A mise-en-scène of the shattered habitus: The effect of social mobility on aesthetic dispositions towards films

This article focuses on the effect of social mobility on aesthetic dispositions towards films. Central query is whether Bourdieu’s idea of a rather static, class-based habitus—and its associated way of appropriating works of art as voiced in La Distinction (1984)—holds anno 2011. Or is his idea of the habitus as a more permeable, malleable entity, as argued in his later work and recently voiced by Lahire (2008), more accurate? Our strategy is to investigate whether socially mobile individuals adhere to the dispositions acquired from their social context of origin (socialization hypothesis) or whether they adapt to attitudes and dispositions viable in their new social environment (adaptation hypothesis). We use data from a large-scale survey of the Flemish population (n¼2,849) and consider three aesthetic dispositions towards films, viz. the innovative, the emotional, and the action disposition. Results show that the effects of social mobility are a complex matter and differ according to highbrow or lowbrow orientation and to the associated social status of the dispositions at hand. These findings call for a differentiated view of the effects of primary and secondary socialization processes associated with social mobility.

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