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KiS baner

Vol. 69 No. 1 (2025): Sociology of children and childhood

Articles and essays

"All people are equal, and I'm not a snob...". On strategies of differentiation and hierarchization in the field of music: O strategiach różnicowania i oceny w obszarze muzyki

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35757/KiS.2025.69.1.10
Submitted: April 24, 2024
Published: March 21, 2025

Abstract

The purpose of the article is an attempt to show how music can be used in the process of establishing symbolic boundaries - how do people draw dividing lines based on musical taste and what criteria do they use? The analysis presented in the text is based on a qualitative study conducted in 2021 with respondents representing 5 different socio-professional categories. From the statements of the interviewees, 3 criteria emerge that have the strongest impact on the differentiation of Poles' musical tastes. These are: social origin, level of education and place of residence (regional differences; urban-rural divide; division into eastern and western Poland). In addition, based on the empirical material, 4 types of strategies for evaluating and prioritizing musical tastes were distinguished: value-adding, egalitarian, ambivalent and neutral. In the studied group, the most popular strategy is ambivalent (i.e., combining valuing elements with beliefs about the non-hierarchical nature of the cultural world within a single narrative), which appears in almost half of the respondents, and most often in representatives of cultural elites and middle- and lower-level white-collar workers.

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