Aristocratic, Highbrow and Ordinary: Elites and Shifting Modes of Cultural Distinction 1897-2016

• In Event: 2231 - Cultural Distinction, Taste, and Intergroup Relations among Elites

Abstract

Sociological theorists have long argued that elites signal their superior social position and distinction from others through their consumption of, and participation in, particular types of culture. But precisely how elite distinction operates is contested. Social emulation models, in which elites continually develop ever-more expensive and elaborate tastes to guard against the emulation strategies of aspirational outsiders, is often contrasted with Bourdieu’s notion of misrecognition, which pivots on the ability of elites to impose as legitimate their own arbitrary categories of cultural perception. We consider these modes of elite distinction in historical perspective, drawing on 120 years of data on elite cultural practice contained within Who’s Who – an unrivalled catalogue of the British elite (n = ~70,000). Our results reveal three distinct stages of elite culture in the UK. First, a dominant mode of aristocratic practice forged around the leisure possibilities afforded by landed estates but which waned significantly in the late 19th century. Second, a highbrow culture dominated by the fine arts and a romantic appreciation of the natural world which increased sharply in the early 20th century before beginning to gently recede in the most recent birth cohorts; and, third, a contemporary mode increasingly characterised by the blending of highbrow (but also some aristocratic) pursuits with more ordinary and mundane forms of cultural participation. These shifts not only reveal important changes in the nature and contents of British elite culture but also demonstrate how the applicability of different theoretical modes of elite distinction may have changed over time.

Authors

• Sam Friedman, LSE

• Aaron Reeves, LSE