Michael Useem

Social class and arts consumption

The last decade has witnessed a burgeoning of American high culture. The number of museums and theaters has increased, the number of orchestras, opera companies, and dance companies has skyrocketed, and attendance at all of them is up.1 Ironically, however, the upsurge in public enthusiasm has been accompanied by financial tension. Earnings from admission and ticket prices have risen far less quickly than expenses, traditional patrons have been unable or unwilling to bridge the gap, and inherently labor-intensive production systems, inflation, energy costs, urban fiscal crises, and constraints on ticket and admission fees promise to make the situation worse.2 The effect of this fiscal malaise has been to involve the government federal, state, and municipal in American high culture to a degree unprecedented in this country. In twelve years the National Endowment for the Arts budget has grown from

CULTURAL DEMOCRACY IN A PERIOD OF CULTURAL EXPANSION: THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF ARTS AUDIENCES IN THE UNITED STATES*

3 million to

The Inner Group of The American Capitalist Class

96 million, the number of state arts agencies has increased from 18 to 55, and the number of local arts councils has expanded from 175 to 900.3

Which Business Leaders Help Govern

Students of American society, from the times of Tocqueville and Veblen, have been concerned with the social role of high culture in a democracy. The debate over the extent and consequences of elite dominance of the arts constituency has been intensified in recent years by the rise of government support for the arts. Little is known about the social composition of the arts constituency. Drawing on 268 largely unpublished studies of visitors to museums and audiences of live performing arts, we conclude that the gender and age composition of the arts audience is little different from the general public. However, the social class composition is strikingly elite: audiences are better educated, of higher occupational standing and more affluent than the general populace. Conversely, blue-collar workers, individuals with low incomes or little education, and racial and ethnic minorities are found to be greatly underrepresented. Analysis of differences between and within art forms reveals that museums, particularly science and history museums, draw a broader audience than do performing arts events; frequent attenders within most forms are found to be more elite than irregular consumers. Assessment of audience composition trends since the early 1960s indicates no movement toward a broader inclusion of the public, suggesting that a recent expansion in the scale of arts activities and government subsidies has not been accompanied by a democratization of cultural consumption

The Dominant Segment of the British Business Elite

The American capitalist class is hypothesized to differ along an axis of inner group centrality, defined as the span of influence over major business firms. Those who serve as corporate executives and sit on boards of directors of several large corporations are at the center of the inner group, while businessmen who oversee only a single large firm are on the periphery. One expects inner group members to be disproportionately recruited from among wealthy individuals with large corporate assets and executives employed in financial institutions. It is hypothesized that, compared with other capitalist class members, inner group members will tend to have 1) stronger internal social cohesion, 2) greater influence on public and private decision-making bodies, and 3) a more unified political consciousness and one more oriented toward general class interests. Drawing on a subset of businessmen (1,307) responding to a 1968 national probability survey of college and university trustees, support is found for the prediction that the inner group, recruited from the wealthy and financial institutions, is relatively cohesive and influential. However, the results contradict the prediction on political consciousness, with inner group ideology differing little from that of the remainder of the class. It is suggested that the inner group may play a limited role in unifying and controlling the business community but that it does not provide a means for the integration and promotion of general class interests.

Decentralized Applied Research: Factors Affecting the Use of Audience Research by Arts Organizations

Michael Useem received his degree in sociology from Havard University and teaches sociology at Boston University. Though the web is not seamless, considerable social cohesion and political self-awareness draws together the members of the American capitalist class, as studies by Mills (1956), Baltzell (1964), and Domhoff (1970) have made abundantly clear. But it is also well known that the middle and working classes, despite substantial internal unities of their own, are nonetheless divided along occupational, work, racial, and gender lines, and that these divisions can decisively shape the content and character of their political expression (see, for instance, Hamilton, 1972, and Silverman and Yanowitch, 1975). Divisions within the dominant class may have equally significant political conse-

Government Patronage of Science and Art in America

Defining the business elite to consist of the directors of approximately one thousand of the largest British companies, it is proposed that those who serve simultaneously on two or more of these boards constitute a distinct class segment. Because the interlocking-directorship network that is the foundation of this segment overarches nearly all large firms, and because its members have an exceptional span of experience and influence in corporate matters, it is anticipated that the dominant segment plays a leading role in carrying the collective needs of large enterprise to both government and the non-profit sector. This thesis is examined using information collected from a variety of sources on 1,972 directors of 196 large companies. It is found that dominant segment members are far more likely than other company directors to serve on advisory and governing bodies associated with a variety of government and non-profit organizations. It is also found that dominant segment members disproportionately enter these governing circles because of their favourable position in both the formal business associations, exemplified by the Confederation of British Industry, and informal associations of business leaders, most visibly manifest in exclusive-club networks. The observed patterns suggest that the dominant segment is positioned to promote the class-wide interests of all large companies. Some revision is required in the prevailing conceptions of the relations between big business and the state.

Ideological and Interpersonal Change in the Radical Protest Movement

Little empirical work has estimated the actual importance of factors said to affect the extent to which applied social research is utilized by client organizations. To identify the salience of various factors in facilitating or inhibiting the use of applied research, we have examined the application of one form of research in one decentralized setting-the utilization of audience studies by arts organizations. Drawing on the findings of 25 intensive case studies of diverse audience research, we specify the critical factors affecting utilization of audience studies in arts-organization policy making. Studies were most likely to have powerful effects (a) when their findings confirmed the predilections of arts managers, (b) when an influential person actively sought implementation, and (c) when researchers were involved on a sustained basis in staff deliberations. Studies were not utilized (a) under conditions of high staff tumover, (b) when organizations lacked the resources to use their findings, and (c) when influential individuals were hostile or indifferent. Contrary to the conventional model of research utilization, the technical quality of a study had no effect on the likelihood that it would be used.

Business Segments and Corporate Relations with U.S. Universities

Available evidence marshalled by Useem suggests that natural science, social science, and art have been directly subsidized by the government for quite different reasons. He suggests that the long-term impact of this patronage is to reshape culture production to more nearly fit the needs of government.

An Example of Evaluation Research as a Cottage Industry: The Technical Quality and Impact of Arts Audience Studies

The social organization necessary for a cohesive and effective radical protest movement may create considerable political and social distance between the movement and its recruitment base. However, if attempts at expanding membership do succeed, a large influx of new people has the potential for undermining the radical character of the movement unless processes are present which lead to political socialization and social incorporation. Should these processes be present, substantial transformation in the ideological and interpersonal identities of the newcomers is expected. The American draft resistance movement of the late 1960S is examined with these issues in mind. Interviews with nearly 100 draft resisters reveal that those lacking prior association with the radical student movement underwent extensive change in their political beliefs and communities of identification, shifting toward a much more radical perspective on American society, increasing their estrangement from pre-resistance milieus, and becoming more involved in protest movement networks. The incorporation processes are briefly discussed.