Cultural Distinction and the University of Toronto: Constructing Symbolic Boundaries of Social Class in Canada, 1894–1950

Abstract

In the first half of the twentieth century, the University of Toronto was a preeminent cultural institution in Canada. Based on a critical interpretation of archival documents, this article narrates the history of four non-formal educational programs through which the University of Toronto created opportunities for Canadians to develop privileged forms of cultural taste and practice: the administration of local examinations in music across Canada, the development of a museum oriented to public visitation, the organization of public lectures in collaboration with local associations across Ontario, and the delivery of non-credit evening courses in Toronto. These four programs engaged hundreds of thousands of Canadians in forms of activity that supported the development of what Bourdieu conceptualized as constellations of cultural distinction: arrays of tastes and practices that mark symbolic boundaries of social class. Two of the programs resulted in national cultural institutions (Royal Conservatory of Music and Royal Ontario Museum) prominent in fields that have been empirically associated with social class boundaries in Canada. The other two programs declined in significance after 1950 and have not previously been included in analyses of cultural distinction. This article explores the historical role of Canadian universities in constructing symbolic boundaries of social class.