Bourdieu isn't the only influence, however. The 'Reading by Numbers' chapter recalls Ken Worpole's Comedia study of some years ago, although it isn't cited here. The 'Care of the Self' chapter invokes Michel Foucault, also important to this study. Class is treated as the most nuanced of these, allowing an argument with Bourdieu that runs through the entire book. Professionals may be 'progressive' in their tastes, but managers and employers seem to be 'conservative', for example.
Young people are more 'participatory' than older people.
A range of women read more literary kinds of novels, but they may also read 'debased' fictional forms like romance and horror. Accounting for Tastes does try to think about what is 'Australian' about all the different modes of cultural consumption and competence it describes. The authors note that national sentiment in this country co-exists, albeit uneasily, with transnational cultural interests. But their own distinctive contribution amounts primarily to representing Australian cultural tastes as a matter of complexity. Ken Gelder is REader in English at the University of Melbourne.