The Acquisition of Cultural Capital

Abstract

Women across all three groups discuss gaining embodied forms of elite cultural capital, such as exposure to and comfort in wealthy white society, speech, language, and presentation skills, and access to the arts, literature, and travel. Boarding students more often speak of the most extreme forms of elite cultural capital acquisition, including significant international travel experiences, internship opportunities, and networking skills, all made available through the program. Commuters discuss travel experiences to a lesser extent and residents provide no examples of travel resulting from the school or community. Residents and commuters, vis-a-vis the boarders, are more likely to speak of acquiring embodied cultural capital through formal programming in school and the acquisition of institutionalized cultural capital, in the form of an elite address on a driver’s license or a top high school degree on a resume.The data suggest the important of formal programs and engineered pathways in the transmission of elite cultural capital.