preview

Modern Culture : A New Form Of Capital

Better Essays

Contemporary culture is all about innovation and capital is constantly being redefined. Traditional capital in capitalist societies is economic capital Bourdieu expanded capital to include cultural and social. The three forms of capital can be obtained by having the others. Illouz introduces a new form of capital, which is emotional capital and is interrelated to the older three forms of capital. Unlike the old forms of capital emotional capital allows for more upward mobility and can assist in emotional labor. Overall contemporary culture has been transformed and allowed mixing of public and privates spheres because of the creation of emotional capital. Bourdieu wrote about different forms capital the first economic capital, which is the …show more content…

Using these definitions cultural capital covers many parts of life. Cultural capital even blurs the line between itself and economic capital in the form of cultural goods. Cultural goods can be converted into money or property and may have a higher economic value due to its cultural value. Education qualifications can also be turned into economic capital through the obtainment of a job that leads to receiving money in exchange for labor based on education. The final form of capital Bourdieu goes over is social capital. He mentions that “social capital, made up of social obligations (‘connections’), which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the forms of a title of nobility” (Bourdieu 1986, p.243). Social capital is a way to gain both cultural and economic capital. Belonging to a certain group allows a person access to things people within those groups

Get Access