Inequality in social capital: assessing the importance of structural factors and cultural consumption for social advantage. A case from Poland

Abstract

ABSTRACT While the benefits of social capital are well recognized in sociology, less is known about its distribution in a society. The present study therefore examines individual differences in access to resourceful networks, adding new insight into underlying mechanism of social capital accumulation. Building on the recent development in cultural sociology and social network theories, it is hypothesized that people who consume more diverse cultural items (omnivores) have better social capital as they develop a wider range of social contacts. Social capital is also dependent on structural variables: social status and the nature of social ties. These arguments are tested with a survey data collected in Poland in 2017, on a local representative sample of adults aged 18–75 years. The empirical analyses support the hypothesis on the relationship between cultural tastes and social capital and show that access to social resources is intertwined with stratification. Additionally, maintaining relationships with household members usually lowers the overall amount of social capital, while membership in organizations increases it. Contrary to the cultural reproduction argument, there are indications that cultural tastes are more positively related to social capital among lower than higher status groups which ties in with cultural mobility hypothesis.