References Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction. Critique sociale du - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Geometry of La Distinction

Latest methodological innovations in geometric data analysis on cultural practices

Philippe Bonnet (LPNCog, Paris Descartes-CNRS), Frédéric Lebaron (CURAPP, U. Picardie J. Verne-CNRS)

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References

Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Minuit. Le Roux, B. & Rouanet, H. (2010). Multiple Correspondence Analysis (QASS Series). Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage. Rouanet, H., Ackermann, W., Le Roux, B. (2000). The geometric analysis of questionnaires: The lesson of Bourdieu’s La Distinction. Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 65, 5-18.

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PLAN

• 1. Theoretical stakes
• 2. The data
• 3. Construction of the space (MCA)
• 4. Interpretation of axes
• 5. Class Specific Analyses

Conclusion

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• 1. Theoretical stakes

 In line with Bourdieu’s perspective in La Distinction, we

investigated the relationship between cultural practices, lifestyles and capital distribution inside French society

 More specifically, we focused on a particular aspect of

Bourdieu’s analysis : the existence

• f

structural homologies between different sub-spaces.

 Two examples are developed in La Distinction : the space

• f dominant classes and the space of middle-classes.

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Theoretical stakes

 to continue the analysis of social space structures

as Bourdieu initiated it in the 70’s (Anatomie du goût, 1976) and in the « Distinction » (1979)

 not only a methodological refinement  to shed a new light on sociological problems at the

core of the « Distinction » model

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• 2. The data

 INSEE, « Enquête permanente sur les conditions de vie des

ménages » (« Permanent survey on households living conditions »)

 May 2003 : supplement on cultural and sport participation  Data on 5625 individuals (15 years old and more), and on

their households

 Objective : a better knowledge of cultural and sport activities

through detailed information on households and individuals

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• 3. Construction of the space
• f cultural practices

 Questions on :

 legitimate practices such as literature, classical music,

reading,…

 practices caracteristic of a younger lifestyle (types of

music, types of radio)

 popular practices, mostly related to television and radio  Questions kept revealing preferences, i.e. TV channel

mostly watched, type of music mostly listened to, etc.

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Caveat

 But this type of survey, done by INSEE (the french

national institute of statistics) is more precise about practices than about preferences or tastes.

 And several dimensions which are important when

studying lifestyles have been dropped, such as gardening, sport activities, savings, consumption or social capital maintenance…

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Space variables

Space constructed from :

 Television :

10 questions

 Entertainment : 8 questions  Newspapers :

5 questions

 Books :

8 questions

 Music / Radio : 2 questions

Total : 33 questions and 5497 individuals aged 18 or more.

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Specific MCA (first variant)

 Used here to restrict the analysis to categories

• f interest

 Infrequent and meaningless categories were

treated as passive categories

Number of questions Q=33 (104 categories) Number of active categories K=90 Number of individuals N=5497

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Axis 1

Intensity of cultural practices (especially legitimate practices, reading, theater, etc.) cultural capital axis

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Axis 2

Culture of the youth

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Axis 3

«hard» (dance, concerts, etc;) versus «soft» (TV news, romance reading, etc.) cultural practices related to age and gender

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Main dimensions of the constructed space

 Axis 1: intensity of cultural practices (especially

legitimate practices, reading, theater, etc.). Cultural capital.

 Axis 2: culture of the youth.  Axis 3: «hard» (dance, concert, etc.) versus

«soft» (TVnews, romance reading, etc.) cultural practices related to age and gender.

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Cloud of individuals in plane 1-2

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Cloud of individuals in plane 1-3

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Level of education as a structuring factor

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

gender

Concentration ellipses for gender in the plane 1-3 (individuals)

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Category mean points of age in the space of individuals

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Age as a structuring factor

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age

Concentration ellipsis of the young ([18-26[)

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Class ellipses

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Concentration ellipsis of pupils/students

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Pupils/students

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Upper class Concentration ellipsis of upper class individuals

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Middle class Concentration ellipsis of middle class individuals

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Blue collars Concentration ellipsis of blue collars

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Further research questions

 Are there structural homologies between the global

space of cultural practices and sub-spaces like the

• nes defined by the dominant classes, the middle

classes, the blue-collar workers, the young, or pupils and students ?

 Is the relation between the cultural practices of these

specific groups and their distribution of capital similar to the relation observed in the global space ?

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Motivation for the use of Class-Specific Analysis

 The distance between two individuals inside a specific class

(e.g. the young) makes sense in the global space, but not in a space restricted to this particular group.

 To operationnalize this idea, the CSA consists in searching the

principal dimensions of a sub-cloud without «extracting» it from the global space. One can then see the sub-cloud inside the global space but projected onto its own principal dimensions.

 Then usual GDA methodology is applied : interpretation of

axes, structured data analysis, inference if needed.

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• 5. Class-Specific Analyses

 the young  working class (blue collars).  upper class  middle class  pupils/students

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The young (18-26) : specific axis 1

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Opposition of more legitimate cultural practices of the young (left side) to categories that characterize a more popular aspect of the youth culture (right).

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

The young (18-26) : specific axis 2

The second specific axis

• pposes

categories relating to music, comic strips and going to concert. These

• ppositions inside the young’ universe

are very specific of this universe. On one side one can find practices strongly associated with teen-age (comic strips, techno, rap and world music, regularly going to concert) and

• n the other side slightly different

practices, less specific and with less intensity (international pop music, less comic strips, going to concert less frequently).

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

The young (18-26) : specific axis 3

The third specific axis shows an

• pposition

between categories mostly relating to TV watching. On one hand

• ne can find TV channel M6,

musical clips (bottom) and

• n

the

• ther

hand TV practices that are weak or absent (top).

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The young

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Class as a structuring factor

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The young

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Level of education as a structuring factor

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The young

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Gender as a structuring factor

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Blue collars : specific axis 1

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Specific axis 1

• pposes

categories

• f

«no cultural practices» (right) to categories

• f more intense practice (left).

These ones can be legitimate (TV channel Arte, cultural magazine, Art book, etc.) or less legitimate (comic strips, rock music, going to cinema, etc.) This opposition corresponds to differences in educational capital and lesser to an

• pposition in age.

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Blue collars : specific axis 2

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Specific axis 2 opposes categories of cultural practices of the young (top) to cultural practices of older individuals (bottom) : TV channel M6, techno, rap and world music, TV news rarely (top) against TV channel Fr3, Radio news, Regional newspaper (bottom).

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Blue collars : specific axis 3

Specific axis 3, like in the preceding CSA, is related to TV practices. It opposes distinctive TV practices (Arte, Cable channels, rarely news, no games, no sitcoms, etc.) (top) to more common practices (TV channel TF1, sitcoms, games, etc.) (bottom).

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Age as a structuring factor

Blue collars

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Level of education as a structuring factor

Blue collars

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Upper class : specific axis 1

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Upper class : specific axis 2

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Upper class : specific axis 3

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Upper class

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Age as a structuring factor

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Upper class

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Level of Education as a structuring factor

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Gender as a structuring factor

Upper class

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Middle class : specific axis 1

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Middle class : specific axis 2

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Middle class : specific axis 3

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Middle class

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Age as a structuring factor

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Middle class

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Level of education as a structuring factor

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Middle class

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Gender as a structuring factor

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Pupils/students : specific axis 1

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Pupils/students : specific axis 2

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Pupils/students : specific axis 3

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Pupils/students

Gender as a structuring factor

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Level of education as a structuring factor

Pupils/students

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Some results

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• Very important structural homologies but some distortions

from the global space, especially for the young (a specific second axis).

• Cultural legitimacy versus popular practices as first

dimension of the space of cultural practices, related to educational capital.

• Importance of oppositions between cultural and economic

elites, middle classes.

• Important oppositions between generational fractions of

the blue-collar working class related to education and age.

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Conclusions

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• Usefulness of CSA to take into account the

hypothesis of generalized structural homologies and to determine the degree of specificity of each group of interest.

• Individuals bear all the information, hence the

need to investigate systematically clouds and subclouds of individuals by the use of a large set of structuring factors.

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The end

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Thank you for your attention

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Age, education level

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Age, gender & education level

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The 6th CARME conference, Rennes, France, 8-11 february 2011

Class, income