Intergenerational Educational Mobility Essay

Bourdieu defines cultural capital as "the general background, knowledge, disposition, and skill that are passed from one generation to the next" (13), and he affirms that children from different classes inherit different cultural capital. Bourdieu suggests that the cultural capital that upper class children

Cultural capital is the concept that middle and upper class parents pass on behaviors and habits to their children that promote acquisition of wealth and education. When I examine my life, I realize that I may have benefited from cultural capital. I grew up in a rural farming town with a population of 1,500. The town was isolated, 40 miles from another city. Most families in this town were of lower social economic status, and depended on farming as a livelihood. My father worked as a Mechanical Engineer 40 miles away. Compared to the population, my family was wealthy (although wealth is relative to a location). My family was of middle socioeconomic status. I saw my family receive benefits over other families in the town. My family could afford

It has become more realistic to believe that a person who grew up in poverty is likely to move up into a higher class position throughout their life. Studying social mobility helps to answer this question. Being that the United States is called “the land of opportunity” it can be said that there is plenty of room for social mobility in America. However, this has been a question of debate among Americans for years. While some citizens of America may believe social mobility has stayed consistent through the centuries, in fact, it is more realistic for people to achieve today.

Annete Laureau’s article, “Concerted Cultivation and the Accomplishment of Natural Growth” and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital both touch upon the way that social class affects child-rearing practices, and how these practices essentially impact the educational success and social mobility of an individual.

Pierre Bourdieu developed the concept of cultural capital in order to attempt to explain the differences in educational outcomes in France during the 1960’s. Cultural capital is theorised as the forms of knowledge, skill, education; any advantages a person has which, give them a higher status in society, including high expectations (Nick Stevenson, 1995.pp.46-48). This differentiates economic and social status from the class agenda which, is rigidly sustained through an exclusive cycle. Cultural capital itself can be used in analysis of the class system, and how the dominant aesthetic and ideology is sustained from generation to generation.

Further more, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu starts from the idea that there is a dominant culture in society. Children born into the middle class have a built in advantage. Their culture is closer to the culture of the school so they will be more likely to succeed, their language is closer to that of the teachers so they will be more likely to

By incorporating his own sociological thinking and data, McLeod creates a whole new way of thinking about social class through his own research and findings. Most in particular to this is how he analyzed Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and habitus. He states, “Bourdieu’s most important contribution to reproduction theory is the concept of social capital, which he defines as the general cultural background, knowledge, disposition, and skills that are passed from one generation to the next.” (McLeod 2009: 13). This contribution of Bourdieu’s theory shows how the lower classes shape the attitudes and aspirations of both Brothers and Hallway Hangers throughout. By definition, habitus refers to values, dispositions, and expectations of particular social groups that are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life. Bourdieu explains how the cultural capital of having an education and social skills that can be converted to economic capital can lead the upper and working class to cultural

Social mobility is not something I given much thought to before taking this class and the way it affects many people around us. It is clearly reflective of the movements of individuals, families, households or other categories such as race, ethnicity and cultural upbringing of different societies in America. My paper will focus on the social mobility through education and how it differs in the Hispanics and South East Asians or Pakistani and Indian communities in America. What are the differences in these two cultures that is holding one back from becoming successful in society, the value of education, working and living conditions that contribute to the upward mobility to these two groups. Both of these communities have the rich, poor,

Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital has been extremely influential, and has garnered a great deal of literature, both theoretical and empirical. Like Marx, Bourdieu posited that capital was the foundation of social life and dictated people’s position within the social hierarchy (Bourdieu 1986). According to Bourdieu, the more capital one possesses, the more prestigious a position one occupies in social life (Bourdieu 1986). In addition to that, Bourdieu extended Marx’s idea of capital beyond the economic and into cultural symbolism (Bourdieu 1986). Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital that refers to the collection of symbolic elements (e.g. skills, tastes, clothing) one acquires through being part of a particular social niche and his concept of habitus that refers to the physical manifestation of cultural capital owned by individuals due to life experiences are his major influential concepts that are very useful in deconstructing power in development and social change processes. However it must be recognized that these concepts also propagate social inequalities at the same time. This essay will closely examine his concepts of capital that comes in three forms - embodied, objectified, and institutionalised, and habitus in the fields of education and stratification have made of it. Bourdieu’s work will be analysed in the context both of the debate on class inequalities in educational attainment and of class reproduction in advanced capitalist societies.

Individuals in today’s society are separated by many different factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and economic status. Another form of separation is that of stratification. There are four major systems of stratification slavery, caste, estate, and class. “Social stratification means the differentiation of a given population into hierarchically superposed classes.”(Sorokin, 1964, p. 11) Stratification can either be in the form of an open or closed system. The closed system is one that allows minimal to no movement within the system. The open system is just the opposite it allows for varying degrees of movement throughout the system. There are many ways to break down the social stratification of

Pierre Bourdieu is a French Theorist. Bourdieu’s theory is to emphasize constructivist structuralism and he was influenced by Karl Marx by cultural capital. Bourdieu presents the question of class. Bourdieu claimed that capital forms the foundation of social life. Bourdieu thinks the more capital a person have, the more powerful they will be, and Marx had the same view as well. Bourdieu went on to claim that it had something to do with the symbolic realm of culture. When Bourdieu brings culture into it he means the peoples attribute to the world, structured by inequality and culture structures of inequality, also states that is a big part of social inequality. Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital is skills, tastes, posture, clothing, mannerisms, material belongings, credentials, etc. You usually receive them through a social class. Bourdieu divides capital into three forms embodied, objectified, and institutionalized. He gives an example of embodied cultural capital, while a luxury car is an example of cultural capital in its objectified state. In its institutionalized state cultural capital would be credentials and qualifications (degrees or titles that shows cultural authority and acceptance.

John Ranere Jr., VIP of Sugar House Casino, is one of few who experienced an upward social mobility. Individual efforts are the reason people move up the class ladder; and their faults the reason they move down (Henslin 227). John Ranere senior had died before his son was born in an automobile accident. Mrs. John Ranere had already had a daughter and was pregnant with her son. By looking, over time, at the incomes individuals earned relative to their parents’ income, statistics have shown they were able to measure “intergenerational mobility,” broadly speaking, the extent to which people are able to escape their upbringings (Cassidy). John Ranere Jr. didn’t finish high school, or attempt to go to college. He started working for casinos at a young age initially

For example, the home of a pupil is a primary agent in their socialisation and education and this therefore has the biggest impact on the pupil so when at school they will either be handicapped or at an advantage from their upbringing. For example, Modood argued that some ethnic minorities have higher levels of cultural capital, despite often being from a working-class background. Many Indians and Asians originate from working-class backgrounds even though they end up with middle class jobs. These parents therefore place particularly high values on educational success and contain the knowledge and understanding of education to motivate their children and help them to succeed.

Socioeconomic status plays a key factor in the type of education a child receives today and ultimately functions to keep individuals in the class they are born into. Those who are part of the lower class receive the bare minimum in education with the end goal being blind obedience, while the upper class is educated in a way that encourages self-regulation, individual thought, and creativity. These vast differences in education are no mistake and are put in place for overall control.

However, according to Gilbert (2015) this is an issue that was not presented to past generations, because of multiple causal pathways. Multiple causal pathways discusses the influence of a father’s occupation that influences the child’s (son) education and job achievement (Gilbert, 2015). Families were able to maintain their status by ensuring that the child would follow in the footsteps of their father, and this use to be seen as some form of insurance for both the family and the child. Blau and Duncan both came up with ways to understand the connection between family background and their child’s success, by connecting their education and career experience that influenced their socioeconomic status (Gilbert, 2015). Family background is used to show any form of connection that a father uses to aid the child with finding career opportunities, but mobility can change for the child if he or she decides to not follow the father or face barriers because of racial or gender discrimination (Gilbert,