The Emergence of Heterarchical Cultural Evaluation? A Latent Class Analysis of Cultural Evaluation Repertoires

• In Event: 228 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 15. Sociology of Taste

Abstract

This paper aims to increase our understanding of the conditions under which critics and other cultural mediators involved in evaluation are legitimated in a time of increased audience agency. Integrating work on the field theory, cultural evaluation, and new media production, I focus on how audiences perceive and value cultural mediators who are involved in evaluation practices. This paper aims to (1) map current cultural evaluation repertoires regarding books and music among general cultural audiences, and see to what extent can these be characterized as heterarchical or hierarchical, and (2) explain adherence to particular evaluation repertoires. To answer the research questions, I draw on survey data representative for the Dutch population (N=848) in which respondents were asked how much value they attribute to recommendations of mediators of various institutional degrees. I apply Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to map repertoires. Both for book mediators and music mediators six repertoires were found. Importantly, most repertoires appear to be about the degree of valuation rather than about the type of mediator, suggesting that repertoires are currently more heterarchical than hierarchical. Multivariate analyses are done using the Step3 procedure in LatentGold, and compares three sets of hypotheses that indicate various positions towards (cultural) institutions, and belief in institutional evaluations and criteria. Findings show that three independent variables have influence on which repertoires are chosen: cultural capital, institutional trust, and perceiving Internet as a diversity tool. This suggests that belief in mediators of various institutional standing follows from various underlying mechanisms.

Author

• Marc Verboord, Erasmus University Rotterdam