Cultural capital refers to knowledge, formal titles and diplomas, and physical cultural objects that an individual can use to achieve success in life. In this sense, cultural capital acts similarly to financial capital, as you can use it as a resource.

In Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical perspective, cultural capital plays an important role. A person's cultural capital depends on the amount of knowledge and the ability to use symbolic cultural forms that are associated with the top of the hierarchy within each “field”. The form of cultural capital to which Bourdieu pays the greatest attention is high art, i.e. knowledge of classical music, painting, fine literature, and the like. Within the upper class, there is an inverse relationship between the size of economic and cultural capital. To achieve a generational reproduction of class position, those with the most economic capital can achieve reproduction by using only economic capital, while those who do not have enough economic capital need cultural capital to preserve positions within the ruling class. The class habitus of workers is shaped by the internalization of their own class position, and this internalization occurs during early socialization, primarily through the family and the school system. Accordingly, habitus acts as a socialized form of capital. Formal educational qualifications are a particularly important aspect of cultural capital. 

Randall Collins argues that in situations in which people enter into direct personal contacts and go through the same emotional states together, "interaction rituals" are created. These interaction rituals create a sense of belonging to a group, and that leads to individual experiences that achieve a higher level of "emotional energy." For an individual to receive emotional energy from an interaction ritual, that person must possess knowledge of shared symbols. However, these symbols must be experienced in person to provoke an emotional reaction. Collins calls the entire repertoire of symbols "cultural capital".

Paul DiMaggio studied highbrow aesthetic culture in students and found out that it allowed students to show ‘‘status displays’’, which were rewarded by the teachers. Lamont and Lareau, in the article “Cultural Capital” (1988) gave the definition of cultural capital: ‘‘institutionalized, i.e. widely shared, high status cultural signals (attitudes, preferences, formal knowledge, behaviors, goods, and credentials) used for social and cultural exclusion.’’

References:

Bourdieu. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (1977, in French 1970);

     -     Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977, in French 1972);

     -     An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology (1992);

     -     Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1984, in French 1979);

Collins. Interaction Ritual Chains (2004);

Cooley. Social Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind (1909).