I joined the Department of Sociology at LSE as an Assistant Professor after receiving my PhD from Columbia University. I am interested in issues of social status and status inequality: why people and groups are perceived as more or less valuable, and how this affects their social outcomes. My first book, to be published by Princeton University Press, explores the role of the market in the consecration of artists in Paris between 1870 and 1930. Here I show how in the heyday of French modern art, market institutions were instrumental in shaping the value of artists by upholding the belief that different artists had different quality. This is what I refer to as consecration, a previously under-theorized process and a powerful driver of inequality. You can read a more detailed description of the book here.
My recent research brings my interest in status to bear on broader issues of social stratification. In a current project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, I examine the formation of cultural hierarchy and its role in cementing the power of elites in Gilded Age America. Through the quantitative mining of several decades of subscriber data at one of the foremost cultural institutions in the United States, I take a fresh look at classic sociological theory on culture and elite dominance. The database for that project is publicly available here. My other current work includes an analysis of the relations between old and new elites in the Bay Area, and a study of collaborations and careers in the creative industries.
At LSE I co-organize the Sociology Department’s Research Seminar Series, as well as the Mechanisms of Inequality seminar at the International Inequalities Institute.
f.accominotti@lse.ac.uk
Personal website
Selected publications
Book
Market Chains: Careers and Creativity in the Market for Modern Art. Book manuscript under contract, Princeton University Press.
Published and forthcoming articles
“Consecration: A Structural View.” Forthcoming, American Behavioral Scientist.
“Creativity from Interaction: Artistic Movements and the Creativity Careers of Modern Painters.” Poetics 37: 267-294 (June 2009).
“Market and Hierarchy: The Social Structure of Production Decisions in a Cultural Market.” Histoire & Mesure 23: 177-218 (December 2008).
Working papers
“A Theory of Consecration: Intermediation and the Formation of Economics Value in the Market for Modern Art.” Revise & Resubmit.
“From Cultural Purity to the Segregated Inclusion of Culture: Subscribers to the New York Philharmonic in the Gilded Age” (with Shamus Khan and Adam Storer). Revise & Resubmit.
“Qualities and Inequalities: How the Interplay of Quality Signals Shapes Superstar Inequality.”
“Status Signaling, Reciprocity, and Favor Exchange Participation.”
Book reviews
“Beyond the Beat: Musicians Building Community in Nashville, by Daniel B. Cornfield.” Forthcoming, American Journal of Sociology.
“A Portrait of the Artist as a Prophet: Book Review of Manet: A Symbolic Revolution, by Pierre Bourdieu.” European Journal of Sociology 56: 433-437 (December 2015).