The project comprises three research areas:

Research Area 1: The nature of cultural capital

What is the nature of cultural capital in Britain? What kinds of social exclusion are generated by the differential distribution of cultural capital across class positions?

The issues examined in Research Area 1 focus on the debates that have focused on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, with special attention to the following:

• What is the relationship between cultural knowledge, taste and participation, and is it close enough to warrant the term cultural capital? 
• What is the distribution of cultural capital in the British population and what is its relationship to the distribution of cultural practices across relationships of class, gender and ethnicity at an individual level and in households? 
• Is there evidence of a breakdown of cultural distinctions and the rise of cultural omnivorousness? 
• What is distinctive about the forms and role of cultural capital in Britain in comparison with France, Australia and the USA. 

Research Area 2: The relationships between economic, social and cultural 'capitals'

What are the relationships between economic capital, social capital and cultural capital, in particular how is cultural capital related to other forms of capital?

The issues examined in Research Area 2 will assess the relative significance of economic, social and cultural capital and compare a 'capitals' based approach to class formation with other asset-based class models and approaches. Special attention will be paid to the following questions:

• How important is cultural capital, relative to economic and social capital, in explaining the overall distribution of personal resources in contemporary Britain? 
• To what extent does the composition of capitals re-describe, or map onto, occupational class categories? 
• Do different occupational classes and fractions have significantly different types and compositions of assets? If so, is it valid to construe these assets as forms of capital? 
• What is the structure of cultural inequalities in the UK? 

Research Area 3: Cultural capital, social exclusion and cultural policy

What role does cultural capital play in relation to existing patterns of social exclusion? How can a closer knowledge of this assist in developing cultural policies designed to offset the effects of social exclusion?

Research Area 3 will seek to clarify these questions in the light of the theoretical and empirical findings relating to Research Areas 1 and 2, paying special attention to the following questions:

• The relations between levels of educational attainment, the acquisition of cultural capital or assets and the degree of inclusiveness of cultural participation associated with particular class positions. 
   The extent to which, within different class positions, gender affects the degree of inclusiveness of cultural participation. 
• The identification of the respects in which membership of specific ethnic communities increases or diminishes the prospects of inclusive forms of cultural participation.  
• The interrelations between these considerations and other factors (age, region, urban/suburban/rural location, etc) affecting inclusiveness of cultural participation.