Interfacing of Folklore as Societal Cultural Capital and Social Welfare: Implications for Practice Initiatives

Abstract

Societal cultural capital acts as a social relation within a system of exchange that includes accumulated cultural knowledge that confers power and status, whereas social welfare is a nation’s system of programmes, benefits and services that help people to meet social, economic, educational, and health needs that are fundamental to the maintenance of society. Cultural capital is a non-economic factor in education and includes characteristics such as attitudes, characters and customs. The aim of this study, which informed this article was to examine relationships between cultural capital and social welfare towards practice initiatives. The authors reviewed and analysed literature as research design and adopted Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital. This theory proposes ways in which people would use cultural knowledge to undergird their place in the social hierarchy. In this article the analysis of the interface between folklore and social welfare has been limited to the philosophy of Ubuntu, mutual co-existence (symbiotic relationship), letsema, sharing and togetherness. We conclude that practitioners in the welfare sector have neglected the significance of cultural capital insofar as initiatives towards their interventions are concerned.