Papers by Alvaro Santana Acuña
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2017
the global significance of the trend of increasing urbanization? The most difficult historical co... more the global significance of the trend of increasing urbanization? The most difficult historical context is indeed the contemporary one, which Black elegantly and usefully addresses and synthesizes in Chapters 9 and 10, allotting considerable space also to the rise of China. Black discusses current theoretical developments and their limits at large, including comparative methods and time geography. Black rightly directs a pointed question at the now largely dominant current of critical geopolitics: Does giving so much attention to deconstructing the discourse of power serve to prevent scholars from constructing anything, “for fear of becoming akin to the ‘metanarratives’”? (204), especially with regard to long-term views? Certainly, the many voices concerned could provide vastly different answers, especially in light of the diversity of critical geographers like Smith, Harvey, Ò Tuathail, Agnew, and others. Finally, in this book, geopolitics provides a powerful key that draws history and geography close to one another, allowing many fruitful exchanges between the two disciplines, especially through comparison of what could have gone missing in each of them. One further question arises with reference to the title: Is the quest for dominance simply a matter of power, or is it also a matter of dominating the increasing complexity of the world (and the knowledge about it)? From this perspective, space will certainly continue to provide a powerful key to conferring order to the world and its historical understandings, though, as the book shows for environmental determinism, a risk is always present. Geopolitics could also constitute a form of spatial reductionism in the face of an ever-growing complexity. Indeed, such an enquiry would require carefully balanced interdisciplinary discussion.
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Le livre technique avant le xxe siècle, 2017
Cette contribution analyse la standardisation des instruments d’arpentage afin de comprendre comm... more Cette contribution analyse la standardisation des instruments d’arpentage afin de comprendre comment l’art de l’arpentage passe d’un « art » local à une profession savante et nationale, celle de l’ingénieur géographe. Nous étudions sept des plus influents manuels d’arpentage publiés en France entre les années 1690 et 1760, ainsi que des documents peu connus du Bureau national du cadastre (1791-1802) et de l’École nationale des ingénieurs géographes (1794-1802). La documentation technique sur l’arpentage analysée montre que la définition d’un ensemble d’instruments standardisés (en particulier le graphomètre et la trigonométrie géodésique) participe de façon significative à la construction de l’identité d’une profession scientifique. Enfin, cette contribution explore les liens entre la diffusion de la littérature technique sur l’arpentage, la création d’organisations professionnelles et le déploiement d’une nouvelle forme institutionnelle, le premier cadastre national de la France à la fin du xviiie siècle.This paper analyzes the standardization of land surveying instruments to offer a better understanding of the transformation of land surveying from a local manual art into a national scientific profession: the engineer-geographer. The paper studies seven of the most influential manuals of land surveying published between the 1690s and the 1760s in France as well as little known documents of the National Bureau of the Cadastre (1791-1802) and the National School of Engineer-Geographers (1794-1802). The technical literature on land surveying analyzed here provides a compelling historical example of how the identity of an emerging scientific profession can be built by means of defining a set of standardized instruments (especially the graphometer and geodetic trigonometry). Finally, the paper discusses some connections between the spread of technical literature on land surveying, the creation of professional organizations, and the undertaking of a new institutional form, the first national cadastre of France in the late eighteenth century
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Note: For extended version in English, see: Santana-Acuña. 2014. “How a Literary Work Becomes a C... more Note: For extended version in English, see: Santana-Acuña. 2014. “How a Literary Work Becomes a Classic: The Case of One Hundred Years of Solitude.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology 2(1):97-149
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In mainstream contemporary art, price formation is a multisite process no longer solely handled b... more In mainstream contemporary art, price formation is a multisite process no longer solely handled by artists, dealers, and collectors but also by dark intermediaries. This essay examines the impact of four layers of value (technique, innovation, aura, and emotions) as well as the development of an invisible art market for the top-earning 1% and the rise of " global galleries. " The Dark Intermediaries of the Art Market.
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Where does the value of contemporary art begin in a globalized art market? Taking as a point of d... more Where does the value of contemporary art begin in a globalized art market? Taking as a point of departure the comparison between influential sociological studies exploring prices and markets, this two-part essay examines the profound changes that the contemporary art market has experienced before, during and after the Great Recession.
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Despite their groundbreaking explanations of social phenomena, Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral S... more Despite their groundbreaking explanations of social phenomena, Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and Gabriel Tarde's Monadology and Sociology (1893) still occupy a peripheral position in the sociological tradition. This article analyzes Smith's and Tarde's efforts to present sentiments and monads as foundations of social phenomena. Unlike contemporary contributions, more concerned with structuralist accounts of the social, the singularity of their works was to frame sentiments and monads as tangible units of analysis that permitted to find the source of individual action outside the self. Smith and Tarde argued so not by linking social causality to abstract and collective structures but rather to human interdependence and interaction. Along with contributing to a less teleological approach to the sociological tradition, this article argues that engaging with works outside the structuralist tradition provides researchers with a much-needed space for sociological innovation to explain social phenomena in an increasingly globalized and hyper-connected world.
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If meanings are so contested and changeable, how can individuals reach a collective agreement abo... more If meanings are so contested and changeable, how can individuals reach a collective agreement about what makes some cultural objects meaningful over time and across space? And how can social scientists construe robust interpretations of cultural objects whose meanings are shifting and malleable? These questions are pertinent to literary classics, whose meanings relentlessly change, and yet people living in different countries and historical periods collectively agree about their significance. This article argues that a literary work can become a classic when it transcends its original context of production and its contents are progressively appropriated by actors and organizations that had no share in their production. Using the case of One Hundred Years of Solitude, this article, first, studies 10 ways in which that novel transcended its original context and, second, documents the appropriation of some of its contents in 56 countries between 1967 and 2013. To contribute to more robust interpretations of meaningful cultural objects with shifting meanings, this article offers four patterns (lived experience, universalization, artistic commensuration and entrenched criticism) involved in the collective fabrication of the value of One Hundred Years of Solitude as a literary classic.
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Papers (català, français, español, italiano) by Alvaro Santana Acuña
El panorama que el libro ofrece es extremadamente rico y diverso, tanto en términos de terrenos d... more El panorama que el libro ofrece es extremadamente rico y diverso, tanto en términos de terrenos de práctica artística cubiertos (la ópera, el rock, las artes visuales, la danza, el teatro, la literatura, la arquitectura, la cocina), como de ámbitos temáticos abordados (universos de creadores, recepción y gusto, insti- tuciones y organizaciones artísticas, prácticas de creación y prácticas profesio- nales, prácticas de evaluación y valoración). A partir de un enfoque esencial- mente global, los autores de estos diversos trabajos, originarios de España, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, México y Uruguay, ofrecen unas nuevas claves para el desarrollo de esta disciplina en el ámbito hispanohablante.
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Books by Alvaro Santana Acuña
Ascent to Glory: How One Hundred Years of Solitude Was Written and Became a Global Classic, 2020
Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude seemed destined for obscurity upon i... more Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude seemed destined for obscurity upon its publication in 1967. The little-known author, small publisher, magical style, and setting in a remote Caribbean village were hardly the usual ingredients for success in the literary marketplace. Yet today it ranks among the best-selling books of all time. Translated into dozens of languages, it continues to enter the lives of new readers around the world. How did One Hundred Years of Solitude achieve this unlikely success? And what does its trajectory tell us about how a work of art becomes a classic?
Ascent to Glory is a groundbreaking study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, from the moment García Márquez first had the idea for the novel to its global consecration. Using new documents from the author’s archives, Álvaro Santana-Acuña shows how García Márquez wrote the novel, going beyond the many legends that surround it. He unveils the literary ideas and networks that made possible the book’s creation and initial success. Santana-Acuña then follows this novel’s path in more than seventy countries on five continents and explains how thousands of people and organizations have helped it to become a global classic. Shedding new light on the novel’s imagination, production, and reception, Ascent to Glory is an eye-opening book for cultural sociologists and literary historians as well as for fans of García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude.
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Papers by Alvaro Santana Acuña
Papers (català, français, español, italiano) by Alvaro Santana Acuña
Books by Alvaro Santana Acuña
Ascent to Glory is a groundbreaking study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, from the moment García Márquez first had the idea for the novel to its global consecration. Using new documents from the author’s archives, Álvaro Santana-Acuña shows how García Márquez wrote the novel, going beyond the many legends that surround it. He unveils the literary ideas and networks that made possible the book’s creation and initial success. Santana-Acuña then follows this novel’s path in more than seventy countries on five continents and explains how thousands of people and organizations have helped it to become a global classic. Shedding new light on the novel’s imagination, production, and reception, Ascent to Glory is an eye-opening book for cultural sociologists and literary historians as well as for fans of García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Ascent to Glory is a groundbreaking study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, from the moment García Márquez first had the idea for the novel to its global consecration. Using new documents from the author’s archives, Álvaro Santana-Acuña shows how García Márquez wrote the novel, going beyond the many legends that surround it. He unveils the literary ideas and networks that made possible the book’s creation and initial success. Santana-Acuña then follows this novel’s path in more than seventy countries on five continents and explains how thousands of people and organizations have helped it to become a global classic. Shedding new light on the novel’s imagination, production, and reception, Ascent to Glory is an eye-opening book for cultural sociologists and literary historians as well as for fans of García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude.