Page 111 - Cultural Change and Ordinary Life

102 Cultural change and ordinary life

Thus, in this view as a group and as individuals the middle class con-
tinues to accumulate capital. For Skeggs, then the middle-class omnivore
involves an individual who is accumulative. He or she adds patterns of culture
to their identity, even if they do not necessarily go into these in depth (see,
for example, Erickson 1996). This view that omnivorousness is a strategy to
reinforce class distinction and differential class power is also advanced by Sayer
(2005). Drawing on the work of Skeggs and Warde et al., he argues that:
Attempts at mixing downwards seem to imply a refusal of advantage and
symbolic violence, raising the obvious question: ‘What’s in it for them?’
The outsider may merely want to pass as having a different class position
from her own out of self-interest, to gain access to the internal goods of
other social classes, to be a social chameleon in order to get the best of all
social worlds.
(Sayer 2005: 173)
However, while concurring with what can therefore be seen as the down-
side of omnivorousness, in accord with his other arguments (see Chapter 6),
Sayer also suggests that there may be other more positive aspects of this pro-
cess. Thus while these shifts in culture and taste cannot simply be seen as
promoting greater tolerance and openness and indeed there is a significant
aspect of promotion of new forms of distinction, the idea of crossing class
boundaries should not be seen in simple negative terms.

Conclusion
While, in many respects, the picture is more mixed than Peterson’s initial
arguments would suggest, in that both the extent of omnivorousness and the
nature of the shift in power and status that it represents have been debated, it
is clear that there is a pattern of social and cultural change here that is signifi-
cant. In terms of the context in which I set this discussion at the beginning of
the chapter, the analysis of the omnivore idea suggests that the modes of
cultural fragmentation (and reconstitution) involve processes of change that
can be theorized in terms of shifts in the nature of modernity. Indeed, during
the course of the height of the debate about postmodernity, there were
arguments that new forms of postmodern culture were associated with the
new middle class and this became a sub-theme in the debate (see, for example,
Pfeil 1990). A key point then is that modes of social change represented in that
debate have clear significance, even if the attempt to unify them under the
banner of ‘postmodernism’ was ultimately too crude. It is important, I suggest,
to pay attention to precisely these shifts. An important point about the omni-
vore thesis in this context is that it rests on some detailed evidence about
cultural change. In this sense it has been a real stimulus to attention to cultural
patterns that do not simply rest on speculation. This is of major importance, as
we now have a significant level of evidence about cultural patterns that would
not have existed otherwise. More of this work, which also recognizes the
importance of qualitative work and context, can only be of benefit.
It is also important to recognize that the media drenching of ordinary
life that is a core theme of this book is an important driver and resource for the