Pierre Bourdieu: Consumption, taste, decoding culture
Consumption as classification
We ‘distinguish ourselves by the distinctions [we] make’
Taste classifies the classifier (Bourdieu, 1984, Distinction, p.6). Our actions locate/positions us within the structures of taste and hence social structure. Parallels with Giddens' recursiveness of action.
Whilst consumption refers to material means it also implies social dispositions and taken for granted assumptions about quality, taste, what is good etc.
The habitus - A set of dispositions or skills which enable us to negotiate and reproduce group culture. It includes taste and knowledge of classification codes people use. Combines agency and structure as our improvisations/reflexivity reproduce out positions in the social structure and hence also the habitus itself is reproduced
Taste is something we learn through the norms of family life and educational formation. It is collective (the group’s) and it inculcates ...
Codes – we distinguish what is good taste based on these norms. Our ability to do this is a way of reading the culture. Mental maps or schemas within the habitus enable us to read the invisible social rules
Cultural Capital- our ability to read the culture around us and interact successfully with a range of others depends on how much cultural capital we possess
Legitimate Culture- our closeness to the cultural norms of the middle classes will determine our futures. Culture is a means of domination. Those who are not part of legitimate culture will be in subordinate groups. Symbolic domination and symbolic violence: the power exerted by dominant agents through their symbolic presence- style of language, dress codes, possessions etc. which devalues the cultural identities of less powerful groups, makes them feel 'out of place' in encounters with symbolically powerful agents (the 'fish out of water')
Cultural Intermediaries- some media –based groups in the middle classes perform the function of cultural transmission. This
(a) conveys street/popular culture to the middle classes- rock music, comics, football
(b) conveys high culture to the lower middle and working class- Music for Pleasure, Pavarotti, Classic FM, Jane Austen and BBC country house costume drama
The impact of this is to renew legitimate culture by absorbing possibly oppositional or countercultural trends e.g. Punk becomes New Wave, rock musicians ‘sell out’ to commercial demands etc. George Michael against Sony (‘Listen Without Prejudice’), Mark E. Smith (The Fall -see YouTube) as resisting the trend.
Both of these trends (a and b) represent forms of cultural goodwill- the acceptance of the dominant (middle class) culture as legitimate and therefore supporting cultural (and social) reproduction
Consumption as classification
We ‘distinguish ourselves by the distinctions [we] make’
Taste classifies the classifier (Bourdieu, 1984, Distinction, p.6). Our actions locate/positions us within the structures of taste and hence social structure. Parallels with Giddens' recursiveness of action.
Whilst consumption refers to material means it also implies social dispositions and taken for granted assumptions about quality, taste, what is good etc.
The habitus - A set of dispositions or skills which enable us to negotiate and reproduce group culture. It includes taste and knowledge of classification codes people use. Combines agency and structure as our improvisations/reflexivity reproduce out positions in the social structure and hence also the habitus itself is reproduced
Taste is something we learn through the norms of family life and educational formation. It is collective (the group’s) and it inculcates ...
Codes – we distinguish what is good taste based on these norms. Our ability to do this is a way of reading the culture. Mental maps or schemas within the habitus enable us to read the invisible social rules
Cultural Capital- our ability to read the culture around us and interact successfully with a range of others depends on how much cultural capital we possess
Legitimate Culture- our closeness to the cultural norms of the middle classes will determine our futures. Culture is a means of domination. Those who are not part of legitimate culture will be in subordinate groups. Symbolic domination and symbolic violence: the power exerted by dominant agents through their symbolic presence- style of language, dress codes, possessions etc. which devalues the cultural identities of less powerful groups, makes them feel 'out of place' in encounters with symbolically powerful agents (the 'fish out of water')
Cultural Intermediaries- some media –based groups in the middle classes perform the function of cultural transmission. This
(a) conveys street/popular culture to the middle classes- rock music, comics, football
(b) conveys high culture to the lower middle and working class- Music for Pleasure, Pavarotti, Classic FM, Jane Austen and BBC country house costume drama
The impact of this is to renew legitimate culture by absorbing possibly oppositional or countercultural trends e.g. Punk becomes New Wave, rock musicians ‘sell out’ to commercial demands etc. George Michael against Sony (‘Listen Without Prejudice’), Mark E. Smith (The Fall -see YouTube) as resisting the trend.
Both of these trends (a and b) represent forms of cultural goodwill- the acceptance of the dominant (middle class) culture as legitimate and therefore supporting cultural (and social) reproduction
posted by Howard Feather at 10:27 AM
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