Cultural capital

Cultural capital is a term that was introduced by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu used the term human capital for the partial shape of the incorporated cultural capital ( cf. 1.1). By imprinting these terms Bourdieu gives the realization that material possessions (economic capital) not only converted into money ( converted) can be and is not the only criterion for social inequality.

The division of society into classes is bound by Bourdieu to the different disposition of the four types of capital, economic capital, cultural capital, social capital and symbolic capital as well as to differences in taste and lifestyle.

Definition

Cultural capital includes education, which brings a benefit in the social network of relationships with them. This segment of cultural capital is bound body and is passed on in the family that has different amounts of cultural capital, to the children. In addition, the transfer and possession of cultural goods and the exercise of power by the acquisition of titles and locations.

Cultural capital is conditionally the transformed or converted into economic capital, for example, the issue of money for a course or - conversely - a raise after a successful training. Even in the passing the forms of capital can be transformed, as when parents invest a great deal of money in the education of their children.

Bourdieu ties in the determination of cultural capital, as well as the other types of capital, to Max Weber's distinction between " class position " ( economically defined according to " market opportunities ") and " class status " (the " position" in the hierarchy of honor and prestige ). As " sized Document" Weber " every typical component of the life fate, which is caused by a specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor that builds on any common property. " ( Weber, Max: Economy and society). This feudal honor shows up in his / her " lifestyle ", that permits or sanctions certain acts.

In addition to the economic differences here also play a role symbolic distinctions, which are not only comes to the possession of goods, but the way to use it and to use as a means of distinction.

Bourdieu distinguishes three forms of cultural capital:

Company incorporated cultural capital

Internalized cultural capital presents itself in the form of long-lasting dispositions of the organism. Most properties of cultural capital can be traced back to this body bondage. The acquired form, ie the accumulation of culture through the familiar primary education and the subsequent secondary education, is therefore part of the capital company incorporated as a person. This type of capital may therefore not be passed shortly by gift, inheritance, purchase or exchange.

In respect of such capital is significant for Bourdieu the time factor. He differentiated extra time for children of the educated middle class and twice lost time for children of the working class. To correct the negative consequences of time must again be used ( see Bourdieu 1983a, Z. 220).

A special value receives this form of capital by rarity, for example, the only Reading would draw an extra profit among illiterate. Therefore, this form of capital is characterized by the inequality, ie that not all families can equal a lot of "invest" in capital in the education of children. The winners of this process set by their rules and not specify which culture is a legitimate and which.

The incorporated cultural capital is the most opaque of all sorts of capital. The fact -based aspects of social inequality are obscured, as they appear natural. The socialization family mediates legitimate, ie hegemonic or nichtlegitime culture, the position of individuals and classes is between the extremes to be determined.

Objectified cultural capital

Objectified cultural capital exists, according to Bourdieu, " in the form of cultural goods, pictures, books, dictionaries, instruments or machines where so leave certain theories and their reviews, tracks problems or have realized ."

These forms of capital are transferable material. A picture can be sold, for example. This, however, only the legal ownership title of the picture is transmitted. The purchase requires economic capital. To be able to estimate the "true meaning " of the image, the buyer must also have internalized cultural capital.

Institutionalized cultural capital

Institutionalized cultural capital exists in the form of legitimate titles and locations such as school or university degrees. Title have the property to draw a line, for example, between " self-taught ", the cultural capital are under constant proof coercion, and the cultural capital of the formally educated people who have certificates and other qualifications as well as cultural competence and equipped with " collective magic" are.

The acquisition of a title means a kind of exchange-rate increase between cultural and economic capital. In the " Fine differences " examines the strategies of the powerful Bourdieu, educational titles, the " devalue " through open access to higher education, to be replaced by more subtle exclusion of people from dominated classes.

One of the most common methods to accumulate a great cultural capital, is to delay the entry into the labor market in order to obtain legitimate title by formal education and training and to incorporate knowledge. The available economic capital in the family plays a very big role in this. The conversion of this economic into cultural capital requires an investment of time, which is made possible by the disposal of economic capital. Later, this strategy has paid off by higher income and other privileges. Thus, there is a re-transformation of cultural capital into economic capital held in the form of profit.