Nathalie Heinich's Sociology of Art — and Sociology from Art

The French sociologist Nathalie Heinich has carried out innovative sociological analyses of the field of art since the 1980s. While she is a major figure in French sociology, most of her books are as yet not translated into English.The article seeks to communicate the main contours of Heinich's ideas to an Anglophone audience, by outlining the nature of her most important works concerned with modern and contemporary art, particularly concentrating on her most recent publications. Heinich's advocacy of a descriptive, interpretative sociology of art — as opposed to a `critical' sociology in the manner of Bourdieu — is depicted and considered. The article also traces out her growing orientation towards the development of a`sociology of values'.