Leahy, Ann and Ferri, Delia (2023) Cultivating cultural capital and transforming cultural fields: A study with arts and disability organisations in Europe. The Sociological Review. pp. 1-19. ISSN 0038-0261

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Abstract

This article critically discusses participation by people with disabilities in the arts, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. It is informed by a qualitative study with representatives of organisations working on arts and disability in 22 European countries. The article highlights that experiences of inequality at various levels, including within education systems, and medicalised understandings of what disability is, continue to hamper arts participation and development of cultural capital by people with disabilities. A Bourdieusian analysis unveils how organisations working on arts and disability consciously engage in ‘high’ arts practices as an expression of distinction and in a way that is designed to reframe what is culturally valued within their fields. It also demonstrates the continued relevance of Bourdieu’s theorising of cultural capital and of arts practices as distinction for potentially marginalised groups. Furthermore, participants often linked arts participation involving high artistic standards to potential change in how societies understand and relate to disability, connecting cultural practices and political struggles.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	arts; Bourdieu; cultural capital; disability; distinction;
Academic Unit:	Assisting Living & Learning,ALL institute Centre for European and Eurasian Studies Faculty of Social Sciences > Law
Item ID:	18188
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231202879
Depositing User:	Delia Ferri
Date Deposited:	20 Feb 2024 15:29
Journal or Publication Title:	The Sociological Review
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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