Art and Sociology: Thoughts on Staubmann’s Efforts

In this essay I review Helmut Staubmann’s book Sociology in a New Key, which seeks to reorient sociological work through a new attention to and appreciation of the aesthetic realm which has been generally neglected in the tradition of positivistic and quantitative (that is, materialist) sociology. I suggest that many of the topics covered in the book have the potential to reorient thinking about the traditional ways theory, methods, and data are taught, learned, and applied in the field. Since the author’s goal is the transposition of a new key for sociological work, the realm of art that is the focus of this effort and my discussion is music.