Talk:Sociology of culture

Untitled
it should not say that the difference between cultural anthropology and cultural sociology is that anthro focuses on ancient or primitive cultures. For one thing, according to anthropological theory cultures cannot be classified as "primitive" or "advanced." Second, anthropology focuses on modern societies, archeologists focus on the past. Third, a huge portion of current anthropological research is now done in cities, or non-rural settings, and some even focuses on how people use technology.

This article is very vague and uncomplete. Can someone write something better about it?

I have edited the current summary of cultural sociology. My effort is still inadequate but not nearly as out of touch as the previous version. RS 1/18/07


 * "Scientific investigation and the production of empirically verifiable analysis (especially in terms of testable theories) is considered taboo among many, but not all self proclaimed cultural sociologists."

I'm not sure whether this is exactly the case. In my view, many would argue that 'empirically verifiable analysis' just is not one of the main objectives, as it may not always be possible to achieve. Many studies in this field include ethnographic or semi-ethnographic accounts, and thus rely heavily on the researcher as an instrument of measurement. Anyone care to give his/her view of this matter?

Cultural Change Discussion
The last paragraph of the section titled "Cultural Change" has taken a number of liberties in allowing pure opinion to seep into their description. The writer provides backing for his/her opinions merely by restating them in parenthesis. The author assumes there is some clear or precise definition of culture or humanity from which he/she can assume it begins with the homo sapien. Specifically, how can you (the author) discern the ability to define or study cultural change as opposed to the beginnings of culture. Both of these concepts can be studied so long as there is someone who wishes to better define the word culture. It's very likely that what we define as culture can be observed in animal behavior to some degree as well. So, my suggestion is; either clearly define your meaning of these broad, ambiguous words, or take your unfounded opinions out of this passage. JD 2/11/08

good progress
this article is much better than it was a couple months ago-- but it still has some important areas for improvement. --Htw3 18:59, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

current research
There is much more going on in the study of culture in sociology than just cmc related work. y'all might want to take a look at Culture and Cognition P DiMaggio - Annual Review of Sociology, 1997 - Annual Reviews. He focuses on the relation between cognition and culture-- but I know that he mentions important work elsewhere in the sociology of culture near the start of his review article. It would also be good to mention sub-areas of culture where there is a good amount of research: sports, popular culture, religion, diffusion.--Htw3 18:59, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

tie the parts together
I tried to demonstrate the need to make some additions throughout the article that help the reader understand how the included parts fit together. That is another important direction for improvement. --Htw3 19:11, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

wikify
connection to a variety of topics in wikipedia need to be made explicit: qualitative research, ethnography, critical theory, cultural studies, sociology of religion, comparative sociology. . . .--Htw3 19:11, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

UNTITLED
Its difficult to understand how the pieces fit together into one whole from reading the page. There are gaps in information from section to section. It assumes that you already have a profound knowledge of the topic. Maybe a short background could be given? Possibly new sections could be included to avoid this in the future? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Markov26 (talk • contribs) 01:37, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I feel that the early researchers section is very under developed and could use more depth for clarity. The Karl Marx section could go into depth about his theory of class consciousness and false consciousness. Carissa.Raines512 (talk) 20:24, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Cultural Sociology
Cultural Sociology redirects here, but this is not correct, the whole point of the subject being named as such is to make a distinction from Sociology of Culture!158.223.169.20 (talk) 17:19, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Long quotations dominate lead
First:

For Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history".

Second:

By way of contrast, Jeffrey C. Alexander introduced the term cultural sociology, an approach that sees all, or most, social phenomena as inherently cultural at some level. For instance, a leading proponent of the "strong program" in cultural sociology, Alexander argues: "To believe in the possibility of cultural sociology is to subscribe to the idea that every action, no matter how instrumental, reflexive, or coerced [compared to] its external environment, is embedded to some extent in a horizon of affect and meaning."

Third:

For instance, Pierre Bourdieu's cultural sociology has a "clear recognition of the social and the economic as categories which are interlinked with, but not reducible to, the cultural."


 * my own observation

After encountering ten of thousands of Wikipedia leads (and actually touching a fair percentage of these myself, mostly with minor edits) I've come to the opinion that leads, such as this one, too much built around direct quotation from eminent voices (though not recognizable as such to the cold-contact outsider) creates a "stasis" effect which discourages evolution of the lead toward clear, declarative summarization of the article content.

What you get instead—it seems to be—is a lead too much invested in wrapping some kind of textual mood around the content that follows. Not on the first, or the tenth, or the one hundredth distinct point of contact did I finally come to this overarching conclusion, but this sticky penny did finally drop, FWIW. &mdash; MaxEnt 17:34, 19 May 2021 (UTC)