Inequality in Access to Social Capital:
Assessing the Role of Cultural Practices
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These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2023-02-14
Acceptance date: 2023-08-24
Publication date: 2023-12-13
Polish Sociological Review 2023;224(4):419-440
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Previous research in social science established the existence of mutual relationship between cultural
tastes and social networks. What is less known, however, is how this connectivity translates into tangible social
benefits (social capital). By applying the resource generator tool, the article explores the extent to which access to
different social resources (social capital) is related to pursuing different cultural activities, independent of social
standing and network features. Empirically, the possibilities of locally representative survey data (N = 1010) from
Poland (2017) are exploited. The analysis brings two main findings: (i) participation in elite culture is positively
associated with better access to instrumental resources (lending money, job assistance), (ii) while popular culture
is more relevant to “information and (cultural) influences” social capital and to general access to resources. The
contribution of the study is to show that cultural consumption may assist in the accumulation of important social
resources and thus contribute to solidifying social inequalities
FUNDING
National Science Centre, Poland. Grant numer: 2016/21/D/HS6/02424 and Excellence Initiative—Research University (University of Wrocław): Project no. 0320/2020/20, task no. 4, decision no. BPIDUB.4610.4.2023.KG