No abstract

This paper considers how the analysis of cultural engagement can be elaborated through a reworking of the concept of cultural capital, as originally derived from Bourdieu's (1984) Distinction. Drawing on detailed studies of the UK and Aalborg, Denmark, we show that despite the weakening of ''highbrow'' culture, cultural oppositions can nonetheless readily be detected. We point to nine oppositions, mostly shared between the nations. Three tensions between (a) participation and non-participation in cultural activities; (b) knowledge and ignorance in cultural issues (such as for music, literature, and art); and (c) an international and a local or national orientation stand out as the most important. We discuss whether these oppositions can usefully be conceptualised as cultural capital. We argue that such a conceptualisation demands, first, that cultural capital is understood in relative rather than absolute terms, and that a field analytic perspective provides the means of understanding cultural capital as such a relative entity. Second, the move from the empirical observation of oppositions to the conceptualisation of cultural capital also demands that the functioning of features such as participation, knowledge and an international orientation in class domination should be demonstrated, as it cannot just be assumed.

No abstract

The trend within studies of voting and political attitudes has been to give less attention to class as a structuring dimension and more to postmaterial values. The basic argument of this article is that this is a false opposition: The adherence to different sets of values is related to social background, although in complex ways, which can only be discovered with a multidimensional conception of class. This conception may be found in Pierre Bourdieu's analytical approach, which is here applied in an analysis of survey data from the Danish city of Aalborg. Data from a survey of political attitudes are subjected to multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), which reveals a pattern of attitudes that is highly structured by both the old and the new dimensions of politics. Up to this point, the results converge with the state of the art. However, the methodology utilised (MCA) allows one to link the constructed space of attitudes to a set of indicators based on a two-dimensional conception of social class. On the basis of this analysis, the article concludes that the political landscape appears as highly structured by the two principles of social differentiation from Bourdieu's class model: volume and composition of capital. The conclusion is that social class understood in this way is closely related to both old and new politics, as well as to the propensity to vote for a political party from the left-or right-wing alliance.

Efforts for preventing burnout ought to be concentrated on reducing the quantitative job-demands, on easing and improving staff-inmate relationships, but also on involvement in and meaning of work. Most work in prison is invisible and the overall goals are in conflict with each other. Management must provide solutions to problems of role conflict and support groups for social support. There is a risk of burnout among both uniformed personnel and non-uniformed personnel working in both open and closed facilities.