The relationality of law and culture: Dominant approaches and new directions for cultural sociologists

Abstract

Much of the cultural sociological research in law and culture falls into one of the following approaches: (1) law as a structure that enables and constrains culture; (2) culture as a structure that enables and constrains law; and (3) law as a cultural toolkit or repertoire upon which actors draw to orient strategies for action. This article briefly reviews these approaches, then, drawing from the generative socio-legal tradition in law as culture, highlights a fourth approach. While law and culture are often analyzed as autonomous forces in ongoing contention, negotiation, and reconciliation, the socio-legal approach conceptualizes the relationality of law and culture as constituted by ongoing contention. I argue that this relational approach may offer cultural sociologists who do not study law a framework for better analyzing how power undergirds, enables and constrains cultural meaning. I offer examples to illustrate the utility of this research agenda through three areas of interest for cultural sociologists: (1) embodiment; (2) emotions; and (3) political culture. Such an approach encourages a two-way bridge between cultural sociology and socio-legal studies conceptualizing culture as a dynamic system of power relations.

Toward a political sociology of privatized punishment: Contestation, state structures, and stratification

“…On the other hand, a boundary is drawn around the scope of the state, which is reinforced as the primary entity in charge of punishing citizens, but not necessarily noncitizens (Mayrl & Quinn, 2016). It may be useful to theorize these as mutually constitutive processes: citizenship-based distinctions in carceral policies (i.e., privatized or not) serve to reinforce citizenship-based distinctions in society, and vice versa (Yazdiha, 2017). This formulation moves well beyond traditional political science research, which problematizes the adoption of private contracts but fails to consider how adoption may feed back into society.…”

Mining spatial patterns of food culture in China using restaurant POI data

“…The downfall of less dominant cultures and the influence of the global culture on local ones have become increasingly prominent due to the globalization of economies and cultures in recent years (Fan, Yang, & Huang, 2015;Yazdiha, 2017). Food consumption is an economic activity and a cultural phenomenon.…”