“Nothing but Foreign Cultural Products?” Questioning the Regime of Global Tastes among French Young People

• In Event: 1148 - Popular Culture: Cultural Taste and Aesthetics

Abstract

Based on the perspective of aesthetico-cultural cosmopolitanism, this paper aims to establish connections between cultural sociology and global studies at the micro level. Starting from the premise that the cultural repertoires of young French people have become internationalized, this article proposes the concept of a ‘regime of global tastes’, an interpretive framework that combines likes and dislikes and whose main trait is the capacity of individuals to localize and evaluate, both aesthetically and culturally, products coming from outside their own ethno-national background. We describe three global tastes: mainstream taste, cosmopolitan taste, and the taste for local authenticity. The results allow us to: a) criticize the allegedly poverty of reception in the context of cultural globalization; b) argue for the ability of the consumption of difference to foster political and ethical concerns; and c) discuss the reconfiguration of symbolic boundaries between social classes as well as generational belonging.

Authors

• Vincenzo Cicchelli, University of Paris Descartes

• Sylvie Octobre, Ministère de la culture et de la communication