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Omnivorism and Aesthetico-Cultural Cosmopolitanism

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Aesthetico-Cultural Cosmopolitanism and French Youth

Part of the book series: Consumption and Public Life ((CUCO))

Abstract

Cosmopolitanism and omnivorism do not encompass the same cultural and social realities, even if they may possess certain overlapping aspects. Moreover, this chapter reveals how a new approach to univorism can shed light on cosmopolitan phenomena (and perhaps, also on more broadly cultural phenomena) that seem to contradict the cumulative logic of omnivores: some great amateurs are cosmopolitan univores. Nonetheless, both perspectives share a strong effect of social stratification, even though the results observed in terms of cosmopolitanism are less linear than those produced by analyses in terms of omnivorism. Our findings with regard to aesthetico-cultural cosmopolitanism, in turn, raise new questions, in particular with regard to the influence of genre preferences, a topic hitherto largely overlooked.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Olivier Donnat (1994) proposes a similar concept, which he calls eclecticism .

  2. 2.

    It is a major French public radio channel.

  3. 3.

    L’Équipe is a French daily sports newspaper.

  4. 4.

    The fact that analyses of omnivorism have primarily focused on the consumption of music can be explained both by the widespread practice of listening to music and the proliferation of musical genres and sub-genres that allow for ease of measurement (Bryson 1996; Chan and Goldthorpe 2007; Coulangeon 2003; Coulangeon and Lemel 2007; Han 2003; Sonnett 2004; Sullivan and Katz-Gerro, 2007; Van Eijck 2001).

  5. 5.

    The list of taste preferences can be found in Annex, Table A.5.1.

  6. 6.

    Univores have been the topic of far fewer studies (Bryson 1997).

  7. 7.

    According to the theory of cultural capital used by Peterson, only a high level of internal homogeneity within groups can help to establish characterization in terms of omnivorism.

  8. 8.

    The average number of taste preferences in this group are, respectively: 6.36 for television watching (compared to 6.03); 3.97 for website consultation (compared to 3.57); 2.84 for newspapers and magazines (compared to 2.42); 3.29 for books (compared to 2.44); and 2.54 for radio listening (compared to 2.17).

  9. 9.

    They have, on average, 5.25 different taste preferences compared to an average of 6.05 in terms of television watching, and of 2.14 compared to 2.17 on average in terms of radio listening.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GEMASS, CNRS/University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Vincenzo Cicchelli & Sylvie Octobre

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  1. Vincenzo Cicchelli
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  2. Sylvie Octobre
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Cicchelli, V., Octobre, S. (2018). Omnivorism and Aesthetico-Cultural Cosmopolitanism. In: Aesthetico-Cultural Cosmopolitanism and French Youth. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66311-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66311-1_6

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