culture week 2

culture week 2 29/04

LAURENS STUDIO 17 LOTTE VAN HULST

The role of taste as cultural distinction in class journeys

One of the means of interaction in society that attributes to a definition of culture is that of those based on class. In social classes there is a desperate aspiration to be part of the higher volume of cultural capital in order. As is shown in the documentary titled All In The Best Possible Tasteby Grayson Perry (2012), this so-called class journey is based on cultural distinction by non-financial assets. Or at least, they may not seem financial. Pierre Bourdieu has a similar theory on taste.

Bourdieu's approach holds that cultural capital consists of the collection of elements symbolising or proving to belong to a certain social class, such as knowledge, skill, taste, things, manners, etc. (White Fuse Media Ltd, 2016).

This follows a similar non-essentialist perspective that the documentary elaborates upon. Interestingly, income is said not to be included in Grayson Perry’s definition on means for cultural distinction.

People are individualising but are not acting autonomously. They are merely following trends or reacting on undesired statutes of their own position in their current milieu. As Perry states in the documentary (2012), certain versions of middle class are founded on a reaction against the working-class taste. Here culture seems to take on an evaluative concept. This contradicts Spencer-Oatey (2012) who prefers to define culture as a descriptive concept. Yet the fact that there even is a link to be made between class and culture you could say indicates that there is an intrinsic evaluative aspect to culture, whether you like it or not.

Do you belong? Is it the right thing to belong? Or should you rather not, and distance

yourself from commonality of culture? This is the tug of war that every sub-culture of middle class seems to tire themselves with.

The live-laugh-love middle class is desperate for tight rules. Whether it is mowing the lawn and cutting hedges into geometrical boxes or the casual show-off culture with brands flaunting on their knitted polos or shiny cars. Following a clarity of meaning that a known brand can convey a socially construct of a culture is formed that aims to not only distinguish but also elevate within the ladder of middle class. Here, symptoms of hyper capitalism meet class-hysteria.

Another sub-culture within middle class is those who don’t necessarily confine to material capital but rather cultural capital and capital of knowledge. Then again this is expressed through tangible symbolisms, like books and paintings.

All middle-class sub-cultures in the end, are aspirational purchasers. Regarding class as having nothing to do with income I therefore find too clear-cut. You need to be of a certain income bracket for you to be able to afford the (highly privileged) middle class struggle and then be validated. For the live-laugh-love middle class, whereone grew up in, I think discerns

what one seeks to socially distinguish themselves from. For the academic intellectual middle class, if I may categorise this as such, the motivation is different. Here it is about, for example, proving organic credentials by shopping at the farmer’s market and collecting novel objects from cheap ‘unusual’ gems. The individualisation is much more evident in this sub-culture. But the constant disassociating themselves from the common is toying with romanticization of other cultures. This brings us back to a problem that I have with the term culture. When are you distancing yourself from your own culture? How do you become member of a new one? When is it respect and when is it cultural appropriation gone too far? In this case for example, I am referring to the romanticisation of poverty. This must not become the outcome of the tug of war in showing wealth but wanting to do it casually.