The Place of Culture in the Studies of Social Stratification and Social Mobility

Gendered Structure in Class Reproduction and Cultural Reproduction

Abstract

Why is that many sociologists say that the theory of cultural reproduction coined by Bourdieu has no applicability to Japan? I have shown that there is a structural mechanism that conceals cultural reproduction in Japanese society. Most high status men become cultural omnivores who are familiar with both popular culture and high culture, but overall men are not major consumers of high culture. Because the public field is occupied mainly by men, their patterns of cultural consumption are taken to stand for the Japanese pattern as a whole and thus Japanese culture is seen as popular and equalitarian. High culture and its reproduction receives little attention because it is largely concealed in private domains dominated by women.