Distinction Worldwide?: Bourdieu's Theory of Taste in International Context

Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 www.elsevier.com/locate/poetic

Distinction worldwide?: Bourdieu’s theory of taste in international context

Danielle Kane1 Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-62, USA

Abstract Applications of Bourdieu’s theory of taste have focused almost exclusively on French- American comparisons. This paper uses original data to identify the cultural repertoires, the level of cultural participation, and the personal qualities used in symbolic boundary formation for an international sample of young elites. The study found evidence for two domains of cultural stratification: arts activities and sports activities. Rates of participation in arts activities varied across world region but were consistently higher than arts participation found in the GSS national sample. Regional variations in personal qualities desired in friends cast new light on past comparisons; again, despite this variation, arts-related personal qualities were valued more by this sample of elites than by the GSS sample. Sports activities emerged as a major candidate for legitimate culture in the examples of upper-class cultural repertoires generated by respondents; American domination of sports culture was the only consistent regional pattern found. A major finding of this study is the disjuncture in findings among cultural repertoires, cultural participation, and symbolic boundaries, all of which have been assumed to be aspects of a single cultural stratification concept. # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of taste revolutionized the understanding of the social structural underpinnings of culture. Since the publication of Distinction in English (1984) an intense debate among sociologists of culture has taken place, focusing

1 Present address: 113 McNeil, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6299, USA.

0304-422X/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2003.08.001 404 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 largely on the applicability of the theory outside of France. Most tests of Bourdieu’s theory, however, have been limited to the United States and to a lesser extent, Canada. Virtually no work examines Bourdieu’s argument in a comparative, quantitative, international context. This paper will argue that a broader international context is necessary for understanding the dynamics of symbolic boundary formation and for applying these dynamics on a global level. I identify cultural repertoires, measure rates of cultural participation, and compare the desirability of personal qualities used in boundary formation for an international sample of 414 students at an elite American university. There is considerable regional variation in each aspect of cultural stratification but important consistencies as well: Participation in the arts and a preference for arts-based personal qualities were stronger in this sample than in the broader national sample studied in the General Social Survey (GSS) 1993 Culture Module. This was equally true for American students, despite the contention of some research that symbolic boundary formation may be less relevant in the United States. Perhaps the most striking finding was the consistent support for a US- dominated sports culture that may act as an alternative cultural realm for symbolic boundary formation on a global scale. In light of the international dynamics of cultural stratification in sports, I conclude with some reflections on applying Bour- dieu’s theory of taste to globalization debates and investigating the role of state sponsorship of culture in mediating these dynamics.

2. Bourdieu and his legacy

In his classic work, Distinction, Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argues that class structure is reproduced through the accumulation of cultural capital, which can provide access to high-status occupations and social circles. A class society is reproduced because upper-class students are more likely to have the cultural capital favored by the education system (itself an agent of the upper class). Central to this argument is the assumption that what constitutes cultural capital is agreed upon by all segments of society, else there would be alternative markets in which those lacking legitimate cultural capital could succeed. Subsequent work has sought to apply Bourdieu’s theory outside of its original context of Paris in the 1960s. In particular, researchers have focused on French- American comparisons. These comparisons suggest that while the dynamics of boundary formation may transcend a particular social setting, the nature of the boundary may vary across cultures (e.g., Lamont, 1992, 2001; Lamont et al., 1996; Marsden and Swingle, 1994). Americans seem more likely to draw moral rather than cultural boundaries (Lamont, 1992, 2001; Lamont et al., 1996). For instance, whereas French professional men placed a high value on cultivation in friends, American professional men were much more likely to name honesty and responsibility as desired characteristics (Lamont, 1992). The 1993 GSS Culture Module provided consistent support for Lamont’s findings on Americans; roughly 98% of the sample reported that honesty is a very important or extremely important D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 405 quality in a friend, as compared to the 21% of Americans who rated ‘cultured’ as very or extremely important (Marsden and Swingle, 1994: 279). Perhaps because applications of the theory have been somewhat limited to the United States, French-American differences in findings might be interpreted as evidence for American exceptionalism in how symbolic boundaries are drawn. For instance, Lamont (2000: 245), who has given extensive consideration to this issue (1988, 1992, 2001), argued that although Americans are not less exclusive than the French, ‘‘the American pattern of exclusion toward the poor, blacks, and immi- grants is different from patterns elsewhere, at least in France,’’ a finding that she argues is in support of American exceptionalism. Claims for American exceptionalism stand in a long tradition in sociology (e.g., Lipset, 1996; Inglehart and Baker, 2000; Huntington, 1997); it has been suggested that the absence of a feudal nobility, high social and geographic mobility, strong cultural regionalism, ethnic and racial diversity, weak high culture traditions, and an ideology of egalitarianism may undermine the establishment of symbolic boundaries in the United States (Lamont, 2000). Often confounded in these debates is the distinction between the argument that symbolic boundaries are less relevant in the US and the argument that boundary- marking in the US is based on a different set of criteria. Holt (1997) brings this distinction to light by challenging the argument that the US lacks distinct boundary- marking. Rather, the egalitarian rhetoric used by some Americans is itself a form of boundary-marking (Holt, 1997: 107). He writes (1997: 106) that

tastes are assumed to take the same form and to be expressed in the same manner in the United States of the 1990s as in 1960s France. Cross-cultural diﬀerences in self-representation need to be considered...Lamont’s American responses...are exactly what one would expect in a country that has been most susceptible...to the cultural dominance of populist, egalitarian ideals.

For instance, Holt (1997) argues that Lamont and Lareau (1988) miss the forest for the trees when they focus on the specific, objectified forms of cultural capital instead of cultural practices relevant to a particular time and place. In particular, American studies of Bourdieu’s theory of taste often operationalize the tastes of cultural elites as a preference for the fine arts. The problem, Holt argues (1997: 101), is that ‘‘consumption of the fine arts is not the core of Bourdieu’s theory, but rather is one particular instance of its operation.’’ In sum, Holt (1997) argues that the boundary-making process outlined by Bour- dieu functions independently of content, and he further contends that empirical investigations of Bourdieu’s theory must ‘specify the socio-historical particularities of the population of interest’’ (1997: 109). According to Holt, it is already well- established that the fine arts have played a relatively small role as a social resource in the United States, and by focusing on arts participation, many studies ignore the activities that American cultural elites expend their leisure activities pursuing. This is in fact a point of convergence with Lamont and Lareau (1988: 164), who conclude their programmatic statement on research on cultural capital with a call to 406 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 assess the relevance of cultural capital in the US and to document the American repertoire of high status cultural signals. This study views identification of the American cultural repertoire as only a first step. This repertoire is generally unexplored for countries apart from the United States and France, yet distinction is an enigmatic term in a dichotomous comparison. There is an active interest in applications of Bourdieu’s theory of taste, but these applications are hampered by a lack of knowledge of contemporary cultural repertoires that form the substance of boundary-marking. Lamont and Lareau (1988: 162) describe documenting specific forms of American cultural capital as ‘‘an urgent empirical task.’’ This seems no less true for other countries, where even less research has been conducted on cultural consumption. This paper draws on original data from an international sample gathered using items from the 1993 GSS Culture Module to identify what cultural activities young elites actually engage in. In addition, in response to the demand for the sociohistorical particulars of cultural repertoires raised by Lamont and Lareau (1988) and Holt (1997), this paper presents data on upper-class activities generated by respondents from around the world.

3. Variations in cultural repertoires

Examining research on intra-societal variations and inter-societal variations of legitimate culture can guide eﬀorts to apply Bourdieu’s theory of taste on a broader scale. Cultural variations that correspond to intra-societal cleavages and ﬁndings from preliminary international comparative work suggest that a variety of types of culture lend themselves to the formation of symbolic boundaries.

3.1. Intra-societal variations

Research conducted subsequent to the publication of Distinction challenges the notion that there is one legitimate culture for all members of society, suggesting instead that social cleavages will produce their own cultures and cultural standards (e.g., Lamont and Lareau, 1988). Research has found that dominated groups can have their own cultural norms that exist apart from the larger culture (e.g., Hor- owitz, 1983; Hebdige, 1979) or may reappropriate mainstream culture to serve their own meanings (Horowitz, 1983; Liebow, 1967). Patterns of cultural consumption by gender (e.g., DiMaggio, 1982; Bryson, 1996) suggest that women may recognize greater legitimacy in high culture than do men. Based on this research, we would predict varying rates of cultural consumption according to non-class factors such as gender, race, and age. Some work (e.g., Crane, 1992) has argued for a distinct urban culture, suggesting that urban residence would also be an important factor. Finally, we might expect that especially where school tracking is rigid, the nature of educational preparation might make academic students more likely to value cultural consumption than vocational or professional students. D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 407

3.2. Inter-societal diﬀerences

Sociologists of culture have also investigated the universality of Bourdieu’s legitimate culture by testing the applicability of Bourdieu’s theory outside of its original urban French context. An intense debate on its applicability to the United States has emerged (e.g., Lamont, 1992, 2001; Marsden and Swingle, 1994; Halle, 1993; Ostrower, 1998; Holt, 1997); a select number of studies have examined a handful of other countries, including Canada (Erickson, 1996), Israel (Netz, 1996) and Sweden (Bihagen and Katz-Gerro, 2000; Miegel, 1994). Most work is implicitly comparative and focuses on the country of interest, usually the United States (an exception is Lamont, 1992, 2001). Both quantitative and qualitative research has found that Americans are more likely to draw moral rather than cultural boundaries (Lamont, 1992; Marsden and Swingle, 1994). Generalizing from the American case is premature, but the wealth of research here, studies from selected countries (Robinson and Garnier, 1985; Bihagen and Katz-Gerro, 2000), and evidence for within-country variation in perceptions of legitimate culture suggest that the content of cultural consumption practices will vary internationally. Thus far little progress has been made in responding to calls for international comparative work (Lamont and Lareau, 1988; Bihagen and Katz-Gerro, 2000). Documenting variations and consistencies in cultural consumption is therefore an urgent task for further reﬁning Bourdieu’s theory of taste.

4. Data and variables

The objective of this paper is to explore legitimate cultural repertoires, identify desired personal qualities, and measure actual cultural participation on an international sample to understand better the process of symbolic boundary formation on a global scale. I weigh the importance assigned to education and class by Bourdieu as well as the importance of gender and urban residence, two factors emphasized in more recent research. Finally, given the relatively unexplored nature of cultural consumption practices worldwide, I measure the eﬀects of world regional variables to provide a starting point for more nuanced analyses of international variation. Data were drawn from a sample of 414 incoming undergraduate and graduate students at an elite American university. (To ensure that results were ‘untainted’ by experience at the university, students completed these materials within 2 weeks of their arrival, and many respondents had arrived only days before taking the survey.) As an inducement to participate, each student received $5 and a chance to win $1000 in a raﬄe. Surveys were distributed at required orientation and welcome programs for graduate students and in the undergraduate dormitory with the largest freshmen population. The response rate was 90% for graduate students and 60% for undergraduate students. Students completed a background questionnaire, a battery of items from the World Values Survey (Inglehart and Baker, 2000), and several items from the General Social Survey 1993 Culture Module. 408 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421

This sample is unique not only in its international composition but also because it uses young people enrolled in a university. As noted earlier, students at an elite university would be one of the first groups we would investigate for evidence that would extend Bourdieu’s theory to a larger geographical context. There are three additional reasons for giving more attention to the cultural boundaries and tastes of young people. As Lamont and Lareau (1988: 161) noted, frequent cultural innova- tion will probably lead to a redefining of hierarchies of signals, implying that younger people might be more likely to have more flexible boundaries. Moreover, if cultural stratification is tied to the education system, as Bourdieu contends, the dramatic expansion of higher education could also have implications for cultural hierarchies. Finally, this expansion of higher education could result in a radical redefining of cultural hierarchies in the future, as more young people play a more active role in the dominant culture.

4.1. Independent variables (Table 1)

Class: Socioeconomic status can be challenging to measure for an international sample, as there is no common matrix for comparing income and occupation. This paper will use father’s level of education as proxy for socioeconomic status. Respondents came from well-educated families; the mean category for father’s level of education was 13–16 years (at least some college), and more than half of the sample (55%) reported that their fathers had more than 16 years of education. Age: Respondents ranged in age from 14 years to 50 years with a mean age of 22. (The modal age was 18.) Education: Because the sample is drawn from a university population, the only two educational categories are ‘undergraduate’ and ‘graduate.’ The age measure should capture the eﬀective variation.

Table 1 Sample descriptive statistics

Mean age 22 Mean level of father’s education 13–16 years (at least some college) Gender Men 261 (51%) Women 251 (49%) Enrolled in academic (non-prof) program 364 (73%) Urban residence 263 (52%) Region North America 234 (46%) Europe 80 (16%) Asia 167 (33%) Othera 30 ( 5%)

a The category of ‘Other’ includes students from: South America (3% of the total); the Middle East and North Africa (1% of the total); Sub-Saharan Africa (1% of the total); and Carribbean (<1% of the total). D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 409

Academic program: Academic program is classified into academic or professional. Twenty-seven percent of the sample were enrolled in professional programs (such as law, social work, business, etc.). Urban residence: Respondents were categorized according to whether their family’s home was located in an urban, rural, or suburban area. Past research has suggested that those living in urban areas may be distinct in their cultural preferences (e.g., Lamont, 1992; Crane, 1992). Fifty-two percent of the respondents described their residence as urban. Region of origin: Respondents came from more than 80 countries, which were classified into four regions: Asia (33%); United States (46%); Europe (16%); and Other (5%). Unfortunately, the data did not have sufficient intra-region variation on race to use this as an independent variable.

4.2. Dependent variables

The areas of focus for the culture portion of this study were drawn from the areas of emphasis in the field discussed above, namely cultural participation, cultural repertoires, and personal qualities desired in friends. The 1993 GSS Culture Module (which drew on variables identified in previous work, such as Lamont’s comparative study of French and American professional men) acted as the model for most of the questions on this section of the survey. Boundary markers: Lamont (1992, 2000) and Marsden and Swingle (1994) found that Americans were much more likely to value honesty and responsibility than creativity and a sense of being cultured as characteristics in friends, and Lamont (1992) and others have used this to argue that Americans do not draw boundaries based on qualities that would favor high culture, as do some of the French. Respondents were asked to rate the importance in friends of their having the personal qualities of honesty, responsibility, creativity, and being cultured, from Not At All Important (0) to Extremely Important (4). Cultural activities: Respondents were given a list of activities and asked if they participated in each within the last 12 months. The list and question wording were based on the GSS Culture Module. Activities included: visiting an art museum or gallery; playing a musical instrument; attending a dance performance; attending a classical music or opera performance (Western or non-Western); going to movies; attending a sports event; and reading a popular magazine. Cultural repertoire: Lamont and Lareau (1988: 164) conclude their programmatic work on symbolic boundaries by proposing that researchers document the American repertoire of high status cultural signals. This study attempted to identify these signals for the United States as well as other regions of the world and relied on items generated by respondents themselves. Given the nature of the sample, this also has the advantage of providing insight into what young elites themselves perceive to be high-status signals. Students were asked ‘‘in your country, are there certain activities that usually only upper-class people engage in?’’ If the respondent answered in the affirmative, s/he was then asked to give an example of this kind of activity. 410 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421

5. Results

5.1. Cultural repertoires

To explore whether young elites believed in the existence of a dominant culture, I asked respondents if in their country there were activities pursued mainly by the upper-class. The results provided strong support for the existence of an upper-class cultural boundary-marker: Of the 404 respondents to this question, 274 students (68%) responded in the affirmative. To identify the content of cultural repertoires by world region, I asked those students who acknowledged an upper-class boundary marker to give an example of a cultural activity pursued chiefly by the upper class. There was a high degree of con- sensus over what these upper-class activities were; one surprise was the prevalence of a sports activity, golf, listed in upper-class cultural repertoires. (Table 2 lists the top activities generated in each region; 15 of the 274 affirmative responses did not provide examples). In Asia, the top three activities listed were golf (15%), opera (11%), and classical music (Western or non-Western) (6%). The pattern was similar among Americans, with opera and golf each garnering 12% of the responses. Among Euro- peans, golf and opera were also the most frequently listed activities, but in reverse order (14% and 30% respectively). Students from Other regions were similar to Europeans in citing opera most frequently. Because 28 kinds of activities were offered, Table 3 groups activities into four general categories: the Arts (including Western arts, such as Western classical music, and Eastern arts, such as attending kabuki or Noh performances); Sports (e.g., golf, polo, tennis); Society (such as attending balls); and Lifestyle (such as shopping and fine dining). Table 3 shows that sports activities are included in the top two most frequently cited dominant-culture activities for all regions. Among Asians the sports and arts categories are fairly close in the ranking. Europeans and students from Other regions gave many more responses in the Arts category than in the Sports category. For American students, however, sports activities were central to an American high-culture repertoire. Strikingly, despite claims of more permeable symbolic boundaries in the US (cited in Lamont, 2000) European and American students in roughly equal proportion

Table 2 Most common examples of upper-class cultural repertoires by region

Europe (n=212) United States (n=193) Opera (30%) Golf (12%) Golf (14%) Opera (12%) Polo (9%)

Asia (n=98) Other (n=25) Golf (15%) Opera (20%) Opera (11%) Classical music (12%) Classical music (6%) D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 411

Table 3 Most common categories of activities of upper-class cultural repertoires by region

US (n=193) (%) Eur. (n=212) (%) Asia (n=98) (%) Other (n=25) (%)

Sports 34 18 21 12 Arts 15 43 25 31 Lifestyle 6 2 5 8 Society 11 3 4 4 None 26 28 43 42 claimed there were no activities pursued predominantly by the upper-class; for both regions this was more than a quarter of the respondents. Compared to Asian students and students from other regions, Europeans and Americans seem quite similar. This similarity is surprising given claims that Europeans (especially the French) have a more strongly diﬀerentiated legitimate culture than Americans (e.g., Lamont and Lareau, 1988). Also surprising in this light is that Americans were by far the most likely to cite Society activities (e.g., attending debutante balls) as legitimate culture; they were almost four times as likely as Europeans to give this kind of example.

5.2. Participation in cultural activities

Table 4 shows overall rates of participation in all cultural activities for this sample, for a subsample of American students, and for the GSS 1993 Culture Module sample. Taken on its own, this sample’s arts participation might initially appear low: less than half of the sample participated in an arts activity (except for museum attendance) in the last twelve months. However, evidence for symbolic boundary formation is necessarily comparative, and about twice as many students in this

Table 4 Percentage participation in cultural activities during the past 12 months, student sample and GSS culture module sample

% Student % American % GSS sample sample participating students participating participatinga

Activity Movie 98 (413) 93 (210) 70 (1594) Magazine 92 (414) 87 (210) NAb Sports 71 (414) 83 (210) 54 (1594) Museum 79 (414) 73 (210) 41 (1593) Playing instrument 46 (414) 48 (210) 23 (1590) Classical music concert 37 (413) 27 (209) 16 (1592) Attending dance performance 36 (413) 35 (209) 20 (1593)

a Source: Marsden and Swingle (1994). b The 1993 GSS Culture Module did not ask respondents about reading a popular magazine in the past 12 months. 412 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 sample participated in an arts activity as did respondents in the GSS sample: 16% of the GSS sample attended a classical music performance as compared to 37% of this sample; 20% of the GSS sample attended a dance performance as compared to 36% of this sample; 23% of the GSS sample played a musical instrument as compared to 46% of this sample; and 41% of the GSS sample visited a museum or art gallery as compared to 79% of this sample. Unfortunately I do not know of similar data from other regions of the world, but on the basis of these comparisons, we see at least a sharp demarcation between this student body and the American population with regard to cultural participation. Moreover, Table 4 demonstrates that the American students are more similar to elites from other countries in their cultural participation than to their countrymen; American student participation is higher than that of the national sample for each activity. This suggests that despite the United States’ lack of a feudal nobility and the numerous other explanations for a more egalitarian culture, young American elites engage in symbolic boundary formation. Rates of participation for other activities also provide consistent support for symbolic boundary-marking. Movie attendance and magazine reading were extremely high, leading us to suspect that these activities may not be used in drawing symbolic boundaries. It is possible, however, that boundaries may be drawn here that are not captured in a university sample and may not fall strictly along class lines. For instance, the high rates of participation in movie attendance and magazine reading may be indicative of a youth culture that cannot be addressed directly in this sample because of the lack of age variation. Again, the GSS provides consistent support with this interpretation; only 70% of that sample had seen a movie in a theater in the past year (Marsden and Swingle, 1994) as compared to 98% of this sample. In addition, students in this sample were much more likely to have attended a sports event in the past year than were GSS respondents: 71% of this sample as compared to 54% of the GSS sample. Students in this sample, therefore, had higher rates of participation than those in a national sample of Americans, lending support to the cultural omnivore hypothesis that argues that higher-status persons are likely to consume a broad range of culture (Peterson and Kern, 1996). Table 5 presents logistic regression results for participation in cultural activities. Consistent with the regional variation in the identification of different high- culture repertoires, world region played a role in determining actual participation in activities. Also consistent with patterns in regional variation in respondent- generated cultural repertoires, American respondents were more than two and a half times as likely as Europeans to have attended a sports event (amateur or professional) in the past year; the magnitude of difference is among the highest of all findings in this study. Asians were about half as likely to have attended a sports event as Europeans. Therefore, while three of the four regions studied include a sports activity in an upper-class cultural repertoire, the United States clearly emerges as an outlier in participation in sports culture. It is important to remember, however, that sports culture includes activities associated with the upper- class (e.g., golf) as well as with more general participation (e.g., baseball), a topic that will be addressed later. Table 5 Logistic regression models of activities on demographic characteristics and regiona

Sportsb Museum Classical music Instrument Ballet

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 .ae/Peis3 20)403–421 (2003) 31 Poetics / D.Kane Sex (1=Female) À0.51* (0.25) À0.54* (0.27) À0.09 (0.25) 0.07 (0.26) 0.60** (0.22) 0.73** (0.23) 0.13 (0.21) 0.12 (0.22) 0.86*** (0.22) 0.92*** (0.23) Father’s Ed. 0.02 (0.15) À0.05 (0.16) 0.29* (0.15) 0.24 (0.15) 0.05 (0.13) 0.04 (0.14) 0.10 (0.13) 0.10 (0.13) 0.08 (0.14) 0.05 (0.14) Age À0.12*** (0.03) À0.08** (0.03) 0.02 (0.03) 0.02 (0.03) 0.03 (0.02) 0.01 (0.03) À0.09** (0.03) À0.09** (0.03) À0.01 (0.03) À0.002 (0.03) Academic Prog. À0.29 (0.29) À0.07 (0.31) 0.60* (0.27) 0.58* (0.28) 0.18 (0.25) 0.13 (0.26) À0.08 (0.24) À0.09 (0.24) 0.001 (0.25) 0.04 (0.26) Urban À1.11*** (0.26) À0.49 (0.31) À0.003 (0.27) 0.08 (0.31) 0.54* (0.23) 0.28 (0.26) À0.25 (0.22) À0.33 (0.25) À0.03 (0.23) 0.09 (0.26)

Regionc Asia À0.78* (0.34) À1.63** (0.53) À0.27 (0.33) 0.41 (0.34) À0.58 (0.35) United States 0.96** (0.39) À1.24* (0.53) À0.80* (0.33) 0.06 (0.34) À0.11 (0.34) Other 0.12 (0.52) À1.49* (0.65) 0.41 (0.48) 0.12 (0.50) 0.25 (0.49)

N 386 385 386 385 385 384 386 385 385 384 À2LL 398.168 372.940 397.906 382.949 485.678 474.710 512.401 509.804 483.064 477.519 Chi-squared 25.23*** 14.96** 10.97* 2.60 5.55

*=P<0.05, **=P<0.01, ***=P<0.001. a A small number of cases missing data on any of the variables were removed from the analyses. b Coeﬃcients are expressed as log-odds. c Europe is the referent category. d Chi-square statistic tests improvement of model 2 over model 1 using 3 degrees of freedom. 413 414 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421

A second regional difference was found in museum attendance. Students from Europe were more than three and a half times more likely to have visited a museum or art gallery in the past year than were American students. Similarly, Asians were only about a quarter as likely to have gone to a museum or an art gallery as Eur- opeans. Europeans were also more likely than Americans to have attended a classical music concert in the past year, but there was no difference between Europeans and Asians. The remaining cultural activities showed no regional differences. Movie attendance and magazine reading were so uniformly high across regions (about 98% and 92% respectively) that logistic models could not be fitted for these dependent variables (and hence do not appear in Table 5). There were also no regional differences in the likelihood of having played an instrument or attending a ballet performance. In addition to region, sociodemographic variables, especially gender, were significant predictors of participation. Consistent with past research that has found women to be more likely than men to participate in arts activities (DiMaggio, 1982; Bryson, 1996), women were about twice as likely as men to have attended a concert in the past year. Women were less than half as likely to have attended a sporting event. Interestingly, women’s cultural regimes vis-a` -vis men mirrored Europeans’ cultural patterns with regard to the US; women and Europeans were more likely to go to concerts and less likely to go to sports events than were men and Americans, respectively. These two activities therefore provide evidence for both intra-societal and inter-societal variation in cultural participation and boundary- marking. Sports event attendance also decreased with age by about 9%. Urban residence was initially significant in predicting sports and concert attendance, but this effect disappeared when region was controlled. In light of Bourdieu’s theory of cultural participation, it is worth noting that father’s education was not a significant predictor of participation for any of the activities discussed. This may, however, reflect the high SES of this sample. Finally, given that this is a sample of elites, the high rates of participation in non-arts culture adds some support to the ‘cultural omnivore’ theory (e.g., Peterson, 1996; Relish, 1997; Bryson, 1996).

5.3. Symbolic boundaries and qualities in friends

In keeping with current work on symbolic boundaries, this study measured the importance assigned to the four main qualities valued in friends that diverged between French and American samples (Lamont, 1992, 2000; Marsden and Swingle, 1994). In particular, Lamont found that unlike the French, American respondents rated honesty and responsibility as highly important qualities in friends. The French, especially Parisians, placed much more emphasis on friends’ creativity and their being cultured (Lamont, 1992). Findings in the GSS 1993 Culture Module mirrored the pattern found for Americans; a vast majority rated honesty and responsibility as very or extremely important, and far fewer Americans found creativity or being cultured as very or extremely important (Marsden and Swingle, 1994: 281). D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 415

Table 6 compares the qualities from the student sample to those from the GSS 1993 Culture Module Sample. Consistent with the GSS respondents, this sample placed the highest value on honesty and responsibility. Nonetheless, respondents in this sample were somewhat less likely to value honesty and responsibility than the national sample of the GSS. The students were also much more likely to value the qualities of being creative and being cultured than were GSS respondents: 33% of the student sample valued creative friends as compared to 24% of the GSS sample, and 40% of the student sample valued cultured friends as compared to 21% of the GSS sample. Given the more restricted SES and education range of this sample, these findings are unsurprising and provide consistent support for Bourdieu’s theory. In some ways young elites from around the world mimic the French respondents in Lamont’s sample (1992); they are somewhat less likely to value honesty and responsibility and more likely to value creativity and being cultured than a national sample of Americans. Again, this is equally true for American students, who are also much more likely to value in friends the qualities of creativity and being cultured. In fact, Americans are more likely than other students to value creativity. The comparison of American students to the national sample provides further evidence that these young elites are engaged in symbolic boundary formation. Table 7 presents logistic regression results for personal qualities. (Honesty was so highly valued by respondents in each region that there was not enough variation to fit a model; hence this variable does not appear in the table.) These results cast new light on French-American comparisons. Although Europe and the United States are initially significantly different in valuing cultured friends, this significance disappears when urban residence is controlled. While past research has emphasized the high value Americans place on responsibility as compared to the French, this study reveals that Europeans and Americans are not significantly different in valuing this characteristic. Asian students, however, are nearly two and a half times as likely as Europeans to value responsibility, one of the strongest findings of the study. While Americans do not differ significantly from Europeans in valuing creativity and being cultured, Asians are much less likely than Europeans to rate these qualities as very important. Asians are about half as likely as Europeans to value being cultured and

Table 6 Percentage rating quality very or extremely important, student sample and GSS culture module sample

% Student sample rating % American students % GSS sample rating quality very or rating quality very quality very or extremely extremely important or extremely important importanta

Quality Honesty 96 (414) 98 (210) 98 (1587) Responsib. 75 (412) 75 (210) 89 (1586) Creative 33 (412) 37 (210) 24 (1569) Cultured 40 (409) 37 (210) 21 (1550)

a Source: Marsden and Swingle (1994). 416 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421

Table 7 Logistic regression models of qualities on demographic characteristics and regiona

Responsibilityb Creative Cultured

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Sex (1=Female) 0.32 (0.24) 0.25 (0.25) 0.21 (0.22) 0.26 (0.23) À0.19 (0.80) 0.65** (0.22) Father’s Ed. À0.21 (0.16) À0.19 (0.16) 0.06 (0.13) 0.02 (0.23) 0.59 (0.22) À0.06 (0.13) Age 0.04 (0.03) 0.04 (0.03) À0.002 (0.03) 0.01 (0.03) À0.07 (0.13) À0.04 (0.03) Academic Prog. 0.05 (0.28) 0.05 (0.28) 0.50 (0.26) 0.57* (0.27) 0.31 (0.25) 0.30 (0.26) Urban À0.51* (0.26) À0.61* (0.29) À0.16 (0.23) 0.09 (0.26) 0.53* (0.23) 0.55* (0.26) Regionc Asia 0.85* (0.38) À0.91** (0.36) À0.67* (0.34) United States 0.31 (0.36) À0.001 (0.33) À0.41 (0.34) Other 0.25 (0.64) À0.04 (0.49) À0.08 (0.48)

N 385 384 385 384 382 381 À2LL 419.818 414.238 485.001 474.908 493.529 487.957 Chi-squared 5.58 10.09* 5.57

*=P<0.05 **=P<0.01 ***=P<0.001. a A small number of cases missing data on any of the variables were removed from the analyses. b Coefficients are expressed as log-odds. c Europe is the referent category. d Chi-square statistic tests improvement of model 2 over model 1 using 3 degrees of freedom. are 60% less likely to value creativity. These findings shift the focus away from European and American comparisons and highlight the distinctiveness of Asia compared to these two regions. Again, father’s education, the proxy for class, was not a significant predictor for qualities or participation in cultural activities. Gender appears again as a significant predictor, however; women were about 50% more likely than men to value being cultured.

6. Discussion

This study found both intra- and inter-societal variations in cultural participation. The intra-societal findings not only provide consistent support for past research on gender differences in cultural participation but also demonstrate that this gendered pattern is mirrored by European-American differences. Women and Europeans were more likely to have attended a classical music performance and were less likely to have attended a sports event than were men and Americans, respectively. Given that women were also more likely than men to appreciate cultured friends (a value associated with Europeans in past research), the results suggest that women may use traditional high culture to draw symbolic boundaries between themselves and men; in this way they seem to follow European rather than American cultural cues. The strictest interpretation of Bourdieu’s theory of taste—that is, high culture as dominant culture—seems to apply especially well to gender. D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 417

Inter-societal comparisons reveal variations in cultural repertoires worldwide and shed new light on old distinctions. Perhaps the most striking finding here is that when compared to Asian students Europeans and Americans appear very similar in the way they draw symbolic boundaries. No significant differences between Eur- opeans and American were found for any of the desired qualities in friends. Asian students were distinct for the high value they place on responsibility in friends, a trait that formerly seemed to be most desired by Americans. Students from different world regions participated in cultural activities at different rates, and no region showed a consistently higher proclivity for arts activities. Eur- opeans were much more likely to have attended a museum in the past year than were Americans or Asians. Europeans were also more likely to have attended a classical music performance than were Americans, but there were no significant differences between Europeans and Asians on this variable. There were no regional differences in ballet attendance or in playing an instrument. Magazine reading and movie-going were so high across regions that logistic models could not be fit. Just as there were no consistent patterns within the domain of cultural participation, regional patterns did not transcend the different measures of symbolic boundaries that were examined. In fact, a major finding of this study is the disjuncture among what have been considered only different manifestations of the unitary concept of cultural stratification. This study found discrepancies among patterns in cultural repertoires, personal qualities, and actual cultural participation. Regional patterns found in one of these domains often were not found or were even reversed for other areas. Europeans and American students differed in participation in some cultural activities, but did not differ in their preference for any friendship quality. Asian students were similar to Europeans in most cultural participation, but drew different boundaries in personal qualities. There was also disjuncture between the cultural repertoires generated by students and the cultural activities they participated in themselves. European students were nearly three times more likely than Americans to list arts activities as examples of upper-class activities but their level of participation was not significantly different from Americans in half of these activities. Moreover, roughly the same proportion of each group claimed that there were no such activities pursued chiefly by the upper class. Europeans gave many more examples of arts activities than did Asians (43% as compared to 25%) as well but there were no differences between them in participation in arts activities, except for museum attendance. Overall, European students were the most likely to conceive of arts activities as legitimate culture, but they were not much more likely to engage in these activities themselves. On the other hand, this sample of young elites, including American students, showed consistently stronger preferences for arts activities and arts- oriented personal qualities than did a national American sample. While international young elites generally do not appear to draw symbolic boundaries among themselves, they seem willing to draw these boundaries against non-elites. This ten- dency is equally present for American students, despite the suggestions made in past research that egalitarian ideology and other factors may make symbolic boundaries less relevant in the United States. 418 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421

The general lack of within-sample symbolic boundary formation and the incon- sistencies in findings among cultural repertoires, cultural participation, and symbolic boundaries throw into relief one striking pattern, the prevalence of a sports culture among Americans. Americans were dramatically more likely to have attended a sports event than were students from any other region. They were also more likely to define legitimate culture in terms of sports activities. Yet sports were a high candidate for a legitimate-culture repertoire for other regions as well, a second (and not always distant) choice. These patterns suggest that sports culture possesses all of the ingredients for an emerging form of a classic Bourdieuian system of cultural stratification: Sports activities are viewed by the young elites of an economic superpower as dominant culture and they have the highest rates of participation; elites from around the world also recognize sports as dominant culture and participate, too, but at lower rates than of those from the global ‘upper-class.’ The symbolic boundary function of sports culture warrants more consideration. While sports activities tend to be lumped in with other popular culture activities (such as in the GSS Culture Module), sports are distinct in enabling participants to engage in exclusionary practices while maintaining a populist rhetoric. First, there is a rich knowledge base that can be used to distinguish experts from amateurs or dilettantes in a way similar to how cultural capital works for Bourdieu. Erickson (1996) made this point when she found more evidence for sports-based exclusion than for high-culture exclusion in a business setting. Some of this exclusion was based on gender, and the results of this study point to how gender differences in a sports knowledge base accumulate: in this study women were much less likely than men to have attended a sports event during the past year. Consistent with Bour- dieu’s account of high culture stratification, the ideology of taste obscures the differential early access to sports knowledge by gender on one hand and the consequences of this differential access for professional success, as suggested by Erickson (1996), on the other. Second, there is a prestige hierarchy such that the sports events so overwhelmingly attended by American students probably represent only a minority of those that were cited as examples of legitimate culture. Fans of high-end sports probably enjoy the same high social class that Bourdieu found among high-culture afficionados, but a meritocratic, taste-oriented ideology obscures the sociodemographic cleavages in sports culture much as it does in Bourdieu’s conception of academic culture. In fact, in the country that dominated sports participation, sports activities enjoy sponsorship from the state through the school system, much as high culture did in Bourdieu’s scheme. In short, athletes and sports fans can draw on an ideology of teamwork and striving to be one’s personal best, goals that seem to transcend class, race, and gender. Yet there is evidence for cleavages along at least some of these lines and others as well: while young elites around the world recognize the legitimacy of sports culture and show interest in participating, the relatively unique situation of state sponsorship of athletics in the US gives Americans an added advantage in their ability to dominate legitimate culture. Nonetheless, sports avoids the stigma of snobbery now associated with high culture by tapping into a kind of universalism D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 419 once enjoyed by high culture. In fact, one hint of the ascendancy of sports to cultural hegemony is reflected in new marketing strategies of arts organizations. In the US for instance, the Pennsylvania Ballet has launched a major advertising campaign that stresses the athletic qualities of dancers. One billboard features the very mus- cular upper body of a dancer and is captioned ‘‘An athlete by definition.’’

7. Conclusion

This paper began with the notion that applying Bourdieu’s theory of taste requires broader international comparisons than have so far taken place and ended with the observation that sports may be competing with arts as the dominant culture on a global scale. This observation stems in part from a pattern found in the way symbolic boundaries have been drawn: young elites from the three major regions examined here recognize sports activities as a major candidate for legitimate culture, but elites from the major superpower of the United States enjoyed the highest participation rates. I suggested that American students have a distinct advantage in this cultural scheme because, as was high culture in Bourdieu’s example, sports are sponsored by the state through the educational system. The potential ascendancy of a legitimate culture oriented toward sports should not obscure the enduring power of arts activities to act as a basis for drawing symbolic boundaries. Arts activities were the number one candidate for a legitimate cultural repertoire for every region but the United States. Moreover, while the rate of participation in arts activities varied across regions, participation by this sample of young elites was consistently higher than the rates of participation found in a national sample. Limiting the comparison to American students and the national sample yielded the same results. Arts activities clearly retain symbolic power for boundary formation, even for Americans. In sum, this paper found evidence for two different systems of cultural stratification; it would seem, therefore, that the symbolic boundary process transcends the particular content of the culture around which boundaries can be drawn. Specifying the interrelation of these two types of cultural stratification and the ability to understand the nature of international comparisons may be strengthened by a closer examination of the role of the state in cultural stratification. For instance, the Asian acknowledgement of high culture as pursued mainly by the upper class, and these students’ decreased likelihood of participating in this culture themselves might be in part a result of Marxist cultural initiatives in Asia. By the same token, European distinctiveness in its proclivity for visiting museums may be based on greater levels of state support for museums (even if this support is largely historical rather than current; that is, there may simply be more art museums avail- able in Europe through earlier state sponsorship). In short, an understanding of the role of the state in sponsoring various types of culture may give additional insight into international variance in cultural repertoires. Finally, cultural globalization has become a pressing issue in the new millennium, and Bourdieu’s theory of the structural underpinnings of taste can make an important contribution to our 420 D.Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403–421 understanding of the globalization process, including its successes and failures. The cultural gatekeeping role of the state, especially as it acts through the education system, may be a useful point of departure for combining globalization and symbolic boundary formation analyses. Other next steps include a more refined analysis that can address cross-national variation in cultural repertoires along with increased attention to regions of the world that could not be addressed here in adequate detail, particularly South America, Africa, and the Middle East. In addition, future research might focus attention on racial differences in cultural consumption worldwide. Finally, future research should begin to examine more closely the assumptions that result in a collapsing of cultural repertoire, cultural participation, and desired personal qualities in friends as aspects of a single underlying class-cultural orientation. Inconsistent patterns in this study suggest that these three domains may each have their own logic and may fit together in a less straightforward way than has been imagined. This kind of theoretical refinement in conjunction with the broader empirical testing suggested above has the potential to advance our understanding of cultural stratification while paying tribute to Bourdieu’s legacy.

Acknowledgements

I thank Randall Collins, Diana Crane, Ewa Morawska, Grace Kao, and Shawn Bauldry. I also thank the Poetics guest editors for their helpful comments and suggestions. Funding for this project was provided by a generous grant from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania Department of Sociology Otto and Gertrude Pollack Award for Summer Research.

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