Do the Swedes really aspire to sense and the Portuguese to status? Cultural activity and income gap in the member states of the European Union

Abstract

This article aims at verifying the findings of Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) which point to a strong correlation between the income gap and the escalation of social problems. Wilkinson and Pickett’s thesis states that all kinds of social problems are directly connected to the scale of social inequality in a given country. This article tests this concept by analysing the relation between the income gap in a particular country and the cultural activity of its citizens. The study assumes that low cultural activity can be defined as a social problem in modern European knowledge societies that are based on cultural industry. This relation is investigated in 22 European Union countries. The study demonstrates that there is a strong correlation between cultural activity and the scale of social inequality. In egalitarian countries the cultural activity is high, in highly stratified countries it is low.