ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC CLASSES

Analysis of Economic Classes



Abstract

I apply Pierre Bourdieu's concept of relationally defined social spaces Abstract. I apply Pierre Bourdieu's concept of relationally defined social spaces of capitals and classes that delimit highbrow and lowbrow cultural forms to American society. I use categorical principal components analysis techniques and a nationally representative survey dataset from 1998 containing measures of economic capital, cultural capital, and a wide range of cultural practices to construct a visual representation of American social space which is directly inspired by the social space for 1960s America crafted by Bourdieu in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (Bourdieu 1984). After identifying nascent class groupings and potentially highbrow and lowbrow cultural practices in my depiction of social space, I speculate on precisely how such cultural practices might factor into class dynamics in America , in particular examining the role played by “cultural omnivorism” in identifying and reinforcing class distinctions.

Analysis of Economic Classes

Introduction

Pierre Bourdieu's magnum opus, Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, is a meticulous, relational investigation of the class bases of culture in America of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bourdieu used correspondence analysis techniques applied to survey data to uncover a variety of highbrow and lowbrow cultural forms and ways of appreciating them that, he argued, served to delimit and sustain class boundaries. Distinction has since inspired social researchers to uncover much about the class bases of cultural tastes and practices in many different contexts (Warde, 1999). For example, Coulangeon and Lemel (2009) applied a relational statistical technique called cluster analysis to survey data from American metropolitan areas, collected in 2003- 4. They found that clusters of lifestyle activities were differentiated from one another on an axis that was also structured by income and educational attainment, indicating that cultural practices are still associated with social class position in America, used multiple correspondence analysis applied to survey data from 2003 to conclude that social class is highly associated with patterns of lifestyles in the America as well.

These and many other studies confirm that Bourdieu's depiction of how occupation, wealth, and educational credentials delineate class groupings and reflect groupings of cultural practices — and identify highbrow culture forms which inhere to elites — has applicability outside of 1960-70s America. However, while Bourdieu's framework of class and culture may have also applied to the United States decades ago it does not seem to apply well there today. Higher status people in the US today “enjoy many different kinds of culture, some prestigious and some popular, and delight in variety for its own sake” (Erickson 2008:343), dissolving the straightforward connection between high status and specifically highbrow cultural forms. The cultural portfolios associated with elites in contemporary US society are complex, varied, and changeable. What matters is not that a high status person has mastered a few selected forms of highbrow culture, such as appreciation for fine wine or familiarity with ballet, but that s/he can move smoothly from one cultural form to ...