Voorwoord



TOR2002/38

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Growing up in a symbolic society : The difference between ‘Spirou’ and ‘Tintin’.

Gender and educational tracking in the social and cultural practices of young people in Flanders.

Frank Stevens

Free University of Brussels

Department of Sociology

Research group TOR

Pleinlaan 2

1050 Brussels

Policy Research Centre for ‘Recreational Flanders’

Korte Meer 3

9000 Gent

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frank.stevens@vub.ac.be

vub.ac.be/TOR/

Paper presented at the Xth SWS-dagen, Amsterdam 30th-31th May 2002 and at the XV World Congress of Sociology, Brisbane – Australia July 7 – 13 2002

This text has been realised with support of the Flemish Community and the Program for Policy Research Centres. In this text, only the opinion of the author is expressed, not that of the Gouvernment of The Flemish Community. The Flemish Community can not be held responsible for the use of the presented data.

Abstract

Since the early eighties, the relationship between youngsters and the labour market has fundamentally changed in Belgium. High levels of youth unemployment and government budget cuts led to a policy to postpone the introduction of young people onto the labour market. The most significant policy measure was the extension of compulsory education until 18. Recent research shows that political views and cultural practices of young people are predominantly structured along their tracks of secondary education (general versus vocational education) and gender. At the same time there is an important association between social background and educational tracking. This paper deals with this structuring of the social and cultural practices of young people along educational cleavages. It’s based on a survey among 13.000 secondary school students (16 to 18 years old) in the Flemish part of Belgium and investigates the differences in musical tastes, the usages of media (old and new), shopping behaviour, social participation, social networks, political views (democratic citizinship) and views of friendship.

Introduction

One of the core issues in youth research these days is the question whether youth culture is still socially embedded. One view, popular among social scientist as well as in daily life, states that taste, culture or lifestyle are a matter of personal preference. According to this view, social background - or social structures in general - is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Identities are said to become more fragmented as a result of processes like detraditionalisation and individualisation (Cieslik 2001). The disappearance of traditional contraints results in an active and reflexive individual. Individuals construct their own, highly original lifestyle by combining different elements from an enlarging number of cultural goods. Collective forms of identity formation within the rigid lines of locality, social class or gender have become archaic (Beck 1992). Individuals are the architects of their own lives (Laermans 1994), freed from traditional restrictions typical for their own gender, social class, religion, locality or ethnicity. The implication of this vision is that collective identities are less relevant in daily life.

In youth research this vision has been embraced by scholars doing empirical research in club cultures. According to this vison the traditional paradigm of subculture is becoming an increasinly unworkable concept. Subculture, defined as a more or less coherent code of dress, musical taste, behaviour and hairstyle, is an obsolete concept. Modern dance cultural music like house and techno do not impose clear cut demands on what to wear, on how to behave or on how to dress your hair. The mixture of different musical styles, the lack of a clear dresscode or a particular hairstyle are interpreted as the loss of a coherent subcultural code. Furthermore, these authors contest the assertion that subculture is always an expression of resistance towards an omnipresent capitalistic system. In modern club cultures though, social criticism is not really a key issue. The traditional notion of ‘subculture’ therefore does not any longer reflect the social and cultural realities of young people. In addition, the use of the term in daily life and in the media has made it a catch-all term (Bennett 1999), unsuited to grasp the sophistication and diversity of contemporary youth cultures. Instead, these authors argue for a more fluid and temporal approach towards cultural practices and prefer terms like post-subcultures (Muggleton 1997; Muggleton 2000) or neo-tribes (Bennett 1999).

Some authors have expressed doubts over this portrayal of modern life. In Dutch and Flemish sociological research into individualisation, the paradox of individualisation is a recurrent conclusion. This paradox shows that individuals do have more opportunities to “write their own script”. At the same time though, people keep on making very traditional choices in their lifes. Old conventions still survive and collective processes of identification still influence the choices of individuals. This aspect has been illustrated for transitions in life (Corijn 1993; Liefbroer & de Jong Gierveld 1993), values (Elchardus 1999b) and even cultural preferences and tastes (Stevens 2001a). One can also doubt the claim that there are no longer coherent codes for dress, music or behaviour in current youth cultures. One can understand the criticism of club culture theorist that subculture is not an accurate concept to describe their research subject. Even their critiscism that cultural practices does not necessarily mean a resistance towards capitalism, makes sense. And they are also right when they state that contemporary youth culture is dominated by musical styles like house and techno. At least this is the case in Flanders (Stevens 2001a). It would be wrong though to limit current youth culture to club culture alone. In the 90’s, very distinctive and recognisable styles like the straight edge life style emerged next to the more eclectic dance musical styles. And as ‘gabber’ illustrates, even in modern dance culture there are styles with a very coherent code for dress, hairstyle, behaviour, dancing and musical taste. ‘Gabber’ is a youth culture originating in the Netherlands around the early 90’s. Typical for this culture are an “Australian”-brand tracksuit, a “Chipie” blue jeans, a Lonsdale jumper, a black bomberjacket and Nike Air Max trackshoes), a distinctive hairstyle (bald heads or so-called ‘blockheads’ – bald on the side and short, straight trimmed hair on the crane) and a specific dancestyle that is called ‘hakkûh’ (commonly, the term is translated into chopping). Gabber music is very fast and very loud techno music and is called ‘hardcore’. In the 90’s the beat of the music slowly increased from 120 to 220 beats per minute (Verhagen et al. 2000). In 1997 gabber was the most popular music amongst Dutch youngsters (Ter Bogt & Hibbel 2000).

Next to the individualisation thesis, one can speak of a second approach to cultural practices. This approach claims that these practices cannot be studied without regard to social structures. Especially gender and social class are still important factors in the formation of taste. The correspondance between gender and social position on the one side and taste on the other, is explained in terms of differential processes of socialisation. Boys and girls are brought up differently, which results in different tastes and lifestyles. People of different social backgrounds undergo different processes of socialisation. This results in different outlooks on the world and different class tastes (Bourdieu & De Saint Martin 1976). Young people take up these differences in taste and incorporate them in their own culture.

One aspect that has been neglected in recent years whithin youth cultural theory is education (Stevens 2001b). Although theorists like Talcott Parsons and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies stress the importance of the emergence of the education sytem as an institutional environment for the development of an autonomous youth culture, education has mostly disappeared from youth cultural theory. Nonetheless, research into taste formation stresses the importance of education. Especially in the work of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, education plays an important role. According to this author, the education system reproduces to a large extent existing social inequalities. One of the key issues in Bourdieus work is therefore the importance of an emergent education system in the cultural preferences of the individual (Tillekens 1993). Also Pierre Rosanvallon (1995), another French publicist, is convinced of the rising importance of education in the lifes of individuals. In his work La Nouvelle Question Sociale, this author states that level of education increasingly determines chances in life. In traditional societies, family ties determined opportunities (Elchardus 1999a; Peterson 1997), while in industrial societies opportunities are determined by position in the production process. The “new social question” refers to the fact that one’s social position is increasingly determined by one’s symbolic capacity. The generation and contribution to knowledge, symbolic content and meaning are central in current society. In this respect some authors speak of the emergence of a symbolic society (Elchardus 2000; Stevens & Elchardus 2001). Increasing numbers of people are employed in sectors such as ICT, media, education, marketing, advertising, social, cultural and other sectors involved in the generation of meanings. The current economic system is determined by the production of symbolic goods such as new services, new needs, new trends and new subtle status distinctions. Also our daily life is surrounded and entrenched with symbols. The symbolic society invades our lives every time we listen to the radio, watch tv, walk in the streets and see advertising billboards. In this kind of society, people are instructed, educated and formed so that they can participate in the creation of symbolic meanings. The level of education forms a sort of passport into this society as it refers to the symbolic capacity of an individual.

In this paper we want to investigate whether social and cultural practices of young people are socially structured. We want to investigate whether there are important differences in cultural preferences, values and social networks between boys and girls, young people in different tracks of the Belgian education system. The central thesis of this paper is that education can be interpreted as an important factor in the structuralisation of young people’s daily lifes in Belgium. Even during secondary education, while young people are still completing their formation, one can already observe differences in social and cultural practices. These differences cannot be separated from the transformation of Belgian society towards a symbolic society.

In a first part of this paper, we try to portray the cultural and social practices of young people in general. In a second part, we try to give a description of the complex education system in Flanders and the main trends of its evolution in the last 50 years. Special attention will be drawn to the important association between social background and the specific track one is guided into during secondary education. In the last part of this paper we investigate whether there is still a certain structuralisation of social and cultural practices of young people.

Data

The data for this article are collected during the school year 1999-2000 by the TOR-research group of the Free University of Brussels. The research had two goals: to get a picture of the participation opportunities in secondary education in Flanders and the Dutch speaking education system of the Brussels Capital Region and to get a picture of how young people in Flanders perceive their daily life. Commissioner of the research was the Department of Education of the Flemish Community. In order to be able to give an answer to central questions, a sample was drawn from the school database of the Department of Education. This sample was proportionally stratified according to school board (community education, subsidised privately run schools of catholic origin and subsidised publicly run schools), location (the five Flemish provinces) and the combination of tracks a school offers. For this last aspect, we made a partition in three groups. The first type of schools only offer general secundary education (ASO). They represent 26.1% of the schools in Flanders and Brussels. The second group of schools offer professional secundary education as well as vocational secundary education. This is the case in one third (33.5%) of the schools in Flanders and Brussels. The third group (40.4% of the schools), wich is a very diverse group, consists of schools offering all possible other combinations of education tracks. This group encompasses amongst others, all schools offering secondary art education. The most important subgroup within this group though are schools offering a combination of general, professional and vocational secondary education.

In total 89 schools all over Flanders and Brussels were included in the research design. In every school all the pupils of the fourth and sixth grade of secondary education were interviewed. This resulted in a sample of 13598 pupils, mainly between the ages of 16 and 18 (De Groof et al. 2001; Stevens & Elchardus 2001).

The cultural practices of young people in Flanders

Culture itself is a very broad concept. This is reflected in the diverse ways the concept is operationalised. An additional problem is that most studies in youth culture are qualititative research designs (Hall 1997). Scholars use in-depth interviews or participatory observations to study very distinctive subcultures. One of the main criticisms towards this approach is the confinement of youth culture to very eye-catching and publicly visual subcultures (Janssen & Prins 1991; McRobbie & Garber 1976; Ter Bogt & Hibbel 2000). Especially the practices of young people diverging from the conventional cultural patterns are studied, ignoring the cultural practices of the majority of teenagers (Ter Bogt & Hibbel 2000).

Quantitive research into cultural practices of adults and young people tend to restrict culture to more legitimate forms of cultural participation like going to theatre, visiting a museum, reading a book, favorite leisure activities or listening to classical music (Katz-Gerro 1999) (Goedseels et al. 2000; Kaesemans 2001) (DiMaggio 1982; Lamb 1989). Time budget data show though that young people do not spend a lot of time on these legitimate cultural practices (Stevens & Elchardus 2001). Consumption of media, music, films and shopping for clothes are more relevant for their cultural experiences.

Following the example of mostly Dutch sociological research in the 80’s and 90’s (Elchardus et al. 1996; Sikkema 1987; Tillekens 1993; Van Wel 1993; Van Wel & Van der Gouwe 1990), we investigate the cultural preferences and practices by asking young people to asess 30 musical styles, 17 different kinds of television programs, 9 different television stations (the six general Flemish tv-stations and regional television, MTV and the Flemish music television TMF), 8 national radio broadcasting stations and 15 film genres. The pupils could express their appreciation or depreciation for these elements by giving them a score between 0 and 10. If an element was unknown to them, they scored it ‘11’. We also asked them what their favorite magazine is (they had to choose one from a list of 11 possible types of magazines), how many times they used 7 types of new media (using a 7-point scale of frequency) and how many times they bought their clothes or shoes in 11 different types of shops (5-point scale).

We looked for patterns in preferences over the different cultural domains using exploratory factor analysis. These analysis showed that there are no clear patterns between the use of new media and shopping behaviour on the one side and the other cultural domains on the other. The factor analysis in the preferences in magazines, televison and radio stations, television programs, films and musical styles resulted in five cultural dimensions (see appendix A). We use oblique rotation because we assume that the different dimensions are not uncorrelated from each other and because cultural elements can be approached from different discursive formations (Hall 1997).

The first cultural orientation is determined by a preference for instructive televison programs (like newscasts, current affairs, talkshows, …) and information magazines. Youngsters associate these programs with the public tv broadcasting system and regional televisions, less with the privately owned, commercial television stations. Also the public broadcasting radio stations, offering national and regional news and information programs, are closely linked to this orientation. Musically, styles like classical music, folk, world music, French chansons, jazz, blues, cabaret but also the publicly owned classical radio station belong to this orientation. These youngsters also prefer political films and films with a cult status. This orientation is called cultural correctness because the underlying criterion to evaluate something as good or beautifull seems te be an inherent ‘quality’ or ‘information’ (Frith 1990; Van Eijck 2001).

The second orientation revolves around fun and pleasure. Something is beautiful because it provides diversion and entertainment. Closley linked to this dimension are entertaining television programs like game shows, quiz shows, dating programs, soaps, drama productions, but also romantic movie pictures. Amusement is apparently more a characteristic of the privately owned television station and radio broadcasts, including the two music television stations, MTV and TMF. The only exemption is Radio Donna, a publicly owned radio station advertising with the slogan ‘The Fun. The Hits’. Musical styles closely connected with this orientation are chart music, disco, house and ‘tien om te zien’-music[1].

A third orientation is dominated by films and television programs centred around traditional scripts. Associations with masculinity, aggression, competitiveness, emotional detachment and an orientation towards sexual domination (Lapp 1999; Nixon 1997) are commonly made in this dimension. Following Van Wel and Van der Gouwe (1993) we call this orientation a macho or virile orientation. Film styles like action movies, crime films, science fiction films, adventure films, thrillers, horror movies, but also erotic movies load high on this dimension. Further, we can also find sport programs, sport shows and reality tv on this dimension. Techno, gabber and house, are correlated to this factor.

The fourth dimension comprises of musical styles like R&B, funk, reggae, ska, rap, raï, worldmusic and folk. But also ‘music with a certain history’ like French chansons, sixties and seventies music are part of this dimension. Once again, pupils tend to associate these musical styles with MTV and TMF. Because of the dominance of historically rooted musical styles and musical styles with Afro-American roots, we simply call this dimension a roots dimension. A similar dimension is often found in American research (Christenson & Roberts 1998). Although music is the dominant factor on this dimension, it can not be reduced to music alone. Romantic films, but also more ‘difficult’ films like psychological movies and films with a social theme constitute this taste orientation.

The last dimension consists of ‘though’ and ‘hard’ rock music like heavy metal, hardcore, hard rock, grunge, alternative guitar music, punk and new wave. This ressembles the playlist of the publicly owned radio station ‘Studio Brussel’. This radio station mainly targets a younger audience. It is obvious to call this dimension the rock dimension. This dimension does not only consist of these cultural elements. There is a certain overlap with the roots dimension because, once again, we meet styles like sixties and seventies music, but even jazz and blues have affinities with this dimension.

Not only tastes were examined, but also the way youngsters perceive their immediate environment, their school and society, were used to research the cultural practices of youngsters. We examined the perception of their immediate environment by asking them questions about self-image, self-confidence, perception of the future, relationships with mother and father and relations with friends. For this last aspect, we constructed a new instrument based on observations made in the qualitative part of the research project to explore what friendship means to youngsters (Laermans et al. 2001). This instrument revealed two notions of friendship amongst young people (Stevens & Elchardus 2001). The first definition sees friendship in term of self-disclosure and trust. You can share your inner feelings with your friends, without fearing that those intimacies will be told to others in idle gossip. The second notion defines friendship in terms of conformity, in terms of shared interests. Friends are those people who have the same interests in leisure activities, have the same sense of humour, like the same kinds of music or clothes.

School experience is examined by six measurement instruments: the informal class climate, the informal school climate, school alienation, the evaluation of the members and functioning of the student council, and finally, well-being at school (De Groof & Siongers 2001). The informal class and school climate examines the pupil-related character of the class and the school respectively. School alienation examines to what extent pupils feel that their own views do not matter, and that they have no influence on what happens in school. As the name suggests, the two instruments related to the student council examine the pupil’s views of the members and the functioning of the student council. Finally, there is well-being at school or the extent to which pupils like to go to school, feel at home there, etc. These six indicators are very closely interrelated. In other words, pupils like to go to school (and do not feel alienated) when they experience an open and pupil oriented class and school climate, and when they evaluate the student council in a positive way.

Finally, we used democratic attitudes towards citizenship as an estimate of their social values. Therefor we used instruments measuring utilitarian individualism, ethnocentrism, antidemocratic feelings and preference for a tough stance on crime. Recent political research shows that these values are currently the most significant cultural determinants of the voting behaviour in Flanders (Billiet et al. 2001; Elchardus 1994; Elchardus & Pelleriaux 1998).

The social practices of young people in Flanders

Concerning the social practices of young people, we asked them questions about membership of the student council. 23,3% of the pupils were or have previously been a member of the student council. Furthermore, we inquired about their participation in six types of extracurricular activities: social activities (e.g. homework classes for immigrants, help with the elderly, third world projects), cultural activities (e.g. music, drama, film), technical activities (e.g. making websites, technical workshops like bike and motor workshops, computer lessons), sports (e.g. football, dance), economic activities (e.g. mini-enterprise, business games) and leisure activities (e.g. parties). Additionally, we asked them about their participation in 14 types of associations. They had to indicate whether they were no member at all, a passive member (someone who pays the membership fees, but does not participate in the activities), an active member (someone who participates at least once in the last year in an activity of the organisation) or a board member (someone who is involved in the organisation of the activities of the association).

A non-linear principal component analysis (princals) revealed distinct patterns in the social participation of young people. Firstly, participation in types of extracurricular activities are strongly intertwined. Young people participating in one type of extracurricular activity, tend to participate in other types as well. In the sample, 80.9% participate in at least one extracurricular activity. A second kind of organisations are social organisations: voluntary associations, political parties, antiracist organisations, environmental organisations, human rights organisations, peace organisations, cultural organisations, third world organisations and neighbourhood associations. 34.5% of the pupils participate in at least one of these organisations. A third kind of organisation, leisure organisations, comprises of hobby clubs and sport clubs. These organisations reach 54.3% of the pupils in the sample. And finally, a fourth type of formal social participation comprises of participation in youth clubs, youth work and youth movements. 40.1% of the pupils is a member of at least one youth organisation.

Aside from their formal social participation, we were also interested in their informal social networks. Herefore we questioned them about the number of friends they have, where they meet their friends (in class, in school, outside of school), whether they have a steady girl friend or boy friend and how popular they consider themselves. Once again, a non-linear principal component analysis revealed a clear structure in this informal network: the endogeneity of friendship. On the one side of this dimension, there are pupils with a small number of friends, who restrict their friendships to one environment (classroom, school or outside of school), who haven’t got a steady boy friend or girl friend and who consider themselves impopular. Otherwise, there are pupils who have a lot of friends, who have friends in several environments, have had a steady boy friend or girl friend for at least one year and who consider themselves very popular.

The school system in Flanders

In 1983 the Belgian government decided to extend compulsory education until 18 years. Prior to this new law, compulsory education was limited to 16 years. The official government discours stated that this measure aimed to improve the resilience of young people by preventing early school drop out (Derks & Vermeersch 2001). For those pupils tired of school, a system of part-time education and part-time work (DBSO) was introduced. Unofficially, the law has been interpreted on the one hand as a measure to combat the high levels of youth unemployment of the early eighties and as a budget cut on the other hand (Bouverne-De Bie & Coussée 2001).

The decision though was a formalisation of an ongoing trend towards longer schooling (Derks & Vermeersch 2001). Like most Western countries, Belgium knew an exponential expansion of its school system in the period 1950 to 1975. The participation in higher secundary education in this period increased spectacularly. In 1956 only 32% of the 16- to 18- year olds participated in higher secondary education. In 1982 this number was 82% (Claes et al. 1984; Derks & Vermeersch 2001; Pelleriaux 2001). Also higher education (polytechnics and universities) knew an important increase with students. In 1956 only 14% of the age group between 18 and 22 studied full time, this percentage augmented to 38% in 1982. This represents an increase of 271% (Pelleriaux 2001). After 1975, this increase continued, but at a slower rate. This extra growth can be completely contributed to the increase in participation in higher education by girls. As a matter of fact, in 1998 the number of female students in polytechnics and universities exceeded the number of male students for the first time in Belgian history (Pelleriaux 2001).

At the same time, the education system did not only expand, it transformed as well. The most remarkable change was the differentiation into different tracks. In the 1950’s the foundations for the current education system were laid by the integration of professional and vocational education in the official school system. Before the 1950’s professional and vocational education, aimed at the instruction of skilled labourers, didn’t ressort under the Ministry of Education, but was controlled by the Ministry of Economics (Pelleriaux 2001). At the same time, general education, that prepared young people for higher education, also knew a differentiaton. Apart from traditional subjects Greek-Latin and Latin, the introduction of new study disciplines like science, maths and modern languages promoted participation of young people from middle class backgrounds in general education. The integration of the different tracks in one broad and diversified education system, made it possible that in 30 years time the Belgian education system transformed from an elitist into a massified system (Pelleriaux 2001). The extension of compulsory education can be seen as just another stage in this evolution.

The education system in Belgium got even more complicated since the devolution of the unitary state Belgium into a federal state. Since 1988, education is no longer a federal matter, but a community competence. Every language group (Dutch, French and German speaking) is responsible for its own school system. The Department of Education of the Flemish community is the entitled authority for the education system in Flanders and the Dutch speaking education system in the Brussels Capital Region. Concerning education, the federal government is only authorized with regards to the pensions of members of staff, determining the minimum conditions for gaining a certificate and establishing compulsory education.

Today, secondary education in Flanders is divided into three grades, lasting two years each. In the first grade there is a minimum of tracking. All pupils follow a core curriculum. This core curriculum is known as the A-stream. Next to this core curriculum, there is a second track, preparing for vocational education (the so called B-stream). From the second grade (14 or 15 years), there are four distinct types or tracks of education pupils can choose:

1. General secondary education (ASO). The emphasis is on a broad general education which provides the basis for higher education.

2. Professional secondary education (TSO), which focuses on general and technical theoretical subjects. After TSO, young people can enter employment or go on to higher education.

3. Art secondary education (KSO): a general education is combined with active education in the arts. After KSO, young people can enter employment or higher education.

4. Vocational secondary education (BSO): this is a practical type of education which involves teaching a specific job, as well as providing a certain level of general education.

From the third grade on (16-17 years), pupils can opt for a training in part-time vocational secondary education (DBSO). In this track, two days of education are combined with three days of employment. In the school year 2000-2001 5.961 pupils were enrolled in this type of education, making up 1,4% of the total secondary school population of Flanders (Department of Education 2002).

A pupil receives a certificate of secondary education when he/she has successfully completed six years of ASO, TSO or KSO, or seven years of BSO. With a certificate of secondary education, every young person has unlimited access to higher education, irrespective of what school, type of education or course this certificate comes from (De Groof & Siongers 2001).

The school population is further divided into classes. The average class size in the Flemish secondary education system for a subject matter like math is 19 pupils (TIMSS 1999). In most schools, even in schools with different educational tracks, classes comprise of pupils following similar subject matters[2]. In reality, this means that classes are divided along educational tracks. Even for courses that do not ask for a differentiation of pupils along academic skills, like sports, art education, religious instruction or moral philosophy, pupils of different educational tracks are not mixed. As a consequence, pupils from different educational tracks almost never take lessons together. Sometimes this seggregation takes on physical forms. A school can be made up of different buildings or school grounds, scattered over a city or town. Some schools reserve specific locations for particular educational tracks. In other schools recreational facilities are split up by educational track, sometimes resulting in seperate school facilities. In these cases, pupils of the same school, but following courses in different buildings or in different campuses, never have contact with each other. But even in schools where pupils share the same facilities, one can often observe a spontaneous seggregation of pupils on the playground along educational tracks (Laermans et al. 2001).

Education and social background

In spite of the massification and democratisation of the education system over the last five decades, there is still an important association between social background and the track of a pupil. Social background is still important in the choice for a particular socialisation path in the education system (De Groof et al. 2001; Elchardus 1999b; Elchardus et al. 1998; Pelleriaux 2001; Tan 1998). Also in the current data, there are notable selection effects between the occupation of the father and the education level of the parents on the one side and the specific track of the pupil on the other.

Table 1: Association between occupation of father and track of son or daughter (columnpercentage)

| |Father unemployed or in |Father white collar job or|Father managerial job, enterpreneur |Total |

| |blue collar job |independent profession |or liberal profession | |

|ASO/KSO |23,3% |49,0% |63,0% |42,8% |

|BSO |38,5% |16,4% |12,1% |23,4% |

|TSO |38,3% |34,6% |24,8% |33,8% |

|Totaal |4662 |5590 |2773 |13025 |

chi²=15045, df = 4, p= .00000; Somer’s d = -.212, p=.000; gamma = -.319, p = .000, spearman correlation = -.238, p = .000

43% of the pupils in the sample are in general or secondary arts education. This percentage decreases to 23% procent amongst youngsters with working class backgrounds. The higher classes on the other hand are overrepresented in general and secondary arts education. In vocational secondary education, we find exactly the opposite. Here, working class youngsters are overrepresented while only 12% of the young people stemming from the high classes are enrolled in vocational secondary education.

Table 2: Association between education level parents and track of son or daughter (columnpercentage)

| |Both parents no higher education |At least one of the parents higher |Total |

| |(polytechnic or university) |education | |

|ASO/KSO |26,6% |64,5 |43,9% |

|BSO |33,1% |8,9% |22,0% |

|TSO |40,3% |26,6% |34,0% |

|Totaal |6850 |5774 |12624 |

chi²=2020, df = 2, p= .00000; Somers’ d = 284, p= .0000; gamma = -.472, p=.000; spearman correlation = -.303, p=.000

The association between the education level of the parents and the track of the pupils is perhaps even stronger. Only 9% of the families in which at least one of the parents have a degree of higher education, send their sons and daughters to vocational secondary education. In contrast, one third of the pupils, from families with both parents not having a degree of higher education, are in vocational secondary education. Pupils with higher educated parents are more represented in the general or art secondary track.

This differentiation of the pupils over different tracks in secondary education has important consequences for the further lives of the pupils, especially for the final level of education they obtain in their lives. The secondary education degree determines to a large extent whether young people begin higher education and whether young people succeed in these studies. An ongoing research into the education career of young people and their transition to the labour market shows that 77% of young people in Flanders begin higher education after leaving secondary education (Belet & Laurijssen 2002). Not all groups participate in higher education in the same manner. Almost all pupils finishing their secondary education career in general education (ASO) move up to higher education (97%). Of the pupils finishing their secondary education in professional education (TSO), only 69% pursue higher education. This percentage is even lower amongst youngsters finishing the 7th year of vocational education (BSO), namely 17%. The different tracks also influence the type of higher education the youngsters begin. While 46% of pupils from general education move up to university, only 4% of the pupils from professional education and only 1% of the pupils of vocational education go to university. Comparatively speaking, pupils with a professional secondary education end up more in polytechnical courses (56%) than pupils with a vocational (16%) or a general education certificate (35%) (Belet & Laurijssen 2002).

There are not only differences between the tracks in participation in higher education. Also a significant connection between the track in secondary education and the success rate in higher education has been reported in other studies (Belet & Laurijssen 2002). 65% of youngsters with a certificate of general secondary education already have a degree in higher education when they are 23 years of age. Only 12% do not succeed in higher education. On the other hand, only 24% of those few young people with a certificate of vocational secondary and pursuing higher education have a degree at 23 years, 61% of them ended their higher education prematurely.

Education level is very important for gaining a position on the labour market and for opportunities in general life. Young people with a higher level of education more easily find a regular and full time, white collar job than youngsters only having a secondary education degree (Belet & Laurijssen 2002). As a matter of fact, education becomes an increasinly important factor in finding a sure and stable job (Pelleriaux 2000) or obtaining a good social position. People with a lower level of education also have a bigger chance to end up in poverty (Cantillon & Marx 1995). They have a bigger risk to lead an unhealthy lifestyle, to feel less fit and they have a lower life expectancy than people with a high level of education (Deboosere & Page 1997). Education even largely determines the choice of a partner (Agneessens 1999). In the last decades, education has grown to become one of the main distribution mechanisms of chances in life in Belgium.

Differences in social and cultural practices

For the analysis in differences between social and cultural practices between groups of youngsters, we used discriminant analysis. In such an analysis we try to predict the gender or the education track by their cultural preferences, their values and their social network. The question is then how accurate we can predict these characteristics based on their answers. A classification based purely on chance, would result in the case of two categories in a good classification of 50%. If our classification result is higher than this 50%, we can conclude that there are significant and systhematic differences in cultural and social practices between these groups. The bigger those differences, the better our prediction becomes. By using this procedure, we are able to assess the importance of collective identities for youngsters. If, for instance, we are only able to make a good estimation of 55% of the gender of the cases, we can conclude that gender as a form of collective identity in the social and cultural practice of youngsters has become irrelevant. If our classification result is over 80%, we can speak of a very relevant collective identity (Elchardus 1999b).

Once a strong connection has been established between a variable and cultural and social practices, we can investigate the aspects on which these groups are different. Therefor we have to look at the correlations between the aspects and the discrimant function. This function determines the difference between the categories. In the case of two categories we can situate the two categories in one dimension, just like we can express the distance between two cities on a line (Elchardus 1999b). The further the distance between the two categories along this imaginary line, the stronger the two categories differ in their cultural and social practices. The more a certain practice discriminates between the two categories, the higher the correlation between this practice and the discrimination function.

1 Girls against boys

Table 3: Discrimination between boys and girls

|Boys |Correlation with discriminant |Girls |

| |function | |

| |.399 |Roots factor |

|Macho factor |.364 | |

| |.346 |Purchasing clothes in high street shops in the |

| | |city centres |

|Use of cd-rom |.298 | |

| |.255 |Amusement factor |

|Use of computer games |.245 | |

|Positive self-image |.224 | |

| |.194 |Sensitivity to fads and trends in fashion |

|Use of computers |.161 | |

|Utilitarian individualism |.159 | |

|Ethnocentrism |.142 | |

|Self-confidence |.136 | |

|Purchasing clothes in sport shops |.134 | |

|Schoolalienation |.116 | |

|Member of a sportclub or a hobbyclub |.103 | |

|Use of a cd-writer |.103 | |

| |.097 |Member of a social organisation |

|Use of the internet |.095 | |

| |.091 |Purchasing clothes by mail order |

|Purchasing clothes on summer festivals/gigs|.090 | |

|Negative perception of members of the pupil|.089 | |

|council | | |

| |.084 |Purchasing clothes in regular boutiques |

| |.077 |Friendship based on trust and self-disclosure |

|Autonomy |.070 | |

| |.063 |Positive relationship with mother |

|Use of fax |.059 | |

| |.055 |Purchasing clothes in second hand shops |

|Negative atittude towards democracy |.050 | |

| |.043 |Positive perception of the members of the student |

| | |council |

|Positive relationship with father |.046 | |

| |.041 |Friendschip based on conformity |

|Informal class climate |.039 | |

|Rock music |.037 | |

|Tough on crime |.036 | |

| |.014 |Gloomy picture of the future |

|Number of musical styles rated positively |.007 | |

| |.003 |Cultural correctness |

Eigenwaarde= 1.587, Canonische correlatie = .78, Wilks Lambda=.39

Overal, we can classify 90% of the boys and 89,9% of the girls correctly. Based on the answers, we can classify 90% of all young people correctly. In other words, we can conclude that gender identities in cultural and social practices still play a very strong role in young people’s lives.

What is striking, is that the most explicit dissimilarities between boys and girls can be found in the domain of tastes. Four of the five cultural orientations contribute to the discrimination between boys and girls: cultural correctness, the roots dimension, the amusement dimension and the macho factor. Only the rock music dimension doesn’t discriminate between the two groups. Cultural correctness has relatively little discrimination power. Furthermore it seems that a preference for the harder rock musical styles is rather a boys’ thing than a female disposition. Earlier research made the same observation (Stevens 2001a) and found that girls prefer entertainment both where music and television are concerned. They prefer soft and older musical styles like sixties, seventies, folk, jazz, and so on, while boys favour loud guitarmusic like heavy metal, hardcore, punk and hard rock. The most discriminating cultural orientation between boys and girls lies in a preference for (Afro-American) rootsmusic like R&B, funk, rap, ... which is more a female cultural orientation, while a fondness for the more film based virile orientation is a male cultural orientation.

Table 3 also shows that the cultural differences between boys and girls are not limited to music, media and filmpreferences. Girls and boys also buy their clothes in different types of shops and they differ in their use of the new media. Girls systematically have a higher score on the scale for sensitivity to fads and trends in fashion than boys. They also purchase their clothes in other types of stores. We want to stress here that we asked for their shopping behaviour in types of shops, not for a specific type of clothes or a particular design of clothes. All type of shops sell clothes for men and women. Boys more often buy their clothes in sportwear shops and summer festivals or a gig. Girls on the other hand go more to high street shops in the bigger city centres, buy through mail order, go more to common boutiques that you also can find in villages and in second hand shops. Girls consider themselves more fashionable and buy their clothes in more different types of shops. Their shopping behaviour can be interpreted as more omnivorous. Clothing still is the cultural area of girls. Clothes form to a lesser extent a source of street credibilty for boys. This corroborates the few international researches that have been conducted in the past and that conclude that there are important gender differences in shopping behaviour (Peters 1989). This research found that girls are more involved in fashion and spend more time on shopping than boys.

While girls are very much involved with clothes, fashion and shopping, boys tend to spend their time in front of the computer screen. Computers, cd-writers, cd-rom, internet and even the fax are more prominently present in the lifes of boys than girls. Also this conclusion is in line with earlier research in other countries. Dutch (De Haan & van den Broek 2000) and Danish (Drotner 2000) research came to the same conclusion.

Boys and girls also differ in their values. Boys tend to agree more with the discours on utilitarian individualism, are less tolerant towards immigrants, are tougher on crime, believe more that the individual should make up the norms and rules in favour of society or community and tend to doubt the principles of modern representative democracies more. Earlier research made the same observation and then, these results were interpreted as a backlash to the feminisation of the cultural values promoted in the education system (Elchardus 1999b). Our society encourages more ‘female’ values like solidarity, self-realisation and warns against selfishness or against an isolated and atomized life, detached from a community. These authors state that boys, more than girls, are confronted with an identity crisis: what does ‘masculinity’ mean nowadays and how can one be ‘male’ within a society that increasingly denounces ‘male’ values as unsuited. Boys tend to resist this trend by questioning this political correct thinking (Elchardus 1999b) and they look for a new articulation of masculinity. They find it in cultural scripts present in action- and adventure movies made in Hollywood or in ‘new laddism’ spread by certain magazines and some English sit-coms. This partly explains the enormous discrimination power of cultural productions of the massmedia. Recent research also shows a clear association between a macho like attitude and school performances of boys (Derks & Vermeersch 2001). The most important factor in the explanation of differential school performances between boys and girls is a rejection of school conformity, closely associated with machismo. Not only the individual attitudes are important, but also the values of the other pupils in school. Pupils tend to conform to the dominant value system in school. A concentration of pupils with a macho attitude in school promotes machismo amongst other pupils, even amongst those who do not subscribe to this attitude in the first place (Derks & Vermeersch 2001; Pelleriaux 2001; Stevens & Elchardus 2001).

Girls and boys also differ in the way they perceive their schools. Girls are more positive about their schools, they are less alienated and have a more positive image of the members of the student council. This does not fit the male script of toughness and laddism. Boys consider the members of the student council more as goody goodies or as collaborators with the school authorities. They are also more inclined to believe that one has to undergo the educational system and that it’s impossible to change it from within.

There are also differences in the way boys and girls assess their immediate life environments. Boys are more self-assured and have a more positive image of themselves. Girls tend to have a more gloomy picture of the future than boys. Also in the relationships with their parents, there are remarkable differences between girls and boys. Boys report sytematically better relationships with their father, while girls have a more positive relationship with their mother. Girls also have more scripts to make friends. They tend to stress both self-disclosure and trust as well as conformity as grounds to build friendships on.

There are also noticable differences in the social network of boys and girls. Boys are more active in sport or hobby clubs, while girls are more involved in social organisations. The value of competitiveness in sports is closely linked to masculinity (Passmore & French 2001), while values like caring, solidarity and sharing emotions are more closely related to femininity. These values are the core of social movements and social organisations (Roker et al. 1999).

2 ASO versus BSO

For the differences between the education tracks we limit the analysis to pupils in the general or art secondary education on the one side and pupils from vocational education on the other. Pupils of the professional secondary education mostly take a position in the middle between those two groups. The current analysis involves only 66,4% of the respondents in the sample. We can classify 82,2% of these pupils correctly by their social and cultural preferences. Pupils from vocational education (83,2%) are slightly better classified than the pupils from general and art secondary education (81,2%).

The two groups perceive their social world quite differently. It is remarkable that there are no differences in their perception of their immediate environment, but that there are very distinct disparities in views of society. Pupils from vocational education approach their relationship with their parents as positively as pupils from general or art secondary education. They have the same amount of self-confidence and they have an equal trust in their capacities as an individual. They only differ in their conception of friendship. Pupils in vocational secondary education define friendship more in terms of sharing intrests and being alike. While there are no remarkable differences in perceptions of the immediate environment, pupils from different tracks perceive school life in various ways. Pupils in general or art secondary education are more satisfied with school life than pupils from vocational secondary education. Moreover, they share the conviction that they should be heard by the school authorities with regard to important school issues, more than their counterparts in vocational training. The most significant dissimilarity between the two groups is their view of society. BSO-pupils are more inclined than ASO/KSO-pupils to support discourses on ethnocentrism. They are increasingly critical toward the representation principle in the organisation of modern democracies. Even in school, they are very sceptical about their representatives in the school council. They tend to support tough policies on crime. The difference in attitude towards utilitarian individualism between the two groups is less substantial, but nonetheless, the data suggest that pupils in vocational secondary education are more convinced that people solely act on their own behalf than their counterparts in general or art secondary education. These conclusions all confirm earlier research (Elchardus 1999b). Pupils in vocational education are not that unhappy with their lifes (or at least, they are not unhappier than other pupils) and compared to other groups in the education system, they are not even that displeased with their school lifes. Only with regard to

Table 4: Discrimination between ASO/KSO- and BSO-pupils

|ASO/KSO |Correlation with discriminant function |BSO |

| |.462 |Amusement factor |

| |.448 |Ethnocentrism |

| |.374 |Negative attitude towards democracy |

| |.352 |Tough on crime |

| |.346 |Use of cellular phone |

|Cultural correctness |.340 | |

|Rock music factor |.336 | |

|Endogenious friendship relation |.317 | |

|Participation in extracurricular |.304 | |

|activities | | |

|Importance of informal participation in|.270 | |

|school | | |

|Use of internet |.267 | |

| |.246 |Friendship based on conformity |

|Member of a sport and hobby club |.234 | |

| |.230 |Utilitarian individualism |

|Roots factor |.228 | |

|Cumulation of memberships of |.221 | |

|organisations | | |

| |.210 |Negative perception of members of the |

| | |pupil council |

| |.206 |Purchasing clothes on the market |

|Number of musical styles that is |.206 | |

|appreciated | | |

|Use of computers |.203 | |

| |.194 |Purchasing clothes in confection stores |

| | |(periphery of the cities) |

| |.183 |Macho factor |

| |.177 |Sensitivity to fads and trends in |

| | |fashion |

|Membership of social organisation |.175 | |

| |.166 |Purchasing clothes by mail order |

| |.161 |Use of game computers |

|Use of cd-rom |.147 | |

|Purchasing clothes in high street shops|.146 | |

|in the city centre | | |

|Schoolsatisfaction |.137 | |

|Purchasing clothes in second hand shops|.131 | |

| |.109 |Use of cd-writer |

Eigenwaarde= O.587, Canonische correlatie = .61, Wilks Lambda=.63

their outlook of society, BSO-pupils do differ enormously from other pupils. Fundamentally, their view of society consists of a lack of trust in other people. They translate this distrust on a social level by critizising democratic institutions and the fundamental principles underpinning this system and by questionning the increasingly multicultural character of modern Western societies. Values like ethnocentrism, antidemocratic attitudes, utilitarian individualism and supporting a tough stance on crime are highly interrelated. It seems quite plausible to assume that they involve a complex of attitudes (Elchardus and Pelleriaux, 2001) underlying the main cultural conflict in the voting behaviour of the Flemish (Billiet et al. 2001; Elchardus 1994; Elchardus & Pelleriaux 1998). This cultural conflict is already present in our secondary education and at an age when young people still have no voting rights. It seems to be socially structured along the lines of the tracks in the education system.

It would be wrong though to limit the differences between the two groups to differences in opinion. Once again the five cultural orientations are very important in the discrimination between pupils from different tracks. Outspoken differences between the two tracks exist towards the appreciation of amusement products, which are definitely more popular amongst pupils of vocational education. The roots orientation, cultural correctness and the rock music orientation are more typical for the taste of pupils in general and art secondary education. The virile dimension does not add extra discrimination power to the model if we control for the other cultural aspects. The correlation between this orientation and the discriminant function suggests that it is rather a part of the taste of pupils in vocational secondary education. Taste and culture rather mean amusement and pleasure for pupils in vocational education. Pupils in general and art education will rather use a criterion like quality or authenticity to make judgements on taste. Furthermore its seems that omnivoroussness is rather a characteristic of the taste of youngsters in general and art secondary education. Once again this corroborates with earlier research (Stevens 2001a). The results show that pupils from general and art secondary education appreciate a larger number of musical styles than pupils in vocational education.

Both groups also seem to differ in their use of the new media. Youngsters in vocational secondary education tend to use a cellular phone more and spend more time playing computer games. ASO/KSO-pupils are spending more time in front of the computer screen, surf on the internet more or more frequently use a cd-rom. If BSO-pupils use the computer, than they are more inclined to use a cd-writer. Also in shopping behaviour there are differences, although they are not outspoken. Pupils in vocational training feel more sensitive to fads and trends in fashion. They buy their clothes more on market squares or in big retail stores outside the city centres. The high street brand shops, but also the second hand stores, belong more to the shopping domain of pupils taking general or art secondary education.

Finally, the two groups are involved in different types of social networks. Pupils from general and art secondary education participate more in extracurricular activities, in social organisations and in sport and hobby clubs. They also tend to cumulate a greater number of memberships of organisations than pupils from vocational training. But there are also discrepancies in the informal social network of the two groups. Pupils from general and art secondary education have a more endogenous group of friends. That means that their group of friends is more limited, that they find them more in the immediacy of their schools, that they have fewer a steady relationships and they consider themselves as less popular.

Conclusion

Our findings show that there are still remarkable differences in social participation, social values and cultural preferences. Two very important axes of these cultural differences in Flanders are differences between the two sexes and differences along education tracks. The cultural orientations we have identified are very prominent in the shaping of these differences. If boys and girls or pupils from the different educational tracks differ from one another, then it is most likely that they disagree on their position towards the cultural orientations. We want to warn for an oversimplistic reading of these results. We do not want to fall into the trap that it is social structure that determines culture. It could be that culture helps to shape our social environment by processes of distinction, belonging or by creating consistent cultural codes over different fields. The social and cultural fields are so intertwined that they almost form a conglomerate where it is difficult to assess what causes what. Is the appropiation of a certain cultural orientation advantagous for gaining a better social position or are the differences in cultural preferences the result of material differences? Social position can shape cultural differences, but it also could be that certain cultural practices help us to understand and clarify our social world. Cultural practices for instance, help us to understand what it means to be male or to be female. In this respect, it is possible that the relationship between culture and structure is not that straightforward as has been claimed many times.

If we consider the main differences between boys and girls and certainly in their perceptions of school, there are some remarkable similarities between our findings and the lads in Paul Willis’ ‘Learning to labour’ (1977). The lads in his study saw education as something to endure as painlessly as possible and where it is important to “have a laff” and fool around to survive the long and boring school days. One way to muck around is by being hard to other pupils in the school system, especially towards conforming pupils. This could be the explanation of the more sceptical look of boys, particularly amongst those in vocational education, towards pupils engaging in the school council. According to Willis (1977), lads shatter the promise of meritocracy, inherent in the education system. Why should they do any efforts to perform well in an education system that cannot keep its promisses? In this respect they prefer to fail in the system and look for an alternative status in a sort of counter culture, not promoted by the system. They undermine the ‘normal’ workings and expectations of teachers and school staffs. Earlier research has shown that differential value systems between boys and girls are an important factor to explain differences in male and female performances in schools (Derks & Vermeersch 2001). Boys support values, conflicting with the values propagated by the education system. These values reflect intolerance, tough and macho attitudes, stereotypical thinking and agression. This relation between values and failure can be indirect through problematic behaviour or can be attributed directly because of the fact that youngsters with these attitudes are penalized by the education system for expressing them (Derks & Vermeersch 2001).

This aspect can also be traced in the differences between the pupils in general and art secundary education on the one hand and pupils in vocational training on the other. On the one hand, there are ‘happy, shiny’ pupils going to general or art secundary educational tracks, involved in extracurricular activities and eager to be involved in school policy which also translates in a higher school satisfaction. On the other hand, there are pupils in the vocational education, feeling less at home in their schools, and embracing to a lesser extent the values propagated by the educational system. Remarkable in the difference between the two educational tracks, is that this unease amongst BSO-pupils is very much transposed on a social level. BSO-pupils differ from the other pupils in their democratic attitudes towards citizenship and in what had been called “the new cleavage” (e.g., see Elchardus 1994; Elchardus and Pelleriaux, 1998). Attitudes such as a preference for hard repression of criminality, utilitarian individualism, ethnocentrism and anti-political and antidemocratic feelings are very closely interrelated. Koen Pelleriaux (2001) showed that, in general, this conglomerate of attitudes is closely linked to social demotion. This is defined as the feeling one has no chance at all in our contemporary society, whatever the efforts one puts in. Fundamentally, it is a criticism towards the meritocratic promise of our society, namely the claim that every individual has the same opportunity to socially advance as long as the individual devotes himself to this goal and takes responsibility for himself. This meritocracy, however, is ‘imperfect’ (Elchardus 1998). Pupils from different social backgrounds enter education with different resources, resulting in an unfair competition generally turning out disadvantageously for pupils with a lower social background. A society, blind for these differences in resources and capacities and blind for these mechanisms, blames the individual for its failure. In the end, it is a very offensive discours for people with a lower level of education. It is your own fault if you do not succed in life. Treated in this harsh manner, BSO-pupils do not have high expectations of the society in which they live. This fosters their conviction that society is made up by autonomous individuals only interested in the pursuit of their own selfish goals (Cieslik 2001).

It would be wrong though to interpretate the differences between general and vocational pupils solely from a ‘laddish’ point of view. The differences in cultural preferences demonstrate another refinement. The best way to explain this refinement is by referring to what has been called in the French speaking part of Belgium as ‘le duel Spirou-Tintin’[3] (Dayez 2001). Since the existence of the two comic papers, from the 1940’s[4], there was a fierce competition between them about style and a competition for the hearts of the young public. The magazine Tintin was led by Hergé, the designer of the comic character with the same name. The comics in the magazine were like the comic Tintin: catholic, serious, without frivolities, open to events in other cultures or to events in the past, sound from an educational point of view, with realistically, anatomically correct drawings and well documented backgrounds. All comic writers were followers of the so called clear line drawings, so cherished by Hergé. Spirou on the other hand, had a more rebellious image, although it was as catholic or as sound from an educational point of view as Tintin. Instead of the seriousness of the comics of Tintin, it offered comics with a sense of humour like Spirou, but also comics as the Smurfs or Lucky Luke. The drawings and stories were not at all realistic, the events took place in a completely fantasized world and there was a strong emphasis on humour and amusement. This ‘duel’ was not limited to the style of the comic papers alone. There was also a kind of duel between the readers of the two magazines. Tintin-adapts did not read Spirou, and on the other hand Spirou-fans did not want to be associated with Tintin or readers of the magazine, which they considered pathetic. This controversy did not limit itself to the two comic magazines, but also took on the form of a musical dispute. In the fifties Spirou-fans favoured American rock music like the music of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, etc. Tintin-fans developed a taste for more European style sentimental songs. In the sixties it developped into the friction between Rolling Stones and Beatles fans. Robbedoes/Spirou-fans became supporters of the rougher and less polished music of the Rolling Stones, while Kuifje/Tintin-readers predominantly became Beatles fans. Since the sixties, the music industry has tried on several occasions to artificially create a distinction between more ‘rebellious’ and ‘rougher’ music groups on the one side and more ‘innocent’ and ‘respectable’ groups. One such an example is the very artificial controversy between Blur and Oasis in the nineties. There is a certain ressemblance in our results of that old divide. On the one hand, you have the goody goodies in general and art secundary education, very much involved in the ‘serious’ and ‘qualitative’ approach in the products belonging to the cultural correct dimension or involved in the search for authenticity in the products belonging to the roots- or rock dimension and with attention for cultural products popular when their parents were teenagers themselves. On the other side, there are pupils in vocational education looking for amusement and a certain degree of rebellion and toughness in cultural products. The divide between Robbedoes-fans and Kuifje-fans never has run very deep. They were two shades of the same popular culture, acting as material to mark symbolic boundaries. Similarly, one can read the cultural differences between the two groups of pupils.

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Appendix A: Construction of the five cultural dimensions

Tabel 5: Loadings on the dimensions in taste (structure matrix – principal axis factor analysis with obilique rotation)

|Cultural element |Cultural |Amusement dimension|Macho dimension |Roots dimension |Rock musical |

| |correctness | | | |dimension |

|Newcasts and current affairs |.621 |-.021 |.039 |-.145 |-.180 |

|Canvas – public tv |.619 |-.197 |-.046 |-.147 |-.309 |

|Classical music |.586 |-.028 |-.037 |-.360 |-.314 |

|Folk/worldmusic |.572 |-.002 |-.104 |-.342 |-.398 |

|Radio1 – public radio |.566 |.143 |.035 |-.072 |-.240 |

|informative radioprograms | | | | | |

|TV1 – public television |.536 |.019 |-.083 |-.152 |-.229 |

|Radio 2 – public radio regional |.533 |.321 |.037 |-.101 |-.188 |

|programs | | | | | |

|Radio 3 – public, classical |.500 |.192 |.045 |-.125 |.195 |

|music radio | | | | | |

|Political films |.500 |-.075 |.186 |-.250 |-.315 |

|Jazz-blues |.499 |-.036 |.008 |-.465 |-.410 |

|Cabaret |.491 |-.056 |-.091 |-.292 |-.410 |

|French chansons |.474 |.163 |.012 |-.308 |-.239 |

|Ketnet – public tv for children |.442 |.164 |-.003 |-.235 |-.235 |

|Talkshows |.442 |.237 |.048 |-.194 |-.130 |

|‘Little news’ programs |.433 |.076 |.047 |-.158 |-.229 |

|Cultfilms |.412 |-.124 |.138 |-.272 |-.316 |

|Regional tv |.397 |.265 |.067 |-.061 |-.080 |

|Vtm – commercial tv |.006 |.681 |.178 |.075 |.141 |

|Dating programs |-.033 |.675 |.145 |-.113 |.053 |

|Radio contact – commercial radio|-.037 |.606 |.183 |-.126 |.122 |

|Quiz |.110 |.605 |.230 |.002 |.031 |

|Shows |.141 |.600 |.267 |-.010 |-.032 |

|Foreign language soaps |.011 |.588 |.088 |-.205 |.029 |

|Top radio – commercial youth |-.174 |.576 |.336 |-.028 |.178 |

|radio | | | | | |

|Flemish spoken drama’s |.151 |.560 |.096 |.057 |-.024 |

|Top of the pops music |.081 |.558 |.093 |-.248 |.036 |

|Kanaal 2 – commercial tv |-.303 |.536 |.430 |-.086 |.107 |

|VT4 – commmercial tv |-.381 |.517 |.460 |-.047 |.117 |

|Radio Donna – public radio |.181 |.516 |.058 |-.153 |-.025 |

|‘Tien om te zien’-music |.260 |.515 |.100 |-.073 |-.109 |

|Romantic films |.131 |.507 |-.024 |-.431 |-.014 |

|Tmf – flemish music television |-.280 |.479 |.272 |-.108 |.029 |

|Human interest programs |.060 |.474 |.254 |-.050 |.032 |

|Magazines |-.264 |.455 |.075 |.052 |.280 |

|House |-.167 |.446 |.428 |.087 |.195 |

|Radio mango – commercial radio |.178 |.402 |.044 |-.212 |-.062 |

|Mtv |-.246 |.340 |.222 |-.300 |-.080 |

|Disco |.281 |.326 |.117 |-.325 |-.170 |

|English comedy’s |-.185 |.292 |.268 |-.289 |-.033 |

|Schlager music |.232 |.233 |.120 |-.078 |-.196 |

|Action movies |-.031 |.151 |.703 |.138 |-.076 |

|Adventure movies |.033 |.140 |.624 |-.028 |-.081 |

|SF-films |-.006 |-.003 |.587 |-.097 |-.156 |

|SF en fantasyprograms |-.085 |.072 |.548 |-.158 |-.128 |

|Crime- en police movies |.161 |.151 |.539 |-.080 |-.130 |

|Erotic movies |-.043 |.182 |.532 |.235 |-.092 |

|Erotic programs |-.072 |.240 |.526 |.241 |-.078 |

|Horror movies |-.235 |.119 |.503 |-.157 |-.080 |

|Reality tv |-.121 |.425 |.469 |.076 |.067 |

|Thrillers |-.153 |.062 |.451 |-.226 |-.102 |

|War pictures |.298 |-.096 |.451 |-.045 |-.263 |

|Techno music |-.110 |.236 |.434 |.031 |.047 |

|Sport magazines (tv) |.259 |.145 |.403 |.245 |-.112 |

|Comedies (movies) |.006 |.284 |.399 |-.076 |-.020 |

|Crime and lawyer programs |.132 |.297 |.372 |-.211 |-.116 |

|Gabber |-.140 |.348 |.368 |.136 |.011 |

|Sport games |.253 |.075 |.364 |.227 |-.113 |

|Animated films |.181 |.157 |.291 |-.247 |-.150 |

|Trance and ambient |.016 |.157 |.289 |-.142 |-.006 |

|Soul / R&B |.104 |.145 |.091 |-.579 |-.170 |

|Reggae |.249 |-.053 |.080 |-.526 |-.354 |

|Sixties |.484 |.082 |-.096 |-.498 |-.421 |

|Rap |.068 |.088 |.150 |-.496 |-.255 |

|Seventies |.483 |.076 |-.093 |-.495 |-.423 |

|Film music |.304 |.332 |.034 |-.471 |-.204 |

|Funk |.199 |.086 |.093 |-.468 |-.358 |

|Social movies |.339 |.258 |-.107 |-.455 |-.153 |

|Psychological movies |.243 |.085 |.098 |-.454 |-.189 |

|Rai |.207 |.063 |.009 |-.326 |-.133 |

|Animated tv-programs |.247 |.160 |.232 |-.314 |-.161 |

|Hard rock |.116 |-.083 |.085 |-.098 |-.824 |

|Punk |.181 |-.150 |.051 |-.194 |-.782 |

|Heavy metal |.085 |-.055 |.152 |-.051 |-.776 |

|Alternative guitar muzisic (eg |.282 |-.169 |-.034 |-.271 |-.758 |

|grunge) | | | | | |

|Rock |.310 |-.096 |-.017 |-.337 |-.709 |

|Flemish rock |.419 |.001 |-.024 |-.174 |-.605 |

|Studio Brussels – public youth |.288 |-.124 |.010 |-.193 |-.509 |

|radio | | | | | |

|Hardcore |.022 |.128 |.261 |-.021 |-.451 |

|New wave |.178 |.134 |.190 |-.267 |-.357 |

|Ska |.215 |.094 |.004 |-.325 |-.348 |

|Eigenvalue |10.52 |9.21 |4.93 |3.47 |2.60 |

|Explained variance |13.15% |11.52% |6.16% |4.33% |2.74% |

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[1] Tien om te zien, which translates into ‘ten to be seen’, was a popular music program on the Flemish commercial television, promoting popular music of mostly Flemish singers or bands. It is a mixture of Flemish sentimental songs, evergreens and showbizz music. The program caused a surge in the sales of domestic products since 1989 onward (De Meyer 1996).

[2] In 1999-2000, 69% of the Flemish schools offered a combination of different educational tracks.

[3] Due to the popularity of the two magazines, very soon Flemish editions of the two magazines appeared in shops. Robbedoes is the Flemish version of the comic magazine Spirou, while Kuifje is the Flemish version of the comic magazine Tintin.

[4] Spirou actually appeared for the first time in 1938. Tintin became an independent magazine in 1946. Both magazines had their greatest reading audiences in the 1950’s and 1960’s though.

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