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

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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 forma- tion 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 activ- ities 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, quan- titative, international context. This paper will argue that a broader international context is necessary for under- standing 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 uni- versity. There is considerable regional variation in each aspect of cultural stratifica- tion 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 responsi- bility 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 evi- dence 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 exceptional- ism 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 dis- tinction 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 compar- ison. 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
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