ABSTRACT
The following explanations of the work of Pierre Bourdieu come from Paul Taylor’s useful book Investigating Culture and Identity. Bourdieu coined the term ‘cultural capital’ to describe in a simple metaphor the relationship between culture and social class: the more cultural capital you have the better able you are to function and progress in our society. According to Taylor cultural capital consists of (for example):
knowledge, language, tastes and lifestyle
what you know about high culture
the size and range of your vocabulary
your ability to recognise a decent wine
playing rugby (union) rather than football.
