Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination

Audiences are problematic and, as such, the study of audiences has represented a key site of activity in the social sciences and humanities. In Audiences, the authors offer a timely review of the past 50 years of theoretical and methodological debate to argue the case for a paradigmatic shift in audience research. This shift, they argue, is necessitated by the emergence of the "diffused audience." Audience experience can no longer be simply classified as "simple" or "mass," for in modern, advanced capitalist societies, people are members of an audience all the time. Being a member of an audience is no longer an exceptional event, nor even an everyday event. Rather, it is constitutive of everyday life. That this is the case is attributable to the fact that our relationship with events and objects in the social world has changed. If the world is increasingly conceived as a spectacle, then so are the people within it, and we become both simultaneously performers and audience. This book offers an invaluable review of the literature and a new point of departure for audience research, and will be welcomed by all students of sociology, media, communication, and cultural studies.

Born 1944. Educated at Oxford University (B.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics) and London School of Economics (M.Sc. in Sociology). Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Lancaster. Appointed in 1968 as a Research Officer in a Unit specializing in town planning research in the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London. Moved to a lectureship in sociology at the University of Lancaster in 1970, then Professor of Sociology and subsequently Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1995 to 2004. Now retired and Emeritus Professor.

Professor Brian Longhurst is a sociologist who has long standing interests in cultural studies, media studies and the sociology of culture. His books include Popular Music and Society (Polity Press, 1995, 2007), The Penguin Dictionary of Media Studies (co-authored, 2007), Globalization and Belonging (co-authored, Sage, 2005), Introducing Cultural Studies (co-authored, Pearson, 1999, 2004) and Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination (co-authored 1998). He has held research grants from various bodies including ESRC and EPSRC and has published widely in a range of journals and edited collections. He was formerly Head of the School of English, Sociology, Politics & Contemporary History (ESPaCH), Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Institute for Social Research, all at the University of Salford. He has been a Director of Salford′s prize winning initiative, Community Finance Solutions and was the founding Chair of the Board of East Lancs Moneyline (ELM), a successful Community Reinvestment Trust.