Books by David Wright
Understanding Cultural Taste updates and critiques established theoretical and empirical accounts... more Understanding Cultural Taste updates and critiques established theoretical and empirical accounts of cultural taste. It considers the roles of the cultural industries and cultural policies in shaping tastes and the significance of the technologies through which cultural goods are produced and circulated. Taking a historical and theoretical perspective which complicates an understanding of
taste as a matter of personal preference or a crude weapon in social struggles, the book argues that taste remains a key concept for the sociology of culture, media and cultural studies, cultural policy studies and their applied sub-disciplines. Such disciplines have come to appreciate the relation between taste and individual or group identities but have been less attentive to other social and political dimensions of this important component of cultural life
Book Chapters by David Wright
An Introduction to Sociology, 2021
• To introduce and elaborate on sociological approaches to consumption. • To understand consumpti... more • To introduce and elaborate on sociological approaches to consumption. • To understand consumption and consumerism as social processes. • To appreciate how consumer goods have come to be meaningful in making contemporary identities. • To use the concept of 'taste' to explore the sociological tension between the individual and the social.
Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Consumption, 2018
This chapter reexamines foundational philosophical controversies about the meaning of taste and r... more This chapter reexamines foundational philosophical controversies about the meaning of taste and reflects on how tastes have been understood by sociologists. It argues these insights, while revealing the social patterning of tastes, have also obscured the extent to which tastes are bound up both with sensory experience and with the process of learning the management of the body and its responses to the world.. It concludes that, while the substantive weight of the sociological study of tastes has concerned itself with questions of the aesthetic and to the identification of different dispositions held by individuals and groups in relation to aesthetic judgment, there is value, in understanding contemporary cultures, to building up those accounts of taste which are more oriented to questions of the ascetic and to the role of restraint and training in the development and cultivation of tastes.
The Palgrave Handbook of Creativity at Work, L.Martin & N. Wilson (eds) , 2018
This chapter draws on research and scholarship into the experience of creative labour to reflect ... more This chapter draws on research and scholarship into the experience of creative labour to reflect on the place of hope in understanding the creative economy. The policy imaginary of the creative economy synonymizes creativity with innovation. The creative industries themselves are claimed to have unleashed some much needed dynamism into sluggish post-industrial economies. At the same time the kinds of jobs created in these economies and their ability to underpin and sustain the lives of the workers engaged with them have been the subject of much debate. The creative economy has also come to depend on and stand for a precarious and exclusionary labour market. Despite this, work in these industries remains attractive to many young people, and researchers continue to identify enthusiasm for creative work, alongside recognition of its iniquities. This chapter examines this paradox by drawing on conceptions of 'hope' in accounts of work from the nineteenth and twenty first centuries, concluding that the assumed distinctiveness of the creative workplace and creative workers can redirect important critical attention to debates about the characteristics of 'good' and 'bad' work.
The Routledge Handbook of Global Cultural Policy, 2017
This chapter explores the relations between sociology and cultural policy. Culture, as relating t... more This chapter explores the relations between sociology and cultural policy. Culture, as relating to role and value of symbolic processes in social life, has been central to the discipline of sociology since its earliest attempts to explain modernity. While the modern state has long been anxious about the cultural practices of its citizens, the systematic attempts to identify, shape and govern those practices through the creation of dedicated arms of government or formal ministries has a similar recent history. Beginning with some working definition of the terms of the debate, the chapter will reflect on the overlapping histories of the discipline of sociology and the sphere of cultural policy, drawing on revealing examples from the UK, France and the US. These are used to help explore how sociological perspectives have defined the problem of culture for policymakers and how the empirical techniques of social science have played an important role in bringing culture under the lens of government. The chapter concludes with some reflection on why, despite this history, sociology might be a less influential voice than it once was in conversations with contemporary cultural policy makers.
The Sage Handbook of Cultural Sociology
This chapter uses debates about the figure of the cultural omnivore to reflect on how scholars wi... more This chapter uses debates about the figure of the cultural omnivore to reflect on how scholars within the sociology of culture have approached the problem of ‘cultural consumption’. Briefly introducing the concept of omnivorousness, and placing it in the context of longer sociological debates about the role of cultural consumption in social organisation, the chapter summarises and critiques the claims of ‘the omnivore thesis’ as reflected in the weight of empirical evidence for the presence of the figure of omnivore in late modern Western societies. It explores the ways in which this figure has been constructed methodologically and considers how a variety of sociological techniques have established and also helped to complicate the meaning of omnivorousness. It concludes by suggesting that the figure of the omnivore might be increasingly unremarkable, and that empirical research into cultural consumption might need to adapt its methods to capture the continued significance of cultural preferences and practices in social life.
The Routledge Companion to the Cultural Industries
The Cultural Intermediaries Reader, Aug 2014
This chapter examines recent changes and continuities in the retail book trade and reflects on th... more This chapter examines recent changes and continuities in the retail book trade and reflects on their effects on the role of intermediaries in ‘the world of books’. It considers the development of bookshop work alongside the shifting modes of organization in the book trade in the late twentieth century and the accompanying narratives of the bookshop as a special kind of place, one that was always attuned to commercial imperatives but also understood as serving a broader cultural purpose. These historical narratives are seen to shape the contemporary bookshop as a workplace in the early twenty-first century, as new technologies and new management strategies re-model the book trade in the image of other sectors of retail. Further developments – including the shift towards on-line retail and its impact on the meaning and use of mediation without intermediaries – are considered as extensions of these processes of rationalization.
Key words: Bookshop work, chain retailers, rationalization, cultural production and distribution
Papers by David Wright
Arts and the market, Apr 3, 2024
Evaluation has become a central feature of policymaking, used and often misused to shape and infl... more Evaluation has become a central feature of policymaking, used and often misused to shape and influence policy goals, priorities and practices. In the case of cultural mega events such as the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) and the UK City of Culture (UKCoC), which are the focus of this special issue, evaluation is a significant mechanism to shape, justify and inform urban cultural policies. Since the publication of the and Palmer and Palmer/Rae Associates ( ) reports, the reputation of the ECoC initiative has been consolidated as an effective catalyst and accelerator for culture-led urban regeneration. After the emergence of the ECoC, many other international and national City of Culture (CoC) initiatives were established across the globe, including the UKCoC. Many policymakers highlight the benefits outlined in evaluation studies at different stages, ranging from the participation in competitive bidding and the implementation of a programme of cultural activities to post-event and legacy actions. However, within the Cities of Culture Research Network (CCRN), we noted a research gap in critical studies on the evaluation of CoC initiatives (Bianchini et al., 2022). As suggested in the previous volume of this special issue (2023), CCRN was established in 2019 and funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council until 2021. Its main aim was to create an interdisciplinary space where academics, postgraduate researchers and policymakers could pursue a better collective understanding of CoCs and their evaluation. It included ECoC, UKCoC and London Borough of Culture projects delivered by British cities and connected UK researchers with their counterparts in Aarhus (Denmark) and Galway (Ireland). The network's members and activities attempted to interrogate the often-problematic relationships between policy and evaluation and to explore the conditions and procedures that are required to create productive links between research and new policy developments, including a better acknowledgement and discussion of ambivalences and failures . The idea for this special issue arose as part of the activities of the network. We noted that in evaluation studies and impact assessments, CoCs are often portrayed as producing positive socio-economic effects in areas including tourism, city branding and attracting inward investment. This often leads to a vicious circle in the relationship between evaluation and policymaking. Evaluation studies justify the implementation of policies which produce more evaluation studies that continue to enable policy development. It is also evident that there are many isolated studies about the impacts of CoC programmes, and few that explore medium and long-term effects (with the possible exception of Garcia and Cox, 2013). In studies about the impacts of CoCs, there is often a lack of clarity about processes of evaluation, their main practices and organising principles, the key actors involved and the We would like to thank the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for their funding of the Cities of Culture Research Network (CCRN) from 2019 until 2021. Our appreciation goes to all the members of the network for their active participation in its activities, including for their continued involvement in its online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to thank all authors for their careful work, patience, commitment and valuable contribution to the special issue as a whole. We are deeply grateful to all external peer reviewers whose comments allowed our contributors to improve their articles and develop their arguments on the politics and practices of evaluation. We also want to thank the editors and the journal production coordinators of Arts and the Market, for their work and co-operation in the editorial process.
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2022
In July 2017, the UK’s Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) had the word ‘digital’ adde... more In July 2017, the UK’s Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) had the word ‘digital’ added to its title. This addition reflected a formal revision of the department’s remit and the addition of responsibility for the UK’s digital infrastructure to its existing concerns. The re-named department’s first strategic report, published in 2018, was Culture is Digital, a document that celebrated and sought to further cement relations between the traditional concerns of culture ministries (i.e. with the funding and regulation of access to arts, heritage, and media provision within a territory) and an emerging and increasingly established ‘digital economy’ facilitated by the widespread availability and use of information and communication technologies and devices. In presenting this special issue, we identify this moment in the development of the UK’s policymaking as exemplifying an intensification of the relationship between the concepts of ‘culture’ and ‘digital’ which has been taking place around the world. This shift merits scholarly attention within cultural policy studies that considers not just what these technologies may or may not do for the sector and its institutions but to begin to take seriously the cultural values that underpin them.
Arts and the Market, 2024
Evaluation has become a central feature of policymaking, used and often misused to shape and inf... more Evaluation has become a central feature of policymaking, used and often misused to shape and influence policy goals, priorities and practices. In the case of cultural mega events such as the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) and the UK City of Culture (UKCoC), which are the focus of this special issue, evaluation is a significant mechanism to shape, justify and inform urban cultural policies. Since the publication of the Myerscough (1994) and Palmer and Palmer/Rae Associates (2004) reports, the reputation of the ECoC initiative has been consolidated as an effective catalyst and accelerator for culture-led urban regeneration. After the emergence of the ECoC, many other international and national City of Culture (CoC) initiatives were established across the globe, including the UKCoC. Many policymakers highlight the benefits outlined in evaluation studies at different stages, ranging from the participation in competitive bidding and the implementation of a programme of cultural activities to post-event and legacy actions. However, within the Cities of Culture Research Network (CCRN), we noted a research gap in critical studies on the evaluation of CoC initiatives (Bianchini et al., 2022). As suggested in the previous volume of this special issue (2023), CCRN was established in 2019 and funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council until 2021. Its main aim was to create an interdisciplinary space where academics, postgraduate researchers and policymakers could pursue a better collective understanding of CoCs and their evaluation. It included ECoC, UKCoC and London Borough of Culture projects delivered by British cities and connected UK researchers with their counterparts in Aarhus (Denmark) and Galway (Ireland). The network's members and activities attempted to interrogate the often-problematic relationships between policy and evaluation and to explore the conditions and procedures that are required to create productive links between research and new policy developments, including a better acknowledgement and discussion of ambivalences and failures (Jancovich and Stevenson, 2021). The idea for this special issue arose as part of the activities of the network. We noted that in evaluation studies and impact assessments, CoCs are often portrayed as producing positive socioeconomic effects in areas including tourism, city branding and attracting inward investment. This often leads to a vicious circle in the relationship between evaluation and policymaking. Evaluation studies justify the implementation of policies which produce more evaluation studies that continue to enable policy development. It is also evident that there are many isolated studies about the impacts of CoC programmes, and few that explore medium and long-term effects (with the possible exception of Garcia and Cox, 2013). In studies about the impacts of CoCs, there is often a lack of clarity about processes of evaluation, their main practices and organising principles, the key actors involved and the Guest editorial 1 We would like to thank the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for their funding of the Cities of Culture Research Network (CCRN) from 2019 until 2021. Our appreciation goes to all the members of the network for their active participation in its activities, including for their continued involvement in its online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to thank all authors for their careful work, patience, commitment and valuable contribution to the special issue as a whole. We are deeply grateful to all external peer reviewers whose comments allowed our contributors to improve their articles and develop their arguments on the politics and practices of evaluation. We also want to thank the editors and the journal production coordinators of Arts and the Market, for their work and cooperation in the editorial process.
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2018
The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wi... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the 'permanent WRAP URL' above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2022
In this paper, a change to the remit and title of a UK government department provides a starting ... more In this paper, a change to the remit and title of a UK government department provides a starting point for reflection on the growing role of digital technologies in the re-imagination of UK cultural policy. An early strategic report produced by the renamed DCMS was entitled Culture is Digital. Identifying the UK's cultural and technology sectors as 'the ultimate power couple,' this report directs the cultural sector towards the use of technology to enhance public engagement and to improve technical skills through the development of collaborations with technology companies. Reflecting on the place of DCMS in UK cultural policymaking and drawing on analysis of this report and associated strategic documents, including responses and updates produced in the light of the Covid pandemic, the paper analyses the claims made about the elision between culture and the digital and their consequences for the status of cultural policy within the British state.
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2022
The 21st century has seen the rise of a new phenomenon-the creation of statues and monuments cele... more The 21st century has seen the rise of a new phenomenon-the creation of statues and monuments celebrating the lives of entertainers. Drawing on debates about popular culture, placemaking and heritage, and in the context of recent controversies about the politics of statues and memorials, this paper examines a manifestation of this phenomenon as represented by statues of comedians erected in the towns of Northern England. The paper begins by sketching the characteristics of the statues and their subjects. It proceeds by reflecting on their emergence in the context of debates about the contested place of nostalgia in social and cultural theory. The paper uses a strategically selected subset of the statues to reflect on the emerging cultural and political imaginary of towns as sites of contemporary political struggles. It concludes by asserting that the significant affective investment into statues projects and the progressive potential of popular cultural nostalgia offer an important corrective to crude assumptions about the cultural lives of towns.
Journal for Cultural Research, 2011
This paper offers some speculative discussion about the current state of the "omnivore" debate, i... more This paper offers some speculative discussion about the current state of the "omnivore" debate, instigated by Richard A. Peterson. It argues that debates about the social patterning of tastes need to take greater account of changed practices of cultural production as well as consumption through the identification of two "stories of abundance" in the cultural realm. The first relates to accounts of the changing and expanding cultural industries, whilst the second considers the rich variety of widely available culture enabled by various technologies of distribution. Taking these stories into account, the paper argues that sociological analyses of cultural hierarchy might lag behind those that are mundane and everyday to both cultural producers and consumers and that an orientation to culture that ranges across established hierarchies is increasingly unremarkable. Such a change is related to the structural and discursive means through which culture is circulated. The paper concludes that cultural analysts need to modify their theoretical models and their methodological approaches to better reflect a variegated field of culture and a more fluid cultural hierarchy. In the tradition of both Peterson and Bourdieu, contemporary analyses of patterns of cultural consumption and taste need to take fuller account of the ways in which culture is produced, circulated and valued if they are to maintain their explanatory power.
The Cultural Intermediaries Reader
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Books by David Wright
taste as a matter of personal preference or a crude weapon in social struggles, the book argues that taste remains a key concept for the sociology of culture, media and cultural studies, cultural policy studies and their applied sub-disciplines. Such disciplines have come to appreciate the relation between taste and individual or group identities but have been less attentive to other social and political dimensions of this important component of cultural life
Book Chapters by David Wright
Key words: Bookshop work, chain retailers, rationalization, cultural production and distribution
Papers by David Wright
taste as a matter of personal preference or a crude weapon in social struggles, the book argues that taste remains a key concept for the sociology of culture, media and cultural studies, cultural policy studies and their applied sub-disciplines. Such disciplines have come to appreciate the relation between taste and individual or group identities but have been less attentive to other social and political dimensions of this important component of cultural life
Key words: Bookshop work, chain retailers, rationalization, cultural production and distribution
From the NBICT Website:
'What is cultural taste? How is it formed, imagined and patterned? In Understanding Cultural Taste Sensation, Skill and Sensibility (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), David Wright, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, explores the theories and practices framing cultural taste in contemporary society in order to account for the social role of cultural taste. The book explains how taste is made knowable, through quantification and measurement, moves through an explanation of differing cultural taste patterns, including the all important figure of the omnivore, and narrates the impact of technology on cultural taste. The book accounts for the governing and globalisation of cultural taste, thinking through the rise of cosmopolitan tastes, as well as engaging with ideas about taste and expertise. The book uses a range of examples, including detailed discussions of contemporary art works such as Greyson Perry's The lovely consensus. Although grounded in sociology, the book speaks to debates, and thus to readers, from across arts and cultural subjects.'