Professional Documents
Culture Documents
social capital in education Summing up, and some issues and problems Applications to understanding higher education 1: hierarchical degree markets 2: institutions as producers of social capital Concluding remarks
created Accumulated labour in a materialised, embodied (incorporated) or immanent form, which when appropriated on a private, i.e. exclusive basis, by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labour In fields, the positions of actors (individual or institutional) are defined by the distribution of capital and the rules that govern this
objectified (e.g. art), institutionalised (e.g. university degrees) Social capital: resources grounded in durable exchange-based networks of persons Symbolic capital: manifestation of each of the other forms of capital when they are naturalised on their own terms
Conversions of capital
Bourdieu argues the different types of capital
can all be derived from economic capital. These transformations are not automatic but require effort, and the benefits often show only in the long term. Profits in one area are necessarily paid for by costs in another (e.g. wealthy parents purchase cultural capital/ social capital in independent schools) The other three forms of capital are not entirely reducible to economic capital they have their own specificity but economic capital is at their root.
- Bourdieu, The forms of capital, in Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, 1986
actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.
- Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, 1992, p. 119
Note durable - and the emphasis on immanent social capital, on potential benefits/ capacity as well as actual, visible, realised benefits (as woulkd be preferred by, say, economics). Bourdieus concept of capital is distinctive
groups] members with the backing of the collectively-owned capital, a credential which entitles them to credit
- Bourdieu, The forms of capital, in Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, 1986
a group are the basis of the solidarity which makes them possible.
by a given agent thus depends on the size of the network of connections he/she can effectively mobilise and on the volume of the capital (economic, cultural or symbolic) possessed in his/her own right by each of those to whom he/she is connected.
Note that greater network size is positive but the quality of the nodes is crucial
not a natural given, or even a social given it is the product of an endless effort at institution
relationship is much greater to the extent that the person who is the object of it is richly endowed with capital they are sought after for their social capital..
The profitability of this effort rises in proportion to the size of the capital
long-term
appropriation arises most sharply in the process of transmission particularly at the time of succession, a critical moment for all power every reproduction strategy is at the same time a legitimation strategy aimed at consecrating both an exclusive appropriation and its reproduction.
Education a principal instrument of legitimation
disguising its own function, the scope of the educational system tends to increase, and together with this increase is the unification of the market in social qualifications which gives rights to occupy rare positions.
Though education can also enable the retrieval of pre-modern forms of social power
The closures provided by certain kinds of
institutional educational structure, such as select schools, enable families and kinship networks to reassemble and reassert their social power
relationships the mainstream concept seems to take in any and every association Theorisation in terms of inequality, hierarchy. Putnams arehorizontally formed networks Class and caste, not neighbourhood Closure/exclusivity not open-ended association: Bourdieus focus is on the dark side of networks (dark, unless you benefit!) Emphasis on access to resources
benefits not just realised benefits (tends to conflate group membership, intra-group exchange, the benefits of membership) Emphasis on long-term investment in durable networks not weaker associationality Stronger emphasis on groups themselves, less on social capital as individual attributes, though acknowledges both I & S dimensions Norms not isolated from power and practices
(commensurate, homogenous value)? Social capital/ cultural capital overlap Expansionary networks? Social networks that are always homogenous where does structured diversity fit in, e.g. bridging relationships? Social networks that always exclude? What role for a democratising social capital, rather than a conspiracy of the oppressed?
In considering the role of education Bourdieus notions of cultural capital and social capital overlap (1)
Educational credentials represent
institutionalised cultural capital. But they also signify/ enable membership of certain networks, e.g. communities of professionals, communities of elite graduates (e.g. Melbourne Grammar Old Boys) i.e. they are also instrumental in social capital in Bourdieus sense of the term Both concepts used to explain inequalities
In considering the role of education Bourdieus notions of cultural capital and social capital overlap (2)
The economic and social yield of the
educational qualifications depends on the social capital, again inherited, which can be used to back it up
NB. though upwardly mobile acquisition of credentials takes place, acquisition of social capital follows less often
enhanced by the range of networking connections but Bourdieus argument suggests an inevitable trade-off between breadth on one hand, and exclusivity (which enhances value of social capital) on the other. As competition intensifies, the benefits of breadth appear ever more diffuse. Note that nevertheless, many IT networks have an expansionary logic. If this is not building social capital, then what is it?
role for a democratising social capital/ network, rather than a conspiracy of the oppressed? If this is not capital in Bourdieus sense (his notion of capital is privatised and exclusive, with good grounds), then what do we call it? Or is the implication of Bourdieu that this function is incompatible with (or at least constantly undermined by) the credentialing role of education?
access to the scarce cultural and social capital (degrees, networking opportunities) gained in elite universities/ courses Economisation of the competition (fee-based market) assists the socially powerful groups to mobilise economic capital to create social capital, and creates greater exclusion (and hence more valuable SC) in universities
credentials (Arts, Business), mass professional degrees, exclusive credentials Differential opportunities to secure social capital via education are field of study based, and also institution-based. The classical differentiation was always field-based (different cultural attributes enabling mutual recognition, and social networks). But market stratifications puts institution-based differentiation on the agenda
enablers of its formation outside their walls (and sometimes foster its critique!) Mass education brings institution stratification in place of exclusion from education Mass universities a limited capacity to create valuable social capital. Largely confined to high elite institutions, especially at the overlap with formation of the professions. Alumni association looser than Bourdieus SC
Business?
Concluding remarks 1
Perhaps it is more helpful to talk about the
different forms of capital creating the possibility of the formation of each other, not transferring (zero-sum transference between capitals only part of the time) Not all networks are social capital, unless we can define capital in collective terms. (The notion of capital as all good things, every public good etc. is analytically useless) Volume of networks less important in constituting social value, than extensity and intensity of the interactions that take place
Concluding remarks 2
Bourdieu draws attention to group practices,
the continuous work of network formation. More rigorous definition of networks in terms of mutual recognition and acquaintanceship, not just any de facto association Every network can be understood in terms of inclusion/exclusion. Crucial variable Exclusive networks protect their members from internal competition, and individualised forms of external competition, but enhance the external competitiveness of the group
Concluding remarks 3
Universites are themselves institutional
agrregators of social capital, and also (inefficient) site of its production by others The credentialing role of education is sometimes uppermost and sometimes not Much depends on (1) how social groups use education and reproduce themselves via education, (2) how education is politically (economically) structured as a field, in its institutional and credential structures