High culture

• Definition

  cultural products that have high status and are enjoyed by the elite.

  Cultural products include art, food, clothing, sports, language and lifestyle.

  High culture includes art like opera, food like caviar, clothing like top hats or ball gowns, sports like polo, refined language (such as saying "one" instead of he, she or I) and lifestyles involving riding horses, traveling by yacht, visiting the theatre and hosting dinner parties.

  High culture is privileged: it confers status on people who enjoy it or produce it. It marks you out as tasteful, sophisticated, intelligent and 'deep.'
• Membership

  High culture is exclusive: it's not meant to be enjoyed by ordinary people.

  There are often barriers to entry, such as wines or restaurants using French titles, operas being in Italian or German, fine art requiring education to appreciate. Without these qualifications, people can find high culture baffling or boring.
• Shakespeare

  Compulsory part of national GCSE curriculum.-hard to access-high class have more knowledge (cultural capital)-disadvantaged
• Bourdieu

  Cultural capital is knowledge of High Culture acquired through a privileged upbringing and education.

  Lack of cultural capital might keep a wealthy person out of the ruling class,

  Bourdieu claims each person has a habitus which is a collection of their personal habits (the way i they speak, dress and think). Habitus reveals your cultural capital (or lack of it) and also makes it harder for some people to acquire cultural

  capital even if they have the money to buy art, visit theatres or get an education in the classics.