Cultural Capital: Theory of Bourdieu

He cultural capital is a term coming from sociology and coined by the author Pierre Bourdieu. It consists of a series of social assets that a person can possess, such as education, intellect or the way of dressing or behaving. This cultural capital allows social movement from one class to another in societies that are stratified.

Cultural capital is opposed to economic goods, such as material possessions. Because these are rather intangible elements, it is difficult to objectively measure how much cultural capital a person has.

Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist

In general, cultural capital is usually divided into three distinct types: incorporated, objectified and institutionalized. These three types of cultural capital come together to form the conditions of a person's life that will help them achieve a better position in the social hierarchy.

Theory of Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist born in 1930 in the town of Denguin. Despite coming from a humble family, his parents encouraged him to pursue higher education. He studied Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, under the supervision of Louis Althusser, a famous Marxist thinker.

Bourdieu began working as a professor in Algeria, time that he used to carry out sociological studies on the indigenous populations of the place and to publish his first books. These early writings granted him certain fame in academic circles, and allowed him to continue carrying out his studies.

Later he was appointed Professor of Sociology at the Collège de France, one of the most prestigious universities in France. Upon his death in 2002, he had become one of the most influential sociologists of all time and a human rights activist in his country.

Although he did not consider himself Marxist, it is clear that Bourdieu's ideas are very much influenced by the writings of Karl Marx. One of his theories in which this becomes more apparent is precisely that of cultural capital.

Types of capital according to Bourdieu

For Bordieu, social life is completely determined by capital; The more capital a person possesses, the more powerful he is and, therefore, the better positions he will occupy throughout his life. However, the difference between Marx's and Bourdieu's thinking is in the definition that both gave to capital.

For Marxist thought, capital refers only to the economic assets of a person. On the contrary, Bourdieu thought that the concept had to go much further. In his essay The forms of capital (1985), Bourdieu identified three main forms:

Economic capital

This would be the form described by Marx of capital, related to economic resources such as property, money or assets.

Social capital

It refers to access and belonging to powerful social networks, which give advantages to the life of a person.

Cultural capital

They are the characteristics of a person that give him an advantage when acquiring an advantageous position in society.

Types of cultural capital

Bourdieu spoke in his works of three types of cultural capital:

Incorporated cultural capital

It is all the knowledge that a person acquires, both consciously and unconsciously, through the processes of socialization and tradition. This type of cultural capital can not be exchanged; according to Bourdieu, it is acquired little by little, when the person incorporates it into his habitus (his personality and way of thinking).

Objectivated cultural capital

It has to do with the properties of a person that can be exchanged for an economic benefit, in addition to having a meaning that grants status. This type of capital symbolizes the knowledge of a person about the society in which it is found and its most important forms of expression.

Institutionalized cultural capital

It is related to the formal recognition by political institutions of a person's cultural capital. This can be done through degrees obtained in formal studies, a job that grants good status or social status, or by membership of a club or association.

Relationship of cultural capital with other Bourdieu theories

Pierre Bourdieu tried to create a theoretical body that explained the social position of the people in a clear and simple way. For this, in addition to focusing on the types of existing capital (economic, social and cultural), also introduced other concepts in the field of sociology. The most important of them all are those of habitus and field.

Habitus

The concept of habitus is one of the most known and influential of Bourdieu, and yet it is also one of the least defined. It refers to the part of the cultural capital that is integrated within each one of us, due to our habits, abilities, and ways of acting and thinking.

The habitus is formed throughout the life of people due to their own personal experiences, and has to do with the unconscious way in which we behave and our personality.

The habitus not only gives us more or less incorporated cultural capital, but also helps or harms us when it comes to achieving the other two types of cultural capital.

For example, if we have grown up in an environment where art was especially valued, it will be much easier for us to obtain objects that give us objectified cultural capital; or if our parents forced us to go to university, the affected will be institutionalized.

Countryside

The other Bourdieu concept that relates to cultural capital is the field. The French sociologist understood that the social world was divided into a series of different fields in which one could highlight or have little ability. Some of these fields are art, religion, education and laws.

Each of these fields has its own traditions, rules and associated knowledge, and grant a different type of cultural capital. Although on some occasions the fields may overlap, Bourdieu saw them as relatively independent of each other.

References

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5. "Cultural capital (Sociology)"in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: March 26, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.