Skills as cultural capital?

In this paper we refer to Bourdieu's distinction of economic, cultural and social capital, suggesting to extend the concept of cultural capital by includind as an additional dimension the manual skills persons have. We further explore how skills (as a part of cultural capital) are related to economic and social capital. Based on face-to-face-interviews of a sample of residents of four poverty areas in Cologne, Germany, we empirically test the proposition, skills can be converted into economic and social capital. Our findings indicate that persons receiving transfer payments convert their skills into economic capital significantly more often than persons without transfer payments. The conversion of skills depends upon the size of the social network, hence on the social capital the person has. The findings support the theoretical argument to include skills in the concept of cultural capital.