HOW CULTURAL CAPITAL IS CONVERTED INTO ECONOMIC CAPITAL: EDUCATION AS A KEY TO THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF EXPERTS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, SERBIA, MACEDONIA, MONTENEGRO

Abstract

Drawing on Bourdieu’s understanding of capital, the paper attempts to explain the dynamics of conversion between cultural and economic capital among experts. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the institutionalized type of cultural capital as the most important resource of this social group, which is also measurable, widespread and clearly differentiated and normatively accepted, along with the possibilities of its conversion to economic gain in four different social settings. The results uncover a significant statistical difference between the average amount of experts’ income per country, a minor presence of experts in the area of entrepreneurship, and a large gap between experts within the areas of health care, law, military and police, and those who come from the area of social sciences.