Using cultural capital theory to study racial inequality: A case study of Hays

CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
In European society, resources, opportunities, and rewards continue to be allocated unevenly by race, and a substantial body of sociological research has endeavoured to explain these disparities. The current discourse on racial inequality is generally dominated by work located at the macro and micro ends of the theoretical spectrum. The former is concerned with structural, societal-level explanations for racial inequality, while the latter focuses more on discrimination and racism in individual experiences. However, researchers are beginning to pay more attention to the middle-ground explanations centered on the importance of culture in racial inequality, particularly in regard to how racial boundaries and hierarchies are constructed between whites and blacks (Anderson, 1999, 29).

Cultural capital theory has emerged as a powerful framework for inquiry into the reproduction of social inequality. This framework considers how certain forms of knowledge, behaviours, and preferences help individuals gain an advantage in specific social contexts. Despite the theory’s demonstrated power for the research on inequality, it has been used primarily in the study of adolescents, and has rarely been applied to the study of racial disparities (Compton, 2006, 81). In this dissertation, I demonstrate the relevance of cultural capital theory for the study of racial inequality by using interview and participant observation data to examine racial inequality inside a major corporation. This dissertation contributes to our knowledge by examining how race affects the reproduction of inequality via the company’s informal cultural and relational processes. In other words, how are some employees disadvantaged or advantaged by their sociocultural behaviours and preferences, and how does race affect this relationshipThis dissertation is part of a larger research project that explores the impact of race, gender, class, and culture in the reproduction of inequality in the corporate workplace. By situating this research in a major corporation, I seek to gain insight into these processes in an institutional context that affects the lives of millions, while also contributing to our broader understanding of how culture is involved in the reproduction of inequality.
Research Questions
This project, while covering a wide range of sociological territory, attempts to answer three sets of research questions. Along the way, it asks important questions about how individuals are evaluated according to the informal standards of an institution. The first question documents the specific forms of cultural capital that are valued at Hays, and illustrates how employees who possess this type of capital convert it into advantage. In the process, it states the case for why cultural capital is an appropriate theoretical framework for the study of race and gender inequality in the workplace, despite it having been rarely applied in this manner. The second question demonstrates how cultural capital theory is appropriate for the study of racial inequality. It examines how race affects individuals’ possession and activation of cultural capital in the workplace, and how some employees are disadvantaged or advantaged in this regard. It also addresses the intersection of race and class in Hays informal culture. The third question examines how Hays dominant culture is gendered, and how this culture affects the career prospects of men and women differently.
In the three substantive chapters, the reader will find three common themes regarding my use of cultural capital in this project. First, I contend that cultural capital offers a powerful framework or the study of inequality that enables researchers to consider both structure and agency. Second, I demonstrate that this framework is useful for identifying the mechanisms that underlie the reproduction of race, gender, and class inequality inside an institution at the everyday, interactional level. Third, I argue that cultural capital provides more explanatory power than the frameworks, such as homophily and stereotyping, that are usually employed in this type of research. The dissertation closes with a discussion of this study’s sociological contributions, the implications for future research, and a few concluding thoughts.