From the 1970’s onwards, a vital sociological interest on arts and culture has been raised. One can speculate about the multiple reasons for this renewed interest in the sociology of arts but what is commendable is the diversity and plurality of the variety of theoretical perspectives that all have tried to answer one central question. How do contemporary societies organize various artistic activities from production to distribution to consumption, including valuation and archiving? Putting the focus on “how” implies references to formation and institutionalization but also to transformations and unforeseen and unintended ruptures. This question explains why the sociology of arts, and especially theories of the social organization of arts, are closely connected to general social theories. This insight has motivated us to analyze and compare the shaping and reception of seven particular sociological perspectives on the social organization of arts. These perspectives are the interactionist approach of art worlds, the structural field theory, the systems theory of arts, the production of culture perspective, neo-institutionalism, cultural institution studies (inspired by practice-theory and pragmatist approaches), and sociological network theory. What do they have in common, where do they deviate from each other? All these approaches depart from an anti-essentialist understanding of arts and apply contextual and relational thinking. They have emerged from very different theoretical foundations and scholarly contexts. Our analysis and comparison will not be evaluative – creating a ranking of theories – but epistemological, which presupposes an appreciation of each distinct perspective aiming to advance the understanding of theory building and theoretical innovation in arts sociology and in general social theory.