Science Capital

Abstract

As social beings, we continuously learn and absorb what we experience about the world around us like sponges, especially the young. The ‘sponge’ (or what Bourdieu might call habitus) embodies our disposition and knowledge repertoire. Although the sponge appears personal and specific to us, our lives and experiences are often not as individualized as we might expect. Bourdieu (1977, 1984) argued that wider structural structures (for example, social class) essentially govern the type of disposition and capital we eventually acquire and internalize. For Bourdieu, social class is central to the re/production of social privileges because individuals are socialized with values and resources that are specific to people from their own social class background, which enables their position in society to be maintained across generations. We can apply this principle to the context of science and minority ethnic young people. For example, what kind of capital do students have in relation to science? Is access to science capital structured by ethnicity, gender and social class? To what extent do these science resources support the science career aspirations of minority ethnic youths? Existing studies in Australia (Lyons, 2006) and Hong Kong (Ho, 2010) have found science capital to be important for post-compulsory science study.