Abstract
This book is a remarkable contribution to the field of sociology of art and culture, as it proposes a renewed reading of the role of artists in contemporary public life. At a time when the sociology of the arts has primarily favored approaches centered on the structures of cultural production, the creative economy, and the institutional constraints that shape artistic work, this book offers an alternative—and necessary—perspective: that artists should be understood as moral and political agents, capable of concrete intervention in public debates and democratic horizons. Overall, the book is relevant because it shifts the analysis from the organizational dimension of cultural production to the subjectivity, reflexivity, and agency of the artists themselves. Maria Rovisco argues that aesthetic imagination is inseparable from civic imagination, and that art should be understood as a form of political action, operating beyond the institutional channels of formal politics. The book’s originality lies in its emphasis on artists, especially those with migrant experiences. These social agents—often rendered invisible—become protagonists of processes of social transformation. Through in-depth interviews with visual artists and theater practitioners in the United Kingdom and analyses of visual, cinematic, and performative works, the author demonstrates that artists are, in fact, exemplary cosmopolitan agents because they embody the practice of intercultural dialogue; because they challenge rigid cultural boundaries; and because they use art as a device to imagine more just social futures.
In this regard, Rovisco considers that Bourdieusian interpretations, while fundamental to understanding inequalities in the art world, neglect the moral, reflexive, and creative dimensions of artistic practice. She tells us, “There is something crucial to gain for sociology by examining the political agency of artists” (Rovisco, 2025). This quote seems particularly relevant. The notion of political agency presented here is highlighted: a type of social action that involves intentionality, reflexivity, normativity, imagination, and humanity. Political agency involves not only strategies for achieving goals, but also practices that emerge from processes of moral evaluation and critical reflection on the world. Another structuring concept is that of civic imagination, which is nothing more than the capacity of artists to conceive of alternative social futures and mobilize audiences around them, outside of traditional spaces of political participation. It is important to remember that this process of civic imagination is not limited to protests, petitions, or political lobbying, but includes modes of aesthetic, performative, and narrative expression that contribute to shaping public sensibilities and new grammars of citizenship. By insisting on the importance of civic imagination, Rovisco doesn’t reduce artistic practice to an ideological, class, or interest-based stance; she argues that it is crucial to consider the aesthetic, affective, and narrative mechanisms that structure artists’ actions.
Structurally, the book is divided into eight chapters. In the first chapter, “Introduction: Artists, Politics, and Agency,” Rovisco provides a theoretical and methodological foundation, proposing a meaningful cultural sociology of the arts—one that pays attention to meaning, aesthetics, and agency. Against structuralist determinism, the author argues for the need to consider artists as moral subjects. In the second chapter, “Cultural Encounters, Artistic Production, and Social Transformation,” Rovisco delves into the concept of cultural encounter, discussing the role of the arts in the renegotiation of identities—a theme that is also deeply connected to contemporary migratory movements. Here, the author offers some critiques of the postcolonialist period and notions of cultural encounter to understand how this relational process can bring about social transformations. The author revisits postcolonial and critical traditions, but also points out the limitations of these approaches when they remain trapped in dichotomies such as colonizer/colonized or European/other. It is at this point that the author proposes an alternative reading: cultural encounters should not be seen simply as relations of domination, but rather as spaces of hybridity, translocality, and cultural invention.
In the third chapter, “The Expressive Public Sphere: Artists and the Civic Imagination,” the sociologist introduces the concept of the expressive public sphere—a reinterpretation of the Habermasian public sphere. Unlike the traditional public sphere, the expressive public sphere is characterized by narrative, performance, and aesthetic imagination. The hypothesis is that art constitutes an autonomous space of expression and knowledge that contributes to the constitution of a public culture oriented toward civic imagination. The author argues that the expressive public sphere is organized by two distinct communicative styles: performative narratives and cosmopolitan conversations. Rovisco shows how artists create performative narratives, through which they transform private experiences into public issues. At the same time, cosmopolitan conversations emerge as discursive practices that open up space for listening, exchange, and the construction of transnational solidarities. In the fourth chapter, “Acting Politically: The Art of Provocation,” Rovisco shows us that provocation should not be seen merely as an aesthetic gesture, but rather as a political act that forces society to confront its moral limits. Rovisco analyzes provocation as an aesthetic grammar that artists employ to express themselves and to intervene in social and political conditions. This aesthetic grammar, defined as a vocabulary shared by artists to give meaning to their formal and conceptual choices, constitutes a cultural repertoire that spans diverse artistic forms and contexts. The central argument is that the grammar of provocation functions as both an aesthetic and political resource, allowing artists to explain how their artistic interventions configure a distinct form of political agency in public life.
In Chapter 5, “The Politics of Performative Listening”—perhaps one of the most striking parts of the book—Rovisco explores the idea of performative listening, arguing that listening is also a political act. Collaborative and socially engaged practices demonstrate that listening is not passive, as it involves recognition, reciprocity, and openness to the Other. This chapter positions listening as a central condition of civic imagination and practical cosmopolitanism. It is also worth noting that this chapter introduces the concept of the politics of performative listening through an analysis of the socially engaged visual arts project “Portraits of the Unseen.” By introducing the concept of the politics of performative listening, Rovisco seeks to clarify how acts of listening and speaking are part of a modality of witnessing that can make artists, collaborators, and audiences act as political agents. How do artists listen to those with whom they collaborate and those they seek to represent? How do participants in artistic projects—particularly those from marginalized communities—manage to speak and be heard? How does listening relate to witnessing? These questions invite us to view art as a space for creativity, imagination, and social experimentation, where it is possible to represent and transform social relations and the political and social conditions of the world in which we live.
Chapter 6, “Cosmopolitan Cinema as Ethico-Political Practice: Borders, Mobility, and Cosmopolitan Dialogue,” discusses cosmopolitan cinema as an aesthetic and ethical–political practice that fosters public dialogues. It proposes that cinema can generate cosmopolitan engagements with the experiences of others and addresses how films that address themes of human dignity and its violations can create an ethical space for dialogue. Rovisco innovatively advocates cosmopolitan cinema as a mode of artistic production characterized by specific aesthetic and ethical–political foundations with distinct characteristics, namely the capacity to generate serious public dialogues and cosmopolitan engagements with the dangers of distant others; and the concern with cinema as an aesthetic and ethical–political practice that implies distinct forms of agency. In this sense, the agency and subjectivity of filmmakers and other creative professionals are crucial elements for understanding cosmopolitan cinema as an ethical–political enterprise. According to the author, cinema offers images, stories, plots, and performances that enable the imagination of positive social transformations, functioning as a critical repertoire that mediates agency and action, stimulating social imagination.
The book continues with Chapter 7, “Afterword: Performing Citizenship.” In this afterword, Rovisco provides a retrospective of the main themes addressed, highlighting the intrinsic relationship between society, politics, and the work of artists. Rovisco argues that to understand the role of artists in the construction of civic and political culture, it is necessary to recognize them as reflective, creative, and moral subjects. Drawing on the conceptual tools of cultural and pragmatic sociology, and in dialogue with other disciplines, Rovisco proposes a new approach to the sociology of the arts that values the moral and agentive dimensions of artistic practices aimed at social transformation. The book concludes with Chapter 8, “Methodological Appendix.” This is a crucial chapter, as it presents—in a very transparent and truly pedagogical manner—the methodological strategy employed in his research, the data collection and analysis techniques, and the epistemological considerations regarding his corpus of analysis. By way of conclusion, we can say that this book’s greatest virtue lies in its rejection of reductionist views of artistic practice. Instead, Rovisco proposes a theoretical framework that articulates aesthetics, morality, and politics; this is based on the notion of civic imagination, demonstrating that artists not only reflect society, but also act within it as agents of transformation. Another merit of this book is the articulation of theory and empiricism. Interviews with artists with a migrant background in the United Kingdom reveal how seemingly non-political practices, such as a play about belonging or a visual installation about borders, can become significant political interventions. Civic imagination emerges not as an abstract concept, but above all as a concrete practice. In a world marked by migratory flows, contested borders, and new forms of exclusion, this book shows how artists create alternative spaces of citizenship and democracy. By proposing that aesthetic action is also political action, Rovisco offers us a key to rethinking the intersection of art, culture, and politics in contemporary late modernity.
