Letting Go of the Western Upper-Middle-Class-Centric Cultural Capital Framework: Exploring the Cultural Wealth of the Taiwanese Working Class

When discussing class inequality, Bourdieu's classification of capital forms and Coleman's theoretical social capital framework are often used to explain why working-class children perform less well academically than middle and upper classes. However, the capital theories of Bourdieu and Coleman narrowly confine the concept and value of capital to the upper-middle class's values and scope and use the upper-middle class culture as the criterion for judging ‘favourable capital’. Under the framework of upper-middle-class oriented thinking, the working class is often regarded as ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘culturally deficient’. However, the working class is not necessarily ‘unfavourable’ and ‘needs to be changed’, they may also have their unique advantages or capitals, which are just not recognised by the mainstream society. Who defines whose capital is important and whose is not? What is class? Is the working class we understand the working class itself, or is it defined, interpreted and silenced by the upper-middle class? This study attempts to break away from the traditional and mainstream theoretical framework of upper-middle-class oriented thinking and shift the perspective of the working class as a disadvantage or insufficiency. Given the rigidity of class mobility and the deep-rooted upper-class-oriented frame of thinking in Taiwan, this study attempts to identify the unique capitals (which are distinct from mainstream capital imaginings) that the Taiwanese working class possesses through interviewing 10 Taiwanese working class who have successfully achieved class mobility. The results show that, the social and cultural context of Taiwan, where academic qualifications are paramount, and the motivation, resilience, and social affinity of the working class, which are brought about by their background, are intertwined to form the special capital of the working class with a special context in Taiwan.