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Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Initiations, interactions, cognoscenti: social and cultural capital in the music festival experience Thesis How to cite: Wilks, Linda Jean (2009). Initiations, interactions, cognoscenti: social and cultural capital in the music festival experience. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2009 Linda Wilks Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.000063e2 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Initiations, interactions, cognoscenti: social and cultural capital in the music festival experience Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of The Open University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Linda Jean Wilks BA MA MSc OU Business School The Open University February 2009 Abstract This thesis explores the role of social and cultural capital in the music festival experience. It does so by gathering observations and post-festival accounts from attendees at three separate music festivals located in England. The data were analysed using Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis, resulting in the identification of styles and orders of discourse. Little research, particularly of a qualitative nature, has investigated the roles of cultural taste and social inter-relationships in the music festival experience. Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and the inter-linked theory of social capital, developed with slightly different emphases by Bourdieu, Coleman and Putnam, were selected as providing an appropriate theoretical framework. Cultural capital, particularly its component of habitus, was a useful lens for focusing on the ways in which participants’ cultural tastes related to their festival experience. Social capital was useful for its orientation towards the role of social inter-relationships in the development of cultural taste and festival experience. This thesis found that the youth years, particularly through peer influence, were a rich period for initiation into a taste for a particular genre of music. Initiation could also occur later in life. This contrasts with cultural capital theory’s emphasis on early socialisation through family and school. A sense of being a member of the festival music genre’s cognoscenti was also found to play a role in the festival experience. Participants discovered complexity in all genres of festival music, challenging the hierarchies underpinning cultural capital. Festivals were found to be sites where connections with already known associates were intensified (bonding social capital), rather than sites where enduring new connections were made (bridging social capital). This thesis critically develops approaches to social and cultural capital and suggests drivers for cultural policy. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the many people who supported me during my PhD journey. First, thank you to my husband Chris who has always been there for me, whether discussing research perspectives, sharing the tent in the rain, or putting up with me spending yet another weekend tapping away at the computer on my ‘nearly finished’ thesis. Thank you to my parents for their unstinting belief in me and to my Dad for his careful and helpful reading of an early draft. Thank you to the friends who have celebrated my successes along the way and commiserated with me over my setbacks. Thanks especially to my fellow coffee- drinking PhD students who kept me going: Ann, Ting, Tom, Liz, Dannie, Ross and Dan and for the long distance encouragement from Lesley and Louise. Thanks also to Dr. Linda Ward whose own achievements inspired me to apply to do my own PhD, and for her practical help and encouragement, especially during the application stage and early stages. Thank you also to my excellent four supervisors at The Open University for their patient advice and enthusiastic support throughout my PhD. To Kirstie Ball for her enthusiasm for the research findings and for inspiring me to get to grips with the tricky but rewarding method of critical discourse analysis. To David Wright whose solid sociological knowledge was an invaluable resource when I was assembling and attempting to make sense of my theoretical framework. To Jon Billsberry for supporting my application for the studentship, for steering me though the Masters dissertation, then sticking with me onto the PhD. To Geoff Mallory whose experience and wisdom were of benefit to us all. I would also like to thank the three festival directors who allowed me to roam the festival venues collecting the data without which this thesis would not have been possible. I hope the results of this thesis will be useful to them. Thank you also to them for masterminding events which are so enjoyable for me and so many others to attend. Finally, thank you to all the interviewees for giving me their time and providing such valuable insights into their festivalexperience: without you this thesis would not have been possible. Table of contents i Table of contents List of tables .......................................................................................................vii List of figures......................................................................................................vii List of appendices ..............................................................................................viii Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................. 1 1. Introduction overview ....................................................................................... 1 1.1. Contemporary cultural policy issues .............................................................. 1 1.2. Why music festivals?..................................................................................... 5 1.3. The conceptual framework ............................................................................ 8 1.3.1. Cultural capital.......................................................................................... 8 1.3.2. Social capital............................................................................................. 9 1.3.3. Possible alternatives to social and cultural capital .................................... 10 1.3.4. Theories focusing on festivals.................................................................. 10 1.4. Research aims ............................................................................................. 11 1.5. The research approach................................................................................. 12 1.6. The structure of the thesis............................................................................ 12 1.7. Concluding overview of the introduction..................................................... 13 Chapter 2: Review of the festival literature ................................................................. 14 2. Introduction..................................................................................................... 14 2.1. What is a festival? ....................................................................................... 14 2.1.1. The ritual nature of festivals .................................................................... 17 2.1.2. The three stages in a rite of passage ......................................................... 18 2.1.3. Festivals as settings of intensification ...................................................... 19 2.2. Empirical research on social and cultural aspects of music festivals............. 20 2.2.1. Music festival impact studies................................................................... 21 Table of contents ii 2.2.2. Music festival tourism ............................................................................. 26 2.2.3. The characteristics of music festival audiences ........................................ 28 2.2.4. Conclusion .............................................................................................. 33 Chapter 3: Review of the theoretical literature ............................................................ 35 3. Introduction..................................................................................................... 35 3.1. The cultural field......................................................................................... 37 3.2. Cultural capital............................................................................................ 40 3.2.1. Overview................................................................................................. 40 3.2.2. Habitus.................................................................................................... 40 3.2.3. Objectified cultural capital....................................................................... 42 3.2.4. Institutionalised cultural capital ............................................................... 43 3.2.5. Bourdieu’s taste zones ............................................................................. 44 3.3. Critique of Bourdieu’s cultural capital......................................................... 44 3.3.1. Questioning the role of social class.........................................................

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