Cultural deprivation is a theory in
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
where a person has inferior norms, values, skills and knowledge. The theory states that people of lower
social classes experience cultural deprivation compared with those above and that this disadvantages them, as a result of which the gap between classes increases.
For example, in education, lower-class students can suffer from cultural deprivation as their parents do not know the best school for their child, but middle-class parents "know the system", and so can send their children to the best school for them. This puts the lower-class students at a disadvantage, thus increasing inequality and the gap between middle-class and lower-class students.
Proponents of this theory argue that
working class culture
Working-class culture is a range of cultures created by or popular among working-class people. The cultures can be contrasted with high culture and folk culture, and are often equated with popular culture and low culture (the counterpart of high ...
(regardless of
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
,
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
,
ethnicity or other factors) inherently differs from that of people in the
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
. This difference in culture means that while middle-class children can easily acquire
cultural capital
In the field of sociology, cultural capital comprises the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech, style of dress, etc.) that promote social mobility in a stratified society. Cultural capital functions as a social relatio ...
by observing their parents, working-class children cannot, and this deprivation is
self-perpetuating.
The theory claims that the middle class gains cultural capital as the result of
primary socialization, while the working class does not. Cultural capital helps the middle class succeed in society because their norms and values facilitate educational achievement and subsequent
employability
Employability refers to the attributes of a person that make that person able to gain and maintain employment.
Overview
Employability is related to work and the ability to be employed, such as:
*The ability to gain initial employment; hence the ...
. Working-class members of society that lack cultural capital do not pass it on to their children, perpetuating the class system. Middle-class children's cultural capital allows them to communicate with their middle-class teachers more effectively than working-class children and this contributes to social inequality.
Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence i ...
claimed that state schools are set up to make everybody middle-class, although only the middle class and some high-achieving working class have the cultural capital to achieve this. From a
Marxist perspective, cultural deprivation observes that the resources available to the working class are limited and that working-class children enter school less well-prepared than others.
Sources
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Further reading
* Bernstein, B. (2002) Educational Codes and Social Control, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23: 4. (The whole of this edition is useful for understanding Basil Bernstein).
* Chitty, C. (2002) Education and Social Class. The Political Quarterly, 73 (2), pp. 208–210.
* Legewie, J. and DiPrete, T. A. (2012) School Context and the Gender Gap in Educational Achievement. American Sociological Review, 77, (3), pp. 463–485.
* Leathwood, C. and Archer, L. (2004) ‘Social class and educational inequalities: the local and the global’, in Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 12, (1).
* Leicester, M. (1991). Equal Opportunities in School: Social Class, Sexuality, Race, Gender and Special Needs, Harlow, Longman.
* Mac an Ghaill, M. (1996) ‘Sociology of Education, state schooling and social class: beyond critiques of the New Right hegemony’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 17: 163-176.
* Marks, G. N. (2011) Issues in the Conceptualization and Measurement of Socioeconomic Background: Do Different Measures Generate Different Conclusions? Social Indicators Research, 104, (2), pp. 225–251.
* Reay, D. (2001) “Finding or losing yourself?’: working-class relationships to education’, Journal of Education Policy 16(4): 333-346.
References
{{Culture
Deprivation
Socio-economic mobility
Working class