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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Sociological Theory
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1406156

When Artistic is Altruistic. The Power of Beauty from P. A. Sorokin's Sociology to Building Beauty Social Project

Provisionally accepted
Licia Paglione Licia Paglione *
  • Sophia University Institute, Figline and Incisa Valdarno, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The article contributes to ongoing debates regarding the social value and sociological relevance of the arts by examining intuitions from the Russian-American sociologist P. A. Sorokin (1889A. Sorokin ( -1968) ) about the concept of "beauty" as a force akin to what he terms "creative, altruistic love". Sorokin posits that both beauty and altruistic love have the potential to catalyze a "fraternization of humanity" (Sorokin, 2002, p. 479). Building upon Sorokin's sociological reflections on the interplay between "altruistic creative love" and "beauty", this article proposes five dimensions, drawing from Sorokin's thought, to explore empirically a form of social action within the realm of art, termed "altruistic artistic social action". These dimensions permit uncovering beauty expressions that possess aesthetic and sociological relevance, influencing society. Using these dimensions, the article proposes the analysis of a specific social project, named "Building Beauty", promoted in Turin (Italy) by universities, public and Third sector bodies, which endeavours to foster social inclusion of homeless people through participatory processes that yield artistic creations of aesthetic and sociological value simultaneously.

    Keywords: Sorokin, beauty, artistic action, love, creativity, fraternization, integral epistemology

    Received: 24 Mar 2024; Accepted: 16 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Paglione. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Licia Paglione, Sophia University Institute, Figline and Incisa Valdarno, Italy

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