Social Networks and Production of Culture in a Global Environment
Baltzis, Alexandros
Paper at the 9th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA): "European Society or European Societies?"
European Sociological Association (ESA) - Research Network for the Sociology of the Arts (RN2), Department of Sociology of ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute, Human and Social Sciences School of the New University of Lisbon (FCSH-UNL), Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL), Portuguese Sociological Association (APS)
Lisbon, September 2-5, 2009
Understanding globalization as a complex social phenomenon, this paper takes a different stance from both the cultural... more
Understanding globalization as a complex social phenomenon, this paper takes a different stance from both the cultural imperialism paradigm and the fragmented empiricism of several micro-level approaches of the arts. It is based on the approach of the arts as forms of communication, as systems for the creation, production, dissemination and reception of symbolic forms. In this context, the paper explores several features of globalization that affect both the arts and their sociological approach in numerous noteworthy ways.
These features include the introduction of alternative modes for the production of symbolic forms, associated with the development of digital technologies, the convergence of different forms of communication and the broader changes in communications. They also include the collapse of the barriers in cultural exchanges, the opening of the cultural markets and the increasing importance of the global multimedia conglomerates - developments that entail new regulation problems, concerns about cultural diversity and the freedom of expression, as well as the intensification of the global cultural asymmetries.
It is argued that, nevertheless, these same developments created a new condition, reinforcing the proliferation of social networks and their eventual emergence as an alternative mode for the production of culture. The paper focuses on these peculiarities, supporting that globalization - even in its current, neoliberal form - affected in various, contradictory ways all six facets of the production of culture and created many more possibilities for the study of informal and alternative art worlds that have been hardly explored in the past. The paper holds that in these circumstances it is the responsibility of the sociology of the arts not only to study them, but also to suggest ways for their support and development, adopting a synthesis between older approaches and different points of view and taking into account more recent ones, like the social networks market perspective.
From this point of view, the paper takes also a different stance from both the enthusiastic support and the complete rejection of the market mechanisms in the cultural field, as well as from the Internet Nirvana Theory. Its main argument is that cultural and educational policies are needed to support further democratization of the artistic realm, counterbalancing the forces of an uncontrollable market rather than eliminating it whatsoever.
From RF to the Internet: Radio and Musical Culture in the 21st Century
Baltzis, Alexandros
In the collective volume "Digital Media: The Culture of Sound and Spectacle" (In Greek), pp. 305-335.
Editors: M. Kokkonis, G. Paschalidis, Ph. Bantimaroudis.
Athens: Kritiki, 2010.
This is a review of the web radio and the research in this field from a perspective focused on the specific relation... more
This is a review of the web radio and the research in this field from a perspective focused on the specific relation between radio and musical culture. The review identifies the main issues and presents the debates and the rationale of the empirical research on internet radio developed since the mid '90s. It underlines the subjects open to inquiry and suggests future directions of research. It also argues that the range of the issues, the number of the disciplines involved, the permanence of the debates and the inquiries, and the multiple directions in which future research might develop, show that the web radio is not a passing or circumstantial field. This is valid especially for those who maintain that the content specificity, the mode of its production, and a specific relation with the musical culture, define what radio is rather than transmission technologies.
The study highlights the cultural importance of the RF radio, its catalytic impact on musical culture, and outlines the peculiarities of the Greek case from this point of view. It argues that this might be a framework for analyzing internet radio. In the same line of argument, the study includes also a critical review of several sociological approaches concerning the construction of culture by the RF radio as well as its construction by the culture (Adorno, Hirsch, Peterson, Hennion, and Negus). It concludes that the web radio challenges these approaches while its relation with the musical culture is still open to exploration.
The analysis arrives at the conclusion, that while several studies have identified new trends and possibilities in this direction, the research has not yet gone far enough. As a result, although the internet radio does not seem to disrupt the relation with the musical culture, the peculiarities and extend of its impact have not been clarified yet while a re-examination and eventually a revision of the approaches challenged is still absent. Finally, the paper argues that research in this direction is crucial because it might lead to an enrichment of major theories and basic assumptions about both the production of culture and the culture of production.
Copyright, Freedom of Expression® and Artistic Communication in the Internet Era: The Recorded Music
Deliyanni, Elsa; Baltzis, Alexandros; Synodinou, Tatiana
Paper at the international conference "The Impact of Internet on the Mass Media in Europe"
European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST - Action A20), Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
Delphi, April 26-28, 2006.
Based on the case of music in the internet, this paper explores the framework and the parameters of the conflict... more
Based on the case of music in the internet, this paper explores the framework and the parameters of the conflict arising between copyright (in the sense of the protection granted by law to the authors by allowing them to prohibit unauthorized use of their works) and the right of the citizens to be informed. It presents some paradoxes that often result during litigation the degree to which the established legal approach of the peer-to-peer music file exchange complies with recent developments.
The paper discusses also the challenges that the internet creates for the recording industry, the phases of the "war on copyright infringement" in which the industry is involved, as well as its strategy. A major asymmetry is actually established in this field: the very notion of intellectual property - being socially constructed (and therefore culturally determined) - is incompatible with new types of practice and new forms of culture that proliferate in the internet and the public "cybersphere". Furthermore, it is incompatible also with cultures ignoring the concepts of individual creativity and of the autonomous and accomplished individual artwork.
Finally, the paper discusses some issues which are really at stake and extend far beyond the industry concerns about lost profits.
Download (.pdf) Globalization and Musical Culture
Baltzis, Alexandros
Acta Musicologica, 77(1): 137-150. Published: 2005
The first part of this article outlines the main features of globalization as a complex social phenomenon and the... more
The first part of this article outlines the main features of globalization as a complex social phenomenon and the basic approaches to it by social scientists. The second part discusses the changes brought about by the technological developments taking place in a globalized system of reified social relations. This discussion affirms that the institutional changes - concerning mainly music production and distribution - and the structural changes of musical communication transform the reception of the artworks. Considering also the processes of transculturation, these changes form a new context for the creation of music, in an environment of global cultural exchanges. The third part of the article, analyzes the asymmetries and antinomies that result from the globalization of musical culture. The article ascertains that the formal democratization of musical life constitutes an essential feature of the modern musical culture on a global level. This situation favors the coexistence of risks and opportunities on a global and on a local level as well. The article maintains also that the economic, cultural and political aspects of these developments cannot be separated any more. Actually, the globalization of musical culture means globalization of the reified social relations in the cultural field.
This conclusion follows from analyses that appear in the international literature about the economic and cultural consequences of the predominance of global multimedia conglomerates, as well as from analyses of the unequal intellectual property system which these conglomerates impose on a global level. These circumstances construct a new framework for the mass media seen as institutions for the reproduction and distribution of music (and generally of artworks), and - consequently - as systems for the management of aesthetic values. The article arrives also at the conclusion that the developments under discussion create new possibilities for cultural action, interaction, and reaction.
Finally, the study points out some of the new challenges that emerge for the "traditional" musicology, the sociology of music, the theory of artistic education, and also for the cultural and educational policy.
The Mediamorphosis of the Artistic Communication (Reproduction, Broadcast, Internet)
Baltzis, Alexandros
Seminar of the European research network Digital Radio Cultures in Europe (COST A20), Pages: 18, Year: 2004
This is an introduction to the theoretical and methodological framework for the study of the impact that the internet... more
This is an introduction to the theoretical and methodological framework for the study of the impact that the internet has on the artistic communication.
The first part introduces the main changes of the artistic communication brought about by modernity. It also analyses briefly commodification, intermediation and emancipation as the main features of this form of communication in modern societies.
In the second part, the analysis regards reproduction and broadcast as two successive phases in the development of the ways to distribute artworks and introduces a review of the analytic term "mediamorphosis". Although the term is introduced at the beginning of the '70s, it is elaborated just at the beginning of the '90s in the fields of the communication and journalism studies (by Fidler) and in the sociology of music (by Blaukopf). By the beginning of the next decade, the term is used in the sociology of the arts (by A. Schmudits), in order to signify the major changes of the cultural and artistic production brought about by the development of the mass communication and the media. In this context, the lecture explores the main features of the artistic communication in its most recent phase - the internet.
The third part of the lecture describes the main features of the mediamorphosis of the artistic communication through the internet: digitalization, global dissemination, interactivity, development of the global multimedia conglomerates, production designed as ever-expanding revenue stream, flexible specialization and finally high concentration and diversification, but - at the same time - high degrees of product diversity and consumer choice.
Finally, in this complex and contradictory context, the lecture describes in broad strokes the main asymmetries and antinomies of the current phase in the development of the artistic communication, as well as its different aspects.