What Does it Mean to be a Cultural Omnivore? Conflicting Visions of Omnivorousness in Empirical Research

Robert de Vries and Aaron Reeves
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Robert de Vries: University of Kent, UK
Aaron Reeves: University of Oxford, UK

Sociological Research Online, 2022, vol. 27, issue 2, 292-312

Abstract: The ‘omnivore’ hypothesis currently dominates the academic literature on the social patterning of taste. It argues that cultural elites no longer resemble the traditional stereotype of an elitist snob. Instead, they are more likely to be ‘omnivores’ with broad tastes encompassing both elite and popular cultural forms. The omnivore hypothesis has inspired more than two decades of research and debate, without a clear resolution. In this article, we argue that progress in the omnivore debate has been impeded in part due to an elision of two distinct interpretations of the omnivore hypothesis: a strong interpretation, which holds that cultural elites are generally averse to class-based exclusivity; and a weak interpretation which holds that, while elites have broad tastes which encompass popular forms, they do not necessarily repudiate class-based exclusion. We demonstrate how drawing this distinction helps to clarify the existing empirical evidence concerning the omnivore hypothesis.

Keywords: cultural taste; distinction; elites; exclusivity; omnivores (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:27:y:2022:i:2:p:292-312

DOI: 10.1177/13607804211006109

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