nary.com):
wealth in the form of money or property, used or accumulated in a business by a
person, partnership, or corporation material wealth used or available for use in the production of more wealth human resources considered in terms of their contributions to an economy, e.g.,
skills, knowledge, etc. that people have and use at work, as in the term “human
capital.”
The metaphor of capital is further adapted in the work of Pierre Bourdieu, who defines
capital here as semiotic “signs” that people exchange. That is, in the same way that we
exchange and spend economic capital (e.g., we use money to buy a CD or chocolate bar),
we also exchange and spend what Bourdieu terms “symbolic” and “cultural” capital.
Symbolic and cultural capital constitute semiotic “signs” that we display, trade, show off, gain
and lose, etc. That is, whether they take the form of status goods like a BMW or diamond
jewelry (i.e., symbolic capital), or more intangible manifestations of our taste, discernment,
or specialness (e.g., our particular cultural capital characterizes us as people who cook
gourmet style, travel widely, and know about wine), these things ultimately take the form of
“meaning”—that is, of semiotic signs. Bourdieu defines these two terms in the following way:
symbolic capital is prestige, status and authority, as displayed through material
objects we accumulate, e.g., a nice car, a big house, jewelry cultural capital is the more 英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】intangible and non-material forms of knowledge or
competence–e.g., of art, education, technical knowledge, taste for cultural and
consumer goods, and other forms of competence– we gain through education and
the socio-economic class to which we’re born
(ii) the function of symbolic and cultural capital
Our status symbols (symbolic capital) and our tastes, choices, and educational background
(cultural capital) serve to communicate our socio-economic status quietly, and on terms
acceptable to a democratic society. That is, we can flaunt our superiority even in a liberal
democratic society where all are presumably equal. This is the ultimate function of symbolic
and cultural capital: to quietly assert class boundaries, to mystify one’s particular class
identity, and to give material and cultural density to the otherwise rather empty category that
is one’s class. We see symbolic capital and feel cultural capital’s presence, registering
solidarity within our own class and distinction between classes without even knowing what it
is we’re acknowledging. Have you ever walked into a store—be it a Good Will thrift store or
a high fashion Holt Renfrew—and not felt quite at home? Have you ever found yourself ill at
ease among people talking about their passion for yachts or NASCAR? Then you’ve
experienced cultural capital at work.
Bourdieu argues that we invest much of our economic capital (money, etc.) in symbolic and
cultural capital because th
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