No Cultural Elite - Who Knew?

by Hryckowian

This is going to come as a blow to some people. Especially those who deem themselves as belonging to the cultural elite, those who aspire for high culture, while snubbing pop culture.

To be honest -- well, those who know me already know it -- I am a bit of a snob when it comes to my cultural preferences. I never ever ever, though, thought my (superior ;) taste stems from anything other than myself and my upbringing; it certainly has nothing to do with money since I grew up poor.

Seems I was right. A research now came out of the University of Oxford, determining that "a cultural-elite, linked to social class, does not exist in society." In fact, "it’s education and social status, not social class that predict cultural consumption..."

More than that, Doctor Tak Wing Chan, who conducted the research with his colleague Doctor John Goldthorpe said:

There’s little evidence for the existence of a cultural elite who would consume 'high' culture while shunning more 'popular' cultural forms. [...] Furthermore, at least a substantial minority of members of the most advantaged social groups are univores (people who have an interest in popular culture only) or inactives (people who access nothing at all).

Unfortunately for us writers -- and readers -- the research concentrated only on visual arts, music and theatre, dance and cinema.

Categories: art, culture