The dynamics of choice behavior towards books: The role of cultural products in cultural behavior

Abstract

This issue collects a number of papers on aspects of choice behavior towards books. Most of the contributors are members of the Marketing and Sociology of Books Group at Tilburg University. The fields of expertise are sociology of literature, economic psychology and marketing. The other authors in this issue are all familiar with the research done by this group. From the start the research done by the members of the group was aimed at answering questions about the functioning of literary and cultural institutions, that is, the organizations involved in the material production and distribution of books, the councils that advise national and local authorities on public subsidies for the arts, and the somewhat loosely organized group of people who seek to specify and propagate (normative) conceptions of literature in terms of which value is assigned to literary and nonliterary fiction and nonfiction. By scrutinizing the social and economic conditions under which cultural institutions operate institutional analysts have gained a better insight into the manner in which social and economic factors affect the nature of these institutions’ products: publishers’ lists, literary magazines, the assortment offered by book clubs and the collections of public libraries. Although there is still considerable interest in these issues, in the last five years the focus has shifted towards research into the various aspects of consumer behavior towards books and literary magazines. Researchers in the humanities usually regard consumer (or connoisseur) behavior towards cultural products (e.g. works of art) as being determined by the objects themselves. ‘Charismatic ideology’ is the term Bourdieu coined to designate and denounce the belief in the power of a cultural object to