Research under this theme will focus on social cohesion, on the possible expansion of the social groups less integrated, and on the closures that could develop consequently. The research questions will revolve around the following topics: (i) Ethnicity and immigration. Could ethnicity exert a durable influence on social stratification in the European Union? (ii) Social exclusion and urban inequalities. To what extent do social inequalities vary according to the context in which they are lived? (iii) Cultural and Life-style differentiation. Are social classes dying and are the highly industrialized modem western societies no more hierarchically structured by socio-economic strata as they used to be? The work of this research group aims at making a substantial contribution to this debate. First, a wide range of activities from monetary consumption, cultural participation and value orientation will be analysed through a variety of national data-sets in order to get a better appreciation of the degree to which the general claim of “destructuration” is valid. Second, analyses of differences in cultural consumption will be carried out on the basis of clear conceptual distinctions between class positions and status order, in the Weberian tradition.
SOCCULT: Cultural and Social Differentiation