What is cultural capital and who coined the term?

• A. Cultural capital refers to financial assets such as cash and property used to secure status.
• B. Cultural capital refers to non-financial assets such as education, tastes, and manners that confer social advantage.
• C. Cultural capital is the total number of social connections a person has.
• D. Cultural capital means popularity and fame in society.

Answer: (B)

Cultural capital refers to non-financial assets such as education, tastes, and manners that confer social advantage. This means not just what you own in money, but the cultural know-how and dispositions that help you navigate institutions like schools, workplaces, and social networks. People with higher cultural capital often share the ways of speaking, reading, and behaving that are valued by more powerful groups, which can translate into better educational opportunities, job prospects, and social status.

The term was coined by Pierre Bourdieu, the French sociologist who also developed ideas like habitus and social fields. He emphasized that cultural capital can exist in embodied form (skills, knowledge, ways of thinking), objectified form (cultural goods like books and art), and institutionalized form (academic credentials). A useful example is a student whose upbringing includes exposure to literature and formal language; this Background can make it easier to perform well in school and interviews, granting advantages that others without those cultural resources may find harder to access.

The other descriptions mix up different forms of capital: financial assets describe economic capital, social connections point to social capital, and popularity or fame isn’t what cultural capital captures.