This article uses a new database of subscribers to the New York Philharmonic to explore
how high culture became a form of socially valuable capital in late-19th-century America. The …

We tend to think of consecration as something happening to individuals: We say that someone
has been consecrated when they have been declared a saint, inducted into a hall of fame…

We argue that the properties of status hierarchies, independent of the positions actors
occupy within them, have important effects on the degree of inequality in material rewards …

This article revisits David W. Galenson's work on the relationship between artistic creativity
and the life cycle of artists. Galenson introduces a simple classification of creativity careers (…

In most contemporary societies, people underestimate the extent of economic inequality,
resulting in lower support for taxation and redistribution than might be expressed by better …

In a variety of social contexts, measuring merit or performance is a crucial step toward enforcing
meritocratic ideals. At the same time, workable measures – such as ratings – are bound …

Past research has posited that occupations are distinct and exclusive communities of workers
and used single-entry questions in surveys to measure occupational self-identification. Our …

The ideal of a free market society, Anderson writes, used to be a cause of the left. By “the left,”
I refer to egalitarian thinkers and participants in egalitarian social movements, starting with …

Like many sociologists, I am perplexed by the fact that in meritocratic societies, individuals
whose abilities or talent does not differ widely nevertheless enjoy considerably different levels …

En analysant un marché culturel, cet article explore la dimension sociale des décisions de
production en situation d’incertitude économique. Il introduit, pour décrire ces décisions, un …