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?

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

I'm not a sociologist (yet! Hopefully one day) but I've just finished an MSc ...anyway, the academic study behind the BBCs new class calculator references social and cultural capital a fair bit. I'd argue it's a fairly mainstream idea in British sociology today.

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.

But sometimes this can happen, I have one like this, and two that grew up to be quite well rounded adults

I think this was an unfortunate thread title . However I did realise when I read it that it is partly due to my own cultural capital that I know what cultural capital actually means...

I drink imported beer....

The people being snarky about the OP are no doubt people who do provide cultural capital for their dc and are too naïve and privileged to understand the size of the cultural gap between kids, and its effects on their aspirstions and future prospects. And so hilariously pretending they think watching Netflix would cancel out their cultural capital in the OP's eyes too. Call it what you like, but 'cultural capital' is a perfectly reasonable, recognised term for it.

Ha! I grew up in a household where we read all the right books, Dostoyevsky Kafka etc and I had read all Steinbeck’s novels when my class were asked to read of mice and men. My father considered himself much more intelligent than others and quite the philosopher.
Opera classical music etc were always playing.
It has taken me until very recently to stomach any of it again, and only because my eldest son always has been very into classical music( I think it’s some strange rebellion 🙄 lol)

But yes I do feel it’s my duty to introduce my children to the arts and I try buying also they play the Xbox a lot

Mainly focusing on building a culture of them not walking around naked and scratching their balls.... the cultural capital in my house is bankrupt....

Books of every size, shape and subject. Audio books.

Music from BBC 10 Pieces (more like 40) and music from round the world.

Also Lego comics, anime and YouTube Monster Truck videos, as y'know culture covers a lot.

Cooking/hoovering with his dad. Now that is good cultural capital. Partners of the future, thank us now.

Live it!! 🤣🤣

Growing up my house was full of classical music and my TV viewing restricted to an hour a day, which had to be chosen between my sister and myself. Oddly only BBC1. The rest of the time was for reading, sewing or practising piano etc as my parents helped us build on our "cultural capital". As a result I only just about tolerate classical music (wanted to put hate, but it is too strong a word) and watch as much TV as I want, a lot of which is probably culturally void, like Love Island... I don't play my piano! So with my own dc I pick up on whatever they are interested in and we have fun with that. Ds has special needs and loves languages so whichever language he is interested in, we then cook that sort of food, try to remember basic phrases, dance and listen to music, watch programs on youtube, find the country on the map and so on. It is not forced, just asking the dc what they know about this and if they want to help ds with the family research of the particular language. Hey we can now say little phrases in loads of languages including Russian, Japanese and Filipino (always including I love you). Might be random but this is actually a lot of fun for the whole family and a quirky way of learning through play. OP please don't feel you need to build up your dcs "culture" they might end up rebelling as I did!

I don't really know what you mean by cultural capital however we watch foreign programmes on Netflix with the subtitles on and I've learnt some foreign greetings in makaton. I take my children ( now adults) to panto in December ........does any of this count?!

Never heard of cultural capital. I like Coronation Street!

I thought “cultural capital” is the power and influence you wield, rather than your hobbies and interests. You can be a pauper interested in all those things but have zilch “cultural capital”. Alternatively you can be a rich ignoramus with loads of cultural capital because of all your rich and influential connections.

My kids call chips French Fries does that count!

I just bought a chess game for my house in Animal Crossing.

Cultural Capital 🙄 What a wanky title.

I grew up with a lot of cultural capital, my parents living room was a Library, all walls lined with books in 3 languages, all books were being read too. I was taken to museums, learned a lot about art, went to lots of concerts, mainly Bach, Schubert, Mozart

Also went to the theatre to see plays.

I have subsequently always hankered after a more working class life, which my friends led, they were allowed to watch Dallas and Dynasty and tv shows, eat chips in front of the telly, and maybe a bbq or karaoke at the weekend... more fun

I am not sure the cultural capital benefited me in any way, yes I still like opera and have now also enjoyed karaoke and bingo and soaps but, well, it made it harder for me to fit in sometimes.

On the plus, I have seen Dimitri Hvorastovsky, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Tomas Quasthof and many more amazing singers live, and that was amazing.

But really, I guess it was wasted on me all that cultural capital

Funny how all the ones hell of us on here who had this forced on us have rebelled since we turned adults ourselves.

Not hell sorry

Yeah, as funny as the joke answers are, I'm with @Frost1nMay. I work in a school in an area of extremely high deprivation.

Lack of cultural capital manifests every day in our school. For example:

A year 8 child today, who did not follow part of the lesson on Animal Farm, because 'Miss, politics is just for like rich people. I dunno anything about it, my mum don't like the news. And what is left wing? And what does communism mean?' Not just lack of knowledge (fine, I can address), but the really sad opinion that politics isn't 'for him'.

A year 10 child who didn't know what a watercolour painting looked like, so was unable to explain the simile 'like a watercolour picture'.

Both examples from this week. Maybe calling it cultural capital in such an explicit way seems alien, but it's so very important.

I think when we had lock down and home end it widen the gaps between the haves and have nots or the cultured and not. My children had access to a garden and a park and woods should we have chosen, but some children had no out door space spo they were disadvantaged. Some parents didn,t feel able to do the home ed or did the bear minimum.

We enjoy reading, though I'm not sure the kind of trashy books I read can be considered 'culture'.

We're also in a brass band so spend quite a lot of time rehearsing, performing and listening to all kinds of music. Not in lockdown, of course.

I love going to the theatre, though obviously that's not happening at the moment.

I also love walking round museums and galleries, but that's not really to DP's tastes so it's a long time since I went to one!

@unmarkedbythat
"People who bemoan children's lack of exposure to culture usually mean a lack of exposure to what upper and middle class people in Western nations place value on and totally fail to recognise the rich cultural traditions and practices surrounding the child in their daily lives"

That's not cultural capital. A child not knowing that when someone stands up behind the interview table and extends a hand, that what they mean is 'please now shake my hand', that's cultural capital. We have to explicitly teach things like that in our school.

OP you’re a snob!!

We consider swimming, not getting into an anti mask argument and making our own pizzas from scratch “modern culture”.

Oh O, just listen to yourself and see how pretentious you sound 🤣. I speak 3 languages, am learning a 4th, have a bookshelf full of classics in those languages, love the theatre, sing in a choir (when allowed), love citybreaks to explore history, love clasdical music etc... this is not 'cultural capital" for me it is "stuff I like doing that makes me who I am" please stop being so pompous... you are no better than someone who likes to watch soaps and eat chips

Well done you OP Frequent theatre visits are a massive luxury.

I provide what opportunities I can but in also very conscious of my own childhood as a FSM kid, reliant on library books for my cultural education (and they were mostly Judy Blume). My DM made me play the cello which, looking back, I kind of appreciate, but we lived on No Frills beans mixed into mince. This thread makes me feel a bit sick.