Subject: Re: cultural capital: skill or signifier?
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 95 10:53:10 MST
From: "Alan Smart" <asmart-AT-acs.ucalgary.ca>


In response to the following:
It seems to me that cultural capital is perhaps the least
ambiguous of B's categories of capital, referring to skills that
are incorporated into the body/mind and official certifications
of such skills.  The most difficult boundary for c. cap. is with
symbolic capital forms such as honorary degrees, or the prestige
of having a degree.
Alan Smart> 
> Dear Bourdieu afficionados,
> 
> At the risk of displaying my lack of Bourdieu credentials, may I solicit
> opinions as to what B. means by cultural capital?  As I try to think back
> on what I've read in the past, I find two possibly competing notions:
> (a) cultural capital is a set of skills in making aesthetic and symbolic
> distinctions (e.g. wine tasting, telling Reggae from Ska), and (b)
> symbolic attributes or signfiers associated with a person which mark
> him/her as belonging to or being excluded from a group (e.g. a credential,
> which may or may not correspond to possession of a set of skills connoted
> by it).
> 
> Which is it? Or is it neither?  Or both (a skill or set of skills often
> has, of course, symbolic value--e.g. being able to play golf, discuss
> Tonie Morrison, name several microbrewed beers).
> 
> Obliged,
> 
> Jeremy Straughn
> University of Chicago
> 
>