Snobbery and the triumph of bourgeois values: a speculative analysis of implications for hospitality

Abstract

This is a ‘small’ paper that offers a broad-brush view of the nature of bourgeois values and implications of the same for our understanding of certain aspects of hospitality. The argument is speculative, but assertive. Bourgeois values, it is suggested, are inevitably snobbish in nature and designed to both construct and maintain largely irrelevant ‘cultural’ differences between and within social classes. This generation of difference is integrally consistent with the capitalist mode of production, facilitating the creation of demand for essentially artificial needs and wants. In the context of hospitality, bourgeois values sustain a language of hierarchy that simultaneously creates a culture of aspiration while allowing enterprises to extract optimum economic value from carefully segmented markets.

Keywords: bourgeois culture, social class, snobbery, hospitality, food and drink consumption