Field analysis of young people’s cultural socialisation and participation

This study presents the results from the multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) of the younger people’s patterns of cultural participation and everyday experiences of cultural diversity in the UK. Using data from the CHIEF survey, conducted with 951 students from 11 secondary schools in the UK, the field analysis produced multi-dimensional maps of the relationship between modalities and frequencies of cultural participation, openness to cultural diversity, and exposure to intercultural communication, as experienced by younger people. The findings of field analysis demonstrate that gender, together with place of residence and geographical mobility, are important factors explaining younger people’s cultural participation and openness. The analysis highlights striking differences in patterns of cultural participation and exposure to intercultural interaction and openness to cultural diversity between younger people living in bigger urban centres and whose parents are not born in the UK with peers living in semi-urban and rural settings with the UK-born parents. The former is geographically immobile, rarely participating in organised cultural activities (particularly sports clubs) but socialises with people from different ethnic backgrounds daily and likes to learn about different cultures. Their rural and semi-urban counterparts are geographically mobile, doing multiple international and inter-regional trips annually, and are likely to partake in organised cultural activities (with sports clubs being often attended in rural settings), but they do not have close friends with a differing ethnic background from theirs and express no particular interest in learning different cultures. The emplaced class distinctions (for example, parental educational background) appear manifested in preferences of some cultural activities over others among younger people in the sample. For instance, younger people living in semi-urban settings with parents who have university degrees and above are likelier to engage in reading and playing musical instruments as leisure activities than their peers in urban and rural areas, whose parents have a lower educational background.