cultural capital
Summary
Cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu) is the set of non-financial assets, such as education, knowledge, tastes, speech and manners, that signal and help maintain social class position. Because schools and employers often reward higher-class culture, it helps reproduce inequality across generations.
Detail
Meaning: Cultural capital, from Pierre Bourdieu, is the set of non-financial assets that help a person gain or keep social status: education and credentials, knowledge of art and music, vocabulary, accent, manners and tastes. Forms include embodied (speech, habits), objectified (books, art) and institutionalized (degrees). Children in higher-class households absorb these traits early, and schools and employers often reward them, so advantage can pass between generations (social reproduction).
On the MCAT: A passage may describe students whose families visit museums or use formal language and ask why they do better in school or interviews. Questions also ask you to label a resource as cultural, social or economic, and to link cultural capital to social stratification and limited mobility.
Common confusion: Cultural capital is not social capital or money. Social capital is the resource of networks and relationships (knowing someone who can recommend you); economic capital is wealth and income. They can be converted, as when money buys tutoring and degrees, but they are distinct. Cultural capital also does not mean one culture is inherently better; it means society values certain tastes and skills.
Sources
- Sociology: A Brief Introduction
- Essentials of Sociology
- Introduction to Sociology
Written for the MCAT and checked before it was published. For study reference only. Spotted an error? Let us know.