Cultural capital is one of the most important concepts in Bourdieu's sociological theory along with habitus and field. It plays a key role in his analysis of cultural distinction and inequality. There are also many sociological studies using the concept of cultural capital. In this paper, I examine Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital in terms of contemporary social and cultural conditions and reconsider its sociological scope, taking the perspective of emerging cultural capital into account.
Bourdieu considers cultural capital a relational concept; however, his Distinction also adopts absolute standards, namely, the cultural legitimacy based on the rarity and the distance from necessity. This legitimacy becomes the symbolic boundary between highbrow and popular culture, and cultural distinction works through it. However, Peterson's cultural omnivore thesis and Lamont's study of boundary work in the 1990s have led to reconsidering this form of cultural distinction.
In recent years, several studies in post-Bourdieusian cultural sociology have also focused on emerging forms of cultural capital. These studies argue that the rise of crossover taste does not mean the erosion of cultural distinction. Rather, they claim that class inequalities in cultural consumption persist and two emerging forms of cultural capital, i.e., "cosmopolitan taste" and "knowing mode of appropriation of culture" are the key to understanding cultural distinction today. Particularly, these new forms of cultural distinctions are found in the younger age groups, and these are associated with contemporary cultural conditions.

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