A study on the relationship between social stratification and cultural consumption—Focusing on the tastes for art consumption in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Hsiao-Ching Pan, 潘小琴
• Other Authors: Sen Yow-Suen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/78077885308544071441

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 社會學系 === 95 === Taiwan’s advancement of economic development, improvement of living standards and increases of national income and government budget together have brought about a vigorous development in arts and culture activities, which have gradually become the major leisure activities in Taiwan. In the past, Taiwan’s studies of the stratification in arts and cultural consumption mainly focused on the sociology perspectives. Those studies cover topics such as ideals and empirical research on the sociology of art, music, garments consumption, eating and the participation of artistic and cultural performances. Few studies have looked at the topic from the viewpoint of tastes for art. This study, therefore, will apply the sociology perspective--the stratification segmentation of tastes between different social classes to explore the differentiation of tastes for art consumption between classes in Taiwan. It is hoped that this study will help make the [study of] cultural consumption tastes in Taiwan more complete. The study refers to the national sample survey data gathered in the third survey of the fourth cycle of Taiwan Social Chang Survey (TSCS). The third survey focuses on social stratification. This study analyzes four questions, all regarding cultural experiences, that are selected from the added questionnaires addressing the issue of tastes for art in the national sample survey data. These questions concern an individual’s level of interest on works of art, his/her ability in appreciating paintings, the frequency of attending artistic and cultural performances and whether or not the individual collects artistic products. To analyze the tastes for art consumption between different classes, or social-economic status, occupations and family backgrounds in Taiwan, these four questions are further divided into two categories: cognitive apprehension of art works, which covers one’s level of interest on works of art and his/her ability in appreciating paintings; cultural practices, which include the individual’s frequency of attending artistic and cultural performances and whether or not the person collects artistic products. This study also investigates whether one’s cognitive apprehension of works of art influences his or her cultural practices. In so doing, in-depth discussion on the art consumption behavior in social segmentation can be made possible. With the investigations and discussions, it is hoped that the study can present more aspects of the society and life that are close to the tastes for art consumption in Taiwan. The results of the study show that people with higher cognitive apprehension of works of art tend to be more involved with cultural practices and have influences over tastes. The variant, income, of economic capital does not have influences over tastes on anything but only on one's collection of artistic products; the cultural capital gained from years of education and the social capital gained from the participation of organizations explain differences of tastes over art consumption. It is shown that the more years of education one receives, the more organizations one joins, this person tens to have higher tastes for art consumption. The higher one’s ranking is in his or her career, the higher the person’s tastes for art consumption is and the more influences over tastes the person exerts. The age factor under the generation category has influences over tastes on the fact if one collects artistic products. The result says that the young generation (those below 30 years old) is inclined to collect fewer pieces of artistic products than the older generation (those above 51 years old). The middle-aged generation, however, have no differences in the tastes for artistic products. The urbanization level of one’s residing city has influences over tastes on cultural practices. It is shown that those living in core cities, compared to those living in non-core cities, attend artistic and cultural performances more often and have more pieces of art collections. Gender only influences on an individual’s level of interest on works of art and the person’s frequency of attending artistic and cultural performances. It is suggested that females have obvious advantages over males in terms of the tastes for art consumption. After the review of the progress of tastes for art consumption in Taiwan, it is shown that the development of systems and operations between groups have caused differences in stratification that came from differences in cultural capital and social capital. This study, therefore, explains the social differentiation in different testes for art consumption. It also examines and supports scholars’ analysis regarding tastes for consumptions and stratification theory to further present the segmentation of tastes for art consumption in Taiwan.