Displaying, accumulating, and transforming spatial capital: coffeehouses as everyday urban arenas

Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of capital and debates on spatial capital, this study conceptualises spatial capital as a relational capacity emerging from the interaction between users’ capital configurations and the socio-spatial qualities of places. It operationalises this relationship through three mechanisms: display, accumulation, and transformation. Based on observations of 44 coffeehouses and interviews with 32 participants in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, the study identifies distinct dynamics across the three coffee waves. Second- and third-wave venues support professional networks, aesthetic knowledge, and digital visibility, whereas first-wave venues sustain neighbourhood reciprocity and intergenerational contact. Cross-class co-presence in first-wave venues rarely translates into transferable capital.