How to Study Art Worlds: On the Societal Functioning of Aesthetic Values

While numerous studies over the years have focused on the ways in which art functions in our society, How to Study Art Worlds is the first to examine it in light of the organizational aspects of the art world. Van Maanen delves into the works of such sociologists as Howard S. Becker, Pierre Bourdieu, George Dickie, and Niklas Luhmann, among others, to examine the philosophical debates surrounding aesthetic experienceand then traces the consequences that each of these approaches has had and continues to have on organizations in the art world.