de la Fuente, Eduardo (2000) Sociology and aesthetics. European Journal of Social Theory, 3 (2). pp. 235-247.

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Abstract

This review explores the present fashion for aesthetics in contemporary sociology. It evaluates the claims that society is undergoing a deep-seated process of aestheticization, and that sociology is experiencing an aestheticization of its epistemological concerns. The aestheticization literature is divided as follows: (1) the re-reading of classical sociological theory through the aesthetic dimension of modernity; (2) the claim that postmodern society involves an 'aestheticization of everyday life'; and (3) those sociological theories which stress that contemporary society is more and more like a work of art in its form. The argument is made that the discovery of aesthetics as a way of problematizing sociological reasoning is to some extent rediscovery, returning to various Kantian precepts: the disinterestedness characteristic of aesthetic experiences; the antinomy between the individual and the social aspects of taste; and the work of art as an organism predicated on an inner teleology.

Item ID:	40398
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1461-7137
Keywords:	aestheticization; epistemology; everyday life; form; indeterminacy
Date Deposited:	10 Sep 2015 03:12
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1608 Sociology > 160806 Social Theory @ 70% 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2002 Cultural Studies > 200203 Consumption and Everyday Life @ 30%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society @ 100%
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