Turf Wars or Truly Understanding Culture? Moving Beyond Isolation and Importation to Genuine Cross-disciplinary Engagement

• In Event: 264 - Section on Sociology of Culture Paper Session. Can Cultural Sociology Be An Interscience?

Abstract

Understanding culture – its origins, transmission, and effects – is a monumental task that has long occupied sociologists. I propose that the task cannot be adequately accomplished by sociologists, either in isolation from other discipline, nor by importing insights from other branches of the social and behavioral sciences to address largely sociological questions. The questions and preoccupations of any single discipline are usually too narrow (and the subject matter too vast) to afford full understanding. Rather, understanding will be assembled piecemeal as scholars across disciplines jointly contribute to (and critique) a common, interdisciplinary body of knowledge. I offer a number of suggestions for making this vision more of a reality for sociologists interested in studying culture.

Author

• Andrew Miles, University of Toronto Mississauga