Cultural capital and the literary field

The literary field has been conceptualized in social scientific work as patterned in particular ways. Historically, popular reading has been linked with contested processes of social change. Tastes for reading have, following Bourdieu, been seen as embedded in continuing processes of distinction and the making of hierarchies. Research has demonstrated the ways in which these hierarchies might be reflective of gender as well as of class relationships. This article examines the findings of the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion study in the light of these debates. The survey gathered data about the types of reading material used by a representative sample of the United Kingdom (UK) population, including their preferences for newspapers, magazines and books. The article reports on a number of possible relationships identified in the study about the location of reading as a social practice, drawing on the survey data and explanatory accounts of respondents' reading preferences drawn from focus groups and interviews. The regularity of participation in reading and ownership of books are outlined in relation to occupational class. Evidence relating to the reading of magazines and newspapers is then examined in the light of contemporary policy concerns. Patterns of taste in books are explored, examining preferences for ‘literary’ genres, gender, education and ethnicity. The article concludes by addressing the position of taste for, and knowledge of, specific works representing a range of positions within the literary field to complete the picture of cultural capital and the literary field in the contemporary UK.     

Staying connected: Effects of social connectedness,cultural intelligence,and socioeconomic status on overseas students’ life satisfaction

This study investigated the relationship between social connectedness and overseas life satisfaction in addition to the mediating effect of cultural intelligence (CQ) and the moderating effect of socioeconomic status (SES) respectively. We adopted the social capital theory to support the relations among the proposed variables. Data were collected through online questionnaires from Taiwanese students studying abroad; 431 valid responses were analyzed. The results demonstrated that social connectedness was positively related to CQ; moreover, CQ was positively related to students’ overseas life satisfaction, and partially mediated the relationship between social connectedness and overseas life satisfaction. Concurrently, SES was observed to moderate the relationships of social connectedness with CQ and CQ with overseas life satisfaction. Furthermore, the indirect effect of social connectedness on overseas life satisfaction through CQ was moderated by varying SES levels. Our findings confirm that social connectedness affects CQ, and that CQ serves as the mediation mechanism between social connectedness and life satisfaction among overseas students. In addition, SES plays a significant role in the moderated mediation relationship. Limitations of this study and recommendations for future studies are also discussed.     

The Social Stratification of Cultural Consumption: Some Policy Implications of a Research Project

The paper briefly describes a recently completed research project on the social stratification of cultural consumption, presents some major findings from this project, and considers their implications for public policy in relation to the arts. A central theme is the inadequacy of the ‘homology’ argument, claiming that social hierarchies and cultural hierarchies map closely onto each other. This argument is shown to be empirically unsound and to underestimate the complexity of the relationship between social stratification and cultural consumption, as this is determined by the combined effects of income, education and social status. One question that then arises is what policy response, if any, is required by the fact that many individuals do not participate extensively in the arts even though they have the economic and cultural resources required to do so (self-exclusion rather than social exclusion). And a second is that of how far, in attempts at increasing participation, status-linked motivations might be exploited.     

Social adjustment and dynamics of segregation in higher education – Scrutinising the role of open-mindedness and empathy

Earlier research has suggested that ethnic minority students have a significantly lower chance of attaining academic success compared to their peers without an ethnic minority background. Numerous research has also illustrated the importance of social capital for being academically successful. In two studies we examine the particular role of interethnic interactions in the social and academic adjustment of students in higher education. We use a Flemish university as a case study. Study 1 (N = 1549) uses mediation analysis, and Study 2 (N = 2479) replicates the first study using SEM (structural equation modelling). We first found that social adjustment is necessary for adjusting academically, and that it has a small, but positive effect on study success. While adjusting socially by interacting with students from other ethnic groups is of little benefit to native Flemish students, the opposite is true for students with a migration background. Furthermore, the more open-minded native students are, the less socially adjusted they tend to be, and they seem to benefit from a more close-minded stance than from open-mindedness in terms of adjusting to the social (and academic) context of a university.     

Distinction on the box: Cultural capital and the social space of broadcasting

The literature on cultural capital has had relatively little to say about television viewing, except insofar as television has served as a negative point of reference in relation to which other cultural practices register their distinctiveness. This article, by contrast, examines the respects in which practices of distinction are operative within the space of broadcast television. Looking first at the ‘internal economy’ of television as expressed in the relations between genre, programme and channel preferences, it then examines how these preferences are related to occupational class, gender, level of education and ethnicity. While showing that divisions within the space of broadcasting are most powerfully articulated in terms of age and gender, the article also shows that occupational class and level of education play important roles in stratifying television audiences along traditional ‘high’/‘low’ lines. A closer analysis of the relations between these variables reveals more complex patterns of distinction, particularly in the place occupied by ‘new drama’ and ‘new comedy’ in the preferences of younger, well-educated viewers.     

The social stratification of theatre,dance and cinema attendance

In current sociological literature the relationship between social inequality and patterns of cultural taste and consumption is the subject of a large and complex debate. In this paper the primary aim is to examine, in the light of empirical results from a research project in which the authors are presently engaged, three main, and rival, positions that have been taken up in this debate, here labelled as the ‘homology’, the ‘individualization’ and the ‘omnivore–univore’ arguments. Elsewhere, we have concentrated on musical consumption in England, and find evidence that is broadly supportive of the omnivore–univore argument. Here we ask whether such findings are confirmed in the case of theatre, dance and cinema attendance. A secondary aim of the paper is to bring to the attention of practitioners in the field of cultural policy and administration the need to address the issues that arise through the use of more powerful methods of data analysis than those often applied in the past. We explain how indicators of theatre, dance and cinema attendance derived from the Arts in England survey of 2001 can be subject to analysis so as to reveal two distinctive patterns of attendance and, in turn, two distinctive types of consumer—who can, it turns out, be regarded as omnivores and univores, even if with some qualification. The former have relatively high rates of attendance at all kinds of the events covered, including musicals and pantomimes as well as plays and ballet, while the latter tend to be cinema-goers only, that is, non-consumers of theatre and dance. A range of measures of social inequality are then introduced into the authors' analyses, including separate measures of social class and social status and also of educational level and income, and it is further shown that, again in conformity with the omnivore–univore argument, these two types of consumer are socially stratified. Omnivores are of generally higher social status than univores and also have usually higher levels of education and higher income than do univores (the latter finding marking the main difference with musical consumption, which was unaffected by income once other stratification variables were controlled). In sum, our results for theatre, dance and cinema attendance lend, overall, further support to the omnivore–univore argument as against its rivals, but also indicate that different aspects of social inequality impact on different forms of cultural consumption in varying degrees and probably through largely separate processes.     

The Relationships among Perceptions of Social Support,Intercultural Communication Apprehension (ICA), and Conflict Management Preferences in the Context of Cultural Adaptation

This study explores the relationships among perceptions of social support from family and friends, Intercultural Communication Apprehension (ICA) and intercultural conflict management preferences. Two hundred and ninety students, comprising primarily of international students, participated in the study. The results of the study revealed that, in regards to handling conflict with members of the host culture, increased perceptions of social support from family and friends lowered the level of ICA, and the decrease in the level of ICA led to increased preferences for the integrating and the compromising styles and decreased preferences for the avoiding and the dominating styles. Hence, the results of the study suggest that the influence of the perceptions of social support may extend beyond the mere alleviation of acculturative stress and psychological well-being and may have implications for the integration of immigrants and sojourners into the host culture.     

Music,Tradition, and Cultural Adaptation among the Maronites of Lebanon: The Reform of the Funeral Liturgy

The Maronite Church is a branch of the Syro-Antiochean Church and one of the oldest among the Eastern churches. Modernisation, globalisation, emigration, civil war and other factors have together influenced many aspects of local religious expression, but the Maronite Church has succeeded in adapting to the social changes and the spiritual needs of its followers without losing its identity. This is reflected in the Maronite funeral liturgy, which is here examined. I aim to show how the role of music and poetry is perpetuating a sense of communal identity among the members of this religious group, and is creating boundaries with other ethnic and religious groups.     

Distinction through visual art

Visual art is one of the fields where, according to Bourdieu, culture is used to reproduce the class structure. Like other items in the cultural repertoire, paintings, as major examples of visual art, imply social divisions in how they are engaged with by artists, critics and audiences. Within the Bourdieusian framework, cultural engagements with paintings are interpreted as indicators of social position, since appreciation depends on a trained capacity in the family and the educational system, which is often inaccessible to less powerful sections of the population. This would imply that the sorts of paintings favoured by working-class people differ from those preferred by the middle or upper classes. More recent studies have contested the view that a gulf exists between the art tastes of different classes in ways that reproduce the class structure. The argument of the omnivore thesis that distinctions between more popular and legitimate tastes have become blurred has predominantly been based on empirical references in the field of music. This article explores this thesis on the basis of data about visual arts in the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion project. While some differences continue to be connected to social divisions of income, education and occupational groups, important similarities are found across the board, and certain significant differences appear to relate to factors other than social class, such as ethnicity, age and gender. It is also significant that some people appear disconnected from and disinterested in paintings.     

A cultural map of the United Kingdom, 2003

This paper employs Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to map cultural participation and taste in the UK. It constructs what Bourdieu calls a space of lifestyles from evidence collected in a national random sample survey of the British population in 2003. MCA constructs the space relationally on the basis of similarities and differences in responses to questions about a large number of cultural items in several sub‐fields including music, reading, TV and recreational activity. These items are mapped along two axes and their clustering indicates affinities between tastes and practices across sub‐fields. The cultural patterns are described. We then superimpose socio‐demographic variables, including class, educational qualifications and age, the distribution of which indicates tendencies for certain categories of person to have shared tastes. The analysis reveals meaningful, socially differentiated patterns of taste. The space of lifestyles proves to be structured primarily by the total volume of capital (resources) held by respondents and by age. Strong oppositions are revealed. An older, educated middle class shares ‘legitimate’ established cultural preferences. The repertoire of a younger middle class group contains more contemporary and ‘popular’ items. Less well‐educated, working class groups are characterised often primarily by lack of cultural participation, but also, especially among the young, by an aversion to ‘legitimate’ culture.     

Proactive personality and cross-cultural adjustment: Roles of social media usage and cultural intelligence

Proactive personality has been theoretically defined as a natural disposition that determines the manner in which an individual responds to social environmental changes. However, in cross-cultural context, knowledge about the role of proactive personality and its boundary conditions in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment remains limited. To address the gaps, this study aims to investigate whether and how proactive personality accounts for variance phenomena in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment with intervention of boundary conditions. A survey was conducted in three public universities in China, and 247 informative responses were obtained for hypothesis testing analysis. Results reveal that proactive personality contributes to expatriate cross-cultural adjustment. This contribution occurs through the conduit of cultural intelligence (CQ). CQ partially mediates the relationship between proactive personality and academic adjustment but fully mediates that between proactive personality and social adjustment. Moreover, social media usage for gathering information negatively influences the relationship between proactive personality and CQ. Implications and future research directions are discussed as well.     

The nexus of war,resettlement, and education: War-affected youth’s perspectives and responses to the Quebec education system

This article examines the realities of war-affected youth living in Quebec, Canada, and in particular, their experiences and responses to education upon resettlement. In our qualitative study, using both in-depth interviews and focus groups, we queried 22 young people affected by war. Our thematic analysis describes the challenges youth faced in school after having experienced war-related trauma and migration. Despite existing international and national education frameworks, education policies and provisions are largely lacking and ill-equipped to support refugees’ unique needs. Youth felt that teachers and support staff tended to overlook young people’s pre-migratory lives, as well as post-migratory realities. To facilitate resettlement, war-affected refugee youth sought connections beyond school – in the form of peers, surrogate families, or community members from the same country of origin. These non-formal educational supports demonstrate youth’s agency, illustrating high bonding social capital. To support youth at the nexus of war, resettlement, and education, our findings point to the need for greater consideration of both pre-and post-migratory experiences, as well as for increased bridging and social capital to strengthen the linkages across student-school-community in ways that both build upon and respond to the strengths and challenges of war-affected children.     

Complex but integrated: Exploring social and cultural identities of women Third Culture Kids (TCK) and factors predicting life satisfaction

The 21 st century, defined by cultural diversity and global mobility, has triggered an unprecedented increase in multicultural individuals, defined as people who internalised more than one culture. Contrasting evidence related to multiculturalism calls for more explorative research to understand cross-cultural identities. The present study explored social and cultural identities of adult female Third Culture Kids (TCKs) (n = 122), multicultural individuals who live mobile lives, and adjustment factors of a global mindset, social inclusiveness and essentialism to find predictors of life satisfaction. We classified social identity into four we-concepts: we-group, we-category, we-attributive and we-axiological, and cultural identity into three configurations: integration, categorisation and compartmentalisation. Our results suggested that TCK define social identity predominantly based on passport country (we-category) and relationships with family and friends (we-group). We indicated that axiological (value-based) social identification and global mindset buffered essentialism and categorisation known to disturb cross-cultural relationships. There was a general tendency for integrated cultural identity, with cultural configurations of categorisation and compartmentalisation correlating positively with essentialism. Hierarchical regression analysis evidenced that integrated multicultural identity, global mindset, and social inclusiveness were significant positive predictors of life satisfaction for female TCK. These results feed into a better understanding of the TCK configurations of collective identities and highlighted new factors related to TCK well-being.     

The relationship between social capital,acculturative stress and depressive symptoms in multicultural adolescents: Verification using multivariate latent growth modeling

The purpose of this study was to verify the relationship between social capital, acculturation stress, and depressive symptoms in multicultural adolescents. The data from the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Survey (MAPS) study conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute (NYPI) was used for analysis. Participants were 1635 multicultural adolescents (male 805, female 830; Mean age = 10.98 years [SD = .37]) who were followed over five years. We utilized a Multivariate Latent Growth Modeling to test the relationship between the variables and a Bias-corrected bootstrap test was conducted to verify the indirect effects. Findings showed that increases in social capital were related to decreases in depressive symptoms in multicultural adolescents and increases in social capital were associated with decreases in acculturative stress. In addition, increases in acculturative stress were related to increases in depressive symptoms. Finally, social capital indirectly affected depressive symptoms by mediating acculturative stress. The present results suggest that policies for increasing the social capital of multicultural adolescents at the national and community levels are needed to alleviate acculturative stress in multicultural adolescents, which can help decrease their depressive symptoms.     

Between tradition and modernity: Social work-related change processes in the Jewish ultra-orthodox society in Israel

The present research attempts to present the experience of the encounter between Jewish ultra-orthodox society – a closed and isolated group – and social work – with its cultural, western, secular and professional characteristics. The study explores this topic by describing the work and experience of the social workers who treat this population, and the encounter's meaning for them. This experiential and challenging encounter is exemplified through different social work contents such as: child sex abuse, miscarriage, adolescent girls in distress, mental health, divorce, etc. A qualitative-phenomenological approach was adopted in this study. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 social workers with different religious identities in daily contact with ultra-orthodox Jewish clients across the country. Participants included 6 men and 27 women. A total of 9 participants defined themselves as ultra-orthodox, 13 were national religious, and 11 were secular, with 1–20 years’ experience. Three major themes emerged: 1. Community and social change processes in the ultra-orthodox society. 2. Treatment content-related change processes in the ultra-orthodox society. 3. Change processes in the ultra-orthodox society and the role of social work in the ultra-orthodox-public environment. Multicultural sensitivity is the starting point when relating to the encounter between an ultra-orthodox client and a social worker. An awareness of the social worker's personal values, acquaintance with the client's personal and community values, and the encounter between them are crucial factors for treatment success.     

Include Us Out—Economic Development and Social Policy in the Creative Industries

While Government claims about the UK as a ‘global creative hub’ continue to be made (Purnell, 2005), the contradictions and tensions in New Labour's policy in the creative industries have become more apparent. These include the tensions between a set of policies for global media businesses versus the support for small firms in local economic development (Gilmore, 2004; Hesmondhalgh & Pratt, 2005), and the tension between citizens and consumers in media and cultural policy (Hesmondhalgh, 2005). Equally apparent are the tensions between economic development of these sectors and social inclusion. In the UK, arguably more than other countries, the rhetoric of Creative Industries has been tied into political ideas about the links between economic competitiveness and social inclusion. The stated aims for creative industry development have thus been twofold—to increase jobs and GDP, while simultaneously ameliorating social exclusion and countering long-standing patterns of uneven economic development. Research, however, suggests that supporting the creative industries is, at best, a problematic way of tackling the issues of economic and social exclusion. The effects of gentrification on creative industry working and living space (Evans & Shaw, 2004); the patterns of informal hiring and career progression in these sectors (Leadbeater & Oakley, 2001) and the concentration of much economic activity in London and the South East, all suggest that the development of these sectors might exacerbate rather than address patterns of economic inequality.     

Immigrants and host nationals at work: Associations of co-worker relations with employee well-being

The aim of this study was to investigate how co-worker relations are associated with psychological well-being and job satisfaction among immigrants and host nationals working at the same workplace. Among immigrants, we examined co-worker relations with co-culturals, host nationals, and foreign immigrants, whereas among host nationals, we focused on co-worker relations with co-nationals (i.e. co-culturals) and immigrants. The study was conducted as a survey, of which the response rate was 45%. The participants consisted of immigrant (n = 164) and host national employees (n = 186) in a transport company (in Finland), the majority (90%) of whom were men. Co-worker relations were measured with a composite score, tapping broadly positively experienced relations and their frequency as well as the desire to interact with a defined group of co-workers. The results showed that all kinds of co-worker relations were positively associated with psychological well-being and job satisfaction. However, the co-worker relations between host nationals and immigrants were more strongly associated with job satisfaction than relations between these and other co-workers. Thus, attention should be paid to fostering the development of positive intercultural co-worker relations, as this may positively impact immigrant as well as host national employee well-being; job satisfaction in particular.     

Influences of Culture on Self-Disclosure as Relationally Situated in Intercultural and Interracial Friendships from a Social Penetration Perspective

Intercultural and interracial relationships face barriers, tensions, and challenges that are absent from intracultural and intraracial relationships. These challenges provide the impetus for this study to examine the influences of individualism-collectivism and relational intimacy on topics and dimensions of self-disclosure in intercultural/interracial friendships from a social penetration perspective. A total of 252 participants responded to the instruments measuring the constructs of interest. This study found: (1) relational intimacy was positively correlated with all six topics and four out of the five dimensions of self-disclosure; (2) individualism was a significant predictor of the five dimensions of self-disclosure as a set; and (3) one mirrors one's intercultural/interracial friend in all six topics and the positive/negative dimension of self-disclosure. These results suggest that relational intimacy has a greater impact on close intercultural and interracial friendships than cultural variability.