OPPapers.com

Cultural Diamond

Cultural Diamond in 3D? (Diamond in the Rough): Clarifying the Relationship between Media Studies and Cultural Sociology
By Peter Brinson

The nascent field of cultural sociology can be described as anything but unified. Its multidisciplinary roots and influences have left a lasting imprint on scholarly activity in this broad field of study: classical social theorists, cultural studies scholars, linguists, philosophers, anthropologists, communications scholars, historians, and sociologists are frequently cited in contemporary cultural sociology. Given the unique social contexts and disciplinary conventions of all these contributors, it is no wonder that there is widespread disagreement about what culture is and what the goal of studying “culture” should be. It is instructive, for example, that few scholars accept others’ definitions of culture without modification or qualification. “Culture” is a term that defies simple definition, and it would be a Herculean task to incorporate the essence and significance of the cultural realm in any parsimonious way. As is to be expected in these circumstances, strong theoretical arguments and polemics abound about what is legitimate enquiry in the field of cultural sociology (Alexander 2003; Bourdieu 1977; Peterson and Anand 2004; Swidler 2001; Wuthnow 1987).
Rather than add to this contest, I have a different agenda in this paper. I aim to draw together some of the diverse theories, methods, and goals of cultural sociologists in a pragmatic way. I use the term “pragmatic” to indicate both the everday use of the word and in the philosophical sense, what William James meant when he spoke of the pragmatic method as “primarily a method of settling metaphysical dispute that otherwise might be interminable” (James 1981, p. 25). For social science, pragmatism offers a perspective that judges a theory or analytic approach by the contribution it makes towards explaining some empirical phenomenon. Theories are tools for...