Social and Cultural Capital

Bourdieu proposes a reconciling theory, a balance between structuralism and human agency. He argues that human beings are part of a structure (the objective part) that determines our position as agents in the world (habitus), but that within this world each has the possibility of obtaining the different existing capitals (social, cultural, economic and symbolic) and in this way learn the new sets of rules to move to different positions or social fields.

This theory is not completely alien to the proposals of cultural reproduction enunciated by Marx and Freire. Recognizes that there is a ruling class that establishes the rules, that is, the conditions necessary for their children to maintain their status, as well as what is not worth teaching and points to schools as institutions that facilitate this reproduction. Teachers share homogenized content because they were previously homogenized in their training.

Somehow, I think that in my own experience I have been a participant in the doctrines of this theory; since access to better educational resources and experiences abroad opened the doors to better job opportunities than many people I know. What I do believe that this theory does not address are the inequities that exist in different societies; the political, social, economic, race and gender factors that still exist in societies (especially in Latin American ones) and that generate an imbalance in access to the capitals present in the habitus.