The Covid-19 crisis has deeply affected the production, distribution, and consumption of culture. Early on in the unfolding of the crisis, governmental and other institutional reactions across the world might have prioritized conventional sectors of the economy more than the arts. However, it soon became clear that the situation of artists and cultural workers as well as their venues could not be neglected, especially in the face of the renewed intensification of the crisis or the “second wave” of autumn 2020. The cultural sector’s own immediate responses to the imposed restrictions, such as the shift towards digital strategies, also lead to new and perhaps unintended consequences on a larger scale, such as live concerts through social media, virtual museums, digital access to books or libraries, broadcasted concerts on balconies, etc. At the same time, not only did the various authorities and producers re-evaluate culture, but so did audiences. The inequalities, uncertainties and precariousness often already inherent to culture have multiplied and become even more visible. During the SSA Congress 2021, the Research Committee Sociology of Arts and Culture (RC-SAC, or Foko-KUKUSO would like to undertake discussions on the shifts currently taking place in the arts and the cultural sector as regards social justice, and particularly in uncertain times. Our main interest concerns the reshufflings of the cultural sector that stem from the Covid-19 crisis. Research that tackles the changes that arts and culture undergo in light of other crises (economic crisis, climate crisis, political crisis etc. is also possible.

La critique littéraire en ligne, une critique incertaine

Clara Levy (Institut d’Études Européennes, Université Paris 8, France)

Dans notre communication, nous souhaiterions étudier l’explosion des critiques culturelles médiatisées par internet, réalisées par un public profane d’amateurs, qui se développent en parallèle de l’expertise professionnelle toujours exprimée par des critiques professionnels.  Plus précisément, nous voudrions envisager ce changement à propos des critiques littéraires, et même plus spécifiquement à propos des critiques littéraires concernant deux ouvrages de P. Modiano mises en ligne sur deux sites : le site Amazon et le site Babelio. Il s’agira de décrire et d’analyser les registres de discours utilisés par les internautes déposant leurs avis et leurs notes sur ces deux sites pour repérer quelles valeurs sont mobilisées dans les textes mis en ligne et dans quelle mesure ces valeurs génèrent plus ou moins d’incertitude sur les textes de Modiano évalués.

Dans une première partie, nous caractériserons brièvement les deux sites internet, en soulignant leurs similitudes (sur Amazon, comme sur Babelio prévaut un système d’« étoilage » pour noter les livres chroniqués) et leurs différences (sur Amazon, sont notés et chroniqués des ouvrages achetés sur le site, alors que Babelio est spécifiquement destiné à la critique amateur). 

Dans une seconde partie, nous mènerons une analyse du corpus des presque trois cents avis recueillis sur les sites Amazon et Babelio à propos de deux ouvrages de P. Modiano. Nous expliquerons quelles caractéristiques sociales des internautes-critiques amateurs sont ou pas disponibles sur les deux sites, et les modalités de modération, plus ou moins interventionnistes, des avis des internautes. Nous exposerons également les caractéristiques objectivables principales des commentaires mis en ligne sur ces deux sites à propos de Dora Bruder et de Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier. À quelles dates sont-ils parus (avant ou après l’attribution du Prix Nobel ? Par qui sont-ils rédigés ? De quelle longueur sont-ils ? Les critiques amateurs expriment-ils des prescriptions (positives ou négatives) quant aux ouvrages chroniqués ou sont-ils neutres de ce point de vue-là ?

Dans une troisième partie, nous analyserons enfin les valeurs principalement mobilisées par les internautes pour rendre compte des ouvrages de Modiano lus, en essayant de montrer leur inégale mobilisation sur les deux sites : la valeur esthétique, la valeur d’authenticité, la valeur morale, la valeur d’originalité et enfin la valeur affective sont (simultanément ou pour certaines d’entre eux seulement – cela dépend des critiques) à l’œuvre dans des textes. Leur inégale mobilisation selon les internautes permet de classer ceux-ci sur une échelle de quasi-professionnalisation et donc de rendre le jugement des plus « professionnels » d’entre eux moins incertain.

Keywords:  Littérature; Critique professionnelle et profane; Critique en ligne; Incertitude 

Flux of control: mapping the metamorphosis of music on YouTube

Guillaume Heuguet, Laboratoire GRIPIC & Laboratoire IRMECCEN, Sorbonne Nouvelle

This proposal is interested in the extension of streaming platforms in contexts of crisis and the question of how these platforms change the way culture is produced or accessed.

Using the results of a longitudinal analysis of the changes of YouTube through a web archive and a survey of the media discourse about the platform from 2005 to 2018, I propose to identify different axes in the metamorphosis of music culture. Identifying these metamorphoses challenges the discourses that position the economy and/or technologies as the driving forces of the changes in music culture. Instead, I frame them within wider social and symbolic processes of the mediatization of value. I seek to address the heterogeneity of the processes that underlie debates on the "crisis of value" of online music and the role played by digital platforms such as YouTube.

I note seven metamorphosis of musical culture:

1. music is metamorphosed on a technical scale as it is embedded in processes of cross-sectoral innovation around compression and playback devices 
2. it becomes incidental within intermedial formats, where its status as an autonomous aesthetic form is negotiated 
3. the spectacular dimension of the music is re-actualized through the revival of vaudeville traditions, but also of the media rituals of classic television entertainment 
4. digital music's moral economy is rewritten into the neoliberal rhetoric of opportunity as it becomes part of strategies of self-promotion (for the artists) and of the self-management of taste (on the listeners' side) 
5. music distribution is serialized: musicians are now subjected to injunctions to "creativity" that were first applied to and by videographers and which cover indicators of productivity and regularity in music video publications registered in "channels" 
6. music is controlled, through semi-automated copyright management systems that redefine the status of musical or audiovisual productions according to criteria of originality reinvented by the modelization of sonic singularity
7. music listening is abstracted as a practice, the reference to listening or paying attention to music is being dissolved in the process of audience measurement and "monetization".

Taking YouTube as a case study can thus serve as a prototype to identify the issues and "prises" (Bessy & Chateauraynauld, 1995) from which, in situations of crisis, the value of music is negotiated. The movements of de-structurization-restructuring of value chains already analyzed by Beuscart in the early 2000s (Beuscart, 2006) seem to set up the scene for a transformation of the antagonism between control and flow of musical culture: this is problematized in both the literature about the political economy of music and in a number of musical or sonic practices found on YouTube.

Keywords: Streaming; Online music; Musical culture; Intermedial formats 

Une histoire européenne de l’incertaine définition de la professionnalité en musique (1910-2020)

Marc Perrenoud, LACCUS, Université de Lausanne

Ma communication reprendra la substance du chapitre que j’ai récemment rédigé pour le manuel académique « Musicking in Twentieth Century Europe » (Rempe & Nathaus, 2021). Ce travail s’attache à retracer l’histoire de la professionnalisation du métier de musicien au cours du siècle écoulé. Je montrerai comment, au gré des mutations sociales (culturelles, techniques, économiques, politiques) qui ont marqué le XXè siècle, l’inscription sociale et statutaire des musiciens a considérablement varié (quel que soit le genre musical). Dans une première partie on verra qu’un premier mouvement de professionnalisation du métier a marqué les cinquante premières années de la période, notamment avec l’émergence et le développement de syndicats puissants et de dispositifs de régulation du travail et de l’emploi.  Dans une deuxième partie, je montrerai comment à partir des années 1960, avec l’avènement de la pop music en particulier, apparaît à l’inverse une tendance que l’on pourrait qualifier de dé-professionnalisante, jusqu’à la situation contemporaine, marquée par une totale incertitude quant aux modalités futures de régulation de l’emploi musical. En effet les différents modèle nationaux d’encadrement sont depuis une trentaine d’années soumis à l’augmentation considérable du nombre de personnes cherchant à devenir « musicien.ne.s », parfois à n’importe que prix, et depuis quelques années, on assiste en outre à la « plateformisation » de la prestation de service musicale via des sites spécialisés. Comme souvent, cette histoire de l’emploi musical en Europe constitue aussi un miroir grossissant quant à l’évolution du rapport à l’emploi dans les pays occidentaux, notamment dans le brouillage toujours plus important des frontières entre salariat et indépendance.

Keywords: Musique, musiciens; Professionnalisation; Plateformisation; Histoire

Community Arts Institutions Under Duress

Julia Rothenberg, Queensborough Community College, CUNY

Urban arts institutions are key economic and place-making engines in the United States and elsewhere. City and state governments, developers, businesses, universities and partner with arts advocates to cultivate and sustain organizations and creative placemaking initiatives that support the arts while also luring creative class workers and employers and tourists to cities to promote local development. The endgame for many such initiatives includes economic development which leads to gentrification and displacement even when these initiatives claim to serve the community. 

Reflecting a service-oriented approach and the influence of participatory art practices community-based arts institutions (CBAIs) directly serve the interests of local residents. Rather than providing programing that fits mainstream art world norms, they support local artists, feature programing related to the experience of community members and sometimes provide services such as food pantries, English Language classes and other social services that have been cut during retrenchment. Thus, they fulfill a variety of needs for residents, many of whom do not have access to the cultural offerings of the city precisely because as the city center became more desirable lower-income residents were priced further and further away from central amenities.  These organizations tend to be smaller, have limited funding channels and rely on the participation of local artists and community members more than mainstream arts organizations located in central or gentrifying neighborhoods. 

The economic, social and public health impacts of the Covid-19 epidemic have accelerated the ever-widening inequality caused by financialization of urban space and retrenchment of federal, state and city programs meant to mitigate inequality. They also present existential challenges to the future of cities like New York. With declining tax revenues and without substantial funding from the Federal Government, New York City faces severe budget shortfalls for at least the next few years. While many necessary services will be slashed, cuts to the arts and cultural sectors will be especially profound.

Urban arts institutions in the United States are in a precarious financial situation in the best of times and are particularly vulnerable during periods of economic crisis. This is especially true of CBAIs, which rely on a smaller funding base and are unable to generate significant revenue through ticket sales, gift shops and glamorous fund-raising events. Thus, smaller cultural institutions that cater to communities most impacted by the virus physically and economically are likely to suffer the most. In addition, because they sometimes provide important community services, the impact of the loss of these institutions will be uniquely felt by their constituencies.

I would like to present results of ongoing research on the impact of the pandemic and its economic fallout on six CBAIs located in three New York City boroughs that I have been conducting since June, 2020 Documenting and assessing the impact of Covid-19 on community arts institutions serves three purposes. First, it provides a lens into the important role local arts institutions play in community recovery. Second, it gives voice to the specific way local arts institutions and the communities they serve have been adversely impacted by Covid-19. Finally, it will provide important information which such institutions may utilize to remain afloat.

Keywords: Community arts; Urban arts institutions; Participatory art practices; USA