New Directions in the Study of Culture

Cultural analysis has recently emerged as a prominent subfield within sociology. The subfield comprises a variety of approaches and substantive concerns, which may for heuristic purposes be divided along several lines. One major division separates studies viewing culture as implicit in social life from studies in which culture is seen as an explicit social product. Alternatively, recent cultural studies can be divided on the basis of the theoretical methods they employ. Four such approaches predominate: subjective, structural, dramaturgic, and institutional. Finally, cultural studies may be classified with respect to their area of substantive interest. Reviews are given of recent work in four substantive fields: public moral discourse, science, organizational culture, and ideology.