Cultural capital, habitus and symbolic violence

Bordieu — cultural capital

• CC = knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities

  • Highly valued and rewarded with qualifications

Bordieu — CC and education system

• Education system favours and transmits M/C culture while devaluing W/C culture

Bordieu — CC and M/C pupils

• Acquired during socialisation

• Therefore meet demands of education system and gain qualifications

Bordieu — CC and W/C pupils

• Don’t have CC needed to succeed at school

  • Don’t feel school is meant for them so truant/leave early/don’t try

Educational capital

• Educational status

Economic capital

• Income, material wealth and financial power

Wealthy parents and capital

• Convert EcoC → EduC by

1. Sending kids to private school

2. Paying for tutors

3. Selection by mortgage

Leech and Campos — selection by mortage

• M/C parents buy houses in catchment of highly placed schools → drives up house costs near successful schools → excludes W/C families

Sullivan — CC and class

• Those with greatest CC most likely to

1. Succeed at GCSE

2. Be M/C

• CC only accounts for part of class difference in education

  • Rest explained by greater resources and aspirations of M/C parents

Peterson (1992) — cultural omnivore

• Consummation of things from both “W/C” and “M/C” tastes

4 elements of habitus

1. Dispositions shared by a particular social class

2. Tastes

3. Outlook on life

4. Expectations and norms

Habitus and class

• Habitus formed as a response to class structure

• M/C has power to define M/C habitus as superior so institutions have a M/C habitus

Bordieu — symbolic capital

• Certain tastes/values deemed to have more worth and value

  • Given status and recognition from the school in form of qualifications

• In education: M/C habitus → M/C pupils have symbolic capital

Bordieu — symbolic violence

• Certain tastes/values deemed as inferior

  • Symbolic capital withheld from these people

• In education: M/C habitus → W/C pupils suffer symbolic violence

2 impacts of symbolic capital and symbolic violence

• Reproduction of class structure

  • Keeps lower classes “in their place”

• Makes inequality appear legitimate

W/C habitus and education

• Clash of W/C habitus and school’s M/C habitus → W/C pupils experience world of education as unnatural

Archer — W/C pupils and educational success

• Felt educational success relied on changing ways of talking and presenting selves

  • Educational success = process of losing o.s.

• W/C pupils felt unable to access “posh” M/C spaces like uni and professional careers

M/C advantages in education due to habitus — language

• Speak elaborated code

  • No need to decode language of education system to understand like W/C pupils do

M/C advantages in education due to habitus — uniform

• Can afford uniform/clothing that mirrors M/C taste of the school

  • Also matches their own taste

M/C advantages in education due to habitus and CC — school plays

• CC: have knowledge of the plays they’re putting on → reinforces symbolic capital

• Habitus: comfortable enough in school environment to ‘put themselves out there’

M/C advantages in education due to habitus and CC — history and geography

• CC: have from parents/home, have gone to museums/on holidays to learn more

• Habitus: history about lives of elite more relatable

M/C advantages in education due to habitus — music and literature

• Tastes align with that of the school

CRITICISM of Bordieu - Stopforth and Gayle (2022)

• CC has no impact on GCSE outcomes

• More important: parental engagement in reading activities with children