It is well-known that the society is divided into three classes according to the social

hierarchy:Upper class,middle class and working class.Among them,the upper class is the richest
but at the same time the smallest group of people while the working class has the largest
number of people that earns much less by contrast of the upper class.So here comes to a French
sociologist called Bourdieu who believes that every class has its own culture.

The high culture-just as its name implies which is specially designed for the upper class which
consists of opera music,thetra drama,ballet and so on.It is easy to find these interests in
common:firstly,they all need a large amount of money to study and they are intellectual
demanding.While the low culture,we also can call it mass culture or popular culture which is
mainly liked by the working class people.For example,after long time physical work,they are likely
to go to the bar to have a relax.They will prefer the interests that is easy for them to understand
and don’t require a lot of brain work due to poor education.Having said above,there exists the
distinction between high and low culture identified by Storey and Strinati.

Nowadays,high class is no longer for elites only,everyone is given the chance of choosing
products which appeal to them irrelevant of their social class.People can pick and mix from any
culture they want,therefore,Storey and Strinati believes that the distiction between high culture
and low culture is weakening.To sum up,the main points of the weakening are as follows,
Firstly,the social system changed significantly generation after generation.The strict social class
hierarchy is becoming more fluid.For example,before the founding of People’s Republic of
China(1979),only the children from upper class is able to acquire knowledge from school.But the
situation has changed after 1979,with the operate of nine-year compulsory education,every
children has access to the education,no matter you are rich or poor which lays the child the
foundation of knowledge if a girl from working class wants to further study the literature like
writing which is intellectual and is regarded as high culture.
Secondly,due to the development of media,people have a wider range of cultural choices,they
can easily pick and mix products from either high culture or low culture.
Thirdly,globalization is another reason for the weakening distinction,the world shrunk and
become like a global village.We now have mass production of goods worldwide and this leads to
mass production which allows the international transportation become easier than
before.Globalization has led to global culture which is a reason why we have become more alike
since we are exposed to different cultures through the spread of media and tourism.
Storey argues that people from upper class are not only consuming the high
culture,however,they are now consuming the things which they ignored before.For
example,Bansky is a graffti street artist,his works are all popular culture but they are now being
bought by the thousands of people from higher social classes.
Giddens looks at how video games show that high culture art can be easily turned into popular
culture products.He looks at how video games have different elements from different
cultures,such as music,drama and so on.
In conclusion,we are not just breaking the distinction between high culture and low culture,but
also culture differences between different countries.Globalization is leading cultures to merge
into one another.