Since sociologists returned to the study of culture in the past several decades, a pursuit all but anathema for a generation, cultural sociology has emerged as a vibrant field. Edited by three leading cultural sociologists, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology presents the full theoretical and methodological vitality of this critically significant new area.The Handbook gathers together works by authors confronting the crucial choices all cultural sociologists face today: about analytic priorities, methods, topics, epistemologies, ideologies, and even modes of writing. It is a vital collection of preeminent thinkers studying the ways in which culture, society, politics, and economy interact in the world. Organized by empirical areas of study rather than particular theories or competing intellectual strands, the Handbook addresses power, politics, and states; economics and organization; mass media; social movements; religion; aesthetics; knowledge; and health. Allowing the reader to observe tensions as well as convergences, the collection displays the value of cultural sociology not as a niche discipline but as a way to view and understand the many facets of contemporary society. The first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology offers comprehensive and immediate access to the real developments and disagreements taking place in the field, and deftly exemplifies how cultural sociology provides a new way of seeing and modeling social facts. "This groundbreaking, readable handbook [is] the first single volume to attempt to unify its diverse contemporary applications in a wide range of traditional genres of sociology...Valuable for college universities and libraries supporting undergraduate and graduate degree programs in sociology and history."-CHOICE

Jeffrey Alexander is the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University. Ronald Jacobs is Professor of Sociology at SUNY-Albany. Philip Smith is Professor of Sociology at Yale.

1. Introduction: Cultural Sociology Today Jeffrey C. Alexander, Ronald Jacobs, and Philip Smith PART I The Cultural Method in Sociology 2. Cultural Sociology as a Research Program: Post-Positivism, Meaning, and Causality Isaac Ariail Reed 3. Rationalization Processes inside Cultural Sociology Richard Biernacki 4. Four Ways to Measure Culture: Social Science, Hermeneutics, and the Cultural Turn John Mohr and Craig Rawlings PART II The Economic as Culture 5. Culture and the Economy Carlo Tognato 6. Culture and Economic Life Lyn Spillman PART III The Political as Culture 7. From Moral Sentiments to Civic Engagement: Sociological Analysis as Responsible Spectatorship Robin Wagner-Pacifici 8. Reinventing the Concept of Civic Culture Paul Lichterman 9. Cultural Sociology and Civil Society in a World of Flows: Recapturing Ambiguity, Hybridity and the Political Gianpaolo Biaocchi PART IV The Media as Culture 10. Mediatized Disasters in the Global Age: On the Ritualization of Catastrophe Simon Cottle 11. Media, Intellectuals, the Public Sphere, and the Story of Barack Obama in 2008 Eleanor Townsely 12. Entertainment Media and the Aesthetic Public Sphere Ronald Jacobs PART V Race and Immigration as Culture 13. Rethinking the Relationship of African American Men to the Street Al Young 14. Ethnicity, Race, Nationhood, Foreignness, Etc.: Prolegomena to a Cultural Sociology of Difference-Based Interactions Giuseppe Sciortino 15. Burning Schools/Building Bridges: Ethnographical Touchdowns in the Civil Sphere Mats Trondman PART VI Religion as Culture 16. The Constitution of Religious Political Violence: Institution, Culture and Power Roger Friedland 17. Globalization, Culture and Religion Kenneth Thompson PART VII Social Movements as Culture 18. Narrative and Social Movements Francesca Polletta and Bobby Chen 19. The Politics of Authenticity: Civic Individualism and the Cultural Roots of Gay Normalization Steven Seidman, Chet Meeks, and James Dean PART VIII Trauma as Culture 20. Rethinking Conflict and Memory: the case of Nanjing Barry Schwartz 21. Cultural Trauma: Emotion and Narration Ron Eyerman 22. The Chinese Construction and Repression of Trauma: The Rape of Nanjing Jeffrey C. Alexander and Rui Gao PART IX Events as Culture 23. Events as Templates of Possibility: An Analytic Typology of Political Facts Mabel Berezin 24. Cultural Pragmatics and the Structure and Flow of Democratic Politics Jason Mast PART X Materiality as Culture 25. Consumption as Cultural Interpretation: Taste, Performativity and Navigating The Forest Of Objects Ian Woodward 26. The Force of Embodiment: Bodies, Dispositions and Culture Arthur Frank 27. Music Sociology in a New Key Lisa McCormick PART XI Knowledge as Culture 28. Narrating Global Warming Philip Smith PART XII Classification and Ambiguity as Culture 29. Broadening the Strong Program in Cultural Sociology: Focus On Mundane Life in Organizations Nina Eliasoph and Jade Lo 30. Inbetweenness and Ambivalence Bernhard Giesen