Describe Forms of Capital - Writing Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

Forms of Capital
DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy" 22 February 2017
Forms and Capital
There have been several scholars that have provided views on the forms of capital that influenced its definition. Bourdieu, James Coleman, and Robert Putman are some of these scholars CITATION God13 \l 1033 (Godfrey, 2013). Bourdieu distinguished three forms of capital; economic, social and cultural. Bourdieu felt that privileged individuals maintain their position by using their connections with other privileged people. James Coleman felt that those living in marginalized communities or who were members of the working class could also benefit from its possession. He was very optimistic. Coleman also highlighted the role of the family and kinship networks and religious institutions in the creation of social capital. He believed that changes in both areas would be problematic. Robert D. Putman launched social capital as a popular focus for research and policy discussion but it has also been picked up by the world bank as a useful organizing idea, the world bank argues that increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for the development to be sustainable CITATION Cav12 \l 1033 (Cavinato, 2012). Putman focused on the significance of civic community and association, he advocated for the significance of social capital and quality of civic life in the cultivation of a democratic society. All of these scholars provided interesting perspectives and helped widen the dynamic on the understanding of capital forms. All the scholar’s perspectives are related only deeper insight is provided by each individual. They are all focus on the factors that help shape the social capital.
Cultural Capital
Cultural capital is a theory developed by French theorist Pierre Bourdieu CITATION Bou86 \l 1033 (Bourdieu, 1986). Cultural knowledge can serve as a currency that helps individuals navigate through culture and alter the experiences and opportunities available them. While cultural capital can be objects such as clothes or a what care one, it can also be symbolic elements that embody cultural capital such as tastes, manners, skills and credentials that one receives or earns. Cultural capital is not about economics or how much money one has. it can be exchange for money and this money can be used to earn more cultural capital. Cultural capital can be a source of social inequality; it is more difficult for those who are poor or working class to attain cultural capital that is valued in society CITATION Sze10 \l 1033 (Szeman & Kaposy, 2010). For instance, having an education is an important piece of cultural capital. Those with lower social status tend to have less cultural capital, upper-middle class tend to have more cultural capital and their views tend to dominate and society also tends to give them more prestige. Cultural capital takes three forms the embodied state, the objectified and the institutionalized state. The embodied state refers to capital in the form of knowledge that resides within us. While capital in the form of schooling is part of the embodied state, this type of capital also refers to knowledge that we seek out on our own. One of the earliest forms of capital in the embodied state is that which we acquire through language. When formal education and culture expects one not only to be able to know “a,b,c” but to write and recognize words before entering kindergarten. It is important to be exposed to such as books at home and to be read to CITATION Sze10 \l 1033 (Szeman & Kaposy, 2010). Cultural capital in the objectified state refers to material objects that are used to indicate one social class or how much capital they may have. This is the easiest state for most people to recognize since most people focus mostly on acquiring things and often tend to assign class based on the person possessing certain material items. For instance, a person that owns a Mercedes or Range Rover indicates greater capital that one that owns a Toyota. The institutionalized state refers to the way that society measures cultural capital. For instance, the post-secondary degree that one has and how society tends to view one based on that degree. A doctoral degree has more social capital compared to masters and a master degree has more capital than an undergraduate degree. Each degree gives one more prestige than the next CITATION Cav12 \l 1033 (Cavinato, 2012). This capital and prestige can then be exchanged for economic capital and it is clear the higher the degree the more money one receives. Unfortunately, the institutionalized state values formal education and rewards it accordingly, it often places lesser emphasis on capital that is not considered prestigious such as being streetwise. Essentially if one is born into a family with cultural capital, it is easier for them to acquire more because they are socialized to embody the values and behaviors that society rewards. For instance, if a student is part of a family where they were read to every night and taught manners such as being polite and listen to adults CITATION Das01 \l 1033 (Dasgupta & Serageldin, 2001). This would benefit them when they join the school. A student that can read and write and is respectful may earn opportunities such as being placed in advanced classes or receive higher grades. This then provides them with greater opportunists later in life. This is not the same for people with low cultural capital.Social Capital
Social capital is what provides access to resources embedded in social relationships. Social capital enables people to mobilize these embedded resources to facilitate action. Social capital deals with three distinct concepts CITATION Bur00 \l 1033 (Burt, 2000). The first concept is that of the resource. The resource can be anything that allows someone to get something done. It can be a thing a person with influence a piece of software. For instance, one may have an idea for a new business and once they share it with other they begin to reshape the idea and may even find their first partner. The business one builds is largely determined by the resources within the network one was involved in. The second concept is the structure of network also known as the topology. One’s social network comprises of people and their relationships and the size of the network is determining by the one himself, his/her preferences, and his/her ability to build one CITATION Bur00 \l 1033 (Burt, 2000). Both size and type of acquaintances and friends determine the quality, diversity and the amount if resources one can potential access. The last concept is nature of the relationship between one and the people in their network. The quality of relationships determines how much of the potential access to resources embedded in someone social network one can actually realize, one may be friends with some people in their network and hold respect for others or may not like others.
Bourdieu felt that if one had the economic capital it was easy for them to attain cultural capital for their children CITATION Cav12 \l 1033 (Cavinato, 2012). When one attains one capital...