Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
Home> Volumes> Volume CHR Vol.14> Article
Research Article

A Theoretical Discussion of Changes in Youth Cultural Consumption

Jia ChenThe University of Manchester*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the transformations observed in the cultural consumption patterns of the younger demographic, highlighting the substantial influence of age in the development of cultural capital. Prieur and other scholars stated that Bourdieu’s model of social space of ‘capital composition’, which the secondary axis he identified between individuals primarily possessing cultural capital and those primarily possessing economic capital is frequently complicated by age. The paper first provides a brief review of cultural capital established by Bourdieu. It then applies a theoretical discussion method to demonstrate how age is reforming cultural capital, accompanied by significant empirical research. Furthermore, due to the emerging distinctiveness, the paper discusses the changes in cultural consumption among youth. Finally, the paper concludes that: 1) Age forms distinctive preferences for cultural consumption among youth, with the influence of highbrow culture decreasing as the younger generation tends to embrace commercially oriented products; 2) The cultural consumption patterns of the younger generation are less conspicuous and less elitism.

Keywords: cultural capital; cultural consumption; age; distinction
Published: November 20, 2023
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/14/20230401
Volume: CHR Vol.14
pp. 31-36
Download PDF

References

  1. Weber, M. (2019). Economy and society: A new translation. Harvard University Press.
  2. Featherstone, M. (1991). Consumer culture and Postmodernism. Sage.
  3. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  4. Rössel, J. (2011). Cultural Capital and the variety of modes of cultural consumption in the opera audience. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2010.01192.x
  5. Warde, A. (2015). The sociology of consumption: Its recent development. Annual Review of Sociology, 41(1), 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043208
  6. Throsby, D. (1999). Cultural capital. Journal of cultural economics, 23, 3-12.
  7. Katz-Gerro, T. (2004). Cultural Consumption Research: Review of methodology, theory, and Consequence. International Review of Sociology, 14(1), 11–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/0390670042000186743
  8. Prieur, A., Savage, M., and Flemmen, M. P. (2023). Distinctions in the making: A theoretical discussion of youth and Cultural Capital. The British Journal of Sociology, 74(3), 360–375. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13002
  9. Bennett, T., Savage, M., Silva, E. B., Warde, A., Gayo, M., & Wright, D. (2009). Culture, class distinction. Routledge.
  10. Savage, M., Devine, F., Cunningham, N., Taylor, M., Li, Y., Hjellbrekke, J., Le Roux, B., Friedman, S., & Miles, A. (2013a). A new model of social class? findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment. Sociology, 47(2), 219–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513481128
  11. Holt, D. B. (1998). Does cultural capital structure American consumption? Journal of Consumer Research, 25(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1086/209523
  12. Prieur, A., & Savage, M. (2013). Emerging forms of cultural capital. European Societies, 15(2), 246–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2012.748930
  13. Hannerz, U. (1990). Cosmopolitans and locals in world culture. Theory, Culture & Society, 7(2–3), 237–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327690007002014
  14. Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of educa-tion (241-58). Greenwood Press.
  15. Grenfell, M. (2010). Working with habitus and field: The logic of Bourdieu’s practice. Cultural Analysis and Bourdieu’s Legacy, 26–39. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203878620-7
  16. Reeves, A. (2016). Age-period-cohort and cultural engagement. In Hanquinet, L. & Savage, M. (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of the sociology of art and culture. Routledge.
  17. Prieur, A., & Savage, M. (2011). Updating cultural capital theory: A discussion based on studies in Denmark and in Britain. Poetics, 39(6), 566–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2011.09.002
  18. Tampubolon, G. (2008). Revisiting omnivores in America circa 1990s: The exclusiveness of omnivores? Poetics, 36(2–3), 243–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2008.02.007
  19. Lizardo, O., & Skiles, S. (2015). Musical taste and patterns of symbolic exclusion in the United States 1993–2012: Generational Dynamics of differentiation and continuity. Poetics, 53, 9–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.08.003
  20. Friedman, S., Savage, M., Hanquinet, L., & Miles, A. (2015). Cultural sociology and new forms of Distinction. Poetics, 53, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.10.002
  21. Savage, M. (2021). The return of inequality: Social change and the weight of the past. Harvard UP.
  22. Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the 21st century. Harvard UP.
  23. Toft, M., & Hansen, M. N. (2022). Dynastic cores and the borrowed time of newcomers. Wealth Accumulation and the norwegian one percent. The British Journal of Sociology, 73(2), 291–314. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12925
  24. Flemmen, M., Jarness, V., & Rosenlund, L. (2017). Social Space and cultural class divisions: The forms of capital and contemporary lifestyle differentiation. The British Journal of Sociology, 69(1), 124–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12295
  25. Schimpfossl, E. (2014). Russia’s social upper class: From ostentation to culturedness. The British Journal of Sociology, 65(1), 63–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12053
  26. Sherman, R. (2019). Uneasy street. Princeton university press.
  27. Friedman, S., O’Brien, D., & McDonald, I. (2021). Deflecting privilege: Class identity and the intergenerational self. Sociology, 55(4), 716–733. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520982225