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?

Why does everything have to have a wanky name?

I miss Bert.

Was her specialist subject.

@Mamia15

That's not what cultural capital means.

I understand it to be more about knowledge that you pick up from being middle class - how to navigate through schooling, university, internships, jobs etc. How to behave. How to dress and talk etc.

I do find it interesting that my BIL, who is quite upper class for the US, worked very hard during his children's childhood on making sure they had the skills they needed to be rich and live a not-at-all-middle-class life.

They summered in Maine where they mixed with Spielberg et al's kids and learnt to sail at the Beach Club, play tennis and golf, and go to cocktail parties and political fundraisers for Susan Collins. Had a ski place in Vermont (and a ski coach) during the winter. Prep school Greenwich, followed by Philips Andover or maybe Lawrence Academy.

They are my kids' cousins, but they live a totally different life for which they've been carefully prepared.

@toomanypillows

What is your definition of cultural capital?

I’m interested because my dm is very interested in cultural pursuits and I was exposed to theatre, books, historical attractions etc in my childhood. But we were also a very working class family from a working class area and when I first came across middle class culture at university it was totally alien.

My 24 year old son asked last night if he could eat the "shox bun in the fridge"
I of course being super cultured informed him it was in fact a "choux bun"
Thus teaching him a french word.
Incredible that he graduated with a first from university, obviously not in modern language.
That's about the extent of our culture 🤷🏻‍♀️

Are you in Early Years OP? As culture capital is the latest buzz word.

It's a new prentious phase for doing what lots of parents have always done and continue to do taking their children/child to different places that may spark an interest in the child or reading books to them.

It's a bit like letting children play with loose parts aka going outside and exploring and letting your child play with natural objects or safe junk. The other wanky craze across nurseries.

I understand it to be more about knowledge that you pick up from being middle class - how to navigate through schooling, university, internships, jobs etc. How to behave. How to dress and talk etc.

This. Dh is a bit more well-heeled than I am, and even I can see he's got this far more than I do. He spent his formative years engaging in certain hobbies & mixing with other people who do and somehow theres this shared experience and common ground. It means he is immediately at ease in those sorts of circles.

Memebrs of library, read to children, carried on with home learning when school closed, take children out in countryside walking, scrambling, fishing. Been to museams.

It,s basically about what do you do to give your children a well rounded education and awareness of the world around them.

The thinking is old the erminology is new.

@Mustwe I'm looking at it through the Ofsted framework, so it's based on the sociological definition (originally coined/introduced by Bourdieu)

So from that perspective I'm investigating the "broad and balanced curriculum" but really looking at the fact that Ofsted parameters don't really consider what the base point is (some students will have much more exposure to CC than others)

Essentially my research is based on cultural goods (exposure to arts/heritage etc) language and mannerisms, and education and qualifications.

Cultural capital in terms of promoting social mobility? Just basics like education.

@katy1213

Culture is what I have missed the most during lockdown and I don’t get on with the live streaming from the theatres as it’s not the same at all. I have read a lot but feel like I am massively under stimulated culture-wise.
I understand what you mean by cultural capital OP. I think it’s important to introduce your children to the arts so they feel comfortable in those surrounding and develop similar cultural references to people they are likely to mix with later in life.

@gamerchick

Why does everything have to have a wanky name?

Indeed. And it doesn't even mean what the OP thinks it means.

Wake up
YouTube and Netflix all day
Crisps and a fag if they're lucky for dinner
YouTube and Playstation until bed
That's us done

FFS OP what did you expect?

I display my children’s artwork on the refrigerators (we have two 💁‍♀️).

Oh we're always at English Heritage and NT places. They have excellent play areas and decent tea & coffee.

Seriously though, I thought cultural capital was about how well connected you are & diverse your friends are and whether you can include a mechanic and a plumber as well as a dr and a lawyer?

Mcdonalds do tastes of the world sometimes and we try to go each week to try the whole collection

I let my teenager have a glass of wine occasionally as long as she takes careful note of the region and the grape variety.

We are a family into the Arts and some like RL/ football.
Couldn't say they were cultural capital, the Arts is our work and passion.
Not sure if that's what you mean.

Wtaf is cultural capital? Is it doing things that you think make you more sophisticated? Doing things that make you a more rounded person? Doing things which challenge you emotionally, morally and/or intellectually?

If it’s the latter I read widely, challenge myself to grow my vocabulary through the type of material I read, take OU courses, learn about and put into practice ways of working towards spiritual enlightenment. As a family we visit NT and EH places, travel, watch documentaries, discuss things we learn about. We visit the theatre, go on walks and appreciate nature.

But all these things are normal for the naturally curious, it doesn’t need some wanky name. They are all done for the love of it, not a way of claiming credits -in fact that term is horrible it’s turning some of the few escapes from oppressive box ticking capitalism into box ticking materialistic capitalism.

Actually thinking about it, maybe that’s the point of whoever introduced this phrase, reducing wonderful, freeing things to material assets.

When I was little and watched Loony Tunes, my dad, who had no qualifications higher than an O Level, used to regularly pause the video to talk about Surrealism and the Dadaists and their probable influence on the animation. I was about 4 and couldn't have given a monkeys but I am fairly certain this is what counts as cultural capital.
In any case, it was much cheaper than a National Trust membership.

But cultural capital is an asset if you look at the link between CP and social mobility.
It is also important to know who Charlene and Scott is of course.

Where did OP go?

Is cultural capital, for those who do everything but appreciate nothing?

I think CC is, as others have said, natural and great for everyone if it's what you do anyway, but if you're a kid from a family where you only watch tv and never leave the house, you will be at a disadvantage from your peers when you do a topic on artists, rivers, or plants for instance. Embedding it in the curriculum is a way of trying to ensure that all the children in a class have been to a museum, an art gallery, zoo, beach or west-end show once in their primary school lives.
I used to read with a child who lived at the Elephant & Castle, but had never seen the river Thames.