Social Status and Cultural Consumption: the Classification of the European Countries

This work is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between social status and cultural practices in comparative perspective. Although there are numerous studies focusing on the phenomenon, this sphere of research still has contradictory results. There is a discussion on the structure of cultural preferences: one camp of researchers finds homological structure, another camp confirms omnivorous thesis. Furthermore, the results of studies in different countries vary. In this research based on the case of European countries I come to several important findings. Firstly, I show that cultural activity varies across European regions. Secondly, the structure of cultural practices has several dimensions: along with homology and omnivorousness there is also a distinction between public and private. Thirdly, the effect of social status is not always significant; it is greater in regions with higher level of inequality and lower level of access to cultural services.