Cultural capital is the wealth that is created when society
recognises and invests in the components of culture and also when culture is
used to provide economic social, environmental and cultural wellbeing? It is
also about creating income, self employment and social capital.
Here are a few definitions to help you understand this
value:
To understand Cultural Capital and Cultural Well-being you should download and read "Cultural Well-being and Cultural Capital" by Penny Eames; http://artsaccessinternational.org/cultural-wellbeing /
If you don't want to download then try some of these definitions:
“Cultural capital describes the value of culture when measured as an asset in terms of economic, social and environmental resources”[1].
“Cultural capital describes the value of culture when measured as an asset in terms of economic, social and environmental resources”[1].
“...the term cultural capital is used
because, like money, our cultural inheritance can be translated into social
resources (things like wealth, power and status) and the cultural capital we
accumulate from birth can be “spent:’ in education systems as we try to achieve
things that are considered to be culturally important[2]”.
“Cultural capital is an important aspect of
social capital and social capital is an expression of cultural capital in
practice. Social capital is based on
and grows from the norm, values networks and ways of operating that are the
core of cultural capital”.[3]
To understand these quotes we also need to understand what
we mean by the word culture. The easiest definition I have found is based if
from UNESCO and this definition was accepted and adopted in the Declaration on
Cultural Diversity in 2001.
“...culture
should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual
emotional features of society or a social groups, and ... it encompasses, in
addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value
systems, traditions and beliefs[4]”
In
my publications I have simplified the meanings and suggest that “culture is the histories (myths),
ideologies, values and the rituals that expresses them[5]”.
This simple definition gives us the headings for analysing the existing
culture of a society, town, community or group. We can look at these different headings –
histories (heritage and myths), values, ideologies and rituals (ceremonies
behaviours) and note the positives and negatives. Then we can see how these
characteristics of culture can be used to enhance wellbeing generally and
become assets
[1]
Eames Cultural Well-being and Cultural Capital 2006 www.artsaccessinternational.org
[4]
UNESCO 2002 UNESCO (2001) Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity,
Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity Adopted by the 31st session of the
UNESCO General Conference, Paris, 2 November 2001
[5] Eames 2009 Spirituality of Older New Zealanders :
Bishops Action Foundation www.pseconsultancy.com
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