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Sociology vocabulary · Class, Stratification and Inequality

Cultural capital

Meaning in sociology, with examples

nounCommon term

In sociology, cultural capital means: Non-financial resources such as knowledge, tastes, ways of speaking and educational qualifications that give people an advantage in society, especially at school.

In Turkish: kültürel sermaye

How it is used

A concept from Pierre Bourdieu, who argued that middle-class children inherit cultural capital that schools reward, so education can reproduce class inequality. He described embodied, objectified (books, art) and institutionalised (degrees) forms of it.

Example sentences

  1. Children who visit museums and read at home often bring more cultural capital to school.

  2. Bourdieu showed how cultural capital can be turned into educational success.

Common collocations

  • accumulate cultural capital
  • lack cultural capital
  • economic, social and cultural capital
  • embodied cultural capital
  • habitusIn Bourdieu's theory, the deeply rooted habits, tastes, dispositions and ways of seeing the world that people acquire from their social background and usually take for granted.
  • social capitalThe resources people can access through their social networks and relationships, such as information, support, trust and useful contacts.
  • social classA large group of people who share a similar economic position, such as income, wealth, occupation and education, and often similar life chances.
  • middle classThe social class between the working class and the upper class, usually associated with professional, managerial and office jobs, higher education and moderate wealth.

More terms: Class, Stratification and Inequality

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