Cosmopolitan cultural consumption: Preferences and practices in a heterogenous, urban population in Switzerland

•We develop additional measures focusing on the geographic range of consumption.•Cosmopolitan cultural consumption is not widespread in the population.•It is stronger related to cosmopolitan than European identification.•It is connected to transnational experiences and social relations.•Cosmopolitan consumption is strongly shaped by different forms of cultural capital.

Several authors in contemporary cultural consumption research have argued that the traditional axis of distinction between highbrow culture and popular culture is in the process of being replaced by a new axis of distinction between an open cosmopolitan cultural capital and a more local less open, cultural capital. We take up this issue and study cosmopolitan cultural consumption, which is defined by its openness for and engagement with cultural products and services from foreign cultures. We have exploratively developed new measures of cosmopolitan cultural consumption, which focus on the geographic breadth of consumption beyond western countries and on knowledge, tastes and modes of consumption, thus taking the esthetic disposition in consumption into account. Furthermore, the data enable us to study the relationship between consumption and other measures of transnational experiences and identification. Our results indicate that cosmopolitan consumption is not rampant in the population. Furthermore, it is part of a broader pattern of cosmopolitanism that is characterized by supranational identifications, transnational relations, and experiences. They show furthermore that cosmopolitan cultural consumption is strongly determined by different forms of cultural capital, thus being a form of class-based practice.