Art pieces, books, instruments, machines, and instruments. These are the physical objects that identify one’s social class and are symbolic of an agent’s embodied cultural capital. For example, something like an expensive art piece can be exchanged for economic capital in the form of currency or social capital in the form a connecting over similar taste in art with a potential business partner.

Augustana College (IL)

Set of social assets and characteristics that symbolizes an agent's resources, power, and status. Cultural Capital comes in three forms:

1. Embodied State: 
2. Objectified State: 
3. Institutionalized State: 


Cultural Capital

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by J.G. Richardson.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 241-258.

Forms of Capital by Pierre Bordieu

State of mind, or cultural values that are a result of one’s upbringing and socialization that inform one’s perspective of the world. These are qualities such as particular skills, etiquette, or mannerisms in speech that serve as markers of one’s social class. This form cultural capital is shorthand for the “people like us” mentality that help agents identify in-group members as well as outsiders.

Embodied State of Cultural Capital

Objectified State of Cultural Capital

Credentials, reputation, or qualifications recognized by other individuals or organizations. Institutionalized cultural capital is similar to objectified cultural capital in that it symbolizes the class and status of the agent that possesses it, but it comes with the official recognition conferred typically by an official body that solidifies the legitimacy of an agent's claim to a certain status that objectified cultural capital does not. For example, a degree from an Ivy League institution is considered a more legitimate marker of one’s class than simply owning an expensive piece of art.

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