Research
Dr. Sacha Kagan
Art and (Un-)Sustainability
2006 - 2010
PhD Project, under the supervision of Prof Dr Volker Kirchberg
A few words about Sacha Kagan’s PhD project:
Up to now, social research on the arts in the context of sustainability has most often limited itself either to the short-sighted analysis of art as a communication medium (in environmental science departments) or to the art worlds-centric topic of sustaining the arts. The motivations and goals of this PhD research reach beyond these limitations:
… To identify cultures of sustainability, in contrast to a predominant culture of unsustainability. This exploration will limit itself to a general overview and attention will thereafter be focused on to what extent and why these dimensions of cultures of (un-)sustainability may be present in the arts.
… To explore the roles of the arts (recognized as relevant areas in the development of western culture) in relationship to these conflicting cultures in the contemporary context of Europe and the US. Attention will be focused on art worlds agents (and especially artists) as change agents – understood as entrepreneurs in conventions (Kagan 2004, 2005).
More about this research theme:
Related to his PhD project, Sacha Kagan coordinated the “sustainability stream” at the 2007 conference of the Arts Research Network of the European Sociological Association, held in Lueneburg: Conference website [ http://www.new-arts-frontiers.eu ]
In the wake of that groundbreaking conference, he founded and serves as coordinator at the International Network Cultura21 for cultures of sustainability: Website [ http://www.cultura21.net ]
Following up on the 2007 ESA Arts conference, Sacha Kagan and Volker Kirchberg edited a book with a selection from some of the most engaging contributions at the conference. Entitled Sustainability: a new frontier for the arts and cultures, this publication was released by VAS (Frankfurt) in 2008.
Research and teaching should be complementary and so he led a number of seminars on this topic over several semesters:
- Evolution and Culture (with Ullrich Günther)
- Sustainability through the performing arts?
- The Ecology of Culture – The Culture of Ecology (with Volker Kirchberg)
Conventions, social barriers and change in art worlds
2005 – 2006
In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Hans Abbing (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Sacha Kagan is looking for a sound theoretical grounding to help perceive change in the social and economic conventions of the arts. Inspirations and insights are being sought in the theoretical works of canonical sociologists (Howard Becker's “art worlds”, Pierre Bourdieu's field theory), of the socio-economic School of Conventions (with e.g. P.Y. Gomez) and in other sources from new institutionalism, political science and philosophy. This research project brings insights into Sacha Kagan’s PhD project (starting in November 2006) and into Hans Abbing’s research at the Boekman Chair of Art Sociology. This research led to two papers presented at the 2006 ACEI (Association for Cultural Economics International) conference and the STP&A (Social Theory, Politics and the Arts) conference, both in Vienna.
Research and teaching should be complementary and so he led a number of seminars on this topic over several semesters:
The Structural Inertia of the Art World? Structures of the Romantic Order and of the Technological System in the arts today
2005 – 2006
In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Hans Abbing (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Sacha Kagan is investigating under which paradigm(s) the worlds of the arts are currently operating. While supporting Abbing's interest in M. Doorman's account of a romantic order sustaining the art world's beliefs in authenticity since the 19th century, Kagan contends, after J. Ellul, that the artists of the later twentieth century and of today (and the Romantic Order) are unwillingly and/or unknowingly integrated in the structure of a technological system framing contemporary economically developed societies. While in the first case most artists are becoming the economic victims of their own beliefs, in the second case they are furthermore contributing (probably no less than other social groups) to the unsustainability of contemporary human endeavours. Parts of this research project bring insights into Abbing’s research at the Boekman Chair of Art Sociology. As for the issue of the Technician System and of Unsustainability, a large part of it contributes to further research as part of Kagan's PhD project at the Leuphana University Lueneburg.