Worlds apart. On class structuration of citizens’ political and public attention and engagement in an egalitarian society

Abstract

This article draws on Pierre Bourdieu's political sociology for a statistical study of the complex interrelationship between Norwegian citizens’ attention and engagement in the world of politics and broader public debate, and how such public lifestyles align with social structures. Using multiple factor analysis the article provides a broad mapping of citizens’ use of media and culture, participation in civil society and politics, and attitudes to news and politics. It identifies a principal divide by citizens’ attention to and familiarity with the worlds and discourses of social elites and a secondary divide by their forms and areas of engagement. Both divides are structured by class position and, in the case of the second, generational divides. The article argues for the value of class approaches and a broad focus on people's relationship with the worlds of social elites for understanding public engagement.