In the past two decades, Taiwan has undergone considerable industrial and social transformation.
within-groups cultural taste variety caused by the trajectories of the social mobility was observed in the child generation groups at the higher levels of class or education.
Chih-Chia Chuang & Da-Sen Lin The Trajectory of Cultural Taste 215
When social transformation brings about a change in social structure, the structural and individual opportunities for social mobility are enhanced. This study addressed the following question: What changes do these trajectories of social mobility cause to class cultural tastes? Our finding shows that both cultural activity participation behaviors in 1997 and 2007 exhibited an omnivorous characteristic in cultural taste. The results indicate that the agents engaged in a wider range of cultural genres, indicating their diverse cultural tastes. In addition, the results show that the omnivore argument has greater explanatory power for Taiwanese society between 1997 and 2007 than Bourdieu’s logic of distinction. Therefore, social groups with varying attributes can be effectively distinguished according to the level of variety in their cultural tastes.
The educational attainment and objective class of the child generation are the two main factors influencing cultural taste variety, in which educational attainment is more crucial than class. This research finding show that H1 is supported. People with higher positions in educational attainment and objective class tend to become cultural omnivores who appreciate diverse cultural activities, whereas those who occupy lower positions tend to become cultural snobs who enjoy homogenous cultures. Therefore, H2 is supported. The results show that between 1997 and 2007, Taiwanese society experienced a development similar to that of Western society, as observed in previous studies (e.g., Peterson, 2002; Peterson & Kern, 1996; Peterson & Simkus, 1992; Sullivan & Katz-Gerro, 2007; Rimmer, 2012); in other words, the cultural tastes of elites diversified.
From a theoretical perspective of social mobility trajectories, this study explains the omnivore phenomenon in cultural activity participation behaviors. The emergence of cultural omnivores among highly educated individuals is likely related to the increase in intergenerational educational mobility caused by education expansion. Changes in intergenerational educational structures enabled children whose fathers had lower educational attainment to acquire a higher educational attainment.
Consequently, the child generation gained access to various cultures during their growth process.
Moreover, the high variety in cultural taste among the child generation who belonged to the service class may be an outcome of intergenerational class upward mobility. Frequent experiences in intergenerational class mobility enabled the child generation to be more tolerant of diverse cultures instead of developing exclusive tastes. The results of the present study support the argument that social mobility trajectories affect cultural taste variety. People whose class moved upward intergenerationally exhibited more diverse cultural tastes than those without upward mobility. These research findings show that H5 is supported. Moreover, the number of strata crossed through upward mobility is positively and significantly related to cultural taste variety. People who experienced intergenerational educational upward mobility, and those who crossed more strata through upward
216 The Trajectory of Cultural Taste Chih-Chia Chuang & Da-Sen Lin
mobility, displayed greater variety in their cultural tastes than did those whose educational rank was a replica of their fathers’. However, a notable phenomenon was observed: people who experienced intergenerational downward educational mobility also exhibited greater variety in their cultural tastes than those with no mobility. This situation differs from that observed among people who underwent downward mobility in class. Therefore, the trajectories of intergenerational educational and class mobility differ in their influences on cultural taste variety. According to the aforementioned research findings, H3 and H4 are only partially supported. Future studies should investigate this difference.
Doubts and unanswered questions remain in terms of understanding how cultural tastes are being shaped and developed in Taiwanese society. This study found that the impact of family background will be replaced by attributes of social class in future generations. Hence, it would be worthy for future studies to analyze how the role of the father’s education might impact children’s cultural tastes, and to understand the related family operating mechanism via interviews.
Furthermore, the present study did not find any significant diversity in cultural tastes among the group of children from the elite class or in those with a high educational level due to the differences in their trajectories of social mobility. If an individual’s social trajectory is the mechanism that creates upward mobility, leading to diversity in cultural tastes among children, then why do the children who have inherited their fathers’ elite status due to class reproduction also show differences in cultural tastes? These issues need to be further explored. As Taiwanese society is facing a wave of freedom and openness in the media due to globalization, longer observation time is needed to collect more data; this is required to answer the question of whether discrepancies in people’s cultural tastes might shift to individual self-realization, as predicted by Bauman (1998, 2001), Beck (1992), and Giddens (1991). If more suitable research data can be collected for a comparative analysis at multiple points in time, the complex relationship among the changes in cultural tastes and social mobility can be further investigated. These are all issues worthy of future in-depth research.
Acknowledgements
The data used in this study are based on Taiwan Social Change Survey, which was conducted by the National Science Council & Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica. We are grateful to Ruey-Ming Tsay, Jeng Liu, Teng-Lin Yu for their helpful comments and suggestions. Two anonymous reviewers also provided useful comments. Nevertheless we assume responsibility for any errors in the analysis and findings. The writing of this paper was supported in part by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Chih-Chia Chuang & Da-Sen Lin The Trajectory of Cultural Taste 217
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