Culture, class, distinction

340 Pages·2010·2.233 MB·English

by  Bennett, Tony

Culture, Class, Distinction
The book draws on the research conducted for a major ESRC-funded project
on Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion (CCSE) to offer the first systematic
assessment of how far Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) account of the role played by
culturalcapitalinprocessesofsocialdifferentiationcanbeappliedtoBritain.
The book examines the cultural dimensions of class on the basis of a survey
administered to a national sample. It also engages with the ‘cultural turn’ that
nowaccountsforsomuchofthefocusofnewworkinclassanalysisandofthe
importanceofgenderandethnicityinrelationtoclassprocesses.
In doing so, it takes account of the wide-ranging perspectives from which
Bourdieu’sworkhasbeenextendedand/orcriticallyengagedwith,includingthose
of feminist scholarship, American sociological research, debates within cultural
studies, the French literature on the sociology of individuals, and work on the
relationsbetweenethnicityandculturalcapital.
The book is co-authored by Tony Bennett, Mike Savage, Elizabeth Silva,
Alan Warde, Modesto Gayo-Cal, David Wright. All are researchers at the
ESRCCentreforResearchonSocio-CulturalChange(CRESC)–a£3.7million
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)–funded major international
ResearchCentreanalysingsocio-culturalchange.
Tony Bennett is Professor of Sociology at the Open University, a Director of
theEconomicandSocialScienceResearchCentreonSocio-CulturalChange,and
aProfessorialFellowintheFacultyofArtsattheUniversityofMelbourne.Recent
publications include Pasts Beyond Memory: Evolution, Museums, Colonialism;
NewKeywords:ARevisedVocabularyofCultureandSociety(editedwithLarry
GrossbergandMeaghanMorris)andHandbookofCulturalAnalysis(editedwith
JohnFrow).
Mike Savage is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester and
DirectoroftheESRCCentreforSocio-CulturalChange(CRESC).Hisinterests
areinsocialstratification,urban,andhistoricalsociology.
Elizabeth Silva is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University, a
memberoftheEconomicandSocialResearchCentreonSocio-CulturalChange
and of the Centre for Citizenship, Identity and Governance in the Faculty of
SocialSciences,OpenUniversity.RecentpublicationsincludeCulturalAnalysis:
Bourdieu’sLegacy(editedwithAlanWarde,forthcoming),ContemporaryCulture
and Everyday Life (edited with Tony Bennett) and various journal articles on
Bourdieu,culturalcapital,gender,visualartandqualitativemethods.
Dr.AlanWardeisProfessorofSociologyattheUniversityofManchester.His
current research interest include the sociology of consumption, with particular
emphasisonfood,culturalsociology,socialstratificationandeconomicsociology.
Modesto Gayo-Cal was a research fellow at CRESC and the Department of
SociologyattheUniversityofManchesterwhileworkingontheCulturalCapital
and Social Exclusion project. His areas of interest are: theories of nationalism,
politicalbehaviour,middleclasses,andculturalconsumption.Heisalsointerested
intheapplicationofstatisticalmethodsinthesocialsciences.HeisnowaProfesor
InvestigadorattheUniversidadDiegoPortalesinSantiagodeChile.
DavidWrightwasaResearchFellowontheCulturalCapitalandSocialExclusion
Project,surveyingtasteinthecontemporaryUK.Hewassubsequentlyappointedto
aResearchFellowshipintheESRCCentreforResearchonSocio-culturalChange
attheOpenUniversitytodevelophisworkonthecontemporaryliteraryfieldand
culturalpolicy.Hehaspublishedextensivelyinthefieldofculturalsociologyand
iscurrentlyteachingsocialsciencefortheOpenUniversityintheEastMidlands.
‘ManybooksarebeingwrittenaboutPierreBourdieu,turninghimintoatheoretical
“classic”. But Bennett, Savage and their colleagues have written a book to read
alongside Bourdieu, using his work as a model and stimulation for continuing
empirical inquiry. With rich new data they tackle the question of how specific
Bourdieu’s famous analysis of Distinction is to France. They show tastes are
differentinBritain,butthattheanalyticframeworklinkingtastestoclass,cultural
capitalandhabitusisnotonlytransportablebuteffectiveandrevealing.Thisisan
importantbook.’
CraigCalhounPresidentoftheSocialScienceResearchCouncil
‘Culture,Class,Distinctiondefinesthenewresearchfrontierinthesociological
understandingoftheintersectionofcultureandinequality.Resolutelyempirical
inorientation,theauthorscreativelybuildonandgobeyondtheseminalworkof
Pierre Bourdieu to consider simultaneously symbolic boundaries in the context
of racial and ethnic diversity, gendered patterns of cultural preferences, specific
fields of cultural practices (reading, music, the visual arts, the body), and much
more. Social scientists within and beyond the UK have much to learn from this
ambitiousandpath-breakingcollectiveresearch.’
MichèleLamontProfessorofEuropeanStudiesandProfessorofSociology
AfricanandAfrican-AmericanStudiesatHarvardUniversity
‘A superb achievement: at once a cogent theoretical reappraisal of Bourdieu’s
masterworkof20thcenturysociology,andauniquelywide-rangingstudy,offering
powerfulinsights,intothechangingcontoursofcultureinBritishsocietytoday.
LikeDistinction,thisbookwillremainacentrepieceofinternationalsociology.’
Georgina BornProfessorofSociology,AnthropologyandMusic,
UniversityofCambridge
‘Culture,Class,DistinctionisthemostsophisticatedmappingofBritishcultural
practices and preferences ever undertaken. Using cutting-edge techniques of
statisticalanalysisandengagingcriticallywiththesociologyofculturedeveloped
by Pierre Bourdieu, it explores the cultural dimensions of class, gender and
ethnicityacrossarangeoffields.Thisisamajorcontributiontounderstandingthe
roots of social inclusion and exclusion in British life, and a complex and subtle
pieceofsocialtheory.’
JohnFrowProfessorofEnglishatSchoolofCulture&Communication,
UniversityofMelbourne
‘Theamountoflabourthathasgoneintothisworkisnothingshortofimpressive.
Onecanonlybegratefulfortheinformationproducedbytheauthorsconcerning
the relation between social location and cultural practice in Britain today. But
the book does a lot more than this. It offers a highly nuanced analysis of this
information. It is an excellent example of how one can innovate theoretically
whiledoingempiricalresearch.’
GhassanHageProfessorofAnthropologyandSocialTheory,
UniversityofMelbourne
Culture,economyandthesocial
A new series from CRESC – the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-
CulturalChange
Editors
ProfessorTonyBennett,Sociology,OpenUniversity
ProfessorPennyHarvey,Anthropology,ManchesterUniversity
ProfessorKevinHetherington,Geography,OpenUniversity
EditorialAdvisoryBoard
AndrewBarry,UniversityofOxford
MichelCallon,ÉcoledesMinesdeParis
DipeshChakrabarty,TheUniversityofChicago
MikeCrang,UniversityofDurham
TimDant,LancasterUniversity
Jean-LouisFabiani,ÉcoledeHautesEtudesenSciencesSociales
AntoineHennion,ParisInstituteofTechnology
EricHirsch,BrunelUniversity
JohnLaw,LancasterUniversity
RandyMartin,NewYorkUniversity
TimothyMitchell,NewYorkUniversity
RollandMunro,KeeleUniversity
AndrewPickering,UniversityofExeter
MaryPoovey,NewYorkUniversity
HughWillmott,UniversityofCardiff
Sharon Zukin, Brooklyn College City University New York/ Graduate School,
CityUniversityofNewYork
TheCulture,EconomyandtheSocial seriesiscommittedtoinnovativecontem-
porary,comparativeandhistoricalworkontherelationsbetweensocial,cultural
andeconomicchange.Itpublishesempiricallybasedresearchthatistheoretically
informed,thatcriticallyexaminesthewaysinwhichsocial,culturalandeconomic
changeisframedandmadevisible,andthatisattentivetoperspectivesthattendto
beignoredorsidelinedbygrandtheorisingorepochalaccountsofsocialchange.
Theseriesaddressesthediversemanifestationsofcontemporarycapitalism,and
considersthevariouswaysinwhichthe‘social’,‘thecultural’and‘theeconomic’
areapprehendedastangiblesitesofvalueandpractice.Itisexplicitlycomparative,
publishing books that work across disciplinary perspectives, cross-culturally, or
acrossdifferenthistoricalperiods.
Theseriesisactivelyengagedintheanalysisofthedifferenttheoreticaltraditions
that have contributed to the development of the ‘cultural turn’ with a view to
clarifyingwheretheseapproachesconvergeandwheretheydivergeonaparticular
issue.Itisequallyconcernedtoexplorethenewcriticalagendasemergingfrom
currentcritiquesoftheculturalturn:thoseassociatedwiththedescriptiveturnfor
example.Ourcommitmenttointerdisciplinaritythusaimsatenrichingtheoretical
and methodological discussion, building awareness of the common ground that
has emerged in the past decade, and thinking through what is at stake in those
approachesthatresistintegrationtoacommonanalyticalmodel.
Seriestitlesinclude:
TheMediaandSocialTheory(2008)
EditedbyDavidHesmondhalghandJasonToynbee
Culture,Class,Distinction(2009)
TonyBennett,MikeSavage,ElizabethSilva,AlanWarde,ModestoGayo-Cal
andDavidWright
MaterialPowers(forthcoming)
EditedbyTonyBennettandPatrickJoyce
CulturalAnalysisandBourdieu’sLegacy(forthcoming)
ElizabethSilvaandAlanWarde

Culture, Class, Distinction
Tony Bennett, Mike Savage,
Elizabeth Silva, Alan Warde,
Modesto Gayo-Cal and
David Wright
Firstpublished2009
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
270MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
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collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
©2009TonyBennett,MikeSavage,ElizabethSilva,AlanWarde,
ModestoGayo-CalandDavidWright
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
fromthepublishers.
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ISBN 0-203-93057-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10:0-415-42242-6(hbk)
ISBN10:0-203-93057-6(ebk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-42242-0(hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-203-93057-1(ebk)
Contents
Listoftables xiii
Listoffigures xv
Acknowledgements xvi
Notetothereader xix
Introduction 1
PARTI
Situatingtheanalysis 7
1 CultureafterDistinction 9
1.1 Introduction 9
1.2 Bourdieu’sthreeaxioms 11
1.3 ContestationsoverBourdieuinFrenchsociology 14
1.4 Bourdieuinthesociologyofstratification
andeducation 16
1.5 Bourdieuinculturalsociology 17
1.6 Bourdieuinculturalandmediastudies 20
1.7 Conclusion 22
2 Researchingculturalcapital:questionsoftheoryandmethod 24
2.1 Introduction 24
2.2 Habitusandthedispersalofpractices 25
2.3 Disaggregatingculturalcapital 28
2.4 Fieldtheoryandtherelationalorganisationof
thesocial 31
2.5 Methodologicalovertures 36
2.6 Conclusion 39