Cultural and Educational Careers: The Dynamics of Social Reproduction

Abstract

Using data from the Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts conducted in 1982, 1985 and 1992, the authors analyze the relationship between cultural careers and educational careers. Drawing on ideas of cultural reproduction (Bourdieu) and cultural mobility (DiMaggio), they formulate two competing sets of hypotheses regarding the importance of high brow cultural capital at different ages on the likelihood of making particular educational transitions. They find that cultural capital plays a strong role in determining school success. The effects of parental cultural capital, cultural participation before age 12 and cultural participation between ages 12 to 17 and 18 to 24 are largely independent and have enduring effects across the educational career. All cultural effects decline over the course of the educational career. The context of participation is significant - cultural participation in school has less of an effect on educational success than does participation elsewhere. Generally, they find stronger support for the cultural mobility model, although social reproduction still governs the most important educational transition - entering college