Culture & Inequality Podcast

It’s all wealth, social mobility and class ceilings in this week’s episode as we ask ourselves: How does social mobility work, and why does it matter for culture and inequality? Dave O’Brien talks with Maren Toft (Uni Oslo) and Sam Friedman (LSE) about parental wealth, cultural matching, the class ceiling and labour market outcomes. How does the bank of mum and dad contribute to a class ceiling in Norwegian social mobility? Why does it matter that you have the same cultural tastes as those hiring you for a job? And how are these cultural mechanisms of social mobility gendered? Dave, Sam and Maren discuss various papers and demonstrate how privileges in the labour market are profoundly material, cultural and symbolic at the same time. In the final stretch of the episode, they explore various promising new directions for the field of social mobility and culture research. Papers (all open access): - Adamson, M. & M. Johansson (2020) - Writing Class In and Out: Construction of Class in Elite Businesswomen’s autobiographies - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520962393 - Rivera, L.A. (2012) Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms - American Sociological Review https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412463213 - Toft, M. & S. Friedman (2020) Family Wealth and the Class Ceiling: The Propulsive Power of the Bank of Mum and Dad - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520922537 Class assignments separately available on our Soundcloud stream.

Welcome back to our new season! It is Oscar season, and we thus watch last year's Best Picture winner Parasite, together with Ricky Changwook Kim (Handong Global University) and Dan Hassler-Forest (Utrecht University). What does this movie tells us about the link between culture and inequalities? Are these links and inequalities culturally specific? Or does the film's global success reveal a universal fatigue with growing inequality in late capitalism? **** Podcast includes major spoilers for Parasite **** Dr. Changwook Kim (Ricky) is an assistant professor of sociology at Handong Global University in South Korea. His research focuses on creative and digital industries in Korea, and the precarious labor conditions in this industry. Dr. Dan Hassler-Forest is an assistant professor at the Media & Culture studies department at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research interest is in the relation between politics and entertainment. ***Readings & assignments: * The film Parasite (2019) * Hagen Koo (2019): Rising Inequality and Shifting Class Boundaries in South Korea in the Neo-Liberal Era, Journal of Contemporary Asia: https://bit.ly/2RoCAcc * Hassler-Forest, D. (2020) Bong Joon-ho: Love in the Time of Capitalism. LA Review of Books: https://bit.ly/3eb2VDd * Assignments: https://bit.ly/3eeWRtm * Also see ECCI's website for additional readings and assignments: https://eucci.eu/podcast/ *** Presentation: prof. dr. Giselinde Kuipers Editing: Luuc Brans

In the final episode for this semester, we look back and ahead and ask, where do we go from here? We approach this in two ways: where does the study of culture and inequality go from here? Based on our podcast, what is the direction for fruitful research? And what have been the missing links? Secondly, this is for a small part also a meta-podcast, a podcasts about podcasts: we discuss where do we go from here with the podcast as a platofrm for academic work and for the academic community? To dive into these topics, we are joined by this podcast's curator and founder, prof. Giselinde Kuipers and our regular host dr. Dave O’Brien.

This week, we turn the table and look at how non-sociologists, i.e. normal people believe about inequality. Giselinde speaks with dr. Jonathan Mijs (EUR/Harvard) and prof. dr. Magne Flemmen to dive deeper in the relation between rising inequalities, meritocratic beliefs, and egalitarianism. Inequalities are rising yet people seem to care increasingly less about it. Why do people display meritocratic beliefs instead? And how do lower class people in supposedly egalitarian societies perceive cultural inequalities? And how does cycling relate to egalitarianism and inequalities? Why is the Dutch royal family, one of the most wealthy families in the world, cycling? We discuss this and many more topics in this intriguing conversation. Readings —— Mijs, Jonathan (2019). The paradox of inequality: income inequality and belief in meritocracy go hand in hand. Socio-Economic Review https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy051 Jarness, Vegard, & Flemmen, Magne (2019). A struggle on two fronts: boundary drawing in the lower region of the social space and the symbolic market for ‘down‐to‐earthness’. The British journal of sociology, 70(1), 166-189. Kuipers, Giselinde (2013). The rise and decline of national habitus: Dutch cycling culture and the shaping of national similarity. European journal of social theory 16(1): 17-35.

In this episode, Giselinde interviews dr. Predrag Cveticanin (University of Niš, Serbia) & dr. Yang Gao (Furman University, US) as we go beyond the bubble of Western-European, North-American cultural sociology. How does cultural distinction and social capital work in Serbia? Why do Chinese tv consumers love GossipGirl? How are post-socialist Serbia and not-so-socialist-anymore China different and similar at the same time? In this episode, we speak about the applicability of French and American cultural sociological theories on taste and cultural consumption outside our Euro-American bubble. We also ask ourselves how this is all related to the future of cosmopolitanism. Join us as we dive into these and many more topics in this intriguing conversation. Readings Cvetičanin, Predrag, and Mihaela Popescu (2011) The art of making classes in Serbia: Another particular case of the possible." Poetics 39: 444-468. Gao, Yang (2016). Fiction as reality: Chinese youths watching American television. Poetics 54: 1-13. Lavie, N., & Varriale, S. (2019). Introduction to the special issue on global tastes: The transnational spread of non-Anglo-American cul ture. Poetics, 75, 101388.

In this episode, dr. Julian Schaap (Erasmus University Rotterdam) talks to prof.dr. Jeroen van der Waal (EUR) and dr. Joost Oude Groeniger (EUR) about the relation between health inequalities and social and cultural inequalities. Negative health outcomes such as low life expectancy and disease prevalence are often linked to lower classes, usually followed by an explanation that looks at socio-economic causes. If healthier food is made cheaper, this will contribute to lower health inequalities, some say. However, cultural sociologists have increasingly uncovered how not only socio-economic factors, but also one's taste and cultural consumption contributes to these health disparities. How does cultural capital effect influence health outcomes? Readings Groeniger, J. O., Kamphuis, C. B., Mackenbach, J. P., Beenackers, M. A., & van Lenthe, F. J. (2019). Are socio-economic inequalities in diet and physical activity a matter of social distinction? A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Public Health 64(7): 1037-1047. Oude Groeniger, Joost, et al. (2020). How does cultural capital keep you thin? Exploring unique aspects of cultural class that link social advantage to lower body mass index." Sociology of Health & Illness.

In this episode, Giselinde speaks with Bruno Cousin (assistant professor at SciencesPo Paris) and Sébastien Chauvin (associate prof at University of Lausanne) about the elite culture of what is popularly called 'the top 1 percent'. Based on their research on the French Caribbean luxury destination of St Barths, social clubs in Milan, and Ashley Mears' ethnographic work on 'party girls' and promoters in VIP nightclubs, they discuss questions about elite culture in a time of globalization. What do we learn from ethnographic work on the top 1 percent? How do elites manage to exploit others' capital? How are elite distinction patterns changing in a time of globalization? And what are the theoretical implications for Bourdieusian approaches? Cousin, Bruno and Sébastien Chauvin (2017). Old Money, Networks and Distinction: The Social and Service Clubs of Milan’s Upper Classes. Pp. 147-165 in Cities and the Super-Rich. Real Estate, Elite Practic-es, and Urban Political Economies, edited by Ray Forrest, Sin Yee Koh and Bart Wissink. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. http://sebastienchauvin.org/wp-content/uploads/Chapter_8_Cousin_Chauvin_Old_Money_Networks_Distinction-2017-PUB.pdf Cousin, Bruno and Sébastien Chauvin (2013). Islanders, immigrants and millionaires: the dynamics of upper-class segregation in St Barts, French West Indies. Pp. 186-200 in Geographies of the Super-Rich, edited by Iain Hay. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. http://sebastienchauvin.org/wp-content/uploads/Cousin-Chauvin2013-Islanders-immigrants-millionnaires.pdf Mears, Ashley (2015). “Working for Free in the VIP: Relational Work and the Production of Con-sent.” American Sociological Review 80(6): 1099–1122 Background reading: Cousin, Bruno, Shamus Khan and Ashley Mears. 2018. “Theoretical and methodological pathways for research on elites.” Socio-Economic Review 16(2): 225-249. Mears, A. (2020) Very Important people: status and beauty in the global party circuit. Princeton: Princeton UP https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691168654/very-important-people

While ‘canons’ of culture were dismantled decades ago by postmodern, postcolonial and feminist critics, evaluative judgements about ‘the best’ and ‘best ever’ continue unabated in the cultural field and in everyday life. We find examples of these judgements in the prizes and awards bestowed by powerful institutions but also in the relentless to and fro of internet forum discussions among individuals. How might we make sense of these evaluative judgements using sociological approaches? How do judgements at an individual and collective level intersect? How do they play out over time? How do they relate to the specific logics of cultural fields? In what ways are they expressive of wider societal inequalities? How can we distinguish between various types of judgement (ethical, aesthetic, instrumental)? How can we research their cumulative logic over time? This episode is hosted by dr. Simon Stewart, Reader in Sociology and Director of the Centre for European and International Studies Research at the University of Portsmouth. Readings Stewart, S. (2018). Making evaluative judgements and sometimes making money: independent publishing in the 21stCentury. Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 3(2). Stewart, S. (2020). Celebrity Capital, field-specific aesthetic criteria and the status of cultural objects: the case of Masked and Anonymous. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(1), 54-70.

Classed bodies: Weight, appearance and class distinction by Culture & Inequality Podcast

In this episode, dr. Julian Schaap (EUR)talks with dr. Jo Haynes (University of Bristol) on the role of race, ethnicity and gender in music. Of all forms of popular culture and art, popular music remains one of the primary platforms of identity formation. While music alledgedly ‘brings people together’ across various sociatal cleavag-es, in practice we see that music genres – as with many cultural genres in general – are shaped by and reflective of social divisions in society. In the session, we will focus on the relationship be-tween social categories such as gender and race/ethnicity, and popular music, to understand how cultural production and consumption play a role in the construction, maintainance and/or deconstruction of symbolic boundaries based on gender and race/ethnicity. By zooming in on cases within (popular) music – why are there relatively few people of color in rock music? Why is hip-hop often perceived to serve minority voices? – we aim to expolate to larger questions of (popular) cul-ture, difference and inequality. Readings: Haynes, Jo (2010). In the blood: The racializing tones of music categorization. Cultural Sociology 4(1): 81-100 Hesmondhalgh, David, & Saha, A. (2013). Race, ethnicity, and cultural production. Popular Communication 11(3): 179-195. Schaap, Julian, & Berkers, Pauwke (2019). “Maybe it’s… skin colour?” How race-ethnicity and gender function in consumers’ formation of classification styles of cultural content. Consumption Markets & Culture 1-17.