Increasing Presence of Documenta Exhibition in Global Civil Society: Methodological Relevance of John Urry's 'Sociology beyond Societies'

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2006 in the subject Sociology - Media, Art, Music, grade: Pass, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, course: Comprehensive Doctoral Examination, language: English, abstract: In accord with the stance of John Urry (2000) and Zygmunt Bauman (2000) on the global civil society as increasingly coming into effective legal and political existence, I propose to read John Urry's Sociology beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-first Century (2000) as a springboard to application of its methodological and theoretical aspects to the international art exhibition Documenta 11. The consideration of Documenta in the context of globalization allows me to trace its impact both on the institutional form that Documenta has taken and on the range of issues that its components cover in relation to the global civil society. The five Platforms of Documenta 11 give important insight into the constitution of global civil society as a public sphere taking place beyond the nation-states. In this regard John Urry's book Sociology beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-first century (2000) gives a number of methodological starting points from which to begin to chart the contours of the global civil society in the constitution of which such global mega-events as Documenta art exhibition participate.