Exploring Dissonance and Omnivorousness

Another Look into the Rise of Eclecticism

Bibliographic Data

ID2412462
AuthorsLaurie Hanquinet (0000-0003-1891-2780, University of York, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume11
Issue2
Pages165-187
Publication date2017-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-9755 • E-ISSN: 1749-9763
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1749975516647750
OpenAlexW2415571982
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited32

The debate over the rise of eclecticism, more particularly Peterson's 'omnivore thesis', has received much attention over recent years. For Lahire, eclecticism reflects less an increasing individual openness to a variety of cultural styles than intra-individual dissonances. Based on a large survey into cultural practices in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Belgium - N = 2021), this article compares these two notions with the aim of understanding the complexity of the structural relations that organise cultural tastes and practices into 'cultural profiles'. I argue that omnivorousness cannot be reduced to dissonance but instead both notions characterise different configurations of cultural choices. More importantly, I show that identifying omnivorous and dissonant patterns matters less than understanding how these patterns emerge from tensions between existing and emerging cultural hierarchies at the individual and social levels

Cognitive dissonance · Conformist · Consonance and dissonance · Eclecticism · Epistemology · Ethnocentrism · Openness to experience · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · History · Law · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology

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