From the ‘What’ and ‘How’ to the ‘Where’: Class Distinction as a Matter of Place

Abstract

Research on the symbolic boundary work of upper- and middle-class actors has placed a greater emphasis on the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of cultural consumption than on the ‘where’. However, the spaces where actors move are important: the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of marking distinction vary according to national class cultures and cultural fields. This article focuses on the ‘where’ arguing that interaction settings shape actors’ boundary work. Based upon research on Argentinean Pentecostalism, the study shows that middle-class Pentecostals switch between distinction-marking and ‘omnivorous’ performances of Pentecostalism depending on the social permeability of the spaces where they move. These insights suggest that the contextual conditions in which actors present themselves as ‘omnivores’ or ‘snobs’ deserve more attention.