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Lezers in Nederland: een secundaire analyse

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Abstract

Reading habits in the Netherlands: a secondary analysis - As social research of literary phenomena remains a neglected part of sociological investigations, the main objective of this paper is an exploration of reading habits and their relations to other cultural activities as well as social and political attitudes. This exploration is based on the results of a Dutch nation wide panel survey carried out in 1975 and in 1977. The interest in the three kinds of fiction singled out in our research — ‘literature’, ‘light fiction’ and ‘romance’ — appeared to be largely determined by the education and the sex of the readers. Whereas higher-educated readers showed a preference for either ‘literature’ or light ‘fiction’, lower-educated female readers were mostly interested in ‘romance’. We have found only weak correlations between the preference for ‘literature’ and other traditional cultural activities, such as theatre-visit. The participation in such activities seems to be rare. The correlation between the preferences for ‘romance’ and the participation in other forms of popular culture (e.g. watching television serials) was somewhat stronger. The readers of ‘romance’ were the most conservative ones as far as their social— but not political-attitudes were concerned. Taken as a whole, our findings seem to suggest a rather limited degree of cultural differentiation in the contemporary Dutch society.

How to Cite:

Bina, V. & Knol, H., (1985) “Lezers in Nederland: een secundaire analyse”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 30(1), 36–50. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94893