The Future of Education

Studies on cultural capital demonstrate that socialization provided by family, peer group and education are core determinants of cultural consumption. In traditional societies, family socialization were considered the main factor in determining cultural preferences or taste through a process of intergenerational heritage of cultural capital. However, in current informational societies, despite no single factor can be identified, education has become a central predictor of cultural consumption. In this work we analyze the impact of education on preferences for cultural consumption of Spanish population, using a sample from the CIS (barometer 2932). Initially we compare the variations in this relationship at the regional level and, in a second step, we use a model of classification trees to understand the complex association between socioeconomic and socio-demographic determinants of preferences for cultural consumption. Our findings show that the effect of education on cultural consumption can be mediated by economic and social factors. On the other hand, this relationship is context dependent. As an advantage in comparison with previous studies, our model can use a complex combination of predictors to identify the specific groups of population that are more or less susceptible to cultural consumption.