CULTURAL CAPITAL: BORDIEU THEORY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The cultural capital is a term from sociology and the author coined by Pierre Bourdieu. It consists of a series of social assets that a person may possess, such as education, intellect or the way they dress or behave. This cultural capital enables 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 different 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.

Bordieu theory

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 studies. 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 teacher 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 brought him a certain fame in academic circles, and allowed him to continue his studies.

Later he was appointed Professor of Sociology at the Collège de France, one of the most prestigious universities in all of France. At 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 a Marxist, it is clear that Bourdieu's ideas are heavily influenced by the writings of Karl Marx. One of his theories in which this is most evident 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 they are and, therefore, the better positions they will occupy throughout their lives. However, the difference between Marx's thought and Bourdieu's is in the definition that both gave to capital.

For Marxist thought, capital refers only to the economic goods 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 a person's life.

Cultural capital

They are the characteristics of a person that give them an advantage when it comes to 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 about all the knowledge that a person acquires, both consciously and unconsciously, through the processes of socialization and tradition.

This type of cultural capital cannot 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).

Objectified 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 gives them status.

This type of capital symbolizes the knowledge of a person about the society in which he is 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 position, or through membership in 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 people in a clear and simple way. For this, in addition to focusing on the types of existing capitals (economic, social and cultural), he 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 Bourdieu's best known and most influential, 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 lives of people due to their own personal experiences, and has to do with the unconscious way in which we behave and our personality.

Habitat not only gives us more or less incorporated cultural capital, but it also helps or hurts 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 get objects that give us objectified cultural capital; or if our parents forced us to go to university, the affected person will be institutionalized.

Countryside

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

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

References

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3. "Cultural Capital" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: March 26, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.
4. "The forms of capital by Pierre Bourdieu 1986" in: Marxists. Retrieved on: March 26, 2018 from Marxists: marxists.org.
5. "Cultural capital (Sociology)" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: March 26, 2018 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org.