Understanding Cultural Omnivorousness: Or, the Myth of the Cultural Omnivore

Abstract

The concept of omnivorousness has become influential in the sociologies of culture and consumption, cited variously as evidence of altered hierarchies in cultural participation and as indicative of broader socio-cultural changes. The ‘omnivore thesis’ contends that there is a sector of the population of western countries who do and like a greater variety of forms of culture than previously, and that this broad engagement reflects emerging values of tolerance and undermines snobbery. This article draws on the findings of a study of cultural participation in the UK to explore the coherence of the omnivore thesis. It uses a survey to identify and isolate omnivores, and then proceeds to explore the meanings of omnivorousness through the analysis of in-depth, qualitative interviews with them. It concludes that, while there is evidence of wide cultural participation within the UK, the figure of the omnivore is less singularly distinctive than some studies have suggested.

Cultural Omnivores’ Consumption: Strategic and Inclusively Exclusive

“…Notwithstanding these limitations, we believe that the nature of the data collected from a sample of more than 3000 participants who are representative of the U.S. population did, ultimately, provide external validity for our findings. Despite the different types of omnivores (Warde et al, 2007) or disagreements regarding the assortments of highbrow or omnivorous genres in recent sociology literature (López-Sintas & Katz-Gerro, 2005), our principal focus was, rather, to provide new insights into the culturally elite consumer segment by applying the thesis of omnivorous taste, which unarguably is the most definite cultural consumption trend to emerge since the late twentieth century.…”

“…Our study explains how this disposition is manifested outside the context of cultural consumption. To date, only a limited amount of research has examined characteristics of this consumer segment (e.g., Warde et al, 2007). Our study investigates cultural omnivores, analyzing data from a sample representative of the U.S. population, in order to understand characteristics of this consumer group.…”

“…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).…”

Les nouveaux héritiers

“…Enfin, l'analyse fine des liens entre rapports à la culture, sens des pratiques et compétences produite par A. Warde et al (2007) ne peut malheureusement pré-tendre à une représentativité statistique.…”

Learning to labour unequally: understanding the relationship between cultural production, cultural consumption and inequality

“…The idea of there being a single, unified, legitimate culture is no longer an acceptable element of the way contemporary society perceives itself (Warde et al 2007). Even within social elites, consumption of only high cultural forms are a minority pursuit and broadsheet newspapers devote as much time to discussing reality TV shows or popular music as they do to reviewing classical music or contemporary art exhibitions.…”