The coronavirus caused a significant hiatus in our life’s rhythm, not unlike a shift in Earth’s tectonic plates. Some describe the two years of the virus as the ‘lost’ years. Academic and primarily social development of school-aged children stalled. The void was filled with online classes and social media. The consequences have resulted in a Wild West period inviting us to adjust our behavior and social norms to guide civilization’s evolution. The values of a small town to know and care for your neighbors don’t square with the world’s increasing urbanization and melding. Wishing and working to return to how it was before the virus may be soothingly nostalgic, but it impedes weaving the new fabric of living. What hasn’t changed is the overarching belief that life’s purpose is to live a mindful, joyous life. Just like 9/11 changed the way we fly, so will living post-virus. However, our new cadence of living has not firmed up yet.
In the wake of this societal upheaval, I need a model to help us understand and depict today’s personal domain and hopefully guide us toward a new role and level of participation. The Personal Capital model, proposed by the French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu in 1972, is the closest to meeting this need. Bourdieu’s model is built on three deposit capitals: economic, cultural, and social.
Economic Capital is money and assets, including goods, property, and tangible resources. It is the easiest to describe and understand.
Cultural Capital is defined as social assets consisting of speech style, style of dress, tastes, credentials, manners, speaking additional languages, etc. Also included are real properties symbolic of cultural status, such as the car you drive, works of art, musical instruments, books, motorcycles, vintage cars, philately, etc. In other words, it is a habitus of people with like-minded and behavioral norms that promote a sense of one’s place relative to others.
Social Capital is more challenging to define. Daniel P. Aldrich at Purdue University suggested breaking relationships into three levels: Bonding, which is the strongest and refers to family, friends, and neighbors; Bridging, which includes voluntary groups such as found in team sports like basketball or soccer, golf clubs, book clubs, members of your workgroup at work, cycling groups, etc.; and Linking, which is the weakest connection and would include acquaintances you might call for help or information, such as your elected representative, members of the PTA or HOA. I propose that acquaintances and followers on social media are not included in the social domain in this model.
The key is that the three domains (Economic, Cultural, and Social) are closely interlinked. For example, if someone has financial resources, they can afford to attend a prestigious university and earn an accredited degree(s), which could increase economic opportunities and higher compensation and lead to the purchase of a house (monetary). The school and degree could promote membership in circles such as golf clubs and financial or business associations. These relationships could lead to economic opportunities, e.g., a higher-paying employment position or start-up financing, which increases economic capital.
If we rotate this model to expose the third dimension, effectively creating three stacks of layers, the horizontal connections of layers, unfortunately, lead to the emergence of classes or caste systems—an unintended consequence.
Given the Personal Capital model as the basis, I will investigate how social media impacts all three domains (economic, cultural, and Social) in my next post.
Commentaires