The investigation of the effects of cultural capital on body management from a sociological perspective (case study of the youth of Gilan-e-gharb)

Body management means constant monitoring and manipulation of visible features of body that consists of following indexes: weight controlling (through exercise, diet and medication), medical manipulation (plastic surgery) and paying attention to health care and cosmetics (daily bathing, hairdressing, makeup, using of perfume, deodorant and nail makeup and colored lens for women). Cultural capital, as one of the key concepts in contemporary sociology, has great importance. Cultural capital refers to concentration and accumulation of different types of tangible cultural goods and power and ability to provide and take these kinds of goods as well as individual talents and capacities in understanding and application of these goods. According to Bourdieu cultural capital can be divided into three categories; internalized, internalized and institutionalized cultural capital. The present study makes an attempt to investigate the theoretical relationship between cultural capital and body management through the framework provided by "Bourdieu" and “Giddens" theories. The procedure adopted in the present paper is the survey one through a questionnaire with a sample population of 402 youths (male and female) aged between15-29 living in the city of Gilan-e-gharb. The sampling method was Multistage cluster sampling. Results of the application of both descriptive and analytic statistics point to the fact that the average of cultural capital (3.37 out of 5) is higher than body management (2.82 out of 5). The results show that both cultural capital and body management in the society under investigation are in an average amount. The comparisons made between the coefficient indexes indicate that cultural capital among girls with 0.335 is higher than among boys with 0.298. Moreover, multi-variable linear regressions for variables independent from body management (boys and girls) indicate that from among independent variables (internalized cultural capital, objective and institutionalized) in the linear regression for boys only the objective cultural capital remains in the final model. Beta comparison shows that the extent to which objective cultural capital is effective is 0.294. However, the multi-variable linear regression for girls shows that objective cultural capital and internalized with beta indexes of 0.202 and 0.164 have that most significant and least significant relationship, respectively, with independent variable of body management for girls.