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, aninformabusiness This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s 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. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationData Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook 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