Cultural capital is only for the wealthy...

[Explodingatomickittens]

I feel that the kids who are really gaining cultural (& on another level social capital) are from wealthy families. I know people will reply that there's lots of free events on all over the UK daily. In my experience these spots are always nabbed by the mc also. Due to covid & cost of living crisis the gap is widening between tremendously between the haves & the have nots. It's very sad.

And let me add that said city has 1 museum and 1 small art gallery.

As the thread has shown loads of it is free - lstening to radio 4 (if you can stand its awful left wing bent these days), singing Bach in your local church, reading to your children all the Greek myths and traditional fairy stories. Today there has been a massive change due to the internet. I used to have to borrow sheet music from the library as too expensive to afford some of it. Now just about everything is free to some extent.

I read lots of books as a child but you can get cultural capital even if you hate reading and cannot afford 'cello lessons or skiing. Just do free stuff.. Even just refusing to let the children have TV, screens or anything electronic from Monday to Friday might help (and that costs zero and saves on electricity.)

Taking books out of the library and watching documentaries on the telly are cultural capital too.
Back in the 70s there wasn't much disposable income even for the middle classes and reading books and watching " The World About Us" was the majority of my cultural capital.

Holidays and trips to museums n the city were very infrequent.
I did have a creative, well educated mother though who taught me lots of things though, I suppose that was Middle Class privilege.

Libraries are very into their computers these days. I can order books online and the system transports them from their 'home' library to my local one for me to pick up. I can download audiobooks, if I so wish (I don't, I like a physical book). I have requested a book that wasn't in stock and got the Library to buy it in for me.
Libraries aren't what they used to be but there is still plenty to take advantage of. Use it or you will lose it.

I Forgot about Radio 4, on all the time when I was a child.

My understanding, though I'm happy to be corrected, is that typically middle class values/interests are the dominant ones once we reach adulthood. For the reason that those higher up the ladder don't have to give a fuck about conforming and those perceived to be lower down the ladder don't hold enough power to determine the predominant values.

Lots of people would define it differently depending on what their social circle is. It could be anything from table manners, to cultural activities such as art galleries to skiing holidays or eating a wide range of different cuisines.

It's these 'values' if you like that make people feel that they can fit in and belong and have aspirations. For example a child who has never visited an art gallery maybe wouldn't see it as a viable career option when they're older.

The whole concept of the class system still existing and one class holding the dominant values is problematic (yet loved by ofsted) and ignores a whole range of factors most obviously if I'm stressed about feeding the kids for a week on my last £8, I probably don't have the mental energy to be planning our next trip to a national trust property or our local historic monument.

I don't actually think it's hugely important in the U.K. until you're an adult and then you can change things.

Universities don't expect you to have much more than evidence of an interest in your subject, most schools provide an opportunity to BS in a subject these days. And let's face it most 'capital culture' is BS used to spout more BS to other people.

As an adult you can earn money and pursue interests and let's face it most teenagers can see things they're interested on the internet at some point. The internet can provide most of the BS spouted by important people in big jobs.

If you haven't heard about a subject someone will inevitably shame you about something because you cannot know everything anyway so you'll soon be able to scuttle off to the internet to read about it/watch a video.

Obviously those that can afford it can and do do more but I truly don't think you're at a huge disadvantage anymore for talking about things and fitting in to various nobby conversations due to the internet.

obviously they're not BS conversations if you truly have a love for a subject but ime so many people like to use their 'cultural capital' to show how knowledgeable they are on subjects but for all the wrong reasons.

Where I live 18 year olds are given 500 euros to spend on "culture". This can be books for their university courses or concert tickets, museum entries etc. My ds is unfortunately one of the last ones to benefit from this scheme as it is being scrapped as too expensive. It was a nice idea though.

People seem to have a hard time understanding that free things like museums and library's aren't very free if you can't teleport.

In areas of our city there are enrichment events put on for free specifically to support deprived children. I know a very wealthy woman, living in the biggest house in the area, has snapped up coveted places on sailing courses etc. Much easier when you don't work full time. She's shameless.

The largest block to cultural capital for children in any economic bracket will be the biggest block of all in my view: the parents having had no exposure whatsoever as children are unaware of the need or requirement for such a activities for their children, free access or not.
Thus the children have to rely entirely on their school experience, which is more limited now than it was. Every child should enjoy classical music most days, taught Greek mythology, be taken to see the opera, a ballet, a national trust picnic and excursion, a ski holiday at least once and a trip to the HoP and have a sense of their history. In a country striving for equality this should be the bare minimum.

I was wondering what city was the cultural capital. I think I need some more culture to upgrade my intellect!

It really doesn't work for most people. I am glad you are the exception that makes the rule, but the idea that all someone needs is library books and radio 4 to escape the systemic inequality that is worsening in this country is a big old load of bollocks. Comforting I'm sure, but bollocks still.

Sadly agree @watchfulwishes

No I disagree.
I just wrote a long post and lost it.

Basically I know in one family, one branch made money, tons of cash and they and the 3 DC are devoid of all culture.

Not interested in travel or anything at all outside of their narrow lives.

On the other hand the other brothers family were so completely different because the dad liked to read and had so many interests!

They and their DC ended up living all over!
Very interesting lives.

Isn't cultural capital more than about culture (art, music, theatre etc) and it's about knowledge, experience, how you talk, dress, interact with other people? Built up through a whole range of experiences - including culture, but also travel, eating out, conversation, reading, playing musical instruments, playing sports, etc? And yes, many people on lower incomes won't be able to afford a lot of these activities (and because of their own background some won't think about these activities for their children).

Social mobility is very poor in this country

Yes, that's what I think @HelenHywater it is more than just about culture in the arts sense, but that can also play a large part, as you say.

So we just throw our hands up in despair and do nothing?

It's funny how it seems that these days DC quickly pick up ideas from 'influencers' but are apparently immune to the benefits of books and Radio4.

No what is bollocks and patronising is the implication that working class parents cannot and do not make the most of whatever cheap and free options are available to enjoy culture and to help their kids enjoy the same.

Nobody has said only library books or radio 4 - they were given as examples of free access points to a wide range of ideas and culture. See also story telling, school and church/temple and community choirs, bands, music activities etc as well as any free museums, parks and buildings in your location.

My working class minority grandmother who grew up in care with her siblings (youngest two were in the workhouse until they aged into the children's home) and was herself put out to work at 13/14 after a very rudimentary education used to go to the opera, up into the slips for pennies. As a single parent she took her children to the same - those cheap seats and standing places were full of working class music fans, just like the cheap corners in the theatres. She also loved stories and they used libraries and cinema. Working class culture and love of culture is no less real for observing it from the cheap seats, or not being dispensed as the largesse of liberal MCs

Where are you from? I have Eastern European friends & they are so shocked at the price of cultural activities here in the UK.. Eg going to see a top ballet is extremely cheap (less than 15 quid) in Lithuania..

No these are free events that require booking through eventbrite... Free events but tickets required due to limited spaces.

C8H10N4O2 I agree :)

I can thank my immigrant WC DM for lots of library trips, being taken regularly to church (lovely music and cheap youth club days out), encouragement to discuss news and politics, and being signed up to any "free half term activities for kids" she could get us to.

My kids would reply "we ski down the hill behind our grandads house using little IKEA boxes & long sticks on a snowy day" 😁

Kate Middleton was definitely the exception there @TheaBrandt

The Middletons went to top public schools though didn’t they? So Kate would have been “in the gang” …