FORMS OF CAPITAL

 This is the theoretical perspective that generated the previous post comparing time spent in social relationships (social capital) with time spent with television (cultural capital).

Capital here is defined as accumulated labor.

Whenever we accumulate labor as financial capital, or human capital, or social capital, or cultural capital we are able to transfer that labor to other times and places.  For example, when we earn money, we can buy a house with it.

Human capital is defined as labor that adheres to a human person. When we labor, we can improve our health, our physical body, our mind, our talents, our skills and our virtues. (Yes, a Nobel prize winner for his writing on human capital said that virtue is human capital, i.e., a resource or asset that adheres to persons.)

Social capital is defined as labor that builds and maintains social networks.   Institutions are defined as patterns of behavior that support and maintain social networks.  Families, households, workplaces, neighborhoods and parishes are all institutions with associated social networks.  Larger institutions such as parishes can be further divided into smaller institutions, the 5pm Mass, the 7am Mass, the 10am Mass, the choir, lectors etc., all of which have patterns of behavior that are associated with networks of particular people.  Families can be divided into spousal relationships, parent child relationships, sibling relationships, etc.

The time that we spend in social relationships is a key indicator of our social capital investments.

Cultural capital is defined as labor that builds and maintains shared symbolic systems such as languages, music, dance, artistic expressions,etc. and their associated products such as books, CDs, etc.

The time we spend in watching television is a key indicator of our cultural investments.

Why do I like the forms of capital conceptual system?

As a social psychologist it allows me to talk about both persons and organizations within the same conceptual system.

A person can be described as their accumulated human, social and cultural capital. We are our bodies, our minds, our skills, and our virtues. And we are also our participation in households, families, workplaces various other institutions and their social networks. And we are our shared symbol systems, e.g., languages, books that we have read, media that we have watched, music that we have heard or sung, etc. The sum of all this makes each of us very rich and unique. (Now there are some people who like to define themselves and others mainly in terms of their physical and financial capital). 

An organization (church, company, city) can be described as the accumulation of its human, social and culture capital.  Catholicism can be described as the accumulation of those people who call themselves Catholic, institutions (with their associated networks) that are identified as Catholic, and cultures (liturgies, books, music, art, etc.) that are identified as Catholic. The sum of human, social, and cultural capital makes every organization very rich and not able to be defined so easily by any particular persons, institutions, or symbols systems.

When any of us as a person interacts with an organization we enter as a very complex internal capital system into interaction with a very complex external capital system.

Talking about capital can be very inspiring if one remembers that one is always talking about the accumulated labor of persons rather than (as some economists would have it) only about things that can be given a monetary value.   

So, the house in which I live is my own accumulated labor, along with that of the labor of all the people that build the house or provided the materials for its building or maintained it before I bought it.

The parish is the accumulated labor of all the people who over the years built not only the physical buildings but all the institutions and symbolic systems that have become part of the parish.

A bible is the accumulated labor of all the people who have transmitted the scriptures over the centuries and translated them from culture to culture.

We live in a global world that has largely been transformed by accumulated human labor in the form of physical structures, present and past human beings, present and past human institutions, and present and past human symbol systems.

So, whenever we discuss doing anything personally or collectively, the question is how will, what we do impact not only the physical environment but also our human capital, our social capital, and our cultural capital.

Back to question of time spent in social relationships and television.  Our social relationships are places in which we can influence others as well as have them influence us. Television is a symbolic (virtual) reality that influences us far more than we influence it. We can interpret it by means of our social network and other media systems.  However, it is far more likely to make disciples (followers) of us than empower us to be leaders influencing others.