Читать книгу Sociology of the Arts - Victoria D. Alexander - Страница 53

The debate over the shaping approach is often reduced to the question of whether or not art affects society. Shaping theorists, who may be placed on one extreme of this argument, subscribe (if implicitly) to an injection model of the relationship. It is easy to reject their ideas, as I have suggested above. On the other extreme are theorists who believe that art has no effect whatsoever on either individuals or society. To them, the popular arts are merely entertainment, and the audience comprised of competent people able to make up their own minds. Although it is true that people are capable, it is difficult to imagine that the arts really have no influence on people or society at all. After all, we live in an arts‐rich society where the fine and popular arts are important aspects of culture. Since people use ideas from culture to create “tool kits” for daily living (Swidler, 1986), it may make more sense to think of the question as “How much and in what ways does art influence individuals and groups in society?” Just as we have rejected a simple reflection model, but not the idea of a complex relationship between art and society, we cannot reject more nuanced perspectives on shaping, either.