Cultural Capital, Social Inequalities and Cultural Policy

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Cultural Capital, Social Inequalities and
Cultural Policy
www.cresc.ac.uk

• Tony Bennett
• Open University
• Sociology and CRESC

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Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion

• Tony Bennett (Open University)
• Mike Savage (University of Manchester)
• Elizabeth Silva (Open University)
• Alan Warde (University of Manchester)
• Modesto Gayo-Cal (University of Manchester)
• David Wright (Open University)
• With the collaboration of Brigitte Le Roux and
  Henry Rouanet (U of Paris V)

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Components of the study

• 25 focus group discussions
• National random survey (1564 main sample and
  ethnic boost sample of 227 Indian, Pakistani
  Afro-Caribbean)
• 44 household interviews with selected survey
  respondents and their partners
• 11 elite interviewers

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Contents of the questionnaire

• Cultural domains of taste
• Television
• Films
• Reading
• Music
• Visual Art
• Sport
• Eating out
• Activities
• General recreation and leisure
• Collections and possessions
• Learning skills and accomplishments
• Appearance and embodiment

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Types of cultural capital (1)

• The first, following Bourdieu, might loosely be
  described as that of the Kantian aesthetic in
  which the ability to appreciate abstract
  cultural forms, distanced from the practical
  necessity of daily life, is viewed as a crucial
  component of cultural capital. This is most
  likely to manifest itself in relation to
  traditional forms of high culture (a liking for
  classical music and opera, for example) and,
  perhaps more especially, in modernist and
  avant-garde cultural practices.
• Cultural capital is defined in terms of whatever
  is consecrated by the education system and is
  thus able to be mobilized by, in the main, the
  professional and managerial middle classes as a
  key aspect of trans-generational strategies of
  inheritance.
• The cultural omnivore thesis defines cultural
  capital less in terms of a particular orientation
  to particular types of culture than in terms of a
  socially restricted ability, again largely
  acquired and transmitted through the education
  system, to range across different cultural genres
  irrespective of their classification as high or
  low.

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Types of cultural capital (2)

• 4. The concept of cultural capital as a
  distinctively national formation which, in the
  terms proposed by Ghassan Hage, operates in the
  different relations that different ethnic groups
  have to those forms of cultural experience,
  knowledge and familiarity which confer a sense of
  national belongingness.
• 5. Subcultural capital, finally, refers to those
  assets that have a limited circulation among
  members of specific subcultures which might be
  defined in terms of specific age groups or as the
  forms of cultural know how and famililarity that
  are specific to particular ethnic communities

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Cultural map axis 1 - participation
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Cultural map axis 1 and class
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Elite interviews senior executive

• Interviewer Do you support any organisation?
• Eleanor Oh yes. I support, Im a patron of the
  Tate and Im a patron
• of the Royal Academy.
  
• Interviewer Tate Britain or Tate Modern?
  
• Eleanor Well no, its the Tate, you know and so
  its both if I could
• put it that way. And then the Royal Academy.
  And I, through a friend, a
• good friend, Im a trustee, Im a trustee of a
  trust connected with the
• Royal college of Music but again I think thats a
  combination of
• friendship and business. But all of those you
  know theyre supporting
• the Arts in one way or another arent they.
  
• Interviewer They do yes and how was it that you
  get into the Royal College of
• Music?
  
• Eleanor As I say because the Director of the
  Royal College is a friend
• of mine. And she said would I sit on, they were
  looking for a new
• trustee for one of their charitable trusts and
  she said would you sit on
• it and I said yes I would. But the other two are
  just because I applied,
• as one can, and as long as youre prepared to pay
  the fee, theyre only
• too pleased to take your money, putting it very
  bluntly! Thats alright.

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Unskilled and semi-skilled workers

• Bif Well, youve said that some arts council is
  interested in our
• opinions?
• Moderator Yes, and they want your opinions.
  
• Spud No disrespect to these people but I still
  reckon that theyre
• not looking at the whole picture, right?
  
• Bif I really dont think that people are
  interested in art and what
• the gallerys are doing.
  
• Tom Theres probably about 25 of people who
  worry about it. So 75 of
• people are more worried about whats going to
  happen with our kids coming
• though life and that.
  
• Bif Yeah. Im telling you something now. Id
  love us to be in a
• situation where education wasnt a problem, we
  wouldnt have the Health
• Authority as a problem, we wouldnt be moaning at
  the council because
• weve got housing difficulties. And then for them
  to suggest that weve
• got a problem with not going to galleries and
  theatres. They need to get
• real.
  

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Cultural map axis 2 contemporary and traditional
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Cultural map axis 2 Age
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English scale

• Television items Spooks, Midsomer Murders, Bad
  Girls, Absolutely Fabulously, University
  Challenge, Panorama, A Touch of Frost, Two Pints
  of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, East Enders, The
  Bill, Coronation Street, The Grand National,
  Election Night, Queens Xmas Broadcast
• Literary items J.K.Rowling, Harry Potter and the
  Chamber of Secrets Jane Austen, Pride and
  Prejudice Catherine Cookson, The Solace of Sin
• Musical items Oasis, Wonderwall
• Visual art items L.S.Lowry, J.M.W. Turner, Tracy
  Emin,

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American Scale

• Television items South Park, Sex and the City,
  The Simpsons, Friends, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
  West Wing, Six Feet Under,
• Cinema items Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen Spielberg
• Literary items John Grisham, The Firm Maya
  Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Musical items Eminem, Stan Philip Glass,
  Einstein on the Beach Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
  Britney Spears, Oops I Did It Again Frank
  Sinatra, Chicago
• Visual art items Andy Warhol.

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European scale

• Cinema items Pedro Almodovar, Ingmar Bergman
• Literary items Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
• Musical items Vivaldi, Four Seasons Mahler,
  Symphony No 5
• Visual art items Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso

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Ethnicity and the regional scales, number of
items known and liked
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Country of origin and the regional scales
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Age and the regional scales, number of items
known and liked
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Bourdieu policy priorities

• Indeed, we can also question the real function of
  the policy that consists in encouraging and
  supporting marginal and largely inefficient
  bodies as long as everything possible has not
  been implemented that might force and authorize
  the academic institution to fulfil the function
  incumbent on it both de facto and de jure, which
  is to develop in all members of society, without
  distinction, an aptitude for those cultural
  practices considered by society as most noble.