Role as Resource in the Hollywood Film Industry

Abstract

The theoretical concept of role as resource is introduced and illustrated. The concept combines critical elements of the structural, interactionist, and network approaches to role. A role is a resource in two senses: it is a means to claim, barbain for, and gain membership and acceptance in a social community, and it grants access to social, cultura, and material capital that incumbents and claimants exploit in order to pursue their interests. This article examines the impact of a major transformation-the rise of the blockbuster-on roles and positions in Hollywood filmmaking and discerns two processes underlying the growth and decline of roles in culture production. Through adaptation, filmmakers adopt role combinations with intrinsic capabilities of solving technical and organizational problems. Through imitation, filmmakers copy the role combinations associated with early blockbusters and gain legitimacy in Hollywood's institutional environment. These responses resulted in two fundamental trends: the increasing specialization of the producer and separation of the business and artistic domains, and the increasing fusion of artistic roles.