Cultural Consumption

Abstract

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.

Digital omnivores? How digital media reinforce social inequalities in cultural consumption

“…Cultural consumption refers to the consumption of goods and services which primarily fulfill aesthetic and symbolic functions (Rössel et al, 2017). It encompasses consumption practices such as listening music, visiting museums, or watching films.…”

“…At this point, Bourdieu (1984) resorts to the concept of habitus, a mental system of dispositions that regulates a person's consumption choices and is shaped by the capital endowment during socialization (class habitus). However, Bourdieu does not exactly specify how the habitus works and how it relates to material choice restrictions (Rössel et al, 2017). Therefore, I will draw on an abstract, yet precise model of individual decision-making based on a wide version of rational-choice theory (Rössel, 2008;Rössel and Weingartner, 2016).…”

Nuevas y viejas tendencias del consumo cultural en Chile: desigualdades, prácticas emergentes y descripciones semánticas

“…Pionero fue el trabajo del PNUD (2002) en la creación de un mapa empírico de la oferta cultural y de una tipología de las formas de consumo, proceso que ha sido continuado por una serie de otros estudios (Gayo, Aun cuando mantienen sus preguntas originales -como la relación entre estructura social y prácticas de consumo-, los análisis sociológicos del consumo cultural se han vuelto cada vez más complejos tanto por sus herramientas metodológicas, sus conceptos e interpretaciones como por la extensión espacial y temporal de sus comparaciones. Desde las afirmaciones de Bourdieu sobre una relativamente rígida homología entre estructura social y consumo cultural (Bourdieu 2006), se han desplegado un conjunto de tesis más diferenciadas y menos lineales sobre las bases sociales del consumo y el disfrute cultural (Rössel, Schenk y Weingartner 2017;Katz-Gerro 2004). La dirección principal en las nuevas investigaciones es el intento por detectar el efecto que las transformaciones económicas, demográficas y socioculturales recientes han tenido sobre las preferencias y prácticas de consumo cultural, así como sobre su relación con las segmentaciones de la estructura social.…”

The Cogs and Wheels of Authenticity: How Descriptive and Evaluative Beliefs Explain the Unequal Appreciation of Authentic Products

“…Therefore, in the following section, we “disentangle cultural capital” (Yaish and Katz-Gerro 2012) and develop an empirically testable model of individual beliefs and their association with product evaluations and social inequality. This allows us to arrive at a more fine-grained, individual-based mechanism (Rössel, Schenk, and Weingartner 2017), rendering intelligible the social structuration of hedonic taste experiences (hedonic value) and economic price attributions (economic value) for authentic products.…”