These are just some of the questions we ask about social life. Clearly, at the cultural sociology programme group we study a wide variety of social phenomena. Also, we use a broad array of data and research methods and techniques, such as observational data, network analysis, computer simulated modelling, various forms of interviewing, video-analysis, statistical modelling of very large N datasets, and Q-analysis.
Dynamics of culture are crucial to understand social life
While the above questions show the broad interests that are represented in our group and our pragmatic approach to social scientific methodologies, we share an understanding that the dynamics (invention, accumulation, diffusion, adjustment and dissolution) of culture is crucial to understand human social life. Without culture, social life would be hard to imagine. While other species mostly rely on their instincts in order to survive, human beings use culture to do so. It is human nature to use culture in at least two different ways.
First of all, people (re)produce meaning as we engage with others, with the objects which surround us and with the environment we are part of; we categorize and identify. For instance, in some situations we categorize others on the basis of gender, in others on the basis of their race, their nationality or, frequently, on the basis of some mixture of categories. In doing so, we include and exclude, and reproduce symbolic and moral boundaries in order to make that happen.
Secondly, unlike other species, we turn the world and ourselves into an object that we can try to understand and act upon. Culture in this sense can be understood as the great manifold of such expressions, including religion, music, literature, body ornaments, science and art. These forms of culture are usually enacted and embedded in institutions, organizations, fields, practices and social networks. We thus study the way in which particular cultural fields and organizations operate – such as fields of education, fashion, fine art, literature, media, music and sport – and their embedding in larger social structures of classes, nations and transnational fields. We also investigate how some groups are more able to monopolize their cultural expressions at the cost of marginalizing those of other groups.
The programme group Cultural Sociology studies culture in these two senses: the meaningful dimension of human life, as well as the cultural elements which human beings reproduce within, at least to some extent, institutionalized settings. We believe that those two senses of culture are closely interconnected and cannot be studied in isolation.
Collaborations
The programme group members are affiliated with several research centers within the University of Amsterdam: the Amsterdam Research Center for Gender and Sexuality, the Centre for Urban Studies, the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, and the Amsterdam Center for Globalization Studies. Over the past years, programme group members have received external funding from national or international funding organizations both from academic funding organizations (ERC, NWO) and various private stakeholders.

Programme group leaders
Programme group staff

Our projects
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The dynamics of genres
This project aims to understand the process whereby new categories of (popular) art emerge and are institutionalized. This process is studied within the field of popular music which is characterized by a turbulent rise and fall of large numbers of (sub)genres and therefore offers an especially interesting site for analyzing dynamic mechanisms in categorical systems. More particularly, this project focuses on the case of ‚electronic dance music’.
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Onderwijsinterventies voor kansarme leerlingen
SEPP (the Scalable Education Programs Partnership) brengt de expertise van academische onderzoekers, onderwijsbeleidsmakers en mensen uit de onderwijspraktijk bij elkaar met als doel om een ‘gereedschapskist’ van bewezen effectieve, schaalbare en potentieel complementaire onderwijsinterventies voor kansarme leerlingen (en hun verzorgers) te onderzoeken, verder te ontwikkelen en onder de aandacht te brengen. SEPP is in het leven geroepen door de Universiteit van Amsterdam.
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Group violence
The Group Violence research programme aims to understand how group behaviour affects the likelihood and severity of
violence in public space. While the prevailing social scientific focus remains on individual perpetrators and background
factors, the empirical reality of public violence is one of multiple attackers, multiple victims and multiple bystanders. The
research proposed here furthers the study of violence with a novel theory that identifies how group behaviour affects the outcome of antagonistic situations – and with comparative empirical studies to test the theory. - Hiring on taste: revealing the hidden power of cultural capital within occupational recruitment procedures
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Designing rhythms for social resilience
Designing rhythms for social resilience will investigate rhythm as a new methodology for forming policy in which data analysis, intervention and design are integratedto strengthen the social resilience in city districts. During the research, a digital platform will be used to collaborate with researchers, civil servants, residents, entrepreneurs, designers and the creative industry.