Rajesh works in a corporate office where many of his colleagues and supervisors often go for expensive vacations, boasting of a particular lifestyle. He applies for a personal loan to take a Europe tour with his family in the summer and boasts about the vacation to his relatives. What does the Europe tour symbolise?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Status symbol
Option (1) Cultural capital — Incorrect. Cultural capital means resources such as educational qualifications and status that a person holds. Rajesh does not gain any qualification from the trip; he buys an expensive holiday to show it off.
Option (2) Liberalisation — Incorrect. Liberalisation is a government economic policy of loosening controls on trade and investment. It does not explain one person’s spending to impress others.
Option (3) Status symbol — Correct. Max Weber pointed out that the goods people buy and use are closely related to their status in society, and coined the term status symbol for this relationship; the brand of cell phone or the model of car one owns are markers of socio-economic status. Rajesh takes a loan for a Europe tour to match the lifestyle of his colleagues and then boasts about it, so the tour stands for the status he wants to display.
Option (4) Globalisation — Incorrect. Foreign travel is part of a more connected world, but the question asks what the tour means for Rajesh among his colleagues and relatives, and that is status.
NCERT (2025-26): “Commoditisation and Consumption … One of sociology’s founders, Max Weber, was among the first to point out that the goods that people buy and use are closely related to their status in society. He coined the term status symbol to describe this relationship. For example, among the middle class in India today, the brand of cell phone or the model of car that one owns are important markers of socio-economic status. Weber also wrote about how classes and status groups are differentiated on the basis of their lifestyles.” “Indian Society — Chapter 5, Social Inequality: … In every society, some people have a greater share of valued resources – money, property, education, health, and power – than others. These social resources can be divided into three forms of capital – economic capital in the form of material assets and income; cultural capital such as educational qualifications and status; and social capital in the form of networks of contacts and social associations (Bourdieu 1986).…” |