1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias In sociology and anthropology, symbolic capital can be referred to as the resources available to an individual on the basis of honor, prestige or recognition, and serves as value that one holds within a culture.
[2] The concept of symbolic capital is grounded in the theory of conspicuous consumption, first introduced and expounded in late-19th century works by Thorstein Veblen and Marcel Mauss.
Bourdieu argues that symbolic capital gains value at the cross-section of class and status, where one must not only possess but be able to appropriate objects with a perceived or concrete sense of value.
The term social capital was first defined by Jane Jacobs in order to explain the inherent value formed in neighborhood relationships which allowed members to cooperate and establish a communal sense of trust.
The concept itself, however, was originally articulated by L. J. Hanifan in a 1916 journal article, "The Rural School Community Center", in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.