Riie Heikkilä

Comparing “Cosmopolitanism”: Taste, Nation and Global Culture in Finland and the UK

This paper adds a comparative perspective to the study of taste, cosmopolitanism and social organisation. Drawing on material provided by two similar projects in the UK and Finland it explores the relationships between national and cosmopolitan taste cultures. Whilst there have been some recent attempts to study taste in a comparative perspective, the weight of sociological inquiry into taste is focussed on specific national spaces, including the France of Bourdieu’s (1984) seminal contribution. This tendency persists even as the production and circulation of culture is increasingly accepted as global. Global culture is assumed to be the driver of cosmopolitan ways of being, but is also interpreted as a threat to distinct national cultures. Studies of taste provide an empirical setting where the lived experience of global culture and the ambiguities of cosmopolitanism can be observed. Based on interviews and focus group discussions from the UK and Finland, the paper broadly concurs with those critics who see cosmopolitanism in the context of the maintenance of privileged political or symbolic positions of classes/status groups.

IT IS NOT A MATTER OF TASTE

ABSTRACT Upper classes and elites are usually exclusive circles which are hard to enter. In this paper we approach one such group using a focus group interview: a group from the Swedish-speaking upper class in officially bilingual Finland. Our paper addresses Bourdieus idea of distinction by cultural or taste distinctions. In comparison to some international studies on elites and upper classes, our group was surprisingly keen on expressing disgust towards other tastes and lifestyles and therefore other classes and/or social groups. One might be surprised at how efficiently distinction works in the Swedish-speaking old upper class and how politically incorrect its outspokenness about cultural superiority is. In this specific group, there is a double-distinction: not only are Finnish speakers looked down upon regardless of their class position, almost any other group is, too. In this sense, this is more or less a case par excellence of Bourdieus theory of distinction.

The crisis of cultural journalism revisited: The space and place of culture in quality European newspapers from 1960 to 2010

The media is a key institution in producing, legitimizing and disseminating cultural classifications. From this perspective, newspapers and their sections devoted to culture are particularly interesting. This article examines how the structures of quality European newspapers have changed over time and in different socio-historical contexts, especially regarding the amount of space allocated to and the placement of articles related to culture. We draw on data from Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), Le Monde (France), ABC/El País (Spain), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) and The Guardian (United Kingdom) – covering the time frame from 1960 to 2010. We use three types of data: individual articles about culture (N = 11,775), data on all the issues (N = 585) and full editions of the newspapers (N = 30). We show that the amount of space dedicated to culture has increased but that the placement of articles on culture has shifted slightly. We detect only weak signs of the assumed crisis of cultural journalism.

Matters of taste? Conceptions of good and bad taste in focus groups with Swedish-speaking Finns

The Swedish-speaking minority in Finland does very well in most welfare studies. Swedish-speakers, for example, live longer, have fewer difficulties at school and divorce less than the majority. The aim of this article is to examine whether there are significant internal differences within the minority when it comes to culture, lifestyle and taste. The data was gathered from 20 focus group interviews conducted with the Swedish-speaking minority in different parts of Finland. High, medium and low-status groups react to the discussion on taste very differently: high-status groups are very willing to define good and bad taste; medium-status groups try to make a good impression on the moderator, and low-status groups laugh or stay silent. Even if the interviews focused on culture, taste was discussed mainly in the frame of excluding other social groups by building a very rigid image of what good and acceptable taste is.

Stability and Change in the Style and Standards of European Newspapers' Arts Reviews, 1960–2010

Reviews of cultural products are central elements in creating, legitimizing and disseminating cultural tastes and hierarchies. In this empirical study, we examine the changes that have taken place in European newspaper reviews during the last 50 years (1960–2010). Our sample consists of 205 highbrow arts reviews found in Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), Le Monde (France), ABC/El País (Spain), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) and The Guardian (UK). We analyse our sample using the framework of Shrum and observe possible changes in descriptive, entertainment, instructive, analytical and evaluative schemes of the reviews. Unlike one might expect in light of previous scholarly findings on the popularizing content of cultural journalism, the changes in European highbrow arts reviews between 1960 and 2010 are not drastic. If anything, the evaluation becomes more analytical and subtle, emphasizing the institutional role of highbrow arts reviews and the print newspaper as a traditional, rather conservative media.

Cultural globalization on the printed page: Stability and change in the proportion of foreign cultural products in European quality newspapers, 1960–2010

To bring empirical scrutiny to the often very general and theory-driven debates on cultural globalization and to broaden the geographical scope of previous studies on the topic, this paper presents an analysis of the changes in the relative weight of national and global culture in the culture sections of quality European newspapers from 1960 to 2010. Through content analysis of newspaper articles, the paper examines how the composition of geographical origin of the cultural products discussed has changed over a half-century. The paper asks whether globalizing trends exist in newspaper coverage of culture or whether coverage of national culture remains dominant; to what degree is there variation, based on the art form discussed; and whether newspapers embedded in their national contexts differ from each other in these respects. The results show only a moderate increase in coverage of global products. However, clear trends were found that are associated with both the geographical origin of cultural products and the art forms discussed in the articles, highlighting that post-1960s cultural globalization is best understood as being intertwined with the rise of popular culture and the corresponding decline of traditional – and very European – highbrow culture.

Food, music and politics: The interweaving of culinary taste patterns, ‘highbrow’ musical taste and conservative attitudes in Finland

This article addresses two key debates in cultural sociology: one on coherent lifestyle patterns crossing several cultural fields and one on pervasive lifestyles, which also includes, apart from the cultural elements, wider socio-political orientations. The study takes the point of view of three fields rarely studied together – food, music and political attitudes – employing a rich empirical research design utilizing both representative survey data (N = 1,388) and qualitative interviews (N = 28). Starting from the analysis of how culinary tastes are socially stratified in present-day Finland, three culinary taste patterns are identified: preferences for ‘heavy/meat’, ‘light/ethnic’ and ‘fast food’. The most salient distinction is established between the light/ethnic taste (indicating a trend towards high status, female and urban) and the heavy/meat taste (inclined towards low status, male and rural). Culinary taste patterns are closely related with ‘highbrow’ musical taste and politically conservative attitudes. In particular, the light/ethnic culinary pattern is strongly associated with highbrow musical taste and liberal attitudes. The results support the ideas of structural homology between cultural fields and lifestyle patterning, including an important political component. At the individual level however the ‘homology’ is often far from perfect.

Book Review: “A Quoi Servent les Patrons?” Marglin et les Radicaux Américains Bruno Tinel; Lyon, France: ENS Éditions, 2004, 128 pp., EUR 14.00 (paperback)

models of accumulation, where certain political elements were more dominant. In constructing his analysis, Glyn has harvested an impressive array of data and utilized key studies from a wide literature on topics ranging from the subjective determination of well being to wage differentials across gender, countries, and sectors. Contrary to what one might fear, the broad and inclusive nature of the book does not compromise Glyn’s complete consideration of each topic. However, this rigor can seem a bit pedantic at times; it risks bogging down the momentum of the argument. The book will be accessible and thoroughly enjoyed by any reader who has a dedicated enthusiasm for political economy or cultivates interests in labor struggles, globalization, or the current state of economic affairs in the OECD. This book would be recommended for a course in economic history, international economics, or political economy. Readings from the book may be useful for a myriad of subjects and disciplines. Readers looking for a deeper understanding of how this unleashing of capitalism has affected developing countries will find little satisfaction here. Glyn explicitly states that he will include the developing world only when necessary to explain major forces influencing the economies of rich countries. At first, this may seem a shortcoming. After all, how can one propound the political economy of today’s capitalism, defined by its international structure of accumulation, by focusing only on the experience of rich countries? But, in truth, Glyn does not intend to take on this much more ambitious task. His chosen task of tracing the effects on rich countries of international capitalism has been ambitious enough, and he has executed it in fine fashion.