How to study art worlds

The present study tries to find out how the organisation of art worlds serves the functioning of the arts in society. The book studies thoroughly how George Dickie, Howard Becker, Pierre Bourdieu, Nathalie Heinich, and Niklas Luhmann approach this question, but the conclusion is that their theories only touch the thinking on the arts' societal functioning instead of discussing it.

Hence in How to Study Art Worlds the author turns to such art philosophers as Kant, Gadamer, Shusterman and Schaeffer among others to define the values the arts can generate and the functions they can serve. On the basis of this in the third part of the book it is discussed what the various institutional approaches in relation to the art philosophical concepts have to offer to the organisation of art world practices in such a way that the arts will be supported in realising their values in society.

Hans van Maanen is professor of art and society at the Department of Arts, Culture & Media Studies of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

This study stands on the highest level of commentary in this area, and will be taken as a primary source of reference for the study of the art world and sociology of art in general; therefore it would be a mandatory purchase for any university that has an arts and humanity faculty; and it is also an important individual reference text book for both graduate students and academics. --Book Jacket.