In the Eye of the Beholder: The Stratification of Taste in a Cultural Industry

Koppman, Sharon

doi:10.1111/tsq.12098

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Other well-represented occupational categories include administrative support (20 percent), management (11 percent), and business operations specialists such as market researchers and strategists (8 percent) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). These advertising practitioners differ from creatives in their career advancement strategies (McLeod, O’Donohoe, and Townley, 2011), self-presentation methods (Morais, 2007), evaluation of aesthetic objects (Koppman, 2015), and definitions of good advertising (Fox, 1997).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different Like Me

Koppman

2015

Administrative Science Quarterly

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Combining primary survey data collected from a probability sample of U.S. advertising agencies and semi-structured interviews with advertising practitioners, I tested a novel link from class background to creative employment through a cultural process of matching people to jobs. Qualitative data show that shared culture, specifically ''omnivorous''-diverse and inclusive-taste and socialization, signals creative potential to employers and motivates people to pursue creative positions. Structural equation modeling reveals that omnivorous socialization and taste mediate the relationship between class background and creative employment: when middle-class parents expose their children to diverse leisure activities, this exposure has a positive indirect effect on creative employment. It may not actually make those children more creative, but such exposure makes them more likely to enter fields in which they will be viewed as creative. The findings highlight a new direction for research on creativity, contribute to the debate on the role of cultural capital in occupational attainment, and extend knowledge on the early origins of career choice.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different Like Me

Koppman

2015

Administrative Science Quarterly

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“…Laboratory experiments provide ample evidence not only that bounded judgments routinely grow closer, but that "learning" is easily extended into multiple "generations" of participants (Asch 1951;Sherif 1936;Zucker 1977). Second, though conventionally attractive people have higher socio-economic status, the background of models and cultural intermediaries is diverse (Entwistle 2009, 8;Koppman 2015;McClintock 2014, 586;Mears 2012, 138). About half of the staff (including myself) had prior experience in modeling or dance.…”

Section: Studying the World Of Model Castingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Microsociology of Aesthetic Evaluation: Selecting Runway Fashion Models

Hoppe

2021

Qual Sociol

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Fashion model selection is a targeted case of aesthetic evaluation. For almost 100 years-beginning with data which Herbert Blumer collected in the 1930sscholars have tried to understand how models are selected. Most have taken a critical and structural approach. I rely instead on a microsociology which centers endogenous decision processes. It highlights the agency and constraints of situational perception and situational stratification, yielding a novel analysis of the casting encounter. Data comes from an ethnography of a fashion week in a semi-peripheral city. It includes backstage evaluations gathered during a stint as a casting agent. I find that agents surprisingly ignore faces, instead focusing on the embodied cues of height/heels, the walk, and body size. Sustained microsociological analysis opens a layered mode of perception highlighting the dynamics of time, attention, emotion, and situations. Keywords Evaluation • Microsociology • Aesthetics • Modeling • Beauty"Alas, beauty brooks no compromise; it is the merciless scale on which our life is weighed daily and found to be too light. " -Simmel ( [1897)

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Is there a generational shift in preferences for forest carbon sequestration vs. preservation of agricultural landscapes?

Liu,

Lindhjem,

Grimsrud

et al. 2023

Climatic Change

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Afforestation and reforestation are considered important measures for climate change mitigation. Because the land area available for tree planting may serve multiple purposes, striking the right balance between climate goals and other objectives is crucial. We conducted a survey of the Norwegian population to investigate potential land-use conflicts that may arise from executing a large-scale afforestation programme. Respondents were presented with three land-use alternatives to replace formerly grazed agricultural land. We used manipulated landscape photos to elicit their underlying value orientations. We combined multiple correspondence analysis with latent class regression models to reveal preference heterogeneity. Our models grouped respondents into three latent classes, with 24%, 24% and 52%, respectively, expressing a preference for forest carbon sequestration, recreation or agriculture as the most crucial land-use function to be retained. Birth year emerged as a strong predictor of class membership. Specifically, generations born before 1970 were more inclined to support the continuation of agricultural landscapes, while those born in 1980 and later showed a stronger inclination towards natural forest succession for carbon sequestration or recreational purposes. Quantitatively, every 10-year reduction in age increased the odds of a respondent belonging to the forestation or recreation class (relative to the agricultural class) by a factor of 2. Interestingly, even among respondents who were classified as most climate concerned, natural forests were 50% more likely to be preferred over monoculture spruce plantation as a policy option. This suggests that there may be public resistance to spruce planting for climate mitigation purposes in Norway.

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In the Eye of the Beholder: The Stratification of Taste in a Cultural Industry

Cited by 7 publications

References 78 publications

Different Like Me

Different Like Me

The Microsociology of Aesthetic Evaluation: Selecting Runway Fashion Models

Is there a generational shift in preferences for forest carbon sequestration vs. preservation of agricultural landscapes?

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