This research locates the experience of cultural participation in Ireland as a contemporary and emergent cultural capital. Among two generational cohorts, this research explores the logic of Bourdieu's (1984) distinction and the logic of Peterson's (with Simkus, 1992) cultural omnivore. Supporting the view that while there has been a decline in highbrow cultural participation as a mode of status domination, the social structuring of cultural consumption remains “remarkably steadfast…across time” (Jarness, 2015, p.76). The field may be characterised by “multiple and divergent forces,” including the proliferation of genres and modes of cultural engagement (Bellavance, 2008, p.212). However, the logic of distinction today, is “knowing the rules of the game” and knowing how to use these rules (Lareau et al, 2016, n.p.; Sullivan, 2007). New forms of distinction have emerged, and are emerging. These integrate reflexivity, playfulness, eclecticism and a cosmopolitan disposition along with the capacity to juggle and transpose a rarefied aesthetic disposition across, and between, a multiplicity of genres. What we are witnessing is “actually the content of elite culture… being remade” (Friedman et al, 2015, p.3).
Research interests and history and any other profession information:
Kerry is co-founder of the Cultural Policy Observatory Ireland(CPOI): an all island research network, a founding editor of the Irish Journal for Arts Management and Cultural Policy, a co-organiser of the Arts Management Research Studies Stream (RS01) in the European Sociological Association, and Affiliate Faculty to LEAP Institute for the Arts, in Colorado State University, USA, Kerry works closely with national and international higher education partners in furthering arts management and cultural policy research. A key contributor to cultural debate and advocacy in Ireland, Kerry has been a member of the Steering Committee and Research Working Group of the National Campaign for the Arts(NCFA), Director of The Sculptors’ Society of Ireland (now Visual Artists Ireland) and was invited to the Expert Committee of Culture2025: a national cultural policy for Ireland. Recently, Director of Academic Affairs in University, a creative arts consortium of higher education partners in Ireland, north and south, Kerry has previously lectured in University College, Dublin, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art and Design, and Queen’s University Belfast and specialises in teaching cultural project management, leadership, arts management and cultural policy.
Supervised by: Victoria Alexander and Dr Dave O'Brien