The Sociology Book

207

and act in the ways they do. Karl
Marx, for example, saw mainstream
culture as a function of the ideas
and values of the ruling class;
accordingly, culture served as
little more than a veil to blind the
majority of people to the profoundly
unjust society in which they lived.
Max Weber took a different view
and argued that Western culture
was rational and involved viewing
the natural and social worlds in a
dispassionate and scientific way;
it was devoid of any wider
meaning or worth.
For Alexander, both of these
views are lacking: Marx’s account
is overly reductive because it holds
that culture is determined by the
way society is organized; Weber’s
account is overly rational because
it fails to acknowledge the highly
irrational aspects of Western
culture—in particular the role of
emotions and values in directing
the responses of individuals, and
even entire nations, to the events
taking place around them.
Alexander’s theoretical
approach was very different, and
built upon ideas about religion
proposed by French sociologist

Émile Durkheim. For Durkheim,

religion involved the separation

of the sacred—meaning the ideas,

icons, and representations of

the divine—from the profane,

or the functions of everyday life.

Alexander saw culture as akin

to the sacred—autonomous from,

rather than dependent upon,

society; enabling rather than solely

constraining; and containing both

irrational and rational elements.

His cultural sociology focuses on

understanding how individuals and

groups are involved in the creation

of meaning by drawing upon

collectively produced values,

symbols, and discourses—ways

of talking about things—and how

this in turn shapes their actions.

Three aspects of culture

Alexander defines cultural

sociology in terms of three main

points, relating to origination,

interpretation, and structure.

First, culture can be completely

autonomous from the material

dimensions of social life.

Marx’s theories about culture

became the orthodox way of

conceptualizing the relationship

between the “social” and the

“cultural.” In Marx’s view, the

material base of society (the

economy, technologies, and the

division of labor) determined the

ideal superstructure (the norms,

values, and beliefs of culture).

In contrast, Alexander believes

that culture cannot be understood

as a mere by-product of the

“harder,” more “real” material

dimensions of social life. The

notion that material factors

determine ideal ones—that

economy determines culture—

is fundamentally misguided. ❯❯

See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■
Erving Goffman 190–95 ■ Talcott Parsons 300–01 ■ Herbert Blumer 335

CULTURE AND IDENTITY

...the heart of current

debates lies between...

‘cultural sociology’ and

the ‘sociology of culture.’

Jeffrey Alexander

Jeffrey Alexander

Jeffrey Alexander, born in

1947, is the Lillian Chavenson

Saden Professor of Sociology

at Yale University, and Co-

Director for the Center

for Cultural Sociology. As

part of this role, Alexander

established Cultural Sociology

as a new academic journal to

promote cultural sociological

ideas and methods.

In the US, and arguably

on the world scene generally,

notably through his work on

Remembering the Holocaust:

A Debate (2009), he is one of

the most distinguished social

thinkers of his time. Originally

taught by the influential US

sociologists Talcott Parsons

and Robert Bellah, Alexander

carried forward structural-

functionalism to its logical

conclusion before abandoning

it and founding his cultural

sociological paradigm.

Key works

2003 The Meanings of Social

Life: A Cultural Sociology

2012 Trauma: A Social Theory

2013 The Dark Side of

Modernity

We are not anywhere

as reasonable or rational

or sensible as we would

like to think.

Jeffrey Alexander