Distinction Through Sport Consumption

International Review for the Sociology of Sport
http://irs.sagepub.com Distinction through Sport Consumption: Spectators of Soccer, Basketball, and Ski-jumping
Ingar Mehus International Review for the Sociology of Sport 2005; 40; 321 DOI: 10.1177/1012690205060159 The online version of this article can be found at: http://irs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/321
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INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT 40/3(2005) 321333 Copyright ISSA and SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA, New Delhi) www.sagepublications.com 10.1177/1012690205060159
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DISTINCTION THROUGH SPORT CONSUMPTION

Spectators of Soccer, Basketball, and Ski-jumping
Ingar Mehus Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Abstract Drawing on the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu, this study investigates the relationship between cultural capital and different forms of sport consumption by spectators of three different sports (N = 587). Main findings show a negative relationship between cultural capital and sport consumption, and a positive relationship between sport participation and sport consumption. The findings are partly at odds with previous studies, indicating a positive relationship between cultural capital and direct sport consumption. The findings are possibly explained by considering tastes as social communication in a society where mass consumption adds to the blurring of distinctive borders between different groups of social belongingness, involving the cultural omnivore thesis. Key words cultural capital social class sport consumption
The consumption of sport is an important cultural activity in Norway, where 62 percent of the male population have attended sports events the last 12 months. This is high compared to many other cultural activities such as visiting the theatre, art exhibitions, museums, public libraries, and the opera. Even though sports might be considered especially important for men, this is not to imply that sports events are an insignificant cultural activity for women, since 51 percent of Norwegian women have attended a sports event in the last 12 months (SSB, 2003). Television is another important source of sport consumption 13 percent of all programs broadcast through the Norwegian national television channel (NRK) are sports related. Sport programs unite people in front of the television, and have achieved some of the highest ratings in the history of Norwegian television. The soccer match between Norway and Mexico in the 1994 football (soccer) World Cup attracted 2.1 million viewers, and the mens cross country relay in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City attracted 1.6 million viewers. These are high ratings considering the Norwegian total population of about 4.5 million. Consumption of sport can be categorized into direct consumption, which includes spectators attending sport events, while following sport through mass media is considered indirect consumption (Wann et al., 2001). Recently, several empirical studies have utilized Bourdieus (1978, 1984) theoretical framework when investigating the relationship between direct sport consumption, sport participation, and economic and cultural capital (Thrane, 2001; White and Wilson,
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INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT 40(3)
1999; Wilson, 2002). Their results support a positive relationship between economical capital and direct consumption, partly confirming that the high cost of tickets excludes those with lower incomes from attending (Eitzen, 1996). However, the relationship between cultural capital and direct consumption seems to be a little more complicated. First, there appear to be inconsistencies in findings between the North American context (White and Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2002) and the Scandinavian context, as well as within the Scandinavian context (Thrane, 2001). Second, Wilson (2002) notes a paradox where high social class is associated with a high level of involvement in sport in general, but such individuals are less likely to be involved in prole sports. Indirect sport consumption has received little attention when mapping out these relationships, despite the distinction between participation and consumption described by Bourdieu (1978), labelling indirect consumption through television as simple passive consumption. Over 25 years have passed since Bourdieu described this relationship, but more recent research supports a negative relationship between consumption through television and social networks (Bankston III, 2003; DiMaggio, 1987; Moy et al., 1999; Putnam, 1995, 2000). At the same time, sports and mass media have become more intertwined, making indirect consumption of sport more available for all social groups. Sport as mass consumption could be investigated in light of a suggested historical shift, where people high in cultural capital are becoming more open to appreciate a wider spectrum of cultural activities compared to people low in cultural capital the so called omnivore-thesis (DiMaggio, 1987; DiMaggio and Mohr, 1985; Holt, 1998; Peterson, 1997; Peterson and Kern, 1996; Peterson and Simkus, 1992). Utilizing Bourdieus (1978, 1984) theoretical framework, the aim of this study is to provide a closer consideration of the relationship between direct and indirect sport consumption and cultural capital. The findings add to our knowledge of consumption of sport as a social marker. Cultural Capital, Taste, and Consumption According to Bourdieu (1984) social class is dependent of three dimensions: first, the volume of capital attained, where capital can take the form of economic, cultural or social capital; second, the composition of different forms of capital; and third, how these relationships change over time. Distinct from economic and social capital, cultural capital consists of a set of socially distinctive tastes, skills, knowledge, and practices, that are objectified in cultural objects and embodied as implicit practical knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The phenomena of skills, knowledge, and practices embodied as ways of feeling, thinking, and acting, Bourdieu (1984: 170) terms habitus:
The habitus is not only a structuring structure, which organizes practices and the perception of practices, but also a structured structure: the principle of division into logical classes which organizes the perception of the social world is itself the product of internalization of the division into social classes.
The social world consists of many relatively autonomous fields, including politics, education, arts, and sports. Cultural capital takes on a distinctive form in
MEHUS: DISTINCTION THROUGH SPORT CONSUMPTION
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each field, and is enacted in corresponding fields of consumption. Here cultural capital is converted into tastes and consumption practices, where tastes refer to manifested preferences. The manifestation of habitus through tastes and consumption practices across categories of goods and activities results in the construction of lifestyles. Thus, lifestyles are systematic products of habitus and can be viewed as socially qualified sign systems (Bourdieu, 1984). In Bourdieus theoretical framework, social class is of central importance, but differs from Marxist and neo-Marxist theses by defining the concept of social class from a cultural point of view (Clment, 1995). According to Brubaker (1985), Bourdieu defines class in the conceptual space of social relations in general, ending up with a general conception of class where class divisions are defined by differing conditions of existence, differing systems of dispositions, and different endowments of capital. Looking at social class as a group of agents who share the same interests, social experiences, traditions, and value systems, the concept of social class could be substituted with that of social belongingness or social groups. Tastes as Social Communication In the work of DiMaggio (1987) and DiMaggio and Mohr (1985), tastes represent a form of social communication. Tastes become means of constructing social relations and establishing networks of trust, which again will result in social rewards such as prestigious jobs. The role of goods as important status-definers has become less important than that of taste, as subjects of conversation supplant objects of display as bases of social evaluation. Having knowledge and the communicative competence to show other people this knowledge is more important than having an expensive car. This line of thought is also found in the work of Holt (1998), claiming an historical shift where the importance of the objectified form has been surpassed by the embodied form in advanced capitalist societies. Holt (1998) finds support for this notion in theories of postmodernity, where a massive overproduction of commodity signs leads to an anarchic welter of consumer symbols that are not readily assimilated by social groups in any coherent way (p. 5). A high degree of overlap in consumer preferences across social categories, blurs borders between mass and high culture and cultural hierarchies, resulting in objectified cultural capital becoming a relatively weak symbolic sign of social belongingness. In fields where there is great overlap in the objects consumed, embodied cultural capital becomes important for those high in cultural capital to emphasize the distinctiveness of consumption practices themselves. In other words, those high and low in cultural capital consume the same product in different ways. DiMaggio (1987) focuses on the consumption of art as cultural currency, but admits that there are other important fields of consumption: If there is a common cultural currency, the arts (supplemented by fashion, cuisine, and sports) constitute it (p. 443). Sport consumption as cultural currency implies that knowledge about sport, and sport as a subject of conversation, is important when establishing social networks. Since socioeconomic status is positively related to the size, complexity, and diversity of social networks, one would expect that the number
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of genres that a person consumes is a function of his or her socioeconomic status, and also that persons with wide-ranging networks develop tastes for the widest variety of cultural forms (DiMaggio, 1987: 444). This could be summed up by saying that well-educated people do and like more of almost everything, explained by wide-ranging networks requiring broad repertoires of taste. Holt (1998), also found that persons high in cultural capital consume a wider variety of genres and styles, compared with persons low in cultural capital. Considering tastes as a form of social communication implies a special role for consumption through television. By providing a common stock of symbols for nearly everyone, watching television stands in contrast to more arcane cultural forms enabling individuals to place one another in social groups. Persons reporting little consumption of cultural goods or activities besides television are predominantly low-income, blue-collar or unemployed groups with a limited range of social contacts (DiMaggio, 1987). The negative relationship between television and social networks has also been described and empirically tested within the theoretical framework of civil society theory (Bankston III, 2003; Moy et al., 1999; Putnam, 1995, 2000). Cultural Capital and Direct Sport Consumption As noted, indirect consumption of sport has received little attention in studies concerned with sport involvement and cultural capital. However, studies focusing on direct consumption provide this study with a point of departure. A Canadian study by White and Wilson (1999) investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status and sport spectatorship, finding that income and education are positive predictors of male and female direct consumption. Income was a stronger predictor than education. Still, education as a positive and independent predictor of attendance at sport events, suggests that cultural factors influence sport spectatorship. The study also found that age was inversely related to sport spectatorship, as younger Canadians of both sexes were more likely than their elders to have attended professional sport events. In this study education was expected to affect sport spectatorship indirectly, based on earlier research (Lascu et al., 1995) showing that the well-educated participate more in sport than the poorly educated, with an expected spill over effect into sport spectatorship. White and Wilsons (1999) study did not elaborate on, or control for the effect of sport participation on direct consumption. However, this was done in a follow-up study by Thrane (2001), investigating the link between class and direct sport consumption in the three Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The results supported White and Wilsons (1999) predictions, indicating that people who are active in sport are also the most typical sport spectators. The study also showed that high income groups were more likely to attend sporting events compared to the lowest income group. Arguing that cultural capital involves more than just education, Thrane (2001) measured cultural capital by including questions related to attending the theatre, classical concerts, art galleries, and museums, thus enabling him to calculate separate effects of education and cultural capital. Regarding the relationship between education and direct sport consumption, his findings indicated differences when comparing
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Scandinavian countries. In Norway a positive relationship was found between level of education and sport spectatorship, while a negative relationship was found in Sweden, and in Denmark there was no significant relationship. Based on these findings, Thrane (2001) concluded that there is no systematic relationship between education and direct consumption. Findings concerning the effect of cultural capital on sport spectatorship show that people who at least sometimes participated in high culture activities were more likely to attend sporting events than people who never participated in high culture activities. However, in Denmark and Norway, people participating most frequently in high culture activities were not more likely to attend sport events when compared to people who never participated in high culture activities. The effects of gender and age on sport spectatorship were similar across the three Nordic countries, as men and younger persons in general were more likely to attend sporting events compared to women and older persons. An admitted weakness is that Thranes (2001) study lacks controls for the effect of different sports. In another follow-up study to White and Wilson (1999), Wilson (2002) found that less-educated men are far more likely to attend auto and motorcycle races (prole sports) compared to better educated men, with the same tendency among women. These findings contradict those concerning sport involvement in general, which show that better educated people are more likely to attend sporting events regardless of their incomes. Findings showing that people highest in cultural capital are generally more involved in sport appear to be consistent with the omnivore thesis. However, findings showing that respondents highest in cultural capital dislike prole sports suggest some limits to cultural omnivorism in sport tastes among the elite. Wilson (2002) concludes that his findings provide little support for class-based differences in economic capital as an explanation for the paradox of social class and sports involvement, while the concept of cultural capital provides a far better explanation. Purpose of the Study This study represents an attempt to add to our understanding of the determinants of sport consumption, with specific interest in the relationship between sport consumption and cultural capital, and using educational attainment as a proxy. The first aim of this article is to test the positive relationship between cultural capital and direct sport consumption found in other studies (White and Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2002); a major difference being that instead of comparing spectators with non-spectators this study surveys spectators exclusively, comparing a high frequency of direct consumption with a low frequency of direct consumption. The second aim is to investigate the relationship between cultural capital and indirect sport consumption through television. Following Bourdieus (1978) description of watching sport on television as simple passive consumption, and previous studies indicating the negative effect of television on social networks (Bankston III, 2003; DiMaggio, 1985; Moy et al., 1999), a negative relationship between cultural capital and indirect sport consumption was expected. In addition to effects of age and gender, it was considered important to conDownloaded from http://irs.sagepub.com by Sonali Dutta Roy on April 28, 2009
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trol for the effects of participation in sport, and different preferences related to type of sport consumed, when testing the two main hypotheses.
Methods
Procedure The data for this study were collected at three different sport events, including male professional soccer (N = 212), ski-jumping (N = 164), and male professional basketball (N = 211). Surveyors were randomly assigned a block of the stands where they distributed questionnaires to all spectators. Starting 90 minutes before the game, questionnaires were distributed and collected until the game started. To ensure that spectators were not distracted from the experience of the game, no questionnaires were administered after the game started. Participation was voluntary, but the surveyors request was rarely rejected. Variables Regarding sport spectatorship respondents were asked, How often do you attend sporting events? Response categories were never, seldom, 13 times a month, once a week, 23 times a week, 46 days a week, and every day. Respondents also answered questions related to consumption of sport through television, with response categories matching those for attending sport events. To make the direct and indirect consumption dependent variables comparable to other studies investigating the phenomenon (Thrane, 2001; White and Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2002), responses were collapsed into those attending sport events less than once a month (coded 0), and those attending sport events once a month or more (coded 1). Those attending sport events once a month or more are above the population mean, and were categorized as high in direct consumption. Respondents attending sport events less than once a month were categorized as low in direct consumption. The same categories were created for indirect consumption, with spectators watching sport on television less than four times a week categorized as low in indirect sport consumption (coded 0), and spectators watching sport on television four times a week or more as high indirect consumers (coded 1). Independent variables were measured as follows: questions related to frequency of participation in sport utilized the same response categories as consumption of sport. Education was measured on a four-point ordinal variable, ranging from completed secondary upper education or less (coded 0) to more than four years of tertiary education (coded 3). Control variables were gender (women = 1; men = 0), age in years, and type of sport with soccer serving as reference (coded 0). Respondents Table 1 provide information about means and standard deviations for central variables before collapsing them into categories; and the characteristics of the samples.
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Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations (in parantheses) for Central Study Variables, and Sample Characteristics
Soccer (n = 212) Direct consumption Indirect consumption Education Sport participation Age Sample characteristics Males (%) < Tertiary education (%) Low sport participation (%) 3.16 (1.02) 5.67 (1.34) 2.16 (1.13) 2.65 (1.86) 29.30 (10.63) Basketball (n = 211) 3.34 (0.93) 4.86 (1.65) 2.11 (1.16) 2.44 (1.77) 32.98 (12.79) Ski-jumping (n = 164) 2.57 (0.87) 5.11 (1.51) 2.20 (1.18) 2.30 (1.63) 35.16 (12.88)
69.9 41 63.2
48.3 47.7 64.5
64 43.3 69.5
Results
The first step involved comparing spectators attending different sport events for difference in educational attainment. A chi-square test showed no significant relationship between educational attainment and sport event attended (2 = 10.791, d.f. = 6, exact p = .095). These results indicate that spectators of soccer, ski-jumping, and basketball did not significantly differ in educational attainment. Correlation coefficients were calculated for central variables when including the whole sample (Table 2), and for spectators at separate sporting events. Results for the whole sample show a significant positive relationship between direct and indirect sport consumption, and between participating in sport and both forms of sport consumption. The relationship between education and both forms of consumption was negative. Only participation in sport correlated significantly with age, the negative relationship indicating that older spectators participate less frequently in sport than younger spectators. Note that the correlations are relatively weak (most are less than .3). Comparing correlations between spectators of different sports showed two interesting differences between spectators. First, there was no significant negative correlation between education and indirect consumption for soccer and basketball spectators, only for ski-jump spectators. Second, a significant negative correlation between education and sport participation was only found for basketball spectators. Next, a logistic regression analysis was performed with direct and indirect (television) consumption as dependent variables. Sample weights were used to compensate for the lower representation of ski-jump spectators. All independent variables, except age and sport participation, were entered as sets of dummy variables with their lowest values serving as reference categories. Both models included a total of 587 cases. The eB column provides an indication of the change in the predicted odds of consumption for each unit change in the predictor variable. Values less than 1 indicate that an increase in the value of the predictor
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Table 2 Pearson Correlation Coefficients for Central Variables Including Whole Sample (N = 587)
Direct consumption Indirect cons. Education Participation Age
*p < .05, **p < .01.
Indirect consumption .085* .291** .061
Education .108** .003
Participation
Age
.279** .211** .229** .008
.323**
variable is associated with a decrease in the odds of the event, whereas values above 1 indicate an increase. Direct Consumption The model investigating direct consumption was significantly reliable (2 = 121.508, d.f. = 8, p < .0005). This model accounted for between 17 percent and 24 percent of the variance in direct consumption. Results show a significant difference between respondents with a low level of education and respondents who have attained the highest level of education. Highly educated spectators (HES) have 64.5 percent less likelihood of being categorized as high in direct consumption, when compared to spectators with the lowest level of education (LES). Also, ski-jump spectators attend fewer sport events compared to soccer spectators, while basketball spectators attend more events. Results also show that frequency of participation is a significant predictor of direct consumption. Findings indicate a 19 percent increased likelihood of being high in direct sport consumption with each increase in frequency of participation spectators participating in sport once a week are 57 percent more likely to attend sporting events once a month or more, compared with spectators not participating in sport. Note that gender is not a significant predictor of direct sport consumption. Indirect Consumption The model investigating indirect (television) consumption as the dependent variable was also significantly reliable (2 = 110.69, d.f. = 8, p < .0005). This model accounted for between 16 percent and 21 percent of the variance in direct consumption. Education is a significant predictor of indirect sport consumption, as HES are 48 percent less likely to be categorized as high in indirect consumption compared to LES. Gender is a strong predictor, as male spectators are 70 percent more likely than females to be high indirect sport consumers. Another strong predictor is participation in sport where the likelihood of being high in indirect sport consumption increases 30 percent for each step in frequency indicating that spectators who participate in sport once a week are 90 percent more likely to watch sport on TV four times a week or more, compared with spectators never
Table 3 Direct and Indirect Sport Consumption by Type of Sport, Sport Participation, and Demographics
Direct consumption Variable Education:a < 1 year tertiary education 14 years tertiary education > 4 years tertiary education Gender (1 = women) Age Sport participation Type of sport:b Ski-jumping Basketball Constant Log likelihood Model chi-square Degrees of freedom Number of observations .275 .396 1.036*** .301 .025** .177** 1.435*** .659** .241 eB .759 .673 .355 .740 1.025 1.193 .238 1.934 1.272 694.400 121.508*** 8 587 Indirect consumption .142 .224 .650* 1.192*** .005 .264*** .599** .656** .194 eB .868 1.251 .522 .304 .995 1.303 .550 .519 1.214 764.287 110.689*** 8 587
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .0005. a Reference category = completed upper secondary education or less. b Reference category = soccer.
participating in sport. Also, soccer spectators watch more sport on TV compared to basketball and ski-jump spectators.
Discussion
Sport Consumption and Cultural Capital The first aim of this study was to determine if there is a positive relationship between cultural capital, measured by educational attainment, and direct sport consumption, as noted in previous studies (White and Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2002). Rather surprisingly a negative relationship was found, indicating that highly educated spectators (HES) attend fewer sport events than spectators with a lower level of education (LES). The second hypothesis concerned a negative relationship between indirect (television) consumption and cultural capital. Results in this present study support the hypothesis, with HES watching sport less frequently on TV compared to LES. The two hypotheses were generated bearing in mind a certain relationship between direct and indirect consumption, considering indirect consumption as the more passive form. The results show little difference in the models calculating the effects of education on direct and indirect consumption (Table 3). Explaining these results requires consideration of two important differences between this study and others. This study focuses exclusively on spectators, and takes the frequency of consumption into consideration, as opposed to previous
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studies that compared spectators and non-spectators and created a single category for spectators attending one or 12 sport events (Thrane, 2001; White and Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2002). Keeping these differences in mind, I argue that the results of this study do not contradict the previous studies. Rather, they are interpreted as providing support for the idea that mass consumption blurs the borders between social groups (DiMaggio, 1987; Holt, 1998). This perspective hold that the number of genres consumed is a function of a persons socioeconomic status, implying that welleducated people do and like more of everything the omnivore thesis. Transferred to the field of sport, this line of thought suggests that HES have a greater likelihood of attending a sport event compared with LES simply because they attend more cultural activities. This explains the positive relationship between attending sport events and cultural capital, when comparing spectators and non-spectators (White and Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2002). However, attending more diverse cultural activities should not be confused with attending a particular cultural activity more frequently. The results of this study show that LES attend more events compared to HES, indicating that direct sport consumption is of higher relative importance in the lifestyle of LES. HES attend sport events because sport, as a cultural currency and subject of conversation, is important when establishing social networks. But a high level of direct consumption is not necessary in order to communicate competence in this field. Rather, a high level of direct consumption could be interpreted as a sign that fewer genres are consumed in total, explaining the findings of a negative relationship between direct consumption and cultural capital. The results indicate that the same phenomenon applies to indirect consumption, since HES watch less sport on television compared to LES. These results show that the taste for consuming sport is stable across different forms of consumption, since people high in direct consumption are also high in indirect consumption. Considering the consumption of sport as a manifestation of habitus, such findings should come as no surprise. Establishing the taste for sport as part of a lifestyle is not limited to one type of consumption; rather, one might expect people interested in sports to acquire information from a variety of sources. In light of these findings the categorization of active direct consumption as opposed to passive indirect consumption seems problematic. Indirect consumption of sport through television might still be negatively related to social networks (Bankston III, 2003; DiMaggio, 1987; Moy et al., 1999; Putnam, 1995, 2000), but results of this study suggest that a similar relationship is to be found between direct consumption and social networks. However, this hypothesis was not tested. Sport Participation and Consumption White and Wilson (1999) found a positive relationship between direct consumption and participation in sport. The results of subsequent studies (Thrane, 2001; Wilson, 2002) supported this hypothesis, showing that respondents who participated in sport were more likely to attend sport events in person. This study confirms sport participation as a relatively powerful predictor of both direct and
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indirect consumption because respondents who participate frequently in sport are more likely to be high in consumption. Still, the results concerning participation and education show a negative relationship, indicating that LES participate more frequently in sport compared to HES. This finding is mostly caused by basketball spectators, and it contradicts the expected positive relationship between direct consumption and participation, derived from the idea that well-educated people participate more in sport than those with lower levels of education, with an expected spill over effect into sport spectatorship (Lascu et al., 1995). Again, respondents in this study are spectators attending specific sport events, which by itself would indicate an interest in sports. Participation in sport and consumption of sport seem to be an important part of the lifestyle of LES taking part in this study, more important than in the case of HES, and probably more important compared to people with a lower level of education in general. Providing an answer to why sport is an important part of the habitus and lifestyle of LES is beyond the scope of this study, and additional studies involving qualitative methods might be more appropriate when investigating the meaning of participation and consumption in individual lives. Between Sport Differences The results show that spectators of different sports differ in both direct and indirect consumption. Soccer spectators are more likely to be high in indirect consumption compared to both basketball and ski-jump spectators. Considering the fact that soccer is the most high profile sport on national television, and therefore most available to consumption, it should come as no surprise that respondents interested in soccer are highest in indirect consumption. Also, the fact that basketball is shown fewer times on television than the other two sports could explain why basketball spectators are more likely to be high in direct consumption there are few options if you are interested in watching basketball. Another interesting feature of basketball spectators is the close to even distribution of male and female spectators. Part of the explanation lies in the marketing of basketball towards younger people, attracting many families to the matches. Wilson (2002) found that men with less education were far more likely to attend prole sports compared to better educated men, with the same tendency among women. This suggests that different sports are fitted into lifestyles reflecting a certain habitus, and leads to the expectation of finding differences in cultural capital between different sports. The results of this study show that LES are more likely to be high in direct consumption, but that there is no significant difference in terms of the educational attainment of spectators when comparing the different sports. Do these findings mean that all three sports included in this study should be labelled prole sports? When considering that over 50 percent of spectators in all three sports had gone beyond upper secondary education, it is difficult to argue that these are prole sports. However, it seems equally difficult to argue that they are highbrow sports since they apparently attract spectators from a wide range of social backgrounds. Perhaps comparing spectators of golf and ice hockey would have provided different results. Then again, this might be another result of mass consumption blurring the borders of social groups, as
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soccer, basketball, and ski-jumping are consumed by spectators from a wide range of social backgrounds. This would again suggest that the type of sport consumed is becoming a poor indicator of social location. Distinction through Consumption Previous studies have found that people high in cultural capital are more likely to attend sport events than people low in cultural capital (Thrane, 2001; White and Wilson, 1999; Wilson, 2002), suggesting that direct sport consumption as part of a lifestyle functions as a social marker for people high in cultural capital. As Wilson (2002) points out, this is not the case for all sports because some sports attract those low in cultural capital. However, consuming sport as a cultural activity is a widespread phenomenon in Norway, attracting spectators from a wide variety of social groups (SSB, 2000, 2003). If we accept the idea that mass consumption contributes to the blurring of borders between social groups, and that people high in cultural capital are becoming more omnivorous (DiMaggio, 1987; DiMaggio and Mohr, 1985; Holt, 1998; Peterson and Kern, 1996; Peterson and Simkus, 1992), the difference between attending and not attending might not be a sufficient indicator of consumption as a social marker. This study focused on frequency of consumption as an alternative indicator, with findings indicating that LES spend more time on sport consumption and participation compared to HES. The finding suggests that spectators attending soccer, basketball, and ski-jumping events come from a wide spectrum of social groups, and that social groups differ in the way they consume sport according to their level of cultural capital. This is precisely what might be expected when considering sport as an object of mass consumption. Distinction is not to be found so much in the decision to consume or not, but in how one chooses to consume sport. Part of this difference can be traced back to the frequency of consumption, thus explaining the negative relationship between cultural capital, sport consumption and sport attendance. Thus, the results of this study should not be seen as contradictory to previous studies that utilized Bourdieus analytical tools to investigate the relationship between sport consumption and cultural capital (Thrane, 2001; White and Wilson, 1999; White, 2002). Rather, they should be viewed as complementary, indicating that sport consumption as a social marker is not a stable construct. Direct and indirect consumption of sport still function as social markers, but since all social groups are engaged in mass consumption, how sport is consumed might be more important than if sport is consumed or not.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to express his sincere appreciation to Prof. Arnulf Kolstad at the Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for excellent comments on drafts of this article, and Jan E. Ingebrigtsen at the Department of Sport Science, NTNU, for valuable discussions.
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Ingar Mehus is a doctoral student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research interests include sport spectatorship and physical activity and sport participation among young people. Address: Department of Sociology and Political Science Sport Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway. Email: ingar.mehus@svt.ntnu.no

Distinction Through Sport Consumption

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Distinction Through Sport Consumption

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International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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