Educational Mobility and Cultural Omnivorousness in Germany

Bibliographic Data

ID2954681
AuthorsYevhen Voronin (0000-0003-2630-5868, University of Wuppertal, corresponding author), M Lutter (0000-0003-1127-0244, University of Wuppertal)
Year2024
Volume20
Issue1
Pages25-53
Publication date2024-07-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-9755 • E-ISSN: 1749-9763
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/17499755241247991
OpenAlexW4401028965
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited47

Cultural omnivorousness is widely studied as a dimension of the stratification of taste, related to class or status positions. However, taste is also structured by patterns of social mobility, especially educational mobility. Building on Lizardo's Bourdieu, Distinction, and Aesthetic Consumption article, we expect that cultural omnivorousness systematically depends on patterns of educational mobility. Specifically, we predict that a higher inherited educational capital triggers a taste for less legitimate culture. Using survey data on tastes in music in Germany, we tested the effects of acquired and inherited cultural capital in predicting tastes for less legitimate cultural forms of taste at the level of genres and the effects of educational mobility in predicting cultural omnivorousness. Our results suggest that, first, the effect of parents' education in predicting taste for less legitimate music genres is larger than the effect of the respondents' own education. Second, the analysis reveals significant differences in omnivorous taste across segments of educational mobility groups. In general, there are three groups that show the highest omnivorousness: upwardly and downwardly mobile groups between middle and high positions and stayers in the high-level segment, whereas immobile individuals in the lower segment are the most univorous. Contrary to expectations, respondents with upward educational mobility who reach a high level of education accumulate omnivorous attitudes to a high degree. This study shows partial support for the statements of theory and proposes trajectories for future research

Political science · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of culture · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks