What do I mean by cultural enrichment?
Cultural enrichment is a phrase I use frequently. I tend to use it to justify doing certain things, and as an end in itself. In this post I discuss the theory behind cultural enrichment and why I think it is important to seek.
The short answer to my title question is the following:
“To build cultural capital”
This of course leads to the next question – what is capital? Capital is often used in economics to refer to money, or resources of some kind. For example, a business needs capital (typically financial) in order to initiate running.
I tend to think of there being three main types of capital.
Financial capital
Social capital
Cultural capital
Let's survey them:
Financial capital is relatively self explanatory – it is about your financial power – how much money you have and your capacity to spend that money to achieve your means. Money that you cannot spend is not useful – liquidity is important. It's important to note that there can be some scaling benefits of financial capital – the more money you have the easier it tends to be to make more money. On the flip side, money scales with significant diminishing returns against happiness – you need a certain amount of money to be 'sufficiently' happy. More than that amount doesn't increase your happiness by much.
Social capital refers to your social power or rather, your network and your ability to leverage your network. What matters here is who you know and who you are. For example, connections can help you get a job or access to other special opportunities. Note there's a slight nuance here, we are talking about the 'value' of those in our network, but there multiple kinds of value. The obvious one is for example knowing royalty, a politician or a CEO. The perception is that such direct value can be exploited in some sense. In our current society that prides itself in meritocracy, we tend to think that such exploitation would amounts to nepotism. The second kind of value I'd mention is more indirect – it focuses more on the sort of knowledge and experience provided by those who you know. As we will discuss shortly, it is crucial that we can convert between different kinds of capital – almost like a form of currency exchange. The final kind of social capital is more matter of fact – having relationships is vital to happiness. Loneliness – literally – kills. Emotional support is very important.
I tend to think of cultural capital as as combination of the below:
Human capital: Our skills, experience and ability to do things.
Physical capital: Our physical and mental health as well as our physical and mental resistance and capability.
Cultural knowledge: Our knowledge, understanding and ability to engage in our culture and other cultures.
Some analyses would differentiate these three aspects instead of putting them all under the umbrella of cultural capital. The reason I don't do this is because I tend to view cultural capital as 'everything aside from financial and social capital'. Doing so allows me to categorise such capital in the following way:
A person with only physical capital is one who basically enters a new society with no experiences, skills and know no one. The only thing at their disposal is that they have the money to buy whatever they need. A useful example is to think of them as a rich tourist – they are vulnerable to being scammed but will get by regardless.
A person with only social capital is one who knows and is connected to important people, but they themselves have no skills, experience or even money. They get by because important people want them to. A useful example is to think of them as a CEOs son.
This then leaves a person with cultural capital as someone who has wide skills, experience and so on but have nothing otherwise. For example if we are transported into a new society with no money and knowing no one, it is our ability to adapt and thrive in said society.
Conversion
Let's discuss conversion – perhaps the most immediately obvious conversion is from financial capital to other forms. For example, if I have a lot of money I am more likely to be well connected with other rich and powerful people (perhaps via my business, or my job). I can pay people to get what I need. Furthermore, I can use money to help develop my cultural capital – I can pay for private tutors to teach me languages, I can get a personal trainer and a gym membership and I can go skiing on the weekends. It's worth highlighting that capital can take time to convert – we can't just amass huge amounts of financial capital and expect to be able to cash in instantly.
With social capital, we can more easily find useful opportunities. We become aware of the hidden politics behind organisations and power. We can for example get a well paid job leading to more financial capital. We can also understand more about the world by engaging with other people with cultural capital. Through this we can better understand what is valuable and how best to approach issues.
Finally with cultural capital, our skills and experiences can lead us to important opportunities. Through this we can meet interesting people and develop our network.
One of the big challenges with conversion is that it is difficult to measure. Financial capital has its own currency, while social and cultural does not. There's no obvious 'cultural currency' with an exchange rate to dollars. There's a sense that we need to trust we can do this conversion without knowing what the exact worth.
Cultural enrichment
We've now discussed the different kinds of capital as well as how conversion might work. I've mentioned earlier that to me, cultural enrichment is about developing one's cultural capital.
The question is therefore – how do we develop cultural capital?
Let's first discuss a few examples of cultural capital and corresponding ways to develop it.
Awareness of other cultures, for examples their history, their norms, their state of affairs.
Developed by speaking to people from different cultures and reading their history. Visiting other places.
Up to date knowledge of our own culture, for examples recent events and potential developments.
Developed by keeping up with the news, speaking to people around us and considering how issues might relate to one other.
Skills and experiences in relevant areas, for example languages, technical abilities.
Pursuing education, in the form of courses, qualifications. Supplemented with practice.
Social awareness and relatable experiences to establish common ground.
Practice engaging with a variety of people and trying out different things.
Physical and mental capability to be able to follow through with potential options.
Physical training and having a good mental health. Developing a solid baseline to easily try out new activities.
So when I say cultural enrichment I mean doing some of the above activities to develop cultural capital.
It is clear to me that many of these things will 'cost' or require other kinds of capital to achieve. For example, visiting other countries will obviously incur travel fees. Indeed, the time itself to pursue these activities can be costly as we need to sustain ourselves. Some of these activities are much better done (or outright require) other people to support us. Having friends from other cultures is very valuable to support cultural understanding and to accurately pinpoint the most valuable things to do.
I've also discussed previously how many of my goals are centred around eudaimonia – a 'flourishing' sense of happiness. I've already mentioned how money in itself has rather diminishing returns for happiness. So from my perspective it is best a certain point and then invest any excess into building social and cultural capital instead.
My career break is an example of my pursuit of cultural enrichment. I am trading off my financial capital (savings, and lost earnings from not working) in order to develop my cultural capital by developing myself and travelling around the world. It is an investment with unclear return – but one that I am willing to bet will be valuable in the future.
