Journal ArticleDOI
Social space and cultural class divisions: the forms of capital and contemporary lifestyle differentiation.
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This analysis affirms the validity of Bourdieu's model of social class and the contention that classes tend to take the form of status groups, and challenges dominant positions in cultural stratification research, as well as recent analyses of 'emerging cultural capital'.Abstract:
In this article, we address whether and how contemporary social classes are marked by distinct lifestyles. We assess the model of the social space, a novel approach to class analysis pioneered by Bourdieu's Distinction. Although pivotal in Bourdieu's work, this model is too often overlooked in later research, making its contemporary relevance difficult to assess. We redress this by using the social space as a framework through which to study the cultural manifestation of class divisions in lifestyle differences in contemporary Norwegian society. Through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) of unusually rich survey data, we reveal a structure strikingly similar to the model in Distinction, with a primary dimension of the volume of capital, and a secondary dimension of the composition of capital. While avoiding the substantialist fallacy of predefined notions of 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' tastes, we explore how 168 lifestyle items map onto this social space. This reveals distinct classed lifestyles according to both dimensions of the social space. The lifestyles of the upper classes are distinctly demanding in terms of resources. Among those rich in economic capital, this manifests itself in a lifestyle which involves a quest for excitement, and which is bodily oriented and expensive. For their counterparts rich in cultural capital, a more ascetic and intellectually oriented lifestyle manifests itself, demanding of resources in the sense of requiring symbolic mastery, combining a taste for canonized, legitimate culture with more cosmopolitan and 'popular' items. In contrast to many studies' descriptions of the lower classes as 'disengaged' and 'inactive', we find evidence of distinct tastes on their part. Our analysis thus affirms the validity of Bourdieu's model of social class and the contention that classes tend to take the form of status groups. We challenge dominant positions in cultural stratification research, while questioning the aptness of the metaphor of the 'omnivore', as well as recent analyses of 'emerging cultural capital'.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
From Aristocratic to Ordinary: Shifting Modes of Elite Distinction:
Sam Friedman,Aaron Reeves +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the question of how elites signal their superior social position via the consumption of culture by drawing on 120 years of "recreations" data (N = 71,393) contained within Who's Who, a...
Journal ArticleDOI
Forms of Capital and Modes of Closure in Upper Class Reproduction
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the recruitment into the upper class, analysing the impact of different forms of capital and modes of closure, and find that the degree of closure differs significantly between subfractions of the upper classes, based on the degree to which they refer to positions involving specific credential requirements.
Social Class in the 21st Century
Mike Savage,Niall Cunningham,Fiona Devine,Sam Friedman,Daniel Laurison,Lisa McKenzie,Andrew Miles,Helene Snee,Paul Wakeling +8 more
TL;DR: A fresh take on social class from the experts behind the BBC's 'Great British Class Survey' as discussed by the authors explores how and why our society is changing and what this means for the people who find themselves in the margins as well as in the centre.
DissertationDOI
Funding classical music: A comparison of Norwegian public policy and practitioner perspectives
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined ways in which public funding of the classical music sector is legitimised by the Norwegian public sector and by classical music practitioners working in Norway, and found that the funding is underpinned by three forms of rationales: equality, collective well-being and the intrinsic value of art.
Journal ArticleDOI
A struggle on two fronts: boundary drawing in the lower region of the social space and the symbolic market for ‘down‐to‐earthness’
Vegard Jarness,Magne Flemmen +1 more
TL;DR: It is shown that moral boundaries in particular can take on qualitatively different forms and that subtypes of boundaries are sometimes so tightly intertwined that separating them to measure their relative salience would neglect the complex ways in which they combine to engender both aversion to and sympathies for others.
References
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Book
Language and Symbolic Power
Pierre Bourdieu,John B. Thompson +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the economy of language exchange and its relation to political power is discussed. But the authors focus on the production and reproduction of Legitimate language and do not address its application in the theory of political power.
Book
Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education
TL;DR: The first handbook on the sociology of education as discussed by the authors synthesizes major advances in education over the past several decades, incorporating both a systematic review of significant theoretical and empirical work and challenging original contributions by distinguished American, English, and French sociologists.
Journal ArticleDOI
Changing highbrow taste: from snob to omnivore*
TL;DR: This article found that high-status persons are far from being snobs and are eclectic, even omnivorous, in their tastes, which suggests a qualitative shift in the basis for marking elite status-from snobbish exclusion to omnivouring appropriation.