This paper traces developments in Jeffrey Alexander’s cultural sociology. The aim is to introduce the reader to the key components of this theory as it developed from a functionalist focus on societal values through semiotics and linguistic structuralism to a theory of cultural trauma and collective performance.
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Alexander, Jeffrey , Eyerman, Ron , Giesen, Bernhard , Smelser, Neil and Sztompka, Piotr (2004) Cultural Trauma. Berkeley: University of California Press .
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Hall, Stuart (1980) ‘Encoding/Decoding’, in S. Hall , D. Hobson , A. Lowe and P. Willis (eds) Culture, Media, Language. London: Hutchinson .
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Rowe, John Carlos (1995) ‘Structure’, in F. Lentricchia and T. McLaughlin (eds) Critical Literary Terms. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
