COMPARISON OF HIGH CULTURAL CAPITAL AND LOW CULTURAL CAPITAL PICTORIAL HOUSEHOLD ARTWORK CONSUMERS IN THE UPPER MİDDLE CLASS IN ANKARA

---

Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, İşletme Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2020

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: DENİZ DEMİRCİOĞLU

Danışman: Eminegül Karababa

Özet:

The purpose of this research is to understand the differences of the meanings inferred through pictorial household artwork consumption between high cultural capital and low cultural capital consumers in the upper middle class in Ankara/Turkey. I utilized Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of distinction to explain the social status of the consumers depending on their tastes in pictorial household artworks. I tried to understand whether, in the postmodern era, the high arts as objectified cultural capital has lost its significance as status-markers in the upper middle class artwork consumers in Ankara/Turkey. I utilized qualitative research methods of non-participant observation, in-depth interviewing, auto-driving and secondary data collection. The findings reveal that the aesthetic judgments of the participants differ based on their cultural capital. Hence, for artwork consumers with high cultural capital, high arts still signify objectified cultural capital. While low cultural capital artwork consumers value beauty, visual content and their emotional response to the artwork, high cultural capital artwork consumers focus on the artistic and qualities of the artworks and intellectual inquiry provided by the artworks. The aesthetic vision of low cultural capital artwork consumers parallels the popular aesthetic vision which does not require cultural capital. Whereas high cultural capital artwork consumers develop both modernist and postmodernist aesthetic approaches to high arts. Contrary to popular aesthetic visions, the development of the modernist and the postmodernist aesthetic approaches necessitate cultural capital.