the home represents a negotiated sonic interaction
order where individuals skilfully manage involvements with
others and activities through their musical and other sound
practices.
AXON: Creative Explorations, 2019
There is growing recognition in the social sciences that place and its qualities should be though... more There is growing recognition in the social sciences that place and its qualities should be thought of as 'an actor in cultural work' (Luckman). However, getting mainstream academic thought, urban renewal consultants or cultural planners to take the qualities of place seriously has proven more difficult. This article outlines an emerging view within landscape theory that rather than seeing landscape as some inert or fixed object, sees it as a dynamic process or mode of 'dwelling' (Tim Ingold). Drawing on the case of the Blue Mountains region in NSW, the second part of the article attempts to flesh out what the nonrepresentational sensibility might mean for rethinking creativity, economy and place; and why such a perspective might be all the more important, in the case of landscapes where there is a history of relying on tourism and the 'visual gaze'.
One of the recurring dilemmas in the sociology of art has been how to balance "internalist" and "... more One of the recurring dilemmas in the sociology of art has been how to balance "internalist" and "externa-list" accounts of aesthetic phenomena (i.e., aesthetic and social explanations); or, what this paper terms the necessity of moving from an either-or model of art and society to adopting a both-and logic. In the last few years, the conceptual dilemmas have been further heightened by developments such as capitalism becoming more explicitly cultural; and knowledges about art and aesthetics moving from the realm of the 'grand' and the high cultural to the more prosaic and the everyday. This paper proposes that a solution to the ongoing dilemmas of the sociology of art, and the current challenge of the proliferation of arts/aesthetics-knowledge bases, is to adopt a textural rather than textual mode of thinking. The textural paradigm was first developed in thinking about place and is well-suited to thinking through problems in the sociology of architecture and urbanism-including the problem of how the urban fabric, at times, starts to unravel; or why some unlikely architectural styles stage comebacks (e.g., postwar Brutalism).
Caderno CRH, 2019
Um dos dilemas recorrentes na sociologia da arte tem sido como balancear abordagens internalistas... more Um dos dilemas recorrentes na sociologia da arte tem sido como balancear abordagens internalistas e ex-ternalistas dos fenômenos estéticos (isto é, explicações estéticas e sociais); ou o que este artigo caracteriza como a necessidade de sair de um modelo "ou arte ou sociedade" para um modelo de lógica "tanto arte quanto sociedade". Nos últimos anos, os dilemas conceituais foram intensificados por uma tendência de o capitalismo se tornar um fenômeno mais explicitamente cultural. Ao mesmo tempo, os conhecimentos sobre arte e estética saíram da esfera da grandiosidade e da alta cultura para o mundo prosaico do dia a dia. Este artigo propõe que a solução para os dilemas em curso da sociologia da arte, e para o atual desafio das bases da arte e do conhecimento estético é adotar um paradigma textural, ao invés de um modo de pensar textual. O paradigma textural foi desenvolvido primeiramente no pensamento sobre lugar e é adequado para pensar os problemas da sociologia da arquitetura e do urbanismo-incluindo o problema de como o tecido urbano, às vezes, começa a desemaranhar; ou porque alguns estilos arquitetônicos improváveis voltam à moda (como, por exemplo, o brutalismo pós-guerra). Palavras-chave: Texturas. Sociologia da arte. Ingold. Lefebvre. Arquitetura e Urbanismo. Tanto...quanto, ao invés de ou...ou. Em teoria, parece suficientemente fácil; na prática, provou ser elusivo. Apesar das várias inovações teóricas e metodológicas, apesar das melhores intenções, a sociologia da arte tem enfrentado desafios para superar completamente questões de relevância, reducionismo e respeitabilidade. Todo anúncio de um novo amanhecer parece encontrar-se com um sentimento de promes-sa não cumprida. Portanto, em Reagregando o Social-uma introdução à teoria do Ator-Rede, Bruno Latour (2012) sente a necessidade de apresentar a subdisciplina em questão como a própria síntese do que está errado com abor-dagens sociológicas do social: "Afora a religião, nenhum outro domínio foi mais achincalhado pela sociologia crítica do que a sociologia da arte" (Latour, 2012, p. 337). Ele acrescenta que qualquer que seja o fenômeno sob investigação "esculturas, quadros, pratos de haute cuisine, músicas eletrônicas [ou um] romance" o risco é o objeto ou a experiência serem "explicados à saciedade pelos fatores sociais 'ocultos por trás' deles" (Latour, 2012, p. 337). Latour (2012, p. 338, grifo do autor) afirma que a figura do sociólogo da arte incorpora todas as contradi-ções e insuficiências do cientista social como um observador imparcial-isto é, alguém que anseia por objetividade, mas, ao fazê-lo, falha quando se trata de ouvir o que as pessoas es-tão realmente dizendo, enquanto elas explicam "demoradamente como e por qual motivo fi-cam atraídas, comovidas e afetadas pelas obras de arte que as 'fazem' sentir coisas". Eu gostaria de esclarecer que, ao levar em conta que os sociólogos da arte não pres-tam atenção suficiente ao modo como os atores estão "atraídos, comovidos, afetados", o decano das abordagens pós-humanistas à ciência e ao social não está propondo que a resposta esteja em restaurar alguma concepção essencialista das propriedades das obras de arte. Este seria um passo atrás. Latour (2012, p. 338) comen-ta que, "algumas delas [pessoas]-enfurecidas pela irreverência bárbara das 'explicações so-ciais'-se apresentam para defender a 'santida
Julie Etmonspool and Ian Woodward (eds.) Cosmopolitanism, Markets, and Consumption: A Critical Global Perspective,, London: Palgrave-Macmillan., 2018
In this chapter, I extend arguments regarding ‘actually existing cosmopolitanism’ by considering ... more In this chapter, I extend arguments regarding ‘actually existing cosmopolitanism’ by considering the skins, textures, and surface qualities of the cosmopolitan and noncosmopolitan built environment. I contend that cosmopolitan surfaces don’t need to be—as is often the case—shiny, glossy, urbane, glamorous, or expensive-looking. While there is clearly a global architecture of lightweight transparent materials, liquid designs, and ‘starchitect’ designers, there is also a global cosmoscape of Brutalist social housing, Soviet-era public buildings, concrete freeways and parking lots, and buildings that look old well before their time. I proposea material such as concrete embodies the contradictions and paradoxes of globality writ large; and its surface-qualities—including its infamous tendency to stain, deteriorate, and otherwise show the signs of climate and context—ask us to ponder: What if real cosmopolitanism involves the capacity to embrace the world with all its apparent material and aesthetic shortcomings? Following Nietzsche’s Gay Science, I conclude the world’s surfaces are where we encounter life, power, growth, and decay, as well as where we confront the need to engage and more fully appreciate the ‘other’.
La nueva sociologia de la artes, 2017
Thomas Kemple and Olli Pyyhtinen (Eds.) The Anthem Companion to Georg Simmel, 2016
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Sociology, 2016
Randy Martin (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Art and Politics, 2015
The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have remarked that the test of a 'fi rst-rate intelli... more The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have remarked that the test of a 'fi rst-rate intelligence' is the 'ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind and still retain the ability to function' (cited in Sullivan, 2010: backcover). It is striking how often discussions of'art' and 'society' have produced the opposite effect: namely, an inability to think about the aesthetic and the social simultaneously.
Aesthetic Capitalism, 2014
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 2014
"This paper argues that an explanation of the role of aesthetic patterning in human" "action need... more "This paper argues that an explanation of the role of aesthetic patterning in human" "action needs to be part of any “qualitative” social theory. It urges the social sciences to move beyond contextualism and to see art as visual, acoustic and other media that lead to heightened sensory perception and the coordination of feelings through symbols. The article surveys the argument that art provides a basic model of how the self learns to interact with external environments; and the complementary thesis that art could be seen as integral to the emergence of systems of human knowledge, communication and economy. Ornamentation and stylization are advanced as two concrete devices through which human attention is captured and experience is ordered through aesthetic patterns. The conclusion is drawn that art offers the social sciences a meaningful account of the perceptual or “qualitative” dimensions of social interactions; and that this is much needed today."
Transvisuality: The Cultural Dimension of Visuality – Volume 1: Boundaries and Creative Openings
Continuum: Journal of media and cultural studies
Colloquy: Theory, Text, Critique, no 21: 113 - 129, 2011
In her recent book The Warhol Economy, Elizabeth Currid proposes that -cultural economies operate... more In her recent book The Warhol Economy, Elizabeth Currid proposes that -cultural economies operate differently from other industries‖ such as -finance, law and manufacturing‖ which tend towards a -formal, rigid‖ set of institutional arrangements. 1 While an agglomeration of firms and labour pools can be an asset in any industry, in the case of artistic and other types of cultural production, spatial proximity and face-to-face social interaction become the -decisive mechanism[s] by which cultural products and cultural producers are generated, evaluated and sent to the market.‖ 2 We see this, argues Currid, from the very different kinds of geographies occupied by creative-as against traditional-industries:
Thesis Eleven, 2010
The sociology of art has experienced a significant revival during the last three decades. However... more The sociology of art has experienced a significant revival during the last three decades. However, in the first instance, this renewed interest was dominated by the 'production of culture' perspective and was heavily focused on contextual factors such as the social organization of artistic markets and careers, and displays of 'cultural capital' through consumption of the arts. In this article, I outline a new mode of approaching art sociologically that begins with Alfred Gell's (1998) Art and Agency, but comes to full fruition in what I am calling the 'new sociology of art'. A major theoretical statement that captures many of the aspirations of the new approach is Jeffrey Alexander's essay: 'Iconic Consciousness: The Material Feeling of Meaning'. It is suggested that the new sociology of art has much in common with material culture studies, and that a more robust concept of the artwork's agency is needed now that art has well and truly taken on a social and cultural life well beyond those institutions traditionally understood as the 'art world'.
Education in the Creative Economy: Knowledge and Learning in the Age of Innovation, 2010
In my hometown of Melbourne, Australia, the closing date for Liquid Desire, an exhibition of art ... more In my hometown of Melbourne, Australia, the closing date for Liquid Desire, an exhibition of art works by the surrealist Salvador Dali, looms. The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), the premier art institution of the city, has decided to stay open all night to celebrate the final day of the exhibition. The NGV is plan ning to offer visitors food, drink, musical entertainment, and roving performers. The event will mark the NGV ' s entry into Melbourne's "night-time economy" with spillover effects for local restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and other venues usually open late. In a city where the creative edge is more often than not associated with grit ty laneways, urban graffiti, hard to find bars and venues that simulate Weimar-era cabarets, the all-night opening of the NGV to end the Dali "blockbuster" exhibi tion taps into Melbourne's bohemian self-consciousness. It is a marketing strate gy that echoes the rhetoric of the city's "Fringe Festival"-a piece of publicity des igned to attract younger audiences, who usually bypass the NGV for the city's e dgier art spaces. So what kind of capitalism are we living through when staid, bourgeois art museums like the NGY, decide to rebrand themselves through association with bo hemia and its nocturnal habits? "Aesthetic capitalism," the "experience econo my," and the "creative city"-all these terms have been used to describe the pat t ern s of social life associated with an increased role for culture, art, and aesthetic
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Publications by Eduardo de la Fuente
that home and homeliness pertain to the degree to which we
can control our auditory involvements with the world and with
others. What we term “homely listening” concerns the use of
music to make oneself feel at home, in some cases, through seclusion
and immersion, and, in others, through either the musical
ordering of mundane routines or the use of music to engage in
sociality with others. Drawing on 29 in-depth qualitative interviews
concerning mundane instances of musical listening, we propose
the home is a complex sonic order involving territoriality as well as
the aesthetic framing of activity through musical and non-musical
sounds. We argue the home represents a negotiated sonic interaction
order where individuals skilfully manage involvements with
others and activities through their musical and other sound
practices.
that home and homeliness pertain to the degree to which we
can control our auditory involvements with the world and with
others. What we term “homely listening” concerns the use of
music to make oneself feel at home, in some cases, through seclusion
and immersion, and, in others, through either the musical
ordering of mundane routines or the use of music to engage in
sociality with others. Drawing on 29 in-depth qualitative interviews
concerning mundane instances of musical listening, we propose
the home is a complex sonic order involving territoriality as well as
the aesthetic framing of activity through musical and non-musical
sounds. We argue the home represents a negotiated sonic interaction
order where individuals skilfully manage involvements with
others and activities through their musical and other sound
practices.