Culture as a Vocation: Sociology of career choices in cultural management PDF
Preview Culture as a Vocation: Sociology of career choices in cultural management
Every year, thousands of talented young people aspire to careers in the arts. Vincent Dubois’s brilliant sociological analysis of French careers in cultural management reveals the challenges – and often disappointments – which lie in their way. This book will be essential reading across the globe for those interested in how career patterns in the cultural sector are changing. Professor Mike Savage, Head of Sociology Department and Chair, London School of Economics, UK Many have wondered: what is arts management? Few answers truly satisfy. Vincent Dubois poses a set of fresh questions and manages to answer this and far more in his well-researched, highly readable volume. It should be required reading in our field. Professor Constance DeVereaux, Director, LEAP Institute for the Arts, Colorado State University, USA Culture as a Vocation focuses on the social space of cultural managers, who play a crucial role in the contemporary cultural world. Superbly researched in a Bourdieusian framework, this book provides an insightful view on this occupational universe. Thanks to the nuanced analysis of this strategic case, he sheds light on the changing social settings of culture in contemporary societies. Professor Arturo Rodríguez Morató, University of Barcelona, Spain This persuasive and challenging analysis of the changing realities in cultural professions offers insightful understanding of the aspirations and motivations of professionals engaged in arts and culture. Dubois’ book is a must read for all those involved in education and training of cultural professionals, whether in academia or in centres for lifelong learning. Professor Milena Dragicevic Sesic, UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management, University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia Serious researches on management in the cultural field are rare and still rarer are conceptually sophisticated ones. With his usual mastery Vincent Dubois manages to match in this unique book the seriousness of a solid empirical study on would-be cultural managers with the imaginative insightfulness of the best social theory to provide a must reference for future research and a valuable reading for aspiring as well as practicing professionals in the culture sector. Professor Marco Santoro, Head of Sociology, University of Bologna, Italy Culture, Economy and the Social A new series from CRESC – the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change Editors Professor Tony Bennett, Social and Cultural Theory, University of Western Sydney; Professor Penny Harvey, Anthropology, Manchester University; Professor Kevin Hetherington, Geography, Open University Editorial Advisory Board Andrew Barry, University of Oxford; Michel Callon, Ecole des Mines de Paris; Dipesh Chakrabarty, The University of Chicago; Mike Crang, University of Durham; Tim Dant, Lancaster University; Jean-Louis Fabiani, Ecoles de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales; Antoine Hennion, Paris Institute of Technology; Eric Hirsch, Brunel University; John Law, The Open University; Randy Martin, New York University; Timothy Mitchell, New York University; Rolland Munro, Keele University; Andrew Pickering, University of Exeter; Mary Poovey, New York University; Hugh Willmott, University of Cardiff; Sharon Zukin, Brooklyn College City University New York/ Graduate School, City University of New York The Culture, Economy and the Social series is committed to innovative contem- porary, comparative and historical work on the relations between social, cultural and economic change. It publishes empirically-based research that is theoretically informed, that critically examines the ways in which social, cultural and eco- nomic change is framed and made visible, and that is attentive to perspectives that tend to be ignored or side-lined by grand theorizing or epochal accounts of social change. The series addresses the diverse manifestations of contemporary capital- ism, and considers the various ways in which the ‘social’, ‘the cultural’ and ‘the economic’ are apprehended as tangible sites of value and practice. It is explicitly comparative, publishing books that work across disciplinary perspectives, cross- culturally, or across different historical periods. The series is actively engaged in the analysis of the different theoretical tradi- tions that have contributed to the development of the ‘cultural turn’ with a view to clarifying where these approaches converge and where they diverge on a par- ticular issue. It is equally concerned to explore the new critical agendas emerging from current critiques of the cultural turn: those associated with the descriptive turn for example. Our commitment to interdisciplinarity thus aims at enriching theoretical and methodological discussion, building awareness of the common ground that has emerged in the past decade, and thinking through what is at stake in those approaches that resist integration to a common analytical model. Series titles include: The Media and Social Theory (2008) Inventive Methods: The Happening Edited by David Hesmondhalgh and of the Social (2012) Jason Toynbee Edited by Celia Lury and Nina Wakeford Culture, Class, Distinction (2009) Tony Bennett, Mike Savage, Elizabeth Understanding Sport: A Socio- Bortolaia Silva, Alan Warde, Modesto Cultural Analysis (2012) Gayo-Cal and David Wright By John Horne, Alan Tomlinson, Garry Whannel and Kath Woodward Material Powers (2010) Edited by Tony Bennett and Patrick Shanghai Expo: An International Joyce Forum on the Future of Cities (2012) Edited by Tim Winter The Social after Gabriel Tarde: Debates and Assessments (2010) Diasporas and Diplomacy: Edited by Matei Candea Cosmopolitan Contact Zones at the BBC World Service (1932–2012) Cultural Analysis and Bourdieu’s Edited by Marie Gillespie and Alban Legacy (2010) Webb (2012) Edited by Elizabeth Silva and Alan Ward Making Culture, Changing Society (2013) Milk, Modernity and the Making Tony Bennett of the Human (2010) Richie Nimmo Interdisciplinarity: Reconfigurations of the Social and Creative Labour: Media Work in Natural Sciences (2013) Three Cultural Industries (2010) Edited by Andrew Barry and Georgina Edited by David Hesmondhalgh and Born Sarah Baker Objects and Materials: A Routledge Migrating Music (2011) Companion (2013) Edited by Jason Toynbee and Byron Edited by Penny Harvey, Eleanor Dueck Conlin Casella, Gillian Evans, Hannah Knox, Christine McLean, Sport and the Transformation of Elizabeth B. Silva, Nicholas Thoburn Modern Europe: States, Media and and Kath Woodward Markets 1950–2010 (2011) Edited by Alan Tomlinson, Christopher Accumulation: The Material Politics Young and Richard Holt of Plastic (2013) Edited by Gay Hawkins, Jennifer Gabrys and Mike Michael Theorizing Cultural Work: Labour, Industry and Work in Continuity and Change in the Contemporary Capitalism: Global Cultural and Creative Industries Models, Local Lives? (2013) Edited by Victoria Goddard and Edited by Mark Banks, Rosalind Gill Susana Narotzky and Stephanie Taylor Lived Economies of Consumer Comedy and Distinction: The Credit: Consumer Credit, Debt Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Collection and the Capture of Affect Sense of Humour (2014) By Joe Deville Sam Friedman Cultural Pedagogies and Human The Provoked Economy: Economic Conduct Reality and the Performative Turn Edited by Megan Watkins, Greg Noble (2014) and Catherine Driscoll Fabian Muniesa Culture as a Vocation: Sociology Rio de Janeiro: Urban Life through of Career Choices in Cultural the Eyes of the City Management Beatriz Jaguaribe By Vincent Dubois The Routledge Companion to Topologies of Power (forthcoming) Bourdieu’s ‘Distinction’ By John Allen Edited by Philippe Coulangeon and Julien Duval Unbecoming Things: Mutable Objects and the Politics of Waste Devising Consumption: Cultural (forthcoming) Economies of Insurance, Credit and By Nicky Gregson and Mike Crang Spending By Liz Mcfall Culture as a Vocation Vocational occupations are attractive not so much for their material rewards as for the prestige and self-fulfillment they confer. They require a strong personal commitment, which can be subjectively experienced in terms of passion and selflessness. The choice of a career in the cultural sector provides a good example of this. What are the terms of this calling? What predisposes individuals to answer it? What are the meanings of such a choice? To answer these questions, this book focuses on would-be cultural managers. By identifying their social patterns, by revealing the resources, expectations and visions of the world they invest in their choice, it sheds new light on these occupations. In these intermediary and indeterminate social positions, family heritages intersect with educational strategies, aspirations of upward mobility with tactics against downward mobility, and social critique with adjustment strategies. Ultimately the study of career choices in cultural management suggests a new take on the analysis of social reproduction and on the embodiment of the new spirit of capitalism. The empirical findings of this research conducted in France are set in a broader comparative perspective, at the European level and with the USA. Vincent Dubois, sociologist and political scientist, is currently Professor at the Institute for Political Studies in Strasbourg (France). His research fields include cultural sociology and policy, language policy, poverty and welfare. He belongs to the SAGE research unit and to the University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, and is associate member of the Centre for European Sociology founded by Pierre Bourdieu in Paris. He is a former member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, USA, school of social science (2012–3) and of the Institut Universitaire de France (2007–12). He has published 8 books, 2 of which have been published in English translation (The Bureaucrat and the Poor, Ashgate, 2010; The Sociology of Wind Bands, Ashgate, 2013). He has published around 80 scientific contributions in edited volumes and journals including International Journal of Cultural Policy, Cultural Sociology, Poetics, Social Analysis, Current Anthropology, Critical Policy Studies, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales. This page intentionally left blank Culture as a Vocation Sociology of career choices in cultural management Vincent Dubois with the collaboration of Victor Lepaux Translated from the French by Jean-Yves Bart First published 2013 by Liber/Raisons d’agir, Paris English language edition 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013, 2016 Vincent Dubois and Liber/Raisons d’agir The right of Vincent Dubois to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Dubois, Vincent, 1966– [Culture comme vocation. English] Culture as a vocation / by Vincent Dubois. pages cm 1. Arts administrators–France. 2. Arts–Management–Study and teaching– France. 3. Occupations–France. 4. Arts and society–France. I. Title. NX770.F7.D8313 2015 706–dc23 2015019910 ISBN: 978-1-138-81998-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-74402-5 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Paignton, UK Contents List of illustrations x Foreword xi Preface xiv Acknowledgements xx Introduction 1 1 Culture in the space of career choices 12 How cultural occupations became attractive 12 Training and the genesis of vocations 25 2 Who wants to be a cultural manager? 38 A largely feminine vocation 38 Higher social backgrounds 42 Educated applicants 45 Well-rounded applicants 48 The space of applicants 50 3 The meanings of a career choice 56 Leaving doors open 56 A third way between art and teaching 73 The social rationales of a career choice 81 4 Intermediate dispositions and adjustment strategies 97 Between cultural legitimism and eclecticism 97 Reinventing the artist’s life 106 Conclusion 119 Appendix 123 Bibliography 131 Index 142
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