Heiko writes:
>> Population explosion -- the sudden flood of "new entrants" into a
cultural
>> field is major explanation of why cultural fields change, according to
>> sociologists of art like Pierre Bourdieu (who's work I greatly admire).
>
>And why is french art today so boring ? The pill ???
>
huhhn?
>No, I dont believe such cheap theories.
>
>
Bourdieu's sociological studies are extremely sophisticated, though I'm
unable to go on at length about them here.
In a nutshell, he has shown that when a cultural field, like the art world,
cannot absorb an influx of new entrants, who's expectations have been raised
to achieve positions within that field, then these new entrants are often
driven to abandon traditional strategies for achieving success and adopt
'revolutionary' strategies that seek to overthrow the principles and social
structure that excludes them.
