sociology brief notes

Cultural Capital.
The idea of 'cultural capital' was first introduced by Pierre Bordieau (french sociologist). He argued that economic inequality is not sufficient to explain distinctions between social classes and cultural capital is important in achieving high status in the society. 'Bourdieu reasoned that culture adds to the wealth of a particular class.'

We need to distinguish between 3 forms of cultural capital:

1. an embodied state - when cultural capital can not be separated from an individual and transmitted physically.It is often gained from primary socialisation .

2.an objectified state - when objects themselves function as cultural capital and can be transmitted physically. It can only be used by individuals having the correct form of the embodied capital.

3.an institutionalized state - when individual's embodied capital gain an objective value. 'Bourdieu suggests that institutionalization performs a function for cultural capital analogous to that performed by money in the case of economic capital.' (source)

Also, Cultural Capital can generally be defined as a combination of skills, education, personal advantages of an individual. (source)