Padrões de consumo e gosto no campo cultural da literatura

Abstract

This research analyzes the consumption patterns and like in the literature cultural field. The influence of the cultural capital theory, proposed by Bourdieu, is considered for analyzing habits and individual books preferences. For developing this study, 419 semi-structured questionnaires were applied in the city of Lavras/MG, Brazil, focusing on 18-25 year’s young adults. This age group is justified due to its emergence in society. In addition, the study is justified due to reading and literature importance throughout history, as well as the size of the book market. Data were analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) and the R software, using tools and efficient didactic techniques, such as the ggplot tool. Among the performed analyzes are: frequency distributions, means, t test, chi-square, ANOVA, cluster analysis and discriminant. The cultural capital levels were defined using adaptations inspired from the literature, defined given the interviewed profiles. Consumption and reading habits among young adults were observed by the obtained results, by considering the relationship with sociodemographic, cultural capital levels and lifestyle. In particular, family salary and education level were significant factors for analyzing number of books read annually, as well as specific likes. The preference for book genders of cop/thriller/horror and fiction were higher for men, on the other hand, women appear to prefer romance, short stories, poetry and religion. Interviews classified with low cultural capital showed greater preference for religious books. The taste for biography books was evident in respondents with preferences for humanities science. Market segments were described and discussed, by considering a hierarchical grouping with three clusters, the variable that was more differentiated in the three clusters was the gender, where the first cluster had a higher percentage of men, while the other two clusters have most women. The clusters were named as follows: "Action fans", "Romantic" and "Religious". The first was the most educated group, with the highest percentage of respondents with average income over four minimum salaries and mostly composed by men. The second group was composed mostly by female respondents and people with high cultural capital. Finally, the third group was mostly composed by, however, with an average income of four minimum salary and slightly larger amount of respondents with low cultural capital.