Sociology of culture
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Sociology of culture, or "cultural sociology," is one of the most popular fields of sociology, particularly in the United States and Europe. Cultural sociology is a methodology that accounts for social life as an outcome of meaning or interpretation. Cultural sociologists are primarily influenced by Max Weber. More than other fields of sociology, cultural sociologists are predisposed to humanistic investigation and postmodern analysis. Scientific investigation and the production of empirically verifiable analysis (especially in terms of testable theories) is considered taboo among many cultural sociologists.
While most fields of sociology are defined by their object of inquiry or dependent variable (for example, sociologists of law study of the variation in law), cultural sociology is a paradigm. The American Sociological Association section for the sociology of culture states that the sociology of culture is a "perspective" that "considers material products, ideas, and symbolic means and their relation to social behavior." As a perspective on social life, those that do cultural sociology study all aspects of social life, including diverse topics such as racism, fascism, love, and trade associations.
Though sociologists of culture expend much energy refining and debating their conceptulizations of culture, modern sociologists of culture have generally adopted a traditionally anthropological conception of culture that takes culture as social structure and social practice.
Key figures in today's cultural sociology include Julia Adams, Jeffrey Alexander, Mabel Berezin, Nina Eliasoph, Ron Eyerman, Andreas Glaeser, Wendy Griswold, Michele Lamont, Paul Lichterman, Margaret Somers, Yasemin Soysal, Lynette Spillman, Ann Swidler, and Diane Vaughn.
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