In cultural consumption, higher social status is primarily reflected in the consumption of cultural products from diverse levels of sophistication, denoted as cultural omnivorousness. The article asks whether digital media are capable of attenuating these inequalities. Since digital media potentially make cultural products from all levels available to wider audiences, the distinguishing effect of omnivorousness might shrink. However, based on a model of individual decision-making, the article discusses several reasons why this assessment might be too optimistic. Empirically, the article focuses on omnivorousness and media use in feature film consumption. Differentiating between four types of electronic media (television, DVD, video on demand, Internet) and two types of omnivorousness (“by volume,” “by composition”), results reveal that digital media rather reinforce social inequalities in cultural consumption. Television, in contrast, has the highest levels of omnivorousness and the lowest levels of social structuration. Hence, not digital media are a democratizing force, but television.

In the present study we trace transformations of the Swiss space of lifestyles during the past four decades. The sociological discussion suggests that lifestyle practices were once structured by a highbrow-lowbrow distinction, whereas today cultural omnivorism, eclecticism, broad engagement, or cosmopolitanism should be prevalent. Furthermore, Bourdieu's homology thesis claims that cultural consumption is closely linked with class structures, which is contested by recent individualisation arguments. So, we ask two questions here: First, what are the main axes of the Swiss space of lifestyles and how do they develop over time? Second, how does the association between the space of lifestyles and the space of social positions evolve over time? We find that cultural practices in Switzerland are primarily structured by a dimension differentiating between engagement in a wide range of activities and disengagement, followed, secondly, by a highbrow-popular distinction. Accordingly, we identify an "inactive", an "intense highbrow" and a "moderate eclectic" consumption pattern. Although this configuration is quite stable over time, structural correlates of lifestyles are changing. Most importantly, indicators of vertical social position like education or occupational status are correlated with broad cultural engagement today, whereas they have been correlated with highbrow activities in the 1970s. Instead, age emerged as the main structuring factor of highbrow-popular disparities.

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Research on cultural consumption is a flourishing field across different disciplines within the social sciences. It refers to the consumption of goods and services with primarily aesthetic functions and only secondarily instrumental uses. We present the main theoretical approaches, empirical methods, and results of research on the main dimensions of cultural consumption, the explanation of correlations between these dimensions and social positions, and the impact of cultural consumption on the reproduction of structures of resource inequalities in societies, focusing in particular on Bourdieu's foundational work. Future research should move beyond this approach by developing more precise concepts and more systematic mechanism‐based theoretical explanations. We suggest an approach based on rational choice theory, because we deem it capable of overcoming the severe limitations of practice theories. Furthermore, we propose more rigorous methods for theory development and the establishment of causal claims, such as agent‐based modeling, longitudinal analysis, and experimental methods.

Sociology of culture has established knowledge about the social processes in the production, valuation and consumption of cultural objects and the arts. However, public spending on culture is predominantly studied in political science and political economy. Therefore, the aim of this article is to add a sociological view to existing political and economic examinations of public funding of culture and arts. This is pursued by concentrating on the determinants of public cultural expenditures, which we consider as comprising not only political (party ideology, electoral cycle, direct democracy) and economic (central locations, spatial spending patterns) but also social factors (population's structure according to education, income, age). This interdisciplinary approach is based on the idea that cultural policy is located at the intersection of political decision-making, cultural production, and cultural consumption. Empirically, we study cultural expenditures and their determinants for the 26 cantons of Switzerland from 1977 to 2010 based on hybrid panel regression models. Our results show that the Swiss cantons exhibit strikingly different patterns of cultural expenditure. Consistent with our main assumption, they are shaped by social, political and economic-geographic variables. Yet, the interplay of these variables differs between classical cultural expenditures and public funding of sports and leisure. Jörg Rössel and Sebastian Weingartner AbstractSociology of culture has established knowledge about the social processes in the production, valuation and consumption of cultural objects and the arts. However, public spending on culture is predominantly studied in political science and political economy. Therefore, the aim of this article is to add a sociological view to existing political and economic examinations of public funding of culture and arts. This is pursued by concentrating on the determinants of public cultural expenditures, which we consider as comprising not only political (party ideology, electoral cycle, direct democracy) and economic (central locations, spatial spending patterns) but also social factors (population's structure according to education, income, age).This interdisciplinary approach is based on the idea that cultural policy is located at the intersection of political decision making, cultural production, and cultural consumption. variables. Yet, the interplay of these variables differs between classical cultural expenditures and public funding of sports and leisure.