C is for Cross-Cultural Capital

I’ve been researching the concept of “Cross-Cultural Capital.” It seems to be a rarely used term, but is closely associated to S. Ang et al’s work on Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and expands on P. Bourdieu’s definition of “Cultural Capital”. He defined the meaning of cultural capital to be social assets we possess due to our belonging to a specific social group.

So what happens when we add the extra “C” to make it cross-cultural capital?

I would define the meaning of cross-cultural capital to be the knowledge, skills, experiences and behaviours that we can leverage to work in a specific culture or in a culturally diverse environment. I had a quick brainstorm about what these cross-cultural capital examples and assets might look like. Have a look at the image I have included in this article.

Would you add any others to these lists?
What are your cross-cultural capital assets?
Where could you gain more?

A-Z of Cross-Cultural Awareness
This blog post is part of a series of short posts on cross-cultural awareness. Keep an eye out for the rest of the series.