Summary

Capacities include the resources and forms of knowledge that contribute to cultural citizenship. It is by accumulating these capacities that people are empowered to engage in a range of cultural activity and experience a sense of belonging. Participation and capacity have a reciprocal relationship - the greater one's cultural capacities, the better equipped one is to participate in a range of cultural activity. At the same time, participation itself helps one to acquire a range of cultural capacities.

This is particularly important for people from migrant backgrounds who may not have access to the resources and knowledge required to participate fully across different cultural domains. Acquiring these capacities can help people to become more mobile, moving beyond narrowly defined social groups, and providing them with the resources to shape the dominant culture.

This framework highlights the importance of four key capacities: social networks, english language fluency, institutional literacy and access, and, cross-cultural literacy.

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