Tony Bennett (born 1947) is a British sociologist who has held academic positions in the United Kingdom and Australia. His work focusses on

cultural studies Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...

and

cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing t ...

Early life and education

Bennett was born in Manchester"Profile - Asia in Transition: Representation and Identity: The Japan Foundation 30th Anniversary International Symposium 2002"
retrieved 4 October 2020. and earned a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1968 and a PhD in Sociology at

Sussex University , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

in 1972."Professor Tony Bennett"
Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, retrieved 4 October 2020.

Career

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Bennett taught sociology at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

in the United Kingdom, as a staff tutor and then as chair of the Popular Culture course."Prof Tony Bennett: Visiting Research Professor, Sociology"
The Open University, archived fro
the original
on 23 June 2011. He then moved to

Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, where he was Professor of Cultural Studies, Dean of Humanities, and director of the ARC Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy until 1998. In 1998 he returned to the Open University, where he was Professor of Sociology and a founding director of the

ESRC The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fund ...

Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change (CRESC). In 2009 he returned to Australia as Research Professor in Social and Cultural Theory at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, while remaining a Visiting Research Professor at the Open University and an associate member of CRESC. He has also been a visiting professor at universities in the United States, China, and Canada. His work has been important in literary and popular culture studies, especially as a founder of the Australian school of cultural policy studies.Ian Robert Lamond
"Putting policy at the centre of cultural policy studies"
conference paper, ICCPR 2010, University of Jyväskylä, July 2010.George Yúdice
"Introduction"
''Social Text'' 59 (Summer 1999) 1–4.Brandon Woolf
"Putting Policy into Performance Studies?"
''Performance Research'' 20.4 (2015) 104–11, . He is a member of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...

Publications

Bennett's 1992 essay, "Putting Policy into Cultural Studies", was seminal. His books include: *''Formalism and Marxism'' (1979), on Marxist literary criticism *''Outside Literature'' (1990) *''The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics'' (1995), a study of the origins and cultural function of the modern museum *''Culture: A Reformer's Science'' (1998), a reexamination of cultural policy studies *''Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics, Programs'' (ed., with David Carter, 2001) *''Understanding Everyday Life'' (ed., with Diane Watson, 2002), textbook for their Open University core course in sociologyMaria Desougi
"Review: ''Understanding Everyday Life'', Bennett, Tony and Diane Watson (Editors)"
''Sociological Research Online'', October 2003. *''Pasts Beyond Memories: Evolution, Museums, Colonialism'' (2004) *''Making Culture, Changing Society'' (2013) *''Museums, Power, Knowledge: Selected Essays'' (2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Tony 1947 births Living people People from Manchester Academics of the Open University Griffith University faculty Western Sydney University faculty Australian sociologists British sociologists Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Sussex