Where Do Cultural Omnivores Come From? The Implications of Educational Mobility For Cultural Consumption

• In Event: 377 - Regular Session. Sociology of Culture 3: Art, Taste, and Socio-Economics

Abstract

In this paper, we use data from a large-scale and nationally representative survey from the UK to investigate the association between social mobility and cultural omnivorousness. By applying diagonal reference models to our data, we show that both parent's and respondent's own educational level affect visual arts consumption. The effect size of destination is about three times that of origin. There is no asymmetric social mobility effect on cultural omnivorousness. Moreover, upwardly mobile individuals are less omnivorous than those who are stable in higher educational levels. These results challenges the claim that attribute the emergence of cultural omnivores to social mobility.

Author

• Tak Wing Chan, University of Warwick