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.

but I dont get it - what culture do you learn from skiing? In my experience it is largely just drinking a lot of drinks that you drink in the UK, with people from the UK. It may be a marker of wealth, but there is a big difference between wealth and culture

“As someone indicated above - all the sifting and filtering of Freshers’ Week is based on people sorting out who is their sort - who has grown up with the same experiences, suggesting similar levels of influence, connectivity, freedom, ability to build a certain type of future.”

My DC have skied in Switzerland, Austria, France and Canada and are specifically told to be hyper aware of their privilege, not mention this and avoid any types of persons who have a tendency to be “sorting out who is their sort”.

The privilege DC will only be increasing their cultural capital by mixing with others from totally different backgrounds. Sticking to your sort = decrease of your own cultural capital.

If you want to, then you can access an enormous amount of culture very cheaply these days. Look around for free museums and galleries, cheap theatre (eg student performances) and cinema, public lectures. And then there's so much that's free online. It's amazing that we can watch people delivering their famous speeches - eg you can listen to Hitler lecturing his troops! You can listen to the last castrato singing! Or you can pay annually for a subscription to something like Marquee or the National Theatre to watch shows from London in your own home, wherever you live, at a low price. And use your library and charity shops for limitless reading. It's mostly about making a bit of an effort - wanting to do it.

I also recommend language exchanges. This is an almost free way to massively widen your children's experiences and outlook on life, before even thinking about the advantages of speaking and reading a foreign language. I would never think of taking my children skiing (too expensive and I don't want to do it myself). But they both had an amazing time learning to ski with the natives on language exchanges. Including cross country skiing and show-shoeing, which I would never have thought of doing myself. They also visited the Louvre museum (incl Mona Lisa), Versailles, and lots more.

A breadth of cultural experience is not cultural capital. The emphasis is on capital. You acquire it and you spend it to access acceptance and social and financial privilege.

@Nimbostratus100 it’s not about ‘learning culture’ - it’s about defining your cultural territory.

Okay - for example: two undergraduates step out of the lift into the lobby of a set of chambers in Lincoln’s Inn for interviews. A junior tenant appears and welcomes them, chatting artlessly about the recent vacation, asking how they each enjoyed it and apologising for his own slight limp after a recent Alps based injury. Chap A commiserates enthusiastically, recounts his own recent ski-injury experience and (for extra points) critiques that particular mountain and tree and quality of cocktails.) Chap B mutters that he was at home, studying for his exams. They have equally good grades. Guess who gets the mini-pupillage?

(Simplified for speed, in a rush!) You get the picture.

This is interesting & taps into social mobility & (climbing to a lesser degree)

@FourTeaFallOut - surely the emphasis on understanding that people can use & abuse cultural capital to access privilege for themselves (financial and social) over and above those who were not given the same cultural capital (into their cradle) - so how can we as a society stop that being the case - without at the same time, undermining our own history, music, art etc. and the significance of these as they make us free democratic thinkers rather than automatons.

My DC have skied in Switzerland, Austria, France and Canada and are specifically told to be hyper aware of their privilege, not mention this and avoid any types of persons who have a tendency to be “sorting out who is their sort”.

But isn’t the thrust of this discussion about the less wealthy breaking into the locked landscapes of the rich - not the other way round?

(Although slightly 🫣at the children of the rich seeking out erm … common people, to increase their own social cachet …)

@MetaDaughter yes, that example highlights the importance of the social capital gained from cultural capital. It's a real thing.
I remember years ago DH's old boss was a proper golf enthusiast. DH didn't play, was too uncomfortable to go with his boss & team as he didn't want to show himself up. He always felt he was passed by when the promotions happened because he didn't go on the golf trips..

@MetaDaughter - no, what I am saying is that the rich & privileged need to teach their own children to understand their privilege so that they do not use and abuse their own cultural capital. In your example of the mini pupillage, it is only going to change if the people hiring specially don’t hire the chap who can have the skiing conversation.

no, I dont get the picture, what if the limper is talking about twisting his ankle holding down a guy line while camping in a storm in North Wales, and one interviewee joins in enthusiastically recounting his own experience of camping in a storm in Cornwall...

I would actually class back packing and camping around the UK as far more valuable cultural capital than skiing in the Alps

It is an experience that broadens your mind more than skiing does

@Nimbostratus100 - you are thinking Culture with a big C, but the cultural capital concept is different. Culture (big C) is a small part of it as it includes manners and qualifications, accents, dress , your experiences. Its culture with a small c. So a group might have a culture of going to darts on a saturday, having roast on a sunday and the allotment on week nights and dressing in a certain way for big events. An office might have a cukturevof working late, wearing suites and ordering take out in fridays. So on the skiing, there are groups who skii every year and it forms part of their culture of their group and they arent that interested in people who dont ski being part of their group. Which is fine, unless they are employing someone and say 'we just didnt click at interview'. I think this happens less and less in modern interview.

@Nimbostratus100 camping & UK camping hols are very middle class these days.

Urgh the what-school-did-you-go-to
sifting of Freshers week. Happened to me in 1984 and my children several years ago. I was shocked that it was still a thing. But it is

It's just a concept that observes the mode of operation on retaining privilege and power. Alone, it doesn't tell us anything about how to move society towards meritocracy or better social mobility. At best, it might help you to strategically navigate the system though a few choice manouvres that allow you to outrun your starting point.

It's too naive to suggest that cultural activities should be simply enjoyed and not cultivated to gain entry and easy acceptance within a group. As it would to suggest that we disbanded the class hierarchy between pop culture and the arts. It's our nature, I think.

In short, we need put a crowbar between social mobility and cultural capital. But I'm not going to pretend to guess how that could be achieved.

I grew up in a really poor area. I had no idea what they were on about at first. I went to a local uni and so I just pointed in the general direction of my old school and said, "It's over there, near that hill." 🙄🤣

That's an interesting distinction. Are you suggesting a very aware and deliberate use of cultural experiences to get in with a privileged social / work group? That might not occur to my DC, for example, but nonetheless, when surrounded by richer young people with a wealth of cultural experiences and a better education, a comprehensive school educated young adult from a modest background will feel less out of place / out of their depth if they have had cultural experiences and are well read. And that can be achieved without spending much money. Those young adults are surely more likely to be the ones who, if you like, move up a social class.

In Communist countries, if your parents were well educated or well off then you weren't allowed to go to university or to get a decent job. The cultural revolution in China in the 1960s and 70s was pretty effective at removing any link between cultural capital and status in society. If you spoke a foreign language, owned books or played the violin you were in serious trouble. The cultural revolution didn't work out too well. We are however experimenting with out own form of cultural revolution at the moment, so the West is not immune to it.

Yeah, almost. Although what you are talking about there is an individual who has outrun the system and able to operate comfortably further up that social ladder. It works for the ones who can play the game.

But if the question is, as the op outlined, could we improve social mobility on a societal level by giving kids - idk- cultural capital tokens ? then the answer is almost certainly no.

The exclusivity achieved by cultural capital isn't an accidental outcome it is the engineered outcome and so the bar for entry would simply get higher to achieve acceptance.

Cultural capital isn’t just “high culture” though. My DH likes ballet and classical music and art, he struggles to build rapport with colleagues in the office because they (degree educated professionals) are talking about football and reality tv.

Yes, I had the same experience with my boss very deliberately talking about football to any man who came into the room. This was not a class thing, but most women were excluded by it. He was a nasty piece of work where women were concerned.

I comes down to attitude.
I had similar in my early days in a male-dominated profession. I "very deliberately" kept an eye on football matters so I wasn't excluded. I was never going to start a football conversation but I could interject every now and then.

It's similar to the University question above. Some people may find their tribe of fellow ski-ers. Others, who know nothing but maybe would like to, join Ski Soc. They take advantage of opportunities.

In the job interview example, the second person may not have skied and so can't have a conversation on that but if they have learned how to make conversation they can turn it to "sounds like that time when I turned my ankle skateboarding. What physio are you doing?"

Cultural capital is not just the actual activity or knowledge. It's having the confidence in what you do know and being able to make connections with other people or situations.

I blundered into the posh set at university by joining the rowing club 😀