Occupational Logics and Political Commitment

American Artists Against the Iraq War

Bibliographic Data

ID2283306
AuthorsViolaine Roussel (0000-0003-2827-1518, Institut des Sciences Sociales du Politique, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume1
Issue4
Pages373-390
Publication date2007-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-5687.2007.00027.x
OpenAlexW2145939938
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited26

This article analyzes the political commitment of American artists, belonging to various art worlds, against the recent war in Iraq. Through the construction of three types of trajectories, I distinguish several mechanisms of commitment and forms of political involvement. I show how artists’ heterogeneous professional identities structure their political commitment throughout the protest, how occupational logics shape the possible forms of action, in the artists’ eyes. In the second part of the article, I focus on what is changing, in this context, in the relationships between the artistic and the political spheres, and what is revealed about their ordinary functioning. As a result of the increasing differentiation and specialization of the spheres of action in our societies, it has become more and more difficult and illegitimate for artists to fuse their artwork and their political positions. At the same time, individuals with strong resources of notoriety, especially in the film industry, have demanded a new role of public representation, challenging the exclusive political legitimacy to represent people

Aesthetics · Art · Legitimacy · Media studies · Political action · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Artistic and Creative Research · Critical Theory and Political Philosophy · History · Law · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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