CULTURAL CAPITAL
Human Capital, Knowledge Capital
As used by P. Bourdieu, in the sociological analysis of education, the term
cultural capital refers to the way that schools reflect standards of cultural expression
and definitions of valued abilities that are characteristic of the socially and
economically dominant class in society.
Students who bring this cultural capital (a form of human
capital) to the school are apt to be most successful in meeting criteria set by the
schools and the result is that the school system supports and justifies the privileges of
children of the wealthy and powerful.
The school can also be seen as bestowing cultural capital on students, improving
the equality of opportunity for those groups not already in possession of this capital
essential for maintaining an open class society.
Social and Cultural Capital in an Urban Latino School Community
Karen Monkman, DePaul University, Margaret Ronald, Florida State University
Florence Délimon Théramène, Fondation Hatienne de l’Enseignement Privé
The concepts of social and cultural capital explain how inequality is reproduced in
schools. High-status cultural practices and knowledge, and access to these through elite
social networks, become the indications through which success is recognized and rewarded.
However, it is in the dynamics of negotiating social and cultural capital that processes
of social reproduction can potentially be upset and derailed. This study analyzes those
dynamics of negotiation in a low-income, Spanish speaking, urban school community. This
process of reproduction can be derailed in ways that benefit children who are nonelite. -
uex.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/40/1/4
Cultural Capital and Social Inequality in the Life Course Werner Georg,
Universität Konstanz,
In many surveys, such as PISA, the German educational system shows a strong social
inequality, particularly in the transition to higher education (‘Gymnasium’) and
to university. Above all, rational choice models and approaches from conflict theory are
used as tools for the explanation of these findings. In this contribution, the capital
theory of Pierre Bourdieu is tested on the basis of a follow-up survey, which refers to
the ages between sixteen and thirty-five. As a result it can be shown that there is a
substantial reproduction effect by the transmission of cultural capital in the family. -
esr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/4/333
Converting Cultural Capital Among Teen Refugees and Their Families From
Bosnia-Herzegovina Stevan M. Weine, M.D., Norma Ware, Ph.D. and Alma Klebic,
B.A.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to identify the processes by which teen
refugees adapt and apply cultural capital in conditions of refuge in order to develop
preventive interventions for refugee youths. METHODS: The study was a multisite
ethnographic study in Chicago that involved observation of Bosnian participants in
schools, community sites, service organizations, and households as well as in-depth
interviews with a subsample of 30 Bosnian adolescents and their families. Field notes and
interview data were subjected to thematic analysis. RESULTS: The concept of converting
cultural capital emerged as a useful construct for representing the cultural resources
that Bosnian teen refugees and their families bring to the refugee trauma experience.
Conversion of cultural capital refers to processes of adapting and applying the meanings,
knowledge, customs, achievements, and outlooks that teen refugees and their families bring
to new environments in order to enhance teens' cultural vitality and social incorporation.
Nine mechanisms of converting cultural capital were identified, labeled, and defined in
emic terms: using our language, obliging family, sticking together, returning to religion,
going ghetto, building a future, taking pride in tradition, critiquing America, and
seeking freedom. These mechanisms represent cultural strategies by which teen refugees
attempt to manage enormous historical, social, cultural, economic, familial, and
psychological changes associated with refugee trauma. CONCLUSIONS: Ethnography is an
important methodologic tool in mental health services research, and the concept of
converting cultural capital is useful in designing preventive interventions for teen
refugees and their families. - psychservices.psychiatryonline.org
Occupational Inheritance: The Role of Cultural Capital and Gender
Muriel Egerton: Cathy Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, Manchester
University
It is known that occupational destination is influenced by family cultural resources. Most
research on the effects of cultural capital, using nationally representative datasets, has
concentrated on paternal occupation and education, finding that higher levels of paternal
education are associated with greater educational and occupational attainment. As a result
cultural capital has been put forward as a partial explanation for intergenerational class
stability. It has been argued that occupational inheritance is more marked for the
professional than for the managerial sector of the middle class, due to their greater
cultural capital (Savage et al. 1992). This paper explores the effects of father's labour
market sector (i.e. managerial or professional) and the educational attainment of both
parents, using the National Child Development Study. Evidence was found: 1) that the
children of professional fathers are more successful educationally than the children of
managers, taking into account measured ability at age 11; and 2) that professional family
origins facilitate entry into professional occupations, independently of educational
attainments. The effect of gender was also explored. The relative lack of educational
attainment on the part of children of managers had a more negative effect on the careers
of daughters than of sons.
Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment Alice Sullivan, Nuffield College
Oxford
According to Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction, children from middle-class
families are advantaged in gaining educational credentials due to their possession of
cultural capital. In order to assess this theory, I have developed a broad
operationalisation of the concept of cultural capital, and have surveyed pupils on both
their own and their parents' cultural capital. I will conclude that cultural capital is
transmitted within the home and does have a significant effect on performance in the GCSE
(General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations. However, a large, direct effect
of social class on attainment remains when cultural capital has been controlled for.
Therefore, `cultural reproduction' can provide only a partial explanation of social class
differences in educational attainment. - soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/4/893
The Uneven Distribution of Cultural Capital - Book Reading in Urban China
Shaoguang Wang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Deborah Davis, Yale
University
Yanjie Bian, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Drawing on interviews with 400 couples in four cities in 1998, this exploratory study
focuses on variation in reading habits to integrate the concept of cultural capital into
the theoretical and empirical analysis of inequality and social stratification in
contemporary urban China. Overall, we find that volume and composition of cultural capital
varies across social classes independent of education. Thus, to the extent that cultural
capital in the form of diversified knowledge and appreciation for certain genres or
specific authors is unevenly distributed across social classes, we hypothesize that the
possession of cultural capital may be a valuable resource in defining and crystallizing
class boundaries in this hybrid, fast-changing society. -
mcx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/3/315
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