Cultural Capital

Cultural capital refers to the knowledge, skills, education, tastes, manners, and cultural goods that give individuals advantages in social life and help reproduce class inequality. The concept was developed by Pierre Bourdieu, who distinguished three forms: embodied capital, such as accent, posture, and cultivated dispositions; objectified capital, such as books and artworks; and institutionalized capital, such as academic qualifications. Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron argued that schools reward the cultural resources of dominant families while presenting success as natural talent, so that advantage is passed across generations. In Distinction, Bourdieu showed how tastes in art, food, and leisure mark and reinforce class position. Annette Lareau’s research on concerted cultivation illustrated how middle-class parenting transmits advantageous dispositions, and Paul DiMaggio analyzed how cultural participation affects educational success. Michele Lamont and Annette Lareau helped clarify the concept, and Tak Wing Chan and John Goldthorpe offered critical empirical tests. Mike Savage and colleagues examined emerging and elite forms of cultural capital in Britain, and Prudence Carter distinguished dominant from nondominant forms. Critics note that cultural capital varies by context and can be converted only under certain conditions. Cultural capital remains central to research on education, class, inequality, and taste.