Social stratification and cultural consumption in Hungary: Book readership

Drawing on data from a recent time-budget survey, this paper investigates the relationship between cultural consumption, specifically book readership, and social stratification in Hungary. Results show that status, education and income are the three main bases for stratification in book reading in this country. As could be expected from a Weberian standpoint, the effects of class on book reading and reading preferences are less marked than those of status. People's reading behaviour is strongly associated both with their own and with their parents’ social status. The analyses suggest that in terms of stratification by education, income and status, the most salient dividing line is that between readers and non-readers. Further, only individuals at the top of the status hierarchy possess an adequate amount of educational and financial resources to consume the most ‘canonised’ forms of culture; in this case, serious literature and work-related non-fiction texts.