Social status, lifestyles and cultural consumption patterns

1

Sociology of Industrial Societies

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
2

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns
• Four key questions
• What exactly is social status?
• Is status analytically separable from class ?
• Are status and class empirically distinct?
• How strongly associated are the two empirically?
• How interchangeable are the two as predictors of
  social behaviour?
• How have status distinctions been changing over
  time?
• Growing omnivorousness of status culture
  preferences?
• For all groups alike?

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
3
What exactly is social status?

• To do with stratification in the sphere of
  consumption rather than production, in the world
  of the social rather than the material
• Subjective estimation of social esteem, honour,
  worth or prestige
• Conceived of in terms of a hierarchy
• notions of social superiority/inferiority/equality
  
• consequently status boundaries and status group
  closure
• Different degrees of status imbued in different
• Aesthetic judgements e.g. What counts as good
  and beautiful in art, home furnishing, clothing,
  accent, etc.
• Lifestyles e.g. What foods people eat, what car
  they drive, where they holiday, etc.
• Cultural preferences e.g. What kinds of cultural
  products/activities books, music, art, sports,
  etc. people choose to consume

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
4
Is status analytically separable from class? Yes,
according to Max Weber

• Class
• We may speak of a class when
• (1) a number of people have in
• common a specific causal
• component of their life chances,
• in so far as
• (2) this component is represented
• exclusively by economic interests
• in the possession of goods and
• opportunities for income, and
• (3) is represented under the
• conditions of the commodity or
• labour markets.

• Status
• ...every typical component of the
• life fate of men that is determined
• by a specific, positive or negative,
• social estimation of honour
• normally expressed by the fact
• that above all else a specific
• style of life can be expected of
• all those who wish to belong to
• the circle
• something which rests on one
• or more of the following bases
• (a) mode of living, (b) formal
• processes of educationand
• the acquisition of the corresponding
• modes of life, or (c) on the prestige

See Weber on Class Status and Party and Status
Groups and Classes in Grusky (ed. 2000) Social
Stratification

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
5
Is status analytically separable from class? No,
according to Pierre Bourdieu

• Class
• Refers to economic position in the sphere of
  production
• Relates to a persons material conditions of
  existence
• Conceived of in terms of an economic hierarchy
  high/low, rich/poor, etc.
• Involves unequal distribution of economic
  capital

• Status
• Is the symbolic expression of class in the
  lifestyle/consumption sphere
• Feeding into class-specific habitus, a set of
  aesthetic dispositions
• Likewise status conceived of as a cultural
  hierarchy distinguished/ vulgar,
  high/middle/low-brow, etc.
• Likewise an unequal distribution of cultural
  capital knowledge of and ease with high
  cultural forms

See Bourdieu (1984) Distinction see also
extracts from Bourdieu in Grusky (ed. 2000)
Social Stratification

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
6
Are status and class empirically distinct?

• Where might people in categories A. B. choose
  to go for an evening of visual entertainment?
  What about C. D.?
• How highly correlated are status class? (A.
  B. common, C. D. rare?)

B. High economic capital High cultural
capital
C. Low economic capital High cultural capital
A. Low economic capital Low cultural capital
D. High economic capital Low cultural capital

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
7
Are status and class empirically distinct? What
the theorists say

• Weber
• Status and class tend to be associated...
• ...but not necessarily all that closely...
• ...because status is not based on class alone,
  and may be related to it in a multitude of ways
• Status and class can be
• separated out empirically
• Status and class predict different
• social behaviours

• Bourdieu
• Status and class are associated...
• ...and this association is necessarily strong...
• ...because status is class, made manifest in the
  sphere of cultural consumption
• Status and class cannot be
• separated out empirically
• Status and class interchangeably
• predict the same social behaviours

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
8
Are status and class empirically distinct?

• How strong is the association between the two?
• One way of measuring status is to look at the
  frequency of friendship ties btwn people in
  different occupations as indicative of social
  closeness/distance
• By this method, status and class shown to be
  positively correlated
• But substantial status variation within
  occupational classes

Chan and Goldthorpe 2002, p. 28

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
9
Are status and class empirically distinct?

• Status measures highly predictive of cultural
  consumption preferences
• Status a far better predictor of cultural
  consumption preferences than class

Chan and Goldthorpe 2007, p. 11

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
10
Are status and class empirically distinct?

• But class outperforms status as predictor of
  behaviours relevant to stratification in the
  economic sphere, such as political party choice

Chan and Goldthorpe 2007

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
11
How have status distinctions been changing over
time?

• All status groups becoming more culturally
  omnivorous
• Due substantially to social change over time, not
  just cohort replacement
• But especially true of the higher status groups

Peterson and Kern 1996

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
12
How have status distinctions been changing over
time?

• Omnivorousness mainly the preserve of those with
  higher status
• Change mainly a case of those once exclusively
  highbrow dabbling more and more with middle- and
  lowbrow cultures
• Far less in the way of lower status people
  incorporating higher culture into their
  repertoires

Chan and Goldthorpe 2004

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07
13
Summary and conclusions

• Status and class analytically separable insofar
  as they refer to different realms of
  stratification, played out in the spheres of
  consumption and production respectively
• But whether is it possible/wise to treat status
  and class as analytically separate is very much
  up for debate
• However, the imperfect overlap between the two
  means they can be distinguished empirically, as
  different aspects of stratification with
  implications for different spheres of social
  behaviour
• Status cultures have been changing in the
  direction of growing cultural omnivorousness
• But the association between status and class
  tends to mean that omnivorousness is restricted
  largely to those from the higher rather than
  lower status groups and classes

• Social status, lifestyles and cultural
  consumption patterns

Week 7 MT07