Exploring the Impact of Cultural Capital’s Intellectual Influences and the Development of Extremist Culture in Saudi Schools, with Reference to Pierre Bourdieu .

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the culture of extremism’s intellectual influences in Saudi education. The media have dominated public discourse on  the roots of extremism, with very few scholarly studies examining extremism from a cultural perspective. Educational institutions are undeniably a space for cultural representation where students may be subject to intellectual influences through cultural activities. Accordingly, this study elucidates schools’ intellectual influences on students’ practices. It also ties in such cultural representation with the autobiography of a Saudi journalist who experienced cultural extremism at school. The study links the cultural practices in schools to Pierre Bourdieu’s work on cultural capital and “habitus” to explain groups’ inclusion and exclusion according to cultural practices