The dissection of the amateur: an empirical analysis of the determinants of active cultural participation

In contrast to the amount of research dealing with the causes and consequences of receptive highbrow participation in the arts, little research has focused on active artistic participation. Our aim is to introduce active participation into cultural participation research by analyzing the mechanisms that influence active participation in the arts. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theorem of social reproduction and DiMaggio’s claims on cultural mobility, we focus on the relative influences of parental milieu vs. personal accumulated capital on active participation in the arts. Additionally, we query the possible influence of art education. Results based on stepwise multinominal logistic regression analyses on representative population data for Flanders (N=3146) yield support for both Bourdieu’s theorem on social reproduction and DiMaggio’s model of cultural mobility. We find a clear influence of the cultural milieu in which one was raised and a net effect of individually accumulated cultural and social capital. Surprisingly, the influence of educational capital disappeared, after controlling for parental cultural milieu, personal capital accumulation and the influence of taking art classes during high school. Socio-economic status of the family in which one was raised and personal economic capital prove to have no negative impact on the odds of engaging actively in the arts. Art education during high school has a positive effect on the chances of actively engaging in the arts. Moreover, we observe a cumulative impact of both receptive and active arts instructing during high school. Interaction effects between social class indicators and art education are examined. Implications of these findings for further research are discussed

The mechanisms influencing active arts participation: an analysis of the visual arts, music, and the performing arts

The aim of this article is to gain insight into the factors correlated with active arts participation. Drawing on the cultural reproduction theory and the cultural mobility model, we assess the relative effects of level of education and art education versus social background and focus on possible interaction effects between them. We thereby query if and to what extent art education programs and parental milieu can account for differences in participation according to level of education. Results based on stepwise logistic regression analyses on representative population data for Flanders (N = 3,146) offer a mixed picture. Although we find clear effects of social background on the odds of active arts participation, net effects of art education prove more substantial. However, the context of art education clearly matters: for most of the art forms considered, only out-of-school art education shows net effects, while in-school art education has no net effects. Furthermore, we find how the effects of level of education on active art participation are equally attributable to parental milieu and to art education programs. Finally, four significant interaction effects are found corroborating the cultural mobility model. Results are discussed in the light of both theorems and routes for further research are suggested

Art education and school achievement in Flemish high schools

We use data collected from 4187 students in 84 Flemish secondary schools to focus on the relationship between social background, art education, school characteristics and school performance. Based on multilevel regression analysis, the results show that the effects of out of school art education highly depend on students’ SES-background and their educational track, but not on school characteristics. The effects of in-school art education, on the other hand, are mainly dependent on the extent to which the teaching staff in schools grant importance to cultural capital characteristics of their students. Notably, these effects were mainly found for reported grades for language, whereas no positive effects of art education were found for Mathematics. The results are discussed in the light of both the social reproduction and the cultural mobility model and stress the interplay between different modes of art education and teacher characteristics in cultural capital research

De determinanten en gevolgen van buitenschoolse cultuureducatie in relatie tot sociaaleconomisch profiel van scholen

status: publishe