Working-Class Culture 1981–2017: Structural Stability, Compositional Dynamics and the Relation with the Middle Class

• In Event: 20420 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 3: Cultural Capital and Taste

Abstract

Sociology of culture, particularly cultural stratification research, often exhibits a middle-class bias, treating working-class cultures merely as residuals or counterpoints to high-status cultures. Especially lacking are studies that examine working-class culture over time and address its composition and coherence in ways other than treating it as a monolithic counter-image to yet another emerging characteristic of middle-class cultures. This paper aims to address these gaps by comprehensively investigating working-class culture, understood as patterned cultural practices, over an extended period. We utilize high-quality survey data collected in Finland across four waves from 1981 to 2017 (effective N=7,960), operationalizing cultural practices through 78 consistently asked items. Our research questions are: 1) How are cultural practices among the working class patterned, and do their main structures change or remain stable over time? 2) What compositional dynamics exist within working-class cultural patterns over time, considering age, gender, and residential area? 3) How do the main patterns of working-class culture relate to the middle class over time? Using dimension reduction and regression methods, our results reveal, first, considerable stability in the six-part structuring of working-class culture, distinguishing highbrow, modern popular, traditional masculine, traditional feminine, literary, and religious cultures. Second, we identify significant variations in working-class cultural patterns based on gender, age, and residential area, although the way they structure the patterns rarely changes dramatically over time. Third, despite some obvious differences, working-class cultural patterns are far from alien to the middle class. Over time, we observe convergence between the working-class and the middle-class, but it is mostly the middle class getting closer to the working class in terms of their cultural practices. We conclude by discussing the implications of this study for the sociology of culture, emphasizing the importance of being attentive to the durability and coherence of class cultures over time.

Authors

• Jarmo Kallunki

• Semi Purhonen, Tampere University