Thinking together cultural sociology and urban studies: the example of Brussels

The following analysis of cultural participation in Brussels aims at bringing together field analysis and urban sociology and at showing how they can complement each other. It will be argued that field theory in cultural sociology, if not appropriately combined to urban studies, present some limitations. Field theory can be too static to perceive the dynamics in action inside such a contrasted city that is Brussels and there is a danger that it fixes different types of cultural consumers in distinctive areas without being able to perceive their possible coexistence or interaction.  Using a Cluster Analysis (based on a Multiple Correspondence Analysis) combined to some mapping methods, it will be shown that the concrete geographical field of a city, such as Brussels, is not a mere translation of the cultural space, where the culturally poor will be situated in a very distinct place from the culturally rich. More particularly, we will see that more elite practices are more clearly physically located than those which are less privileged.