Abstract

This study explores the circulation of Bourdieu's symbolic capital at the level of face-to-face interactions. Recounting a single interaction between three individuals, this study provides an example of the negotiated nature of capital articulation and the relationship between identity practice and capital articulation, when addressed at the microlevel of interaction. Given a group task which forced participants to negotiate at an explicit level symbolic capital affordances, one participant – a non-native speaker of English in an English conversation – was able to articulate cultural capital by way of her links to academic institutions. However, later in the group task her attempt to index capital by way of her reflexive positioning as Asian was rebuked, leading her to disengage from the group task. This study emphasizes the need to analyze symbolic capital from the ‘ground-up’ for that is where its distribution is reproduced but also potentially transformed.