The SCUD network consists of researchers from different European countries with a common interest in the study of processes of social differentiation and the formation of lifestyles and cultural consumption. A common point of departure lies in Bourdieu's cultural theory, which is assessed through a systematic confrontation with other sociological theories as well as through a confrontation with recent empirical studies and a detailed examination of the methods applied within the sociology of cultural consumptions. While the participants draw on a multitude of theoretical and methodological approaches (from ethnography to statistics), there is particular attention to the application of multiple correspondence analysis, as the network regroups several specialists within this field.
The network meetings concern in particular the following topics:
- Cultural capital and class
- Comparative and methodological issues
- Cultural legitimacy and class domination and
- Cultural capital: gender, nation, ethnicity.