The Research Center for the History and Circulation of Philosophical Ideas (CCIIF) is pleased to announce the publication of an expected interdisciplinary book, blending philosophical and sociological perspectives, Cultural Capital and Creative Communication (Anti-)Modern and (Non-)Eurocentric Perspectives. The volume is authored by Oana Șerban and has been published by Routledge.
Book Presentation
Inspired by Bourdieu’s thought, this book explores the notion of cultural capital, offering insights into its various definitions, its evolution and the critical theories that engage with it. Designed for use by students and teachers, it addresses the limitations and expansion of Bourdieu’s theory of capital and power, considering the relationship between cultural, social and human capital, the distinctions between capital and capitalism, and the conflicts that exist among theories that have emerged in response to – or can be brought to bear on – Bourdieu’s work. Engaging with the thought of Max Weber, Fernand Braudel, Daniel Bell, Herbert Marcuse, Jean Baudrillard, Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Gilles Lipovetsky, Cultural Capital and Creative Communication represents the first book to develop a field of research and study that is devoted to cultural capital. Richly illustrated with empirical examples and offering assessment exercises, it will appeal not only to scholars and students of sociology, philosophy and social theory, but also to corporate communities who seek to develop training modules on the increase of their cultural capital.
About PhD Lecturer Oana Șerban
PhD Lecturer Oana Șerban teaches philosophy at the University of Bucharest. Her key-domains are: Modern Philosophy, Aesthetics, Biopolitics and Philosophy of Culture. Oana Șerban is Executive Director of CCIIF – The Research Center for the History and Circulation of Philosophical Ideas (University of Bucharest) and is a member of ISCH – International Society of Cultural History. She is a book author and has published and co-edited different volumes of philosophy, culture and aesthetics, mainly devoted to artistic capitalism, cultural capital and creative communication and critical theory. Recent interests engaged her in research projects devoted to the history of antihumanism and the biopolitical potential of art. Sha authored After Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Aesthetic Revolutions (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2022) and at the beining of this year, Routledge published her last volume Cultural Capital and Creative Communication (Anti-)Modern and (Non-)Eurocentric Perspectives, included in the following series: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought.
Why Academic Audiences and Corporations Should Pay Attention to Cultural Capital?
PhD Lecturer Oana Șerban shared her perspective on the last volume published by Routledge:
“This book offers multiple insights into the operational definitions, taxonomy, evolutions and critical theories of cultural capital. Inspired by Bourdieu’s theories on the forms of capital, this manual has been designed initially as a manual for the classes and seminars of Cultural Capital and Creative Communication, held for the students from the MA programmes of the UNESCO Chair in Interculturality, Good Governance and Sustainable Development, of the University of Bucharest. In time, this class also became quite a fashionable educational offer for many students of our university from other departments and, therefore, a manual has been conceived, aiming to address: the limits and expansions of Bourdieu’s theory on capital and power; the relationship between cultural, social and human capital; the distinctions between capital and capitalism; as well as the major conflict between theories that address differently the (Non-)Eurocentric paternity of capital, and capitalism respectively. Alongside Bourdieu, readers of this book will find interdisciplinary and critical undertakings of Max Weber, Fernand Braudel, Daniel Bell, Herbert Marcuse, Jean Baudrillard, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Gilles Lipovetsky. It is the first manual designed at the heart of philosophy and sociology that aims to develop a recent field of research and study that is devoted to cultural capital. It is a practical title because it reflects the interest not only of academic audiences but also of corporate communities who have the opportunity to secure and increase the growth of their cultural capital, therefore, the manual could also be used for training devoted to such target groups. When I started to teach Cultural Capital and Creative Communication, I was surprised to discover that my students were divided into being either partisans of a Eurocentric paternity of capitalism, or supporters of the idea for no reason capitalism might have something antimodern at its heart. None of them used to perceive capital and capitalism through the lens of Non-Western Modernity, whereas only a small part of our academic audiences used to conceive the real importance of philosophical discussions on capital(-ism) for the consolidation of culture and art. Therefore, engaging modern philosophy, I started to reconsider their curricula and to propose, to my students, a new perspective on the evolution of cultural capital. I wanted to demystify some prejudgments connected to Marxist philosophy, and to explain why our modernity is sensitive towards individuality and cherishes ideologies related to individualism, and that there is nothing that could support such concepts more than cultural capital.”
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The book is available for purchase directly from Routledge and can be ordered here both as a hardcopy or as an eBook. On the official website of Routledge, you can read reviews signed by François Ruegg, Professor Emeritus, Universities of Fribourg and Bucharest; Alex Frame, Associate Professor, University of Burgundy and Viorel Vizureanu, Professor, University of Bucharest.
