photographed by Michaela Nespěchalová

Interview with visiting professor Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University

Jeffrey C. Alexander is among the leading sociologists of today. He is the author and a prominent figure in the influential "strong program in cultural sociology," recognized as an innovator in the sociological exploration of iconicity and social performance. He holds a position as one of the directors of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University. His work significantly shapes the landscape of 21st century sociology.

A proposal for the conferment of an honorary doctoral degree, Doctor Honoris Causa, in the field of sociology was submitted by the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University. The ceremonial conferral took place on October 26, 2023.

Interviewed by Nicolas Navas

1. How would you describe what cultural sociology is?

Well, cultural sociology is the study of collective meanings. We call it a meaning centered sociology. I would say to somebody who's interested in getting into sociology that a lot of sociology describes people as their actions, as determined by external structures where they're just pushed by forces. Whereas that's not really what happens. People have very complex and significant meanings inside of their head, for example, who they are? what the world is? Those meanings always mediate, and really those are the real motivators, but they're invisible. So, the task of cultural sociology is to reconstruct those meanings in a plausible way. Then to develop a sociological way to explain how they operate and their effects.

2. You are one of most prominent theorists in cultural sociology. What was one of the most memorable moments in your research career?

I can think of two things. They're actually related. One was watching in the summer of 1973 in the United States, there was a series, I mean a televised investigation of President Nixon and his corrupt activities as president when he tried to interfere with the presidential election, which had taken place in 1972. It was called the Senate Select Hearings on Watergate. So, there were maybe 10 senators from both political parties and a series of witnesses that came in. The witnesses were sworn to tell the truth, and as I watched that, I had the strong feeling that it was a ritual. That this was something very repetitive, choreographed, simplified, and deeply felt, and that it happened many times before over the two hundred years of American history.

I felt that the senators looked as if they were iconic figures of the founders of the United States. And I was aware that also there was an audience of maybe 100 million people every day tuned in to these hearings and they were talked about every day. So, it convinced me, or I had the insight at that time, that a modern society was a lot like a primitive society, but with television.

3. How do you think cultural sociology can help in current times and what a cultural sociologist can do in their career?

I think cultural sociology helps because it gives a sense of who we really are and what society really is. Therefore, it opens up the truth, once we understand that meaning systems always mediate between objective forces and our subjective understanding. We have a much better understanding of current events. For example, with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we as cultural sociologist we don't assume that it's done for purely materialistic or rational reasons. So, we would want to know how does Putin sees the world? And that would take a lot of work to understand his experience and some Russians’ experience of collective trauma, losing the Soviet Union, losing the empire, they don't have their country anymore under their control. How this is really an effort to, in a way, rewind the trauma and gain control again over what used to be their own national territories.

Then we would see the role of Nazism as the high mark of Soviet solidarity, the fight against Hitler. And then that helps us to understand why they could think invading Ukraine was good or necessary because Putin claims that the Ukrainian leaders are Nazis, so it would allow us to understand more deeply this war in terms of its subjectivity. And would also understand the Ukrainian perspective, likewise with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict today. We would understand that both sides are motivated by collective promise.

But cultural sociology is not only about politics. For example, I'm teaching a class at Yale this semester on material culture and iconic consciousness, and a lot of that course is about modern capitalism. Cultural sociology, in a way, is the basis of modern capitalism because contemporary companies produce iconic objects to get people to value these things because they are meaningful, and they are tactilely compelling aesthetically. in contemporary capitalist society, most people – those outside of the underclasses -- don't really need anything “objectively” to live. Most of the objects they consume amount to discretionary spending, and modern capitalism is a machine for producing culturally and aesthetically compelling new objects.

A lot of cultural sociology students today will go to work for marketing and consulting companies -- with good salaries. In our contemporary societies, marketing is a big part of what makes social life meaningful. The objects we purchase in late capitalism do not alienate us, as Marx predicted, but crystallize, in material form, the meanings of social life. In this sense, consumption can make life better. Not in a political sense, but in other significant ways.

Cultural sociology opens up this kind of subtle understanding of contemporary capitalism. About 10 years ago I got an e-mail from a student saying she had regretted not taking the course I teach on material culture and iconic consciousness. She had started working for a consulting company in New York that with many leading firms and had offices around the world. She wanted me to send her the syllabus of my course -- because she found that a lot of her work mates were inspired and guided by the cultural sociological readings I had on the reading list. I asked her whether, in exchange for the syllabus, she would invite me to meet the managers of the firm in person. She did so, and I went down several times to New York to observe and ask questions. It was absolutely fascinating. I found that not only the managers but most of the work force had degrees in semiotics, literary theory, and cultural anthropology, and were very responsive to my ideas about cultural sociology.