
Although art was a concern for sociology nearly as soon as the discipline emerged in the 2nd half of the 19th Century, sociology of art in its present definition was mostly re-created in the 1960’s, when it took a clear empirical turn. Since that time, the territorial dimension has regularly offered fruitful perspectives on art at various levels. From the 1990s until today, internationalization or globalization have been regularly investigated. The national level offers other perspectives. Cities can also prove to be adequate units to study art, especially with the notions of districts or neighborhoods. Even homes can be investigated in relation to the arts.
“Big surveys” caught between policies, sociology, and statistics: Measuring cultural participation in national territories