From exclusive to inclusive elitists and further: Twenty years of omnivorousness and cultural diversity in arts participation in the USA

Class, status, and the intergenerational transmission of musical tastes in Israel

“…This paper has focused solely on tastes, but recent research argues that attention should shift to actual consumption behavior because cultural capital is embedded in consumption practices rather than mere preferences (Holt, 1998). Further, taste per se may be becoming a less powerful exclusionary tool than overt consumption practices that signify a commitment to a particular lifestyle (López-Sintas and Katz-Gerro, 2005;Sullivan and Katz-Gerro, 2007). …”

“…How is this related to musical taste? Taste, and in particular musical taste, is considered a significant symbol of status (Sullivan and KatzGerro, 2004; López-Sintas and Katz-Gerro, 2005), that are expected to have a stronger association with status than with class (Mark, 1998;Chan and Goldthrope, 2007). Following this, we hypothesize that musical tastes in Israel will be more strongly associated with status than with class.…”

Cultural Omnivores’ Consumption: Strategic and Inclusively Exclusive

“…These studies conclude that omnivorous consumption is a high-status consumption style, because members of this cluster are likely to be statistically different in variables that are known to determine status including education, occupation, ethnicity, or gender (Peterson & Kern, 1996;Peterson & Simkus, 1992;López-Sintas & Katz-Gerro, 2005). Many studies in this research stream employed secondary analysis of data with representative samples (e.g., General Social Survey).…”

“…This synthesis refers to the ability to assemble pieces of information and to integrate them into a coherent whole. In other words, synthesis is a capacity of integration and interrelation of cultural symbols in order to construct meanings and identities (López-Sintas & Katz-Gerro, 2005). The consumption experiences of cultural omnivores are not only diverse but also multi-dimensional, regardless of genre, as a result of this synthesis and integration.…”

“…The recent literature has embraced omnivorous taste as the currency of the elitist consumption style (Chan & Goldthorpe, 2005;Coulangeon & Lemel, 2007;Warde, Martens, & Olsen, 1999;Warde, Wright, & Gayo-Cal, 2007). Research efforts in cultural sociology have generally been devoted to the confirmation of omnivorous consumption patterns (López-Sintas & Katz-Gerro, 2005;van Rees, Vermunt, & Verboord, 1999). Since the first proposal, researchers have made efforts to reveal omnivorous cultural tastes in the U.S. (Alderson, Junisbai, & Heacock, 2007;see Eijck, 2000), and cultural omnivores have also been confirmed by studies in France, England, Spain, Israel, and Russia (Chan & Goldthorpe, 2005;Coulangeon & Lemel, 2007;Katz-Gerro, Raz, & Yaish, 2009;Zavisca, 2005).…”