Brief notes on sociology

The French sociologist PierreBourdieu developed the concept of cultural capital..
He starts from the ides that there is a dominant culture in the society which is the culture of those in the higher levels of the class structure which is generally regarded as a superior.He said that those people who dominates in a have its own culture and this culture will be the most important for other classes. According to Bourdieu, the dominant culture can be seen as a cultural capital since it can be converted into material rewards – high status job, high salaries, etc. Cultural capital exists in three distinct forms: in its embodied form, when it means a skill which can not be separated from its ‘bearer’. Also Bourdieu said that some objects may function as a form of cultural capital since their use ‘presupposes a certain amount of embodied capital’. And finally, cultural capital exists in its institutionalized form when it become a real objective value.

Social control is a mechanisms that regulate social behavior. Social control can be in two types: informal and formal. Informal social control means social values and norms in the society which are not written but everyone should follow them. Informal socials control has the main power in traditional and religious societies but anyway in every society there are different norms which individuals will follow in order not to be excluded from the society and be like others. While Formal social control means different restrictions and rules which are regulated in every modern society against deviant behavior. But as all the rules are being broken there are different laws which make people follow these rules and obey them

The hidden curriculum consists of a knowledge and skills which pupils are expected to acquire and norms and values which they should follow. The hidden curriculum isn’t written, it is a messages that teachers transmit to pupils about norms, values, beliefs and hidden curriculum is considered to be an important part of socialization. There are different ways of transmitting the hidden curriculum: through behavior of teachers, headmasters; their reaction on different pupils actions and etc. 
There are two main views on hidden curriculum: 
o Functionalists: “the hidden curriculum helps to integrate future citizens into society’s by ‘teaching’ and reinforcing them with society’s norms and values in order to establish the value consensus”
o Marxists: “the hidden curriculum is a tool or instrument of the ruling class. Bowles and Ginitis argue it teaches the children to accept their position in society. And to accept the society is unequal and exploitative”


Meritocracy refers to a system where rewards those who showed more talent and abilities rather than wealth, family connections, class privilege, etc. Meritocracy appears among pupils as they all try to compete between each other through different types of competitions and actions.

Hierarchy means that one group of people being placed higher or lower on different types of measuring scale than another group. If we talk about hierarchy we mean social inequality because placing different groups of people higher or lower than another stratifies society. Hierarchy in education means ranking pupils according to their scores and educational achievements. Also hierarchy in educational system means stratification between pupils, teachers, staff and so on. Hierarchy creates norms and values and subordination between groups.

As we know capitalism means ‘a system of production in which the economic institutions are privately owned”. As they are privately owned thereby there will not be equality in the society, because not everyone will have an ability to owe something and as he would have more power set rules to others. Thereby in capitalist society there are two social groups are dominated: rulling class and subject class that is all the workers. School socialize children into becoming obedient workers and follow all the norms and values created by ruling class in order to stabilize and develop capitalist society.