Changing status, entrenched inequality: How English language becomes a Chinese form of cultural capital. Issue 12 (14th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, He
• Is Part Of: Educational philosophy and theory. Volume 52:Issue 12(2020)
• Page Start: 1302
• Page End: 1313
• Publication Date: 2020-10-14
• Subjects: Cultural capital -- English -- field -- inequality -- power; Education -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Teaching -- Periodicals; Éducation; Philosophie de l'éducation; Théorie de l'éducation; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 370.1
• DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2020.1738922
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-1857

Abstract

Abstract: This paper explores how English language has gradually become a linguistic form of cultural capital in China's zigzag journey to modernization. It situates English's status in flux in historical context, with an analysis at both the international and intra-national level. It showcases the necessity to embed cultural capital within Bourdieu's full framework, and evidences the arbitrary nature of this form of cultural capital for its intimate tie to power and politics. By revealing how English has been officially consecrated as a global lingua franca and then socially recognized for material and symbolic benefits, this paper implicitly problematizes the officially validated cultural hierarchy, argues that the value of a cultural capital is context-dependent, politically and socially constructed, inseparable from the field where it is produced. The present-day English manifests its symbolic power in classification and social stratification, entrenching the already entrenched inequality within and without the national state.