The Effect of Social Mobility on Cultural Barriers in Poland
The Effect of Social Mobility on Cultural Barriers in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The main aim of this article is to show to what extent social mobility weakens cultural barriers. The findings are based on the results of a study on the stratification of musical tastes conducted in Poland in 2019 on a nationwide random sample. We demonstrate that upwardly mobile individuals adapt more to their status of origin than to their new position. Our results also disconfirm hypotheses concerning the “socialization” of downwardly mobile individuals to the highbrow culture. It shows that individuals moving down are closer to the lower classes in participation in culture as compared to “stayers.” The results suggest an important shift: the upwardly mobile have ceased to translate their occupational success into a more esteemed culture to gain social approval. Respectively, the skidders do not resist the status implications of downward mobility by denying failure and striving to compensate socio-economic degradation with sharing their tastes with their status peers.

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