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Social space, social class and Bourdieu:

Health inequalities in British Columbia, Canada
Gerry Veenstra
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of British Columbia, 6303 N.W. Marine Dr., Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1

Abstract

This article adopts Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural–structuralist approach to conceptualizing and identifying social classes in
social space and seeks to identify health effects of class in one Canadian province. Utilizing data from an original
questionnaire survey of randomly selected adults from 25 communities in British Columbia, social (class) groupings
defined by cultural tastes and dispositions, lifestyle practices, social background, educational capital, economic capital,
social capital and occupational categories are presented in visual mappings of social space constructed by use of
exploratory multiple correspondence analysis techniques. Indicators of physical and mental health are then situated within
this social space, enabling speculations pertaining to health effects of social class in British Columbia.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Social space; Social class; Economic capital; Cultural capital; Social capital

Introduction While the body of work attributable to the first

Three general approaches to the conceptualiza-
tion of social class can be identified in the public
health literature:
(i) social class is equated with socio-economic
status, i.e., income, educational attainment
and/or occupational prestige,
(ii) social class is a social group defined primarily
by the nature of its relationship to the economic
mode of production, a Marxist perspective, and
(iii) social class is a social group defined relationally
in social space by its possession and utilization
of various capitals such as economic, cultural
and social capital, a perspective based in the
work of the French theorist Pierre Bourdieu.
E-mail address: Gerry.Veenstra@ubc.ca.
two approaches to social class is immense, very few
health scholars have applied Bourdieu’s relational
perspective on classes to health inequalities (see
Williams, 1995; Poland, 2000; Frohlich et al., 2001;
Gatrell et al., 2004). After describing some of the
ways in which Bourdieu’s cultural–structuralist
approach to conceptualizing social class differs
from the other two approaches, this article utilizes
original questionnaire survey data from the pro-
vince of British Columbia to provide an exploratory
empirical application of Bourdieu’s perspective to
health inequalities in Canada.
The first approach to class is located analytically
at the level of the individual, equating social class
with the social standing of individuals in various
status hierarchies. (A Weberian focus on status,
distinct from his conceptualization of class, is
apparent here.) Although the number of status

1353-8292/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2005.09.011
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hierarchies operative in a given society are un-
doubtedly close to infinite, health researchers have
primarily focused on measures of income, educa-
tional a and/or occupational prestige, each of which
enables straightforward comparisons between in-
dividuals within linear status hierarchies. Hypothe-
sized causal pathways from socio-economic status
to health and well-being are also primarily indivi-
dual-level in character, including such phenomena
as stress, shame, learned effectiveness, health
behaviours and material circumstances that often
differ by status level. Of the three approaches to
class and health, this approach has generated the
largest body of empirical research (see Kaplan
and Keil, 1993; Feinstein, 1993; Adler et al., 1994;
Adler and Ostrove, 1999; Mirowsky and Ross,
2003 for reviews of the literature). From this
literature it is clear that educational experiences
and credentials, economic wealth and occupational
prestige are persistent correlates of health and well-
being in most or all developed nations, including
Canada.
Some health researchers (e.g., Muntaner and
Lynch, 1999; Coburn, 2000; Scambler and Higgs,
2001) have taken exception to the use of the term
‘class’ in the aforementioned body of research,
however, instead advocating for a conception of
social class embedded in the ontology of Marxist
scholarship. For these scholars, a social class is a
social group with an identity and existence above
and beyond any one individual, implying that an
aggregate of individuals who share a given char-
acteristic is not necessarily equal to a social class.
The most important social phenomena for health
inequalities are group-level relations, therefore,
wherein the health of individuals flow from (are a
by-product of) class relations. In most Marxist
scholarship, social classes are groups defined pri-
marily by the nature of their relationship to the
economic mode of production: thus economic
ownership and control over productive facilities,
budgets and other employees are some of the
analytical criteria that serve to delimit the outlines
of social classes (see the work of Wright, 1978, 1979,
1985, 1998 for instance). In contrast with the socio-
economic hierarchies described above, class posi-
tions are not always arrayed in linear fashion from
highest to lowest (Grabb, 1997).
The body of work applying this approach to
social class and health is also impressively large,
with an especially long lineage in the United
Kingdom (e.g., Bartley et al., 1996; Hattersley,
1997; Borooah, 1999; Fitzpatrick and Dollamore,
1999; Prandy, 1999; Chandola and Jenkinson,
2000). Far less work of this kind can be found in
the United States, however (although see Schwalbe
and Staples, 1986; Boffetta et al., 1997; Muntaner
et al., 1998), and almost none pertains to Canada
(but see Veenstra, 2006). At the risk of over-
simplifying the insights produced by this com-
plex and wide-ranging body of work, I believe
that this research has yet to clearly demonstrate
the existence of social classes and illuminate the
inter-class dynamics that influence health. Rather,
some of this research has shown the relevance of
control in the workplace for health—but likely
because control over oneself and other employees
is less stressful and thus more health promoting
than being under the control of others. Other
research has documented relationships between
economic ownership for health—but likely because
owners tend to be wealthier and exert more con-
trol in the workplace than employees. In short,
the empirical relationships delineated by much of
the social class and health research appear to
demonstrate the relevance for health of various
characteristics of occupations and the individuals
that inhabit them, but do not obviously and clearly
identify social classes (as groups) and the class
relations (group dynamics) within which they
operate.
Bourdieu’s social class framework
In the early 1990s, Clark and Lipset (1991)
proposed that social class is steadily declining in
importance in post-industrial societies, a claim that
has since sparked a massive dialogue regarding the
currency of social class. (See Hout et al., 2001 for an
enthusiastic counter-argument.) At the very least,
Clark and Lipset (1991) are perceptive when they
note that workplace divisions may not be the class-
defining criteria in modern society that they were
during the industrial era. Bourdieu’s approach to
conceptualizing social classes has caught the imagi-
nation of many social scientists because, while it
shares affinities with Marxist perspectives, it does
not rely primarily upon economic labour market
criteria to delineate social groups that might be
social classes.
In this article I draw primarily upon Bourdieu’s
vision of social classes as presented in Distinction: A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1984) and
Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action (1998).
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Here, his social class framework is based upon his
conceptualization of social space, a space of
positions defined in relation to one another.
All agents are located in space in such a way that
the closer to one another in those two dimen-
sions, the more they have in common; and the
more remote they are from one another, the less
they have in common (Bourdieu, 1998, p. 6).
Within social space, groupings of similarly
located agents have the potential to be social
classes. Thus classes are defined relationally in his
vision, and are groups sharing similar circum-
stances:
One must therefore construct the objective class,
the set of agents who are placed in homogenous
conditions of existence imposing homogenous
conditionings and producing homogenous sys-
tems of dispositions capable of generating similar
practices; and who possess a set of common
properties, objectified properties, sometimes leg-
ally guaranteed (as possession of goods and
power) or properties embodied as class habitus
(and, in particular, systems of classificatory
schemes) (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 101).
Bourdieu’s scheme incorporates multiple criteria
for distinguishing among positions, such that every
form of power or resource in social life, e.g.,
economic capital, educational capital and social
capital, can be deemed a principle of distinction and
thus a class-relevant capital. Of the many forms of
capital, however, cultural capital (encompassing
educational capital, social background and the
cultural tastes fostered in personal and parental
educational experiences) and economic capital are
the fundamental principles of distinction in modern
societies, according to Bourdieu, and serve to frame
social space more prominently than do other forms
of capital.
Cultural tastes and practices are particularly
important for the manifestation of social groupings
in Bourdieu’s vision of the social space.
To each class of positions there corresponds a
class of habitus (or tastes) produced by the social
conditioning associated with the corresponding
condition and, through the mediation of the
habitus and its generative capability, a systematic
set of goods and properties, which are united by
an affinity of style (Bourdieu, 1998, p. 8).
3
Bourdieu essentially argues that the social space
based upon the possession of capitals serves to
frame cultural tastes and practices, and that these
tastes then serve to manifest social class inequalities.
Within the social space, dominant groups purport-
edly maintain boundaries between themselves and
lesser groups by delimiting the nature of tastes—
legitimate, middle-class and popular, or high-brow,
middle-brow and low-brow—and then utilizing
familiarity with these cultural forms to exclude
others. The groups thus manifested within the social
space, while not yet social classes (still requiring
some form of political mobilization, perhaps, in
order to become an active class), are predictive of
social classes, or predisposed to become classes in
the Marxist sense of the word, according to
Bourdieu.
Always arguing for the necessary inseparableness
of theoretical and empirical exploration, Bourdieu
utilized survey data from 1960s France and corre-
spondence analysis to craft his own visual repre-
sentation of the French social space (Bourdieu,
1984, pp. 128–129, 1998, p. 5), grafting together a
wide range of indicators from several questionnaire
surveys of the public. He included variables asses-
sing demographic characteristics, economic and
cultural capital (assessed by income and educational
attainment in particular), voting preferences and
various occupational categories, lifestyle practices
and cultural tastes. The lifestyle practices included
activities such as golf, piano, chess, skiing, hiking,
fishing and sailing, and the cultural tastes included
beverage choices such as ordinary red wine, spark-
ling white wine, mineral water, whisky and cham-
pagne, musical tastes (Bach, Stravinsky, modern
jazz, Petula Clark) and favourite actors. The
exploratory analysis produced three primary dimen-
sions of note: the first and most important dimen-
sion seemingly represented total volume of capital
(referring to the sum of economic and cultural
capital in particular), the second the relative
composition of economic and cultural capital, and
the third changes in these over time, or social
trajectory. Bourdieu claims to have overlaid several
spaces upon one another, a first composed of the
space of social conditions, a second composed of the
space of life-styles, and a third (imagined) repre-
senting the theoretical space of ‘habitus,’ i.e., the
space of generative formula by which social posi-
tions and conditions are transformed into lifestyles
practices and cultural tastes. The resultant visuali-
zation of the social space of France identified
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groupings of survey variable categories that, in
Bourdieu’s opinion, represented groups of positions
that were potentially predictive of social classes.
I refer to Bourdieu’s social class scheme as
‘culturalist’ because, like the work of Raymond
Williams, it accords a significance to cultural tastes,
sensibilities and practices that ‘scientific’ Marxist
scholarship, relegating culture to the superstructure,
does not. It is ‘structuralist’ because, like Saussure
in linguistics and Levi-Strauss in structural anthro-
pology, it focuses primarily upon relations among
elements, adopting an ontology of intersubjectivity
versus one focused on atomistic individuals and
never obviously prioritizing one element over
another. In addition, it has a ‘realistic’ quality
because it is embedded in empirical observations in
a particular context (France), an ‘objectivist’
character because the real is revealed in relations,
but also a ‘constructivist’ quality given that percep-
tions relating to cultural tastes and dispositions are
an integral part of his scheme. I believe that
Bourdieu’s cultural—structuralist vision of social
classes has the potential to make a meaningful
contribution to the social class and health literature.
If critiques to modern scientific Marxist perspectives
are to be taken seriously, the framework may better
represent the operative classes of modern-day
society. It also incorporates explicit theoretical
consideration of cultural and lifestyle practices
embedded within social structure, some of which
may influence health directly (and are generally
under-theorized in the social determinants of health
literature). In addition, it provides a means of
utilizing individual-level survey data to present
social groupings that may be predictive of social
classes. Thus, in an analytical situation in which
multilevel modelling (the only valid statistical way
of attributing variance in an individual-level depen-
dent variable to a second, higher group level) is
inappropriate because the number of higher order
groups in class analysis is small, the identification of
heath relevant social groupings via the application
of multiple correspondence analysis is still possible.
Surprisingly, very few health researchers have
engaged in this line of exploration to date.
An empirical application of Bourdieu’s framework
My review of the health literature produced only
one example of quantitative research explicitly
utilizing Bourdieu’s analytical framework to
explicate health inequalities. Anthony Gatrell and
colleagues (2004) applied Bourdieu’s notion of the
social space to inequalities in psychological morbid-
ity in two cities in north–west England. Specially,
they sought to resurrect Bourdieu’s analytical
method for describing a social space, noting in so
doing that his quantitative work has been mostly
neglected by social theorists. Although the authors
were not explicitly concerned with identifying social
classes, seeking instead to investigate the overlap
between social space and geographical space, their
analysis does address, at least indirectly, the third
approach to conceptualizing social class. In order to
assess the contribution of my analysis to the health
literature, it is important to understand what
Gatrell et al. accomplished in north–west England.
Gatrell et al. chose a high- and low-income
locality from each of Lancaster and Salford and
conducted a questionnaire survey in these localities.
The survey achieved a response rate of 44% and a
sample size of 777 for the analysis described in the
article. Along with basic demographics (age, gender,
marital status), they assessed numerous aspects of
material circumstances and social relationships:
economic capital (e.g., income, car ownership,
satellite television installed, home ownership), edu-
cational capital (personal educational qualifica-
tions), occupational status, and social capital
(sense of loneliness, desire to move, meeting with
neighbours, sense of community). Upon entering
these variables into a multiple correspondence
analysis, the two primary dimensions produced by
the analysis were interpreted by the authors to
represent degree of economic capital and degree of
social capital, respectively; degree of educational
capital apparently adhered closely to the economic
capital dimension. The authors then used logistic
regression models incorporating these and other
variables to identify the most persistent correlates of
psychological morbidity; presence of a long-stand-
ing illness, loneliness, perceived troubles managing
financially and age were then entered into another
multiple correspondence analysis. The first dimen-
sion presented in the resultant correspondence map
was indicated by financial worries and loneliness,
and was most closely allied with psychological
morbidity, whereas the second dimension was
indicated primarily by age. Thus economic and
social capitals were deemed to be closely intertwined
when it came to the social space manifesting
psychological morbidity. Finally, the authors en-
gaged in exploration of the overlap between their
conception of social space and geographical space
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(locality or neighbourhood of residence), but found
surprisingly little correspondence between the two.
Gatrell and colleagues make an important con-
tribution to the health literature by explicitly
addressing Bourdieu’s notion of social space, i.e.,
by thinking relationally and then utilizing an
analytical technique that supports a relational
perspective, and also by exploring the interconnect-
edness of geographical and social space, a connec-
tion that Bourdieu discussed (Bourdieu, 1989) but
not incorporate into his own empirical analyses in
France. It is especially interesting to note that their
multiple correspondence analysis of various capitals
produced a social space with its two primary
dimensions delineated by economic capital (linked
with educational capital) and social capital, not total
capital (economic and educational capital summed
together) and composition of (economic and educa-
tional) capital as reported by Bourdieu in his
analysis of the social space of France. The analysis
by Gatrell et al. is not entirely consistent with
Bourdieu’s theoretical vision of inequalities, how-
ever, because it engages in multivariate logistic
regressions to identify candidates for inclusion in
subsequent multiple correspondence analyses, there-
by presuming strictly defined relations of causality,
and because it ignores cultural tastes and practices
(that importantly produce the affinities of style that
contribute substantially to the nature of the social
space, according to Bourdieu). As such their
representations of the social space are not truly
representations of the social space—based upon the
possession of capitals and cultural tastes and
practices to delineate the positions and conditions
of agents—envisioned by Bourdieu in Distinction
and Practical Reason. The authors note, of course,
that there is no such thing as the social space, as
every rendering of a social space is entirely
dependent upon the selection of survey variables
by the researcher. Still, the exclusion of cultural
tastes and lifestyle practices means that the social
space presented by Gatrell et al. may not represent a
social space displaying social class boundaries.
This article adopts Bourdieu’s cultural–structur-
alist approach in order to identify the health effects
of social class, the latter not defined by economic
ownership and control over the means of economic
production but instead by the possession of various
cultural tastes and dispositions, lifestyle practices,
parental educational background, educational capi-
tal, economic capital, social capital and occupa-
tional type. This investigation is accomplished by
5
virtue of the inclusion of a wide range of variables
drawn from an original questionnaire survey of
randomly selected adults into multiple correspon-
dence analyses in order to present two visual
mappings of social space, one for employed survey
respondents and one for all survey respondents
(employed and retired, older and younger). Also
utilizing respondent’s own self-assessed social class
identifications, interpretations of social groupings
that may be predictive of social classes are
presented. Finally, indicators of physical and
mental health and well-being are situated within
these social spaces of British Columbia, thereby
enabling the very first cultural–structuralist investi-
gation of social class inequalities in health and well-
being. I believe that the novelty of my analysis lies in
its further resurrection of a strictly relational way of
conceptualizing classes, its simultaneous considera-
tion of multiple forms of capital and a wide variety
of cultural tastes and practices, and its use of
exploratory multiple correspondence analysis
techniques to visualize the empirical manifestation
of social (class) groupings in this modern-day
Canadian context.
Data
Twenty-five communities on the coast of British
Columbia were selected in order to facilitate multi-
level modelling of the health effects of social capital
(see Veenstra, 2005a). A mailed questionnaire
survey of randomly selected adults living in these
communities was administered by the author in
2002. To obtain the random sample, a selection of
households was drawn from the most current
telephone listings using a systematic random sam-
pling technique. In order to obtain a randomly
selected adult household member, the letter recipi-
ent was asked to give the questionnaire to the
resident of the household aged 18 and over with the
first birthday in the year. There were N ¼ 1435
respondents in total, representing an overall
response rate of 56.5% (response rates by commu-
nity are available in Veenstra, 2005a).
Table 1 describes the distributions of responses to
various demographic survey items and five indica-
tors of health. To assess physical health, respon-
dents were asked if they had a recent limiting injury
and whether or not they had a long-term limiting
illness. In addition, body-mass index scores were
calculated from respondents’ height and weight
and then overweight and obese respondents were
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Table 1
Characteristics of survey respondents

Survey item or variable Categories Distribution

What is your gender? Female 677 (47.5)

Male 747 (52.5)
In what year were you born? Ageo25 27 (1.9)
25–44 450 (31.7)
45–64 626 (44.1)
65–74 182 (12.8)
75 and older 136 (9.6)
What is your current status? Married 883 (62.0)
Widowed 101 (7.1)
Separated 45 (3.2)
Divorced 122 (8.6)
Common-law 138 (9.7)
Single 136 (9.5)
In what country were you born? Canada 1102 (76.8)
Other 332 (23.2)
In what type of dwelling do you live? Apartment/condo 164 (11.5)
House/townhouse 1168 (82.1)
Moveable dwelling 90 (6.3)
Where did you live one year ago? Same place 1322 (93.2)
Moved recently 96 (6.8)
Calculated variable: number of children at home None 905 (64.6)
One or more 495 (35.4)
To which ethnic or cultural group(s) did your ancestors belong? First nations 65 (4.5)
Other 1370 (95.5)
In the past 12 months, did you have any injuries that were serious enough to Yes 304 (21.5)
limit your normal activities? No 1110 (78.5)
Do you have any long-term illness, health problem or handicap which limits Yes 343 (24.3)
daily activities or the work that can be done? No 1069 (75.7)
Calculated variable: body-mass index BMIo25 629 (44.9)
Moderately overweight 537 (38.3)
Obese (BMI430) 235 (16.8)
Calculated variable: depressive symptoms Depressiona 109 (7.6)
Some depressive symptomsb 329 (22.9)
No depressive symptoms 997 (69.5)
In general, how would you rate your health? Excellent 217 (15.5)
Very good 509 (36.3)
Good 491 (35.0)
Fair 163 (11.6)
Poor 24 (1.7)
a
Three or more depressive symptoms.
b
One or two depressive symptoms.

distinguished from the others. To assess emotional
well-being, eleven questions1 assessed recent depres-
sive symptoms; respondents who reported extensive
experience (‘most of the time’ or ‘all of the time’)
with three or more of these symptoms in the past
week were distinguished from those reporting only
1
During the past 7 days, how often did you feel: downhearted
and blue? really happy? quite nervous? calm and peaceful?
worthless? restless and fidgety? hopeless? depressed? that every-
thing you did was an effort? that people disliked you? that your
sleep was restless? /none of the time, almost never, some of the
time, most of the time, all of the timeS
one or two symptoms and those reporting none.
Lastly, respondents were presented with a standard
self-rated health question to assess overall health
and well-being.
Table 2 describes the variables used to categorize
occupations and assess various capitals and cultural
tastes and practices. Three survey questions pertain-
ing to the respondent’s main job were used to
classify occupational types: What is your occupa-
tional title? What is the name of the business or
company you work for? How would you describe
your activities or duties? Occupations were coded
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Table 2
Occupational categories and measures of capital

Survey item or variable Categories Distribution

Pineo occupational classification Self-employed professional 13 (1.6)

Professional 76 (9.3)
High level management 33 (4.0)
Semi-professional 85 (10.4)
Technicians 25 (3.1)
Middle managers 51 (6.3)
Supervisors 73 (9.0)
Foremen/women 24 (2.9)
Skilled clerk/sales/service 52 (6.4)
Skilled craft/trade 113 (13.9)
Farmers 7 (0.9)
Semi-skilled clerk/sales/service 71 (8.7)
Semi-skilled manual 68 (8.3)
Unskilled clerk/sales/service 45 (5.5)
Unskilled manual 67 (8.2)
Farm labourers 12 (1.5)
What is your best estimate of the total income from all household Less than $20,000 131 (9.1)
members from all sources during the last 12 months (including income Between $20,000 and $29,999 111 (8.2)
from savings, investments, pensions, rent, and unemployment insurance Between $30,000 and $39,999 190 (14.1)
as well as wages)? Between $40,000 and $59,999 318 (23.5)
Between $60,000 and $79,999 234 (17.3)
More than $80,000 368 (27.2)
Calculated variable: owns or rents home Owns home fully 584 (41.2)
Owns home partially 624 (44.0)
Rents home 209 (14.7)
Calculated variable: highest personal educational attainment Less than high school 164 (11.6)
High school 269 (19.0)
Some postsecondary 380 (26.9)
Community college 327 (23.1)
University 273 (19.3)
Calculated variable: highest parental educational attainment Less than high school 423 (31.8)
High school 343 (25.8)
Some postsecondary 164 (12.3)
Community college 206 (15.5)
University 195 (14.7)
At the present, how often do you smoke cigarettes? Smokes daily 234 (16.5)
Smokes occasionally 70 (4.9)
Non-smoker 1117 (78.6)
How many times in the last month have you had more than five drinks Never drinks copiously 935 (71.0)
on one occasion? Drinks copiously sometimesa 113 (8.6)
Heavy drinkerb 268 (20.4)
What is your religion, if any? No religion 481 (34.4)
Protestant 589 (42.1)
Roman Catholic 205 (14.6)
Other religion 125 (8.9)
Most people in my community can be trusted. Trusts communityc 975 (69.4)
Mistrusts communityd 430 (30.6)
Politicians are generally good, capable people. Trusts politiciansc 345 (24.6)
Mistrusts politiciansd 1056 (75.4)
I feel that I belong in my community. Sense of belongingc 1106 (78.4)
Little belongingd 304 (21.6)
How often do you meet socially with neighbours? Meets neighbours often 466 (33.7)
Meets neighbours sometimes 616 (44.5)
Never meets neighbours 301 (21.8)
Have you volunteered regularly in the last year? Yes 669 (47.0)
No 755 (53.0)
Did you vote in the last federal election on November 27, 2000? Yes 1207 (85.0)
No 213 (15.0)
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Table 2 (continued )

Survey item or variable Categories Distribution

Calculated variable: number of voluntary associations More than one association 598 (41.7)
One association 735 (51.2)
No associational involvement 102 (7.1)
How often do you feel alone? Always feels alone 90 (6.3)
Sometimes feels alone 431 (30.4)
Seldom feels alone 898 (63.3)
There is quite a bit of talk these days about different social classes. Lower class 29 (2.1)
People generally feel they belong to one of the lower, working, middle or Working class 501 (36.8)
upper classes. Which of the following classes best describes you? Middle class 822 (60.3)
Upper class 11 (0.8)
a
One time in the month.
b
Two or more times in the month.
c
‘Agree strongly’ and ‘agree’ responses collapsed together.
d
‘Neutral’, ‘disagree’ and ‘disagree strongly’ responses collapsed together.

using the Statistics Canada Standard Occupational
Classification and Pineo occupational categories
were assigned to employed respondents.
To assess economic capital, respondents reported
their household income and whether they owned
their home. To assess educational capital and social
background, respondents reported their own and
their mother’s and father’s highest levels of educa-
tional attainment; personal attainment and highest
credential attained by a parent are recorded in
Table 2. To assess cultural knowledge, a series of
71 cultural knowledge items were presented to
respondents. The clustering of these knowledge
items in a principle components analysis are
described elsewhere (Veenstra, 2005b). The eleven
items that loaded highest on the eleven resultant
factors respectively were utilized in this analysis,
and included familiarity with various sports figures,
artists, novelists and books, and magazines.2 I also
included in my analysis three items that did not load
highly on any of the eleven factors—familiarity with
Architectural Digest, Scientific American and sports
figure Don Bradman. Some of the cultural knowl-
edge items were taken from Erickson (1991, 1996),
who studied relationships between cultural tastes
and social class elsewhere in Canada, whereas
others were simply concocted by the author. As
2
Please indicate whether you have read or heard of the
following books: Oliver Twist, Kamouraska, The Wealthy Barber.
Please indicate which of the following magazines you have read in
the past six months: Time, The New Yorker, Chatelaine,
Penthouse. Please indicate which of the following artists you
recognize: A. J. Casson, Andy Warhol. Please indicate which of
the following athletes you recognize: Brett Favre, Michael
Jordan.
representatives of the factors derived by the
principle components analysis, these cultural knowl-
edge items best represent the entire body of
71 knowledge items, but are not assumed to
necessarily represent the high-brow and low-brow
tastes that maintain the boundaries of social classes.
(In follow-up work, qualitative methods of inquiry
are needed to identify better cultural knowledge
measures for social class comparisons.) To assess
cultural practices, a list of 22 activities were
presented to respondents; those with a suitably
large N (450) were used in the analysis.3 Respon-
dents were also asked about smoking habits, alcohol
consumption and religious affiliation.
Various sentiments and activities that may
represent forms of social capital were assessed for
survey respondents. One survey item measured trust
in community members, another assessed percep-
tions regarding the trustworthiness of politicians,
a third measured sense of belonging in the commu-
nity and a fourth assessed loneliness. Other items
measured degree of networking with neighbours
and civic action in the form of volunteerism and
of voting. Lastly, responses to a survey item
pertaining to associational involvement4 enabled
3
Have you done any of the following in the last month?
running/jogging; walking long distances; hiking; bicycling;
kayaking; gardening, yard work; bowling; swimming; baseball;
popular or social dance; weight-training; home exercises; yoga/
tai-chi; golfing; exercise class/aerobics
4
Which of the following types of organizations do you
currently participate in? political parties; trade unions; environ-
mental groups; parent-teacher associations, school service asso-
ciations; tenants’ groups; neighbourhood watch or neighbour-
hood improvement associations; youth groups; church or other
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the calculation of a variable assessing breadth of
participation within different types of voluntary
associations.
Finally, respondents’ self-assessments of their
own social class standing were collected in order
to investigate the overlap between perceptions of
class standing (an indicator of class consciousness?)
and the social groupings identified by the multiple
correspondence analyses.
Methods
In the spirit of relational thinking, this article
does not explicitly identify dependent variables,
instead utilizing multiple correspondence analysis.5
Correspondence analysis (CA) is a technique for
analysing the association between two categorical
variables by representing the categories of the
variables as points in a low-dimensional space. It
does not specify a dependent variable, and it is
primarily used for exploratory rather than con-
firmatory purposes. In essence, CA produces a
visual representation of the relationship between
two categorical variables that is more easily inter-
preted than a contingency table, especially when the
table has many cells and the correspondence of
variable categories cannot be readily discerned. In
the visual representation, ‘‘categories with similar
distributions will be represented as points that
are close in space, and categories that have very
dissimilar distributions will be positioned far
apart’’ (Clausen, 1998, p. 2). While the number of
dimensions can be large, generally only the two
dimensions that explain the most variance are
displayed visually in a correspondence map. The
technique has very few data assumptions: the
data elements must be non-negative numbers, an
(footnote continued)
religious groups; charitable or volunteer associations, service
clubs; art or music groups; evening classes; social clubs (e.g.,
Rotary Club, Women’s Institute, Lion’s Club); sports teams,
gyms, exercise classes; professional associations; literary societies;
seniors’ clubs; other groups or organizations.
5
Three other articles investigating social determinants of health
in a traditional causal manner also utilize this data set. Veenstra
(2005a) used multilevel modelling to discern the health effects of
community of residence, economic capital, educational capital
and social capital. Veenstra (2005c) utilized regression modelling
to describe zero-order and multivariate relationships between
perceptions of relative social status, ‘objective’ status and health,
and Veenstra (2006) used regression modelling to assess relation-
ships between neo-Marxist conceptualizations of class position,
socio-economic status and health.
9
association should exist to be described, generally
assessed by use of the Chi-square statistic, and the
contingency table ought to be relatively large
(Clausen, 1998). Although the technique has a long
history in French scholarship, it was seldom utilized
in Anglo-American scholarship prior to the pub-
lication of the English translation of Bourdieu’s
Distinction.
Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) is the
extension of CA to the analytical situation with
three or more variables. Like CA (and unlike log
linear models which analyze interrelationships
between a set of variables), MCA examines
the relations between the categories of variables
(Clausen, 1998). It produces dimensions that
individually explain some of the variance in the N-
way table, and also produces a correspondence map
that visually depicts the two dimensions that explain
the most variance. As with CA, the ‘loading’ of
points on dimensions can be calculated, enabling
the researcher to interpret the dimensions. Like CA,
variable categories can be ‘active’ (used to compute
the dimensions that produce the correspondence
map) or treated as ‘supplementary’ (not used to
compute the dimensions, but then overlaid upon the
existent map). In addition, entire variables can be
designated supplementary.
In this article, two social space mappings are
enacted utilizing the multiple correspondence analysis
routine in SPSS 13.0. The first mapping includes the
Pineo occupational classification as an active variable
and so pertains to the social space of employed people
only. The second excludes the Pineo measure and as
such pertains to the social space of all respondents,
adults aged 18 and over. For each mapping, the
variables described in Tables 1 and 2 are entered into
the multiple correspondence analysis as active vari-
ables that contribute toward shaping the social space,
excepting age, gender, self-assessed social class and the
health measures which are entered as supplementary
variables instead. The two dimensions that explain the
most variability overall are depicted visually in a
correspondence map, and interpretations or specula-
tions regarding category groupings that might be
predictive of social classes are presented. The spatial
positioning of the health indicators in this social space
is then discussed, enabling further speculation pertain-
ing to the relationship between social (class) groupings
and health inequalities in British Columbia, Canada.
Substitution with the mode was used to accom-
modate missing values. In total, the data set of 1435
respondents contained 59 variables of interest for
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10 G. Veenstra / Health & Place ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
this analysis, one of which—the Pineo occupational
classification—had a particularly small N (815).
Substitution with the mode is problematic when
there are many missing cases, and so a process for
identifying and then deleting particularly proble-
matic cases and variables before imputing the mode
was devised. First, the number of variables with a
missing value was identified for each case. The
greatest number of variables for any one case was
quite low (only 10) and so no cases were deleted for
this reason. Second, alcohol consumption (8.3%),
highest parental educational achievement (7.2%),
household income (5.8%) and self-assessed social
class (5.0%) were the variables with the highest
proportions of non-responses, excepting the Pineo
classification—63 cases had missing values for two
or more of these four variables and so were deleted.
Among the remaining cases, only alcohol consump-
tion possessed a sizeable proportion of missing
values (6.8%)—of the 93 non-responses, 28 also
failed to respond to one of the other variables in the
data set, excluding the Pineo occupational classifi-
cation, and were also deleted. In total, 91 especially
problematic cases were deleted, leaving a data set
containing relatively few missing values prior to
utilizing multiple correspondence analysis. The final
sample for employed persons was 763 and the final
sample for all respondents was 1344.
Results
The two-dimensional visual mappings of the
social spaces of employed persons and all survey
respondents are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively.
The reader should seek to identify variable cate-
gories that cluster together on paper, but should not
give too much credence to the spatial distance
between any two given variable categories—these
depictions of social space can only display general
patterns.
A total of 763 cases were utilized in the analysis
that produced Fig. 1, 595 of which did not have any
missing values. The variable principle normalization
option was utilized in this multiple correspondence
analysis. dimension 1 (D1) explained 6.27% and
dimension 2 (D2) explained 5.35% of the total
variance.
D1, displayed vertically, was influenced primarily
by educational attainment and occupational classi-
fication (with discrimination measures of .324 and
.320, respectively), secondarily by associational
involvement (.256) and in smaller part by household
income (.142). The dispersal of educational attain-
ment along D1 is apparently linear, with less than
high school to the bottom and university degree to
the top (the latter category most clearly distin-
guished from the others). The occupations also
present an identifiable pattern along D1. The lower-
most occupations are the manual jobs (unskilled,
semi-skilled and farm labourers), followed by
unskilled clerks and salespeople, then technicians,
skilled trades people and semi-skilled clerks and
salespeople, next farmers and foremen/women, then
skilled clerks and salespeople, supervisors and
middle managers, next high-level managers and
semi-professionals, and lastly professionals and self-
employed professionals at the top of Fig. 1. House-
hold income is also seemingly linearly dispersed
along D1, with the lowest incomes to the bottom.
Associational involvement is not linearly dispersed
on D1, however (although it is on D2), making its
contribution to the mapping somewhat ambiguous.
Several of the outermost categories possessed small
Ns, i.e., The New Yorker (43), Architectural Digest
(40), o$20,000 (32), Kamouraska (23), o25 yrs (15)
and self-employed professional (13). These variable
categories did not play an integral role in defining
the resultant dimensions and so should not play an
important role in interpreting them either.
I interpret the first dimension to represent the key
social class dimension of this social space, con-
structed primarily on the basis of workplace
distinctions and educational attainment and secon-
darily on the basis of economic capital. This
interpretation corresponds very closely with Bour-
dieu’s interpretation of findings from 1960s France,
wherein total capital (educational and economic)
purportedly served to structure social space more
than any other principle, and where occupational
distinctions (‘class fragments’ in Bourdieu’s lexicon)
displayed interpretable patterns along these lines.
D2, displayed horizontally in Fig. 1, was influ-
enced strongly by marital status (.395), home
ownership (.347) and type of dwelling (.344) and
was moderately influenced by income (.141) and the
presence of children at home (.134). On the left of
the mapping are separated, divorced and (espe-
cially) single respondents, with married respondents
on the right. Also on the left are (transient) renters
living in apartments and condos. Household income
is also apparently linearly arrayed along D2, with
poorer respondents on the left of the mapping and
wealthier ones on the right. Lastly, the presence of
children at home are on the right of D2.
 total capital (educational and economic) +

The New Yorker self-employed professional

professional
aerobics
university
Kamouraska

Scientific American
Architectural Digest kayaking

yoga/tai-chi A.J. Casson

semi-professional

high level management > 75 yrs

parent university
Wealthy Barber
runner/jogger > one club
swimming
weight-training
SRH excellent
Oliver Twist > $80,000
home exercises bowling
Time magazine
hikes volunteer
Don Bradman
other religion Chatelaine trusts politicans
middle class $60-79,999 kids at home
parent CC golfing
65-74 owns home
Andy Warhol townhouse/house married
parent some PS
Brett Favre Michael Jordan
Protestant
Penthouse SRH very good
has injury middle managers
life course and family structure First Nations partial home-owner
supervisors
45-64
25-44
sometimes feels alone skilled clerk/sales/service Roman Catholic foremen/women
separated
semi-skilled clerk/sales/service
no kids at home has illness obese
ARTICLE IN PRESS

SRH good
divorced moved recently no religion
mistrusts community community college
some PS parent < HS
parent HS
skilled craft/trade
G. Veenstra / Health & Place ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]

smokes occasionally never meets neighbours

single did not vote non-volunteer
common-law working class technicians
little belonging heavy drinker
$30-39,999 high school
$40-59,999
renter always feels alone SRH fair

$20-29,999 depression
one club
unskilled clerk/sales/service farm labourers
SRH poor
apartment/condo < 25 yrs
moveable dwelling

semi-skilled manual
< $20,000 smokes daily
< high school
unskilled manual

total capital (educational and economic) -

Fig. 1. Social groupings in the social space of employed persons.

11
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total capital (educational and economic) +

kayaking
runner/jogger

The New Yorker

baseball weight-training

Kamouraska
university

yoga/tai-chi swimming aerobics

bicycling
hikes
SRH excellent
Penthouse parent university Scientific American
Architectural Digest
no clubs dancing The Wealthy Barber
golfing
> $80,000
25-44
kids at home
Brett Favre A.J. Casson
home exercises
< 25 yrs
parent CC
long walks
partial home-owner
single occasional drinker parent some PS volunteers
moved recently > one club
$60-79,999
separated no religion
Time magazine
heavy drinker SRH very good
other religion Oliver Twist
First Nations has injury Andy Warhol
smokes occasionally middle class trusts politicans
Michael Jordan married
townhouse/house
common-law
social relationships - did not vote community college social relationships +
mistrusts community never meets neighbours parent HS 45-64
some post-secondary Don Bradman
$40-59,999 obese
little belonging
working class
renter SRH good Protestant
depression
high school
always feels alone
divorced one club owns home
$30-39,999

has illness
smokes daily

apartment/condo moveable dwelling parent < HS

65-74
lower class
$20-29,999

SRH fair
SRH poor

< $20,000

< high school > 75 yrs

widowed

total capital (educational and economic) -

Fig. 2. Social groupings in the social space of all respondents.

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This depiction of D2 corresponds somewhat
closely with the second dimension reported by
Bourdieu, who claimed that relative possession of
educational and economic capital defined the
second most important dimension of the French
social space. While I report a similar phenomenon—
note the movement of increasing incomes from the
lower left to the upper right and increasing
education credentials from the lower right to the
upper left—other factors apparently represent
stronger influences upon D2. Specifically, I interpret
D2 to represent life-course and family structure
more than anything else: married respondents aged
45 and older living in non-rental housing are
contrasted with (generally younger) non-married
respondents living in temporary accommodations.
(I would argue that Bourdieu’s second dimension
may also reflect the nature of life-course and family
structure—middle-aged married respondents with
home equity are undoubtedly likely to have a
sizeable proportion of their total capital provided
by economic capital.)
Next, I attempt to identify groupings of variable
categories that may actually represent social group-
ings of people that are predictive of social classes.
It is important to consider both dimensions
simultaneously when looking for groupings,
although I have prioritized D1 over D2 in this
interpretive process. It is also important to note that
the middle of the mapping represents characteristics
of survey respondents not well explained by D1 and
D2 (but possibly explained by other dimensions),
and so variable categories located near the intersec-
tion of the axes may not play an important role in
defining social groupings in this social space.
(Although Figs. 1 and 2 do not contain all of the
variable categories that were used to construct these
social spaces, all of the categories not presented in
the figures belong to the middle portions of the
mappings.)
Professional class: One distinctive grouping per-
tains to the collection of variable categories to the
top of D1 and slightly to the left of the vertical axis.
This group is apparently well-educated (as are their
parents) and wealthy, although educational creden-
tials are the more important structuring principle of
the two, and includes professionals and high-level
managers. Many distinctive cultural practices per-
taining to physical activity accumulate in this
grouping, e.g., aerobics, kayaking, yoga/tai-chi,
running and weight training. Distinctive cultural
tastes in this group are familiarity with magazines
13
such as The New Yorker, Architectural Digest and
Scientific American, books such as Kamouraska and
The Wealthy Barber and artists such as A.J.
Casson.6 Members of this group are also likely to
participate in a range of clubs and associations.
I refer to this group as the ‘professional class.’ In the
spirit of Bourdieu’s framework, this group can lay
claim to a variety of distinctive cultural tastes and
practices that may be used by group members to
maintain class boundaries between themselves and
others.
Middle class: Moving down the vertical axis, the
second grouping encompasses the dense central
portion of the correspondence mapping. This group
includes skilled clerks and salespeople, supervisors
and middle managers, and is moderately well
educated (many members possessing a community
college or university credential). Their household
incomes are quite high. With respect to cultural
tastes, they are often familiar with Andy Warhol,
Brett Favre7 and Michael Jordan, may have glanced
at Penthouse magazine recently, like to engage in an
occasional bout of drinking but generally choose
not to smoke, trust other members of the commu-
nity and politicians, voted in the last federal election
and like to spend time socializing with neighbours.
Members of this group are also quite likely to refer
to themselves as ‘middle class.’
Working class: A third grouping pertains to the
collection of variable categories on the bottom end
of D1. Members of this group generally have few
educational credentials, tend to work in unskilled
6
In a principle components analysis of cultural tastes
(Veenstra, 2005b), the factor represented well by The New Yorker
was also well represented by Harper’s and Saturday Night
magazines. The Wealthy Barber is a popular American book
devoted to financial strategies and represented a factor that also
included The Economist and Financial Times publications.
Kamouraska is a classical piece of French literature from the
Canadian province of Quebec, and represented a factor contain-
ing a series of literary works such as Sophie’s World and What’s
Bred in the Bone. A.J. Casson, sometime member of the Group of
Seven, was a Canadian landscape painter from the early half of
the twentieth century. Familiarity with A.J. Casson represented a
factor comprised of artists such as Harold Town, Cornelius
Kriefhoff, Mary Pratt and Henry Moore.
7
The factor well represented by Andy Warhol contained other
‘popular’ artists such as Salvadore Dali, Pablo Picasso and
Robert Bateman. Brett Favre is a professional football player in
the US and represented a factor mostly composed of sports
figures such as Joe Thornton (a hockey player in the NHL),
Shannon Stewart (baseball player and former member of the
Toronto Blue Jays) and Danny McManus (football player in the
Canadian Football League).
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
14 G. Veenstra / Health & Place ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
and semi-skilled manual occupations and are far
from wealthy. Smoking and drinking heavily are the
only cultural practices contained in this data set that
accrue to this group. Group members often live in
moveable dwellings, relationships with neighbours
are often non-existent and participation in the civil
space via volunteering is negligible. I refer to this
group as the ‘working class,’ noting that members
of this grouping also tend to refer to themselves in
this way.
Class of solitude: The final potential grouping
refers to the lower left quadrant of the social space
mapping. This is a poor group with members who
tend to rent accommodation in temporary living
situations and are likely to be young and single,
separated or divorced. This grouping is not
obviously associated with any specific occupational
categories. I refer to this group as the ‘class of
solitude,’ noting the degree of loneliness and lack of
belonging to the community evident among the
members of this sector, but am least confident that
this section of social space represents a real social
grouping.
And are these exploratory conceptions of social
(class) groupings associated with health? Regarding
the placement of my health indicators within this
social space of employed people, the excellent self-
rated health category appears to be located near the
professional class, fair and poor self-rated health
fall squarely within the working class portion of the
space and the indicator of depressive symptoms is
close to both the class of solitude and the working
class. The three assessments of physical well-
being—presence of injuries, long-term limiting ill-
ness and obesity—fall squarely within the middle
portion of the mapping, however, indicating that
they belong to the middle class (or, more accurately,
that they do not obviously belong to any of the
other classes). In general, it seems that mental
health and psychological interpretations of overall
well-being are better explained by these social (class)
groupings than are any of the measures of physical
well-being.
The two-dimensional visual mapping of the social
space of all survey respondents, again using variable
principle normalization, is shown in Fig. 2. A total
of 1344 cases were utilized in the analysis, 983 of
which did not have any missing values. dimension 1
(D1) explained 6.62% of the total variance and
dimension 2 (D2) explained 5.43%.
D1, arrayed vertically, was explained primarily by
educational attainment (discrimination measure .267),
income (.235), age (.222) and parental education
(.194). As in Fig. 1, education, parental education
and income are linearly arrayed along D1. The
extreme education categories are the most sharply
distinguished from the other categories. Unlike Fig. 1,
age clearly plays an important role in the primary
dimension, with older respondents falling on the less-
educated and poorer end of D1. Thus, as might be
expected by the inclusion of a large number (n ¼ 407)
of retired people in the sample, issues pertaining to
life-course and age cohort play a bigger role in the
distribution of capitals, cultural tastes and lifestyle
practices in social space. I interpret this dimension to
reflect primarily the degree of overall possession of the
most important capitals (educational and economic),
just as Bourdieu reported for French society, but also
note the manifestation of life-course along this
dimension.
D2 was explained primarily by home ownership
(discrimination measure .367) and marital status
(.307), secondarily by age (.208) and dwelling type
(.202) and in smaller part by indicators of social
capital (community trust .145, associational invol-
vement .142, sense of belonging to the community
.124). I interpret this dimension to represent the
presence and quality of social relationships—family
structure, life-course and social capital—with a
slightly larger role played by social capital in D2
of Fig. 2 than in D2 of Fig. 1.
A version of the highest class similar to that
displayed in Fig. 1 manifests itself in Fig. 2, a
grouping again focused specially on various aspects
of a physical lifestyle but with golfing and dancing
also included in the realm of the professional class.
Familiarity with Penthouse magazine, a middle-class
cultural taste in Fig. 1, also falls within sight of this
class grouping. The middle class of Fig. 2 closely
resembles the middle class of Fig. 1. The working
class of Fig. 2, while quite similar to its counterpart
in Fig. 1, has a pronounced age component that is
not as clearly evident in Fig. 1, with elderly
respondents in particular more likely than not to
be included in this class. Lastly, the class of solitude
manifests itself in the middle left portion of this
mapping, but in this instance includes heavy
drinking, a cultural practice seemingly attributed
to the working class in Fig. 1.
With respect to the indicators of health, Fig. 2
shows patterns similar to those manifested in Fig. 1:
excellent self-rated health is located near the
professional class, fair/poor health falls within the
working class, depression falls within the class of
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solitude, and both obesity and the presence of
injuries are located within the middle portion of the
map. In contrast with Fig. 1, however, the presence
of long-term limiting illnesses falls within the realm
of the working class, again perhaps a function of
age. (Thus only in Fig. 2 is a measure of physical
health located outside of the middle portion of
social space.)
Discussion
Clearly the analysis has important limitations.
First, the statistical analysis is entirely explorative
and so does not take advantage of the randomness
inherent to the survey sample—there are no tests of
statistical significance facilitating extrapolations to
the entire population of residents of these commu-
nities. Confirmatory testing of the exploratory
findings presented in this article is certainly war-
ranted for the future. Second, in contrast with
Gatrell et al. (2004), geographical space, indicated
in this instance by community of residence, was not
explicitly incorporated into my analysis. Gatrell et
al. found little overlap between social space and
geo-spatial locale in the Lancaster area anyway, and
my own multilevel investigation into community-
level determinants of health utilizing this same data
set reported little variability in health attributable to
community of residence (Veenstra, 2005a). Also,
Bourdieu discussed the nature of overlap between
the two kinds of space (Bourdieu, 1989), noting that
people who are far from one another in social space
can still meet and interact, however briefly, in
physical space. Regardless, further investigation of
the overlap between conceptions of geo-political
and social space in this and other contexts is
probably warranted as well. Third and most
importantly, Bourdieu recommends the mobiliza-
tion of numerous methods of observation and
measurement when engaging in investigations of
social space and social class. Ethnographic explora-
tion of the connections between social class
and culture in British Columbia that identifies the
perceptions that produce social distancing in every-
day life would certainly supplement the analysis
presented here, as would a multi-method inquiry
into the cultural tastes and practices that most
readily differentiate social (class) groupings. Clearly
my analysis can only represent the first step
in a wide-ranging, longitudinal and multi-method
research program devoted to uncovering and under-
standing the nature of health inequalities embedded
15
in social class dynamics in British Columbia,
Canada.
The degree of consonance between the primary
dimensions generated in this modern western
Canadian context and those produced by Bourdieu
for French society of the 1960s is remarkable. In
both analyses, possession of educational capital and
economic capital taken together represented the
foremost dimension of social space; in both
analyses, the relative possession of these two key
resources represented a second important principle
of distinction. The linear nature of the distribution
of occupational categories along the first dimension
in my conception of social space is also a remark-
able finding, but loses some lustre upon noting that
the Pineo occupational classification utilized to
distinguish occupational types from one another in
this analysis is in fact a measure of occupational
prestige based primarily upon the salaries generated
by and the educational credentials required for
occupations. Thus educational capital and econom-
ic capital possibly represent the key framing
principles for the social space of these British
Columbian communities, just as they did for 1960s
France (but perhaps not for modern-day Lancaster,
England). However, educational capital was rela-
tively more important than economic capital in my
depiction of social space, and social relationships—
pertaining to family structure, life-course and social
capital—also played a crucial role in shaping this
social space. The incorporation of social capital in
this work and in the social spaces produced by
Gatrell et al. (2004) represents an important
refinement of this discourse, validating the notion
that many forms of capital—any social, cultural,
economic or political resource—can distinguish
social groupings that may be predictive of social
classes and influence health and well-being via class
dynamics.
Because the analysis is purely exploratory and the
variables are indicators of individual-level phenom-
ena, I cannot be confident that collections of
variable categories represent actual social groupings
in British Columbia, let alone social classes with a
sense of shared identity. Still, it is interesting to note
that self-assessed social class adhered to my inter-
pretations of groupings to some degree, suggestive
of a class consciousness along working class and
middle class lines. It is also important to note that
distinctive cultural tastes and practices manifested
themselves among the higher classes in this social
space far more readily than they did among the
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
16 G. Veenstra / Health & Place ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
lower ones (excepting heavy drinking and smoking,
tastes that fell within the class groupings near the
bottom of the social space mappings). This insight
resonates with Bourdieu’s contention that some
cultural tastes and practices come to be defined as
exclusively ‘high-brow’ and are then used by elites
to maintain boundaries between themselves and
‘lesser’ classes. The tastes and practices with the
potential to play this role in class dynamics
seemingly describe the famous ‘west coast lifestyle.’
This lifestyle, manifested in its purest form in the
urban cities of Vancouver and Victoria and based in
large part upon outdoor activities, includes such
activities as running for exercise, commuting to
work by bicycle (rather than in an environment-
polluting car), kayaking in the nearby waterways,
hiking in the surrounding mountain ranges, skiing
in the mountains at Cypress and Whistler, taking
yoga classes, visiting spas, hitting the links and
playing organized sports like baseball or soccer.
According to my depictions of social space, high-
brow magazines such as The New Yorker and
Architectural Digest may also belong to the realm
of west-coast elite cultural tastes. By contrast, the
only cultural tastes assessed in this data set that
inhered to the working class were smoking and
excessive alcohol consumption. (I expected knowl-
edge of sports figures such as Michael Jordan and
Brett Favre, participation in bowling as an extra-
curricular activity and familiarity with Chatelaine
and Penthouse magazines to represent distinctively
working class tastes. These expectations were not
manifested in my depictions of social space.)
Qualitative exploration of the role of such ‘sophis-
ticated’ and ‘low-brow’ tastes and practices in
everyday social interactions throughout these Ca-
nadian communities would help to elucidate the
exclusionary role they play among classes.
Poor relationships with neighbours and the lone-
liness that comes from a paucity of close and
meaningful social relationships located themselves
within the class groupings near the bottom of social
space. In and of itself, this finding illustrates the
profound effects of class on the lives of these
Canadians. The psychological and interpretive
measures of health also adhered closely to class
lines in this social space, supporting Mildred
Blaxter’s (1989) contention that perceptions of
well-being reflect social class experiences more than
objective measures of physical heath reflect class
inequalities (although illnesses also became perti-
nent when non-employed respondents were included
in the analysis—perhaps a function of age as much
as class). In my depictions of social space, poor self-
rated health and depressive symptoms were located
in the lower portions of social space near or between
the working and solitude classes and excellent self-
rated health was located near or between the elite
professional and middle classes. The location of
these health indicators suggests that educational
attainment and income or wealth are closely
associated with self-rated health, certainly not a
new insight. (For instance, Mirowsky and Ross,
2003 argue that the relationship between educa-
tional attainment and health is primarily based
upon an individual’s ability to problem-solve in
difficult circumstances, and represents the basis of
the class-health relationship). The location of
excellent self-rated health close to a portion of
social space containing many physical activities
(such as running, kayaking, aerobics, etc.) suggests
that exercise also influences self-rated health
directly—again, nothing new here. The novelty of
my analysis, however, comes from the speculations
that arise from adopting a structuralist vision of
social space and the activities, tastes and percep-
tions that inhere within it, and from the practical
utilization of multiple correspondence techniques to
assess relations among elements.
Like Bourdieu, in this analysis I am fundamen-
tally concerned with the structure versus agency
and objectivism versus subjectivism dichotomies.
With respect to these dichotomies, Bourdieu sum-
marizes the gist of his analysis in Distinction in
this way:
On the one hand, the objective structures that the
sociologist constructs, in the objectivist moment,
by setting aside the subjective representations of
the agents, form the basis for these representa-
tions and constitute the structural constraints
that bear upon interactions; but on the other
hand, these representations must also be taken
into consideration particularly if one wants to
account for the daily struggles, individual and
collective, which purport to transform or to
preserve these structures. This means that the
two moments, the objectivist and the subjectivist,
stand in a dialectical relationship (Bourdieu,
1989, p. 15).
In essence, Bourdieu seeks here to re-address the
distinction between life chances and life choices
described by Weber. A relational interpretation of
social space encompasses or even transcends these
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
G. Veenstra / Health & Place ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
dichotomies by identifying the real with relations
rather than with substances. Applying a relational
interpretation to health inequalities in social space
means that a spatial ‘association’ between commut-
ing to work by bicycle and excellent self-rated
health, for example, need not be necessarily a
(direct) causal relationship. Rather, the accoutre-
ment of cycling (the helmet, the backpack, the rain
gear) and the terminology of architectural discourse
(modern and country, apse and balustrade) may
induce social distances in everyday interactions by
providing subtle messages to members of other
classes to ‘keep their distance’ and ‘stay in their
place.’ Cultural tastes and practices such as these
form the routinized logic of the daily life of social
space contexts, and social distancing of this kind,
undoubtedly consonant with the possession of
material resources (via personal wealth) and highly
prestigious occupations, may serve to isolate com-
munities of people from others, all of whom know
where they belong, and then produce health
inequalities via other means by fact of the segrega-
tion. In short, a graphical depiction of social space
provides pointers towards social groupings (that
may be social classes) where group members share
an affinity of style and reservoir of resources, and so
is suggestive of the shape and character of the
group-level relations that accord health-enhancing
privilege and opportunities to sub-sections of
society.
Acknowledgements
This research project was funded under the
auspices of a New Investigator Scholar Award
(2000–2005) from the Canadian Institutes of Health
Research. Ana Sandrin graphically designed and
administered the survey questionnaire, Shona Kelly
classified the occupations and Xuekui Zhang
provided statistical consulting with regard to multi-
ple correspondence analysis and treatment of
missing values.
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