How Cultural Capital and Its Evaluation Enable Social Mobility

ABSTRACT How does cultural capital facilitate upward and downward mobility? Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital is widely used to study class reproduction but is less often used to study social mobility. In this article, I review research showing that exceptions to one of Bourdieu's theories help explain social mobility. Bourdieu argued that class reproduction occurs when class‐advantaged individuals acquire cultural capital, class‐disadvantaged individuals do not, and gatekeepers use evaluative criteria that favor the class‐advantaged. The reviewed research suggests that social mobility is facilitated when class‐disadvantaged individuals acquire cultural capital, class‐advantaged individuals do not, and/or gatekeepers use standards that do not privilege the advantaged. The article documents how these exceptions arise and contribute to social mobility.