The term ‘sociology of art’ has been widely supplanted by the more inclusive term ‘sociology of the arts’. This growing area of specialization is concerned with the visual arts, literature, music, drama, film, crafts and other art forms, which it treats from various sociological perspectives. Research focuses on processes like artistic production (or creation), mediation and the reception (or consumption), as well as the characteristics of people, networks and organizations involved with these processes.

While no single theoretical framework dominates the field, several approaches have particularly marked the sociology of the arts over the past half-century, among them Marxist and neo- Marxist approaches; symbolic interactionism; neo-structuralism and the so-called ‘production of culture approach’.