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Sarah L. Thornton (born 1965) is a writer, ethnographer and sociologist of culture. Thornton has authored three books and many articles about artists, the art market, technology and design, the history of music technology, dance clubs, raves, cultural hierarchies, subcultures, and ethnographic research methods.


Life and work

Thornton was born in Canada. She lived in London, England, for 25 years. She now resides in San Francisco, California. Thornton is currently a scholar-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley. Her education comprises a BA in the History of Art from Concordia University, Montreal, and a PhD in the Sociology of Culture from Strathclyde University, Glasgow. Her academic posts have included a full-time lecturership at the University of Sussex, and a period as Visiting Research Fellow at
Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the ...
. She worked as a brand planner in a London advertising agency. She was the chief writer about contemporary art for ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
''. She has also written for publications including '' The Sunday Times Magazine'', '' The Art Newspaper'', ''
Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...
.com'', ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'', ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', and ''
The New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
''.


''Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital''

In ''Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital'' (1995), Thornton examines the shift from live to recorded music for public dancing (from record shops to raves) and the resistance to recording technology's enculturation of the "authentic," valued cultural form. The book also analyzes the dynamics of " hipness," critiquing
Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence ...
's theory of cultural capital with her own formulation of "subcultural capital." The study responds to earlier works such as Dick Hebdige's 1979 book '' Subculture: The Meaning of Style.'' It does not see media as a reflection of social groups, but as integral to their formation.
Contrary to youth subcultural ideologies, "subcultures" do not germinate from a seed and grow by force of their own energy into mysterious ‘movements’ only to be belatedly digested by the media. Rather, media and other culture industries are there and effective right from the start. They are central to the process of subcultural formation.
The book is described by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson as "theoretically innovative" and "conceptually adventurous".


''Seven Days in the Art World''

''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''' Karen Rosenberg said that ''Seven Days in the Art World'' (2008) "was reported and written in a heated market, but it is poised to endure as a work of sociology...
hornton Hornton is a village and civil parish about northwest of Banbury in Oxfordshire. Churches The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist are the nave and the arcade of the north aisle, both of which were bui ...
pushes her well-chosen subjects to explore the questions ‘What is an artist?’ and ‘What makes a work of art great?’" In the UK, Ben Lewis wrote in '' The Sunday Times'' that ''Seven Days'' was "a Robert Altmanesque panorama of...the most important cultural phenomenon of the last ten years". While Peter Aspden argued in the ''Financial Times'' that "
hornton Hornton is a village and civil parish about northwest of Banbury in Oxfordshire. Churches The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist are the nave and the arcade of the north aisle, both of which were bui ...
does well to resist the temptation to draw any glib, overarching conclusions. There is more than enough in her rigorous, precise reportage… for the reader to make his or her own connections." András Szántó reviewed ''Seven Days in the Art World'': "Underneath he book'sglossy surface lurks a sociologist's concern for institutional narratives as well as the ethnographer's conviction that entire social structures can be apprehended in seemingly frivolous patterns of speech or dress."


''33 Artists in 3 Acts''

Thornton's book ''33 Artists in 3 Acts'' (2014) looks at the lives and work of figures "from all over the art ecosystem, from the market-driven mogul ( Jeff Koons) to the profoundly intellectual performance artist ( UCLA professor
Andrea Fraser Andrea Rose Fraser (born 1965) is a performance artist, mainly known for her work in the area of Institutional Critique. Fraser is based in New York and Los Angeles and is currently Department Head and Professor of Interdisciplinary Studio of the ...
) to the impish prankster (Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.)" The central question guiding the book is: What defines an artist in the 21st century? Thornton received "a range of answers that will startle even art-world insiders." Jackie Wullshlager of the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' opined that Thornton is "skillfully nuanced" and "elevates gossip to sociology, writing with verve, insight and authenticity." ''33 Artists in 3 Acts'' received praise for its academic approach and "attention to detail and illustration of subtleties that bring her interviewees to life.... hornton'sflair for creating clear structures offer readers manageable points of access... without ever compromising on quality or content, or sounding pretentious."


Journalism

At ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
,'' Thornton penned investigative and analytical articles about the inner workings of the contemporary art market. Topics included the value of art, the role of museum validation and branding, and the impact of gender on auction prices. In 2010, she wrote an article about the Damien Hirst auction, " Beautiful Inside My Head Forever", which took place on the evening that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008. The article explained how the auction was so successful. Thornton's later articles have focused on the tech world of
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...
. For ''Cultured Magazine,'' she has published profiles of tech leaders including
Mike Krieger Michel Krieger (born March 4, 1986) is a Brazilian-American entrepreneur and software engineer who co-founded Instagram along with Kevin Systrom, and served as its CTO. Instagram expanded from a few million users to 1 billion monthly active users ...
( Instagram co-founder), Evan Williams (
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
co-founder), and Ivy Ross (Head of Design for
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
Hardware).


Legal action

On 26 July 2011, Thornton won a historic libel and malicious falsehood victory against Lynn Barber and ''The Daily Telegraph''. All three of the ''Telegraph''′s attempts to appeal were denied.


Publications


Non-fiction

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Edited books

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Book chapters

* ::Also as:


References


External links

*
''The New Yorker'', "Reality Art Show", by Sarah Thornton
19 March 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Sarah 1965 births Living people Mass media theorists Canadian sociologists Canadian women sociologists Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian expatriates in England Concordia University alumni Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Academics of the University of Sussex Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian expatriates in the United States