Rethinking cultural capital and community-based arts. (June 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Khan, Rimi
• Other Names: Bennett Tony guest-editor.; Frow John guest-editor.; Hage Ghassan guest-editor.; Noble Greg guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of sociology. Volume 49:Number 2/3(2013)
• Page Start: 357
• Page End: 372
• Publication Date: 2013-06
• Subjects: community-based arts -- cultural capital -- cultural value -- 'mainstream' -- multicultural arts; Sociology -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Australia -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1440783313481745
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-7833

Abstract

This article examines the contemporary field of Australian community-based arts in light of Bourdieu's work on cultural capital. It considers how questions of ethnicity have complicated the field of community-based arts and informed the experience of artists and participants. These questions have implications for what it is that these organisations seek to do; specifically, the sorts of 'capital' they impart to participants in their programs, and what the significance of such capital is. Articulating a critical notion of cultural capital – and one that can accommodate the knowledges and competences that are relevant to the contemporary Australian context – can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role such arts organisations have in redefining or contesting the hierarchies of value that inform the art field.