An Essay on Culture: Symbolic Structure and Social Structure

The result of 35 years of thought and research on culture by one of the best and most literate writers in sociology, this wide-ranging review of the meaning and study of culture is Bennett Berger at his best. Drawing on his unsurpassed knowledge of the scholarly literature and on his wealth of personal experience, Berger reviews and synthesizes recent work in cultural sociology from a materialist perspective. His essay culminates in a call for an empirical research program focused on the relation between symbolic choices and social locations, rather than on interpretive accounts of the meanings of texts or performances.

Among his unusual insights are a defense of reductionism, sympathetic accounts of "peer pressure" and "special interests," an attempt to restore some dignity to the word "ideology," and a fresh perspective on "conspiracy theory."

Scholars and students of culture alike will find here stunning discussions and theoretical insights on ideological work, morality and culture, and on the relations between social structure and cultural structure.