TY - JOUR
T1 - The status of cultural omnivorism
T2 - A case study of reading in Russia
AU - Zavisca, Jane
N1 - Funding Information: I would like to thank the editors and referees at Social Forces, as well as Emily Beller, Victoria Bonnell, Claude Fischer, Neil Fligstein and Michael Hout, for their careful readings and constructive criticisms of earlier drafts. The research for this article was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant SES-0101249; a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grant; a Social Science Research Council Eurasia Program Title 8 Dissertation Writing Fellowship; the Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies, the Institute for International Studies and the Graduate Division of the University of California at Berkeley. Direct correspondence to Jane Zavisca, Department of Sociology, University of Arizona, Room 400, P.O. Box210027, Tucson, AZ 85721. E-mail: [email protected].
PY - 2005/12
Y1 - 2005/12
N2 - The literature on cultural consumption documents the displacement of highbrow snobbery by cultural omnivorism among high status groups. This article interrogates the status meanings of cultural omnivorism through a case study of reading in Russia. Post-socialist transformations have destabilized the status of social groups and the honorability of cultural practices. Survey analysis suggests that omnivorism has become the dominant taste pattern among the educated and the well-to-do. However, qualitative data reveal a discursive divide among educated omnivores who have become rich or poor since the collapse of the Soviet Union. When omnivores articulate their tastes, they invoke discourses of moral decline vs. moral defense of the new capitalist order to make conflicting claims about whether its beneficiaries are worthy of status honor.
AB - The literature on cultural consumption documents the displacement of highbrow snobbery by cultural omnivorism among high status groups. This article interrogates the status meanings of cultural omnivorism through a case study of reading in Russia. Post-socialist transformations have destabilized the status of social groups and the honorability of cultural practices. Survey analysis suggests that omnivorism has become the dominant taste pattern among the educated and the well-to-do. However, qualitative data reveal a discursive divide among educated omnivores who have become rich or poor since the collapse of the Soviet Union. When omnivores articulate their tastes, they invoke discourses of moral decline vs. moral defense of the new capitalist order to make conflicting claims about whether its beneficiaries are worthy of status honor.
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U2 - 10.1353/sof.2006.0042
DO - 10.1353/sof.2006.0042
M3 - Review article
SN - 0037-7732
VL - 84
SP - 1233
EP - 1255
JO - Social Forces
JF - Social Forces
IS - 2
ER -