Abstract
In order to better understand cultural participation and taste, this chapter traces the key theoretical contributions that explore the enduring relationship between cultural participation, taste and the social stratification of society. It notes how some scholars favour an articulation of taste that demonstrates a clear and objective correlation to structural processes in society while others focus on the meaning and subjective nature of the experience of culture. This chapter notes how a clear distinction has emerged in the literature: between a structural consideration of taste emanating from class position, and useful as a mechanism for social distinction; to one comprised of subjective enthusiasm and intensity, full of individual application and engagement across the general register of culture.
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Notes
- 1.
Disinterestedness is a state of mind that is free of practical concerns, goals, or desires. It is subjective and also universal. See Kant (1790) Critique of Judgment for his fullest expression of aesthetics.
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McCall Magan, K. (2022). Sociological Questions of Culture. In: Cultural Participation. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Participation . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18755-1_2
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