Pierre Bourdeu's Theory of Cultural Capital

Yuichiro Noguchi
Aug 10
5 min read

In his 1979 book "Distance", French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu said that people with a lot of cultural capital such as education and culture can decide what constitutes preferences in society, and cultural capital Few people accept the definition of hobbies by the ruling class, the resulting distinction between high and low cultures, and restrictions on social transformations such as economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital as natural and legitimate. I picked it.

What is "cultural capital"?

Physicalized cultural capital: Education such as language, thinking skills, and manners learned from childhood

Comerized cultural capital: tangible cultural properties such as art, books, and musical instruments

Institutionalized cultural capital: socially recognized knowledge and skills, such as educational background and qualifications

Cultural capital can also be defined as "what is necessary and ability to live a rich life other than money", and it is a concept that perceives these as cultural capital, such as cultural and artistic background, table manners, language, and how to spend leisure time, "rich people "Life" includes not only economic things, but also health and the enhancement of human relationships, and things, values, and behaviors correspond to them. For example, if you have a family with the same annual income and go to dinner with the same budget, one family chooses all-you-can-eat yakiniku, and the other family chooses an Italian restaurant. In other words, cultural capital has an impact on the root of the judgment, such as how to perceive food, whether the purpose is to be full, and whether the purpose is to eat the right amount of good quality food and be moved.

A person's aesthetic choice forms a class faction and places a positive distance between one social class and another social class. Predispositions to food, music, and art are taught and instilled in children, and these class-specific preferences lead children to their "appropriate" social status and become disgusted with objects and behaviors of other social classes.

Among them, "taste" is an important example of cultural hegemony, and preferences are deeply internalized in childhood, and social re- conditioning for taste becomes very difficult. The taste that has been planted and acquired acquired tends to permanently identify that the person is from a certain social class, which hinders social mobility.

Bourdieu's behavior, which has been habitualized to the almost unconscious level by continuing and repeating behavior over a long period of time, "habitus (=habitus. Latin, which means attitude, appearance, appearance, appearance, nature, habits, etc., and due to the social inequality caused by the restrictions of "habitus", people with poor cultural capital are placed in the social inferiority of the ruling class. While people of the upper class passively enjoy objects as works of art through the gaze of aesthetic appreciation, people with poor cultural capital do not have the excellent education necessary to explain, evaluate, and enjoy the aesthetics of works of art, so practical It is expected that the object will perform its function as entertainment and mental distraction.

While working-class people expect objects to function, economically rich people can manipulate a pure gaze detached from everyday life. Even though the lower social class seems to have their own ideas about what is good and what is not, they are always forced to define themselves from the perspective of the aesthetics of the ruling class.

In the modern consumer society, "good taste" and "bad taste" are not necessarily contradictory, and the phenomenon of turning into bad taste in the process of the public aiming to acquire good taste can be seen in various places, and the demand for products that are considered "good taste" When the key is born, the product is immediately mass-produced and can be easily purchased by anyone. Then, the "good taste", which should have been required by an individual's aesthetic judgment ability, was simply imitated by the value recognized by others through the consumption of mass-produced products by the public who did not have this judgment ability, and the symbol of "good taste" The exclusivity that forms the foundation of the charm will also be lost.

In addition, research suggests that cultural capital is related to children's academic ability, and children of the upper class are exposed to orthodox culture such as books, art, art, and music from an early age, and acquire various cultures in addition to logical thinking and orthodox language skills. It is possible, and the cultural capital obtained in this way is easy to get used to school education that teaches orthodox culture, so children of the upper class can advance their learning advantageously. The "cultural reproduction theory" is that children acquire cultural capital through the words taught by their parents, the things they are given, and education, and through this cultural capital, the status of parents in society is inherited by children.

Cultures and values such as language, customs, traditions, art, and religion are inherited, and by being critical or disgusted with other cultures and values, hereditary cultures and values are maintained as correct, but this is a social stand. It occurs not only in places and classes, but also in various groups such as countries, cultures, religions, families, and companies, and are not simply divided by class, but they are distinguished and lived separately without realizing them.

In fact, the residential area is divided by income, and the stores in that area are also prepared for the same class. In areas with a large number of high-income people, there are various specialty stores such as animal hospitals, cram schools, esthetics, and beauty salons, and there are many chain stores such as fast food shops, discount stores, and 100 yen shops in popular areas.

Children born and raised in such an environment accept them as natural things and feel at ease that they exist. On the other hand, I feel anxious about an environment without them or a different environment and try to return to the original environment. For example, it is typical for a child who grew up in the countryside to say that "the water in the city does not fit" and return to his hometown, and it is the same for a child who grew up in the city that "living in the countryside does not suit him". This kind of thing exists in all stores, including restaurants, and each store is divided into a class that suits those customer bases. Even if high-end stores and specialty stores are built in a popular area, it is difficult to continue in that area due to differences in culture and values, so cultural reproduction is also carried out there.

However, between popular areas and areas where high-income people live, the diversity of cultural capital is likely to be created by the intersection of respective cultures and values, and there is a high possibility that new cultures and values will be created from there.