Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

www.elsevier.com/locate/poetic

Distinction worldwide?:
Bourdieus theory of taste in international
context
Danielle Kane1
Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-62, USA

Abstract
Applications of Bourdieus theory of taste have focused almost exclusively on French-
American comparisons. This paper uses original data to identify the cultural repertoires, the
level of cultural participation, and the personal qualities used in symbolic boundary forma-
tion for an international sample of young elites. The study found evidence for two domains of
cultural stratication: arts activities and sports activities. Rates of participation in arts activ-
ities varied across world region but were consistently higher than arts participation found in
the GSS national sample. Regional variations in personal qualities desired in friends cast new
light on past comparisons; again, despite this variation, arts-related personal qualities were
valued more by this sample of elites than by the GSS sample. Sports activities emerged as a
major candidate for legitimate culture in the examples of upper-class cultural repertoires
generated by respondents; American domination of sports culture was the only consistent
regional pattern found. A major nding of this study is the disjuncture in ndings among
cultural repertoires, cultural participation, and symbolic boundaries, all of which have been
assumed to be aspects of a single cultural stratication concept.
# 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Pierre Bourdieus theory of taste revolutionized the understanding of the social

structural underpinnings of culture. Since the publication of Distinction in English
(1984) an intense debate among sociologists of culture has taken place, focusing

1
Present address: 113 McNeil, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6299, USA.

0304-422X/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2003.08.001
404 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

largely on the applicability of the theory outside of France. Most tests of Bourdieus
theory, however, have been limited to the United States and to a lesser extent,
Canada. Virtually no work examines Bourdieus argument in a comparative, quan-
titative, international context.
This paper will argue that a broader international context is necessary for under-
standing the dynamics of symbolic boundary formation and for applying these
dynamics on a global level. I identify cultural repertoires, measure rates of cultural
participation, and compare the desirability of personal qualities used in boundary
formation for an international sample of 414 students at an elite American uni-
versity. There is considerable regional variation in each aspect of cultural stratica-
tion but important consistencies as well: Participation in the arts and a preference
for arts-based personal qualities were stronger in this sample than in the broader
national sample studied in the General Social Survey (GSS) 1993 Culture Module.
This was equally true for American students, despite the contention of some
research that symbolic boundary formation may be less relevant in the United
States. Perhaps the most striking nding was the consistent support for a US-
dominated sports culture that may act as an alternative cultural realm for symbolic
boundary formation on a global scale. In light of the international dynamics of
cultural stratication in sports, I conclude with some reections on applying Bour-
dieus theory of taste to globalization debates and investigating the role of state
sponsorship of culture in mediating these dynamics.

2. Bourdieu and his legacy

In his classic work, Distinction, Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argues that class structure
is reproduced through the accumulation of cultural capital, which can provide
access to high-status occupations and social circles. A class society is reproduced
because upper-class students are more likely to have the cultural capital favored by
the education system (itself an agent of the upper class). Central to this argument is
the assumption that what constitutes cultural capital is agreed upon by all segments
of society, else there would be alternative markets in which those lacking legitimate
cultural capital could succeed.
Subsequent work has sought to apply Bourdieus theory outside of its original
context of Paris in the 1960s. In particular, researchers have focused on French-
American comparisons. These comparisons suggest that while the dynamics of
boundary formation may transcend a particular social setting, the nature of the
boundary may vary across cultures (e.g., Lamont, 1992, 2001; Lamont et al., 1996;
Marsden and Swingle, 1994). Americans seem more likely to draw moral rather than
cultural boundaries (Lamont, 1992, 2001; Lamont et al., 1996). For instance,
whereas French professional men placed a high value on cultivation in friends,
American professional men were much more likely to name honesty and responsi-
bility as desired characteristics (Lamont, 1992). The 1993 GSS Culture Module
provided consistent support for Lamonts ndings on Americans; roughly 98% of
the sample reported that honesty is a very important or extremely important
 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421 405

quality in a friend, as compared to the 21% of Americans who rated cultured as

very or extremely important (Marsden and Swingle, 1994: 279).
Perhaps because applications of the theory have been somewhat limited to the
United States, French-American dierences in ndings might be interpreted as evi-
dence for American exceptionalism in how symbolic boundaries are drawn. For
instance, Lamont (2000: 245), who has given extensive consideration to this issue
(1988, 1992, 2001), argued that although Americans are not less exclusive than the
French, the American pattern of exclusion toward the poor, blacks, and immi-
grants is dierent from patterns elsewhere, at least in France, a nding that she
argues is in support of American exceptionalism. Claims for American exceptional-
ism stand in a long tradition in sociology (e.g., Lipset, 1996; Inglehart and Baker,
2000; Huntington, 1997); it has been suggested that the absence of a feudal nobility,
high social and geographic mobility, strong cultural regionalism, ethnic and racial
diversity, weak high culture traditions, and an ideology of egalitarianism may
undermine the establishment of symbolic boundaries in the United States (Lamont,
2000).
Often confounded in these debates is the distinction between the argument that
symbolic boundaries are less relevant in the US and the argument that boundary-
marking in the US is based on a dierent set of criteria. Holt (1997) brings this dis-
tinction to light by challenging the argument that the US lacks distinct boundary-
marking. Rather, the egalitarian rhetoric used by some Americans is itself a form of
boundary-marking (Holt, 1997: 107). He writes (1997: 106) that

tastes are assumed to take the same form and to be expressed in the same
manner in the United States of the 1990s as in 1960s France. Cross-cultural
dierences in self-representation need to be considered. . .Lamonts American
responses. . . are exactly what one would expect in a country that has been most
susceptible. . .to the cultural dominance of populist, egalitarian ideals.

For instance, Holt (1997) argues that Lamont and Lareau (1988) miss the forest
for the trees when they focus on the specic, objectied forms of cultural capital
instead of cultural practices relevant to a particular time and place. In particular,
American studies of Bourdieus theory of taste often operationalize the tastes of
cultural elites as a preference for the ne arts. The problem, Holt argues (1997: 101),
is that consumption of the ne arts is not the core of Bourdieus theory, but rather
is one particular instance of its operation.
In sum, Holt (1997) argues that the boundary-making process outlined by Bour-
dieu functions independently of content, and he further contends that empirical
investigations of Bourdieus theory must specify the socio-historical particularities
of the population of interest (1997: 109). According to Holt, it is already well-
established that the ne arts have played a relatively small role as a social resource in
the United States, and by focusing on arts participation, many studies ignore the
activities that American cultural elites expend their leisure activities pursuing.
This is in fact a point of convergence with Lamont and Lareau (1988: 164), who
conclude their programmatic statement on research on cultural capital with a call to
406 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

assess the relevance of cultural capital in the US and to document the American
repertoire of high status cultural signals.
This study views identication of the American cultural repertoire as only a rst
step. This repertoire is generally unexplored for countries apart from the United
States and France, yet distinction is an enigmatic term in a dichotomous compar-
ison. There is an active interest in applications of Bourdieus theory of taste, but
these applications are hampered by a lack of knowledge of contemporary cultural
repertoires that form the substance of boundary-marking. Lamont and Lareau
(1988: 162) describe documenting specic forms of American cultural capital as an
urgent empirical task. This seems no less true for other countries, where even less
research has been conducted on cultural consumption. This paper draws on original
data from an international sample gathered using items from the 1993 GSS Culture
Module to identify what cultural activities young elites actually engage in. In addi-
tion, in response to the demand for the sociohistorical particulars of cultural
repertoires raised by Lamont and Lareau (1988) and Holt (1997), this paper pre-
sents data on upper-class activities generated by respondents from around the
world.

3. Variations in cultural repertoires

Examining research on intra-societal variations and inter-societal variations of

legitimate culture can guide eorts to apply Bourdieus theory of taste on a broader
scale. Cultural variations that correspond to intra-societal cleavages and ndings
from preliminary international comparative work suggest that a variety of types of
culture lend themselves to the formation of symbolic boundaries.

3.1. Intra-societal variations

Research conducted subsequent to the publication of Distinction challenges the

notion that there is one legitimate culture for all members of society, suggesting
instead that social cleavages will produce their own cultures and cultural standards
(e.g., Lamont and Lareau, 1988). Research has found that dominated groups can
have their own cultural norms that exist apart from the larger culture (e.g., Hor-
owitz, 1983; Hebdige, 1979) or may reappropriate mainstream culture to serve their
own meanings (Horowitz, 1983; Liebow, 1967). Patterns of cultural consumption by
gender (e.g., DiMaggio, 1982; Bryson, 1996) suggest that women may recognize
greater legitimacy in high culture than do men.
Based on this research, we would predict varying rates of cultural consumption
according to non-class factors such as gender, race, and age. Some work (e.g.,
Crane, 1992) has argued for a distinct urban culture, suggesting that urban residence
would also be an important factor. Finally, we might expect that especially where
school tracking is rigid, the nature of educational preparation might make academic
students more likely to value cultural consumption than vocational or professional
students.
 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421 407

3.2. Inter-societal dierences

Sociologists of culture have also investigated the universality of Bourdieus legit-

imate culture by testing the applicability of Bourdieus theory outside of its original
urban French context. An intense debate on its applicability to the United States has
emerged (e.g., Lamont, 1992, 2001; Marsden and Swingle, 1994; Halle, 1993;
Ostrower, 1998; Holt, 1997); a select number of studies have examined a handful of
other countries, including Canada (Erickson, 1996), Israel (Netz, 1996) and Sweden
(Bihagen and Katz-Gerro, 2000; Miegel, 1994). Most work is implicitly comparative
and focuses on the country of interest, usually the United States (an exception is
Lamont, 1992, 2001). Both quantitative and qualitative research has found that
Americans are more likely to draw moral rather than cultural boundaries (Lamont,
1992; Marsden and Swingle, 1994).
Generalizing from the American case is premature, but the wealth of research
here, studies from selected countries (Robinson and Garnier, 1985; Bihagen and
Katz-Gerro, 2000), and evidence for within-country variation in perceptions of
legitimate culture suggest that the content of cultural consumption practices will
vary internationally. Thus far little progress has been made in responding to
calls for international comparative work (Lamont and Lareau, 1988; Bihagen
and Katz-Gerro, 2000). Documenting variations and consistencies in cultural
consumption is therefore an urgent task for further rening Bourdieus theory of
taste.

4. Data and variables

The objective of this paper is to explore legitimate cultural repertoires, identify

desired personal qualities, and measure actual cultural participation on an interna-
tional sample to understand better the process of symbolic boundary formation on a
global scale. I weigh the importance assigned to education and class by Bourdieu as
well as the importance of gender and urban residence, two factors emphasized in
more recent research. Finally, given the relatively unexplored nature of cultural
consumption practices worldwide, I measure the eects of world regional variables
to provide a starting point for more nuanced analyses of international variation.
Data were drawn from a sample of 414 incoming undergraduate and graduate
students at an elite American university. (To ensure that results were untainted by
experience at the university, students completed these materials within 2 weeks of
their arrival, and many respondents had arrived only days before taking the survey.)
As an inducement to participate, each student received $5 and a chance to win $1000
in a rae. Surveys were distributed at required orientation and welcome programs
for graduate students and in the undergraduate dormitory with the largest freshmen
population. The response rate was 90% for graduate students and 60% for under-
graduate students. Students completed a background questionnaire, a battery of
items from the World Values Survey (Inglehart and Baker, 2000), and several items
from the General Social Survey 1993 Culture Module.
408 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

This sample is unique not only in its international composition but also because it
uses young people enrolled in a university. As noted earlier, students at an elite
university would be one of the rst groups we would investigate for evidence that
would extend Bourdieus theory to a larger geographical context. There are three
additional reasons for giving more attention to the cultural boundaries and tastes of
young people. As Lamont and Lareau (1988: 161) noted, frequent cultural innova-
tion will probably lead to a redening of hierarchies of signals, implying that
younger people might be more likely to have more exible boundaries. Moreover, if
cultural stratication is tied to the education system, as Bourdieu contends, the
dramatic expansion of higher education could also have implications for cultural
hierarchies. Finally, this expansion of higher education could result in a radical
redening of cultural hierarchies in the future, as more young people play a more
active role in the dominant culture.

4.1. Independent variables (Table 1)

 Class: Socioeconomic status can be challenging to measure for an international

sample, as there is no common matrix for comparing income and occupation. This
paper will use fathers level of education as proxy for socioeconomic status.
Respondents came from well-educated families; the mean category for fathers level
of education was 1316 years (at least some college), and more than half of the
sample (55%) reported that their fathers had more than 16 years of education.
 Age: Respondents ranged in age from 14 years to 50 years with a mean age of
22. (The modal age was 18.)
 Education: Because the sample is drawn from a university population, the only
two educational categories are undergraduate and graduate. The age measure
should capture the eective variation.

Table 1
Sample descriptive statistics

Mean age 22
Mean level of fathers education 1316 years (at least some college)
Gender
Men 261 (51%)
Women 251 (49%)
Enrolled in academic (non-prof) program 364 (73%)
Urban residence 263 (52%)
Region
North America 234 (46%)
Europe 80 (16%)
Asia 167 (33%)
Othera 30 ( 5%)
a
The category of Other includes students from: South America (3% of the total); the Middle East
and North Africa (1% of the total); Sub-Saharan Africa (1% of the total); and Carribbean (<1% of the
total).
 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421 409

 Academic program: Academic program is classied into academic or profes-

sional. Twenty-seven percent of the sample were enrolled in professional programs
(such as law, social work, business, etc.).
 Urban residence: Respondents were categorized according to whether their
familys home was located in an urban, rural, or suburban area. Past research has
suggested that those living in urban areas may be distinct in their cultural pre-
ferences (e.g., Lamont, 1992; Crane, 1992). Fifty-two percent of the respondents
described their residence as urban.
 Region of origin: Respondents came from more than 80 countries, which were
classied into four regions: Asia (33%); United States (46%); Europe (16%); and
Other (5%).
Unfortunately, the data did not have sucient intra-region variation on race to
use this as an independent variable.

4.2. Dependent variables

The areas of focus for the culture portion of this study were drawn from the areas
of emphasis in the eld discussed above, namely cultural participation, cultural
repertoires, and personal qualities desired in friends. The 1993 GSS Culture Module
(which drew on variables identied in previous work, such as Lamonts comparative
study of French and American professional men) acted as the model for most of the
questions on this section of the survey.
 Boundary markers: Lamont (1992, 2000) and Marsden and Swingle (1994) found
that Americans were much more likely to value honesty and responsibility than
creativity and a sense of being cultured as characteristics in friends, and Lamont
(1992) and others have used this to argue that Americans do not draw boundaries
based on qualities that would favor high culture, as do some of the French.
Respondents were asked to rate the importance in friends of their having the per-
sonal qualities of honesty, responsibility, creativity, and being cultured, from Not At
All Important (0) to Extremely Important (4).
 Cultural activities: Respondents were given a list of activities and asked if they
participated in each within the last 12 months. The list and question wording were
based on the GSS Culture Module. Activities included: visiting an art museum or
gallery; playing a musical instrument; attending a dance performance; attending a
classical music or opera performance (Western or non-Western); going to movies;
attending a sports event; and reading a popular magazine.
 Cultural repertoire: Lamont and Lareau (1988: 164) conclude their programmatic
work on symbolic boundaries by proposing that researchers document the American
repertoire of high status cultural signals. This study attempted to identify these sig-
nals for the United States as well as other regions of the world and relied on items
generated by respondents themselves. Given the nature of the sample, this also has
the advantage of providing insight into what young elites themselves perceive to be
high-status signals. Students were asked in your country, are there certain activities
that usually only upper-class people engage in? If the respondent answered in the
armative, s/he was then asked to give an example of this kind of activity.
410 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

5. Results

5.1. Cultural repertoires

To explore whether young elites believed in the existence of a dominant culture, I

asked respondents if in their country there were activities pursued mainly by the
upper-class. The results provided strong support for the existence of an upper-class
cultural boundary-marker: Of the 404 respondents to this question, 274 students
(68%) responded in the armative.
To identify the content of cultural repertoires by world region, I asked those stu-
dents who acknowledged an upper-class boundary marker to give an example of a
cultural activity pursued chiey by the upper class. There was a high degree of con-
sensus over what these upper-class activities were; one surprise was the prevalence of
a sports activity, golf, listed in upper-class cultural repertoires. (Table 2 lists the top
activities generated in each region; 15 of the 274 armative responses did not pro-
vide examples). In Asia, the top three activities listed were golf (15%), opera (11%),
and classical music (Western or non-Western) (6%). The pattern was similar among
Americans, with opera and golf each garnering 12% of the responses. Among Euro-
peans, golf and opera were also the most frequently listed activities, but in reverse
order (14% and 30% respectively). Students from Other regions were similar to
Europeans in citing opera most frequently.
Because 28 kinds of activities were oered, Table 3 groups activities into four
general categories: the Arts (including Western arts, such as Western classical music,
and Eastern arts, such as attending kabuki or Noh performances); Sports (e.g., golf,
polo, tennis); Society (such as attending balls); and Lifestyle (such as shopping and
ne dining). Table 3 shows that sports activities are included in the top two most
frequently cited dominant-culture activities for all regions. Among Asians the sports
and arts categories are fairly close in the ranking. Europeans and students from
Other regions gave many more responses in the Arts category than in the Sports
category. For American students, however, sports activities were central to an
American high-culture repertoire.
Strikingly, despite claims of more permeable symbolic boundaries in the US (cited
in Lamont, 2000) European and American students in roughly equal proportion

Table 2
Most common examples of upper-class cultural repertoires by region

Europe (n=212) United States (n=193)

Opera (30%) Golf (12%)
Golf (14%) Opera (12%)
Polo (9%)

Asia (n=98) Other (n=25)

Golf (15%) Opera (20%)
Opera (11%) Classical music (12%)
Classical music (6%)
 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421 411

Table 3
Most common categories of activities of upper-class cultural repertoires by region

US (n=193) (%) Eur. (n=212) (%) Asia (n=98) (%) Other (n=25) (%)

Sports 34 18 21 12
Arts 15 43 25 31
Lifestyle 6 2 5 8
Society 11 3 4 4
None 26 28 43 42

claimed there were no activities pursued predominantly by the upper-class; for both
regions this was more than a quarter of the respondents. Compared to Asian stu-
dents and students from other regions, Europeans and Americans seem quite simi-
lar. This similarity is surprising given claims that Europeans (especially the French)
have a more strongly dierentiated legitimate culture than Americans (e.g., Lamont
and Lareau, 1988). Also surprising in this light is that Americans were by far the
most likely to cite Society activities (e.g., attending debutante balls) as legitimate
culture; they were almost four times as likely as Europeans to give this kind of
example.

5.2. Participation in cultural activities

Table 4 shows overall rates of participation in all cultural activities for this sam-
ple, for a subsample of American students, and for the GSS 1993 Culture Module
sample. Taken on its own, this samples arts participation might initially appear low:
less than half of the sample participated in an arts activity (except for museum
attendance) in the last twelve months. However, evidence for symbolic boundary
formation is necessarily comparative, and about twice as many students in this

Table 4
Percentage participation in cultural activities during the past 12 months, student sample and GSS culture
module sample

% Student % American % GSS sample

sample participating students participating participatinga

Activity
Movie 98 (413) 93 (210) 70 (1594)
Magazine 92 (414) 87 (210) NAb
Sports 71 (414) 83 (210) 54 (1594)
Museum 79 (414) 73 (210) 41 (1593)
Playing instrument 46 (414) 48 (210) 23 (1590)
Classical music concert 37 (413) 27 (209) 16 (1592)
Attending dance performance 36 (413) 35 (209) 20 (1593)
a
Source: Marsden and Swingle (1994).
b
The 1993 GSS Culture Module did not ask respondents about reading a popular magazine in the past
12 months.
412 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

sample participated in an arts activity as did respondents in the GSS sample: 16% of
the GSS sample attended a classical music performance as compared to 37% of this
sample; 20% of the GSS sample attended a dance performance as compared to 36%
of this sample; 23% of the GSS sample played a musical instrument as compared to
46% of this sample; and 41% of the GSS sample visited a museum or art gallery as
compared to 79% of this sample.
Unfortunately I do not know of similar data from other regions of the world, but
on the basis of these comparisons, we see at least a sharp demarcation between this
student body and the American population with regard to cultural participation.
Moreover, Table 4 demonstrates that the American students are more similar to
elites from other countries in their cultural participation than to their countrymen;
American student participation is higher than that of the national sample for each
activity. This suggests that despite the United States lack of a feudal nobility and
the numerous other explanations for a more egalitarian culture, young American
elites engage in symbolic boundary formation.
Rates of participation for other activities also provide consistent support for
symbolic boundary-marking. Movie attendance and magazine reading were extre-
mely high, leading us to suspect that these activities may not be used in drawing
symbolic boundaries. It is possible, however, that boundaries may be drawn here
that are not captured in a university sample and may not fall strictly along class
lines. For instance, the high rates of participation in movie attendance and magazine
reading may be indicative of a youth culture that cannot be addressed directly in this
sample because of the lack of age variation. Again, the GSS provides consistent
support with this interpretation; only 70% of that sample had seen a movie in a
theater in the past year (Marsden and Swingle, 1994) as compared to 98% of this
sample. In addition, students in this sample were much more likely to have attended
a sports event in the past year than were GSS respondents: 71% of this sample as
compared to 54% of the GSS sample. Students in this sample, therefore, had higher
rates of participation than those in a national sample of Americans, lending support
to the cultural omnivore hypothesis that argues that higher-status persons are likely
to consume a broad range of culture (Peterson and Kern, 1996).
Table 5 presents logistic regression results for participation in cultural activ-
ities. Consistent with the regional variation in the identication of dierent high-
culture repertoires, world region played a role in determining actual participa-
tion in activities. Also consistent with patterns in regional variation in respondent-
generated cultural repertoires, American respondents were more than two and a
half times as likely as Europeans to have attended a sports event (amateur or
professional) in the past year; the magnitude of dierence is among the highest
of all ndings in this study. Asians were about half as likely to have attended a
sports event as Europeans. Therefore, while three of the four regions studied
include a sports activity in an upper-class cultural repertoire, the United States
clearly emerges as an outlier in participation in sports culture. It is important to
remember, however, that sports culture includes activities associated with the upper-
class (e.g., golf) as well as with more general participation (e.g., baseball), a topic
that will be addressed later.
Table 5
Logistic regression models of activities on demographic characteristics and regiona

Sportsb Museum Classical music Instrument Ballet

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

Sex (1=Female) 0.51* (0.25) 0.54* (0.27) 0.09 (0.25) 0.07 (0.26) 0.60** (0.22) 0.73** (0.23) 0.13 (0.21) 0.12 (0.22) 0.86*** (0.22) 0.92*** (0.23)
Fathers Ed. 0.02 (0.15) 0.05 (0.16) 0.29* (0.15) 0.24 (0.15) 0.05 (0.13) 0.04 (0.14) 0.10 (0.13) 0.10 (0.13) 0.08 (0.14) 0.05 (0.14)
Age 0.12*** (0.03) 0.08** (0.03) 0.02 (0.03) 0.02 (0.03) 0.03 (0.02) 0.01 (0.03) 0.09** (0.03) 0.09** (0.03) 0.01 (0.03) 0.002 (0.03)
Academic Prog. 0.29 (0.29) 0.07 (0.31) 0.60* (0.27) 0.58* (0.28) 0.18 (0.25) 0.13 (0.26) 0.08 (0.24) 0.09 (0.24) 0.001 (0.25) 0.04 (0.26)
Urban 1.11*** (0.26) 0.49 (0.31) 0.003 (0.27) 0.08 (0.31) 0.54* (0.23) 0.28 (0.26) 0.25 (0.22) 0.33 (0.25) 0.03 (0.23) 0.09 (0.26)

Regionc
Asia 0.78* (0.34) 1.63** (0.53) 0.27 (0.33) 0.41 (0.34) 0.58 (0.35)
United States 0.96** (0.39) 1.24* (0.53) 0.80* (0.33) 0.06 (0.34) 0.11 (0.34)
Other 0.12 (0.52) 1.49* (0.65) 0.41 (0.48) 0.12 (0.50) 0.25 (0.49)

N 386 385 386 385 385 384 386 385 385 384
2LL 398.168 372.940 397.906 382.949 485.678 474.710 512.401 509.804 483.064 477.519
Chi-squared 25.23*** 14.96** 10.97* 2.60 5.55

*=P<0.05, **=P <0.01, ***=P <0.001.

a
A small number of cases missing data on any of the variables were removed from the analyses.
b
Coecients are expressed as log-odds.
c
Europe is the referent category.
d
Chi-square statistic tests improvement of model 2 over model 1 using 3 degrees of freedom.

413
414 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

A second regional dierence was found in museum attendance. Students from

Europe were more than three and a half times more likely to have visited a museum
or art gallery in the past year than were American students. Similarly, Asians were
only about a quarter as likely to have gone to a museum or an art gallery as Eur-
opeans. Europeans were also more likely than Americans to have attended a classi-
cal music concert in the past year, but there was no dierence between Europeans
and Asians.
The remaining cultural activities showed no regional dierences. Movie atten-
dance and magazine reading were so uniformly high across regions (about 98% and
92% respectively) that logistic models could not be tted for these dependent vari-
ables (and hence do not appear in Table 5). There were also no regional dierences
in the likelihood of having played an instrument or attending a ballet performance.
In addition to region, sociodemographic variables, especially gender, were sig-
nicant predictors of participation. Consistent with past research that has found
women to be more likely than men to participate in arts activities (DiMaggio, 1982;
Bryson, 1996), women were about twice as likely as men to have attended a concert
in the past year. Women were less than half as likely to have attended a sporting
event. Interestingly, womens cultural regimes vis-a`-vis men mirrored Europeans
cultural patterns with regard to the US; women and Europeans were more likely
to go to concerts and less likely to go to sports events than were men and
Americans, respectively. These two activities therefore provide evidence for both
intra-societal and inter-societal variation in cultural participation and boundary-
marking.
Sports event attendance also decreased with age by about 9%. Urban residence
was initially signicant in predicting sports and concert attendance, but this eect
disappeared when region was controlled. In light of Bourdieus theory of cultural
participation, it is worth noting that fathers education was not a signicant pre-
dictor of participation for any of the activities discussed. This may, however, reect
the high SES of this sample. Finally, given that this is a sample of elites, the high
rates of participation in non-arts culture adds some support to the cultural omni-
vore theory (e.g., Peterson, 1996; Relish, 1997; Bryson, 1996).

5.3. Symbolic boundaries and qualities in friends

In keeping with current work on symbolic boundaries, this study measured the
importance assigned to the four main qualities valued in friends that diverged
between French and American samples (Lamont, 1992, 2000; Marsden and Swingle,
1994). In particular, Lamont found that unlike the French, American respondents
rated honesty and responsibility as highly important qualities in friends. The
French, especially Parisians, placed much more emphasis on friends creativity and
their being cultured (Lamont, 1992). Findings in the GSS 1993 Culture Module
mirrored the pattern found for Americans; a vast majority rated honesty and
responsibility as very or extremely important, and far fewer Americans found crea-
tivity or being cultured as very or extremely important (Marsden and Swingle, 1994:
281).
 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421 415

Table 6 compares the qualities from the student sample to those from the GSS
1993 Culture Module Sample. Consistent with the GSS respondents, this sample
placed the highest value on honesty and responsibility. Nonetheless, respondents in
this sample were somewhat less likely to value honesty and responsibility than the
national sample of the GSS. The students were also much more likely to value the
qualities of being creative and being cultured than were GSS respondents: 33% of
the student sample valued creative friends as compared to 24% of the GSS sample,
and 40% of the student sample valued cultured friends as compared to 21% of the
GSS sample. Given the more restricted SES and education range of this sample,
these ndings are unsurprising and provide consistent support for Bourdieus
theory. In some ways young elites from around the world mimic the French
respondents in Lamonts sample (1992); they are somewhat less likely to value hon-
esty and responsibility and more likely to value creativity and being cultured than a
national sample of Americans. Again, this is equally true for American students,
who are also much more likely to value in friends the qualities of creativity
and being cultured. In fact, Americans are more likely than other students to
value creativity. The comparison of American students to the national sample pro-
vides further evidence that these young elites are engaged in symbolic boundary
formation.
Table 7 presents logistic regression results for personal qualities. (Honesty was so
highly valued by respondents in each region that there was not enough variation to
t a model; hence this variable does not appear in the table.) These results cast new
light on French-American comparisons. Although Europe and the United States are
initially signicantly dierent in valuing cultured friends, this signicance disappears
when urban residence is controlled. While past research has emphasized the high
value Americans place on responsibility as compared to the French, this study
reveals that Europeans and Americans are not signicantly dierent in valuing this
characteristic. Asian students, however, are nearly two and a half times as likely as
Europeans to value responsibility, one of the strongest ndings of the study. While
Americans do not dier signicantly from Europeans in valuing creativity and being
cultured, Asians are much less likely than Europeans to rate these qualities as very
important. Asians are about half as likely as Europeans to value being cultured and

Table 6
Percentage rating quality very or extremely important, student sample and GSS culture module sample

% Student sample rating % American students % GSS sample rating

quality very or rating quality very quality very or extremely
extremely important or extremely important importanta

Quality
Honesty 96 (414) 98 (210) 98 (1587)
Responsib. 75 (412) 75 (210) 89 (1586)
Creative 33 (412) 37 (210) 24 (1569)
Cultured 40 (409) 37 (210) 21 (1550)
a
Source: Marsden and Swingle (1994).
416 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

Table 7
Logistic regression models of qualities on demographic characteristics and regiona

Responsibilityb Creative Cultured

Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2

Sex (1=Female) 0.32 (0.24) 0.25 (0.25) 0.21 (0.22) 0.26 (0.23) 0.19 (0.80) 0.65** (0.22)
Fathers Ed. 0.21 (0.16) 0.19 (0.16) 0.06 (0.13) 0.02 (0.23) 0.59 (0.22) 0.06 (0.13)
Age 0.04 (0.03) 0.04 (0.03) 0.002 (0.03) 0.01 (0.03) 0.07 (0.13) 0.04 (0.03)
Academic Prog. 0.05 (0.28) 0.05 (0.28) 0.50 (0.26) 0.57* (0.27) 0.31 (0.25) 0.30 (0.26)
Urban 0.51* (0.26) 0.61* (0.29) 0.16 (0.23) 0.09 (0.26) 0.53* (0.23) 0.55* (0.26)
Regionc
Asia 0.85* (0.38) 0.91** (0.36) 0.67* (0.34)
United States 0.31 (0.36) 0.001 (0.33) 0.41 (0.34)
Other 0.25 (0.64) 0.04 (0.49) 0.08 (0.48)

N 385 384 385 384 382 381

2LL 419.818 414.238 485.001 474.908 493.529 487.957
Chi-squared 5.58 10.09* 5.57

*=P <0.05 **=P<0.01 ***=P <0.001.

a
A small number of cases missing data on any of the variables were removed from the analyses.
b
Coecients are expressed as log-odds.
c
Europe is the referent category.
d
Chi-square statistic tests improvement of model 2 over model 1 using 3 degrees of freedom.

are 60% less likely to value creativity. These ndings shift the focus away from
European and American comparisons and highlight the distinctiveness of Asia
compared to these two regions. Again, fathers education, the proxy for class, was
not a signicant predictor for qualities or participation in cultural activities. Gender
appears again as a signicant predictor, however; women were about 50% more
likely than men to value being cultured.

6. Discussion

This study found both intra- and inter-societal variations in cultural participation.
The intra-societal ndings not only provide consistent support for past research on
gender dierences in cultural participation but also demonstrate that this gendered
pattern is mirrored by European-American dierences. Women and Europeans were
more likely to have attended a classical music performance and were less likely to
have attended a sports event than were men and Americans, respectively. Given that
women were also more likely than men to appreciate cultured friends (a value asso-
ciated with Europeans in past research), the results suggest that women may use
traditional high culture to draw symbolic boundaries between themselves and men;
in this way they seem to follow European rather than American cultural cues. The
strictest interpretation of Bourdieus theory of tastethat is, high culture as domi-
nant cultureseems to apply especially well to gender.
 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421 417

Inter-societal comparisons reveal variations in cultural repertoires worldwide and

shed new light on old distinctions. Perhaps the most striking nding here is that
when compared to Asian students Europeans and Americans appear very similar in
the way they draw symbolic boundaries. No signicant dierences between Eur-
opeans and American were found for any of the desired qualities in friends. Asian
students were distinct for the high value they place on responsibility in friends, a
trait that formerly seemed to be most desired by Americans.
Students from dierent world regions participated in cultural activities at dierent
rates, and no region showed a consistently higher proclivity for arts activities. Eur-
opeans were much more likely to have attended a museum in the past year than were
Americans or Asians. Europeans were also more likely to have attended a classical
music performance than were Americans, but there were no signicant dierences
between Europeans and Asians on this variable. There were no regional dierences
in ballet attendance or in playing an instrument. Magazine reading and movie-going
were so high across regions that logistic models could not be t.
Just as there were no consistent patterns within the domain of cultural participa-
tion, regional patterns did not transcend the dierent measures of symbolic bound-
aries that were examined. In fact, a major nding of this study is the disjuncture
among what have been considered only dierent manifestations of the unitary con-
cept of cultural stratication. This study found discrepancies among patterns in
cultural repertoires, personal qualities, and actual cultural participation. Regional
patterns found in one of these domains often were not found or were even reversed
for other areas. Europeans and American students diered in participation in some
cultural activities, but did not dier in their preference for any friendship quality.
Asian students were similar to Europeans in most cultural participation, but drew
dierent boundaries in personal qualities.
There was also disjuncture between the cultural repertoires generated by stu-
dents and the cultural activities they participated in themselves. European stu-
dents were nearly three times more likely than Americans to list arts activities as
examples of upper-class activities but their level of participation was not sig-
nicantly dierent from Americans in half of these activities. Moreover, roughly the
same proportion of each group claimed that there were no such activities pursued
chiey by the upper class. Europeans gave many more examples of arts activities
than did Asians (43% as compared to 25%) as well but there were no dierences
between them in participation in arts activities, except for museum attendance.
Overall, European students were the most likely to conceive of arts activities as
legitimate culture, but they were not much more likely to engage in these activities
themselves. On the other hand, this sample of young elites, including American
students, showed consistently stronger preferences for arts activities and arts-
oriented personal qualities than did a national American sample. While interna-
tional young elites generally do not appear to draw symbolic boundaries among
themselves, they seem willing to draw these boundaries against non-elites. This ten-
dency is equally present for American students, despite the suggestions made in past
research that egalitarian ideology and other factors may make symbolic boundaries
less relevant in the United States.
418 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

The general lack of within-sample symbolic boundary formation and the incon-
sistencies in ndings among cultural repertoires, cultural participation, and symbolic
boundaries throw into relief one striking pattern, the prevalence of a sports culture
among Americans. Americans were dramatically more likely to have attended a
sports event than were students from any other region. They were also more likely to
dene legitimate culture in terms of sports activities. Yet sports were a high candi-
date for a legitimate-culture repertoire for other regions as well, a second (and not
always distant) choice. These patterns suggest that sports culture possesses all of the
ingredients for an emerging form of a classic Bourdieuian system of cultural strati-
cation: Sports activities are viewed by the young elites of an economic superpower
as dominant culture and they have the highest rates of participation; elites from
around the world also recognize sports as dominant culture and participate, too, but
at lower rates than of those from the global upper-class.
The symbolic boundary function of sports culture warrants more consideration.
While sports activities tend to be lumped in with other popular culture activities
(such as in the GSS Culture Module), sports are distinct in enabling participants to
engage in exclusionary practices while maintaining a populist rhetoric. First, there is
a rich knowledge base that can be used to distinguish experts from amateurs or
dilettantes in a way similar to how cultural capital works for Bourdieu. Erickson
(1996) made this point when she found more evidence for sports-based exclusion
than for high-culture exclusion in a business setting. Some of this exclusion was
based on gender, and the results of this study point to how gender dierences in a
sports knowledge base accumulate: in this study women were much less likely than
men to have attended a sports event during the past year. Consistent with Bour-
dieus account of high culture stratication, the ideology of taste obscures the dif-
ferential early access to sports knowledge by gender on one hand and the
consequences of this dierential access for professional success, as suggested by
Erickson (1996), on the other.
Second, there is a prestige hierarchy such that the sports events so overwhelmingly
attended by American students probably represent only a minority of those that
were cited as examples of legitimate culture. Fans of high-end sports probably enjoy
the same high social class that Bourdieu found among high-culture acionados, but
a meritocratic, taste-oriented ideology obscures the sociodemographic cleavages in
sports culture much as it does in Bourdieus conception of academic culture. In fact,
in the country that dominated sports participation, sports activities enjoy sponsor-
ship from the state through the school system, much as high culture did in
Bourdieus scheme.
In short, athletes and sports fans can draw on an ideology of teamwork and
striving to be ones personal best, goals that seem to transcend class, race, and gen-
der. Yet there is evidence for cleavages along at least some of these lines and others
as well: while young elites around the world recognize the legitimacy of sports cul-
ture and show interest in participating, the relatively unique situation of state
sponsorship of athletics in the US gives Americans an added advantage in their
ability to dominate legitimate culture. Nonetheless, sports avoids the stigma of
snobbery now associated with high culture by tapping into a kind of universalism
 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421 419

once enjoyed by high culture. In fact, one hint of the ascendancy of sports to cul-
tural hegemony is reected in new marketing strategies of arts organizations. In the
US for instance, the Pennsylvania Ballet has launched a major advertising campaign
that stresses the athletic qualities of dancers. One billboard features the very mus-
cular upper body of a dancer and is captioned An athlete by denition.

7. Conclusion

This paper began with the notion that applying Bourdieus theory of taste requires
broader international comparisons than have so far taken place and ended with the
observation that sports may be competing with arts as the dominant culture on a
global scale. This observation stems in part from a pattern found in the way sym-
bolic boundaries have been drawn: young elites from the three major regions exam-
ined here recognize sports activities as a major candidate for legitimate culture, but
elites from the major superpower of the United States enjoyed the highest partici-
pation rates. I suggested that American students have a distinct advantage in this
cultural scheme because, as was high culture in Bourdieus example, sports are
sponsored by the state through the educational system.
The potential ascendancy of a legitimate culture oriented toward sports should
not obscure the enduring power of arts activities to act as a basis for drawing sym-
bolic boundaries. Arts activities were the number one candidate for a legitimate
cultural repertoire for every region but the United States. Moreover, while the rate
of participation in arts activities varied across regions, participation by this sample
of young elites was consistently higher than the rates of participation found in a
national sample. Limiting the comparison to American students and the national
sample yielded the same results. Arts activities clearly retain symbolic power for
boundary formation, even for Americans. In sum, this paper found evidence for two
dierent systems of cultural stratication; it would seem, therefore, that the sym-
bolic boundary process transcends the particular content of the culture around
which boundaries can be drawn.
Specifying the interrelation of these two types of cultural stratication and the
ability to understand the nature of international comparisons may be strengthened
by a closer examination of the role of the state in cultural stratication. For
instance, the Asian acknowledgement of high culture as pursued mainly by the
upper class, and these students decreased likelihood of participating in this culture
themselves might be in part a result of Marxist cultural initiatives in Asia. By the
same token, European distinctiveness in its proclivity for visiting museums may be
based on greater levels of state support for museums (even if this support is largely
historical rather than current; that is, there may simply be more art museums avail-
able in Europe through earlier state sponsorship). In short, an understanding of the
role of the state in sponsoring various types of culture may give additional insight
into international variance in cultural repertoires. Finally, cultural globalization has
become a pressing issue in the new millennium, and Bourdieus theory of the
structural underpinnings of taste can make an important contribution to our
420 D. Kane / Poetics 31 (2003) 403421

understanding of the globalization process, including its successes and failures. The
cultural gatekeeping role of the state, especially as it acts through the education
system, may be a useful point of departure for combining globalization and sym-
bolic boundary formation analyses.
Other next steps include a more rened analysis that can address cross-national
variation in cultural repertoires along with increased attention to regions of the
world that could not be addressed here in adequate detail, particularly South
America, Africa, and the Middle East. In addition, future research might focus
attention on racial dierences in cultural consumption worldwide.
Finally, future research should begin to examine more closely the assumptions
that result in a collapsing of cultural repertoire, cultural participation, and desired
personal qualities in friends as aspects of a single underlying class-cultural orienta-
tion. Inconsistent patterns in this study suggest that these three domains may each
have their own logic and may t together in a less straightforward way than has
been imagined. This kind of theoretical renement in conjunction with the broader
empirical testing suggested above has the potential to advance our understanding of
cultural stratication while paying tribute to Bourdieus legacy.

Acknowledgements

I thank Randall Collins, Diana Crane, Ewa Morawska, Grace Kao, and Shawn
Bauldry. I also thank the Poetics guest editors for their helpful comments and sug-
gestions. Funding for this project was provided by a generous grant from the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Department of Sociology Otto and Gertrude Pollack Award
for Summer Research.

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