Institute for Culture and Society

The analysis of cultural fields developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, examines the production, circulation and consumption of different kinds of cultural activity in relation to their sociological distribution across the population (categorised in terms of class, age, education, gender, ethnicity, and so on). Any national cultural field is usually divided into a number of constituent subfields: the art field, the literary field, the musical field, the media field, the sports field, and so on. The study of cultural fields is generally conducted through a comprehensive mixed methods approach, combining quantitative social science and qualitative interpretive cultural analysis. As such the focus on Australian cultural fields (in the 21st century) provides a perfect hinge for the Institute's dual set of aims: understanding the impacts of global change on culture and society, on the one hand, and a reflection on the role of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences knowledge practices, on the other.

The theme entails a long-term program of research which will provide a comprehensive overview of the organisation of Australian cultural fields and the forces that are reshaping them at a time of extensive global change. The research findings will be of vital relevance to Australian cultural industries, institutions, and policy makers in adjusting industry and government practices to the rapidly changing socio-cultural conditions that now affect both their everyday operations and the long-term calculations needed to inform strategic policy goals and objectives. Major developments in globalisation and digitisation have increasingly intermeshed cultural practices within and between nations to varying degrees. The Australian Cultural Fields Program will, therefore, research systematically the relationship between national and transnational cultural flows.