How Cultural Capital, Habitus and Class Influence The Responses of Older Adults To The Field of Contemporary Visual Art

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Poetics 41 (2013) 456480

www.elsevier.com/locate/poetic
How cultural capital, habitus and class influence

the responses of older adults to the field of
contemporary visual art
Andrew Newman *, Anna Goulding, Christopher Whitehead
International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, School of Arts and Cultures, University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
Available online 23 August 2013
Abstract
This article explores the responses of 38 older people to contemporary visual art through the results of a
28-month study entitled, Contemporary Visual Art and Identity Construction: Wellbeing amongst Older
People. A framework for the analysis is provided by previous work on the consumption of art and by
Bourdieus constructs of cultural capital, habitus and field. Five groups of older people, with a range of
different backgrounds, were taken to galleries and their responses were recorded, transcribed and analysed.
It is concluded that participants responses are influenced by their cultural capital, habitus and classwhich,
in turn, are affected by their life course experiences. Those who could not recognise the field (e.g., did not
view contemporary art as art) created their own meanings that they associated with the artworks.
Evidence indicates that group dynamics and class mobility are likewise important. Participants also used the
experience to respond to real or anticipated age-associated deficits.
# 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY license.
Keywords: Older people; Contemporary visual art; Cultural capital; Habitus; Class
1. Introduction
This article explores how 38 older people experienced the field of contemporary visual art by
analysing the results of a 28-month (May 2009October 2011) study based in northeast England,
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Newman), [email protected] (A. Goulding),
[email protected] (C. Whitehead).
0304-422X # 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY license.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2013.07.001
A. Newman et al. / Poetics 41 (2013) 456480
457
UK. The study was funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme1which is an 8year initiative designed to improve the lives of older people and is supported by five UK
government research councils. The project involved recruiting five groups of older people
from a variety of different backgrounds, including people who had a history of visiting art
galleries and people who did not. The five groups ranged from the homogeneous (of a similar
social class and age) to the heterogeneous (of a wider range in social class and age). Once the
groups were selected, baseline datafor example, attitudes towards art and demographic
informationwere recorded, and then each group was taken to view different exhibitions at
local galleries three times over the duration of the project. Groups had a guided tour, and their
members were then asked (in focus groups) to reflect upon what they had seentheir
responses were recorded, transcribed and analysed. As part of this larger project, the present
article develops analysis presented by Newman (2013), which was used to interrogate
assumptions that underpin cultural policy derived from the New Public Management
(Dunleavy and Hood, 1994).2
In order to understand the data provided by the groups of older people, the exhibitions that
they attended (and the galleries at which those exhibitions were held) are viewed as having
positions within a Bourdieusian field (Bourdieu, 1984; Grenfell and Hardy, 2003, 2007; Reay,
2004; Swartz, 1997). The field positions of the galleries enable them to make specific
epistemological propositions and claims with regard to artfor example, about the value of a
particular artists work or an art form.
Responses to contemporary visual art can be seen as being determined by respondents
cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1997), habitus (Bourdieu, 1984; Reay, 2004) and social class
(Silva, 2006), which may or may not have changed over their life course. For some people,
navigating the field of contemporary visual art may be effortless and unconscious. However,
for other people, it may represent fraught terrain because of the perception that contemporary
art has elite cultural status while also being opaque in its meaning and requiring special
cultural competencies among those who appreciate it (Whitehead, 2012). The above
constructs (e.g., habitus), however, do not occur in a vacuum. For example, ageing, period
and cohort effects (Alwin et al., 2006, explained below) are understood as impinging upon
habitus. While period and cohort effects are not observable in qualitative studies such as this
one, the impacts of life course experience and the social, psychological and physical effects
of ageing are discernible.
The question that this article addresses is thus as follows: What role do cultural capital,
habitus and class play in the responses of the older adults in the research project to the field of
contemporary visual artand are those constructs shaped by aspects of the life course (e.g.,
ageing)? This article is organised in the following way. Firstly, research on the consumption
of culture is briefly explored, particularly that dealing with the visual arts. After this, two
studies looking at the consumption of art by older people are described, including one that
focuses upon barriers to their engagement. The theoretical model used is then presented,
followed by a description of the data and methods, the analysis, and, finally, the concluding
discussion.
http://www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/.
Dunleavy and Hood (1994, p. 9) describe the New Public Management as a way of reorganising public sector bodies
to bring their management, reporting and accounting approaches closer to business methods.
2
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2. The consumption of the visual arts

There is a long history of studies of participation in cultural activities, including participation in
the visual arts. For example, Schuster (2007) identifies 20 different studies covering 35 countries
that were mainly carried out for management or policy purposes, such as tracking progress towards
achieving targets for increasing attendance at arts events in the UK. The lack of comparability in the
ways the data were collected and how terms were defined means that generalised statements about
the nature of participation across the datasets concerned are difficult to make and, hence, Schusters
paper focuses upon methodological issues. No conclusions are drawn about the influence of specific
factors, such as social class, on participation.
However, such factors are considered by a quantitative study of social stratification and
cultural consumption that considered the visual arts as part of the analysis, reported upon by Chan
and Goldthorpe (2007). This used the 2001 Arts in England Survey carried out by the Social
Survey Division of the UK Office for National Statistics on behalf of Arts Council England. They
conclude that patterns of consumption in the visual arts are stratified mainly in terms of status
and education (Chan and Goldthorpe, 2007, p. 184) and that the highly educated remain the
main audience at art galleries.
According to Bennett et al. (2009), consumption of the visual arts generally has been
neglected as an area of study. As part of the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion3 project,
which aimed to replicate and to update Bourdieus (1984) work, the authors explored qualitative
responses to J.M.W. Turners The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Broken Up
(1838) and David Hockneys Paper Pools (1980), as well as examining general visual arts
consumption in England through interviews and focus groups and through a quantitative survey.
They surmise that, in the visual arts, disagreements about taste are found to be class-based, but
other differences, particularly those of gender, age and ethnicity, intersect and at times change the
inflections of class (Bennett et al., 2009, p. 130). The ways that the influence of class is inflected
by other differences is also seen in the work of Halle (1993). In his study, art in homes was
examined in four areas of the New York region that provided a cross section of social classes and
neighbourhoods. The taste for depopulated landscapes, for example, cut across the classes but the
paintings chosen to represent that theme in homes in Manhattan (most advantaged) and
Greenpoint (least advantaged) were influenced by respective class positions. Of importance to
this article are the findings about the consumption of avant-garde or abstract art. Halle (1993, p.
122) finds that abstract art is an elite taste, concentrated among sections of the middle and upper
classes. Yet, he notes, even amongst the most advantaged, a sizable minority disliked abstract
art. A common view from all class groupings amongst those who disliked this art form was that it
had no meaning and was, therefore, fraudulent. For those who liked it, its decorative qualities
were important as well as its perceived capacity to provoke an imaginative response. Halle
concludes that the meanings encoded by artists are not necessarily imposed or transmitted and
that viewers often construct their own meanings in response to artworks.
Whereas the above works points to such things as class, Scherger (2009) demonstrates the
importance of age as a variable influencing cultural consumption, doing so through an analysis of
the UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sports Taking Part survey.4 She states
http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/cultural-capital-and-social-exclusion/project-summary.php.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/research_and_statistics/4828.aspx. This quantitative survey has been running continuously since 2005 and surveys about 29,000 people (aged 16 and above).
4
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that, most social science studies of cultural activity focus on class, gender and ethnicity and at
best treat age as a background variable that is rarely questioned further (Scherger, 2009, p. 23).
She notes that the differences between different cultural practices can be traced back to
underlying dimensions such as the (questionable) hierarchy of practices, how far physical
health and wellbeing are required and whether special abilities are necessary to practice the
activity (Scherger, 2009, p. 30). However, the lessons she draws have to be qualified by that fact
that the cross-sectional nature of the data means that the interplay of different factors in age
differences in cultural participation cannot be demonstrated in detail (Scherger, 2009, p. 28). A
possible reason given for the identified declining participation amongst older people is that
particular cohorts may have been socialised differently. For example, moves towards
multiculturalism and greater inclusivity (DiMaggio and Mukhtar, 2004, p. 190) may
preferentially influence cohorts born after the Second World War in comparison to their
parents. Scherger (2009, p. 41) concludes that the reasons why a 60-year-old person does not
go to the cinema are different to the reasons that a 20-year-old does not go, as the influence of
class and age interact.
Using the results of the Taking Part survey, as well, Keaney and Oskala (2007) state that the
5564 age group is highly engaged with the arts but participation declines noticeably after the age
of 65. While it could be predicted that the factors that determine arts engagement for the whole
population would equally apply to older people, certain demographic characteristics that
predispose people to non-engagement are more prevalent amongst the older population. These
characteristics are having a limiting disability or illness, being on a low income, living alone,
having low levels of educational attainment, and being of lower socioeconomic status (Keaney
and Oskala, 2007, p. 339). They conclude, education appears to be one of the strongest
predictors of arts engagement, with increasingly high rates of attendance and participation
amongst older adults with higher educational qualifications (Keaney and Oskala, 2007, p. 345).
The analysis presented in this article adds to existing work through its focus on older people
and through its qualitative approach. Quantitative studies can give information about who is
attending, how people behave and how the development in participation has been, but not about
why people behave as they do (Bille, 2008, p. 114). It is also evident that some of the existing
qualitative work has limited explanatory value. For example, in Bennett et al. (2009), respondents
are classified as confident amateurs, relaxed consumers and defensive individuals
categories that would benefit from more unpacking.
3. Theoretical framework
The responses of the participants in the project have been explored using Bourdieus (1984)
view that practice is produced through the interaction of the constructs of field, cultural capital
and habitus. This perspective has been chosen because it represents a way of explaining human
motivations and behaviours within unequal social environments, allowing some of the
theoretically important themes to be understood in the context of gallery visiting. This approach
also helps to explain the class differences mentioned in the previous section.
Bourdieu (1983, p. 312) states that the artistic field is a:
Field of forces, but it is also a field of struggles tending to transform or conserve this field of
forces. The network of objective relations between positions [within the field] subtends and
orients the strategies that the occupants of the different positions implement in their
struggles to defend or improve their positions.
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Bourdieu (1984, p. 226) also writes that, in a given field, the relationship of distinction is
objectively described within it, and is reactivated, intentionally or not with each act of
consumption. Seen in this light, the field of contemporary visual art is inherently unequal
some peoples opinions about the meaning and value of the art hold more sway than do others.
That is, some opinions have more legitimacy.
Legitimacy in the field of contemporary visual art is defined by those who have dominant field
positions, such as certain artists, curators and critics. While there may be debate about the relative
merits of particular artists and approaches, there is overall agreement about what constitutes good
and bad artistic practiceeven if one feature of the field of contemporary art is its
accommodation of challenging new approaches, so long as they can achieve consensual
legitimacy through positive critical acclaim (see Johnson et al., 2006). However, this legitimacy
is not fixed but evolves over time with new work becoming popular while other work becomes
less so (Braden, 2009). The classification of art followed in this analysis is provided by Grenfell
and Hardy (2003, 2007), as rear-guard, consecrated avant-garde, and avant-garde. They state of
an artist:
His or her passage through the field of his or her generation may be fast or slow according
to the degree of recognised legitimacy bestowed on him or her. And his or her generation
itself may establish a consecrated position, or simply pass out of the current field, which
contains the rear-guard tradition as well as successive generations of avant-garde defined in
opposition to it and each other. (Grenfell and Hardy, 2003, p .27)
It is anticipated that the status given to particular artists or venues, and the extent to which they
are recognised by participants, will influence the responses of the participants in this research.
How might they respond? Swartz (1997, p. 125) identifies three different field strategies:
Conservation strategies tend to be pursued by those who hold dominant field positions and
enjoy seniority in the field. Strategies of succession are attempts to gain access to dominant
positions in a field and are generally pursued by new entrants. Finally, strategies of
subversion are pursued by those who expect to gain little from the dominant groups.
These strategies are more associated with elite actors within the field, but the framework can be of
benefit in understanding other groups behaviour. Subversion, in this instance, might involve
challenging how art is defined by the field of contemporary visual art if the viewer is unable to
make sense of (i.e., decode) art with which they are confronted. However, a weak field position
might mean that such a challenge would not succeed and would have no purchase in the field
itself. It may, nevertheless, have purchase with social groupings with similar habitus, but a weak
field position may still mean that the limited means and resources available for mounting such
challenges (e.g., writing letters to newspapers, not visiting) would be unlikely to lend any power
to influence the legitimacy of the field. Feelings of exclusion or inclusion amongst respondents,
then, might be theorised as relating to feelings of competence or incompetence associated with
the ability to decode or recognise the field.
The inequalities within fields result, in part, from differences in cultural capital that is used by
actors to position themselves. Bourdieu (1997, p. 47) sees cultural capital as existing in three
forms. The first is in an embodied state, in the form of long-lasting dispositions of the mind and
body (Bourdieu, 1997, p. 47), the accumulation of which involves investment in the self and
involves external wealth being converted into an integral part of the person (Bourdieu, 1997, p.
48). The second is an objectified form referring to objects such as, books, works of art that
require specialised cultural abilities to use (Swartz, 1997, p. 76). The third is an institutionalised
461
state that refers to educational qualifications. While, historically, cultural capital was understood
as being in opposition to popular culture, it now encompasses items from popular repertoires
(Prieur and Savage, 2011, p. 578), being understood as symbolically valued cultural
accoutrements and attitudes (Grenfell and Hardy, 2007, p. 30).
The third construct used in this article is that of habitus. Swartz (1997, p. 103) states that
habitus generates perceptions, aspirations, and practices that correspond to the structuring
properties of earlier socialisation. Reay (2004) explains habitus as consisting of four related
aspects. The first of these is embodiment, where the body is in the social world and the social
world is in the body (Reay, 2004, p. 432). The second views habitus as being able to generate a
wide range of possible actions, but while allowing individual agency, it also predisposes
individuals towards certain ways of behaving (Reay, 2004, p. 433). The third aspect views
habitus as a compilation of collective and individual trajectories. The fourth views it as a complex
interplay between past and present. Habitus is viewed as being responsive to the present
environment: . . .current circumstances are not there just to be acted upon, but are internalised
and become yet another layer to add to earlier socialisations (Reay, 2004, p. 434). Habitus can
be replicated by encountering a field that reproduces its dispositions or it can be transformed,
enabling conditions of living that can be very different to initial ones (Reay, 2004, p. 435).
This article explores how older persons engagement or non-engagement with the field of art
(particularly the avant-garde) is shaped by their stocks of cultural capital and their habitus being
marked by the inequalities that are inherent within them. These inequalities help to explain how
participants accept or reject avant-garde art and the field strategies of conservation, succession or
subversion that they sometimes adopt when faced with such art.
4. Data and methodology
A qualitative approach was adopted for this study, as it was more likely to gauge subtle shifts in
affect over the life of the project (Denscombe, 2003, p. 167). Five groups of participants were
recruited from the categories identified by Keaney and Oskala (2007) as being vulnerable to
exclusion from the arts. These were: limiting disability or illness; low income; living alone; low
levels of educational attainment; and lower socioeconomic status. However, we felt that to provide a
point of comparison, it was also necessary to recruit some who did not fall into these categories.
Contacts were provided by local organisations that were subsequently invited to become members
of the projects management group. These organisations consisted of the BALTIC Centre for
Contemporary Art; Gateshead Older Peoples Assembly; Equal Arts (an older persons arts agency
for northeast England); the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland; and the local
branch of Age UK, a national UK charity promoting the rights of older people.
Some of the recruited groups of older people were pre-existing, while other groups came
together specifically for this research, although their members already belonged to a common
organisation. For example, the sheltered accommodation group members lived in the same place
and knew each other, but they had not come together for activities before they volunteered to take
part in the study. In the recruitment process, an appointment was made and the project
introduced. The opportunity was then given to volunteer and details of those who agreed to take
part were recorded. Ethnically, all participants were White British (Dobbs et al., 2006).5 Contacts
5
This publication was produced by the UK Office for National Statistics, and it provides categories that are accepted in
the UK http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/index.html.
462
were made with local black and minority ethnic groups, but none of those contacted wished to
take part. It was decided not to recruit those suffering from dementia and ethical approval was
applied for and received from Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on that basis.
This was because the research team lacked the specialist skills needed to work with those with
this condition.6
Data were collected at seven points during the project for each group. For the baseline data,
one-to-one interviews were offered (as opposed to focus groups), and this offer was taken by the
sheltered accommodation group. In total, 38 older people were recruited across the five groups
with numbers of between 6 and 9 in each group, which allowed discussion to take place
addressing a range of topics, including their educational histories, general perceptions about
ageing, and attitudes towards contemporary visual art.
Each group visited three exhibitions over the lifetime of the project, the final one being chosen
by the respondents. A description of the venues and shows attended is provided in Appendix A of
the online supplement. The groups were taken to the venue by minibus or taxi, given lunch and
then given a guided tour around the show by a curator or education officer (apart from Belsay
Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberlandwhere a tour was not available). Focus groups were
then used to record responses to the experience of the visits (see Wilkinson, 2004). Two members
of the research team were present during the focus groups, with one being a moderator and the
other observing and making notes. The stimuli for the discussion were the exhibition and gallery
within which it was displayed. The moderator initiated the discussion, and then the group
members discussed the exhibition and venue amongst themselves, responding to comments that
others in the group made. Occasionally, the moderator would steer the conversation back to the
exhibition and ensured that all were able to make a contribution. Participants responded to what
they had seen and heard in the guided tour without a structure being imposed by the moderator.
Occasionally, conversations between participants in the gallery were recorded.
The criteria used to choose the shows and venues were that they represented different
positions in the field of contemporary visual artbeing mainly avant-garde, but including some
consecrated avant-garde and rear-guard works (see Grenfell and Hardy, 2003, 2007). It was also
important to be able to visit the venues and return participants to their homes easily to prevent
tiredness. Private spaces in venues were made available to act as a base, for discussions, as well as
for refreshments.
The focus groups were of between 30 and 120 minutes duration and were recorded and
transcribed. In total, there were 56 transcripts, which were then coded using Nvivo 9.7 The coding
was informed by close reading of the transcripts by the research team, by previous work on the
consumption of the arts generally and the consumption of the arts by older people in particular,
and by the theoretical framework adopted. Inferences about respondents engagement were
derived from reactions and strategies they were seen to employ during the visits.
The concepts introduced in the section on theory are used for the purposes of the analysis in
the following way. The cultural capital of the participants is understood in terms of education
the institutionalised form mentioned by Bourdieu (1997). The significance of this, in the older
population, is noted by Scherger (2009, p. 35), who states from her study of the UKs Taking Part
survey (mentioned above) that, two thirds of the respondents over 75 years old do not have any
6
Guidance on capacity was provided by specialists in Newcastle Universitys Institute for Ageing and Health. All
participants gave informed consent and signed a form agreeing to take part.
7
This is software designed to help manage qualitative data (http://www.qsrinternational.com/).
463
educational qualifications. Secondly, how respondents interpret the art they saw is seen in terms
of their habitusas that is what shapes perceptions and dispositions (Swartz, 1997). Both habitus
and cultural capital are implicated in class, with the latter defined by Silva (2008, p. 268) as the
positions in a hierarchical social order occupied by individuals in social space, according to
which aesthetic engagements will vary. The classification of social class in this article is based
upon occupations as provided by The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NSSEC).8 This consists of 8 groupings that are used to position the respondents as follows:
1. Higher managerial and professional occupations.
2. Lower managerial, administrative and professional occupations.
3. Intermediate occupations.
4. Small employers and own account workers.
5. Lower supervisory and technical occupations.
6. Semi-routine occupations.
7. Routine occupations.
8. Never worked or long-term unemployed.
Age, cohort and period effects, as described by Alwin et al. (2006), contribute to the habitus of
participants. These authors state that the effects of historical time can be defined in terms of
cohort effects, which are described as the stable differences among birth cohorts as a result of
the historical circumstances of their development (Alwin et al., 2006, p. 22). Period effects can
be identified when an entire social group is affected by historical events, such as war, an
economic depression, or social movement (Alwin et al., 2006, p. 21). However, there are
difficulties in using this model empirically. Idler (2006, p. 286) observes that although age,
cohort and period effects are conceptually distinct they are analytically inseparable (because any
two determine the third) and more importantly they often appear in complex interactions.
Because of these difficulties, and the fact that cohort and period effects are normally associated
with large-scale quantitative studies, no attempts are made to observe them directly within the
qualitative analysis presented in this article. However, it is possible to consider the effects of
certain life experiences that respondents might have had and how that influences the
interpretations they make in response to the artworks. As their ages range from 61 to 90,
differences in interpretation caused by this are expected. As ageing effects are viewed as the
physical, psychosocial and social effects of ageing (Scherger, 2009), some evidence of these
influencing responses is expected to be seen in individuals, and this is discussed in Section 5.5.
4.1. Groups recruited to the project
4.1.1. Sheltered accommodation group, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
This group consisted of 7 women with an age range of 6290 who live in sheltered
accommodation in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. They found it difficult to live independently, and
they had lived locally before taking up residence. All of the group, apart from two, were over 68;
of the younger ones, a 64-year-old suffered from learning difficulties and a 62-year-old was deaf
and had recently been widowed (and, subsequent to the research, she moved out of the sheltered
accommodation unit). All apart from the 62-year-old (who had been a nurse) left school aged 14
8
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/classifications/current-standard-classifications/soc2010/soc2010-volume3-ns-secrebased-on-soc2010user-manual/index.html.
464
or 15 and went into employment immediately working in occupations such as cook; factory
worker; punch card operator; and sales person (NS-SEC classes 5, 6 and 7). They were strongly
marked by their class origins and some class mobility was evident, with a 68-year-old obtaining a
position as a salesperson for a local construction company. This group visited the BALTIC Centre
for Contemporary Art to see Parrworld and A Needle Women (12 November 2009), the Shipley
Art Gallery to see Knitted Lives (9 March 2010), and the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art
to see Systematic (15 June 2010).
4.1.2. Writers group, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
This group, which dated from 1986, consisted of 6 women who ranged from 64 to 87 yearsold, 5 of whom were over 72. One member had O and A levels,9 while the others left school
without qualifications at age 14 or 15. Three returned to educational courses, with one obtaining a
degree at age 62. Occupations mentioned included: cook; cleaner; shop worker; nurse; social
worker; probation officer; housewife; secretary; and factory worker. The occupations of this
group would have originally placed them in classes 5, 6 and 7 of the NS-SEC. However, class
mobility has meant that, for some, this changed over their life course. This group identified
themselves proudly as working class. They visited the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art to
see Rank (17 June 2009), the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art to see Parrworld and A
Needle Women (26 November 2009), and the Great North Museum: Hancock (24 March 2010).
4.1.3. Group recruited from an advocacy organisation for older people, Gateshead, Tyne
and Wear
This group consisted of 9 individuals, 6 females and 3 males, who ranged from 63 to 83 years
old. This was a mixed group in terms of both age and class. Three were aged 6364, while 6 were
aged between 79 and 83. Occupations included: cook; civil servant; teacher; cabaret singer;
private industry worker; dental nurse; shop manageress; and university researcher (younger NSSEC groups 1 and 2 and older groups 2 and 3). Educational qualifications obtained ranged from
none to a PhD. They visited the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art to see Parrworld and A
Needle Women (26 November 2009), the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art to see the show
by Semiconductor (10 March 2010), and Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens to see Extraordinary
Measures (12 May 2010).
4.1.4. Group recruited from a daytime film club for the over 60s in Newcastle upon Tyne,
Tyne and Wear (henceforth called the film group)
This group contained 3 females and 4 males. They ranged in age from 61 to 65 years-old, with
all but one being placed in NS-SEC classes 1 and 2. Previous occupations, included: primary
school teacher; chartered engineer; social worker; and occupational psychologist; and one had a
lower supervisory and technical (class 5) job at a local brewery. All, apart from the former
brewery worker, were educated to degree level, with the primary school teacher returning to
education and qualifying as a teacher after leaving school at 16. They visited the Northern
Gallery for Contemporary Art to see the show by Semiconductor (23 March 2010), the BALTIC
9
O levels and A levels are examinations taken by children in British schools at ages of 16 and 18 respectively
although O levels were replaced by the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in 1988 in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland.
465
Centre for Contemporary Art to see a show by Jenny Holzer (13 May 2010), and a show by
Anselm Kiefer (14 October 2010).
4.1.5. Mens group recruited from a live at home scheme, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
This group consisted of 9 men who ranged in age from 62 to 88 years old (the 62-year-old was
disabled and the ages for the others ranged from 72 to 88 years). Previous occupations mentioned
included: company director; maintenance electrician; clerk; painter and decorator; and
maintenance fitter for a coalmine. Apart from a 73-year-old who had become a company director
(despite having a similar background to the others), they were classed as NS-SEC groups 5, 6,
and 7. The 62-year-old member of the group left school with O levels, while the others left at
14 or 15 without educational qualifications. Apart from the 73-year-old, they remained in their
original occupation. However, some of their children and grandchildren demonstrated class
mobility, taking middle class occupations such as teacher and gaining places at prestigious
universities. They visited the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art to see the show by
Semiconductor (28 April 2010), the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art to see a show by
Cornelia Parker (8 September 2010), and the Hatton Gallery to see Hugh Stoneman: Master
PrinterThe Art Fund Archive (3 November 2010).
It is not claimed that the above groups are representative of the older population, but they do
allow the impact of cultural capital, habitus and class on the consumption of contemporary visual
art to be explored.
5. Analysis
Differences in responses could be identified between broad groupings of working class older
participants aged 6890 years (comprising the sheltered accommodation and live at home
scheme groups) and middle class younger participants aged 6165 years (comprising the film
group). However, class differences were blurred both in the writers group and the group
recruited from the advocacy organisation, which had a more complex profile, being mixed in
terms of class and life course trajectory. These latter groups are considered in separate sections
below, as will a consideration of the general impact of ageing.
5.1. Working class older participants 6890 years: live at home scheme and sheltered
accommodation groups
While both these groups have individual younger members, the analysis here focuses on the
older ones. These older participants remained strongly marked by their original socio-economic
position with mostexcept for the 73-year-old who became a company directorcontinuing
with their original occupations over their careers. Apart from this company director, the others
had occupations classed as groups 5, 6 and 7 (NS-SEC) and had limited educational
opportunitieswith most leaving school at 14 or 15, which is a generational effect for this
group.10
10
This effect relates to changes in the minimum age for leaving school. The 1944 Education Act (enforced in 1947)
increased the leaving age from 14 to 15therefore, in 2009 (when we started the project), those 77 and younger could
have left school at 15, while those older could have left at 14.
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5.1.1. Definitions of art

Within the habitus of participants are embedded ways of classifying and understanding art.
When those embedded ways did not allow them to make sense of the contemporary art that was
offered to them, then their obvious retort was to classify what they saw in the exhibitions as not
art. This approach was typical amongst the working class older respondents.
After visiting the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art to see Heliocentric, the 73-year-old
member of the live at home scheme stated:
Art to me is when you take a hammer and chisel to a big slab of marble and make these
wonderful things that you see round the world and also when you have a paintbrush in your
hand and you see all these paintings of landscapes, birds, horses, cattle and things like that.
That is art.
This demonstrates a form of recognition and engagement with the field of art more broadly, the
rules of whichas understood by this participantare not transferable to the field of
contemporary visual art. The respondents statement also reflects the common tendency
including among these working class respondentsto locate the value of artworks in their
mimetic qualities (in line with mimetic or imitation theory of art). However, as Bourdieu (1993,
p. 217) states:
There is no perception that does not involve an unconscious code and that minimum, and
apparently immediate, comprehension, accessible to the simplest observers and enabling
them to recognise a house or tree, still presupposes partial (unconscious) agreement
between the artist and beholder concerning categories that define the representation of the
real that a historic society hold to be realistic.
Bourdieus point is that even valuing artworks according to their mimetic qualities
involves a process of decoding; arguably, this process of decoding is not fundamentally
different from the decoding that takes place when engaging with more complex artworks,
wherein physical/visual mimesis is not paramount (e.g., conceptual art). But, nevertheless, it
is evident that some individuals field positions, such as that flowing from their class, do not
enable or encourage them to extend their decoding processes to engage constructively with
more avant-garde art.
A member of the live at home schemewho was a 73-year-old widower who had worked
in shipyards and steelworks in Jarrow, Tyne and Wearstated in response to works in the
exhibition Heliocentric (which focus on the sun) at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art,
It was interesting to see the close ups of the sun, but I couldnt associate it with art somehow. I
just dont understand what it was supposed to be. This kind of answer is explained by Bourdieu
(1993, p. 217), who states that since the information presented by the works of art exceeds the
deciphering capabilities of the beholder, he perceives them as devoid of significationor, to be
more precise, of structuration and organisation.
An 83-year-old participant from the live at home scheme attributed this not art
classification to age (rather than class), stating, I think when you are younger, like in our day, art
was a different thing, and you are used to what you were brought up with. However, as abstract
art dates at least to the end of the 19th century, it was present when he was younger. It is possible,
instead, that unequal circulations of representations of contemporary art mean that an individual
might not have been exposed to it. These respondents demonstrate a liking for forms of art that
were representational and demonstrated craft skill, a definition identified in a previous study of
older persons engagement with art (Newman et al., 2012).
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5.1.2. Decoding of artworks/interpretations of art viewed

When asked to respond to particular art pieces and galleries, those in the working class older
group adopted different strategiesdepending on the resources that they could bring to bear
when being asked to reflect on the contemporary art works that they deemed not art. As an
expression of participants habitus, the codes used by this grouping for everyday perception were
applied to make sense of the art works. This included ways of understanding art in generalbut
also involved making links to aspects of participants personal or class histories, being closely
associated with their generation, which allowed them to make sense of what they were looking at
but had, in many cases, little relationship to the field of contemporary art in art historical terms.
This was apparently carried out without difficulty and was typical of these respondents.
Of course, the ability of the respondents to make sense of the artworks using everyday codes
was dependent on whether relevant themes could be identified. Consider, for example, the
response of an 82-year-old female member of the sheltered accommodation group. When
encountering the artwork, Mountain Rescue Helicopter Gunship (1992, Dinah Prentice), which
had been inspired by the artists experience as a child in wartime Germany, the older woman
stated:
I was bombed out three times during the war. If you havent seen that, you cant imagine
that, I can. The church was completely wiped out and a school friend of mine was being
taught the organ. He was killed.
Respondents in this grouping used the themes they identified in the artworks to make personal links
with important events in their and their communitys history. This woman from the sheltered
accommodation was making such a link between the artwork and a traumatic event in her
childhood. In this sense, an act of interpretation did take place, but the object of interpretation was
the respondents life experience rather than the artwork, which acted as a catalyst for the
interpretive process. Among this studys participants, this response can only have been produced by
someone of this age who had experienced the effects of World War II at first hand. However, as
Bottero (2010, p. 13) states, even if others had shared these experiences, it does not guarantee
similar responses to the artwork because how to behave must be interpreted and operationalised in
each given circumstance, and because the coordination of habitus depends upon group dynamics,
suggesting that the social circumstances of the visit may also play a part in enabling her response.
In drawing on such everyday codes, the significance of class, gender and generation was
shown during the visit of the sheltered accommodation group to the Knitted Lives exhibition at
the Shipley Art Gallery. The pieces were made in conjunction with two artists, and they reflected
the domestic lives of older women in northeast England. The Shipley Art Gallery has a specialist
collection in the sub-field of contemporary craft, and thisalong with the resemblance of some
of the pieces to mixed-media sculptural installations, which are not uncommon in the field of
contemporary artallowed the gallery to make a value claim about knitting that both subverts
and depends on traditional hierarchies of art. The pieces constructed included a (knitted)
midwifes bike, a cake and make-up. While the participants from the sheltered accommodation
did not have knowledge of the political and epistemological dynamics at play between the galley
and the field of contemporary art, their everyday codes allowed them to identify personally
relevant themes. For instance, a 68-year-old widow stated:
Personally I liked the trolley and the walking stick because it must have took such a lot of
knitting and working out. Then the rambling [a pair of walking boots] as the lady said shed
lost her husband so that brought memories of him back while she was making that.
468
The pieces were made by women of a similar age to the group, which provided the participants
with a particular insight into the artworks. For example, this respondent had lost her husband, as
had the person who had made the piece (an experience that older women share as on average men
do not live as long11). Likewise, many respondents knitted and were impressed by the level of
technical competency shown in constructing the pieces. This led to a discussion about knitting
where respondents spoke about learning to make clothes at school, mentioning that it was
cheaper than having to buy them when money was short. In such discussion, the artwork faded
from consideration, as it stimulated recollections about place and biographies.
5.1.3. Responses to the field of contemporary visual art
By asserting that art should only be defined through particular characteristics (e.g., mimesis)
that are not perceived to be present in contemporary visual art, the respondents in this grouping
are attempting to apply a concept of art learned through previous experience. It might be too
strong an interpretation to say that they are attempting to subvert (Swartz, 1997) the field of
contemporary visual art because they are unable to recognise its codes. Yet, the comments of the
73-year-old from the live at home scheme come close to that, when declaring what is and is not
art (see Section 5.1.1). However, the discussion took place within a contemporary art gallery, and
he was challenging the significance of what he observed being displayed. He recognised that,
because the artworks were present in the gallery, then other people considered them as important,
which prompted him to make a case for his views on what constitutes art.
However, the typical approach of this grouping to view the contemporary work as not art
was not unchanging, suggesting a reappraisal of what constitutes art and, hence, the field of art.
Indeed, there was evidence that a number of the participants learnt some of the codes of
contemporary visual art unconsciously without outwardly expressing any desire to learn more
about the art form and being apparently unaware of their field positions. One example, in
particular, captures this nicely. After her initial visit to the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
in response to the A Needle Women (avant-garde video art), a 68-year-old female stated: It was
pleasant, but I couldnt see no point in it personally. It was a woman standing there with her back
to you. To me the cameramans doing the work. This work meant very little to her, as she was
unable to decode the artwork. Her second visit was to the Shipley Art Gallery, where her
knowledge of baking made her more appreciative of how the works had been constructed:
I thought the spoons and the baking outfit [were] really something because they looked like
wooden spoons but really they werent, they were wired. I just thought it was very clever all
the way through.
While this artwork is still being interpreted on a personal level, her ability to make sense of the art
may have given her confidence and she might have unconsciously been internalising some of the
rules of the field. When she visited the show by Chad McCail (Robots run Zombies for Wealthy
Parasites, 2002avant-garde posters representing societal control) at the Northern Gallery for
Contemporary Art, she was able to discuss the artwork in terms of the intention of the artist:
They were full of life when they started, and as they got through the system they were
slowly changing into black that means they were getting more downtrodden. The teachers
were completely black. At the top of the school, only the tops of their heads were red. I
11
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mortality-ageing/focus-on-older-people/older-people-s-day-2010/index.html.
469
think as an artist he was very much into 1984 the way he looks at things. Big Brother thats
what I was thinking of, not Big Brother on the telly but Big Brother in the future, you know.
This demonstrated how one of the working class older participants was able to decode the art
form in the final of the three visits responding more like the middle class younger group. The
result of encountering a field that she was unfamiliar with was a modification of her habitus
(Reay, 2004). The nature of the artwork concerned must influence the ability of a respondent in
this position to achieve what she did. This response might not have been possible with art that
demanded more specialist knowledge to understand it. However, this modification of her habitus
changed her responses that were initially similar to the rest of the working class older grouping.
According to Bourdieu (1977), reflexivity occurs at moments of mismatch between habitus and
field. A process that might normally be unconscious becomes conscious. However, in this
instance, the mismatch appears to have been resolved unconsciously, perhaps through the
internalisation of the rules of the art form. This reformulation of the self is assumed by Marcia
(2002) to be difficult for older people, which is not the case in this instance.
5.2. Middle class younger participants 6065 years: the film group
All of this group, except for one, were educated to degree level, and they demonstrated a wide
cultural engagement across different art forms (with occupations classed as NS-SEC 1 and 2).
This is illustrated by a 62-year-old female who had been a civil servant and who, when speaking
about her cultural activities, stated:
Cinemas, theatre, dance. I like modern dance. Every now and then, I get fed up with
Newcastle, and I go down to London for a cultural blast. You know Newcastles fine. Ive
lived here for thirty-odd years, but it is small so sometimes I want what only London can
provide.
A 64-year-old former teacher who was also a member of this group stated:
I used to be a playwright, in fact, I still am a playwright, and Ive just got two plays on the
go at the moment. Ive recently done a course on the Renaissance period, and that was
fascinating because it was an area that I knew very little about, and so Ive been seeking out
these pictures, the Titians and the Tintorettos in the National Gallery.
The response of this group to art was one of continual discovery, and it was this context that
framed their engagement with contemporary visual art as part of the research project.
Within this group, there was a general reluctance to define specific characteristics of
contemporary visual art that might preference one artwork over another. The working class older
groups propensity to compare unfavourably what they were looking at with rear-guard or
consecrated avant-garde works was less evident. For some, not being immediately able to decode
an artwork did not necessarily mean that it had no value.For example, as part of the baseline data
collection, a 63-year-old female, who had been a social worker, stated:
If something is recognised as being a wonderful piece of art, and I dont get anything out of
it myself. . .I do struggle with that, but I think its about being open you know. You were
saying that people walk past and say, What a load of rubbish; I would never say that
about anything.
470
This respondent professes that she struggles with art pieces that she cannot immediately decode
and cannot see what others apparently see. Despite the difficulties she faces, her response is not to
dismiss the art, as the group of working class older participants might have done. Openness to
forms of art, which she cannot immediately decode, might be viewed as a necessary precondition to improving her field position. This individual has adopted a relativist stance, in terms
of art, which according to Greenfield (1989, p. 171) makes it difficult for them to pass individual
judgements. This approach was exhibited by all but one of the respondents in this group (a 64year-old male retired engineer) who made judgements about the exhibitions at the BALTIC.

The habitus of these participants had embedded codes that allowed most of them to engage
with the field of contemporary visual art in a way that many of the group of working class older
participants, described above, could not. Most notably, the codes used by the majority of this
group to interpret contemporary visual art incorporated some understanding of the rules of this
specific field, as well as the wider cultural field with which they engaged. This meant that they did
not use their personal/class histories to make sense of the artworks but, instead, attempted to
interpret them in terms of the cultural capital that they perceived was relevant. This led to indepth discussions of the various art pieces they came into contact with. The response to Jenny
Holzers exhibition (avant-garde video art) held at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art by a
63-year-old male retired teacher is indicative. He stated:
I think the more that you spent time with the installation, the more you got from it. She said
there was five hours worth of text, thats a lot of text but at the same time it had a kind of
mesmeric and hypnotic quality about it. You couldnt take your eyes off it.
This approach was representative among the other five participants in this group, representing a
willingness to engage with the field of contemporary art on its own perceived terms.

A number of the participants consciously attempted to improve their field positions. Their
recognition of the field, and a sense of the sort of cultural capital that was valued within it,
encouraged them to learn more about the art form. A number of members, such as a 65-yearold retired teacher, normally carried out research on artists and exhibitions before visiting.
This individual referred to the visits associated with the research project as a course,
stating:
Well I think partly because of this course that we are doing now, Im just trying to educate
myself in seeing as much contemporary art as I can so I have a better perspective on what
were going to be looking at.
The visits were viewed by some participants as a way of exploring and developing their
understanding of the art form, seeing the visits as an educational experience. During discussion, it
was evident that some of the younger participants were conscious that their knowledge was
partial. This 62-year-old female, who had been a civil servant, commented:
I dont feel at all confident about choosing what to go and see or experiencing what Im
experiencing and talking about that because I dont know anything about it. So this is a dipa-toe-in-the-water kind of experience for me, and its relaxed and social and theres a nice
471
lunch, which is great, and yes, it makes me feel more confident about going to things like
this.
The field strategies of those identified under this theme were a combination of conservation and
succession (Swartz, 1997, p. 125). While some spoke confidently about the pieces on display,
they were conscious of their limited knowledge. They responded to this realisation by taking
steps to increase their knowledge. It is theorised that their engagement with other cultural
formssuch as theatre and filmand their take-up of educational opportunitiessuch as adult
education classestransforms their habitus, giving them the tools to deal with this situation
incrementally. The investments that are made in cultural capital ultimately result in a stronger
field position, not in the sense that an individual becomes an actor in the field such as a curator or
artist (although this may happen), but rather in the sense that they negotiate the field more
comfortably and with greater sense of personal gain. While there is a lack of confidence amongst
some in this group, these feelings are not expressed in terms of exclusion, as the codes they apply
are able to recognise and engage with the field to a particular level. Their habitus might be
labelled as reflexive, as described by Sweetman (2003) and Bottero (2010). It contained within
it the ability to adjustto decipher codes associated with art forms that they were not
immediately familiar, perhaps being able to recognise commonalities.
The middle class younger group and the working class older grouping demonstrated very
different positions within, and dispositions towards, the field. The differences in respondents
habitus can be attributed to early socialisation and their life course experience, which influence
responses. For the older and younger groups discussed in these first two sections, the differences
in cultural capital probably originate in their experience of education, which had differed
considerably.
5.3. Participants demonstrating class mobility over the life course: the writers group
Evidence of class mobility was seen in a number of the groups in this study. However, it was
most clearly observed affecting the responses of the writers group from Sunderland. This group
had one member who was 64, and the others were between 74 and 87 years-old, and all being
female. They described themselves as working class and originally had occupations that could be
classified as such, secretarial work, for example. However, some had returned to formal
education later in life and had taken middle class occupations. A 74-year-old member of the
group stated Ive always considered myself working class but I was a probation officer for 20
years. She had also taken a module on history of art as part of her degree.
This group had a preference for particular forms of rear-guard or consecrated art in general, as
illustrated by the 74-year-old member of the group mentioned immediately above, who stated:
Well, I did history of art for my degree so I always wanted to see the things Id studied, and I
eventually got to Italy but it was my own present to my-self on my sixtieth birthday. Id
done my degree twenty year before that so I waited twenty years to see the things I wanted
to see. So I went to Florence, and I saw Brunelleschis dome, the Baptistery and the bronze
doors, which I loved.
An 81-year-old who had worked in shops and factories was open to the possibility that avantgarde art has value, but she was looking for the characteristics that could be assimilated with rear-
472
guard or consecrated art forms with which she was familiar. She states: I look for the beauty in
art, but modern art; if I can see something I can try and understand, but theres so much I dont
understand in modern art. However, other members rejected some famous avant-garde art
pieces of which they were aware. A 74-year-who returned to formal education in middle age
stated about My Bed (1998) by Tracey Emin, The unmade bed is just out the window you
know.12 This understanding of art reflects the participants working class origins and mirrors, to
an extent, the responses of the working class older group described above. However, members of
this group have greater stocks of cultural capital associated with particular rear-guard or
consecrated art, particularly the member who had studied art history.
The codes they were using to interpret the artworks did not enable the same level of
engagement as those used by the film group (Section 5.2), and they did not articulate a conscious
desire to learn about the art form and the intentions of the artist. However, they were mostly able
to discuss the artworks that they viewed rather than rejecting themthereby departing from the
working class groups who lacked such upward mobility.
When they visited the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art they discussed Kimsoojas A
Needle Womana video installation showing the artist from behind standing still in the human
traffic of busy streets in different highly populated cities13they entered into a detailed
discussion of the artworks. This consisted of how the people responded to the camera and the
clothes that were being worn. The 81-year-old stated:
Yes there was differences but the others [i.e., the passers-by in the videos] were quite
relaxed and just getting on with life, and what struck me was they were all dressed the same
all over the world. You can go to Nigeria and they dont dress in Nigerian clothes, long
robes or anything. Everybodys in Western dress, bright colours.
Typically, while respondents were unable to decode the artworks in terms of the field of
contemporary art, the codes they applied enabled them to make personal sense of what they
viewedbut not by employing the particular, everyday codes that the working class groupings
did.
One code this group employed drew upon their experiences of class divisions. In response to
their visit to the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art to see Rank (a combination of rearguard, consecrated avant-garde and avant-garde artworks revolving around a central exploration
of representations of class difference and inequalities), they used the theme of the visit as the
basis for a wide-ranging discussion about their own experiences and views. For example, they
mentioned the importance of education in changing society, with the former probation officer
stating:
When I went into further education, I was in my late thirties and I did sociology. I thought I
was quite happy with my lot [laughs] till I did sociology at college and then I realised that I
shouldnt be happy with my lot because I was hearing about how two percent of the people
own ninety percent of the wealth; then I began to question it.
12
The respondent feels that this piece has no value: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_my_bed.htm.
13
http://www.balticmill.com/whatsOn/past/ExhibitionDetail.php?exhibID=135.
473
The inequality in access to healthcare because of cost was mentioned a number of times. The
87-year-old who attended university at the age of 62, stated:
Oh, it cost a fortune you know. I remember my sister. . ..had to get a few teeth out and the
dentist came to the house and we were finding teeth all over the place because he just stood
there and he was tossing the teeth out as he pulled them [laughs], and we were finding teeth
all over because she got them all out. Oh dear, what a carry on but we paid for everything.
The discussion did not engage with the art itselfdespite participants having the cultural
capital associated with certain types of rear-guard and consecrated avant-garde works. The sort of
rear-guard and consecrated avant-garde art displayed did not appear to be accessible to them. Yet,
their everyday codes did draw upon their mobility experiences when attempting to make sense of
such art.
Because members of this group appear to have the cultural capital associated with a limited
range of rear-guard and consecrated avant-garde works and not for avant-garde art, it is not
possible to observe a particular field strategy being adopted, as defined by Swartz (1997). Their
responses appear to be influenced by their working class origins and then modified through later
class mobility. An important aspect of this appears to be the taking up of educational
opportunitiesfor example, attending university in middle age. This has been made possible by
large-scale educational reforms in the post-war period (Goldthorpe et al., 1987), which have
strongly influenced the lives and individual experience of this group. As Scherger and Savage
(2010, p. 420) state, higher education boosts the odds of being upwardly mobile. This has
provided some these respondents with greater stocks of cultural capital associated with particular
rear-guard and consecrated avant-garde works. Friedman (2012), drawing from an empirical
study of British comedy tastes, found that certain tastes are established in childhood and then
added to as cultural capital grows. In this case, taste associated with visual art does not appear to
have changed. However, their stocks of cultural capital associated with that taste have increased,
while other art forms, such as creative writing have been added to their repertoire.
5.4. Mixed class/age group: advocacy organisation for older people
Within this group, three participants were aged 63 and 64 while 6 were aged between 79 and
83. Included in the older group were two local government officers and a woodwork teacher (NSSEC groups 3 and 4) and in the younger group a university researcher and a person who worked in
private industry (NS-SEC groups 1 and 2).
There was a range of views expressed about the significance of contemporary visual art within
this group. In the baseline focus group, a 79-year-old female retired local government officer
stated about Sam Taylor-Woods Ascension (2003)which she had seen at the BALTIC Centre
for Contemporary ArtThere was somebody tap dancing on a board on top of somebody lying
down. It wasnt art in my mind. This resonates with the older working class individuals in the
opening section. However, the middle class younger members of the group often had a different
opinion, as is illustrated by a 64-year-old female who had worked in private industry. She enjoyed
walking with a friend and remarked on the public art that her friend often came across.
474
Shes not very keen on contemporary art, so we have a few discussions over things like that.
Its nice if there is sometimes a little plaque [i.e., label] or something to give you some idea,
particularly if youve really got no idea what it is just to give you some idea what the artist
did have in mind. Whether you agree with them or not thats a matter of opinion, but I still
think its nice to find out what they thought they were doing.
While this respondent lacked the cultural capital to fully engage with what she had seen, she did
not dismiss it out of hand, and she was interested in finding out more about the artists intention
when producing the piece. Her definition of art encompassed more avant-garde works that she
was willing to explore further. This is a similar response to that seen in the middle class younger
group described above.
The ability of the respondents to decode the work, and so produce interpretations of what they
saw, was divided along the lines indicated abovewith some turning to everyday codes and
others turning to their stock of cultural capital. In a focus group that took place at the BALTIC
Centre for Contemporary Art, for example, an 83-year-old retired civil servant made a point of
discussing a painting he had studied in an art history course, Jan van Eycks 1434 Arnolfini
Portrait in the National Gallery in London. He states:
If you look at the mirror on the wall, its got the little inscription and it says, van Eyck was
here. If you look carefully at the mirror, theres the image of a young man behind the door
who is actually the lover of van Eyck, hes a skinny little man dressed in a brown cloak
trimmed with ermine.14
This discussion of consecrated rear-guard work in a contemporary art gallery represents an
attempt to move the conversation to, what was for him, familiar ground. It also appeared
important for this participant to demonstrate his knowledge, possibly in a play for group
leadership.
This approach was not mirrored by two of the three younger members (the third was less
confident and articulate), who were analytical in how they discussed the artwork. As an example,
the 63-year-old retired private industry worker gave a sophisticated and self-reflexive response to
Heliocentric (avant-garde video art):
I just felt so small and insignificant, particularly when youve got the one where you saw the
sun so close to but you could make it [out] as still a sphere and I just thought that was so
remarkable.

Those with the cultural capital to engage with the field had strategies similar to the middle
class younger group discussed above, that being a combination of conservation and succession
(Swartz, 1997). Those without it could observe that avant-garde art existed, but were unable to
engage with it on its own terms. However, over the course of the three visits to galleries, the
discussion became increasingly dominated by the two younger members, and their approach was
adopted by the third younger, as well as the older, members. For example, the 83-year-old retired
14
To the authors knowledge, there is no published support for this interpretation.
475
civil servant, mentioned above, became more reflective by the end of the visits. He stated at the
last focus group that took place at Belsay Hall and Gardens about Extraordinary Measures, an
exhibition on the theme of scale.
If the exhibition had been moved to a more modern environment would it have changed the
exhibition itself? If you looked at it in the BALTIC for example would it have had the same
impression?
This represents a willingness to engage with the art and a change from his comments above,
when he attempted to move the discussion to consecrated rear-guard art that he was more familiar
with.
It is difficult to be confident as to why the views of the two younger members of the group
dominated the discussions as opposed to the older ones. However, their habitus was characterised
by greater reflexivity, which enabled them to comment articulately and persuasively on what they
had seen. This may have been the product of greater educational attainment that was generally a
characteristic of the middle class younger participants. It may also relate to members becoming
more aware of the field during the visits and the two younger members being seen to be more able
to decode it. The social dynamics of this situation reflect the results of Hekkert and Wieringen
(1998, p. 281) whose study found that when discussing the quality of artworks latter judgements
often reflected the original evaluation of only one of the group members. In event, these findings
resonate with Botteros (2010) point regarding the impact of group dynamics on habitus.
5.5. Ageing effects seen across different groups

The sections above considered the responses to contemporary visual art of groups or
groupings of participants with certain characteristics. However, it is possible to identify a
response to artworks that cuts across the groups. Ageing effects are defined by Scherger (2009) as
being physical, psychosocial and social. While not often discussed, they were present in some
responses of the participants. Some of them across the different class/age groups used the
experience of the visits to respond to real or perceived age associated deficits that might interfere
with their sense of self. Angus et al. (2005, p. 184) state that, ill bodies may gradually or
abruptly lose the capacity to enact deeply inculcated dispositions associated with a particular
social position, especially those associated with class or gender. For example, a 65-year-old
member of the film group, who was previously a teacher, saw cultural engagement as a response
to feeling that he was running out of time. He states:
You can go on courses like this and I love the freedom of being able to learn, but the desire
to learn is probably more with me now than it was when I was younger, I think maybe
because times running out. There is going to come a time when Alzheimers sets in or you
get the Iris Murdoch syndrome15 when you start to forget things.
Members of the writers group thought it was important to keep mentally active in order to
maintain their mental faculties and visiting museums and galleries was a way of achieving this.
An 87-year-old stated:
15
Iris Murdoch (19191999) was an author and academic who suffered from Alzheimers disease.
476
Im the oldest here being in my eighties. I feel that these things have kept me going because
I would just be sitting at home sleeping or doing nothing if I hadnt this education, all these
museums and places we go to, they are wonderful.
The need to respond to possible future deficits might be seen as an example of Ekerdts (1986,
p. 26) busy ethic with its emphasis on activity, exercise, travel, eating out, self-maintenance
and self care.
An example of how engagement with the content of particular artworks helped an individual
to respond to the effects of ageing is in the following response to the Knitted Lives exhibition at
the Shipley Art Gallery. She is a 79-year-old wheelchair user who is a member of the sheltered
accommodation group. She states:
I think Id start taking it [knitting] up again. . .But I know I havent got the use in this hand
that I did since I had the strokebut I wouldnt mind trying it. And then my memorys not
what it used to be.
For this respondent, being able to knit provided a link to her younger self when she had made
clothes for herself and her family. The physical aspects of ageing had interrupted her construction
of self. Despite thinking that she would not be able to knit, she was able to use the needles and
wool provided as part of the exhibition. It was her confidence, more than her motor skills that had
declined. The above can be viewed as attempts to maintain a particular ingrained habitus that
might be threatened by age related changes.
6. Discussion and conclusion
The above analysis shows that, for the field of contemporary visual art, both habitus and
cultural capital shape how older adults respond to works associated with that fieldwith those
relatively rich in cultural capital, and those with a habitus that extends to non-representational art,
displaying more openness, if not comfort, when confronting and decoding those contemporary
works. The respondents originsincluding their class and generation, and sometimes gender
left an imprint on their cultural capital and habitus, as Bourdieu would expect. However, cultural
capital and habitus are not immutable (see Reay, 2004). Some respondents, for example, would
add to their stock of cultural capital by returning to school later in life, and others would develop
new ways of classifying and appreciating artwith the latter occurring in the wake of class
mobility and group dynamics (see Bottero, 2010). The qualitative nature of this study means that
conclusions about the relative importance of such things as habitus or mobility, in particular
circumstances, are not possible to makebut it is clear that they do matter for these respondents.
A division between an older grouping comprising those from the sheltered accommodation
and the live at home scheme and a younger group comprising those from the film group could
be observed. These respective groups were largely homogeneous in terms of class and age
represented particular profiles in each. While broad similarities within class/age groupings can be
identified, as Scherger and Savage (2010, p. 424) state, classes are not monolithic; they do not
show completely consistent and uniform patters of cultural participation and socialisation.
Those in the mainly working older class grouping (sheltered accommodation and the live at
home scheme) either rejected the artworks or interpreted them using aspects of their habitus that
allowed them to make sense, in their own terms, of what they were observing. Meanings
associated with art pieces that were nothing to do with the field of art have (e.g., whether a
painting matched the furniture) have been identified by Halle (1993)results that are replicated
477
in this study when these respondents relied on codes of everyday life rather than those aligned
with art. It can be theorised that such meanings are not serendipitous but associated with identity
processes described as maintenance and revision, as understood by Kroger (2002), Kroger
and Adair (2008), Marcia (2002), and in terms of art interpretation, Newman et al. (2013). In this
case, by making links to their pasts, participants were able to maintain a sense of continuity over
time, which is important for the wellbeing of older people. Note that those in the working class
older grouping would not have attended the venues and shows without the occasion of the
research project. The sheltered accommodation group were observably tense during their first
visit (to the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art), which was evidenced by raised voices
indicating that they felt out of place; but this was not seen in subsequent visits as their knowledge
and confidence grew. Their enjoyment increased markedly if they could use their existing codes
of everyday life to make sense of what they saw.
Those in the middle class younger (film group) category were more able to recognise the field
of contemporary visual art. They attempted to engage with it more on its own terms, often being
conscious of and attempting to improve their field position. Their embedded codesoften
derived from an associated art form such as filmappeared, to an extent, to be transferable in
providing interpretative tools to the genre of contemporary visual art. The ability to transfer
codes from one art form to another and general attempts to improve their field position requires a
degree of reflexivity that does not appear to be available to all of the respondents in equal measure
and, according to Wee and Brooks (2010), can been seen itself as a form of cultural capital. This
characteristic is mainly concentrated in responses of the middle class younger participants and is
possibly associated with attempts, within constraints, to actively fashion (Wee and Brooks,
2010, p. 47) their identities. However, for some, in the working class older participant groups,
reflexivity, as cultural capital, appeared to be acquired unconsciously over the three visits. This is
an area that would benefit from further research.
Class mobility also had an impact upon attitudes towards the field and positions with it. This
was observable across many of the groups, but particularly in the writers group. Three members
had taken advantage of educational opportunities with one then taking a professional job
considered as middle class. They used the artworks for reminiscence and also attempted to
understand their meaning in terms of the field, strategies used by the working class older and
middle class younger groups. Van Eijck (1999, p. 312) states that, the cultural behaviour of
upwardly mobile individuals is predicted on the significance of the mobility itself. Cultural
activities for this group were not a product of mobility but, instead, were embedded within
mobility. They were proud of the status that the activities of the group gave them and mentioned
this in the baseline interviews. Conditions that encouraged mobility were particular generational
experiences, such as access to education.
The social dynamics within the group appear to affect changes in cultural capital associated
with contemporary visual art over the visits. This was most visible in the group comprising the
advocacy organisation for older people being mixed in terms of class and age. However, it was
also present in the other groupssuch as the middle class younger group, within which there was
a disparity between some members knowledge about contemporary visual art. It is possible that
the more heterogeneous the group, then the greater the potential for the relevant stocks of cultural
capital (in its embodied form) amongst some members to be increased. Similarly, habitus within
groups was becoming co-ordinated (Bottero, 2010; King, 2000) in terms of their response to
artworks. It is also possible that social capital, in terms of the relationships between group
members, is being translated into cultural capital (in relation to ways of approaching
contemporary visual art) (Bourdieu, 1997) as the visits progressed. The significance of social
478
capital for older people has been explored by Gray (2009) and Nuqvist et al. (2006), while how
cultural tastes shape personal networks is analysed by Lizardo (2006). The latter describes the
conversion of cultural into social capital and concludes, different forms of cultural
consumption can lead to different types of ego-network structure and composition (Lizardo,
2006, p. 803).
Some of the participants used the experience of engaging with museums and galleries to
respond to real or anticipated age-associated deficits. With one instance of a participant making
links to her younger self in response to the Knitted Lives exhibition and re-establishing aspects of
her identity that had been lost.
The above analysis presents a picture of cultural consumption by older people that
complements that provided by the quantitative studies described earlier in this article (Keaney
and Oskala, 2007; Scherger, 2009). While broad patterns can be identified, the complexity of how
some differences influence consumption is illustrated. For example, a number of large-scale
studies contend that formal educational attainment is a marker for engagement with culture
(Bennett et al., 2009; Chan and Goldthorpe, 2007; DiMaggio and Mukhtar, 2004). This can be
seen with the film group, who were, apart from one member, educated to degree level and
demonstrating greater engagement than the sheltered accommodation and live at home
scheme groups who left school at age 14 or 15. However, those with less formal education still
demonstrated a liking for art with a preference for rear-guard and consecrated avant-garde work.
The nature of their education is also complex, with members of the writers group leaving school
at 14 or 15 with some returning to formal education later in life. All had taken advantage of adult
education classes during their lives. Their formal educational attainment could not be simply
correlated with engagement with various art forms. Their learning was often informal and,
therefore, could not easily be captured.
UK Arts policy (Arts Council England, 2010) privileges understandings of contemporary
visual art that relate to the knowledge associated with the field, as would be predicted. However,
if galleries wish to widen their audiences and overcome barriers to engagement, it is important for
them to recognise that the meanings that many associate with artworks may have little to do with
the field. This may be overcome by providing themes that can be interpreted using everyday
codes rather than field-specific ones. Interpretation, either through labels or guided tours,
facilitates this process. It is evident that, in some instances, exposure to contemporary visual art
allows the unconscious learning of its codes, which can facilitate access to the field.
None of the participants was from black and minority ethnic groups. When asked they
declined to become involved in the research. When asked why, a group of women of Pakistani
origin from Gateshead replied that the exhibitions were of no cultural relevance to them.
However, if crafts from their home country were being shown they would have attended. This is
an area that requires further research and has been so far been addressed by Banks (2010),
Bennett et al. (2009), Grams (2010), and Trienekens (2002).
As for the present article, it is hoped that these insights will help to inform the development of
educational and interpretive resources in art galleries, as well as to improve our understanding of the
actual and potential importance of cultural content (e.g., contemporary art) in older peoples lives.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the respondents who gave their time and the New Dynamics
of Ageing Programme that has funded the research. It is also important to thank the four
anonymous reviewers and the Editor of the journal for his helpful feedback and unfailing support.
479
Appendix A. Supplementary data information

Supplementary information associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2013.07.001.
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Poetics 41 (2013) 456480

How cultural capital, habitus and class influence

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2. The consumption of the visual arts

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5.1.1. Definitions of art

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5.1.2. Decoding of artworks/interpretations of art viewed

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5.2.2. Decoding of artworks/interpretations of art viewed

5.2.3. Responses to the field of contemporary visual art

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5.4.3. Responses to the field of contemporary visual art

To the authors knowledge, there is no published support for this interpretation.

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5.5. Ageing effects seen across different groups

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Appendix A. Supplementary data information

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