The relationship between the social hierarchy and three types of capital and the ways of educating children in Israel

Abstract

Theoreticians have attempted to quantify the social structure, when one of the modern theoreticians, Pierre Bourdieu, asserted that it is possible to look at the social hierarchy through the individual’s possession of three types of capital, which are intertwined and yet separate from one another: economic capital (the person’s level of wealth), cultural capital (the person’s level of education), and social capital (the fabric of the person’s social relationships with others). In our research we examined whether there are differences between two different classes living in Israel, regarding the ways of education they adopt in their family, as well as their beliefs regarding the way in which their children should be educated. Our findings showed that there are apparent differences in the ways of education adopted in each one of the two classes, a phenomenon that may create polarization in terms of ways of behavior and patterns of thinking.