What is capital in Bourdieu's sense?Capital is commonly associated with monetary exchange and economic sphere. However, Bourdieu extended this term to a wider anthropology of cultural exchange and valuations. He raised three more capital other than economic capital, they are cultural capital, social capital and symbol capital that are inter-related in some sense. In the view of Bourdieu. he thought that economic capital is a fundamental one to other forms of capital. The amount of money that we possess may alter our possessions of cultural capital and substantially enriching the social capital.
Economic capitalEconomic capital is the simplest one among all. It merely refers to how much money and assets one possesses. In other words, the common perception of 'capital'.
Cultural capitalThe Forms of Capital (1986) written by Bourdieu addressed the new concepts – cultural capital and social capital. In Bourdieu’s point of view, cultural capital is something that one acquires for equipping oneself, for example forms of knowledge, skills, education and advantages which helps the individual to gain a higher social status in a society.
"The notion of cultural capital initially presented itself to me, in the course of research, as a theoretical hypothesis which made it possible to explain the unequal scholastic achievement of children originating from the different social classes by relating academic success, i.e., the specific profits which children from the different classes and class fractions can obtain in the academic market, to the distribution of cultural capital between the classes and class fractions." (Bourdieu, 1986) Based on the above quote, there manifests a inevitable connection between parent's economic capital and their offspring's cultural capital, such as education and some prestigious skills, languages or accents. The relation between the two may be in direct proportion. |
Social capitalBourdieu referred social capital as “a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition”. In reference to the above video clips, social capital can be acquired by a certain status or acceptance from a group of people and therefore, group membership and networks are formed that provide one support and influence.
"In other words, the network of relationships is the product of investment strategies, individual or collective, consciously or unconsciously aimed at establishing or reproducing social relationships that are directly usable in the short or long-term, i.e., at transforming contingent relations, such as those of neighborhood, the workplace, or even kinship, into relationships that are at once necessary and elective, implying durable obligations subjectively felt (feelings of gratitude, respect, friendship, etc.) or institutionally guaranteed (rights)." (Bourdieu, 1986) |