Richard A. Peterson (sociologist)

Richard Austin Peterson (September 28, 1932 – February 4, 2010) was an American sociologist and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University.

Richard A. Peterson
Pete Peterson in 2008
Born
Richard Austin Peterson

September 28, 1932
DiedFebruary 4, 2010 (aged 77)
Alma materOberlin College (B.A.) University of Illinois (Ph.D.)
Known forsociology of culture, sociology of music
Scientific career
FieldsSociology
InstitutionsVanderbilt University
Academic advisorsAlvin Gouldner

Early life and education

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Richard Peterson was born in Mussoorie, British India, where his father was a missionary. He graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor's, and attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he worked with the sociologist Alvin Gouldner and completed his PhD in 1962[2] In 1965, Peterson received a job in the sociology department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.[3] It was there that he began to study the country music scene in-depth.

He was the founding chairman of the American Sociological Association's culture section, and the section's prize for the best graduate student paper is named in honor of him. He was a major contributor to the "production of culture" perspective within the sociology of culture,[4][5][6] and a widely known scholar of popular music, country-western in particular. Peterson's highly-cited book Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity "is one of the most important scholarly works ever written about the genre".[7]

The journal Poetics released a special double issue devoted to the contributions of Peterson to the sociology of culture.[8]

Works

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  • Peterson, R.A. and Simkus, A. (1992) 'How Musical Tastes Mark Occupational Status Groups', in M. Lamont and M. Fournier (eds) Cultivating Differences, pp 152–86. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Peterson, Richard A. (August 1992). "Understanding audience segmentation: From elite and mass to omnivore and univore". Poetics. 21 (4): 243–258. doi:10.1016/0304-422X(92)90008-Q.
  • Peterson, Richard A.; Kern, Roger M. (October 1996). "Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore". American Sociological Review. 61 (5): 900–909. doi:10.2307/2096460.
  • Peterson, Richard A. (November 1997). "Changing representation of status through taste displays: An introduction". Poetics. 25 (2–3): 71–73. doi:10.1016/S0304-422X(97)00012-0.
  • Peterson, R.A. (2005) 'Problems in Comparative Research: The Example of Omnivorousness', Poetics 33(5—6): 257—82 .

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References

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  1. ^ U.S., Consular Reports of Births, 1910-1949
  2. ^ "Vanderbilt University – Department of Sociology". 2008-05-04. Archived from the original on 2008-05-04. Retrieved 2017-01-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "Sociologist Pete Peterson has died – Vanderbilt University: myVU". 2010-02-11. Archived from the original on 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2017-01-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ^ Dowd, Timothy J.; Janssen, Susanne (1 April 2010). "Richard A. Peterson (1932–2010)". Poetics. 38 (2): 111–113. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2010.03.001. hdl:1765/101857.
  5. ^ Inglis, David; Almila, Anna-Mari (2016-05-09). The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Sociology. SAGE. ISBN 978-1-4739-5868-5.
  6. ^ Hirsch, Paul M and Peer C. Fiss (2000). "Doing sociology and culture: Richard Peterson's quest and contribution." Poetics 28: 97-105.
  7. ^ "Richard A. "Pete" Peterson, Country Music Scholar, Dead at 77". Nashville Scene. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  8. ^ van Eijck, Koen (December 2000). "Richard A. Peterson and the culture of consumption". Poetics. 28 (2–3): 207–224. doi:10.1016/S0304-422X(00)00022-X. Retrieved 15 December 2022.