Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part One the art world as a System -- 1 The Institutional Theory of George Dickie -- 2 The Institutionalist Pragmatism of Howard S. Becker and Paul DiMaggio -- 3 Pierre Bourdieu's Grand Theory of the Artistic Field -- 4 From Theory to the Methodology of Singularity: Bruno Latour and Nathalie Heinich -- 5 Niklas Luhmann's System of Artistic Communications -- 6 How Art Worlds Help the Arts to Function -- Part two on values and functions of the arts -- 7 What Philosophers Say that the Arts Do -- Part three how to study art worlds -- Introduction -- 8 Foundations for the Functioning of Art Systems -- 9 How Distribution Conditions the Functioning of Art -- 10 How Aesthetic Values Become Contextualized -- Epilogue: For a Second Life of Artistic Experiences -- References -- Index.