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Based on findings and suggestions originating from educational research, several cultural sociologists have claimed that the education system has contributed to the erosion of the institutionalized character of fine arts throughout the 20th century. However, empirical research to substantiate this claim is scarce. We focus on secondary education in Flanders to study the centrality of high culture. Our goal is twofold. First, we want to reflect on the ways the education system can – via the process of institutionalization – infuse certain cultural products with status. Second, we offer an exploratory analysis by studying whether the extent of institutionalization of traditional high culture in the education system has decreased over the course of the 20th century. Our analyses indicate that, in the period 1930–2000, both high and low cultural forms are increasingly being represented in the school context. However, we find that the increase of high culture is especially situated in the academic track – the most prestigious track, designed to cultivate the future elite. In this way, throughout the 20th century, the education system continued to channel high culture to the upper social strata of society, thus infusing these forms of culture with status.

This article investigates whether the cultural practices of socially mobile individuals are predominantly associated with social position of origin or with social position of destination. Using data representative of the Flemish population of Belgium ( n = 2,849), we find evidence of a substantial association with the social position of destination, which we argue to be both profound and superficial. By contrasting private and public practices, we find that (1) both private and public practices are predominantly related to social position of destination and (2) that public practices are more strongly correlated with social position of destination than private practices. This suggests that underlying cultural preferences are mainly associated with the secondary socialization context and, moreover, that in the public sphere socially mobile individuals overstress their conformity – probably to fit in – and in a way become cultural chameleons.

Social mobility and expectations towards films. The present study focuses on the effect of social mobility on taste: is taste predominantly shaped during primary socialization, or is it the result of a multitude of socializing experiences? As a measure of taste we consider four
aesthetic expectations towards films – attitudes towards innovative, emotional, action and normative dimensions of films. Using data from a large-scale survey among the Flemish population (n = 2,849) and applying diagonal reference models, results show that each disposition is affected
differently by social mobility. The innovative disposition is guided by the socialization context associated with the highest social status. The emotional and action disposition are influenced by both primary and secondary socialization, and the normative disposition is predominantly shaped
by the secondary socialization context. We explain these different effects by the specific nature and status of the different dispositions.

In this article, we use topic modeling to systematically explore topics discussed in contemporary art criticism. Analyzing 6965 articles published between 1991 and 2015 in Frieze, a leading art magazine, we find a plurality of topics characterizing professional discourse on contemporary art. Not surprisingly, media- or genre-specific topics such as film/cinema, photography, sculpture/installations, etc. emerge. Interestingly, extra-artistic topics also characterize contemporary art criticism: there is room for articles on new digital technology and on art and philosophy; there is also growing interest in the relationship between art and society. Our analysis shows that despite evolutions in the field of contemporary art – such as the 'social turn', in which contemporary art starts paying more attention to social forms and content – the prevalence of certain topics in contemporary art criticism has barely changed over the past 25 years. With this article, we demonstrate the unique value of topic modeling for cultural sociology: it is both a powerful computational technique to generate a bird's-eye view of a huge text corpus and a heuristic device that locates key texts for further close reading.

AbstractLittle is known about the origins of the stratified nature of preventive health behaviour. In this paper, we introduce theory and methodology from the field of social mobility research. Intergenerational socially mobile individuals can provide insights into the central discussion about how health lifestyles or cultural health capital develop over the life course, as they have encountered different contexts of socialisation, each with its own characteristic health‐related practices. We study the use of regular mammography screening by Belgian women using data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement and we operationalise social mobility as occupational mobility using the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO‐88). By means of diagonal reference models, we are able to discern the effects of the social position of origin, the social position of destination and social mobility itself, contrary to the less rigorous linear regression approach that prevails in health behaviour research. As expected, the take up of mammography screening is strongly influenced by social position. It seems that both upwardly and downwardly mobile women adapt to the mammography screening practices in their position of destination. This study shows the potential for social mobility research to enrich the debate on health lifestyles.

This article examines the effects of parental educational levels on the art/heritage and pop/rock participation of adolescents. We use a subset of adolescents from the survey 'Cultural Participation in Flanders 2003–2004' (N = 1030) to test the relative effects of the educational levels of the mother and father. Using diagonal reference models, we find that the parent with the highest educational level – regardless of whether it is the father or mother – has the largest influence on the cultural participation of their children, which can be interpreted as a status maximization effect. However, we also find that a lower educated mother still has an influence on art and heritage participation and a lower educated father still has an influence on pop and rock participation. These results highlight the need to reassess the influence of the mother in the Bourdieusian framework. Furthermore, they have important implications for the conceptualization and operationalization of the social status position of families.

Abstract Social scientists generally agree that all individuals structure their cultural attitudes in the same unidimensional fashion. However, various populist radical right parties remarkably combine moral progressiveness with conservatism regarding immigration-related
issues. This suggests that the structuring of cultural attitudes among the electorate may also be more complex than typically assumed. Applying Correlational Class Analysis to representative survey data, we uncover three cultural belief systems. For individuals adhering to an integrated
one, all cultural attitudes are interdependent, as typically assumed. However, we also uncover two alternative belief systems: intermediate and partitioned. In the latter, positions on one cultural attitude (e.g., ethnocentrism) are barely related to positions on others (e.g.,
rejecting Islam or opposing homosexuality). The existence of multiple cultural belief systems challenges the widely-held assumption that all people organize their cultural attitudes similarly. Both political party agenda's and individuals' education level and religion appear key
to understanding variation in belief systems.

AbstractRecent in‐depth qualitative research indicates that different people ascribe different meanings to their apparently similar stances on immigrants' entitlement to welfare. We are the first to investigate such variation quantitatively among the public‐at‐large, applying the novel method Correlational Class Analysis to an original survey fielded among a representative sample in the Netherlands (n = 2138). We uncover five ways of looking at immigrants' entitlement to welfare, each including both people who oppose that entitlement and those who support it. People who adhere to these different viewpoints substantially differ when it comes to income, education, religious denomination, and political preference. We interpret these unique findings and discuss them in relation to the extant literature on welfare chauvinism. Moreover, uncovering what people's stances regarding immigrants' entitlement to welfare mean not only advances the scholarly debate on welfare chauvinism, but also provides a stepping stone for meaning‐oriented sociological research on public opinion more generally.

While ample research has scrutinised the causes and consequences of support for the European Union, a pressing question remains: what do people actually mean when they express support for, or opposition to, their country's membership of the institution? We use Correlational Class Analysis to assess this. Our analysis of high-quality representative Dutch survey data ( n = 2053), including novel items informed by in-depth qualitative research, reveals that European Union support comes in three guises: federalist, non-federalist and instrumental-pragmatist Strikingly, many Europhiles are not federalists. In addition, we reveal that the social bases of the three types of support especially differ regarding political competence, political orientation, and media consumption. The implications for ongoing debates on European Union atttidues are discussed.

While ample research has scrutinised the causes and consequences of support for the European Union, a pressing question remains: what do people actually mean when they express support for, or opposition to, their country's membership of the institution? We use Correlational Class Analysis to assess this. Our analysis of high-quality representative Dutch survey data (n = 2053), including novel items informed by in-depth qualitative research, reveals that European Union support comes in three guises: federalist, non-federalist and instrumental-pragmatist Strikingly, many Europhiles are not federalists. In addition, we reveal that the social bases of the three types of support especially differ regarding political competence, political orientation, and media consumption. The implications for ongoing debates on European Union atttidues are discussed