Thursday, January 19, 2006

From Bourdieu

1986, p. 54

“if the best measure of cultural capital is undoubtedly the amount of time devoted to acquiring it, this is because the transformation of economic capital into cultural capital presupposes an expenditure of time that is made possible by possession of economic capital. More precisely, it is because the cultural capital that is effectively transmitted within the family itself depends not only on the quantity of cultural capital, itself accumulated by spending time, that the domestic group possess, but also on the usable time (particularly in the form of the mother’s free time) available to it (by virtue of its economic capital, which enables it to purchase the time of others) to ensure the transmission of this capital and to delay entry into the labor market through prolonged schooling, a credit which pays off, if at all, only in the very long term"

I am vindicated! This sounds like my definitions of expertise! These kids have their cultural capital from being a computer expert, due to the amount of time they have been able to spend on the computer, which is a direct result of the economic capital of their families. Thus, I reiterate, "this is because the transformation of economic capital into cultural capital presupposes an expenditure of time that is made possible by possession of economic capital". Yes.

I haven't read these notes on 'The Forms of Capital' for a year at least.

1 Comments:

Blogger Leonie said...

this is brilliant. a great quote for a chapter lead in. well done

9:43 AM  

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