About the ESA Research Network for the Sociology of the Arts

The Sociology of the Arts network was founded under the auspices of the European Sociological Association thanks to the efforts of Tia DeNora, Anna Lisa Tota, Robert W. Witkin, Jan Marontate, and other founding members who wished to promote creative collaboration. The first meeting of the Network was held at the 4th ESA-conference in Amsterdam in 1999. The key aim of the Arts Network is to promote collaboration and scholarly exchange between European-based scholars of the arts and non-European scholars whose work encompasses the arts in Europe, past or present.

The group shares a common conception of the arts as active ingredients in the making and remaking of social life. This concern has heightened salience in Europe where, in this new millennium, the arts are increasingly employed as media of government, and where, accordingly, arts sociology has grown in both scope and importance.

The ESA Arts Network held interim conferences at Exeter (2000), Paris (2003), Rotterdam (2004), and Lueneburg/Hamburg (2007) and convened for the Biennial ESA conference in Helsinki (2001), Murcia (2003), Torun (2005) and Glasgow (2007). The 9th Network meeting will take place in Venice (2008).