Conceptualising Cultural Environments Lecture Four: The Economic and Political Significance of Cultural Consumption – the demand for events

Understanding Demand  Demand is an economic concept that attempts to describe the relationship between a product, price and purchase  In terms of cultural consumption this is generally seen to be represented in terms of participation in a particular activity  Going to a gig  Taking part in a sporting activity  But, demand is not always just about those people who take part – we need to take into account those people who do not participate  This is particularly important in the public sector

Understanding Demand  We can look at demand in various different ways  We may measure effective demand  Essentially counting the number of participants  Latent demand  An unfulfilled demand  We need to think about how we get people to realise that they have a need/want that they wish to fulfil  Deferred demand  Occurs when we do not have the physical resources to do something  Potential demand  Occurs when we do not have the personal resources to do something

The Economics of Cultural Consumption  There are many factors which influence our cultural consumption  The price of many cultural products is multi-faceted  E.g. going to the a music festival  Time trade-off  What else could/should you be doing at that time?  Average cost  The higher the average cost the lower the participation  Marginal cost  Determines frequency  E.g. once equipment is bought it may be cheaper to do

The Economics of Cultural Consumption  The demand for cultural products can be seen to be elastic in that demand may change as price changes  We can segment and target markets differently  Can use intelligent pricing  Remember, cheap is not always good!  Cultural products are often seen to be ‘income elastic’ – they become important when people have spare income but can be the first thing to go when this is not the case

The Demand for Culture

Cultural Taste  To understand cultural consumption in this way is somewhat simplistic  There are various other factors which influence the cultural choices that we make  Bourdieu (1977) suggests that we live in a world of ‘fields’ which are comprised of a series of institutions, rules, rituals, conventions, categories, designations, appointments and titles which constitute an objective hierarchy which produces and authorizes certain discourses and activities (Webb et al, 2002:21-22)  It is these fields which allow us to construct and display our identity via consumption

Understanding Capital  In order to negotiate these various fields a level of cultural capital is required  Cultural capital refers to social assets which allow us to understand and negotiate certain fields  Bourdieu (1986) suggests that there are four types of capital:  Economic capital (financial resources)  Social capital (our links to other people)  Cultural capital (knowledge, skills and education which give us an advantage over others)  Symbolic capital (resources based on who we are and our position within society)

Cultural Capital  Bourdieu (1986) breaks cultural capital down into three forms  Institutionalised cultural capital  Most commonly in the form of educational/academic awards and recognition  Objectified cultural capital  Ownership of cultural goods and products  But, there is a difference between ownership and consumption  Embodied cultural capital  Is bestowed upon us

Events as Fields of Distinction  Essentially cultural fields offer us a means of shaping our identity via distinction and domination  Consuming different events says different things about us  We can also see aspects of differentiation and domination within events  How do we manage this???