The podcast dives into Pierre Bourdieu's theories on cultural capital, illustrating how our tastes in art and music are shaped by social background. It discusses the intersection of culture and identity, revealing how marginalized communities, through hip-hop and grime, redefine cultural norms. The importance of equal access to cultural institutions is emphasized, promoting recognition of diverse expressions. Listeners explore how cultural knowledge functions as a currency in society, impacting social dynamics and mobility.
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Culture's Influence
Pierre Bourdieu studied how culture shapes our worldview, not just through conscious choices but also through subtle influences.
Our tastes and behaviors are often "subjectified" from a young age, reflecting our social environment.
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Cultural Capital's Impact
Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital explains how exposure to specific cultural artifacts shapes our tastes and preferences.
Early exposure and positive reinforcement create a sense of value, similar to financial rewards.
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Cultural Capital as Currency
Cultural capital, like economic capital, can be exchanged for other forms of capital, such as social and institutional capital.
Knowledge of Homer, for instance, can lead to better relationships with teachers and higher grades.
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The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was interested in how the organisation of culture and the social world around us could affect our individual view of the world. How we didn’t just pick the culture we liked, but in some ways culture picked us – made us more or less likely to act in certain ways.I look at Bourdieu’s ideas about cultural capital, social capital, and institutional capital, primarily through his book, the Love of Art. For Bourdieu, facts about the world could be measured, collected, and recorded; but they were also instinctively absorbed by us from a young age – they became subjectified into our own behaviour. He was interested in how these cultural and social phenomena tcouldhat connect us to the wider world. Our tastes, accents, styles of speaking, mannerisms, and values can be the product of our social environment and our own minds. He sought ‘the subjective dispositions within which these structures are actualized.’ Our preferences in art, literature, or music are, in large part at least, determined by our social positions, our family’s exposure to specific cultural artefacts, our economic possibilities, or the interests of the faculty of the school we attend. In the most obvious sense, an American girl attending high school today is unlikely to enjoy 16th century Mongolian folk songs. But why is this? Why are our tastes often so uniform?Bourdieu’s answer is cultural capital.He saw that If we are bought up in an aristocratic family who’s friends and teachers all read the Homeric epics then we too are more likely to attach a value to that cultural artefact. If everyone tells us these stories are good as a child we are of course, more likely to value them because praise for reading them is a reward as powerful as any financial reward. Economic capital, like money, can be exchanged for other goods. And so too can cultural capital.Finally, I look at what this means for culture today, taking a Bourdieuan look at hip-hop and grime.Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018
Then & Now: Philosophy, History & Politics