Bridging the Divide in Cultural Capital? A Tale of Two Capitals

Abstract

More critical approaches are required in understanding the dynamics of creative economy and the interplay between its social, political and economic dimensions. Among the key contributions to the economic analysis of the creative economy are economist David Throsby, including his concept of ‘cultural capital’. This concept provides new ways of thinking of culture and value, primarily within a defined economic discourse. We also consider the work of Pierre Bourdieu on cultural capital and suggest that some form of synthesis of the two approach opens up possibilities. For one, such an exercise opens up debates within the academic discipline of economics, and secondly it allows fruitful interaction between economics and other social science discourses both disciplinary and transdisciplinary. It also provides us with understanding of the workings of the global economy and at a more abstruse level, to the ways in which contemporary capitalism is structured within the global economy.