Cultural deprivation

Cultural deprivation is a theory in sociology that claims that members of the working class cannot easily acquire cultural capital, hampering their access to education and upward social mobility.

Proponents of this theory argue that working class culture (regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or other factors) inherently differs from that of people in the middle class. This difference in culture means that while middle-class children can easily acquire cultural capital by observing their parents, working-class children cannot, and this deprivation is self-perpetuating.