Pierre Bourdieu: The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (1993)

“The Field of Cultural Production brings together Bourdieu’s most important writings on art, literature, and aesthetics. Bourdieu develops a highly original approach to the study of literary and artistic works, addressing many of the key issues that have preoccupied literary, art, and cultural criticism in the late twentieth century: aesthetic value and judgement, the social contexts of cultural practice, the role of intellectuals and artists, and the structures of literary and artistic authority. Bourdieu elaborates a theory of the cultural field which situates artistic works within the social conditions of their production, circulation, and consumption. He examines the individuals and institutions involved in making cultural products what they are: the writers, artists, publishers, critics, dealers, galleries and academies. He analyses the structure of the cultural field itself as well as its position within the broader social structures of power. The essays in this volume deal with such diverse topics as Flaubert’s point of view, Manet’s aesthetic revolution, the historical creation of the pure gaze, and the relationship between art and power. The Field of Cultural Production will be of interest to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines: sociology and social theory, literature, art, and cultural studies.”

Edited by Randal Johnson
Publisher Columbia University Press, 1993
ISBN 0231082878, 9780231082877
viii+322 pages

Reviews: Tom Huhn (Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1996), Sigrid R⊘yseng (International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2010).

Wikipedia
Publisher

PDF (updated on 2018-10-4)

Cory Doctorow: Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future (2008)

Hailed by Bruce Sterling as “a political activist, gizmo freak, junk collector, programmer, entrepreneur, and all-around Renaissance geek,” the Internet’s favorite high-tech culture maven is celebrated with the first collection of his infamous articles, essays, and polemics. Irreverently championing free speech and universal access to information—even if it’s just a free download of the newest Britney Spears MP3—he leads off with a mutinous talk given at Microsoft on digital rights management, insisting that they stop treating their customers as criminals. Readers will discover how America chose Happy Meal toys over copyright, why Facebook is taking a faceplant, how the Internet is basically just a giant Xerox machine, why Wikipedia is a poor cousin of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and how to enjoy free e-books. Practicing what he preaches, all of the author’s books, including this one, are simultaneously released in print and on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their reuse and sharing. He argues persuasively that this practice has considerably increased his sales by enlisting readers to promote his work. Accessible to geeks and nontechies alike, this is a timely collection from an author who effortlessly surfs the zeitgeist while always generating his own wave.

Published by Tachyon Publications, 2008
ISBN 1892391813, 9781892391810
224 pages

PDF