I think there's some difference between social and cultural capital
I would certainly concede that - well, okay, in the first place I didn't go to Oxbridge, so I didn't expect the kind of social elevation that might bring, in fact if there had been anything of the kind I think it might have given me the bends - and in the second place we are talking about It Was A Different Time Then - but I would concede, she concedes, that I don't think I was conveyed any particular social capital by getting a degree at what was then known as a 'New' university apart from the glory of, you know, getting a degree.
I was sold a dream of upward mobility. But from cash to culture, it’s clear my working-class background still counts against me.
And yes, there is that whole background of certain social polish as second nature inculcation which indeed I did not have myself.
But I'm a good deal less certain that one is necessarily less equipped with cultural capital, or maybe it's just the example invoked of '17th-century French politicians', about whom, having been an avid devourer of the historical novels of Jean Plaidy and Margaret Irwin perhaps even more than having done that period for my A-levels I probably knew more than I did about contemporary British politicians, that made me go, 'hey, what?'
Because I probably acquired during my sojourn at uni - I may remind my rdrz that I ended up having a not wholly inglorious run on its University Challenge team against several Oxbridge colleges - something of a reputation of a 'girlyswot', less from being ever swotting away at my designated studies than from having from more or less my earliest years been given to very miscellaneous reading so that I was able to pick up on allusions and recognize references and once, I think, actually correct a tutor's attribution of a poem.
Like, in fact so many women over the centuries who may not even have had the benefit of a formal education, but could READ.
In fact the habit of reading may give one somewhat misleading impressions of what one may expect when one moves beyond one's habitual circles and alas, they are not discussing ideas in the manner of Aldous Huxley novels or whatever. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2981257.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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