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The goal of this book is to give a comprehensive overview of the field of sociology of art. Part I looks at the relationship between art and society, based on metaphors of reflection (Chapter 2) and shaping (Chapter 3). As conceived by these approaches, this relationship can be represented metaphorically as a direct link, represented by a straight line, between a cultural object and society. These two approaches are intuitive ways to see the connection, and at varying levels of sophistication, they appear in professional research, in student research, and in journalistic accounts about art. Chapters 2 and 3 will show the benefits as well as the shortcomings of these ways of thinking. The final chapter in Part I (Chapter 4) outlines a more comprehensive and satisfactory view of the interplay between art and society, the cultural diamond (Griswold, 2013), also a metaphor, which adds three other points of interaction—production, distribution, and consumption—to the art‐society nexus.

Part II of the book covers approaches subsumed by the cultural diamond. The majority of research reported in the book is covered under this rubric. Part II is divided into two subsections, (A) production approaches and (B) consumption ones.

The research that makes up the production of culture approach, covered in Part IIA, focuses on the “left‐hand side” of the cultural diamond. Chapters look at how art is created, produced, and distributed, and examine the relationships among creators, distribution networks, artworks, and society. The main idea in the production of culture approach is that cultural objects are filtered through, and affected by, the people and systems that create and distribute them. Chapter 5 presents an overview, covering two influential scholars, Becker (2008) on art worlds and Bourdieu (1993) on fields of cultural production, as well as key critiques of the approach. Crane (1992) argues persuasively that, in place of the traditional division of high culture and popular culture, a better way to understand and categorize the current artscape is to look at how the arts reach the public, through for‐profit cultural industries, nonprofit organizations, or local networks. Accordingly, Chapter 6 discusses distribution by business firms and cultural industries, and Chapter 7 looks at distribution through nonprofit organizations or social networks. Artists occupy a privileged role in the arts, and Chapter 8 focuses on artists along with other creatives in cultural industries. The chapter examines labor markets, creative careers, and inequality in the arts, as well as the social construction of the artist’s role, artistic reputation, and genius.

The research that makes up the consumption of culture approach, covered in Part IIB of the book, focuses on the “right‐hand side” of the cultural diamond. Chapters look at how people consume, use, and receive art. The main idea is that audiences are the key to understanding art, because the meanings created from art and the ways art is used depend on its consumers, not its creators. Chapter 9 traces the roots of the consumption of culture approach, which are found in cultural studies and literary theory, explores the development of the approach, and covers key critiques. Chapter 10 turns to sites of consumption and the experiences people have when interacting with artworks. Chapter 11 explicates how social identity can influence cultural consumption choices and how individual, group, and national identities connect with art. Chapter 12 turns to social boundaries and art. In addition to looking at the social construction of artistic categories, it focuses on Bourdieu’s (1984) Distinction thesis, ideas about omnivorous cultural consumption, and debates about social class, cultural capital, and taste.

Part III points out limitations of the diamond metaphor and the related research presented in the preceding chapters. The cultural diamond is divided into two sides, production and consumption. While this is a convenient strategy for presenting the sociological literature on the arts and reflects a genuine division in the literature, studies that look at either the mechanisms of production or consumption obviously ignore the corresponding consumption or production, and moreover, often sideline the art itself. In other words, separating art from artists, production systems, consumers, and society makes sense analytically; however, it can obscure our understanding of both the art itself, and art in its social context. In fact, isolating art as a node in the diamond often renders it epiphenomenal. Chapter 13 brings us back to the art itself, focusing on approaches to meaning in works of art. In Chapter 14, the discussion moves from art and society, as was presented in Parts I and II, to art in society. Art is part of society and cannot be abstracted from it. The chapter looks at cutting edge approaches in sociology of the arts along with a historical appraisal of the aura of art and the social construction (and gendering) of artistic genius.

Part IV (Chapter 15) sums up the book and revisits the issue of multiple paradigms in the sociology of the arts. It presents my own metatheoretical stance—or you could say, my taste in metatheory—and, in essence, it sets out an “aesthetic” of sociological theorizing about art.

Each of the substantive chapters is accompanied by a case study which looks at one issue or research project in depth. The cases include discussion questions, designed to stimulate classroom discussion. Some of the questions ask you to apply material from the chapters or to critically evaluate the case, rather than merely looking to the case for their solution. In neither its presentation of cases nor of sociological approaches to art does this book provide “the answers.” Rather it aims to raise questions and then to give you enough information to think critically about different—often overlapping or conflicting—views.