Creativity and cooperation in art: the case of American jazz, by Howard s. Becker and Robert Faulkner

September 24th and 25th, 2008

Centre for Social Studies / School of Economics, University of Coimbra


Presentation

Howard S. Becker and Robert Faulkner are two renowned American sociologists that, during the course of the last years, have developed, jointly, unique work and insights on the organisation of artistic work, specially emphasising the world of music and jazz.

The innovating work they have come to develop together concerning the American jazz world and the methods of cooperation and collective organisation regarding the creation process and artistic performance, much inspired in the theory of art worlds, constitutes an important contribution not only towards the comprehension of the functioning process of the artistic sphere, but also towards the renovation of the sociological theory, in a broader fashion. In this joint work also gaining special significance is the articulation that both sociologists craft between the instruments of sociological analysis and the practice of artistic experimentation, that Howard S. Becker and Robert Faulkner associate from their experience as jazz musicians.

It is in the view of this joint work that Howard S. Becker and Robert Faulkner come to visit the Centre for Social Studies and the School of Economics, University of Coimbra. Conceived first of all for students of the doctoral programmes promoted by the Centre for social Studies in collaboration with the School of Economics, as well as for BA and MA students in the area of sociology at this School, but also open to the participation of a wider audience, the initiative aims affording Portuguese communities of social scientists and artists, as well as to scholars and to those concerned with the art and culture worlds, contact with the unique work that both sociologists have developed. The initiative also integrates itself in the commemorations of the 30th anniversary of the Centre for Social Studies and the 20th anniversary of the Degree in Sociology of the School of Economics.

The visit of both sociologists shall be organized in two moments. In the first moment, Howard S. Becker and Robert Faulkner shall hold a session in the order of jazz and logics of collective organization of artistic work. In this session, besides a conference, they will offer a jazz music show, followed by a debate, where they shall explore, with a practical and experimental outlook, the more conceptual issues approached during the conference. Moreover, they will also, for the first time, publicly release their new book Do You Know? Jazz Repertoire in Action, which is now being published with the guaranty of University of Chicago Press.
In the second moment, Howard S. Becker and Richard Faulkner shall hold a seminar on qualitative methodologies of research, based on their vast experience of usage and formalisation of field work and participative observation techniques.

Biographic Notes

Autonomously considered, their scientific and academic trajectories render them as two referential names as what matters to contemporary sociology and social sciences.

Howard S. Becker is one of the top names of contemporary sociology. Achieving his doctorate degree in 1951 at the University of Chicago, he was Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, University of Washington and University of California at Santa Barbara. His work constitutes a fundamental reference in fields such as sociology of deviance, processes of social stigmatization, symbolic interactionism, sociology of art and culture, qualitative methods of social research, “visual sociology”. Amongst his most notable contributions concerning sociological knowledge, we highlight the “labelling theory”, originally developed in his seminal work Outsiders, and the theory on “the art worlds”, consecrated fundamentally with the publishing of his book Artworlds.

Robert Faulkner, for his part, proceeded to his doctorate degree in 1968 at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) and is Professor of sociology at university of Massachusetts – Amherst. Along his career he has developed referential work in the fields of sociology of organisations and of professional careers, with special emphasis on professional organisation of work in the field of music and cinema, market method, criminality in the business world, qualitative methodologies for social research.



Organisation:
Centre for Social Studies and School of Economics, University of Coimbra in collaboration with Jazz ao Centro Clube

Within the Doctoral Programmes CES/FEUC:
Cities and Urban Cultures
Governance, Knowledge and Innovation
Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship