Articles, Chapters, Dissertation, & Reports by Timothy J Dowd
音乐艺术 (The Art of Music), 2021
从社会学的角度来讲，什么是音乐?个人和群体如何使用音乐?音乐的集体创作是如何实现 的?音乐如何与更广泛的社会差异相联系，尤其是阶级、种族和性别?通过回答这些问题，音 乐为所有社会学家极为关注的问... more 从社会学的角度来讲，什么是音乐?个人和群体如何使用音乐?音乐的集体创作是如何实现 的?音乐如何与更广泛的社会差异相联系，尤其是阶级、种族和性别?通过回答这些问题，音 乐为所有社会学家极为关注的问题提供了一个重要且引人入胜的话题— 从互动的微观基础 到不平等的宏观动态。
Much of the existing research in the area of adolescent drug use is either atheoretical or poorly... more Much of the existing research in the area of adolescent drug use is either atheoretical or poorly developed. While there is no widely accepted theory to account for an individual's decision to become involved in drugs, a number of relevant, theoretical frameworks have been developed. These include Kandel's socialization framework, based on her earlier work on selective influences of family and peers. The present research evaluates Kandel's socialization framework, and the findings tend to confirm many of her basic assumptions. The ramifications of this discovery are discussed in relation to the alienatiodanomie perspective.
Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media, and the Arts, 2009
We draw on a survey of jazz musicians to examine their economic success (annual amount of money e... more We draw on a survey of jazz musicians to examine their economic success (annual amount of money earned through music) and critical success (national recognition of their talent). In doing so, we bring together literatures that are not normally in dialogue – one addressing generalism and the careers of creative personnel and the other addressing the circulation of capitals (e.g., cultural capital) in fields of cultural production. We find, among other things, that aesthetic generalism (being conversant in a wide range of genres) has a positive impact on both earnings and national recognition – with veteran musicians particularly benefitting from the relationship between aesthetic generalism and critical success. Those musicians with much social capital (e.g., number of local musicians known by name) and much human capital (years of musical experience) enjoy heightened economic, but not critical, success. Technical generalism (playing a wide range of musical instruments) has no bearing on economic success but has a negative impact on critical success – particularly for veteran jazz musicians. We discuss how such findings demonstrate the analytical utility of heeding the resources and “signaled competencies” that creative personnel have for negotiating fields of cultural production.
Poetics
We draw on a survey of jazz musicians to examine their economic success (annual amount of money e... more We draw on a survey of jazz musicians to examine their economic success (annual amount of money earned through music) and critical success (national recognition of their talent). In doing so, we bring together literatures that are not normally in dialogue—one addressing generalism and the careers of creative personnel and the other addressing the circulation of capitals (e.g., cultural capital) in fields of cultural production. We find, among other things, that aesthetic generalism (being conversant in a wide range of genres) has a positive impact on both earnings and national recognition—with veteran musicians particularly benefitting from the relationship between aesthetic generalism and critical success. Those musicians with much social capital (e.g., number of local musicians known by name) and much human capital (years of musical experience) enjoy heightened economic, but not critical, success. Technical generalism (playing a wide range of musical instruments) has no bearing on economic success but has a negative impact on critical success—particularly for veteran jazz musicians. We discuss how such findings demonstrate the analytical utility of heeding the resources and “signaled competencies” that creative personnel have for negotiating fields of cultural production.
SNAAP Special Report (Spring 2020), 2020
How best to balance in the curriculum preparation for specialized, skill-heavy careers in highly ... more How best to balance in the curriculum preparation for specialized, skill-heavy careers in highly competitive arts professions with the sort of educational preparation characteristic of a liberal arts curriculum that promises to prepare students for flexible, self-directed, adaptable career paths with the multiple episodes and pivots that have become so commonplace for this generation? What is most “foundational” in an undergraduate education in the arts and what skills and knowledge should be deferred to advanced study or the lessons of working life?
Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) survey data provide abundant insights into this perennial dilemma of curriculum design. While this SNAAP Special Report does not address all of these questions, it sheds light on an important yet understudied question related to the challenge of preparing students for an artistic career:
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science , 2008
In this exploratory study, we bring together two areas of organizational research – positive orga... more In this exploratory study, we bring together two areas of organizational research – positive organizational scholarship and institutional theory – to examine the discourse of charismatic leadership in the context of organizational change. We focus on the case of Martha Stewart and her emotional expressions in two columns she authored in her magazine, Martha Stewart Living. Our content analysis revealed that the levels and ratio of leaders’ positivity both correlates with, and counters, organizational change, blunting organizational decline and personal scandal or revealing a human, vulnerable side when times are better. Our findings point to the utility of conjoining positive organizational scholarship and institutional theory: while the former shows how charisma unbound can result in emotive leadership, the latter suggests that the bounding of charisma can easily occur in organizations.
Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2005
Research on creative workers speaks to the relative lack of job opportunities available, the role... more Research on creative workers speaks to the relative lack of job opportunities available, the role that changing production logics play in shaping such opportunities, and gender disparities in success. Tracking the 22,561 hits found on Billboard’s mainstream charts, we examine various factors that may spur or hamper the success of female recording acts. We find that the expanding logic of decentralized production eliminates the negative effect of concentration on the success of female acts and that the presence of successful female acts in one period bodes well for subsequent female acts, until a glass ceiling of sorts is reached.
Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media, and the Arts, 2002
What factors shape the relative success of Black performers in the U.S. recording business? Two l... more What factors shape the relative success of Black performers in the U.S. recording business? Two literatures suggest a range of hypotheses; one literature deals with concentration and diversity within markets and the other deals with the history of media and popular music as it pertains to issues of race. We test these hypotheses by analyzing the quarterly percentage of Black performers found on the mainstream popularity charts from 1940 to 1990. We find support for hypotheses from both literatures. Regarding the first literature, high concentration dampens the relative success of Black performers, but its negative impact is offset as recording firms embrace decentralized production. Regarding the second literature, several historical developments are key: the relative success of Black performers was dampened when networks dominated the radio industry and when the recording industry endured a recession; the relative success of Black performers expanded during periods of heightened racial conflict and during the integration of a key union, the American Federation of Musicians.
Careers in Creative Industries, 2012
Composers of "serious" music (rather than "popular") music face a particular challenge in becomin... more Composers of "serious" music (rather than "popular") music face a particular challenge in becoming well established in their careers: Key intermediaries that disseminate such serious music (i.e., orchestras) have historically emphasized dead composers from the past (the "classics"). We focus here on this career challenge by analyzing US orchestral repertoires during the 2005-2006 season. While the classics still dominate orchestral repertoires in general, large orchestras in the New York City metropolitan area—as well as well as small orchestras across the country with specialized repertoires or numerous premiers—are amenable to the performance of living composers.
Social Forces, 2004
What shapes the diversity of media markets? A literature on the U.S. recording industry offers co... more What shapes the diversity of media markets? A literature on the U.S. recording industry offers competing accounts. The cyclical account stresses the negative effect of market concentration, where high concentration dampens diversity. The open system account stresses a mitigated effect, where the logic of decentralized production reduces concentration’s negative effect. However, both accounts contain notable gaps. This article fills these gaps and consequently advances this literature. Most notably, it adjudicates these accounts by analyzing time series data on two carriers of diversity: performing acts and recording firms. When decentralized production is low, as in the 1940s, high concentration reduces the number of new performers and new firms. When decentralized production grows more pronounced, as in the 1980s, concentration’s negative effect is reduced and eventually eliminated.
International Journal of Sociology & Social Policy , 2002
Numerous scholars lament the commodification found in media markets, especially as they fear that... more Numerous scholars lament the commodification found in media markets, especially as they fear that rampant commercialization poses challenges for cultural vitality. Drawing on neo-Weberian theory, the present study takes a different approach to commodification. While not discounting the potentially negative effects of commercialization, I argue that commodification is itself a cultural process. In media markets, commodification entails the process whereby economic actors collectively conceptualize the nature of their media product — including the physical forms that it takes and the commercial uses of said forms. Structural power lies at the heart of this process, as certain economic actors seek to (and do) impose their product conception. As a result, shifts in structural power result in episodic changes, with once powerful actors and product conceptions giving way to emergent ones. I demonstrate this argument by examining product conceptions in the early U.S. recording industry. Shifts in structural power resulted in three disparate periods. In the late 1870s, recording firms sold and leased phonographs to entrepreneurs for public exhibitions. In the late 1880s, recording firms leased phonographs and graphophones for dictation purposes. In the early to mid-1890s, recording firms exploited the phonograph and graphophone by offering musical recordings.
Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2004
Bourdieu clearly articulates how cultural capital works at the macro-level and how it leads to th... more Bourdieu clearly articulates how cultural capital works at the macro-level and how it leads to the reproduction and legitimation of inequality. He is less clear about other levels of analysis. We address this gap by drawing on social psychological theories and by suggesting that cultural capital is best treated as a multi-level concept – with “cultural capital” produced at the macro-level, “subcultural capital” produced at the meso-level, and “multicultural capital” produced at the micro-level. We illustrate with an exploratory analysis of an advertising agency in Eastern Europe, thereby highlighting legitimacy processes occurring among its departments and personnel.
Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 2000
What factors shape the diversity of media products? A literature on the recording industry offers... more What factors shape the diversity of media products? A literature on the recording industry offers competing accounts. The “cyclical account” stresses the negative impact of market concentration, where high concentration dampens the diversity of recordings. The “open system account” stresses the conditional impact of concentration: when centralized production prevails, high concentration dampens diversity; when decentralized production prevails, high concentration and diversity can co-occur. The present paper extends this literature in several ways. First, drawing on quantitative analysis of musical content, it examines the impact of concentration on the musical diversity of hit records. Second, it tests the strength of both accounts by considering a time period where concentration rose and decentralized production prevailed. Finally, it augments both accounts by considering other factors that could likewise affect musical diversity. The results offer strong support for the open system account. From 1955 to 1990, under decentralized production, concentration and musical diversity both increased. The results also expand the open system account. Autonomous performers were most likely to create musically diverse recordings; songs with extended instrumental passages and songs of long duration likewise fostered musical diversity.
Creativity and Sociology: Doing Social Research with and on Artistic Source, 2025
Drawing on a wealth of prior scholarship, contemporary sociologists emphasize that “boundary-work... more Drawing on a wealth of prior scholarship, contemporary sociologists emphasize that “boundary-work” is a fundamental aspect of social life. That is, people put activities, objects, and even other people into various categories – drawing lines between what or who belongs or does not belong, between what or who are worthy or not worthy. Furthermore, this boundary-work involves both classification (i.e. symbolic boundaries) and exclusion (i.e. social boundaries), with both types reinforcing each other – as when those deemed not “worthy” in a classificatory sense are denied entrée to and opportunities within particular social settings. Of course, some boundary-work wields more impact than does others: the symbolic and social boundaries drawn by powerful groups arguably shape society more than the boundaries drawn by the marginalized. However, the boundary-work of the powerful can inspire challenge and resistance by the marginalized and, in the long run, open the door for social change.
While boundary-work can sometimes be discussed in abstract fashion, musical settings are exceptionally suited for bringing boundary-work to the fore in a concrete and informative fashion. That is because, at its core, the activity of music (i.e. musicking) is built around such fundamental categories as (1) genre (musical elements that belong together in some sense), (2) heritage (the totality of works, creators, etc., that fit within a given genre), and (3) canon (the “greatest” that a given genre offers in terms of works and creators). Indeed, in this chapter, I focus on the activities – the musicking and boundary-work – that connect the ongoing classification of musical genres with the evolving understandings of their respective musical heritage and canon. I do by drawing on recent research in music sociology and, in the process, also reveal how musicking and boundary-making shape the collective memory that emerges from these processes – a collective memory shaped by both powerful actors and successful challengers.
American Behavioral Scientist, 1997
Economic sociologists stress that economic actors are embedded in a sociohistorical context that ... more Economic sociologists stress that economic actors are embedded in a sociohistorical context that shapes and constrains activity. Neoinstitutionalists build on this idea and argue that economic actors are embedded in two key ways. First, they are embedded in the rationalized worldview described by Weber in which every end has an optimal means. Second, economic actors are embedded in a local context in which they collectively search for optimal strategies. Whereas local contexts and strategies vary greatly, neoinstitutionalists find great regularity in the script by which economic actors converge in strategies. The present article expounds on this “double embeddedness” by way of a single historical case: the construction of strategy by early American railroaders.
Sociological Forum, 2003
Examinations of executive turnover have analyzed whether poor organizational performance predicts... more Examinations of executive turnover have analyzed whether poor organizational performance predicts changing leadership. However, few have examined environmental factors affecting turnover. Applying event history analysis to a random sample of California hospitals, we find that poor performance prompts executive turnover and that the legal environment impacts turnover in three ways. First, the legal form of hospitals shapes evaluation and re- placement of executives. Second, a shift in the legal definition of not-for-profit hospitals affects turnover. Finally, turnover increases when hospitals change from for-profit to not-for-profit and vice versa. These findings persist in the presence of numerous control variables.
The Business of Culture: Emerging Perspectives on Entertainment, Media, and Other Industries, 2005
This chapter demonstrates the embeddedness of technology via the historical case of the US market... more This chapter demonstrates the embeddedness of technology via the historical case of the US market for prerecorded music, which the recording industry has serviced since 1890. The case mostly emphasizes the period from 1940 – when the recording industry had fully recovered from its near demise – to the early 1990s – when the industry momentarily basked in the success of the compact disc. However, it also addresses the context that preceded 1940, and it comments on the unresolved flux that emerged in the late 1990s (e.g., Napster, MP3s). The prerecorded music market provides an ideal case because discussions of it abound with atomistic depictions. Indeed, much conventional wisdom suggests that new technologies – such as tape recorders and compact discs – provide the main (if not sole) impetus for epochal shifts in the production of prerecorded music. Drawing on archival and secondary sources, this case demonstrates the opposite. Transformations of the prerecorded music market resulted from the interplay between technology and contextual factors (e.g., copyright law), with the latter having the decisive impact. A particular variant of the embeddedness literature informs this case study – the new institutionalism in organizational sociology. I highlight salient aspects of this theory before presenting the case.
Art and the Challenge of Markets: How Cultural Politics and Art Worlds Have Adapted to the Market-Based Turn in Society, Volume 1 , 2018
Various scholars have described an array of social and cultural changes in Western societies that... more Various scholars have described an array of social and cultural changes in Western societies that have contributed to the erosion of traditional cultural hierarchies. Some fear that the once-vaunted positions of the performing and visual arts, for example, are being undermined by commercialization—whereby crucial choices about the production and dissemination of works are increasingly informed by the economic bottom-line rather than by aesthetic concerns. Alongside the declining hierarchy and growing commercialization of the arts, some scholars point to the rapid expansion in the volume and variety of cultural goods in the global marketplace and the weakening of national boundaries and cultures, which, to an unprecedented extent, has destabilized and “deterritorialized” global cultural flows to an unprecedented extent. Of course, the impact of the heightened pace and reach of globalization on cultural fields remains a topic of debate in the literature. Certain scholars take a more positive view when arguing that globalization serves to “relativize” national boundaries and strengthen a sense of belonging to a world society, while others take a more negative view when arguing this international flow is better described as an asymmetrical imposition of cultural goods from the United States and other affluent countries on the non-Western world.
Yet, amid this vibrant debate, a growing body of comparative research shows significant cross-national variation in both the degree of change in cultural hierarchies as well as in the extent and impact of cultural globalization. However, most studies focus on a single country or on a single point in time, thereby making it difficult to examine the territorial and temporal aspects that lie at the core of the globalization debate. By focusing on changes in the musical field in four countries from 1955 to 2005, our aim is to build on upon cross-national comparative research that addresses how cultural hierarchies change over time and, in particular, to explore what relationship such changes have to the degree of international orientation to musical actors.
Music provides an interesting case by which to explore such changes because it has experienced considerable “de-hierarchization,” as indicated by the waning status of classical music relative to popular music. Using media coverage in elite newspapers in the four countries from 1955 to 2005 as an indicator, this chapter considers whether there is an increasingly global orientation towards musical “actors” (e.g., soloists, ensembles, composers) over time in the United States, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. If so, to what extent has this occurred and how is such attention distributed temporally? Is there a greater attention towards “non-Western” countries in newspaper coverage of music, as suggested by de-territorialization? By exploring such questions, we aim to address the relationship between cultural classification systems and cultural globalization from the vantage of these nations, while taking into account their respective relationships with music from other nations around the globe.
Much of the debate about the impact of globalization on cultural fields focuses solely on popular cultural forms (e.g., hit songs; Achterberg et al. 2011). We diverge by focusing simultaneously on forms of both high culture (e.g., classical music) and popular culture (e.g., rock music). This makes sense because the emergence of Western high culture and popular culture as salient distinctions went hand in hand (DiMaggio 1982, 1991). Hence, the creation of a field devoted solely to “transcendent” music of the past occurred alongside the creation of a large-scale field devoted to “faddish” music of the present, with the former emphasizing a “logic of consecration” and the latter a “logic of commodification” (Dowd 2011). Their connected trajectories continue in the present, including a “blurring” of their boundaries. For example, scholars have noted a shift towards consecration occurring in popular music—as when some (but not all) rock is celebrated as art (Schmutz 2005; Schmutz & Faupel 2010; Van Venrooij & Schmutz 2010)—and a shift towards commodification in classical music—as when orchestras perform music from Hollywood soundtracks (e.g., Star Wars) in an effort to offset shrinking audiences and declining funding (DiMaggio 1991; Dowd & Kelly 2012). Indeed, the “de-hierarchicalization” mentioned above deals squarely with the relative positioning of classical and popular musics. Hence, we shall see below how both fare in the face of globalization.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 1997
To examine the effects of policy on markets and compe- tition we outline hypotheses about the eff... more To examine the effects of policy on markets and compe- tition we outline hypotheses about the effects of three common policy regimes-public capitalization, pro-cartel, and antitrust-on competition and the founding of new firms. Analyses of Massachusetts railroadfoundings be- tween 1825 and 1922 show that public capitalization
raises the number of foundings by increasing available resources, pro-cartel policies raise the number of found- ings by dampening competition from incumbents, and antitrust depresses foundings by stimulating competi- tion. Ecological factors only show the expected effects once policy is controlled. Industrialorganization factors show no net effects. We argue that public policy estab- lishes the ground rules of competition and thus creates varieties of market behavior
Sociologica: Italian Journal of Sociology Online, 2007
This essay claims that the publication of “Cycles in Symbol Production: The Case of Popular Music... more This essay claims that the publication of “Cycles in Symbol Production: The Case of Popular Music” in 1975 proved to be an important moment, as this innovative article would later stimulate intellectual diversity in the sociology of culture. I support this claim by first offering a detailed overview of this article, showing how it brought together important themes of organizational adaptation, genre trajectory, and product diversity. I then offer examples of how subsequent research has addressed these themes, both in terms of supporting and extending the original arguments made in this classic article.
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Articles, Chapters, Dissertation, & Reports by Timothy J Dowd
Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) survey data provide abundant insights into this perennial dilemma of curriculum design. While this SNAAP Special Report does not address all of these questions, it sheds light on an important yet understudied question related to the challenge of preparing students for an artistic career:
While boundary-work can sometimes be discussed in abstract fashion, musical settings are exceptionally suited for bringing boundary-work to the fore in a concrete and informative fashion. That is because, at its core, the activity of music (i.e. musicking) is built around such fundamental categories as (1) genre (musical elements that belong together in some sense), (2) heritage (the totality of works, creators, etc., that fit within a given genre), and (3) canon (the “greatest” that a given genre offers in terms of works and creators). Indeed, in this chapter, I focus on the activities – the musicking and boundary-work – that connect the ongoing classification of musical genres with the evolving understandings of their respective musical heritage and canon. I do by drawing on recent research in music sociology and, in the process, also reveal how musicking and boundary-making shape the collective memory that emerges from these processes – a collective memory shaped by both powerful actors and successful challengers.
Yet, amid this vibrant debate, a growing body of comparative research shows significant cross-national variation in both the degree of change in cultural hierarchies as well as in the extent and impact of cultural globalization. However, most studies focus on a single country or on a single point in time, thereby making it difficult to examine the territorial and temporal aspects that lie at the core of the globalization debate. By focusing on changes in the musical field in four countries from 1955 to 2005, our aim is to build on upon cross-national comparative research that addresses how cultural hierarchies change over time and, in particular, to explore what relationship such changes have to the degree of international orientation to musical actors.
Music provides an interesting case by which to explore such changes because it has experienced considerable “de-hierarchization,” as indicated by the waning status of classical music relative to popular music. Using media coverage in elite newspapers in the four countries from 1955 to 2005 as an indicator, this chapter considers whether there is an increasingly global orientation towards musical “actors” (e.g., soloists, ensembles, composers) over time in the United States, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. If so, to what extent has this occurred and how is such attention distributed temporally? Is there a greater attention towards “non-Western” countries in newspaper coverage of music, as suggested by de-territorialization? By exploring such questions, we aim to address the relationship between cultural classification systems and cultural globalization from the vantage of these nations, while taking into account their respective relationships with music from other nations around the globe.
Much of the debate about the impact of globalization on cultural fields focuses solely on popular cultural forms (e.g., hit songs; Achterberg et al. 2011). We diverge by focusing simultaneously on forms of both high culture (e.g., classical music) and popular culture (e.g., rock music). This makes sense because the emergence of Western high culture and popular culture as salient distinctions went hand in hand (DiMaggio 1982, 1991). Hence, the creation of a field devoted solely to “transcendent” music of the past occurred alongside the creation of a large-scale field devoted to “faddish” music of the present, with the former emphasizing a “logic of consecration” and the latter a “logic of commodification” (Dowd 2011). Their connected trajectories continue in the present, including a “blurring” of their boundaries. For example, scholars have noted a shift towards consecration occurring in popular music—as when some (but not all) rock is celebrated as art (Schmutz 2005; Schmutz & Faupel 2010; Van Venrooij & Schmutz 2010)—and a shift towards commodification in classical music—as when orchestras perform music from Hollywood soundtracks (e.g., Star Wars) in an effort to offset shrinking audiences and declining funding (DiMaggio 1991; Dowd & Kelly 2012). Indeed, the “de-hierarchicalization” mentioned above deals squarely with the relative positioning of classical and popular musics. Hence, we shall see below how both fare in the face of globalization.
raises the number of foundings by increasing available resources, pro-cartel policies raise the number of found- ings by dampening competition from incumbents, and antitrust depresses foundings by stimulating competi- tion. Ecological factors only show the expected effects once policy is controlled. Industrialorganization factors show no net effects. We argue that public policy estab- lishes the ground rules of competition and thus creates varieties of market behavior