Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and its influence on consumer culture

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
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1. Briefly describe Bourdieu’s theory of ‘cultural capital’ and discuss how it might
influence our experience of consumer culture.
Ans.) The term cultural capital by Pierre Bordieu connotes the collection of symbolic
elements includes the tastes, skills, clothing, posture, mannerisms, credentials and material
belongings that are acquired by a person through being part of a particular social class.
Sharing of similar forms of cultural capital and the same taste and preferences define the
social class. The concept of cultural capital is influenced by the Marx’s view of class
struggle. Bordieu extended the argument of Marx’s economic value associated with capital
and supplemented it with the symbolic value. According to Bordieu cultural capital exists in
three primary forms-implicit practical knowledge, skills and disposition, objectified in the
cultural objects and institutionalized in the educational credentials, official degrees that exists
in an embodied form (Denniss 2018). Cultural capital is strengthened in an overdetermined
way in the social milieu of the elites. This can be observed in the education of the parents
whose occupations demands the cultivation of cultural skills , upbringing in the families, high
level of formal education in the families and institutions that attract the cultural elites who
are studying in domain that encourage abstract thinking. These diverse, redundant yet
connected dispositions of the cultural elites subjectively becomes embodied as ways of
thinking, feeling and acting through the generative social structure (Featherstone 1987). The
term consumer culture refers to the material culture in which a specific relationship is
created between the product and the consumer. In the advanced capitalist countries there has
been found there is class patterning of consumption. Materialism is one important aspect
through the social identities are constructed. For the economic elites pursuing the newest
fashions and opting for technologies that are sophisticated, trendy and reflects luxury. People
with small and relatively low income are more concerned with the material satisfaction of the

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product rather than the aesthetic appeal of the product (Dumais 2002). This can be attributed
to the material deprivation in their life that shape and structure their taste of products.
2. How might a technology like Instagram be used to challenge gender stereotypes?
Ans.) In the age of digitization social media platforms have been condemned by scholars for
creating false consciousness about relationships and have been accused of contributing to the
distorted reality. Despite the criticism that revolves around the discourse of social media,
social media platforms have become spaces for challenging the norms by providing platform
to the people who believe in flouting the gender norms. One such illustration is that of Petra
Collins who is a prominent photographer has teamed up with Instagram to work on the
#MyStory campaign that began with Collins that feature the work of 28 Instagram women
whose accounts have come to the limelight for challenging the gender stereotypes and
promoting the value of inclusivity (Correa, Hinsley and De Zuniga 2010). The motivation for
creating the #MyStory creating the images for women or the female-identifying people that
would be more realistic and inclusive. Media images of women can be quite unrealistic as it
premises on the patriarchal notions of a woman’s body. A woman is expected to be
presentable manifesting all the feminine qualities. /the media representation of female bodies
set unrealistic standards that when emulated by the young adolescents leads to unfathomable
repercussions. In this context, such initiatives emerging from gender consciousness. As
argued by Baudrillard that we live in a world where there are more and more images and less
and less meanings. Social media platforms are saturated with images of people of different
genders and sexualities. However, instagram can challenge the gender norms by providing
space to people post body-positive images and create a consciousness through the followers
of influential people who would promote such values (Schwartz et al. 2013). Another
phenomenon that has observed on Instagram is the rise of men who enjoy doing makeup and
believes in embracing their feminine side without any reluctance. The phenomenon of