Art Worlds, Valuation, and Convention Theory
Résumé
The chapter aims to give an overall view of the different visions of the conventions that art worlds mobilize to coordinate actions and value artistic production. First, the reference to the two concepts of conventions that Howard Becker points out for organizational routines and judgments on aesthetic quality highlights the better relevance of economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) to analyze the valuation of artistic activities through the political and social grammar of orders of worth, worked out by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot in On Justification (2006). The second part of the chapter develops the frictions between the various logics of action and evaluation of the cultural policies with a recent shift in the definition of civic worth, which is intertwined with the other states of worthiness. The key question of price formation is then analyzed through two frameworks: art markets and networks, in the context of a highly unequal distribution of work and income according to the levels of producers’ and distributors’ reputations. As the work of Harrison White has demonstrated, market regulation requires a stabilized order of quality. Network analysis is, therefore, better fitted through the circuits of production and distribution in which the professional experts’ judgments on quality and artists’ fame play a key role in the transformation of the aesthetical value into monetary value. Finally, the combination of the different logics of action and evaluation is a fruitful framework to study the challenges of arts management.