The Stratification of Attendance at Cultural Activities in Canada

Scholars have debated the relative applicability of homology and omnivorousness, two theories of cultural stratification, for explaining links between socioeconomic position and cultural repertoires. However, the discussion has mostly focused on musical tastes rather than attendance at cultural activities. Using data from the 2010 Canadian General Social Survey on Time Use, I examine how measures of socioeconomic position predict attendance at 12 different kinds of cultural activities. I apply three analytical techniques to this data set: (1) binary logistic regressions to investigate the socioeconomic bases of attendance at each cultural activity; (2) ordered logistic regression to assess the nature of the relationship between socioeconomic position and omnivorous attendance; and (3) latent class analysis to identify clusters of attendance and the socioeconomic bases thereof. Controlling for demographic factors, I find that education and income are positively associated with attendance at each activity and with omnivorous cultural engagement. The latent class model reveals four distinct groups: highbrow omnivores, selective omnivores, univores, and inactive people. Education and income predict membership in the omnivorous groups, with stronger effects for highbrow omnivores. I confirm that omnivorousness is associated with cultural and economic elites, but also reveal different gradations of omnivorousness, thus suggesting that the two theoretical frameworks are to a degree entangled with one another.