TY  - JOUR
AB  - The Spirit Level Theory developed by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett claims that low-inequality societies are better societies because people are plagued less by status anxiety, and previous research has largely supported this idea. With the aim of broadening the knowledge about status anxiety, this article examines a crucial component of status anxiety ? the feeling of not counting much in the eyes of others ? within a multilevel framework for 27 European countries, using the European Quality of Life Survey 2011/2012. We first clarify which individual characteristics in particular result in status anxiety: labor market exclusion and low-income position. Second, influenced by the seminal work of Pierre Bourdieu in Distinction, we explore a societal condition of status anxiety that appears to be particularly salient due to its visibility in everyday life: cultural class divisions. Our evidence suggests that the extent of class divisions in cultural consumption fuels status anxiety, over and above the effects of income inequality and national affluence. Thus, we advocate a sociocultural redirection of the Spirit Level framework.
AU  - Delhey, Jan
AU  - Schneickert, Christian
AU  - Steckermeier, Leonie C.
DA  - 2017/06/01
DO  - 10.1177/0020715217713799
IS  - 3
PY  - 2017
SN  - 0020-7152
SP  - 215-240
ST  - Sociocultural inequalities and status anxiety: Redirecting the Spirit Level Theory
T2  - International Journal of Comparative Sociology
TI  - Sociocultural inequalities and status anxiety: Redirecting the Spirit Level Theory
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0020715217713799
VL  - 58
Y2  - 2017/06/15
ID  - 5570
ER  -