Abstract
In this article we study the determinants of cultural participation in Israel with an emphasis on the Weberian distinction between class and status. The class measure is based on occupational groupings, and status is operationalized as a rank of occupations based on social distance. We expect that class will be less important than status in shaping cultural participation patterns. In addition, due to the importance of ethnicity and religiosity in Israeli society, we expect that these factors will be significant in shaping cultural participation. Data are based on two telephone surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007 of a random sample of the Jewish population in Israel. We find that, contrary to our expectation, class is more influential than status. We also find that ethnicity and religiosity are important factors that shape cultural participation patterns. We discuss possible explanations to the finding regarding class and status, with special attention to the role cultural policy plays in mediating the economic effect on consumer behavior. We also call for more attention to ethnicity and religiosity in studies of cultural stratification.
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Notes
For Bourdieu, however, class is a multidimensional concept that rests on both the objective homogeneity of conditions as expressed in the volume of economic capital and the harmonization of dispositions that flow from the identity of position in the social space as expressed in the volume of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1990).
The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics conducted a survey on leisure and sports in 1998. It contained a long list of questions on different areas of lifestyle and taste patterns but failed to include even a single question on class, occupation, etc. (Central Bureau of Statistics 2002).
A major cleavage in Israel—between Jews and Arabs—is not discussed here. For reasons explained in the data section, Arabs were not included in the survey.
As expected from Weber's discussion on dimensions of stratification, we find the status-order variable to be correlated with class (R = 0.77). It is also correlated with other measures of stratification in Israel, such as socio-economic status (SEI) (r = 0.87), income (r = 0.38), and years of schooling (r = 0.58). These are high correlations, as evident from other literature as well, but each measure represents a separate aspect of stratification and is associated with a different mechanism in the creation of inequality.
Response rate was about 40% in both years, which is the standard response rate in telephone interviews in Israel. We excluded the Arab population from the data collection because the limited size of the sample did not allow a meaningful analysis of the Arab group.
Katz-Gerro (2000) reports that in Israel, unlike some other countries, married respondents engage in highbrow culture more than single respondents, indicating that in Israel highbrow culture is a social activity conducted with a partner. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to use household income.
These results remain the same even when we exclude ethnicity from the analysis.
Since the association between class and status is relatively high (R = 0.77), we also fitted a model that excludes class. The results of this model did not alter our conclusions, and showed that status was statistically insignificant while income was significant.
In a logistic regression analysis contrasting the inactive group and the actives (all the other groups taken together), the results were similar to those reported here.
The class variable that we use in this analysis is based on the Goldthorpe class schema, which is said to be a good proxy for life income (Goldthorpe 2000).
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Acknowledgments
We thank Oshrat Hochman and Guillermo Huberman for research assistance. We also wish to thank Jordi López-Sintas, Stanley Waterman, and participants of the “Social Status, Lifestyle and Cultural Consumption” project for their comments on earlier drafts. Two anonymous reviewers provided thorough and insightful suggestions. The first author was supported by a grant from The Israel Foundation Trustees 29/2006.
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Katz-Gerro, T., Raz, S. & Yaish, M. How do class, status, ethnicity, and religiosity shape cultural omnivorousness in Israel?. J Cult Econ 33, 1–17 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-008-9088-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-008-9088-5