Cultural Capital, Cultural Knowledge and Ability

Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction has been interpreted in various ways,and several authors have criticised an overly narrow interpretation of culturalcapital as simply consisting of ‘beaux arts’ participation. For researchers,this raises the challenge of developing a broader interpretation of culturalcapital which is still specific enough to be operationalised. This paperdiscusses the ways in which parents may transmit educational advantage to theirchildren through cultural rather than economic means, and the forms of knowledgeand skill which may be considered as ‘cultural capital’. An operationalisationof cultural knowledge is discussed, and empirical evidence is presented ondifferences in levels of cultural knowledge between the children of graduatesand non-graduates.