Cultural consumption in Spain. An approach to the social stratification of cultural consumptions and its methodological difficulties

Abstract

Oftentimes sociology has focussed on the relationship between social origin and cultural habits. In this paper we study the social characteristics that have most influence on patterns of cultural consumption. Sociology has often addressed the study of social class and social status by explaining differences in habits and cultural practices (social uses). In this paper, we try to identify what social characteristics are most influential in the segmentation of cultural habits. To do this, we test a set of theories that examines the role of social stratification in the consumption of cultural goods and services, and, thereby, check its explanatory power in Spain. We use the framework that gives us the most important set of theories on social stratification in cultural consumption, namely the homology argument, the individualisation argument and the Omnivore-Univore argument. Simultaneously, we deal with the methodological difficulties posed by the different statistical techniques used in recent sociological tradition over social stratification of cultural consumption. Our results prove that cultural consumption reflects social stratification in contemporary Spanish society. We found evidence of how practices which are considered as «high culture» are associated with better positioned strata. Nevertheless, we find important evidence, although not decisive, that the homology argument loses explanatory power in favour of the omnivore-univore argument. These findings complement what other omnivourness research works have discovered in recent years. Finally, we have found several univore comsumptions patterns for Spain instead of just one univore cultural consumption pattern.