Getting things done: Inequalities, internet use and everyday life

The study of mundane, everyday uses of the Internet remains an emerging field of inquiry. Analysing data from a large seven country survey of Internet use and adapting concepts and methods developed by Bourdieu, we show that there are distinct clusters of users who use the Internet in diverse ways to solve everyday problems such as buying a mobile phone or diagnosing an illness. Such everyday problem solving is dependent upon degrees of economic, social, digital and cultural capital, and varies across countries. A comparative methodological strategy combined the use of Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, and for the first time in the field, Multiple Factor Analysis for Contingency Tables. Extending the work of Bourdieu and the sociology of class more generally, we argue that digital capital functions as a bridging capital aiding the convertibility of other forms of capital to the benefit of already advantaged groups

Fields of participation and lifestyle in England: revealing the regional dimension from a reanalysis of the Taking Part Survey using Multiple Factor Analysis

This paper addresses the concerns of the Understanding Everyday Participation project with the relationship between cultural participation and space. Here we approach the notion of space in two different but complementary ways. Our main focus is on geographical variations in participation, which we explore at the regional level in England. However, in order to do so, we begin by re-evaluating the nature of the cultural field itself and the way that this is arranged in social space. The issue of regional disparities in the funding of cultural activities and venues from the public purse has become a heated issue. Yet, in contrast to the avowedly regional focus of much cultural and creative industries policy following the advent of the first New Labour administration in 1997, issues of place have been largely overlooked in recent studies of cultural consumption, and therefore little is known about the spatial dynamics of participation practices. Using data from the UK government’s Taking Part Survey, we adopt a novel methodological approach, known as Multiple Factor Analysis, to re-examine and represent the English cultural field. Our findings reveal the hitherto underestimated importance of informal everyday cultural practices in configuring the sociology of lifestyles. Alongside and beyond the familiar North–South divide and London effect, they also indicate that the English cultural field is characterised by a complex regional geography

Culture is digital: Cultural participation, diversity and the digital divide

Digital media are seen as important instruments of increasing participation and diversity in arts and culture. To examine whether this view is justified, this article draws on two bodies of research that have hitherto remained disconnected: research on cultural participation, and research on the digital divide. Building on these insights, the article examines the Taking Part Survey data on digital media and cultural participation in the UK between 2005/06 and 2015/16, focusing on museums and galleries. While the results confirm that digital media provide an important means of engaging new audiences, they also show that the engagement with museums and galleries both on- and off-line remains deeply unequal. Most worryingly, the gaps between the haves and the have nots are even wider on-line than in the case of physical visits. Rather than helping increase the diversity of audiences, online access seems to reproduce, if not enlarge, existing inequalities

Digital access to arts and culture: final report

The final report summarises an 18-month research project into the role of digital arts and culture in the UK during the pandemic, focusing on its accessibility implications. The report pays particular attention to the ‘pivot’ to online programming undertaken by many arts and culture organisations following the onset of COVID-19. It also explores how online and live programmes have interacted with each other, how digital accessibility tools are finding their way back into in-person activities, and what the wider accessibility implications of the on-going hybridisation of arts and culture may be

Informal and non-formal music experience: Power, knowledge and learning in music teacher education in Chile

Previous research recognises the importance of musical experiences on music teacher education. However, current efforts do not provide a comprehensive view of the way their students learn music before starting university. The objective of this study is to portray their musical experiences, identifying the distinctive mechanisms underlying the relationship between practices, repertoires and training contexts for music learning. A combination of pedagogical, social and musical dimensions, inspired by sociological theories of P. Bourdieu and B. Bernstein, examine the pre-university musical experiences and the mediating role of students’ sociocultural origins. Empirically, multimodal information from four Chilean universities (n=55) was collected through the application of a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, and analysed using a set of mixed techniques, including descriptive statistics, text mining and content analysis. Findings reveal relevant associations between practices, repertoires and learning contexts, especially in terms of the specialized nature of musical training and the habitus and cultural dispositions of practitioners. Particularly relevant is the predominance of informal and non-formal learning contexts and their translation into specific types of learning. These challenge current perspectives and contribute a tool kit for the understanding of the relationship between power and knowledge in future professional teachers

Class in Contemporary Croatian Society: A Post-Bourdieusian Analysis

U ovom članku, na temelju primarnih kvantitativnih i kvalitativnih podataka, analiziramo mnogostruke mehanizme koji proizvode nejednakosti u suvremenom hrvatskom društvu i višedimenzionalnu klasnu strukturu koja iz njih proizlazi. Naš je pristup potaknut koncepcijom Pierrea Bourdieua, koju smo znatno revidirali i prilagodili proučavanju postsocijalističkih društava u jugoistočnoj Europi. U tekstu prikazujemo četiri analitička koraka koja su nas vodila do koncepcije sveukupne društvene nejednakosti kao nejednakosti u društvenim moćima. Ti koraci uključuju: (1) konstrukciju društvenog prostora u Hrvatskoj, (2) identifikaciju ključnih generatora društvenih nejednakosti (eksploatacijskih tržišnih mehanizama i mehanizama društvenog zatvaranja), (3) analizu životnih stilova i povlačenja simboličkih granica te (4) analizu diferencijalnog povezivanja i uspostavljanja društvenih granica. Rezultati pokazuju da se, uzimajući u obzir sveukupnu društvenu nejednakost, u suvremenom hrvatskom društvu mogu uočiti četiri klase i sedam klasnih frakcija: (1) Klasa bogata kapitalima, s dvije frakcije – ekonomskom i političkom; (2) Klasa srednje razine kapitala, s kulturnom i socijalnom frakcijom; (3) Međuklasa, koja dijeli neke objektivne karakteristike s Klasom srednje razine kapitala, a druge s Klasom siromašnom kapitalima, ali ima distinktivni stil života i obrasce diferencijalnog povezivanja te (4) Klasa siromašna kapitalima, u kojoj je moguće razlučiti tri frakcije: agrarnu, rurbanu i manualno-uslužnu. U završnim razmatranjima donosimo sintetski prikaz klasne strukture suvremenog hrvatskog društva, raspravljamo o novom pojmu egzistencijalne klase (konceptualiziranom na temelju naših teorijskih i empirijskih analiza) te objašnjavamo najvažnije značajke vlastitog postbourdieuovskog pristupa.In this article, based on primary quantitative and qualitative data, we analyze the multiple mechanisms generating inequalities in contemporary Croatian society and the multidimensional class structure resulting from them. Our approach has been inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s conception, which we significantly revised and adapted for studying post-socialist societies in South-East Europe. We present four analytical steps that have led us to the conception of general social inequality as inequality in social powers. These steps include: (1) construction of social space in Croatia; (2) identification of key generators of social inequality (exploitation market mechanisms and mechanisms of social closure); (3) analysis of lifestyles and the drawing of social boundaries; and (4) analysis of differential association and establishment of social boundaries. The results indicate that by taking general social inequality into account, one can distinguish between four classes and seven class fractions in contemporary Croatian society: (1) Capital rich class, with two fractions: economic and political; (2) Class with average capitals, with a cultural and social fraction; (3) Intermediary class, which shares some objective characteristics with the Class with average capitals as well as the Capital poor class, but has a distinctive lifestyle and patterns of differential association; and (4) Capital poor class, in which three fractions can be distinguished: agrarian, rurban, and manual-service. In the concluding section, we present a synthetic depiction of class structure in contemporary Croatian society, discuss the new notion of existential class (a conceptualization based on our empirical and theoretical analyses), and explain the most important characteristics of our post-Bourdieusian approach

Musical preferences and technologies: Contemporary material and symbolic distinctions criticised

Today how individuals interact with various cultural items is not perfectly consistent with theoretical frameworks of influential scholars on cultural consumption, such as Bourdieu (1984), Gans (1999), and Peterson and Simkus (1992). One such variation is in the ever increasing variety of technological modes to acquire and listen to music (Pinch and Bijsterveld, 2004). However, as a consequence of digital divides (van Dijk, 2006), technological items may not be distributed equally among social groups. At present, the value of status-making through a preference for different genres of music extends itself to different forms of consumption and ways of experiencing music. We are yet to fully understand the power these practices have on generating status. This article is therefore motivated by the need to integrate within quantitative frameworks of taste and cultural consumption, an analysis of individuals’ technological engagement. These two dimensions, integrated as components of musical practices, enhance our understanding of cultural boundaries across different social groups.The objective is to bridge a gap detected in the literature, addressing the following questions: Are technological modes to listen to music related to musical tastes

Musical distinctions in England: Understanding cultural homology and omnivorism through a methods comparison

P. Bourdieu’s homology thesis and R. A. Peterson’s cultural omnivourism have particularly captured the attention of scholars on cultural stratification. Research has supported one hypothesis, the other, or both simultaneously. Meanwhile, a question remains unanswered: do different statistical methods offer consistent results? This article reviews and compares several methodological frameworks published over the last 30 years. The wide range of alternatives has sometimes generated contradictory results. English musical taste and distaste indicators from the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion project (CCSE) are analysed. Through direct comparison of statistical methods, it is demonstrated that results are consistent and complementary. Moreover, it is argued that there is no ideal methodological blueprint

With a little help from my friends : music consumption and networks

It is widely accepted that a shift has occurred in the cultural consumption patterns of those higher in the social strata. Where tastes were based around rules of exclusion, they are now based on openness to a variety of cultures, both esoteric and popular. What is less understood is how an individual’s social networks affect their cultural tastes. Using social survey data on cultural participation, we find that musical consumption is mediated and construed through networks, and these networks play a much more significant role in cultural behaviour than current theoretical frameworks suggest