Signs of Emerging Cultural Capital? Analyzing Localised Symbolic Struggles using Class Specific Analysis

• In Event: 485 - Section on Sociology of Culture Paper Session. Cultural Consumption in a Changing World (co-sponsored with the Section on Consumers and Consumption)

Abstract

Central focus in this paper is to analyse empirically whether and how the monopoly and legitimacy of highbrow arts as a status marker varies across positions in the social space. Drawing on unique Flemish survey-data (n = 2,846) that include information on what cultural objects are consumed as well as on how these are appropriated, I construct a two-dimensional social space that relates cultural practices to positions in the social hierarchy through Multiple Correspondence Analysis (see Roose et al., 2012). Using Class Specific Analysis I look into the structuring principles within two age clusters (-25 and 55+) and try to get at the ways in which the distinguishing status and legitimacy of highbrow arts varies between different groups—hereby challenging the assumption that cultural classifications are equally salient to every social group—and explore localised symbolic struggles with reference to the structuring principles of the global space.

Author

• Henk Roose, Ghent University