The proposal elaborated by Tomás Peters in Sociología(s) del arte y de las políticas culturales seeks to show the transformation of the analytical models of the sociology of art. The first one is to follow some theoretical clues that will allow us to find the meaning of art in modernity. Based on Luhmann, he elaborates a macro-historical explanation of the differentiation that goes from the art system to the formation of a specific system in modernity. Subsequently, the Adorno-Benjamin dialectic allows him to concentrate on the contradictions of artistic experience in the modern world. The reflection continues with Howard S. Becker and Pierre Bourdieu to introduce us to the artistic field itself and the current conditions of art in a world of ultra-technology and artistic post-autonomy. However, the most relevant contribution of this book is the dialogue it establishes between the sociology of art and cultural policies. The confrontation between the two would have constituted a virtuous circle, resulting in a sociological work that considers the work of art “as a critical-cultural device that intervenes in the social sphere and that is possible to make it productive from contemporary cultural policies,” and that ends up synthesizing this search for new ways of thinking about the social field in cooperation with the critical work of art.

Tomás Peters (Santiago, 1982) is a sociologist, has a MA in Theory and History of Art and a PhD in Cultural Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. He is an assistant professor at the Institute of Communication and Image of the University of Chile and a member of the MA in Cultural Management at the same institution. He has been a visiting researcher at the Ibero-American Institute, the Autonomous Metropolitan University Iztapalapa Unit and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His research fields are cultural theory, sociology of art and social history of cultural policies in Latin America.