From omnivore to plebeian cultures: some reflections on cultural consumption in the 21st century

Abstract

Based on the book Pospopulares: las culturas populares después de la hibridación, by the Argentine sociologist Pablo Alabarces, we can trace the evolution of the study of popular cultures in Latin American academia over the last 50 years. From the concept of mass culture, to that of cultural industries, the cultural omnivore, and plebeian cultures, the text proposes a change in the ways in which these cultures are consumed, suggesting an appropriation of plebeian cultures by the middle and upper classes. In turn, this work leads us readers, and academics, to ask ourselves what kinds of cultural manifestations we study, and from what ideological paradigms we do so.