1. LECTURE 7. CULTURAL NETWORKS

2. Sociology of culture Long tradition in sociology Various approaches: classic and contemporary Network approaches 3. What is culture? Norms: way in which people behave in a society Values: what people care about Beliefs: ways in which people believe the world works Symbols: collective representations of the first three 4. Various ways of thinking about culture Humanistic view: some cultural expressions are better than others; culture can be lost, thus should be preserved; culture is separated from everyday life, it is sacred and extraordinary (museums) High culture VS popular culture Anthropological concept of culture: way of life of a specific society Taylor 1871: culture or civility, in its ethnographic meaning, is a complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, ethics, rights, mores, and every competence and habit that a man posses by virtue of belonging to a society Culture as an everyday life activity; no better or worst culture; not separated from society but emergent/linked to it Very wide definition, needs operational specifications: what to study? Material VS non-material culture (concepts, ideas, etc.) Implicit VS explicit culture 5. Link culture/society Culture is the expressive side of human life: it is representative. By being representative, culture implies MEANINGS Cultural objects are meanings incorporated in a shape: significant expression which is audible, tangible, visible. A proverb, the belief that women are more sensible than men, a religious doctrine, a poem, a Mohican haircut can all be considered cultural objects 6. Marxism Culture reflects society (from Plato) Marx: it is the byproduct of class conflicts. Producers are alienated in industrialised world. Cultural objects become standardised, and lose the subjective meaning incorporated by craftsmen Frankfurt school: against mass production of culture, a dope for people. VS TV of the 50s: consumerism as another form of totalitarianism 7. Functionalism Culture reflects society Thus culture can be used to study society: congruence between social structure and cultural production Culture as a social institution that satisfy societal needs: culture represents collective values, beliefs, and habits which are functional to societys operativity. Individuals are passive carriers of culture When they do not adapt, they are disfunctional (not well socialised) 8. Weber Societys structure reflects culture Eg: capitalism (economic structure) emerged out of protestants ethic Eg: deistic order and Chinese society Deistic order Social Environment Gods Mandarins Ancestors Elderly Ghosts Foreigners 9. Durkehim Religion as collective representation, based on the distinction between sacred and profane. Anything can be considered sacred (cows, bread, totem), but to be considered sacred objects need to be distinguished from other objects via tabu (eg: not eating) and rituals (benediction). Sacred object represents god, which is the collective representation of society: it controls human actions; it allows individuals to feel part of a collectivity. Sociology can understand human groups by looking at their expressive forms: CULTURE IS A COLLECTIVE PRODUCTION 10. Link production/receivers Symbolic interactionism: culture is produced in interactions, where meanings are negotiated. Taken for granted/conflicting opinions. Eg: Becker. How to become a marijuana user. By interacting with expert smokers, the novice learns cultural conventions on how to smoke 11. Producers and consumers Theory of industrial culture: mass production of cultural objects where the meaning is completely determined by the producers and reflect the dominant culture. Eg: Holliwood movies Theory of popular culture: cultural objects are produced/modified by people and influence the industrial production. Eg: sony walkman 12. Subcultures Hall: cultural objects are encoded and decoded with specific meanings according to the groups who produce/receive them Hebdige: subcultures are a production of class conflict. Dominant VS counterculture Eg: punks. 13. Bourdieu Cultural field (like social fiend for science) Culture is used as a form of distinction of the middle class from the working class. He studies the associations of cultural objects that are consumed by people, in doing so he identifies the boundaries of class based on what they consume and their cultural conventions Cultural and economic capital, and the chiasm shape. 14. Wendy Griswold The cultural diamond (1997) Social World Cultural Object Producer Receiver 15. Limits? None of these approaches observe how culture is concretely produced in networks of relationships. If culture is collectively produced, and meanings are negotiated in interactions then guess what? We can use SNA! 16. The production 17. Crossley N., 2009, The Man Whose Web Expanded: Network Dynamics in Manchesters Post-Punk Music Scene 1976-1980, Poetics, 37, 1: 24-49. Manchester punk/post-punk music scene between 1976 and 1980 Manchester scene took off in the late 70s: this take off consisted in the formation of a network between a critical mass of key actors who, collectively, began to make things happen in the city. Analysis of the process of network formation and of the mechanisms that shaped it. The analysis shows how the concept of networks and the techniques of social network analysis can contribute to our empirical understanding of cultural production. 18. It all happened in the 70s The starting point is the 4th of June 1976, when the (London-based) Sex Pistols played their first Manchester gig at the citys Lesser Free Trade Hall. End of the analysis is the 18th May 1980, when Joy Division singer, Ian Curtis, tragically committed suicide. 19. Theoretical background Music scenes and critical mass Beckers concept of art worlds: network, resources, conventions Challenge the critique of Bourdieu of SNA in his conception of cultural fields 20. Music scene Scenes are forms of collective action which are more likely to emerge and be recognised as such when the size of the collective involved rises. Which size is large enough? It is not possible to be precise about the population size threshold values at which a scene becomes feasible and recognisable as such: needs empirical observation The original punk scene in London was sparked by the interactions of 46 key actors At the beginning of the Manchester scene 129 core actors were identified. In both cases the mass involved was sufficient to absorb the costs of generating a scene, complete the necessary work and generate the impression that something significant was happening. Cultural production requires a pooling and organisation of resources and enthusiasm which can only occur when actors are connected. A critical mass must be networked to be effective. CRITICAL NETWORK 21. Social capital and resources Networks and their emergent properties (trust, norms of reciprocity, etc.) transform and enhance conditions of action. Cooperation and reciprocity Buzzcocks were given a helping hand in their early days by the Sex Pistols manager, Malcom McLaren. And Buzzcocks, in turn, sought to help other, especially local bands. They met frequently with future members of Joy Division, for example, offering advice, arranging a support slot and even giving them their first band name (Stiff Kittens). When Joy Division had the opportunity to do likewise for others they did. And these two bands reciprocated when their singers each stood in for Ian Curtis on an occasion when he was unwell and unable to perform a whole (Joy Division) set. Buzzcocks were similarly supportive of the Fall, inviting them to be their support act on many occasions 22. Networks Networks have different structures. Not everybody within a network is connected to everybody else (at least not always) and the pattern of who connects to whom can be of significance too, both in relation to the whole and to the actors involved. Different network configurations can have different effects and different positions in a network generate different opportunities and constraints for the actor(s) involved. Conflicts and power imbalances, disconnection and isolation. Relative isolation from a network, for example, can result in a lack of access to the resources necessary to form a band and/or in resentment against those perceived to be better connected. It can also result in musical innovation, however, either because the actors involved are subject to less pressure to conform or because they fail to properly acquire the artistic conventions of the wider network to which they are (poorly) connected 23. To study cultural production Network structure and dynamics: Actors opportunities are affected by who they are connected to, not connected to, by interdependence and the balances of power it generates Distribution of resources: The distribution of resources within a population is itself a structure, as the various images of stratification theory, from pyramids, through strata to social distance, all suggest. Furthermore, distributions of resources structure social life insofar as they generate a distribution of life chances and opportunities for action more generally Conventions: conventions bestow structure insofar as they entail durable and shared patterns of (inter)action, encompassing what actors do and/or how they do it. What we do in specific contexts and how we do it is patterned by conventions and, as such, manifest s a structure. Structures necessarily unfold through time, with the interactions in which they manifest 24. Becker Becker makes extensive reference to networks in Art Worlds but never develops the concept beyond claiming that art worlds are networks. There is little sense in his work of why it matters that actors in an art world are networked nor of the structural properties of networks and their significance. He does not explore the processes by which networks form or the mechanisms involved. interaction, as almost as a prime mover, explains the social world from the bottom up 25. Bourdieu He is critical of work which focuses exclusively upon observable relations and interactions. Such work, he argues, ignores underlying and more important structures of the social distribution of tastes Bourdieu stresses that interaction is always already situated within a distribution of resources and habituated social conventions and is therefore necessarily shaped, constrained and enabled by these structures. There is, so to speak, a top down pressure acting upon interaction 26. In sum we must recognise both top down and bottom up influence. Interactions, relations and networks are shaped, constrained and enabled by resource distributions and established conventions but not entirely. They generate a (relatively autonomous) dynamism and structure of their own. Moreover, this dynamism is in some cases sufficient to challenge and/or transform, intentionally and knowingly or not, existing resource distributions and conventions. 27. Methodology Mixed method approach Quantitative methods to map a real, empirical network at two distinct points in time. Then seek, by means of an exploration of secondary and archival sources, to explain what was going on between these two points of time; what mechanisms came into play that explain the changes observed. Data: authoritative histories of Manchester music and the wider post/punk scene biographies and autobiographies of key protagonists and bands Many on-line resources Actors Musicians and non (producers, sleeve designers, record label bosses, etc.) Corporate actors (record labels) Relations actors enjoyed a professional they are known to have had a strong friendship. 28. The Manchester scene 129 nodes and 700 connections density is 0.0848 Vertices are sized in accordance with degree Black vertices are musicians, grey vertices are (local) journalists and white vertices are non- musicians other than journalists. 29. Mechanisms of network formation Foci of activities: Punk nights and venues were particularly important to the process of network formation because they were time-spaces in which many of the key actors in the network first met and forged ties. Mediated foci: advertising involves an element of broadcasting, with messages being sent out to a large number of unknown recipients. It is still selective, however, and resembles the process whereby foci bring people together. Indeed adverts in a record shop or music magazine might be deemed mediated foci; a sub-cultural dead drop for those sufficiently interested and knowledgeable to make the pick up. 30. The Granovetter effect: When any two actors meet and form a connection this increases the likelihood that those to whom each is connected will do likewise (transitivity) Reputation. When networks have begun to take shape around certain foci their formation can be further advanced by the mechanism of reputationa mechanism which can only emerge in the context of existing network ties. Venues, for example, acquire a reputation which spreads through networks, drawing more people to them and thereby increasing the likelihood and rate at which actors with a shared interest meet. Likewise for bands and gigs (2nd Sex and the Pistols gig more popular than the 1st) 31. Preferential attachment: certain vertices disproportionately attract attempts at connection. those who enjoy a good reputation within a network become a target for others seeking to make connections and thus become hubs Eg: Wilson (TV show) T.J. Davidson owned rehearsal room: she was important because he had a scarce resource which many bands in the growing scene were in need of, and his resource made him attractive 32. The consumption 33. Mark N., 1998, Birds of a Feather Sing Together, Social Forces, 77, 2: 453-485. Normally, scholars argue that people consume culture (eg: music, by going to gigs and listening to music) Here, musical forms consume people, as people are a limited resource Musical preferences spread across network ties: people develop tastes similar to those they interact with People who are similar in sociodemographic characteristics are more likely to interact with each other than people who are dissimilar Thus: people will like the type of music that are preferred by people similar to themsleves Why then people, connected by 6 degree of separation, dont all like the same type of music? 34. Limits to diffusion Time constrains Energy constrains The time and energy that a person devote to musical participation are limited: the more a person likes a type of music, the less time and energy has to develop and maintain preferences of other types 35. Musical preferences are influences by relative level of exposure: the number of friends in my social circles who like a specific type of music VS absolute level of exposure (the simple exposure) Eg: of 5 friends, one likes country, the others nothing VS of 5 friends, one likes country, the others reggae 36. Sociodemographic space A persons position in social space is indicated by the persons sociodemographic characteristics. By homophily, interaction is negatively related to social distance 37. Niche A niche is a region in space where a type of music is most popular. Location of the niche centre: mean value of a given dimension of individuals who like a type of music very much Niche width: 3 standards deviations from the mean (1.5 on each side of the mean). Eg: age and educational dimension 38. Recruitment Recruitment is selective in that non fans who are similar to current fans (who are in the niche) are more likely to develop a preference A will more likely develop a preference for new age than B 39. Niche formation Musical innovation takes place in local regions of sociodemographic spaces Competition Time constrain assumes competition: this is most intense in regions of niche overlap, where people are more likely to have friends with different music tastes 40. Data 1993 general social survey (US) 18 items on music From like very much to dislike very much (5 options) and dont know it Age, occupational prestige, years in education, family income 41. Niche volume indicates the degree to which the type of music specializes in sociodemographic space small niche volumes are specialists (heavy metal, contemporary rock, new age) Large niche volumes are generalists (gospel, folk) 42. Results The greater the persons social distance to the niche centre, the lower the probability that this person will like the music Logistic regression of like very much on distance: distance has a negative effect on liking 43. Being located inside a niche negatively affect the probability of a non fan of not knowing the type of music In regression: niche has a negative effect on dont know If a person is in a niche, the probability of liking that kind of music is negatively correlated to the number of niches intersecting over this person Number niches has a negative effect on like very much