Bourdieu's Theory Of Social Capital

2.2.2 Bourdieu’s formulation
Pierre Bourdieu used the term social capital in his article, ”the forms of capital” where he defined social capital differently. He define it as:

“Social capital is the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.”(Bourdieu 1985a)

Therefore, according to Bourdieu, social capital consist of two main components: (1) association memberships and social networks, and (2) mutual cognition and recognition. He argues, "The volume of social capital possessed by a given agent ... depends on the size of the network of connections that he can effectively mobilize". It is the quality of outcomes that is produced by the strength and quality of the relationships, at various levels, between the different actors and not the quality of the group itself. He argues that membership sin groups, and involvement in the social networks can be used to improve the social position of the actors in different social fields/classes. A manifestation of these groups is voluntary associations, trade unions, political parties and others. Bourdieu used this to enforce his arguments on, “theory of symbolic power”. He argues differences on social capital can be realized in the different level of cultural and economic capital. In reality, his argument based on the different level of powers actors has on social