The Symbolic Capital of Digital Cultural Elites and Its Impact on Shaping Saudi Cultural Identity: a Study of a Sample of Influential Intellectual Accounts on the YouTube Platform

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the processes of accumulation, transformation and appropriation of symbolic capital by digital cultural elites in Saudi Arabia as well as how this symbolic capital constructs the meanings of the Saudi cultural identity in the context of rapid social and cultural changes that are taking place in the kingdom. The study is conceptual and interpretive, influenced by Pierre Bourdieu's work on fields and forms of capital and further elaborated by recent work on the concept of networked publics, online video, and platform affordances and micro-celebrity. Instead of providing statistical figures, it describes and draws analytical samples of five ideal types of influential intellectual channels: (1) the heritage custodian, (2) the reformist modernizer, (3) the religious-cultural interpreter, (4) the creative-industries curator, and (5) the critical-ironic commentator. They are all analyzed with respect to the capital that they introduce into the digital domain, how that capital is translated into visibility and legitimacy, and the versions of Saudi identity they tell. The analysis proposes four mechanisms by which symbolic capital has an effect on identity: consecration, boundary work, conversion of offline and online capital, and algorithmic amplification, especially in the context of YouTube’s recommendation systems, which focus on watch time, and of the direct monetization of attention. The article suggests that digital cultural elites aren't necessarily autonomous creators of identity, but rather play the role of mediators who use their agency to re-contextualize institutional cultural projects into vernacular culture, and at the same time contest to define the legitimate boundaries of authenticity. Finally, in a comparative section, the author brings Bourdieu's conceptualization of the logic of accumulation into dialogue with Daoist deconstruction of name (ming) and fame in the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, arguing that Daoist philosophy is a fruitful lens for understanding the prices of a culture of recognition. The article ends with an agenda for empirical studies.