BOURDIEU, CULTURAL PRODUCTION AND ARTISTS

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Bourdieuís notion of cultural goods as two-faced realities

Symbolic goods are a two-faced reality, a commodity and a symbolic object: Their specifically cultural value and their commercial value remain relatively independent although the economic sanction may come to reinforce their cultural consecration (Bourdieu, 1985, p. 16). In the above quote, Bourdieu states that a cultural object acts as both a symbolic good and a commodity with commercial value. Bourdieuís ideas about cultural goods acting as both economic and symbolic goods have become widespread in writing about the cultural economy. For example: Economic and symbolic processes are more than ever interlaced and interarticulatedÖ Thus the boundaries between the two become more and more blurred and the economy and culture no longer function in regard to one another as system and environment (Lash and Urry, 1994, p. 64 cited in du Gay and Pryke, 2002, p. 6).

Properties of cultural production in the FLP

The heteronomous pole (or FLP) in Bourdieuís model of two sub-fields of production is that ìpart of the field bound up in relations with other fields and expressing their valuesî (Webb, et al., 2001, xiii). For example, commercial art is art that is bound up with commercial imperatives, and the art produced near to that pole is usually almost completely subordinate to business goals and values. The properties of cultural production in this sphere are: i) heteronomous production; ii) motivated towards money (although influenced by the consecrated sphere); iii) corporatisation (large-scale with higher levels of economic capital available (but dependent on cultural capital) and; iv) focus on wider public reception (although critical reviews are important).

Indieí music labels working with ëmajorí labels

The music industry is, most often, a highly localized cultural product industry that draws on local creative milieus and cultural forms and one that has a tendency to agglomerate in urban areasÖHowever the business of producing, selling and consuming music is globally dominated by an increasingly concentrated manufacturing and distribution system dominated by a shrinking number of global media ìmajors (Power & Hallencreutz, 2004, p. 224). Power & Hallencreutz describe in the above quote, how there are two elements to the music industry that work together- the local product, which comes out of local ëcreative milieusí and the global business of selling that product which is dominated by ëmajorsí. Beverley Best, a popular music theorist, notes that all cultural texts need to negotiate in some way with mass or micro media or the culture industry in order to reach an audience. For example, ëindieí record labels cannot remain ìpure and uncontaminated by commercial industryî but must ìnegotiate its survivalî (Best, 1997, p18). Best draws on Foucaultís notion of power and agency to show how this negotiation may happen, so that a popular cultural text can still possess politically resistant qualities.

State intervention and entrepreneurship

The stateís role in cultural production in New Zealand has in the past been largely to support the autonomous sphere of production. Due to New Zealandís size and geographic location the large-scale cultural industries present in countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan or the United States are not present here. International corporations involved in newspaper, advertising, film, television, book, design, internet, music, software corporations may have some presence here through New Zealand based subsidiaries or offices of multi-national companies, but generally there are no large-scale New Zealand owned cultural industries. The recent exception would be Peter Jacksonís configuration of film production companies in Wellington, however this configuration would still be regarded as quite independent compared to some of the large-scale production houses in the United States. One would not expect the government to get involved with this larger-scale end of the market for cultural goods.

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The emergence of the Bohemian artist

Bohemia is the name for the alternative world within Western society created by nineteenth and twentieth-century artists, writers, intellectuals and radicals (Wilson, 2000, p. 2). The word Bohemian comes to us through French, in which language the word (bohÈmien) has long been applied to Romani people, who were thought to have entered France from Bohemia, in the Czech Republic. It is thought that at this time in Paris there had been a safe haven for this ethnic group. The word shifted in usage in the nineteenth century, from ìsomebody who was a vagabond, or a person of irregular life and habitsî (the disparaging view of ëRomanií ethnicity at the time) to be ìapplied with special reference to an artist, writer or actor who despised conventionalityî (Worldwidewords, 2005).

Historical changes in artistic institutions and formations

Bourdieuís paper, The Market of Symbolic Goods (1985), traces the way in which artists legitimation and authority have developed historically. Raymond Williams (1981) also examines the institutions, formations and means of production historically influencing cultural production. Williamsí categories of institutions (institutional, patrons, markets [with the subcategories of artisanal, post-artisanal, market professional, corporate professional], post-markets), formations (guilds, academies, professional societies, movements, fractions, dissidents and rebels) and means of production (dance, song, speech, writing, reproduction, new media, group production, ownership) comprehensively expand the sociology of cultural production in greater detail than Bourdieu, while also complementing Bourdieuís work.

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

MAKING BOTH ENDS MEET: A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE ON BECOMING AN ARTIST IN THE NEW CULTURAL ECONOMY
MEGAN WILLIAMS
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Education (Music) University of Auckland,
ABSTRACT
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION
- Aims of the thesis
- i) Moving beyond binary opposites
- ii) Theorising the cultural industries
- iii) Educational aims
- iv) Inspiring further research
- v) Research Questions
- Why I chose the topic
- i) Poverty of artists
- ii) Cultural analysis of the creative industries
- Theoretical basis
- i) Critical theory and the arts
- ii) Sociology of art and culture
- iii) Cultural economics
- iv) Poststructuralism
- v) Bourdieu and Foucault
- Summary of chapters
2 BOURDIEU, CULTURAL PRODUCTION AND ARTISTS
- Introduction
- Habitus, field, capital
- i) Habitus
- ii) Fields
- iii) Forms of capital
- Bourdieuís notion of cultural goods as two-faced realities
- Bourdieuís model of two sub-fields of cultural production
- Properties of cultural production in the FRP
- i) Relative autonomy
- ii) Disinterest in money
- iii) Small-scale with inverse levels of capital
- iv) Focus on internal dialogue, reception and recognition
- Properties of cultural production in the FLP
- Transformations in the field of cultural production
- i)ë Indieí music labels working with ëmajorí labels
- ii) State intervention and entrepreneurship
- Conclusion
3 THE ALTERNATIVE WORLD OF BOHEMIA
- Introduction
- Importance of Bohemia to the thesis topic
- The emergence of the Bohemian artist
- i) La vie boheme
- ii) Ironic beginnings
- Historical changes in artistic institutions and formations
- i) Guilded artisan
- ii) Transitional
- iii) Market
- Emergence of the field of restricted production (FRP)
- New freedoms
- Conclusion
4 ENTERPRISE CULTURE AND CREATIVITY
- Introduction
- Disciplinary power
- The enterprising self
- The instrumentalisation of creativity
- i) Creative economy
- ii) Creativity as ëdoctrineí
- iii) Universalised creativity
- iv) Managed creativity
5 THE ARTIST AS CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR
- Introduction
- The great morph
- Cultural exporters
- Inventive independents
- Limitations of the creative entrepreneur form
- Conclusion
6 BECOMING AN ARTIST, THE SELF AND ETHICS
- Introduction
- Critical awareness in arts education pedagogy
- Foucaultís ëaesthetics of existenceí
- MacIntyreís notion of ëtradition-constituted rationalityí
- Considering a dual approach
- Working with real life ethical/musical problems
- i) Advertising
- ii) Economic capital
- iii) Recording contracts
- Transmitting a critical pedagogy
- Conclusion
7 CONCLUSION
- Revisiting the aims
- Further questions
- LIST OF REFERENCES