Objectified Cultural Capital and the Tale of Two Students

Abstract

Social divides in South Africa remain deep and the digital divide is worsening with regards to access to broadband and to computers. Yet standard cell phone technologies are ubiquitous among university students, creating new forms of digital practices and offering possibilities of access to learning and to higher education itself. This chapter provides two students as illustrative cases of mobile-centric and computer-centric digital practices. Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital (in its objectified and embodied forms) offers a lens to examine the students’ differences and similarities, their convergences over time and their disparate histories. The different types of objectified cultural capital available to each student are described, as are the processes of appropriation of embodied cultural capital. The relationship between these different types of capital and their influence on the students’ attitudes to and choices about using information and communication technologies for learning is especially relevant. Of particular note is the role that one type of objectified capital – the cell phone – has played in this relationship. The case studies surface complexities which need unravelling and point to the research questions to be explored when grappling with participation in higher education in a digital age.