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Social Distinction : Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture 15/10/11 16:38 < More from SAGE Reference Online Social Distinction FURTHER READINGS ENTRY CITATION What and how people consume are critical components of how individuals define themselves in relation to others. Yet, consumption practices are also meaningful social signals that individuals use to categorize and evaluate others. As such, consumption is not only a basis but also a marker of social identity that can serve as a powerful source of social differentiation and stratification in interaction. Research on social distinction focuses on analyzing two primary issues: (1) how individuals define and interpret the social, cultural, and/or material value of individuals, objects, and organizations; and (2) how such classification schemes—including those based on consumption—contribute to broader systems of social inequality. This entry reviews key authors and works relevant to the study of social distinction, highlights key debates pertinent to the topic, and describes current trends in research. Key Authors Max Weber The writings of classical social theorist Max Weber are integral to contemporary understandings of distinction. In his seminal essay “Class, Status, and Party,” Weber argues that social status—defined as social estimations of worth, honor, and/or esteem—is a key basis of societal power and social stratification. According to Weber, status groups are social communities that share a quality or characteristic that affords them a certain level of admiration from others; they tend to be bounded units that exhibit similar lifestyle and consumption practices as well as a sense of shared identity. Unlike economic classes, whose power stems from ownership of property and/or control of production relations, status groups derive their influence through social and symbolic exclusion. In particular, status groups monopolize access to valued resources, a process referred to as social closure. To facilitate such exclusion, status groups tend to adopt one or more “badges” of belonging, most commonly physical markers such as dress, accent, or skin color, so that group membership is clearly demarcated and easily perceptible to all. Thorstein Veblen and Norbert Elias Building on Weber's insights, Thorstein Veblen and Norbert Elias provide in-depth analyses of the badges that status groups use to demarcate membership. In Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen argues that members of affluent classes engage in “conspicuous consumption” of costly or scarce goods and services to publicly communicate their elevated status to others. Focusing more on behavior, Elias documents the elaborate etiquette and interaction rituals common among premodern cultivated classes in The Civilizing Process. Pierre Bourdieu Yet it is the work of Pierre Bourdieu that has been the most influential in shaping contemporary understandings of distinction. Similar to Weber, Veblen, and Elias, Bourdieu contends that status signals play a profound role in social stratification. However, Bourdieu's work advances prior scholarship by articulating how processes of distinction serve to reproduce economic inequalities, particularly with respect to social class. Forms of Capital Bourdieu argues that in addition to economic capital, there are two nonmonetary resources that play a crucial role http://www.sage-ereference.com/view/consumerculture/n494.xml?rskey=5gIrW3&result=46&q=%22cultural%20sociology%22 Page 1 of 4 Social Distinction : Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture 15/10/11 16:38 in the maintenance of class inequality. The first of these resources is what Bourdieu refers to as social capital, or the size, strength, and status of one's social connections. The second is cultural capital, or high-status cultural signals. According to Bourdieu, cultural capital occurs in three forms: the objectified state (e.g., material goods and possessions), the embodied state (e.g., individual skills and knowledge), and the institutionalized state (e.g., credentials). Reminiscent of Weber's notion of social closure, Bourdieu contends that elite groups use both social and cultural capital as “markers” of class membership and bases for exclusion from valued objects and opportunities. More than just status signals, however, Bourdieu asserts that these resources are forms of capital in their own right; they are valuable not only because of their association with high-status members of society but also because possessors can theoretically use them to procure greater material rewards. Consequently, although seemingly nonmonetary in nature, social and cultural capital represent subtler forms of economic capital. When used as criteria of selection or exclusion, they serve to veil the true economic basis of social differentiation and make class inequality seem more legitimate. Class Cultures Individuals' stocks of social and cultural capital are heavily influenced by their position in a society's economic class structure. In Bourdieu's model of cultural reproduction, families and schools reproduce existing class relations by imbuing younger generations with stocks of culture (e.g., attitudes, tastes, knowledge, self-presentation styles, and consumption patterns) consistent with their social stratum of origin. The culture of different classes can be categorized according to their distance from necessity. Concerned primarily with everyday survival needs, members of the lower classes tend to prefer objects, opportunities, and experiences that have practical and immediate value. Freed from the material constraints of mere subsistence, members of the upper classes, by contrast, gravitate toward goods and practices that are more ephemeral, abstract, and complex in nature. Moreover, they place a premium on those that require significant investments of temporal, intellectual, and/or economic resources. In Distinction, Bourdieu documents such differences in consumption patterns in diverse cultural arenas ranging from theater to food. Cultural Reproduction Shared norms, values, modes of interpretation, and experience—which Bourdieu collectively refers to as the habitus—within each social stratum facilitate feelings of class identity and solidarity. However, they also foster common goals and aspirations among members, which serve to channel individuals into class-specific educational and occupational trajectories. Compounding such self-selection, key gatekeeping institutions such as the educational system reward only those cultural tastes and styles characteristic of the dominant classes, further barring the less advantaged from attaining positions of power, influence, and affluence within society. Debates Bourdieu's writings on culture and stratification, in particular those on cultural capital, have sparked a tremendous volume of research across the social sciences. His work has been particularly influential in sociology, education, and cultural studies. Although seminal in many respects, his work has also been met with strong criticism. In addition to challenges regarding the empirical rigor of Distinction, researchers have argued that his model of cultural reproduction suffers from four key conceptual weaknesses. First, critics have argued that Bourdieu overemphasizes the importance of early childhood experience in predicting future educational and occupational attainment. A number of sociologists and educational researchers have suggested that stocks of cultural capital acquired later in life can have similar if not more profound effects on educational attainment than those acquired in early childhood. Second, researchers have argued that Bourdieu overstates the importance of cultural distinctions in the maintenance of modern-day class systems. For example, Michèle Lamont argues that cultural boundaries are a less salient source of class distinction than locally meaningful demarcations such as race and nationality. Although she finds the use of cultural boundaries to be particularly weak among the American upper-middle class, which instead privileges moral qualities, Lamont even finds that cultural boundaries are less salient markers of social class than originally hypothesized in Bourdieu's native France. In addition to an overemphasis on cultural boundaries in http://www.sage-ereference.com/view/consumerculture/n494.xml?rskey=5gIrW3&result=46&q=%22cultural%20sociology%22 Page 2 of 4 Social Distinction : Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture 15/10/11 16:38 general, other critics have argued that Bourdieu overstates the importance of highbrow culture in particular. In her study of the Toronto securities industry, for example, Bonnie Erickson finds that it is the ability to draw from both “high” and “low” cultural forms that is key for advancement within the North American corporate world. This finding is consistent with research in the “production of culture” tradition, demonstrating that in an increasingly global world, more privileged members of society are characterized by their cultural omnivorousness, or familiarity with and/or consumption of both highbrow and lowbrow artistic forms. Together, such studies imply that cultural breadth may be a more potent marker of social distinction in the modern era than cultural exclusivity. Third, critics have argued that Bourdieu fails to account for variation in how people engage in processes of social differentiation. Scholars have demonstrated that the relative strength and salience of particular types of social distinctions vary both by sociocultural context and key demographic variables, such as gender and race. Finally, the utility of the term cultural capital has come under fire not only for doing too much work but also for failing to predict future educational and occupational attainment—central tenets of Bourdieu's reproduction model. Finally, whether class distinctions—let alone social classes themselves— remain a salient feature of contemporary Western societies has been the subject of debate. Partially due to such shortcomings, the study of distinction post-Bourdieu has centered on the concept of “symbolic boundaries.” Drawing from Émile Durkheim's fundamental dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, work in this vein analyzes how individuals conceptualize who is above and below them in social structure or standing. Although the majority of work on symbolic boundaries has been cognitively oriented, focusing on unpacking the content of cultural scripts individuals use when thinking about the overall worth of specific groups, research on the topic is shifting to analyze how individuals draw such social distinctions in real-life interaction and evaluation settings. Current Trends in Research Despite criticisms of Bourdieu, cultural sociology is witnessing a revitalized interest in the relationship between culture and classification. Part of the weak explanatory power of cultural capital may be due to how the term has been operationalized in the social sciences—most commonly one's degree of participation in “highbrow” artistic forms. Since the time of Bourdieu's writings, increased globalization, technological innovation, and credit expansion have helped democratize access to formerly elite cultural goods ranging from classical music to sushi. It may be that the basis of distinction in the modern era has shifted from cultural elitism to cosmopolitanism, suggests Richard Peterson. As such, the status signals that presently distinguish “the classes” from “the masses” may no longer be those that are abstract and elusive but rather those that have some level of popular resonance but that require long periods of what Annette Lareau terms concerted cultivation. For example, participation in resourceintensive extracurricular activities, such as varsity athletics, is used as a criterion of selection not only by elite university admissions committees, as demonstrated by Mitchell Stevens, but also by the nation's highest paying employers on graduation, as shown by Lauren Rivera. Recent research on distinction has begun not only to revisit issues of culture and classification but also to investigate the role of actors other than the family and primary education in the production of social distinctions, including institutions of higher learning, third parties such as rankings organizations, corporations, and national governments. Finally, contemporary scholars are developing more complex and nuanced understandings of the role of consumption in social differentiation. First, they are expanding the focus of inquiry from traditional artistic products (e.g., musical genres) to include cultural objects ranging from luxury hotels to sport-utility vehicles. Second, they are investigating how consumption contributes to types of social distinction other than that based purely on social class. A new generation of researchers interested in the intersection of networks and culture is analyzing the relationship between cultural consumption and social capital, addressing both how people's social ties affect their cultural tastes and consumption practices and how the latter can also influence the size, density, and status of the relationships they develop over time. Such studies hold the promise not only of refining understandings of classic concepts such as conspicuous consumption and social closure but also of opening up novel areas of inquiry across http://www.sage-ereference.com/view/consumerculture/n494.xml?rskey=5gIrW3&result=46&q=%22cultural%20sociology%22 Page 3 of 4 Social Distinction : Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture 15/10/11 16:38 disciplinary and methodological traditions. —Lauren A. Rivera Further Readings Bourdieu, Pierre Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. Elias, Norbert The Civilizing Process : Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations . Translated by Edmund Jephcott. New York: Urizen Books, 1978. Erickson, Bonnie “Culture, Class, and Connections.” American Journal of Sociology vol. 102 (1996): p. 217–251. Kingston, Paul The Classless Society . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000. Lamont, Michèle Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Lamont, Michèle, and and Annette Lareau “Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps, and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments.” Sociological Theory vol. 6 (1988): p. 153–168. Lamont, Michèle, and and Virag Molnar “The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences.” Annual Review of Sociology vol. 28 (2002): p. 167–195. Lizardo, Omar “How Cultural Tastes Shape Personal Networks.” American Sociological Review vol. 71 (2006): p. 778–807. Peterson, Richard “The Rise and Fall of Highbrow Snobbery as a Status Marker.” Poetics vol. 25 (1997): p. 75–92. Rivera, Lauren A. “Status Distinctions in Interaction: Social Selection and Exclusion at an Elite Nightclub.” Qualitative Sociology vol. 33 (2010): p. 229–255. Schulz, Jeremy “The Social and Cultural Work of the H2 Hummer.” Journal of Consumer Culture vol. 6 (2006): p. 57–86. Sherman, Rachel Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels . Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Stevens, Mitchell Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. Veblen, Thorstein The Theory of the Leisure Class . New York: Modern Library, 1899. Weber, Max “Class, Status and Party.” In From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology , edited by H. Gerth, ed. and C. Wright, ed. . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958. Entry Citation: Rivera, Lauren A. "Social Distinction." Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. 2011. SAGE Publications. 15 Oct. 2011. <http://www.sageereference.com/view/consumerculture/n494.xml>. © SAGE Publications, Inc. Brought to you by: SRO Trial Account http://www.sage-ereference.com/view/consumerculture/n494.xml?rskey=5gIrW3&result=46&q=%22cultural%20sociology%22 Page 4 of 4