Working Paper No.4
Cultural capital in the UK: a preliminary report using correspondence analysis
Mike Savage,
Modesto Gayo-Cal, Alan Warde, Gindo Tampubolon
(with the assistance of Johs Hjellbrekke, Brigitte LeRoux and Henry Rouanet)
CRESC, The University of Manchester
Abstract
Pierre Bourdieu’s study Distinction has encouraged numerous studies assessing whether cultural capital can be detected in different nations. This paper reports early findings from a national survey on cultural taste, participation and knowledge conducted in 2003–04 in the UK. We use correspondence analysis, the method used by Bourdieu but nearly entirely ignored in English language research, to assess the clustering of cultural taste, participation and knowledge amongst our sample of 1564 British respondents. We show that cultural taste, participation and knowledge is clustered in sociologically interesting ways, but that there are important differences between the fields of music and reading which makes it important to recognize cultural specificity. In generalising from our findings, we show that there three main axes separate out different cultural activities, the first axis organized on the basis of social class divisions and educational qualifications, the second around age groups, and the third around gender differences. Whilst supporting the value of a Bourdieusian approach to the study of cultural practices, our results suggest interesting differences in cultural patterning, compared to Bourdieu’s own study in Distinction.