Articles by Martin Fuller
Home: Ethnographic Encounters, 2020
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Theory Culture and Society, 2019
This article develops the concept of proximity as socio-spatial distance by looking at the tempor... more This article develops the concept of proximity as socio-spatial distance by looking at the temporally and spatially condensed events of contemporary art exhibition openings. The article begins by examining some developments in proximity research,the limitations of theorizing the importance of proximity as mere physical nearness,arguing that potentiality renders proximity meaningful. After introducing the art event, we offer a three-pronged approach to proximity by showing the imperatives for being-there, the conditional indeterminacy of potentiality and the politics of proximity. In contrast to much recent research, it is argued that the significance of events is not reducible to evaluated outcomes. Two ethnographic vignettes show the imperatives, indeterminacies and politics in action. We conclude by showing how this conceptualization of proximity has analytic purchase beyond the empirical realm of contemporary art.
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City, 2018
Using the relational concepts of scale, substance and style, we develop a sociological perspectiv... more Using the relational concepts of scale, substance and style, we develop a sociological perspective on the built environment that takes into account but extends beyond specific political conditions. We investigate three examples of grand civic architecture that have successively occupied a central site in Berlin. The Palast der Republik built by the authorities of the German Democratic Republic replaced the Prussian City Palace only to be demolished three decades later, giving way to a replica of the imperial palace that is currently under construction. We show how this drama of destruction, construction and reconstruction spanning different temporal and political contexts substantiates a cultural sociological framework with wider applicability. Investigating the importance of the site, we show how these recurrences indicate that a will to grand architectural representation and ritual destruction is not reducible to any one specific political ideology. This, in turn, indicates that a deeper imperative of symbolic politics is at work. The life and death of great Berlin palaces show how materiality and meaning are interwoven to entrench political legitimacy.
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Current Sociology, 2017
As an invitation to spatial sociology, this article introduces key concepts and contexts to situa... more As an invitation to spatial sociology, this article introduces key concepts and contexts to situate the articles in this monograph issue of Current Sociology. Spatial sociology is presented here as broad in scope and usefulness, but specific as a relational approach to space. As both a category of analysis and a lens through which to address sociological research questions, the gains of relational spatial research are shown in this monograph issue through articles exploring bodies, borders, units and mobilities. Outlining some of the history of relational thinking and space, clarifying some misconceptions about spatial theory, and developing a heuristic of the uses of spatial sociology, this article’s main aim is to invite specialists and non-specialists alike to spatial sociology.
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Current Sociology, 2017
This article traces the in situ production of space in a multi-unit residential building under co... more This article traces the in situ production of space in a multi-unit residential building under construction in Berlin. Looking at how space is constituted in an unfinished building, it shows how material objects become loci of meaning-making in the constitution of a new building and future home. Through examining a group of future dwellers engaged in the participatory planning of a residential building, it argues that this is a community building a house in order to build an idealised community in the future. They negotiate an uncertain future community through objects in the built environment over which they have control in the present. Using relational spatial theory, the activities of planning the built environment are shown as inextricably linked to producing the meanings and significance of objects. Through looking at three objects in the built environment: an information hut, raised flowerbeds and interior windows, the active production of the relational space of inhabitation can be witnessed on-the-ground, through concrete activities, long before dwelling commences and the sites and ideas of homes are achieved.
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International Review of Social Research, 2015
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Other publications by Martin Fuller
Macat Series introductory book for Jane Jacobs' classic text.
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Art Papers, Jul 2014
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Call for Papers by Martin Fuller
For the 2017 DGS Sociology of Arts meeting in Berlin, we invite papers researching the ways that ... more For the 2017 DGS Sociology of Arts meeting in Berlin, we invite papers researching the ways that cities shape art at different levels. The goal of this event is to share research and invoke dialogues about the ways that the urban is important for understanding the production, evaluation and distribution of art. Our aim is to develop an arts sociology that takes seriously place, space and cities. There are numerous collectively shared ideas about the importance of cities in art. Social scientists, historians and journalists alike envision particular cities in particular historical moments as key sites where the arts are flourishing, since at least the 20th century cities have been part of the collective imaginary of where art is produced, evaluated and distributed. Examples are legion: from the emergence of new forms and avant-garde art, such as literature or visual arts in prewar Paris, to popular music in 1980-90s Manchester, or the visual arts in New York City and Berlin and film in Los Angeles and Mumbai today. Cities have cultural, symbolic and material significance in the arts. If cities are the sites of or important nodes within art worlds, art systems, fields, networks, etc, we want to turn our attention to how, when and why this is significant. Indeed, even in an era of 'global culture' or a 'global art world', in which mobility is increasingly the norm for many in the arts, specific locales still hold significance. In the visual arts, art worlds and cities such as Istanbul, Mumbai, Tokyo and Sao Paulo are written about as 'emerging' in the global art world, with scholarly and journalistic attention paid to the development of trans-local communities embedded within global networks. The changing inter-, intra-and trans-urban constellations of art, the ideas about these cities, as well as sociological analyses of being an artist or art mediator in these places and networks, are of interest here. As urban scholars continue to urge a non-reductionist approach to understanding the specific social, cultural, economic, architectural and spatial conditions of cities, we ought also to take seriously the urban contexts of art. Cities matter. It is here that people gather, that early career artists form careers, that mobilities pass through, and where important hubs and nodes in increasing global connectivity are anchored. While much research has been conducted on the ways that the arts shape cities, including gentrification, creative cities, street art and public art research, this conference seeks to
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Books by Martin Fuller
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Articles by Martin Fuller
Other publications by Martin Fuller
Call for Papers by Martin Fuller
Books by Martin Fuller