Key concepts of Pierre Bourdieu

 

Key concepts of Pierre Bourdieu

 

Theory of practice, their definitions and examples:

 

1.      Cultural capital

Bourdieu developed the concept of cultural capital in the late 1960s when studying the French educational system.

Cultural capital comprises the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech, style of dress, etc.) that promote social mobility in stratified society.

Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital was heavily influenced by the theories of Karl Marx.

Sharing similar forms of cultural capital with others creates a sense of collective identity and group position i.e. the identity of “people like us”.

There are certain forms of cultural capital which are valued over others, and can help or hinder one’s social mobility just as much as income or wealth.

Bourdieu noticed that middle-class students tended to persist through school, while working-class students had higher dropout rates. This happens because schools operated based on the culture of the dominant class, and expected all students to be knowledgeable of it. They might not be viewed as favorable by teachers; they might not understand materials or assignments that were based on the dominant culture. Thus they might opt out of education themselves.

He further had gave three forms of cultural capital namely: 1) Embodied 2) Objectified 3) Institutionalized.

 

2.      Habitus

Habitus refers to the physical embodiment of cultural capital. It is the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions that we posses due to our life experiences.

Bourdieu often used sports metaphors “feel for the game” when talking about the habitus.

He further said that in the right situations, our habitus allows us to successfully navigate social environment. It also extends to our “taste” for cultural objects such as art, food, and clothing.

Bourdieu often noted, that habitus was so ingrained that people often mistook the feel for the game as natural instead of culturally developed.   

In one of his major works, Distinction, Bourdieu links French citizens’ tastes in art to their social class positions, forcefully arguing that aesthetic sensibilities are shaped by the culturally ingrained habitus.  This often leads to justifying social inequality, because it is believed that some people are naturally disposed to the finer things in life while others are not.

 

3.      Field

Bourdieu understood the social world as being divided up into a variety of distinct arenas or “fields” of practice like art, education, religion, law etc., each with their own unique set of rules, knowledge, and forms of capital.

Each field has its own set of positions and practices, as well as its struggles for position as people mobilize their capital to stake claims within a particular social domain.

Much like a baseball or football field, social fields are places where people struggle for position and play to win.

 

4.      Symbolic power

 

Power is seldom exercised as overt physical force. According to Bourdieu, symbolic power is an invisible power which is misrecognized as such and thereby recognizes as legitimate.