Review: John Goyder on Social Status and Cultural Consumption

Tak Wing Chan, ed. Social Status and Cultural Consumption. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 290 pp. $US 95.00 hardcover (978-0-521-19446-4)

Social Status and Cultural Consumption is a good testament to the effectiveness of the International Sociological Association in fostering international collaboration through its research committees. As explained in the Acknowledgments page, Tak Wing Chan’s book is largely a product of RC 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility. This edited collection presents studies from Great Britain, the United States, France, Chile, Hungary and the Netherlands. I think the choice of countries reflects interest and activity levels within RC 28 more than either a random or a theoretically-informed sample of counties, but the six do present sufficient variation to convince the reader that social inequality indeed has something to do with the sorts of entertainment people seek out. Read more.