Exclusividad y fragmentación: Los perfiles culturales de la clase media en Chile

Abstract

The sociological literature about the (upper) middle class, developed during the second half of the Twentieth century, has allowed us to have a detailed knowledge about its political and cultural behavior, particularly for the cases of Western Europe and the United States. From this line of work, we can draw two important ideas which have contributed to shape the image of this social class: exclusivity and fragmentation. Exclusivity because their members have been prone to support political standings similar to those of the highest social classes in society, and refinement and education has been central components in its formation as a social class. Fragmentation because its political behavior and a more individualistic approach to cultural practice would be associated to a significant heterogeneity. However, above all regarding this latter characteristic, that is, its internal division, much more information is available about its political behavior than the one that has been produced looking at tastes and cultural participation. This article takes these contributions as a point of departure and it studies exclusivity and fragmented profiles in the case of Chile. As regards the former profile, exclusivity, the middle class is compared with the working class, and from this comparison different orientations towards cultural practice are identified. On the other hand, in relation to the "fragmentation" thesis, this is a topic about which research is not so abundant, and here it is proposed a divide that makes a very clear separation between "professionals" and all the other middle class occupational categories. Besides that, the social structure of the fragmentation of the middle class is also studied.