Lifestyles in a mediated society 2001

The key aim of the survey was the exploration of the relationship between social class and lifestyles, i.e. the analysis of the cultural dimensions of social class. The research is based on presumption that in contemporary society culture represents the most significant aspect of class differentiation. Due to the process of social individualization the determination of respondent's cultural practices and cultural consumption by the social class of the respondent - determined by education, economic status, location etc. - has been undermined. We are therefore faced with disintegration of stable class structures that would manifest themselves in relatively stable cultural taste and practices. The correlation between social class and lifestyles (cultural consumption in different spheres - from leisure time to media consumption and music taste) still exists, but the nature of the connection between objective class and its cultural articulation in a particular society is to be explored. The aim of the researchers was to discover the inherent logic that motivates cultural practices by studying relationship of respondents' cultural preferences, consumption and practices with their world view, political attitudes, and social position. A typology of of cultural consumption in Slovenia and its correlation with socio-demographic characteristics, values and political attitudes of the respondents was developed.