Political homophily in cultural reputational networks

Abstract

The cultural field is characterised by constant struggles for recognition, because resource allocation depends on the reputation of cultural actors. Using a logistic regression quadratic assignment procedure (LRQAP), we first identify the existence and pattern of political homophily in the distribution of cultural reputation. Then, we use interview data to reveal the potential mechanisms that underlie the association between political homophily and reputation. We construct the reputational network of an exemplary national cultural elite (Hungary) based on peer nominations from survey data. Our analysis shows that cultural actors with leftist political orientation are more likely to recognize the achievement of those actors who belong to the same political camp. This is also the case amongst actors with a rightist political orientation, but the most recognized leftist actors are recognized by the rightist camp as well. Based on our interview data, we argue that political polarisation of the cultural elite contributes to the existence of political homophily through creating institutional and interpersonal cleavages. Cleavages are maintained by the symbolic capital gained from political cluster membership and peer pressure for camp mentality; and reinforced by governmental cultural policy distributing resources based on political loyalty. Our findings highlight the importance of the wider social and political context in the empirical study of cultural reputation.