This issue of Music and Arts in Action (MAiA) marks the start of our second year. As we arrive at our third issue, it has become clear that our desire to give musical and artistic forms a more central place in the study and understanding of social life is shared by many. This particular issue fulfils three inter-related aims of MAiA: to extend and enhance the understanding of the role that aesthetic objects play in everyday life, to provide a space for dialogues around this topic, and to bring into the spotlight important work that deserves a second look.

Recent Submissions

  • Witkin III 

    Witkin, Robert W. (University of Exeter, 2009)
    I am fortunate to have as my respondents two scholars who have made, and continue to make, important contributions to what Professor Alexander terms the “strong program” for a sociology of the aesthetic. They have responded ...
  • On the autonomy of the aesthetic: Witkin I versus Witkin II 

    Alexander, Jeffrey C. (University of Exeter, 2 October 2009)
    On this occasion we celebrate and deliberate the publication twenty years ago of Robert Witkin’s “The Aesthetic Imperative of a Rational-Technical Machinery.” It is a striking and richly textured essay. Witkin weaves ...
  • The aesthetic imperative of a rational-technical machinery: a study in organizational control through the design of artifacts 

    Witkin, Robert W. (University of Exeter, 2009)
    The development of modern business and administrative organizations that are formally rational and technical in their structures and operations has given rise to the false conclusion that the aesthetic dimension does not ...
  • The social organisation of aesthetics – a note 

    Atkinson, Paul (University of Exeter, 2009)
    When reading Robert Witkin's paper from 20 years ago, I am, first and foremost, reminded that aesthetics – in even the broadest of definitions – have had a patchy and, on the whole, disappointing history in sociology. It ...
  • Music as evil: deviance and metaculture in classical music 

    Pino, Nathan W. (University of Exeter, 29 March 2009)
    This paper aims to apply the sociology of deviance and the concept of metaculture to the sociology of high-art and music. Examples of classical music criticisms over time are presented and discussed. Music critics have ...

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