Cultural Capital - what do you do in your household?

[californiagurl]

We have a huge range of books, frequent theatre visits (although these have been online in recent times), visits to art galleries/exhibitions, support with learning languages.

What's anyone else up to?

Was remembering the things my parents did to allow us to pass for middle class (this was in the 80s). Used to buy me quite tedious classics to read. Probably no bad thing. Not making my own DC do any time with DH Lawrence though

Offered to find me a Latin tutor this was their idea of what mc people did. I knew Latin was just a hoop that could be jumped through (or not) by then so I decided not to waste anyone’s time or money. It was really sweet of them to think about it though.

What I’d have really appreciated as cultural capital though was access to certain clothing brands. I’d have had your arm off for a bit of Benetton.

@seayork2020 I think a bit of football knowledge can be really valuable especially for men in the UK. It's often an ice breaker to discuss some transfer news or a controversial VAR decision, and so being able to participate to some degree can help when meeting new people if they're not particularly confident.

@BlusteryShowers

I don't do this with a view to economic mobility but I've noticed that I do things to try and help my children fit in.

I want my son to know the popular cultural references that his peers will have. Making sure he's seen the popular films/shows and knows the popular songs so that he feels informed.

If he wants to get into 70s prog rock well that's his choice but I think I have a responsibility to expose him to the things that will help him in social situations as well. We'll go to age appropriate theatre and museums because they're fun primarily. I'm not sure those things are going to be as helpful to him as knowing a bit about the Premier League for instance.

I think about this a lot for my future children.

My parents put a huge amount of value in their approved activities and pursuits, and would have denied us nothing in pursuit of them.

Yet I would have gone a long way to fitting in if I could have had a £20 rucksack they could well afford instead of the practical camping one they chose for me instead, which cost nearly as much.

I see it as a responsibility of mine to let my child understand that they can choose how much they want to fit in, not let my preferences dictate things that don't matter to me, as long as it all fits in the budget.

From what PP have said who clearly have some knowledge on this subject the way that ofsted seem to be approaching a cultural divide is based on a small part of a 1960s concept frOm a different country And based firmly in an ideological perspective . Can any sociologists on here provide any further insight as to whether there is an agreement that these are still relevant concepts from non-Marxists As applied to today’s British culture and class system (apologies if I’ve not got the gist or terminology right) but genuinely interested to know whether ofsted are working with the most up to date research Applicable to Britain and whether they are swayed by ideology.

Making sure he's seen the popular films/shows and knows the popular songs so that he feels informed. My DS is not into music at all. Meant to write about his favourite band or artist for French, couldn't think of anything. Teacher told him to just put Eminem, he thought it was a band and spelled it M&M.

am not a schools person - but a sociologist/political scientist and many would agree with Picketty that the biggest divide now is betwen the haves and the have nots and that we have gone back to the landed/rentier system of the 19th century......

its not that cultural capital isnt nice......but most would argue that in order to transcend class most of all you need wealthy parents. all indicators of social mobility show that it has gone backwards - back to the 1970s.

Is ofsted working on outdated ideas - well yes research has moved on yes. Most educators would also say that cutting school funding is what has made a huge difference in addition to lots of other things.

On the plus side -and seeing as we have gone back to the rentier class - it is often those living in the North (and potentially less mc) who may have benefitted form lower property prices etc. In London?South East - even professionals often cant afford a house and therefore cant join the rentier class.Rentier capitalism carries with it difference form of cultural capital but its not about books/theatre

@zurich09 thanks that’s really interesting, I wonder what effect the increased availability of knowledge and access to culture Via the internet/cheap travel has had on this shift? Where once this was the preserve of people with money now the majority can access it so the middle class have had to find new ways of encircling themselves that can only be achieved by money. Therefore the real differentiation has always and always will been money Whilst we live in a capitalist society, it just the markers used to display this wealth have changed And I guess will change again if more people can access these things. It’s fascinating- it’s like a moving target, by the time the primary school kids are in a position to achieve a change in class the markers of middle class will likely have changed again with only money being the permanent marker. It makes you wonder how much of a meritocracy we live in. Maybe increased access to the arts though might benefit this cause in a different way by encouraging people to free their thoughts and look at things from new angles.

@Ihatefish - the UK is a monarchy.....in no way and at no point has it ever been a meritocracy. But it has been better or worse in terms of social mobility and now it's worse.

But again - some wc especially in areas where property was cheaper or who bought at the right time and now have a property portfolio have moved through the classes. it's just that they havent done that by going to the opera.

Plenty of mc professions e.g. academics, doctors, teachers etc - i.e. the public sector have moved down a class and often do not own property (esp. South East and London) and their kids will most likely never be able to compete with what used to be their peers i.e. kids of bankers, solicitors and lawyers.

Instead of cultural capital - the important thing now is - buy your kids a house and teach them som tech.

job done

let them pick their hobbies

zurich your posts make complete sense to me.
As a person from the working class (under clas actually) I’ve found it easier to propel my DC than my MC peers.
Why? Tons of money.
It’s that blunt.
Museum trips and knowledge of opera just makes no difference whatsoever to getting financial security etc ( funnily enough knowledge about footie can be HUGELY beneficial).

So if property ownership and the ability to use technology are going to be the new signs of “success” and with the, probably permanent reduction in city centre office usage are the aspirational classes likely to move from more expensive urban and suburban areas Esp in the south east to areas in the north/not within east reach of London, Manchester, Birmingham etc in order to achieve property ownership?

We do whatever we like, and whatever piques our interest.

I'd have loathed going to visit a stately home as a child. Taken me to see an exhibition at 12? yeah, wouldn't have ended well.

But then I grew up...and the things I mentioned above, I now really enjoy.

My DD loves being outside so we teach her about the natural world, at 4 years old this is what interests her. So when (and if) she wants to know about Shakespeare, politics, art, languages, Egyptian culture I'll help her find out, build her knowledge, and allow her to build her own views and opinions.

In that case, do you think that more emphasis is placed on cultural markers to signify privilege and close ranks on the wave of up and coming riff raff during times of high social mobility?

I’ve found this a fascinating thread to read. I had never heard the phrase before so I googled it.

I relate to the experiences of some others on the thread which is that I had very aspirational middle class parents who valued some kinds of cultural capital very very highly (books, plays, fine art, museums, history, classical music) and treated others with absolute disdain (pop music, film, television, sport, celebrity culture, fashion etc) and actually went a long way towards preventing me from accessing the ones they didn’t approve of - we didn’t have a television, for example. This was the 90s so it was incredibly strange not to have a TV - it wasn’t like now when a computer and an internet connection can essentially double for a TV. They also didn’t place much emphasis on teaching me life skills.

They really didn’t do me any favours, to be honest. I’m not saying that encouraging me to read a lot was a bad thing, I’m sure it wasn’t. But I was picked on a lot, and really wasn’t a well-rounded person at all until my late 20s. And I have very limited interest in art, history, theatre, classical music, or great literature now.

I don’t want to over simplify it or deny the existence of class privilege but it seems to me the best way to build cultural capital is to try to lead a varied life and accept that virtually every experience is in some way building cultural capital. Even going to McDonalds or catching a bus or going to the supermarket.

Sadly no, Mummyoflittledragon - I just hope she's still listening to The Archers, and following the thread - where her beautiful acronym is in constant use atm

Persephone what was Bert’s acronym?
I’m surprised she’s not around anymore as she seemed to spend most of her waking hours on mumsnet. Maybe she’s gone to a different forum.

It was an acronym for an Archers phenomenon - "TASWAMA" - "The Archers' Script Writers Are Misogynist Arseholes".

Bert coined it and we find it necessary to use it repeatedly on the Archers' thread - where, despite in some cases almost limitless cultural capital, women's aspirations are brutally belittled and cut down.

My favourite cultural capital moment with my dcs has to be when we were driving past a building site with my 5 and 4 year olds.
"Oh look, there's an archaeological dig!"

persephone TBF to the script writers they will get very little say in ongoing story lines/character arcs.
That’s in the gift of story liners and producers.

No worries, Missus, we generally use SW to encompass the whole creative team. (Unless we've read/heard that someone specific, like the Editor, has been responsible for whatever outrage we're complaining about.)

Thread's here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4022500--Archers-thread-120-Magic-time-Dialogue-Good-Fairy-Lilian-made-Lynda-s-wish-come-true-Will-Phil-vanish-in-a-puff-of-smoke-Join-the-Magic-Circle-in-Alice-s-shed-where-time-is-never-called?msgid=99976845

i would say that tech/property as not signs of success but the currency for entering the affluent classes. indeed even the notion of the middle classes is somewhat outdated - we are somewhat more in the realms of the haves and the have nots especially for example in the South East/London. The late 20th century and 2000s century have seen a massive impoverishment of the middle classes. Cash is much more the currency now - can you afford a house, a university education, social care, holidays etc...this used to be largely provided by the state and mc parents could afford it all. now many of the professions cant.

De-urbanisation may spread the wealth a bit more evenly around the country - but I would say that in many ways property ownership has already done that if not in terms of 'money' but at least in terms of spare cash i.e. property might not be worth much but at least you are not having to fork out 2k per month on rent of a two bed flat as in london. already many more mc and wc people outside london have more spare money than the mc in London. So the socio-economic shift has already happened.

@PersephonePromotesEquanimity. I try to steer clear of TA threads as I can lose myself for hours...

Thank you for answering my question Persephone

I like to learn random facts. That's about it. I wouldn't say it was 'Cultural Capital' but I'd smash you in a local pub quiz

My children are grown now and when I look back I can’t say what I did that was cultural capital in fact I had no idea such thing existed.
We went on holidays when we had trips to see such things as the Luxor temple and Cairo museum but we also played on the beach and I taught them to swim in the hotel pools.
I bought them captain underpants to read but they also read Maus.
We played mario cart together and I stood on the sidelines each winter as they played football for the local youth team.
We did things that interested them rather than what we thought they should be interested in. We never went to a theme park as they had no interest in the rides but we went to a water park as they enjoyed that. They even now as adults watch little tv as they are not interested in celebrity culture, soaps or the latest reality tv show. One enjoys documentaries and the other sports which they watch mainly online or via subscription services like prime.
My oldest has a learning disability that meant he was never going to go to uni but he went to college and now has a full time job which he enjoys and is valued at.
The other hated school and just scrapped by but then went to college and excelled. He choose against uni and took an apprenticeship which he used as a stepping stone into his first job and then that job as the experience to get his present job. In his early 20’s he is doing well, earning well and at a level above which a uni graduate would start in his employment so earning more without having crippling debt hanging around his neck.

None of us has been to the opera and the last theatre we went to was a pantomime nearly 20 years ago.

Ahhh this thread reminds me of that breakfast show interview where a woman claimed her daughter spontaneously requested the BBC Shakespeare box set for her summer holidays.

In this house we consume a steady diet of Cbeebies and Pixar, with some Mr Men thrown in.