Cultural stratification in the UK: Persistent gender and class differences in cultural voraciousness

Abstract

This paper adds to the literature on cultural stratification by revisiting cultural voraciousness, nearly two decades after it was first introduced as a measure of cultural participation designed to capture inequalities in the pace and variety of cultural activities. Specifically, using the UK 2014–15 Time Use Survey, we compare measures of cultural voraciousness in the UK in 1998 and 2015, focussing in particular on the way cultural voraciousness is associated with both gender and class. We find continuity over time in the patterns of relationship between cultural voraciousness, gender and class, which are not explained by income or hours worked. While women at the bottom of the class scale are still the most disadvantaged in terms of unequal access to cultural participation, high level managerial women now equal equivalent men in their voracious cultural participation. We conclude that not only is cultural voraciousness still useful in depicting cultural inequalities delineated by gender and class, and not only do gender and class gaps in cultural voraciousness persist over time, but also that there is evidence for accentuated class inequality over time in cultural voraciousness among men and among women.

Social class, social networks and variety of weak and strong practices

“…Thus, voraciousness may reflect a kind of cultural “enthusiasm” that can be explained by additional factors (next to general social position) (cf. Warde et al., 2019)—a result not expected in the light of previous studies (Cutts & Widdop, 2017; Katz‐Gerro & Sullivan, 2023; Sullivan & Katz‐Gerro, 2007).…”

“…As a pattern of consumption it epitomizes a culturally active leisure‐style combining a tendency to seek diverse experiences, insatiable consumer behavior and switching between activities under the circumstances of late modernity's accelerating pace of life and oversupply of goods and services. Numerous studies (Cutts & Widdop, 2017; Katz‐Gerro & Sullivan, 2023; Sullivan & Katz‐Gerro, 2007) found this leisure pattern to share many of the relationships commonly found in the analysis of omnivorousness (e.g., association with higher occupational status, education and cultural capital) that cannot be just attributed to having more time or money. However, such a picture ignores the fact that cultural activities are undertaken under the influence of, together with or in the presence of important others, and themselves contribute to forming and sustaining social ties.…”

“…In the latter case, Sullivan and Katz‐Gerro (2007) and Katz‐Gerro and Sullivan (2023) have introduced the concept of voraciousness as a theoretical variation of omnivorousness. While omnivorousness is usually regarded as relating to the range or volume of cultural tastes (Warde et al., 2007), voraciousness, according to the authors, relates both to the range and (high) frequency of cultural practices.…”