geometry of la distinction - carme...

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.

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

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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 of structural

homologies between different sub-spaces.

Two examples are developed in La Distinction : the space

of 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

of 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 of interest

Infrequent and meaningless categories weretreated 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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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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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


Ageas 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


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

ones 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


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 second specific axis opposescategories relating to music, comicstrips and going to concert. Theseoppositions inside the young’ universeare very specific of this universe.

On one side one can find practicesstrongly associated with teen-age(comic strips, techno, rap and worldmusic, regularly going to concert) andon the other side slightly differentpractices, less specific and with lessintensity (international pop music, lesscomic strips, going to concert lessfrequently).

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The third specific axis showsan opposition betweencategories mostly relating toTV watching. On one handone can find TV channel M6,musical clips (bottom) andon the other hand TVpractices that are weak orabsent (top).

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The young


Class as a

structuring

factor

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The young


Level of

education

as a

structuring

factor

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The young


Gender as a structuring

factor

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Blue collars : specific axis 1


Specific axis 1 opposescategories of «no culturalpractices» (right) to categoriesof more intense practice (left).These ones can be legitimate(TV channel Arte, culturalmagazine, Art book, etc.) orless legitimate (comic strips,rock music, going to cinema,etc.)

This opposition corresponds todifferences in educationalcapital and lesser to anopposition in age.

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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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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


Age as a

structuring

factor

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Upper class


Level of

Education

as a

structuring

factor

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Gender as a

structuring

factor

Upper class

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Middle class : specific axis 1

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Middle class


Age as a

structuring factor

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Middle class


Level of education

as a structuring

factor

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Middle class


Gender as a

structuring factor

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Pupils/students : specific axis 1


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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


● 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


● Usefulness of CSA to take into account the

hypothesis of generalized structural homologiesand to determine the degree of specificity ofeach group of interest.

● Individuals bear all the information, hence the

need to investigate systematically clouds andsubclouds of individuals by the use of a largeset of structuring factors.

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The end


Thank you for your attention

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Age, education level


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Age, gender &education level


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Class, income

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