Culture as a Vocation

Vocational occupations are attractive not so much for their material rewards as for the prestige and self-fulfillment they confer. They require a strong personal commitment, which can be subjectively experienced in terms of passion and selflessness. The choice of a career in the cultural sector provides a good example of this. What are the terms of this calling? What predisposes individuals to answer it? What are the meanings of such a choice? To answer these questions, this book focuses on would-be cultural managers. By identifying their social patterns, by revealing the resources, expectations and visions of the world they invest in their choice, it sheds new light on these occupations. In these intermediary and indeterminate social positions, family heritages intersect with educational strategies, aspirations of upward mobility with tactics against downward mobility, and social critique with adjustment strategies. Ultimately the study of career choices in cultural management suggests a new take on the analysis of social reproduction and on the embodiment of the new spirit of capitalism. The empirical findings of this research conducted in France are set in a broader comparative perspective, at the European level and with the USA.

'Every year, thousands of talented young people aspire to careers in the arts. Vincent Dubois's brilliant sociological analysis of French careers in cultural management reveals the challenges - and often disappointments - which lie in their way. This book will be essential reading across the globe for those interested in how career patterns in the cultural sector are changing'. - Pr. Mike Savage, Head of Sociology Department and Chair, London School of Economics'Many have wondered: what is arts management? Few answers truly satisfy. Vincent Dubois poses a set of fresh questions and manages to answer this and far more in his well-researched, highly readable volume. It should be required reading in our field.' - Pr. Constance DeVereaux, Director, LEAP Institute for the Arts, Colorado State University, USA'Culture as a Vocation focuses on the social space of cultural managers, who play a crucial role in the contemporary cultural world. Superbly researched in a bourdieusian framework, this book provides an insightful view on this occupational universe. Thanks to the nuanced analysis of this strategic case, he sheds light on the changing social settings of culture in contemporary societies.' - Arturo Rodríguez Morató, Professor of Sociology, University of Barcelona, Spain.'This persuasive and challenging analysis of changing realities in cultural professions, offers insightful understanding of the aspirations and motivations of professionals engaged in arts and culture. Dubois’s book is a must read for all those involved in education and training of cultural professionals, whether in academia or in centres for lifelong learning.' - Professor Milena Dragicevic Sesic, UNESCO Chair in cultural policy and management, University of Arts, Belgrade'Serious researches on management in the cultural field are rare and still rarer are conceptually sophisticated ones. With his usual mastery Vincent Dubois manages to match in this unique book the seriousness of a solid empirical study on would-be cultural managers with the imaginative insightfulness of the best social theory to provide a must reference for future research and a valuable reading for aspiring as well as practicing professionals in the culture sector.' - Marco Santoro, Professor of Sociology, Università di Bologna, Italy

Vincent Dubois, sociologist and political scientist, is currently Professor at the Institute for Political Studies in Strasbourg (France). His research fields include cultural sociology and policy, language policy, poverty and welfare. He belongs to the SAGE research unit and to the University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, and is associate member of the Centre for European Sociology founded by Pierre Bourdieu in Paris. He is a former member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, USA, school of social science (2012-3) and of the Institut Universitaire de France (2007-12). He has published 8 books, 2 of which have been published in English translation (The Bureaucrat and the Poor, Ashgate, 2010; The Sociology of Wind Bands, Ashgate, 2013). He has published around 80 scientific contributions in edited volumes and journals including International Journal of Cultural Policy, Cultural Sociology, Poetics, Social Analysis, Current Anthropology, Critical Policy Studies, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales.