Developments in the Sociology of Culture

This paper reviews general aspects of the theory and practice of the sociology of culture. It considers the contributions of mainline sociology, in the analysis of effects, institutions and formations, and relates the emphasis on effects, the selectively smaller emphasis on institutions and the relative neglect of formations to theoretical and methodological assumptions in orthodox sociology. It then considers contributions to the sociology of culture from other disciplines, in the study of traditions and of forms, and in attempts (Lukacs, Goldman, the Frankfurt School) to relate forms to formations. In this connection it reviews selections between orthodox cultural sociology and the theories and practices of formalism and structuralism. Finally, the paper proposes an approach based on recognition of `the materiality of signs' and the consequent recognition of cultural technologies—'sign-systems'—as forms of historical and social relationship and practice.