The study of culture is crucial for understanding many of the most important aspects of human life. Social scientists increasingly regard it as one of their central areas of interest, and sociologists have offered valuable and provocative insights into the nature of cultural life. Yet up until now, no single volume has brought together in a comprehensive fashion the array of ideas and viewpoints that together make up the specifically sociological study of culture. Confronting Culture rectifies this situation, offering a clear and accessible introduction to the complex field of the sociology of culture.

Inglis and Hughson critically discuss the key contributions made to the study of culture by different streams of thought within sociology. They examine the nature of cultural matters as perceived by classical sociology, the Frankfurt School, English and American mass culture theorists, culturalists and cultural materialists, semioticians, poststructuralists and postmodernists, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, and scholars within the 'production of culture' paradigm. The book will appeal to those studying culture both from within sociology and from the perspectives of other disciplines, such as cultural studies, media and communication studies, anthropology and literary studies.

David Inglis is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Aberdeen.

John Hughson is a Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Sport and Health at the University of Durham.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction: Sociology and Culture.

1. Setting Up the Terrain: Classical Sociology and Culture.

2. High German Seriousness: The Frankfurt School on Culture.

3. An American Tragedy? Mass Culture in the USA.

4. Reading from Right to Left: Culturalism in England.

5. The Empire of Signs: The Semiotics of Culture.

6. Phantasmagoria: Postmodernism and Culture.

7. In the French Style: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu.

8. The Land of the Free? Production of Culture in America and Elsewhere.

Conclusion: Globalization, Reflecivity and the Future.

References.

Index.