Abstract
This article constructs a model of the space of lifestyles in Sweden. It does so not simply to test whether its structure conforms to that discovered by Pierre Bourdieu and his colleagues in 1970s’ France, and confirmed by others across the globe, but to examine the extent to which it is wrapped up with symbolic domination. It draws on data from an unusually rich survey of consumption patterns and taste fielded in 2017–2018 (n=1,498) and deploys the technique of multiple correspondence analysis in combination with cluster analysis. Oppositions between exclusive and accessible culture and between ‘highbrow’ culture and materialistic/appearance-oriented practices are revealed and the correspondences with capital, age, gender and other factors explored. The cluster analysis suggests that the force of capital composition in differentiating lifestyles relative to age varies in proportion to capital volume. Crucially, analysis suggests it is the economically rich, rather than those rich in cultural capital, who are most confident in their tastes and lifestyles.
Highlights
Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) thesis that there is a homology between social class and lifestyles has sparked an explosion of research seeking to test whether it holds decades on from its original formulation across a variety of nations
The space of lifestyles in Sweden is structured according to principles similar to those uncovered 40 years ago, in a different corner of Europe, by Bourdieu
The second dimension opposes cultural exclusivity to economic exclusivity, the former being related to tastes for comfort or ethics and the latter being tied to a specific emphasis on surface appearance, while a third offers a variant on the second in which some practices exchange poles
Summary
Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) thesis that there is a homology between social class and lifestyles has sparked an explosion of research seeking to test whether it holds decades on from its original formulation across a variety of nations.
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