This collection of original, state-of-the-art essays by prominent international scholars covers the most important issues comprising the sociology of culture. Heightened recognition of the ways culture inflects politics and economics, social relations and personal identities has transformed scholarship in the social sciences and humanities.

The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Culture reflects on this "cultural turn" by providing an invaluable reference resource to all interested in the cultural structures and processes that animate contemporary life. The book includes such topics as art, science, religion, race, class, gender, collective memory, institutions, and citizenship. This is the first-ever collection of original, synthetic essays that forms a comprehensive overview of the sociology of culture.