This study aims to present the characteristics and functions of Bourdieu’s forms of capital;economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital in large online social games genre called Massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG). This is done in order to determine if these are reproduced in an online society consisting of thousands of players, which of the forms of capital are of outmost importance and how the accumulation of these affect the players lives using qualitative methods. Results show that the forms of capital in-game carry similar characteristics to the accumulation of such in the real world but are not transferable to the real world to the same extent. Which of the forms of capital was most of importance than others was not evident from the results, however, the empirical material shows of an interrelationship between the accumulation of capital between the dimensions; real world and game world.

This thesis explores the experiences of adult immigrant students within four different classes of the course Swedish as a second language (svenska som andraspråk :SAS), which is a standardized course offered around Sweden.  This course is structured by the national school board in Sweden and is aimed as a social policy for integration through language acquisition and learning to navigate Swedish society.  By conducting anthropological research among these students, I sought to uncover more regarding the determinants for success within the course and how students mediate and experience the one-size-fits-all course structure despite the asymmetrically distributed forms of capital within the classroom. Students responded with resentment and frustration, which highlights how this structure for education can be ineffective and suffers from a lack of ‘pedagogic transmission.’ This thesis will highlight the determinants of success that should be incorporated into the structure and execution of SAS as well as putting the students’ voices on a platform that is not often regarded when designing curriculums.

This research compares and contrasts the life histories of eleven Bahraini Muslim women, aged between twenty five and fifty, who are educationally ‘successful’, defined as having one or more university degree. It analyzes their educational experiences to see if theories of social reproduction apply to their lives. To this end, the work of Pierre Bourdieu and his concept of cultural capital in its institutionalized, objectified and embodied states are applied, where possible, to the women’s life histories, in particular their educational experiences and related areas. This work shows that embodied cultural capital plays a part in the educational success of the women involved in this study, regardless of social class. For some of the women, institutionalized and objectified cultural capital also played a part and the women who possess these tend to come from more affluent families. It also appears that significant others and critical incidents influence their educational successes. Significant others are those people who have encouraged them educationally in different ways: critical incidents include such things as government scholarships for university degree courses within Bahrain and abroad. Having these things may help other Bahraini Muslim women achieve educational ‘success’. Additionally, the women’s innate ability, their ability to juggle their many life projects and roles, other forms of capital (especially economic capital), their marital status, religious obligations and their culture, all influence their educational choices.

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This study concerns the effects of public school redistricting on communities in Atlanta. It is based upon interviews with people in two neighborhoods which are part of the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) system directly affected by redistricting. All schools slated to close are located in low-income, minority areas and serve similar populations. Of the ten schools selected for closing, three were saved during the final APS board meeting in April 2012, and will remain open. I spoke with people who reside in a neighborhood where a local school is slated to close, as well as those in an area where a school was saved from closing. I asked informants why they felt their schools were identified for closure and how they responded to the threat of closing. I learned that both communities organized to save their schools but with different results based on available forms of social and cultural capital.

In this study similarities and differences in health experiences among urban poor in relation to the forms of capital they possess: economic, social, cultural, and health capital and the different positions they hold in the urban field, are analyzed. The research was conducted in two poor gecekondu neighborhoods in Altindag, Baraj and G&uuml / ltepe, via face to face interviews with 40 individuals. A main finding has been that the different forms of capital, in volume as well as in composition, had an influence on the urban poor&rsquo / s health perceptions, health care access, health seeking strategies and experiences in health institutions. The rural-urban migrants refer to a habitus in relation to health which still strongly relies on their rural practices. Major differences among men and women have been observed, where men seem to be more open to integrate into the urban dispositions. Economic capital plays a crucial role. Regular income earners do tend to emphasize that they have a certain autonomy and control over their health. On the other hand, benefit dependent poor mention that they have less control over their health. Economic capital can be seen as very much the same among the group studied, but the differences in health experiences rely strongly on Cultural capital is understood as their different identities: villager/non-villager / illiterate/ non-illiterate / women/men / healthy/non-healthy. Social capital (formal and informal solidarity networks) is studied as the role in health experiences, access to health care and strategies to use the existing health system / as well as how individuals support each other materially and immaterially. Social capital is important because it converts into economic capital, not as exchange but as use value. An analysis of the different forms of capital allows us to address at the interrelationship of structural conditions in the field and the practices actors experience through their internalized habitus. Health experiences therefore differ even among a socio-economic homogenous group. In addition to the above mentioned forms of capital, it is also argued that health itself should be considered as a form of capital. Health capital (self perceived health/illness and medically diagnosed disease) influences and is influenced by the other forms of capital.

The gecekondu settlements emerged as a grassroots solution to the housing problem of migrant population in the lack of effective state intervention. Although most of these settlements gained legal status and title deeds in the following decades, they were still considered to be problem to be solved in due process. Starting from the mid-1980s, as a result of the so-called rehabilitation plans, considerable part of the gecekondu areas underwent a rapid redevelopment process through the market mechanism. The gecekondu owners gave their land to individual small scale developers in return for some portion of flats built in the land plot. However in the 2000s this strategy has changed with the introduction of state-led urban transformation projects. Transformation processes have started to consider the large gecekondu areas rather than the individual land plots as the unit of redevelopment. This brought the market model to a halt as well. It is not any more possible for the gecekondu owners to negotiate with the developers. Instead they have to deal with municipalities. Likewise the share of the gecekondu owners from the emerging rent declined dramatically as well. Such a model meets considerable resistance from the gecekondu owners. They see this process highly unfair and many of them decline to sign the agreement documents with municipal authorities. However there are also segments of gecekondu owners who accept the offer of the public authorities. The main aim of this thesis is to analyse the urban transformation projects with regard to the attitudes of the gecekondu dwellers. The question intended to be answered by the thesis is as to why some of the owner accept the offers while the others decline. While doing this, thesis also raise some further issues beyond the distribution of emerging rents such as the destruction of local communities and their life styles.

Most research on low-income, racial minority students' access to higher education has been conducted in urban communities. Little research explores these students' experiences within rural settings. Using Ríos-Aguilar, Kiyama, Gravitt and Moll's framework (2011) that bridges Yosso's (2005) "community cultural wealth" with alternative forms of capital, this case study investigated how three alumni students from a low-income, rural, border community accessed information and resources for college within their school, homes and community. Narratives, one-on-one interviews, and a survey questionnaire helped determine multiple forms of capital participants leveraged towards higher education. Participants' college pursuits and choices were influenced by information from family members, teachers and guidance counselors, community scholarships, and emotional support of family, friends, and community members. Research must continue to follow the experiences of rural, low-income, minority students access to higher education and create better opportunities and connections for them to attend college.

This thesis seeks to understand the role of school timetables as an interface between policies that regulate or distribute forms of capital to schools, and their teaching and learning rhythms. By doing so, it proposes a mechanism for examining the reproduction of schooling practices, and how these are grounded in policy-regulated materiality. Two high schools with similar historic backgrounds, and operating under the same provincial government, were selected and closely studied for evidence of rhythms of practice and the correspondence of these rhythms to each school's timetable. The two schools now experience different access to resources, and have significant differences in teaching and learning rhythms, as well as school-leaving summative assessment results. The study develops an analytic framework for identifying policies that reach into schools through the timetable. Five key inputs are identified as necessary for constructing timetables, providing productive lines of inquiry as to which policies affect schooling rhythms and how. By asking who teaches whom, what, with what and where, systematic analysis is conducted on: how schools are staffed (who); who they enrol (whom); their interpretation of curriculum (what); what supplementary resources they can command (with what); and their infrastructural facilities and geographic (dis)advantages (where). The interaction between these different threads is examined as they tangle within each school's timetable. The enactment of the policies regulating each thread is then traced through the layers of governance of the South African education system: national, provincial and local (school-level). Timetables are conceptualised in this study as local representations of intended teaching and learning rhythm. Using Lefebvre's triad of timespace-conceived, timespace-perceived and timespace-lived, timetables (timespace-conceived) are brought into conversation with timespace-lived through daily teaching and learning activities. Bourdieu's theory of practice is used with Lefebvre to animate the ‘game' of schooling: what schools strive for, what forms of capital they can command to sustain or improve their field position, and how they reproduce their practices. Bourdieu and Lefebvre together generate a sociomaterial practice theory lens that foregrounds timetables and their legitimacy to govern rhythms of teaching and learning in timespace. Timetables emerge as a site of the production and reproduction of advantage (fortified schools) and/or disadvantage (exposed schools) in the game of schooling. In timetables, the policies that avail forms of capital interact in previously unconsidered ways, suggesting that collectively they potentially undergird inequality in the education system.

This thesis expands an understanding of how Netflix has been established in Sweden’s media landscape. It seeks to investigate what effect the press has had, and more specifically, the study explores how the press builds up Netflix as powerful and how it imbues Netflix with legitimacy. Methodologically the thesis starts off with a usage of purposive sampling in order to find articles. The material is further handled with a critical discourse analysis, where writers’ language is explored, along with an investigation into how the world is represented with regards to identities, relationships and sociocultural aspects. Analysed articles with an economic focus come from Dagens Industri and those with cultural focus comes from Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. Moreover, the study is based on theories and earlier studies within political economy, with a pursuit to understand film and television industry; trade press, to interpret the economic articles; cultural journalism, to interpret the cultural articles from; and power, to distinguished different power aspects in Netflix. The analysis comes in two parts: the economic analysis, which is divided in three ways and a two-folded cultural analysis. When it comes to economic legitimacy, two major aspects are prominent: Netflix’s success in competition against other streaming services and a clear establishment on the global market. Some articles have also given reasons to understand Netflix’s situation as ambiguous, meaning its future is uncertain. With regards to cultural legitimacy, the question of quality is significant, along with a connection to other social contexts such as gender, politics and climate. Netflix is perceived as having a societal responsibility. As a result of this thesis, it can be noted that cultural articles tend to be more critical than economic. Cultural journalists appear to cover the subject with a more open approach, using personal opinions, often suggesting what Netflix can improve. Writers of economic articles demonstrate a stricter portrayal of Netflix, mainly focusing on developments and success.