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Descripción: A Taste of Honey is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 18. It was initially intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revita...
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A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
Piene Boundieu Translated
by Richand Nice
•
o)
f
Distinction A Social Critique of Judgement of Taste
1984 by rhc President 2nd Fellows of Harvard College
and Routledge
&
Kcgan
Paul Ltd.
All rights reserved
Printed
the United States of America
in
Originally published in 1979 by Les Editions de Minuit, Paris, as
La
Distinction: Critique ixiale
The
preparation of this
du jugemmt by Pierre Bourdieu.
volume was
assisted
Translations Program of the National
by grants from the
Endowment
for the
Humanities, an independent federal agency, and from the Cultural Exchange Service of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The
assistance of the
Maison de Sciences de
also appreciated.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bourdieu, Pierre Distinction:
of
a social
judgement
critique of the
taste.
Translation
of:
La distinction, critique sociale
du jugement. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.
France
French,
3.
—Civilization— 1945-
Social classes— France,
DC33.7.B6513
1984
ISBN 0-674-2 1277-0
,
I.
306 '.0944
(paper)
2.
Aesthetics,
Title.
84-491
I'
Homme
is
Contents
Preface to the English-Language Edition
Introduction
Part
I
^ 1
1
Social Critique of the Jtsdgement of Taste
The The
Aristocracy of Culture
11
The
Social Space
18
63
The Economy of Practices 2
and
97 Transformations
Its
Class Condition and Social Conditioning
A Three-Dimension al
Space
Reconversion Strategies
The Habitus and
The Dynamics of
99
101
114
125
the Space of Life-Styles
The Homology between the Spaces The Universes of Stylistic Possibles 4
9
11
Titles of Cultural Nobility
Cultural Pedigree
Part
xi
the Fields
169
175
208
226
The Correspondence between Goods Production and Taste Production
Symbolic Struggles
Part
m
Class Tastes
5
The
ami
230
244
Life-Styles
Sense of Distinction
257 260
The Modes of Appropriation of the Work of Art The Variants of the Dominant Taste 283 The Mark of Time 295 Temporal and
Spiritual
Powers
315
267
1
6
Cultural Goodwill
318
Knowledge and Recognition
319
Education and the Autodidact Slope and Thrust
The
331
Variants of Petit-Bourgeois Taste Petite Bourgeoisie
346
The Executant
Petite Bourgeoisie
351
Petite Bourgeoisie
From Duty
365
the Necessary
372
Taste for Necessity and the Principle
ofConformity
The
354
Fun Ethic
to the
The Choice of The
8
339
The Declining
The New
7
328
Effects
374
of Domination
Culture and Politics
Democracy
Selective
397 399
Status and
Competence
The Right
to Speak
Personal Opinion
386
405
41
414
The Modes of Production of Opinion Dispossession and Misappropriation
Moral Order and Class Habitus
Supply and
The The
Political
and
Space
Specific Effect
Political
440
of Trajectory
453
459
Conclusion: Classes and Classifications
Knowledge without Concepts
470
Advantageous Attributions
475
The The
479
Classification Struggle
Reality of Representation
Postscript:
Disgust
The
A
at
and the Representation
482
Towards
Critiques
a
'Vulgar' Critique of 'Pure'
485
the 'Facile'
486
'Taste of Reflection' and the 'Taste of Sense'
Denied Social Relationship
Parerga and Paralipomena
The
466
467
Social Structures
of Reality
437
451
Language
Embodied
426
432
Opinions
Political
Demand
Political
Order
417
Pleasure of the Text
494 498
491
488
503
Appendices
Some
I
Method
Reflections on the
2.
Complementary Sources
3.
Statistical
4
Associations:
Data
A
503
519
525 Parlour
Game
546
561
Notes
605
Credits
607
Index
Tables Class preferences for singers
2
Aesthetic disposition, by educational capital
3
Aesthetic disposition, by class and education
4
Knowledge of composers and musical works, by education and
5
Furniture purchases in the
Some
indicators of
dominant 7
Some nant
8
class,
4
by education and
class,
of
social
economic
1966
capital in different fractions
of the
117
domi-
118
1966
class,
members of
the
dominant
class,
by
class fraction,
121
employment of women aged 25-34, by education, 1962 and
134
Changes
m
Changes
in
1954-1968
W
class
119
1954-1975 '2
dominant
indicators of cultural practice in different fractions of the
Rate of 1968
11
class,
Social origin of
1970 10
37
Types of books preferred by different fractions of the dominant 1966
9
36
78
origin
6
15
64
origin
J
and music
1
morphology and
asset structure
of the
asset structure
of the class fractions,
136
morphology and 138
Morphological changes within the dominant Morphological changes within the middle
Changes
in class
•954-1968
class fractions,
class,
class,
1954-1975
1954-1975
140 140
morphology and use of educational system,
158
nnual household expenditures on food: skilled manual workers, 'orcmen and clerical workers, 1972 181 ear 7 spending by teachers, professionals and industrial
commercial employers, 1972
184
and
lg
Annua) household expenditures on food: class,
fractions
188
1972
19
Variations in entertaining, by class fraction, 1978
20
Variations in value placed by
beauty
1976
care,
203 and opinions on
Class variations
22
Class-fraction variations in moral attitudes
23
Opinions on
24
Chances of entering the dominant
25
in Paris
26
sports activities
in
1970-71
and
by
literary prizes,
Knowledge and
and
1969
320
fertility rates,
new
preferences of established and
by
class
petite bourgeoisie,
364
social factors in educational
fraction, 1971
312
class fraction, class,
216
sport, 1971
332
in the provinces
Awareness of
198
Frenchwomen on body, beauty and
21
fraction,
of the dominant
and
social success, by class
388
27
Views on ways of reducing
28
'Don't know' responses to
29
'Don'r know' responses to questions on teaching, by educational 1970
30
The imposition by
effect:
The imposition
Views on
effect:
and
party, 1971
new
socialism, by
430
and moral order, by
class fraction,
436
33
Newspaper reading by men, by educational
34
Newspaper reading by men, by
35
Newspaper reading by men and women, by Percentage of each
paper
level,
429
responses to question on the
political order
1959-1972
36
403
by sex, 1971
on the business world and
responses to question
class fraction, 1971
sex, class fraction
32
political questions,
404
politics,
31
389
inequality, by class fraction, 1970
age, 1975
class fraction
level,
445
1975
445 class fraction,
1975
446
reading each daily and weekly
448
Figures
1
Distribution of preferences for three musical works
2
The
aesthetic disposition in the petite bourgeoisie
3
The
relationship between inherited cultural capital and educational
capital
17
59
81
competence and
4
Specific
5
The
space of social positions
6
The
space of
7
Displacement of schooling
life-styles
talk
about
art
90
128
129 rates
of
16- to 18-year-olds,
1954-1975
159
i
01 existence, habirus and life-style ,;nnc of
171
Conditions
186
space Thc food homes 248 Ideal
v
of the dominant
taste:
the space of properties
ts
of the dominant
taste:
the space of individuals
ts
1
v V
*
ants of the
13
axes of 14
'^ma
Films seen
dominant
taste: simplified
262 262
plane diagram of
1st
and 3rd
266 271
1
petit-bourgeois Variants of
taste:
the space of properties
petit-bourgeois raste: the space of individuals Variants of
340 340
taste: simplified plane diagram of 1st and 3rd Variants of petit-bourgeois
2XCS of inertia 1
8
19
Films seen:
II
343 361
Permissiveness and political preference
20
Opinions on foreign policy and
21
The
political
space
452
423
political preference
427
Prepce to t^e Engliisj;-
Langmge Edition
I
have every reason to fear that this book will strike the reader as 'very
French'— which French
it
is,
1
know
is
not always
of course, by virtue of
read as a sort of
compliment.
a
its
ethnography of France, which, though
no ethnocentric indulgence, should help image of French society that I
believe
it
is
empirical object, and
is
to
I
it
believe
presented by the American tradition. But
possible to enter into the singularity of an object without
doubt, only by using the comparative method, which treats 'particular case
its
no
It is,
object as a
of the possible', that one can hope to avoid unjustifiably
universalizing the particular case
do indeed emphasize the
I
shows
renew the rather stereotyped
renouncing the ambition of drawing out universal propositions.
ses,
it
can be
With
the aid of Norbert Elias's analy-
particularity
of the French
tradition,
namely, the persistence, through different epochs and political regimes, of the aristocratic model of 'court society', personified by a Parisian haute
bourgemie which, combining
nomic and
cultural nobility, has
arrogance of regard
all
all
forms of prestige and
all
the
no counterpart elsewhere,
titles
of ecothe
at least for
1
its
that
cultural judgements. is
said here
It
about the
collection of Parisian curiosities fcrving Goffman
would, however, be
social uses
of
art
a
mistake to
and culture
as a
and frivolities— and not only because,
once pointed out to me, the Parisian version of the
°
'
1V!
ng
as art
has never ceased to exert a sort of fascination in the 'Anglo-
° n world, even beyond the '
circle
of snobs and
socialites,
thereby
at-
taining a kind of universality.
fhe model of the relationships between the universe of economic and soc ia
!
conditions and the universe of
life-styles
which
is
put forward here,
based on an endeavour to rethink
and Stand, seems to
no doubt, tures
me
Max Weber's
to be valid
beyond the even
for every stratified society,
which express or
if
economic and
reveal
opposition between
class]
particular French case
and j
the system of distinctive
social differences
For example, the slightest familiarity with the'
society, to another.
structural
mode of thought
tells
one that the use of French words, proper
common nouns— -Insritut
names, preferably noble, or seur,
(themselves
from one period, and
variable in scale and structure) varies considerably
one
fea-j
Haute couture, etc.— -performs the same function
Avenue or Madison Avenue
as English
words
de Beaute, for shops
Comv|
on
Fifth;
like hairdresser, shirtmakef.
or interior designer on shop fronts in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Hon.; 3
ore.
But,
more
broadly, the sense of distance, even strangeness,
scientific objectirkatton itself
produces and which
is
which
intensified by the
differences in historical traditions, giving different contents to different)
same
realizations of the flecting
onto
his
own
society,
onto himself, the analyses he
That
is
why, though
partial equivalences
between systems,
my knowledge
I
must not prevent the
structures,
is
am
I
onto
own
his
reader from
position within
re-
in short,
it,
offered.
aware of the dangers of a
which cannot stand shall take the risk
facile search for
methodical comparison
in for a
of suggesting, within the limits of;
of American society and culture, some guidelines
for a
reading that seeks to identify, behind the specific institution of a partiaH lar society,
the structural invariant and, by the
institution in another social universe.
pole of the dominant
13,
of the 'international*
arises, since
New York
etc.)
could replace Les Temps
and perhaps ultra-leftism by
sixties
its
\
,;
jj
Review of Books would (alas) represent an'j
unlikely combination of the weekly Nouvel Observateur, the review Critique and, especially in
I
the cultural!
France-Musique by educational television
WQXR, WGBH
while the
'camp',
level
One
international.
Modernes by Partisan Review,
(Channel
At the
the problem scarcely
class
products are (relatively)
same token, the equivalent 1t
successive enthusiasms, the journal Tel
j
Quel As j
regards bourgeois taste, the agers
might ask of the
American
film,
book,
art
professionals, executives
and music
critics
and man-
of the New York
Times or magazines like Time and Newsweek the same balanced, subtly versified
judgements which their French opposite numbers expect from
Le Monde or Le Figaro or weeklies and authors favoured by the
like
L
Express or
Le
Point.
best-seller readership will vary
The
titles
from country
to country, but in each case there will be a preponderance of the stories
and memoirs of exemplary heroes of bourgeois success or
tion novels'.
The undemanding entertainment which
from boulevard
But game,
I
believe
theatre, I
New
at least so as to correct
(Is Brigitre
my
like
'non-fic-
Parisians expect
Broadway musicals.
my
readers to join in the
mistakes and perhaps to pursue the
which would have
Bardot
life-
in
Yorkers will seek
have said enough to encourage
search for equivalents,
ema
di-
to
be sought
Marilyn Monroe?
Is
in
song and
cin-
Jean Gabin the French
u
4W
1
not;
and the preferences of a
ot
To
nt systems.
co
ana
es
I
also in
on
certain that
is
it
— and
of the Channel or the Atlantic some things are compatible,
ide
eaC
or Spencer Tracy?)
decoration, sport and cooking. For
inreri° r
}
Humphrey Bogart
or
\yy a yne,
confirm,
class or class fraction constitute
support this hypothesis, which
who
can invoke Edgar Allan Poe,
I
everyday choices, wren the most
all
the empirical
spells
out the link
decoration, for example,
in
1
the 'fine arts
in
ices
althy
seeing
,
the ordinary arrangement of the
in
apartments of his country the expression of speak of the keeping of a room
*We
pht:
as
we would of
picture— for both the picture and the room
r
which regulate
deviating principles the
varieties
all
way of
a
life
and
the keeping
amenable to those
are
of
and very nearly
art;
same laws by which we decide on the higher merits of for decision on the adjustment of a chamber.'"
a painting,
ufnee
its
In
form, too, this
book
accepts that, as the reader istic
is
'very French'
try to
1
This will be understood
show, the mode of expression character-
of a cultural production always depends on the laws of the market 7
which
offered.
is
it
Although the book
mental taboos of the intellectual world,
transgresses
so— it
does
it
or intellectual
That
ence.
tion—why
is I
which condemn
mand. (As
—along with
the costs of
as
book produc-
the rhetoric of scientificity
may
whose
the style of the book,
structed as they are with a in a
pass over
long,
text,
would
de-
containing
examples or discussion of ancillary
printed in small type so that the reader
world
sci-
and have not always given the exposition of the
French edition, some passages of the
in the
of the main argument
social
barbarous any attempt to
have only very partially reproduced the survey material and
detailed statistical material, illustrative issues, are
as
one of the reasons
much prominence
as
no doubt,
also,
present incarnation of the sacred, as an object of
the statistical data used,
method
—and
products
cannot entirely ignore or defy the laws of academic
propriety
treat culture, that
in
one of the funda-
in relating intellectual
and producers to their social conditions of existence because
if
them on
who
seeks an overview
a first reading.) Likewise,
complex sentences may offend
—con-
view to reconstituting the complexity of the
language capable of holding together the most divetse
things while setting
them
endeavour to mobilize
—stems
in rigorous perspective
all
partly
the resources of the traditional
from the
modes of
ex-
pression, literary, philosophical or scientific, so as to say things that were PC facto or de jure excluded from them, and to prevent the reading from st
'PPing back into the simplicities of the smart essay or the political po-
emic Finally,
i
rca ij 2e
how much
may have contributed
the specificity of the French intellectual
to the conception of this book, in particular
P^aps immoderate ambition of giving a scientific answer to the uc S srions of Kant's critique of judgement, by seeking in the strucre of the social classes the basis of the systems of classification which
.,
structure perception of the social world thetic
enjoyment. But in an age
when
and designate the objects of
the effects of a premature division]
of labour separate anthropology from sociology, and, within the
latter,'
the sociology of knowledge from the sociology of culture, not to tion the sociology of food or sport, still
haunted by the ultimate and
tellectual that
one
is
it is
total
when
menv
perhaps the advantage of a world; questionings of the prophetic in>
led to refuse the self-induced
myopia which makes
impossible to observe and understand everything that reveal only
aes-
human
it
practices
they are seen in their mutual relationships, that
is,
as a
9
totality
At
all
events, there
tifying the
is
nothing more universal than the project of objec-'
mental structures associated with the particularity of a
structure, Because
presupposes an epistemological break which
it
social break, a sort
is
social,
also a
of estrangement from the familiar, domestic, native
world, the critique (in the Kantian sense) of culture invites each reader,
through the 'making strange' beloved of the Russian formalists, to re'
produce on
his or
her
own
product. For this reason universal culture.
it
behalf the is
critical
break of which
it
is
the
perhaps the only rational basis for a truly'
Distinction
Introduction You
said
it,
my good
knight! There ought to be laws to
protect the body of acquired knowledge.
Take one of our good
pupils, for example: modest and from his earliest grammar classes he's kept a little norebook full of phrases. After hanging on the lips of his teachers for twenty years, he's managed to build up an intellectual stock in trade; doesn't it belong to him as if it were a house, or
diligent,
money? Paul Claudel, Le Soulier de
satin,
Day
III,
Scene
ii
There is an economy of cultural goods, but it has a specific logic. Sociology endeavours to establish the conditions in which the consumers of cultural goods, and their taste for them, are produced, and at the same time to describe the different ways of appropriating such of these objects as are regarded at a particular
conditions of the constitution
moment as works of art, and the social of the mode of appropriation that is con-
But one cannot
sidered legitimate.
fully
understand cultural practices
unless 'culture', in the restricted, normative sense of ordinary usage,
and the elaboreconnected with the elemen-
brought back into
'culture' in the anthropological sense,
rated taste for the
most
refined objects
is
is
of food. Whereas the ideology of charisma regards
tary taste for the flavours
taste in legitimate culture as
of nature, scientific observation shows that cultural needs are the product of upbringing and education: surveys establish that all cultural a gift
practices
(museum
literature,
visits,
concert-going, reading etc.), and preferences in
painting or music, are closely linked to educational level
(measured by qualifications or length of schooling) and secondarily to social origin. The relative weight of home background and of formal education (the effectiveness and duration of which are closely dependent
on
social origin)
varies
according to the extent to which the different
and taught by the educational system, origin is strongest- other things being
cultural practices are recognized
and the influence of equal
—
social
in 'extra-curricular'
nized hierarchy of the (periods,
arts,
—
and avant-garde culture. To the
socially recog-
and within each of them, of genres, schools or
corresponds a social hierarchy of the consumers. This predisposes
2 / Introductbn
The manner
which culture has been acquired lives on in the manner of using it: the importance attached to manners can be understood once it is seen that it is these imponderables of practice which distinguish the different—and ranked -modes of culture acquisition, early or late, domestic or scholastic, and the classes of individuals which they characterize (such as 'pedants' and mondaim). Culture also has its titles of nobility awarded by the educational system and its pedigrees, measured by seniority in admission to the function as markers of
tastes to
'class'.
in
—
—
—
nobility.
The
definition of cultural nobility
gone on
is
the stake in a struggle which has
unceasingly, from the seventeenth century to the present day,
between groups differing in their ideas of culture and of the legitimate relation to culture and to works of art, and therefore differing in the 2 conditions of acquisition of which these dispositions are the product. Even in the classroom, the dominant definition of the legitimate way of appropriating culture and works of art favours those who have had early access to legitimate culture, in a cultured household, outside of scholastic disciplines, since
knowledge and
even within the educational system
it
devalues scholarly
interpretation as 'scholastic' or even 'pedantic' in favour
of direct experience and simple delight.
The
whar is sometimes called, in typically 'pedantic' language, the 'reading' of a work of art, offers an objective basis for this opposition. Consumption is, in this case, a stage in a process of communication, that is, an act of deciphering, decoding, which presupposes practical or explicit mastery of a cipher or code. In a sense, one can say that the capacity to see (wir) is a function of the knowledge (savoir), or concepts, that is, the words, that are available to name visible things, and which are, as it were, programmes for perception. A work of art has meaning and interest only for someone who possesses the cultural competence, that is, the code, into which it is encoded. The conscious or unconscious implementation of explicit or implicit schemes of perception and appreciation which constitutes pictorial or musical culture is the hidden condition for recognizing the styles characteristic of a period, a school or an author, and, more generally, for the familiarity with the internal logic of works that aesthetic enjoyment presupposes. A beholder who lacks the specific code feels lost in a chaos of sounds and rhythms, colours and lines, without rhyme or reason. Not having learnt to adopt the adequate disposition, he stops short at what Erwin Panofsky calls the 'sensible properties', logic of
perceiving a skin as
downy
or lace-work as delicate, or at the emotional
resonances aroused by these properties, referring to 'austere' colours or a
He
cannot move from the 'primary stratum of the meaning we can grasp on the basis of our ordinary experience' to the 'stratum of secondary meanings', i.e., the 'level of the meaning of what is 'joyful*
melody.
he possesses the concepts which go beyond the sensible properties and which identify the specifically stylistic properties of the signified', unless
Introduction 3
work. Thus the encounter with a work of art is
is
not Move
/ 3
at first sight' as
generally supposed, and the act of empathy, Emfiihlung, which
is
the
an act of cognition, a decoding operation, which implies the implementation of a cognitive acquirement, a
art-lover's pleasure, presupposes
cultural code.
This typically intellectualist theory of tradicts the experience
of the
perception directly con-
artistic
art-lovers closest to the legitimate defini-
of legitimate culture by insensible familiarization within the family circle tends to favour an enchanted experience of culture which implies forgetting the acquisition.' The 'eye' is a product of history reproduced by education. This is true of the mode of artistic perception; acquisition
tion
now
accepted
as legitimate,
that
is,
the aesthetic disposition, the
capacity to consider in and for themselves, as form rather than function,
not only the works designated for such apprehension,
i.e.,
legitimate
works of art, but everything in the world, including cultural objects which are not yet consecrated—-such as, at one time, primitive arts, or, nowadays, popular photography or kitsch and natural objects. The 'pure' gaze is a historical invention linked to the emergence of an autonomous field of artistic production, that is, a field capable of imposing its own norms on both the production and the consumption of its products. An art which, like all Post-Impressionist painting, is the product of an artistic intention which asserts the primacy of the mode of representa-
—
demands categorically an only demanded conditionally.
tion over the object of representation
attention
form which previous art The pure intention of the artist is that of a producer who aims to be autonomous, that is, entirely the master of his produce, who tends to reject not only the 'programmes' imposed a priori by scholars and scribes, but also following the old hierarchy of doing and saying the interpretations superimposed a posteriori on his work. The production of an 'open work', intrinsically and deliberately polysemic, can thus be understood as the final stage in the conquest of artistic autonomy by poets and, following in their footsteps, by painters, who had long been reliant on writers and their work of 'showing' and 'illustrating'. To assert the autonomy of production is to give primacy to that of which the artist is master, i.e., form, manner, style, rather than the 'subject', the external refeven if only the most erent, which involves subordination to functions elementary one, that of representing, signifying, saying something. It also means a refusal to recognize any necessity other than that inscribed to
—
—
—
in the specific tradition
from an from its its
art
own its
artistic discipline in
which imitates nature to an
art
history the exclusive source of
breaks with tradition.
ence to
of the
own
history
An
art
demands
question: the shift
which imitates its
art,
deriving
experiments and even of
which ever increasingly contains to be perceived historically;
it
refer-
asks to be
referred not to an external referent, the represented or designated 'reality',
but to the universe of past and present works of
art.
Like artistic produc-
4
Introduction
/
tion, in that
generated in a
it is
inasmuch as it is tions (ecarts) which make historical,
operating outside the the history of the
of works of
art
is
necessarily
differential, relational, attentive to the devia-
Like the so-called naive painter who,
styles.
and
its
specific traditions,
remains external to
the 'naive' spectator cannot attain a specific grasp
which only have meaning
specific history
manded by
art,
field
aesthetic perception
field,
of an
artistic
the products of a
— or value—
in relation to the
The aesthetic disposition dehighly autonomous field of production is tradition.
inseparable from a specific cultural competence. This historical culture
functions as a principle of pertinence which enables one to identify,
among
the elements offered to the gaze,
the distinctive features and
all
only these, by referring them, consciously or unconsciously, to the universe of possible alternatives. This mastery
simply by contact with works of
art— that
ing analogous to that which makes
it
is
rules or criteria
what makes
it
is,
possible to recognize familiar faces
—and
without explicit level;
it
most part, acquired through an implicit learn-
for the
is,
it
generally remains at a practical
possible to identify styles,
modes of
i.e.,
expres-
sion characteristic of a period, a civilization or a school, without having to distinguish clearly, or state explicitly, the features
their originality. Everything
which constitute
seems to suggest that even
among
profes-
which define the stylistic properties of the 'typworks' on which all their judgements are based usually remain
sional valuers, the criteria ical
implicit.
The pure gaze
implies a break with the ordinary attitude towards the
world, which, given the conditions in which cial
separation.
modern
mon
—
Ortega
y Gasset
art a systematic refusal
it
is
can be believed
of
all
that
is
performed,
when he
'human',
is
also a so-
attributes to
generic,
i.e.,
—
com-
opposed to distinctive, or distinguished namely, the passions, emotions and feelings which 'ordinary' people invest in their 'ordinary' lives. It is as if the 'popular aesthetic' (the quotation marks are there to indicate that this is an aesthetic 'in itself not 'for itself) were based on the affirmation of the continuity between art and life, which implies the subordination of form to function. This is seen clearly in the case of the as
novel and especially the theatre, where the working-class audience refuses
any sort of formal experimentation and
ducing
a distance
all
the effects which, by intro-
from the accepted conventions
etc.), tend to distance the spectator,
(as regards scenery, plot
preventing him from getting
volved and fully identifying with the characters Brechtian 'alienation' or the disruption of plot
in
contrast to the detachment and disinterestedness regards as the only
autonomous,
thinking of
the nouveau roman). In
which
way of recognizing the work of
selbstdndig, the
am
(I
in-
aesthetic theory
art for
what
it is, i.e.,
'popular aesthetic' ignores or refuses the
re-
which is the basis of the taste for formal experiment. And popular judgements of paintings or photographs spring from an 'aesthetic' (in fact it is an fusal
of
'facile'
involvement and 'vulgar' enjoyment,
a refusal
Introduction /
ethos) which
is
the exact opposite of the Kantian aesthetic. Whereas, in
order to grasp the specificity of the aesthetic judgement,
which
distinguish that
pleases
from that which
erally, to distinguish disinterestedness, the sole
quality
aesthetic
cally
:5
gratifies
Kant strove to and, more gen-
guarantor of the
specifi-
of contemplation, from the interest of reason
Good, working-class people expect every image to explicitly perform a function, if only that of a sign, and their judgements make reference, often explicitly, to the norms of morality or agreeableness. Whether rejecting or praising, their appreciation always has an ethwhich
defines the
ical basis.
schemes of the ethos, which pertain in the ordinary circumstances of life, to legitimate works of art, and so performs a systematic reduction of the jfhings of art to the things of life. The very seriousness (or naivety) which this taste invests in fictions and representations demonstrates a contrario that pure taste performs a suspension of 'naive' involvement which is one dimension of a 'quasi-ludic' relationship with the necessities of the world. Intellectuals could be said to bePopular
taste applies the
lieve in the representation
—
literature, theatre,
painting
—more
than in
the things represented, whereas the people chiefly expect representations
and the conventions which govern them
to allow
The pure
aesthetic
things represented.
ively' in the
them is
to believe 'na-
rooted in an ethic,
or rather, an ethos of elective distance from the necessities of the natural
and
which may take the form of moral agnosticism transgression becomes an artistic parti pris ) or of an
social world,
when
ethical
icism
which presents the
(visible
aesthet-
aesthetic disposition as a universally valid prin-
and takes the bourgeois denial of the social world to its limit. The detachment of the pure gaze cannot be dissociated from a general disposition towards the world which is the paradoxical product of conditioning by negative economic necessities a life of ease that tends to induce an active distance from necessity. ciple
—
—
Although sition, there
art is
obviously offers the greatest scope tQ the aesthetic dispo-
no
area of practice in
which the aim of purifying,
refining
and sublimating primary needs and impulses cannot assert itself, no area in which the stylization of life, that is, the primacy of forms over function,
of manner over matter, does not produce the same
nothing
is
more
distinctive,
more
effects.
And
distinguished, than the capacity to
confer aesthetic status on objects that are banal or even 'common' (be-
cause the 'common' people
make them
their
own,
especially for aesthetic
purposes), or the ability to apply the principles of a 'pure' aesthetic to the
most everyday choices of everyday
life, e.g., in
cooking, clothing or deco-
ration, completely reversing the popular disposition
which annexes
aes-
thetics to ethics.
through the economic and social conditions which they presuppose, the different ways of relating to realities and fictions, of believing in fictions and the realities they simulate, with more or less distance In
fact,
6 / Introduction
and detachment, are very
closely linked to the different possible positions
in social space and, consequently,
bound up with
the systems of disposi-
tions (habitus) characteristic of the different classes
Taste
and
and
class fractions.
by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in classifies,
it
classifies
the
classifier.
Social subjects, classified
which
their position in the objective classifications
trayed.
And
statistical analysis
does indeed
show
is
expressed or be-
that oppositions similar
found in cultural practices also appear in eating habits. The antithesis between quantity and quality, substance and form, corresponds to the opposition linked to different distances from necessity between the taste of necessity, which favours the most 'filling' and most economical foods, and the taste of liberty or luxury which shifts the emphasis to the manner (of presenting, serving, eating etc.) and tends to use stylized forms to deny function. The science of taste and of cultural consumption begins with a transin structure to those
—
—
—
—
gression that
is
in
no way
aesthetic:
it
has to abolish the sacred frontier
which makes legitimate culture a separate universe, in order to discover the intelligible relations which unite apparently incommensurable 'choices', such as preferences in music and food, painting and sport, literature and hairstyle. This barbarous reintegration of aesthetic consumption into the world of ordinary consumption abolishes the opposition, which has been the basis of high aesthetics since Kant, between the 'taste of sense' and the 'taste of reflection', arid between facile pleasure, pleasure reduced to a pleasure of the senses, and pure pleasure, pleasure purified of pleasure, which is predisposed to become a symbol of moral excellence and a measure of the capacity for sublimation which defines the truly human man. The culture which results from this magical division is sacred. Cultural consecration docs indeed confer on the objects, persons and situations it touches, a sort of ontological promotion akin to a transubstantiation. Proof enough of this is found in the two following quotations, which might almost have been written for the delight of the sociologist:
'What struck me most
nothing could be obscene on the stage of our premier theatre, and the ballerinas of the Opera, even as naked 7 dancers, sylphs, sprites or Bacchae, retain an inviolable purity.' 'There are obscene postures: the stimulated intercourse which offends the eye. Clearly,
it is
is
this:
impossible to approve, although the interpolation of
such gestures in dance routines does give them a symbolic and aesthetic quality
which
before
its
is
absent from the intimate scenes the cinema daily flaunts
spectators' eyes ...
except that
it is
As
for the
nude scene, what can one
brief and theatrically not very effective?
I
will
not say
say, it is
chaste or innocent, for nothing commercial can be so described. Let us
not shocking, and that the chief objection is that it serves as 8 box-office gimmick. ... In Hair, the nakedness fails to be symbolic.' say
predisposed, consciously and deliberately or not, to
of legitimating social differences.
fulfil
for-,
are
a social function
T^e Aristocracy of Culture
Sociology
is
rarely
more
akin to social psychoanalysis than
when
it
con-
one of the most vital stakes in the struggles fought in the field of the dominant class and the field of cultural production. This is not only because the judgement of taste is the supreme manifestation of the discernment which, by reconciling reason and sensibility, the pedant who understands without feeling and the mondain who enjoys without understanding, defines the accomplished individual. Nor is it solely because every rule of propriety designates in advance the project of defining this indefinable essence as a clear manifestation of philistinism whether it be the academic propriety which, from Alois Riegl and Heinrich Wolfflin to Elie Faure and Henri Focillon, and from the most scholastic commentators on the classics to the avant-garde semiologist, insists on a formalist reading of the work of art; or the upperclass propriety which treats taste as one of the surest signs of true nobility and cannot conceive of referring taste to anything other than itself. Here the sociologist finds himself in the area par excellence of the denial of the social. It is not sufficient to overcome the initial self-evident fronts an object like taste,
—
appearances, in other words, to relate taste, the uncreated source of 'creation', to the social conditions of full
well that the very same people
which
who strive
it is
the product,
all
knowing
to repress the clear relation
and education, between culture as the state of that which is cultivated and culture as the process of cultivating, will be amazed that
between
taste
anyone should expend so much effort in scientifically proving that selfevident fact. He must also question that relationship, which only appears to be self-explanatory, and unravel the paradox whereby the relationship
12 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement
of Taste
with educational capital is just as strong in areas which the educational system does not teach. And he must do this without ever being able to appeal unconditionally to the positivistic arbitration of what are called facts. Hidden behind the statistical relationships between educational capital or social origin and this or that type of knowledge or way of applying
it,
there are relationships between groups maintaining different,
and even antagonistic, relations to culture, depending on the conditions in which they acquired their cultural capital and the markets in which they can derive most profit from it. But we have not yet finished with the self-evident.
The question
itself
the relation to culture which
whether
a
change
in
it
has
to-
be questioned
tacitly privileges
—
in
—
in
other words,
order to establish
the content and form of the question would not be
sufficient to transform the relationships observed.
There
is
no way out of
game of culture; and one's only chance of objectifying the true nature of the game is to objectify as fully as possible the very operations which one is obliged to use in order to achieve that objectification. De te fabula narratur. The reminder is meant for the reader as well as the socithe
ologist. Paradoxically, the
games of
culture are protected against objecti-
by all the partial objectifications which the actors involved in the game perform on each other: scholarly critics cannot grasp the objective reality of society aesthetes without abandoning their grasp of the true nature of their own activity; and the same is true of their opponents. The same law of mutual lucidity and reflexive blindness governs the antagonism between 'intellectuals' and 'bourgeois' (or their spokesmen in the field of production). And even when bearing in mind the function which legitimate culture performs in class relations, one is still liable to be led into accepting one or the other of the self-interested representations of culture which 'intellectuals' and 'bourgeois' endlessly fling at each other. Up to now the sociology of the production and producers of culture has never escaped from the play of opposing images, in which 'right-wing intellectuals' and 'left-wing intellectuals' (as the current taxonomy puts it) subject their opponents and their strategies to an objectivist reduction which vested interests make that much easier. The objectification is always bound to remain partial, and therefore false, so long as it fails to include the point of view from which it speaks and so fication
fails
to construct the
positions
the
fact
is it
game
as a
whole. Only
at the level
of the
field
of
possible to grasp both the generic interests associated with
of taking part in the
game and
the specific interests attached to
the different positions, and, through this, the form and content of the
through which these interests are expressed. Despite the aura of objectivity they like to assume, neither the 'sociology of the inself positionings
tellectuals',
which
is
traditionally
the business of 'right-wing intellec-
nor the critique of 'right-wing thought', the traditional speciality of 'left-wing intellectuals', is anything more than a series of symbolic ag gressions which take on additional force when they dress themselves up tuals',
in
the impeccable neutrality of science. They tacitly agree in leaving hid-
The Aristocracy of Culture / 13
den what
namely the structure of objective positions which is the source, inter alia, of the view which the occupants of each position can have of the occupants of the other positions and which determines the specific form and force of each group's propensity to present and receive a group's partial truth as if it were a full account of the objective relations between the groups.
The
is
essential,
analyses presented in this
naire, carried
pendix
out
in
gives full
1
book
are based
on
a survey
by question-
1963 and 1967-68, on a sample of 1,217 people. (Ap-
information concerning the composition of the
sample, the questionnaire, and the main procedures used to analyze
Appendix
3 contains the statistical data
data from other sources.)
The
drawn from the
it.
survey, as well as
survey sought to determine
how
the culti-
vated disposition and cultural competence that are revealed in the nature
of the cultural goods consumed, and in the way they are consumed, vary according to the category of agents and the area to which they applied,
from the most legitimate areas such
as
painting or music to the most
'personal' ones such as clothing, furniture or cookery, and, within the
legitimate domains,
—
according to the markets
— 'academic'
and 'non-
which they may be placed. Two basic facts were thus established: on the one hand, the very close relationship linking cultural
academic'
in
practices (or the corresponding opinions) to educational capital (mea-
sured by qualifications) and, secondarily, to social origin (measured by
occupation); and, on the other hand, the fact that, at equivalent
father's
levels of educational capital, the
weight of
and preference-explaining system increases most legitimate areas of culture.
social origin in the practice-
as
one moves away from the
The more the competences measured are recognized by the school tem, and the more 'academic' the techniques used to measure them, stronger tion.
is
The
sys-
the
the relation between, performance and educational qualificalatter, as a
more or
less
adequate indicator of the number of
of scholastic inculcation, guarantees cultural capital more or less completely, depending on whether it is inherited from the family or acquired at school, and so it is an unequally adequate indicator of this capiyears
tal.
The
between performance and educational recognized and guaranteed by the educational
strongest correlation
qua cultural capital system (which is very unequally responsible for its acquisition) is observed when, with the question on the composers of a series of musical works, the survey takes the form of a very 'scholastic' exercise on knowledge very close to that taught by the educational system and strongly reccapital
ognized
The
in
the academic market.
of sixteen musical works and asked the respondent to name the composer of each. Sixty-seven percent of those with only a CEP or a CAP could not identify more than two composers (out of interviewer read out a
list
.
14
/
A
Social Critique of the Judgement
of Taste
sixteen works), compared to 45 percent of those with a
of those with the baccalaureat, 17 percent of those
BEPC,
19 percent
who had gone
to a tech-
and only 7 percent of licence. Whereas none of
nical college {petite ecole) or started higher education
those having a qualification equal or superior ro a
the manual or clerical workers questioned was capable of
naming twelve or
more of the composers of the sixteen works, 52 percent of the 'artistic producers' and the teachers (and 78 percent of the teachers in higher education) achieved this score.
The
rate
of music
is
of non-response to the question on favourite painters or pieces also closely correlated with level of education, with a strong op-
position between the dominant class on the one hand and the working classes,
craftsmen and small tradesmen on the other. (However, since in
whether or not people answered the question doubtless depended as much on their dispositions as on their pure competence, the cultural pretensions of the new petite bourgeoisie junior commercial executives, the medical and social services, secretaries, and the various cultural intermediaries (see Chapter 6) found an outlet here.) Similarly, listening to the 'highbrow' most radio stations, France-Musique and France-Culture, and to this case
—
—
musical or cultural broadcasts,
owning
a record-player, listening to records
(without specifying the type, which minimizes the differences), visiting artgalleries, and knowledge of painting features which are strongly correlated with one another obey the same logic and, being strongly linked to educational capital, set the various classes and class fractions in a clear hierarchy (with a reverse distribution for listening to variety programmes). In the case of activities like the visual arts, or playing a musical instrument, which presupposes a cultural capital generally acquired outside the educational system and (relatively) independent of the level of academic certification, the correlation with social class, which is again strong, is established through social trajectory (which explains the special position of the new petite bour-
—
—
geoisie).
The
one moves towards the most legitimate areas, such as music or painting, and, within these areas, which can be set in a hierarchy according to their modal degree of legitimacy, towards certain genres or certain closer
works, the more the differences in educational capital are associated with major differences (produced in accordance with the same principles) be-
tween genres, such as opera and operetta, or quartets and symphonies, between periods, such as contemporary and classical, between composers and between works. Thus, among works of music, the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Concerto for the Left
Hand
(which,
as will
become apparent,
are distin-
guished by the modes of acquisition and consumption which they presuppose), are opposed to the Strauss waltzes and the Sabre Dance, pieces which
by belonging ro
lower genre ('light music') or by their popularization (since the dialectic of distinction and pretension designates as devalued 'middle-brow' art those legitimate works which become 3 'popularized'), just as, in the world of song, Georges Brassens and Leo
are devalued either
a
Ferre are opposed to Georges Guetary
and Petula Clark, these
differ-
ences corresponding in each case to differences in educational capital (see table
1 )
In fact, the weight of the secondary factors— -composition of capital, vol-
of inherited cultural capital (or social Trajectory), age, place of
—
resi-
Thus, as one moves towards the works that axe least legitimate Cat the moment in question), factors such as age beBlue or me Hungarcome increasingly important; in the case of Rhapsody ian Rhapsody, there is a closer correlation with age than with education, dence
varies with the works.
m
sex or place of residence
father's occupational category,
Thus, of
all
the objects offered for consumers' choice, there are
more classifying
than legitimate works of
art,
none
which, while distinctive in
general, enable the production of distinctions ad infinitum by playing
on
and subdivisions into genres, periods, styles, authors etc. Within the universe of particular tastes which can be recreated by sucdivisions
keeping to the major opposito distinguish rhree zones of taste which roughly correspond to
cessive divisions^ tions,
it
is
thus possible,
educational levels and social
classes:
still
(1) Legitimate
the taste for
taste, i.e.,
legitimate works, here represented by the Well-Tempered Clavier {see
histogram 1 ), the Art of Fugue or the Concerto for the Left Hand, or, painting, Breughel or Goya, which the most self-assured aesthetes can
ure in
fig-
1
,
combine with the most legitimate of the arts that are still in the process of legitimation cinema, jazz or even song (here, for example, Leo Ferrc, Jacques Douai) increases with educational level and is highest in those fractions of the dominant class that are richest in educational capital. (2) Middle-brow' taite, which brings together the minor works of the major
—
—
'
Rhapsody in Blue (histogram 2), the Hungarian Rhapsody, or in painting, Utritlo, Buffet or even Renoir, and the major works of the
arts, in this case
minor
arts,,
such
more common ing classes
nant
class.
as
in
Jacques Brcl and Gilbert Becaud in the art of song, is the middle classes (classes mcyennes) than in the work-
(classes populaires
)
or
in
(3) Finally, 'popular*
works of so-called
the 'intellectual' fractions of the domi-
taste,
represented here by the choice of
light' music or classical music devalued by populariza-
Blue Danube (histogram 3), La Traviata or L' Awiisterme, and especially songs totally devoid of artistic ambition or pretension such tion,
such
as the
of Luis Mariano, Guctary or Petula Clark, is most frequent the working classes and varies in inverse ratio to educational capi-
as those
among
(which explains why ir is slightly more common among industrial and commercial employers or even senior executives than among primary ta!
teachers
The
and cultural intermediaries).
rhree profiles presented
are found
when one draws
in
figure
l
are perfectly typical of those that
a graph of the distribution of a
choices characteristic of different class fractions (arranged
whole
in a
set
of
hierarchy,
within each class, according to educational capical). The first one (the WellTempered Clavier) reappears in the case of all the authors or works named
above, and also for such choices
in 1
I) as 'reading philosophical essays
the survey questionnaire (see appendix
and
'visiting
museums'
etc.;
the second
7
5
The Aristocracy of Culture / Figure
Distribution of preferences for three musical works by class fraction.
I
%
Will-Tempered Clavier
i
r
—10r~
20
30
workers
ual
M
limnetic servants
(Ulismcn, shopkeepers (1m H
and commercial employees
;il
administrative executives
IUiiioi
Hi id
(.ummercial executives, secretaries
il
Imicians
(Ft
(Unlit ul-social services ftiliit.try
teachers
lUlliitul
intermediaries, art craftsmen
and commercial employers
lltiliMtial
-sector executives
|illl>ln
Wiv-uc- sector executives, engineers jHnlcvsions
ipimulary teachers IH(jlx
i
-education teachers,
| Mliiip.sody in
an producers
dititirMic
linn
20.5
servants
iih\iiu:n,
3
shopkeepers
and commercial employees
.il
33.5
Blue
Minimal workers
II
20 22
[IIiiidi
administrative executives
27.5
jlhHoi
commercial executives, secretaries
26.5
liilmuans Hicilii;tl-social services |nini.iiy
teachers
intermediaries, art craftsmen
22.5
and commercial employers
22.5
llliliiMiial
j
-sector executives
iHv,ur -sector executives, engineers
jilnlcssions
1
29 19
IH miliary teachers
12.5
bikini-education teachers, art producers
12
Danube
J Hint-
workers
llirtiiii.il
50.5
iIihiiimk servants
Ift
[i
35.5
shopkeepers
MrtliMin'ii. I
and commercial employees
,il
jimmi ;i(lministrative executives
uimmercial
jltlimi
M» II
executives, secretaries
humans
in In al-social services
49 52 34 29.5
21
teachers
HlliHJ.il
intermediaries, art craftsmen
12.5
and commercial employers
21.5
iii(|.i',nial
-srnor executives
(in, ic i
>cttor executives, engineers
10
20 18.5
|
jihtlcv.imis
15.5
« umlary teachers
4
hi(/lifj
education teachers, art producers
y
15.5
|illtn,iiy
|ilililu
V
42 20 20
Hilini.il
|ilililn
1
/
40_ T
__
50
60 r
18
/
A
Social Critique
of the Judgement of Taste
{Rhapsody in Blue) characterizes, in addition to all the works and authors mentioned (plus the Twilight of the Gods), 'photography', 'comfortable, cosy home' etc; and the third (Blue Danube) is equally valid for 'love stories' and 'clean, tidy home' etc
The A
Titles
of Cultural Nobility
between academic capital (measured by duration of schooling) and knowledge or practices in areas as remote from academic education as music or painting, not to mention jazz or the cinema like the correlation between museum visits and level of educarelationship as close as that
tion
— —
raises in the highest
degree the question of the significance of the
relationship, in other words, the question of the real identity of the
linked terms which are defined
in
their very relationship.
One
two
has ex-
plained nothing and understood nothing by establishing the existence of
between an 'independent' variable and a 'dependent' variable. Until one has determined what is designated in the particular case, i.e., in each particular relationship, by each term in the relationship (for a correlation
example, level of education and knowledge of composers), the
statistical
however precisely it can be determined numerically, remains a pure datum, devoid of meaning. And the 'intuitive' half-understanding with which sociologists are generally satisfied in such cases, while they concentrate on refining ihe measurement of the 'intensity' of the relarelationship,
tionship, together with the illusion of the constancy of the variables or factors resulting from the nominal identity of the 'indicators' (whatever they
may
which designate them, tends to rule out any questioning of the terms of the relationship as to the meaning they take on in that particular relationship and indeed receive from it. indicate) or of the terms
Both terms of the relationship have to be queried
—
in
each
case: the in-
dependent variable occupation, sex, age, father's occupation, places of residence etc., which may express very different effects and the dependent variable, which may manifest dispositions that themselves vary considerably depending on the classes divided up by the independent variables.
—
Thus, for an adequate interpretation of the differences found
between the
classes
or within the same class as regards their relation to
the various legitimate arts, painting, music, theatre, literature etc, one
would have to analyse fully the social uses, legitimate or illegitimate, to which each of the arts, genres, works or institutions considered lends itself. For example, nothing more clearly affirms one's 'class', nothing more infallibly classifies, than tastes in music This is of course because, by virtue of the rarity of the conditions for acquiring the corresponding dispositions,
there
is
no more
'classifactory' practice
than concert-going or
playing a 'noble' instrument (activities which, other things being equal, are
less
widespread than theatre-going, museum-going or even
modern-art galleries). But
it
is
visits to
also because the flaunting of 'musical cul-
The Aristocracy of Culture / 19 ture' is
not a cultural display
like others: as regards its social definition,
of knowledge and talk about them. Music is the a love of music is a guarantee
something other than experiences combined with the capacity to most 'spiritual' of the arts of the spirit and 'musical culture'
of
'spirituality'.
One on
days conferred
a quantity
is
only has to think of the extraordinary value nowa-
the lexis of 'listening' by the secularized (e.g., psy-
choanalytical) versions of religious language.
As
the countless variations
on the soul of music and the music of the soul bear witness, music is bound up with 'inferiority' ('inner music') of the 'deepest' sort and all concerts are sacred. For a bourgeois world which conceives
its
relation to
the populace in terms of the relationship of the soul to the body, 'insensitivity to
music' doubtless represents a particularly unavowable form of
materialist coarseness.
But
this
is
not
Music
all.
is
the 'pure' art par ex-
Never really having an expressive function, it is opposed to drama, which even in its most refined forms still bears a social message and can only be 'put over' on the cellence.
says
It
nothing and has nothing
basis of an
immediate and profound
tions of
audience.
its
Parisian opposition
The
to say,
affinity
theatre divides
its
with the values and expectapublic and divides
between right-bank and left-bank
itself.
The
theatre, bourgeois
and avant-garde theatre, is inextricably aesthetic and political. Nothing comparable occurs in music (with some rare, recent exceptions). Music represents the most radical and most absolute form of the negation of the world, and especially the social world, which the bourgeois ethos tends to demand of all forms of art. For an adequate interpretation of what would be implied in a table theatre
correlating occupation, age or sex with a preference for the Well-Tempered
one
Clavier or the Concerto for the Left Hand, blind use of indicators
and with spurious,
both with the analyses which are
has to break
essentialist
merely the universalizing of a particular experience,
in
order to
make
completely explicit the multiple, contradictory meanings which these
works take on
given
at a
moment
for the totality of social agents and in
particular for the categories of individuals differ
with respect to them
cial
they distinguish or
this particular case,
who
the 'inheritors' and
One would
have to take account, on the one hand, of pertinent properties attached to each of them, that is, the so-
the 'newcomers'). the socially
(in
whom
image of
the
works
('baroquey'modern',
harmony/dissonance,
rigour/lyricism etc.), the composers and perhaps especially the corre-
sponding instruments (the sharp, rough timbre of plucked strings/the warm, bourgeois timbre of hammered strings); and, on the other hand,
works in their relationdepending on the case) with the dif-
the distributional properties acquired by these ship (perceived with varying clarity
ferent classes or class fractions {\a fait
conditions
of reception
(belated
.
,
.')
and with the corresponding
knowledge through
records/early
knowledge through playing the piano, the bourgeois instrument par excellence).
20 /
The
A
Social Critique
opposition found
of the judgement of Taste
ar rhc level
of distributional properties
is
generally
homologous to that found at the level of stylistic characteristics. This is because homology between the positions of the producers (or the works) in space the field of production and the positions of the consumers in social of the dominant class) (i.e., in the overall class structure or in the structure
seems to be the most frequent case. Roughly speaking, the amateur of Mallarme is likely to be to the amateur of Zola as Mallarme was to Zola. Differences between works are predisposed to express differences between authors, partly because, in both style and content, they bear the mark of their authors' socially constituted dispositions (that
is,
their social origins,
retranslated as a function of the positions in the field of production which these dispositions played a large part in determining); and partly because
from they remain marked by the social significance which they received production (e.g., of their opposition, and that of their authors, in the field left/right, clear/obscure etc.) and which is perpetuated by the university tradition.
It
is
also clear
what would be required
for an adequate interpretation
of the bourgeois predilection for the 'Impressionists', whose simultaneously lyrical and naturalistic adherence to natural or human nature contrasts both with realist or critical representation of the social worJd (doubtless one dimension of the opposition between Renoir and Goya, not to mention Courbet or Daumier) and with all forms of abstraction. Again, to understand the class distribution of the various sports, one would have to take account of the representation which, in terms of their specific schemes of perception and appreciation, the different classes have
of the
costs
(economic, cultural and 'physical') and benefits attached to
— immediate
the different sports
or deferred 'physical' benefits (health,
beauty, strength, whether visible, through 'body-building' or invisible
through
1
'keep-fit
exercises),
economic and
social benefits
(upward mo-
immediate or deferred symbolic benefits linked to the distributional or positional value of each of the sports considered (i.e., all that each of them receives from its greater or lesser rarity, and its more or less clear association with a class, with boxing, football, rugby or bodybility etc.),
building evoking the working classes, rennis and skiing the bourgeoisie
and golf rhe upper bourgeoisie), gains in distinction accruing from rhe effects on the body itself (e.g., slimness, sun-tan, muscles obviously or discreetly visible etc.) or from the access to highly selective groups which some of these sports give (golf, polo etc.).
Thus the only way of completely escaping from the intuitionism which
in-
evitably accompanies positivistic faith in the nominal identity of the indicaanalysis of the social strictly interminable tors would be to carry out a
—
—
—
XV
coma Louis value of each of the properties or practices considered mode or a Brahms symphony, reading Historia or Le Figaro, playing rugby
The Aristocracy of Culture / 21 or the accordion and so on.
The
statistics
of the
paper reading would perhaps be interpreted
mind Proust's
less
class distribution
blindly
if
of news-
sociologists bore
voluptuous act called "reading the paper", whereby all the misfortunes and cataclysms suffered by the universe in the last twenty-four hours battles which have cost the lives of fifty thousand men, murders, strikes, bankruptcies, fires, poisonings, suicides, divorces, the cruel emotions of statesman and actor, transmuted into a morning feast for our personal entertainment, make an excellent and particularly bracing accompaniment to a few mouthfuls of cafe au laiC This description of the aesthete's variant invites an analysis of the class variations and the invariants of the mediated, relatively abstract experience of the social world supplied by newspaper reading, for example, as a function of variations in social and spatial distance (with, at one extreme, the local in
analysis of 'that abominable,
—
items in the regional dailies
— marriages,
deaths, accidents
—and,
at the
other
extreme, international news, or, on another scale, the royal engagements
and weddings in the glossy magazines) or in political commitment (from the detachment depicted in Proust's text to the activist's outrage or enthusiasm). In fact, the absence of this kind of preliminary analysis of the social significance of the indicators can
make
the most rigorous-seeming surveys
quite unsuitable for a sociological reading. Because they forget that the ap-
parent constancy of the products conceals the diversity of the social uses
many
they are put to,
surveys on consumption impose
on them taxonomies
which have sprung straight from the statisticians' social unconscious, associating things that ought to be separated (e.g., white beans and green beans) and separating things that could be associated (e.g., white beans and
— the
former are to vegetables). What is there to be said about the collection of products brought together by the and apparently neuttal category 'cereals' bread, rusks, rice, pasta, flour bananas
latter are to fruit as the
—
—
consumption of these products, when one knows that 'rice' alone includes 'rice pudding' and riz au gras, or rice cooked in broth (which tend to be 'working-class') and 'curried rice' (more 'bourgeois' or, more precisely, 'intellectual* ), not to mention 'brown rice' (which suggests a whole life-style)? Though, of course, no 'natural' or manespecially the class variations in the
ufactured product
equally adaptable to
is
all
possible social uses, there are
and it is rarely possible to deduce the Except for products specially designed for a
very few that are perfectly 'univocaP social use
from the thing
itself.
particular use (like 'slimming bread') or closely tied to a class, by tradition (like tea
—
in
social value
France) or price (like caviar), most products only derive their
from the
these areas the only
social use that
way
is
made of them. As
to find the class variations
is
consequence, in to introduce them a
by replacing words or things whose apparently uni vocal
from the
start,
meaning
creates
no
of the academic unconscious, with the social uses in which they become fully determined. Hence it is necessary to attend, for example, to ways of photographing and difficulty for the abstract classifications
— the without or the pressure-cooker, counting time and money, or quickly and cheaply — or the products of operations — family snaps or photos of folk dancing, boeuf bourguignon
ways of cooking
in
casserole
i.e.,
to
these
or curried rice.
A
22 /
Social Critique
Appearances, need
1
of the Judgement of Taste
repeat, always support appearances;
and sociological
which cannot find the differences between the social classes unless it introduces them from the start, is bound to appear prejudiced to those who dissolve the differences, in all good faith and with impeccable method,
science,
simply by surrendering to positivistic
But the substantialist
when
it
comes
mode of
laisser-faire.
thinking
is
perhaps most unrestrained
to the search for 'explanatory factors'. Slipping
from the
substantive to the substance (to paraphrase Wittgenstein), from the constancy of the substantive to the constancy of the substance, properties attached to agents
—occupation,
nates the question of
and what
is
what
determined
in the
among
question of what,
determinant
is
determined
treats the
age, sex, qualifications
independent of the relationship within which they
forces
it
in
'act'.
—
as
This elimi-
the determinant variable
variable, in other words, the
the properties chosen, consciously or uncon-
through the indicators under consideration, constitutes the pertinent property that is really capable of determining the relationship within
sciously,
which
it
is
determined. Purely
statistical calculation
of the variations
in
the intensity of the relationship between a particular indicator and any
given practice does not remove the need for the specifically sociological calculation of the
and which
own
effects
statistical analysis,
intelligibility,
itself as
which
are expressed in the statistical relationship
when
oriented towards the search for
can help to discover.
One
the object of study and scrutinize
{signification)
rather than
only in this way
is it
has to cake the relationship its
sociological significance
statistical 'significantness'
its
its
(significative
);
possible to replace the relationship between a sup-
posedly constant variable and different practices by a series of different
taneously revealed and concealed in the statistical relationships between a
given indicator and different practices.
The
truly scientific
endeavour has
of immediate understanding (to which the pseudo-refinements of statistical analysis e.g., path analysisbring unexpected reinforcement) In place of the phenomenal relationto break with the spurious self-evidences
—
.
ship between this or that 'dependent variable' and variables such as level
of education or social origin, which are no more than common-sense notions and whose apparent 'explanatory power' stems from the mental habits of common-sense knowledge of the social world, it aims to establish 'an exact relation of well-defined concepts',
which the
the rational principle of the effects
statistical relationship records despite everything
the relationship between the
titles
—
for example,
of nobility (or marks of infamy)
awarded by the educational system and the practices they imply, or between the disposition required by works of legitimate art and the disposition which, deliberately and consciously or not, is taught in schools.
the entitlement effect
Knowing
the relationship which exists be-
tween cultural capital inherited from the family and academic
capital,
by
The
Aristocracy of Culture
/ 23
virtue of the logic of the transmission of cultural capital and the functioning of the educational system, one cannot impute the strong correlation,
observed between competence
in
music or painting
(and
the
presupposes and makes possible) and academic capital, solely to the operation of the educational system (still less to the specifically artistic education it is supposed to give, which is clearly almost non-exispractice
it
Academic
tent).
capital
is
in fact the
guaranteed product of the com-
of cultural transmission by the family and cultural transmission by the school (the efficiency of which depends on the
bined
effects
amount of
cultural capital directly inherited
from
the family).
Through
value-inculcating and value-imposing operations, the school also helps (to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the initial disposition, i.e.,
its
of origin) to form a general, transposable disposition towards legitimate culture, which is first acquired with respect to scholastically recognized knowledge and practices but tends to be applied beyond the bounds of the curriculum, taking the form of a 'disinterested' propensity to accumulate experience and knowledge which may not be directly profclass
academic market.
itable in the
The educational system 'libre'),
area
defines non-curricular general culture (la culture
negatively at least, by delimiting, within the
of what
has been
it
puts into
shown
that the
its
dominant
syllabuses and controls by
most
its
culture, the
examinations.
It
'scholastic* cultural objects are those taught
at the lowest levels of schooling (the extreme form of the being the 'elementary'), and that the educational system sets an 'scholastic increasingly high value on 'general' culture and increasingly refuses 'scholas-
and required 1
measurements of culture (such as direct, closed questions on authors, dates and events) as one moves towards the highest levels of the system. tic'
In fact, the generalizing tendency
of the cultivated disposition
necessary, not a sufficient, condition for the enterprise
which
is
only a
of cultural appro-
membership of the bourgeoisie and in the qualifications giving access to its rights and duties. This is why we must first stop to consider what is perhaps the best-hidden effect of the educational system, the one it produces by imposing 'titles', a particular case of the attribution by status, whether positive (ennobling) or negative (stigmatizing), which every group produces by assigning individuals to hierarchically ordered classes. Whereas priation,
is
inscribed, as an objective
demand,
in
the holders of educationally uncertified cultural capital can always be
re-
quired to prove themselves, because they are only what they do, merely a
by-product of their
own
tural nobility
the titular
—
like
defined by their or a tradition, tion
—
fidelity
is
cultural production, the holders of titles of cul-
members of an
aristocracy,
from
'being',
to a lineage, an estate, a race, a past, a fatherland
irreducible to any 'doing', to any
only have to be what they are, because
their value
whose
their authors,
all
know-how
or func-
their practices derive
being the affirmation and perpetuation of
24 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
the essence by virtue of which they are performed
7
Defined by the
titles
which predispose and legitimate them in being what they are, which make what they do the manifestation of an essence earlier and greater than its manifestations, as in the Platonic dream of a division of functions based on a hierarchy of beings, they are separated by a difference in kind from the commoners of culture, who are consigned to the doubly devalued status of autodidact and 'stand-in Aristocracies are essentialist. Regarding existence as an emanation of essence, they set no intrinsic value on the deeds and misdeeds enrolled in the records and registries of bureaucratic memory, They prize them only insofar as they clearly manifest, in the nuances of their manner, that their one inspiration is the perpetuating and celebrating of the essence by virtue of which they are accomplished. The same essentialism requires them noblesse to impose on themselves what their essence imposes on them oblige to ask of themselves what no one else could ask, to 'live up' to 1
.
—
—
their
This
own
essence.
effect
one of the mechanisms which,
is
the most privileged individuals, state
of
and so to
who
to
affairs, fall
in conditions of crisis,
who remain most
attached to the former
be the slowest to understand the need
victim to their
own
cause
to
change strategy
privilege (for example, ruined nobles
of great peasant families who remain celibate rather than marry beneath them). It could be shown, in the same way, that the ethic of noblesse oblige, still found in some fractions of the peasantry and traditional craftsmen, contributes significantly to the selfrefuse to
change
theif ways, or the heirs
exploitation characteristic of these classes.
This gives us an insight into the effect of academic markers and fications.
However,
property of fuses to tions,
it
all
for a full
aristocracies.
classi-
understanding we have to consider another
The
essence in which they see themselves
re-
be contained in any definition. Escaping petty rules and regulais, by nature, freedom. Thus, for the academic aristocracy it is
one and the same thing to identify with an essence of the 'cultivated man' and to accept the demands implicitly inscribed in it, which increase with the prestige of the
So there
is
title.
nothing paradoxical
in
the fact that in
its
ends and means
the educational system defines the enterprise of legitimate 'autodidacticism'
which the acquisition of 'general culture' presupposes, an enterprise that is ever more strongly demanded as one rises in the educational hierarchy (between sections, disciplines, and specialities etc., or between levels).
The
essentially contradictory phrase 'legitimate autodidacticism' is in-
tended to indicate the difference 'extra-curricular' culture
in
kind between the highly valued
of the holder of academic qualifications and the
illegitimate extra-curricular culture of the autodidact.
popular-science monthly Science et Vie
who
talks
The
reader of the
about the genetic code
The Aristocracy of Culture / 25 or the incest taboo exposes himself to ridicule as soon as he ventures
whereas Claude Levi-Strauss or Jacques can only derive additional prestige from their excursions into the
outside the circle of
Monod field
of music
whether
it
or
his peers,
philosophy.
Illegitimate
extra-curricular
culture,
be the knowledge accumulated by the self-taught or the 'expe-
and through practice, outside the control of the institution specifically mandated to inculcate it and officially sanction its acquisition, like the art of cooking or herbal medicine, craftsmen's skills or the stand-in's irreplaceable knowledge, is only valorized to the strict extent of its technical efficiency, without any social added-value, and is exposed to legal sanctions (like the illegal practice of medicine) whenever it emerges from the domestic universe to compete with authorized rience' acquired in
competences. Thus,
it
written into the
is
tacit definition
of the academic qualifica-
competence (like an engineering diploma) that it really guarantees possession of a 'general culture' whose 9 breadth is proportionate to the prestige of the qualification; and, conversely, that no real guarantee may be sought of what it guarantees formally and really or, to put it another way, of the extent to which it guaranteeing a
tion formally
guarantees what
it
specific
guarantees. This effect of symbolic imposition
intense in the case of the diplomas consecrating the cultural
most
is
elite.
The
awarded by the French grandei ecoles guarantee, without any other guarantee, a competence extending far beyond what they are supposed to guarantee. This is by virtue of a clause which, though tacit, is firstly binding on the qualification-holders themselves, who are called upon really to procure the attributes assigned to them by their status. This process occurs at all stages of schooling, through the manipulation of aspirations and demands in other words, of self-image and selfesteem which the educational system carries out by channelling pupils qualifications
11
—
—
towards prestigious or devalued positions implying or excluding
mate
The
legiti-
of 'allocation', i.e., assignment to a section, a discipline (philosophy or geography, mathematics or geology, to take the extremes) or an institution (a grand'e kole that is more or less grande, or a faculty), mainly operates through the social image of the position in practice.
effect
and the prospects most of which are a certain
question
objectively inscribed in
it,
in
ported belief
the fore-
and a certain differences produced by
type of cultural accumulation
image of cultural accomplishment. The official academic classifications tend to produce (or reinforce) inducing
among
real differences
by
the classified individuals a collectively recognized and supin
the differences, thus producing behaviours that are in-
being into line with official being. Activities as alien to the explicit demands of the institution as keeping a diary, wearing heavy make-up, theatre-going or going dancing, writing poems or playing rugby can thus find themselves inscribed in the position allotted within the institution as a tacit demand constantly underlined by various tended to bring
real
26 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
Among
mediations.
the most important of these are teachers' conscious
or unconscious expectations and peer-group pressure,
entation
is
itself defined
by the
whose
ethical ori-
brought into and reinforced and the status assignment it en-
class values
by the institution. This allocation
effect
major role in the fact that the educational institution succeeds in imposing cultural practices that it does not teach and does not even explicitly demand, but which belong to the attributes attached by status to the position it assigns, the qualifications it awards and tails
doubtless play
a
the social positions to which the latter give access.
This logic doubtless helps to explain that
is
how
acquired by frequent contact with
a
the legitimate disposition
particular class of works,
and philosophical works recognized by the academic canon, comes to be extended to other, less legitimate works, such as namely, the
literary
avant-garde literature, or to areas enjoying less academic recognition,
such
as the
cinema.
The generalizing tendency
is
inscribed in the very
principle of the disposition to recognize legitimate works, a propensity
and capacity to recognize their legitimacy and perceive them as worthy of admiration in themselves, which is inseparable from the capacity to recognize
in
them something
priate to characterize
them
already in
known,
i.e.,
the stylistic traits appro-
their singularity ('It's a
Rembrandt', or
Man') or as members of a class of works ('It's Impressionist'). This explains why the propensity and capacity to accumulate 'gratuitous' knowledge, such as the names of film directors, are more even
'It's
the Helmeted
closely and exclusively linked to educational capital than
going, which
is
more dependent on income, place of
is
mere cinema-
residence and age.
Cinema-going, measured by the number of films seen among the twenty films mentioned in the survey, is lower among the less-educated than among the more highly educated, but also lower among provincials (in Lille) than among Parisians, among low-income than among high-income groups, and among old than among young people. And the same relationships are found in the surveys by the Centre d'etudes des supports de publicite (CESP); the proportion who say they have been to the cinema at least once in the previous week (a more reliable indicator of behaviour than a question on cinema-going in the course of the year, for which the tendency to overstate
women
is
particularly strong)
is
rather greater
among men
than
(7.8 percent compared to 5.3 percent), greater in the Paris area
(10.9 percent) than in towns of over 100,000 people (7.7 percent) or in
among senior executives and members of than among junior executives (9.5 percent)
rural areas (3.6 percent), greater
the professions (11.1 percent)
or clerical and commercial employees (9-7 percent), skilled manual workers
and foremen (73 percent), semi-skilled workers (63 percent), small employers (5.2 percent) and farmers and farm workers (2.6 percent). But the greatest contrasts are between the youngest (22.4 percent of the 21-24 year olds had been to the cinema at least once in the previous week) and the oldest (only 3.2 percent of the 35-49 year olds, 1.7 percent of the 50-64 1
— The Aristocracy of Culture / 27 year olds
and
percent of the over-65s), and between the most and
1.1
highly educated (18.2 percent of those cation, 9-5 percent of those
who had had
cinema
higher edu-
secondary education, and 2.2 per-
who had had only primary education
cent of those to the
who had been through
least
or
none
at all
had been
the previous. week) (C.S. Xllla).
in
Knowledge of
directors
is
much more
closely linked to cultural capital
mere cinema-going. Only 5 percent of the respondents who had an elementary school diploma could name at least four directors (from a list of twenty films) compared to 10 percent of holders of the BEPC or the baccalaureat and 22 percent of those who had had higher education, whereas the proportion in each category who had seen at least four of the twenty films was 22 percent, 33 percent and 40 percent respectively. Thus, although filmthan
is
viewing also varies with educational capital (less museums and concerts), it seems that differences
so,
however, than
visits
to
consumption are not sufficient to explain the differences in knowledge of directors between holders of different qualifications. This conclusion would probably also hold
good
in
now
for jazz, strip cartoons, detective stories or science fiction,
these genres have
Further proof
begun
to achieve cultural consecration.
that, while increasing slightly with level
is
that
11
of education
(from 13 percent for the least educated to 18 percent for those with secondary education and 23 percent for the most qualified), knowledge of actors varies mainly and considerably with the number of films seen. This
—
—
awareness, like knowledge of the slightest events in the lives of alities,
presupposes
TV
person-
a disposition closer to that required for the acquisition
of ordinary knowledge about everyday things and people than to the
legiti-
mate disposition. And indeed, these least-educated regular cinema-goers knew as many actors' names as the most highly educated. Among those who had seen at least four of the films mentioned, 45 percent of those who had had only
a
primary education were able to name four actors, as against
of those who had had a secondary education and 47 percent of who had had some higher education. Interest in actors is greatest among office workers: on average they named 2.8 actors and one director, 35 percent
those
whereas the craftsmen and small shopkeepers, skilled workers and foremen named, on average, only 0.8 actors and 0.3 directors. (The secretaries and avjunior commercial executives, who also knew a large number of actors erage 2.4 were more interested in directors average 1.4 and those in the 1.7 social and medical services even named more directors than actors 1.4). The reading of sensational weeklies (e.g., Ici Paris) which give information about the lives of stars is a product of a disposition similar to inter-
—
—
est in actors;
had read
among
Ici
it
is
Paris
skilled
more frequent among women than men (10.8 percent in the last week, compared to 9-3 percent of the men),
workers and foremen (14.5 percent), semi-skilled workers
(13.6 percent), or office workers (10.3 percent) than tives
(8.6 percent) and especially
among
the professions (3.8 percent) (C.S.
By
— — —
—
among
junior execu-
senior executives and
members of
XXVIII).
although at equivalent levels of education, knowledge of number of films seen, in this area assiduous cinema-going does not compensate for absence of educational capital: 45.5 percent of the CEP-holders who had seen at least four of the films mentioned contrast,
directors increases with the
28 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
could not name a single director, compared to 27.5 percent of those with a BEPC or the baccalaureat and 13 percent of those with a higher education diploma.
Such competence is not necessarily acquired by means of the 'scholastic' labours in which some 'cinephiles' or 'jazz-freaks' indulge (e.g., tranH scribing film credits onto catalogue cards). Most often it results ftom the
unintentional learning
made possible by
a
disposition
acquired
through domestic or scholastic inculcation of legitimate culture. This transposable disposition, armed with a set of perceptual and evaluative
schemes that are available for general application, inclines its owner towards other cultural experiences and enables him to perceive, classify and memorize them differently. Where some only see *a Western starring Burt Lancaster', others 'discover an early Peckinpah'. In identifying what
way
is
John
Sturges' or 'the latest
Sam
worthy of being seen and the right
whole
group (which guides .') and reminds them with its 'Have you seen and 'You must see and by the whole corporation of critics mandated by the group to proto see
it,
they are aided by their
.
social
.
.
?'
.
.
duce legitimate classifications and the discourse necessarily accompanying
enjoyment worthy of the name. It is possible to explain in such terms why cultural practices which schools do not teach and never explicitly demand vary in such close rela-
any
artistic
tion to educational qualifications
we
(it
being understood, of course, that
are provisionally suspending the distinction between the school's role
in the correlation
observed and that of the other socializing agencies,
particular the family).
But the
fact that
in
educational qualifications func-
tion as a condition of entry to the universe of legitimate culture cannot
be fully explained without taking into account another, still more hidden effect which the educational system, again reinforcing the work of the bourgeois family, exerts through the very conditions within which inculcates.
Thtough
the educational qualification certain conditions of
existence are designated
— those
obtaining the qualification rigorously
it
demanded of all
which constitute the precondition for and also the aesthetic disposition, the most
the terms of entry which the world of
legiti-
mate culture (always tacitly) imposes. Anticipating what will be demonstrated later, one can posit, in broad terms, that it is because they are linked either to a bourgeois origin or to the quasi-bourgeois
mode of ex-
by prolonged schooling, or (most often) to both of these combined, that educational qualifications come to be seen as a guaristence presupposed
antee of the capacity to adopt the aesthetic disposition.
the aesthetic disposition Any legitimate work tends in fact to impose the norms of its own perception and tacitly defines as the only legitimate mode of perception the one which brings into play a certain disposition and a certain competence. Recognizing this fact does not mean constituting a particular mode of perception as an essence, thereby
The Aristocracy of Culture / 29 which is the basis of recognition of artistic legitimacy- It does mean taking note of the fact that all agents, whether they like it or not, whether or not they have the means of conforming to them, find themselves objectively measured by those norms, A t the same time it becomes possible to establish whether these dispositions and competences are gifts of nature, as the charismatic ideology of the relation to the work of art would have it, or products of learning, and to bring to light the hidden conditions of the miracle of the unequal class falling into the illusion
distribution of the capacity for inspired encounters with works of art and
high culture in general. Every essentialist analysis of the aesthetic disposition, the only socially accepted 'right' way of approaching the objects socially designated as
works of art, with
that
a specifically
both demanding and deserving to be approached aesthetic intention capable of recognizing and consti-
is,
as
tuting them as works of
art, is
bound
to
fail.
Refusing to take account of
the collective and individual genesis of this product of history which
must be its
endlessly 're-produced' by education,
sole raison d'etre, that
bitrary necessity
ofsky says, that
of the
is,
it
unable to reconstruct
is
the historical reason which underlies the
institution. If the
which 'demands
work of
art
is
ar-
indeed, as Pan-
to be experienced aesrhetically', and if
any object, natural or artificial, can be perceived aesthetically, how can one escape the conclusion that it is the aesthetic intention which 'makes the work of art', or, to transpose a formula of Saussure's, that it is the aesthetic point of view that creates the aesthetic object? To get out of this vicious circle, Panofsky has to endow the work of art with an 'intention', in the Scholastic sense.
A
this objective intention, just as
be
a practical
purely 'practical' perception contradicts
an aesthetic perception would
negation of the objective intention of
in a
sense
a signal, a red light
which requires a 'practical* response: braking. Thus, within the class of worked-upon objects, themselves defined in opposition to natural objects, the class of art objects would be defined by the fact that it demands to be perceived aesthetically, i.e., in terms of form rather than for example,
function. But
how
can such a definition be
made
operational? Panofsky
determine scientifically at what moment a worked-upon object becomes an art object, that is, at what moment form takes over from function: 'If I write to a friend to himself observes that
him
invite
more
I
to dinner,
shift
it is
my
virtually impossible to
letter is primarily a
the emphasis to the form of
my
communication. But the
script,
the
more
nearly does
15
become a work of literature or poetry.' Does this meaa that the demarcation line between the world of technical objects and the world of aesthetic objects depends on the 'intention' it
of the producer of those objects? In fact, this 'intention' is itself the product of the social norms and conventions which combine to define the always uncertain and historically changing frontier between simple technical objects
manded
and objets
d'art: 'Classical tastes',
that private letters, legal speeches and
Panofsky observes,
'de-
the shields of heroes
A
30 / should be
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
"artistic"
.
.
.
while modern taste demands that architecture 16
and ash trays should be "functional".' But the apprehension and appreciation of the work also depend on the beholder's intention, which is itself a function of the conventional norms governing the relation to the work of art in a certain historical and social situation and also of the beholder's capacity to conform to those norms, i.e., his artistic training. To break out of this circle one only has to observe that the ideal of 'pure' perception of a work of art qua work of art is the product of the enunciation and systematization of the principles of specifically aesthetic legitimacy which accompany the constituting of a relatively autonomous artistic field. The aesthetic mode of perception in the 'pure' form which it has now assumed corresponds to a particular state of the
mode
of
Impressionist painting, for example, tion
which
An
production.
artistic
is
art
which,
representation over the object represented, categorically
which
demiurgic ambition of the
earlier art
of the
mode of
demands
a purely
artistic effort
limited receptiveness
on the
demanded only
conditionally.
The
capable of applying to any object the
artist,
pure intention of an
Post-
the product of an artistic inten-
asserts the absolute primacy ofform over function,
aesthetic disposition
like all
which
is
an end in
itself, calls
for un-
part of an aesthete capable of applying the
specifically aesthetic intention to
any object, whether or not
it
has been
produced with aesthetic intention. This
demand
is
museum; there the aesthetic disNothing more totally manifests and
objectified in the art
position becomes an institution.
achieves the autonomizing of aesthetic activity vis-a-vis extra-aesthetic interests or functions than the art museum's juxtaposition of works.
Though
originally subordinated to quite different or even incompatible
functions (crucifix and fetish, Pieta and
still life),
these juxtaposed works
attention to form rather than function, technique rather than theme, and, being constructed in styles that are mutually exclusive but all equally necessary, they are a practical challenge to the expectation
tacitly
demand
representation as defined by the arbitrary canons of an everyday aesthetic, and so lead naturally from stylistic relativism to the neutralization of the very function of representation. Objects previously
of
realistic
and ethnographic documents thereby materializing the omnip-
treated as collectors' curios or historical
have achieved the status of works of art, otence of the aesthetic gaze and making it difficult to ignore the fact if it is not to be merely an arbitrary and therefore suspect affirmathat artistic contemplation now has to include a tion of this absolute power degree of erudition which is liable to damage the illusion of immediate illumination that is an essential element of pure pleasure.
—
—
pure taste and 'barbarous' taste
In short, never perhaps has
more
been asked of the spectator, who is now required to 're-produce' the primary operation whereby the artist (with the complicity of his whole in-
1
The Aristocracy of Culture / 3 rdlcctual field) produced this
much
lucn given so t
in return.
new fetish. 17 But never perhaps has he The naive exhibitionism of 'conspicuous
onsumption', which seeks distinction in the crude display of ill-mastered
nothing compared to the unique capacity of the pure gaze, a quasi-creative power which sets the aesthete apart from the common herd luxury,
is
by a radical difference which seems to be inscribed in 'persons'.
One
only
has to read Ortega y Gasset to see the reinforcement the charismatic ide-
ology derives from
which
unpopular, indeed, antipopular* and from the 'curious sociological effect* it produces by dividing i
two
he public into
art,
is
'essentially
'antagonistic castes', those
who
understand and those
who do
not'. 'This implies',
'this art
of privilege, sensuous nobility, instinctive aristocracy', the
Ortega goes on, 'that some possess an organ of understanding which others have been denied; that these are two distinct varieties of the human species. The new art is not for everyone, like Romantic art, but destined for an especially gifted minority.' And he ascribes to the 'humiliation' and 'obscure sense of inferiority' inspired by arouses in the mass, 'unworthy of artistic sacraments': 'For a cen-
tion
it
tury
and a
society.
half,
the "people", the mass, have claimed to be the whole of
The music of Stravinsky
or the plays of Pirandello have the socio-
power of obliging them to -see themselves "common people", a mere ingredient among others logical
of the
ture, the inert material
recognize one another mission,
which
multitude.'
And
historical process, a
cosmos. By contrast, the young
spiritual
lew'
irrita-
is
in
as they are, as the
the social struc-
in
secondary factor in the "best" to
art helps the
know and
the greyness of the multitude and to learn their
to be few in
number and
to have to fight against the
18
show that the self-legitimating imagination of the 'happy has no limits, one only has to quote a recent text by Suzanne
Linger,
to
who
is
presented
as
'one of the world's most
phers': 'In the past, the masses did
not have access to
and even books, were pleasures reserved
infl
art;
uential philoso-
music, painting,
might have been supposed that the poor, the "common people", would have enjoyed them equally, if they had had the chance. But now that everyone can read, go to museums, listen to great music, at least on the radio, the judgement of the masses about these things has become a reality and through
this
it
has
become
for the rich.
clear that great art
pleasure. Otherwise, like cookies or cocktails, taste as It
much
as cultured taste.'
common
disposition.
people)
would
a direct flatter
sensuous
uneducated
19
the conscious intention of distinguishing oneself is
only an incidental
The pure gaze
wards the world which, tega y Gasset its
not
should not be thought that the relationship of distinction (which
may or may not imply from
it
is
It
when he
component
in the aesthetic
implies a break with the ordinary attitude to-
as such, is a social break.
attributes to
modern
art
extreme conclusions an intention implicit
One
can agree with Or-
— which in
art
merely takes to
since
the Renais-
32 / sance
—
A
Social Critique of the Judgement
a systematic tefusal of
all
that
is
of Taste
'human', by which he means the
and feelings which ordinary people put into their ordinary existence, and consequently all the themes and objects capable of evoking them: 'People like a play when they are able to take an interest in the human destinies put before them', in which 'they participate as if Rejecting the 'human' clearly means rejectthey were real-life events.' ing what is generic, i.e., common, 'easy' and immediately accessible, startpassions, emotions
ing with everything that reduces the aesthetic animal to pure and simple animality, to palpable pleasure or sensual desire.
The
content of the representation which leads people to
interest
is
the
call 'beautiful'
representation of beautiful things, especially those which speak
mediately to the senses and the sensibility,
the
in
most im-
rejected in favour of the in-
and distance which refuse to subordinate judgement of the 21 representation to the nature of the object represented. It can be seen that it is not so easy to describe the 'pure' gaze without also describing the naive gaze which it defines itself against, and vice versa; and that there is no neutral, impartial, 'pure' description of either of these opposing visions (which does not mean that one has to subscribe to aesthetic difference
relativism,
when
it is
so obvious that the 'popular aesthetic'
relation to 'high' aesthetics
and that reference
is
defined in
and
to legitimate art
its
negative judgement on 'popular' taste never ceases to haunt the popular
experience of beauty). Refusal or privation?
It is
as
dangerous to
attrib-
ute the coherence of a systematic aesthetic to the objectively aesthetic
commitments of ordinary people
as
it
is
to adopt, albeit unconsciously,
the strictly negative conception of ordinary vision which
is
the basis of
every 'high' aesthetic.
the popular 'aesthetic'
Everything takes place
as if
the 'popular aes-
were based on the affirmation of continuity between art and which implies the subordination of form to function, or, one might thetic'
on
a refusal
thetic,
i.e.,
of the refusal which
is
life,
say,
the starting point of the high aes-
from the speof the working class and of
the clear-cut separation of ordinaty dispositions
cifically aesthetic disposition.
The
hostility
the middle-class fractions least rich in cultural capital towards every kind
both in the theatre and in painting, or still more clearly, because they have less legitimacy, in photography and the cinema. In the theatre as in the cinema, the popular audience of formal experimentation
asserts itself
delights in plots that proceed logically and chronologically towards a
happy end, and acters than
'identifies' better
with simply drawn situations and char-
with ambiguous and symbolic figures and actions or the enig-
matic problems of the theatre of cruelty, not to mention the suspended
animation of Beckettian heroes or the bland absurdities of Pinteresque dialogue. Their reluctance or refusal springs not just from lack of familiarity
but from a deep-rooted
demand
for participation,
which formal
experiment systematically disappoints, especially when, refusing to
offer
— The Aristocracy of Culture / 33 the 'vulgar' attractions of an art of illusion, the theatrical fiction de-
nounces itself, as in all forms of *play within a play'. Pirandello supplies the paradigm here, in plays in which the actors are actors unable to act Six Characters in Search of an Author, Comrne ci (ou comme ca ) or Ce soir on improvise and Jean Genet supplies the formula in the Prologue to The Blacks: 'We shall have the politeness, which you have taught us, to make communication impossible. The distance initially between us we shall increase, by our splendid gestures, our manners and our insolence, for we are also acrors.' The desire to enter into the game, identifying with the
—
characters' joys
hopes and
and sufferings, worrying about
ideals, living their life,
is
their fate,
espousing their
based on a form of investment, a sort
of deliberate 'naivety', ingenuousness, good-natured credulity ('We're here to enjoy ourselves'), which tends to accept formal experiments and specifically artistic effects only to the extent that they
and do not get
The means
cultural
that
can be forgotten
way of the substance of the work. divide which associates each class of works with
it is
in
the
its
public
not easy to obtain working-class people's first-hand judge-
ments on formalist innovations in modern art. However, television, which brings certain performances of 'high' art into the home, or certain cultural institutions (such as the Beaubourg Centre or the Maisons de la culture), which briefly bring a working-class public into contact with high art and sometimes avant-garde works, create what are virtually experimental situations, neither
more nor
less artificial
or unreal than those
produced by any survey on legitimate culture in a workingclass milieu. One then observes the confusion, sometimes almost a sort of panic mingled with revolt, that is induced by some exhibits I am thinking of Ben's heap of coal, on view at Beaubourg shortly after it opened whose parodic intention, entirely defined in terms of an artistic field and its relatively autonomous history, is seen as a sort of aggression, an affront to common sense and sensible people. Likewise, when formal necessarily
—
—
experimentation irisinuates
TV
itself
into their familiar entertainments (e.g.,
shows with sophisticated technical
such as those by Jean-Christophe Averty) working-class viewers protest, not only because they do not feel the need for these fancy games, but because they sometimes understand that they derive their necessity from the logic of a field of production which excludes them precisely by these games: 'I don't like those cut-up things at all, where you see a head, then a nose, then a leg.
variety
.
.
.
First
you see
a singer
all
drawn
out, three metres
next minute he's got arms two metres long. I
just don't like
(a
it,
it's
stupid,
I
effects,
Do
you
tall,
find that
then the
funny? Oh,
don't see the point of distorting things'
baker, Grenoble).
Formal refinement
—which,
in literature or
the theatre, leads to obscu-
rity—is, in the eyes of the working-class public,
times
felt
one sign of what
is
to be a desire to keep the uninitiated at arm's length, or,
someas one
respondent said about certain cultural programmes on TV, to speak to
34 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
orher initiates 'over the viewers' heads'."
Jr
is
pan of
the paraphernalia
which always announces the sacred character, separate and separating, of high culture the icy solemnity of the great museums, the grandiose luxury of the opera-houses and major theatres, the decor and decorum of
—
concert-halls.
n Everything
vaguely grasped what
and
in
plodes a
life, i.e.,
in
a sort
is.
takes place as
if
the working-class audience
implied in conspicuous formality, both in art
of censorship of the expressive content which ex-
the expressiveness of popular language, and by the same token,
distancing, inherent in the calculated coldness of all formal exploration,
a refusal
to communicate concealed at the heart of the communication
which takes back and refuses what it seems to deliver and in bourgeois politeness, whose impeccable formalism is a permanent warning against the temptation of familiarity. Conversely, popular entertainment secures the spectator's participation in the show and collective participation in the festivity which it occasions. If circus and melodrama (which are recreated by some sporting spectacles such as wrestling and, to a lesser extent, boxing and all forms of team games, such as those which have been televised) are more 'popular' than entertainments like dancing or theatre, this is not merely because, being less formalized (compare, for example, acrobatics with dancing) and less euphemized, they offer more direct, more immediate satisfactions. It is also because, through the collective festivity they give rise to and the array of spectacuitself,
lar
both
in an art
delights they offer (I
or the big feature film)
music,
am
thinking also of the music-hall, light opera
— fabulous
lively action, enthusiastic actors
especially those
working through
chansonniers etc.), they
satisfy
glittering costumes, exciting
sets,
—
satire
the taste
forms of the comic and or parody of the 'great' (mimics^ for and sense of revelry, the plain like all
speaking and hearty laughter which liberate by setting the social world head over heels, overturning conventions and proprieties. aesthetic; distancing the
detachment of the
This popular reaction
aesthete,
who,
as
is
is
the very opposite of
seen whenever he appropriates
one of the objects of popular taste (e.g., Westerns or srrip cartoons), introduces a distance, a gap the measure of his distant distinction vis-avis 'first-degree' perception, by displacing the interest from the 'content', characters, plot etc., to the form, to the specifically artistic effects which are only appreciated relationally, through a comparison with other works which is incompatible with immersion in the singularity of the work im-
—
—
mediately given. Detachment, disinterestedness, indifference theory has so often presented these as the only
of art for what
way
—
aesthetic
to recognize the
work
one ends up forgetting that they really mean disinvestment, detachment, indifference, in orher words, the refusal to invest oneself and take things seriously. Worldly21 who have long been wise readers of Rousseau's Lettre sur tes jpectactes, aware that there is nothing more naive and vulgar than to invest too it is,
autonomous,
selbstanciig, that
The
much
mind
passion in the things of the
Aristocracy of Culture
or to expect too
them, tending to assume that intellectual creativity
ness of
/ 55
much
serious-
opposed
is
to
moral integrity or political consistency, have no answer to Virginia
Woolf when
she criticizes the novels of Wells, Galsworthy and Bennett
because 'they leave one with a strange sense of incompleteness and dissatisfaction'
and the feeling that
more
society, or,
'necessary to
is
it
do something
desperately, to write a cheque', in contrast to
—
to join a
works
like
and Prejudice, which, being perfectly 'self-conone with no desire to do anything, except indeed to read
Tristram Shandy or Pride t.iined', 'leave
book
and to understand it better.' But the refusal of any sort of involvement, any 'vulgar' surrender to easy seduction and collective enthusiasm, which is, indirectly at least, the origin of the taste for formal complexity and objectless representations, is perhaps most clearly seen in reactions to paintings. Thus one finds that the
again,
the higher the level of education,
spondents who,
26
the greater
when asked whether
is
the proportion of
of objects
a series
re-
would make
hcauriful photographs, refuse the ordinary objects of popular admiration
—
a first
communion,
them
as 'trivial', silly, a bit 'wet', or, in
reject
naively 'human';
omy of
a sunset
and the greater
or a landscape
is
who
or 'ugly', or
y Gasset's terms,
assert the auton-
the representation with respect to the thing represented by de-
made from
be
as 'vulgar'
Ortega
the proportion
claring that a beautiful photograph, i;in
—
and
a fortiori a beautiful painting,
objects socially designated as meaningless
—
metal
a
(nunc, the bark of a tree, and especially cabbages, a trivial object par ex-
—or ugly and repulsive — such (chosen the Rembrandt allusion) or ence) —or misplaced — pregnant
cellence
as
for
as
e.g., a
as a car crash, a butcher's stall a
snake (for the Boileau referwoman (see tables 2 and 3).
genuine experimental situation, we (olfected the interviewees' statements about the things they consider 'photogenic' and which therefore seem to them capable of being looked at aes(hetically (as opposed to things excluded on account of their triviality or Since
it
was not possible to
set
ugliness or for ethical reasons). is
up
a
The
thus measured by the gap (which,
capacity to adopt the aesthetic attitude in a field
of production that evolves
through the dialectic of distinction, is also a time-lag, a backwardness) between what is constituted as an aesthetic object by the individual or group toncerned and what of
is
constituted aesthetically in a given state of the
field
production by the holders of aesthetic legitimacy.
The
following question was put to the interviewees: 'Given the following
subjects,
is
a
photographer more
likely to
produce
a beautiful, interesting,
meaningless or ugly photo: a landscape, a car crash etc.?' In the preliminary survey, the interviewees were shown actual photographs, mostly famous
—
which were merely named in the full-scale survey pebpregnant etc. The reactions evoked by the mere idea of the image were entirely consistent with those produced by the image itself (evidence that the value attributed to the image tends to correspond to the ones, of the objects bles, a
value attributed ro the thing). Photographs were used partly to avoid the
legitimacy-imposing effects of paintings and partly because photography is perceived as a more accessible practice, so that the judgements expressed
were
likely to
be
Although the
less unreal.
test
employed was designed
to collect statements of artistic
intention rather than to measure the ability to put the intention into practice in
of
art,
doing painting or photography or even in the perception of works it enables one to identify the factors which determine the capacity to
adopt the posture socially designated sis
as specifically aesthetic. Factorial analy-
of judgements on 'photogenic' objects reveals an opposition within each
between the nomic capital and
and poorest in ecoeconomic capital and poorest in cultural capital. In the case of the dominant class, higher-education teachers and artistic producers (and secondarily, teachers and the professions) are opposed to industrial and commercial employers; private-sector executives and class
fractions richest in cultural capital the fractions richest in
engineers are in an intermediate position. In the petite bourgeoisie, the cultural intermediaries (distinctly separated
mary
from the
closest fractions, the pri-
medical services and art craftsmen) are opposed to the small shopkeepers or craftsmen and the office workers. teachers,
In addition to the relationship
and positive indices
between cultural
capital
and the negative
(refusal of 'wetness'; the capacity to valorize the trivial)
of the aesthetic disposition
—
or, at' least, the capacity to
operate the arbi-
which, within the universe of worked-upon objects, distinguishes the objects socially designated as deserving and demanding an aesthetic approach that can recognize and consrirure them as works of art the statistics establish that the preferred objects of would-be aesthetic photography, e.g., the folk dance, the weaver or the little girl with her cat, are in an intermediate position. The proportion of respondents who consider that these things can make a beautiful photograph is highest at the levels of the CAP and BEPC, whereas at higher levels they tend to be judged trary classification
either interesting or meaningless.
The proportion of respondents who beautiful photo declines
up
the highest level. This
because
is
say a
first
communion
to the level of the licence a relatively large
can
and then
make
rises
a
again
at
proportion of the highest-
qualified subjects assert their aesthetic disposition by declaring that any object can
tion
be perceived aesthetically. Thus,
who
declare that a sunset can
make
in
the dominant
a beautiful
class, the
photo
is
propor-
greatest at the
(some higher educaminor engineering school), and grows strongly again among those who have completed several years of higher education and who tend to conlowest educational level, declines at intermediate levels
tion, a
sider that
The
anything
statistics also
is
suitable for beautiful photography.
show
that
women
are
much more
likely
than
men
to
manifest their repugnance toward repugnant, horrible or distasteful objects: 44,5 percent of them, as against 35 percent of the men, consider that there
can only be an ugly photograph of a
wounded man, and
there are similar
and 27 percent), the snake (30.5 and 21.5 percent) or the pregnant woman (45 and 33.5 percent), whereas the gap disappears with the still life {6 and 6.5 percent) and the cabbages (20.5 and 19 percent). The traditional division of labour between the sexes asdifferences for the butcher's stall (33.5
— 40 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
signs 'humane' or 'humanitarian' tasks and feelings to
women and more
them effusions and tears, in the name of the opposition between reason and sensibility; men are, ex officio, on the side of culture whereas women (like the working class) are cast on the side of nature. Women are therefore less imperatively required to censor and repress 'natural' feelings as the aesthetic disposition demands (which indicates, incidentally, that, as will be shown subsequently, the refusal of nature, or rather the refusal to surrender to nature, which is the mark of dominant groups who start with j^/£control is the basis of the aesthetic disposition). Women's revulsion is expressed more overtly, at the expense of aesthetic neutralization, the more completely they are subject to the traditional model of the sexual division of labour and (in other words) the weaker their cultural capital and the lower their position in the social hierarchy. readily allows
—
Women
in the
new
who,
petite bourgeoisie,
concessions to affective considerations than the
(although they are equally
make much
in general,
men
likely to say that there
in
greater
the same category
can be a beautiful photo-
graph of cabbages), much more rarely accept that a photograph of a pregnant woman can only be. ugly than women in any other category (31.5 percent of them, as against 70 percent of the wives of industrial and commercial employers, 69.5 percent of the wives of craftsmen and shopkeepers, 47.5 percent of the wives of
manual workers,
clerical
workers or junior ex-
ecutives). In doing so they manifest simultaneously their aesthetic preten-
and their desire imposed on their sex.
sions
to
be seen as
'liberated'
from the ethical taboos
Thus, nothing more rigorously distinguishes the different classes than the disposition objectively demanded by the legitimate consumption of legitimate works, the aptitude for taking a specifically aesthetic point of view on objects already constituted aesthetically—and therefore put forward for the admiration of those who have learned to recognize the signs of the admirable— and the even rarer capacity to constitute aesthetically objects that are
ordinary or even
'common' (because they
are appro-
by the 'common people') or to apply aesthetic in the most everyday choices of every-
priated, aesthetically or otherwise,
the principles of a 'pure'
day
life,
in
cooking, dress or decoration, for example.
Statistical
enquiry
is
indispensable in order to establish beyond dispute
the social conditions of possibility (which will have to be plicit)
of the 'pure' disposition. However, because
a scholastic test itly
it
mav
fail
and the whole attitude
the different social classes.
What
describe as a deficiency (and that
a
norm
tac-
meanings which this the world expressed in it have for
to capture the to
the logic of the test is
ex-
inevitably looks like
intended to measure the respondents against
regarded as absolute,
disposition
it
made more
what
it
is,
would
lead
one to
from the standpoint of the
norms defining legitimate perception of works of art) is also a which stems from a denunciation of the arbitrary or ostentatious
gratui-
A
certain
tousness of stylistic exercises or purely formalistic experiments. 'aesthetic',
which maintains that
a
photograph
is
justified
refusal
by the object
The Aristocracy of Culture / 41
photographed or by the possible use of the photographic image, is being brought into play when manual workers almost invariably reject photography for photography's sake (e.g., the photo of pebbles) as useless, perverse or bourgeois: 'A waste of film', 'They must have film to throw away', 'I tell you, there are some people who don't know what to do with their time', 'Haven't they got anything better to do with their time than photograph things
like that?' 'That's bourgeois
photography.'
must never be forgotten that the working-class 'aesthetic' is a dominated 'aesthetic' which is constantly obliged to define itself in terms of the dominant aesthetics. The members of the working class, who can neither ignore It
own
the high-art aesthetic, which denounces their
nor abandon
'aesthetic',
their socially conditioned inclinations,
but still less proclaim them and legitimate them, often experience their relationship to the aesthetic norms in a twofold and contradictory way. This is seen when some manual workers grant 'pure' photographs a purely verbal recognition
many
with
is
this
is
also the case
and even some bourgeois who, as regards paintfrom the working class mainly by what they know
petit bourgeois
example,
ings, for
(
differ
do or, still better, not to say): 'It's beautiful, would never occur to me to take a picture of a thing like that', 'Yes, beautiful, but you have to like it, it's not my cup of tea.'
the right thing to say or
but it's
it
an antf-kantian 'aesthetic about reconstrucring
1
It
logic, the
its
is
no accident
popular
that,
'aesthetic'
when one
sets
appears as the nega-
tive
opposite of the Kantian aesthetic, and that the popular ethos implic-
itly
answers each ptoposition of the 'Analytic of the Beautiful' with
thesis contradicting
it.
In order to
apprehend what makes the
of aesthetic judgement, Kant ingeniously distinguished pleases'
from
which
'that
gratifies',
and,
more generally,
a
specificity
'that
which
strove to separate
'disinterestedness', the sole guarantee of the specifically aesthetic quality
of contemplation, from 'the interest of the
senses',
which
defines 'the
of Reason', which defines 'the Good'. By contrast, working-class people, who expect every image to fulfil a agreeable',
function, ity
and from 'the
if
only that of
or agreeableness in
interest
a sign, refer,
all
their
norms of moral-
often explicitly, to
judgements. Thus the photograph of a
dead soldier provokes judgements which, whether positive or negative, are always responses to the reality of the thing represented or to the
functions the representation could serve, the horror of war or the denunciation of the horrors
of war which the photographer
produce simply by showing
that horror.
27
Similarly,
image of
metrical.
And
good
a beautiful thing:
she's a beautiful
in a photo.'
The
of Hippias the Sophist:
woman. A
that's
good,
beautiful
more it's
woman
rarely, in a
almost symalways looks
manual worker echoes the plain-speaking tell him what beauty is and I'm not likely to
Parisian 'I'll
'Now,
supposed to
popular naturalism
recognizes beauty in the image of a beautiful thing or, beautiful
is
A
42 /
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
be refuted by him!
what beauty
that's
The
fact
Socrates, to be frank, a beautiful
is,
woman,
(Plato, Greater Hippias, 287e).
is!'
which subordinates the form and rhe very existence of the image to its function, is necessarily pluralistic and conditional. The insistence with which the respondents point out the limits and conditions of validity of their judgements, distinguishing, for each photoThis
'aesthetic',
graph, the possible uses or audiences, or, more precisely, the possible use for each audience ('As a
news photo,
showing
that they reject the idea that a
to kids')
shows
it's
not bad',
'All right, if
other people', said
for
for propriety as a
a white-collar
for
photograph can right for me, not
woman is all worker, who has to
please 'universally'. 'A photo of a pregnant
it's
use his concern
way of expressing anxiety about what
is
'presentable'
and therefore entitled to demand admiration. Because the image is always judged by reference to the function it fulfils for the person who looks at it
or which he thinks
it
could
fulfil
for other classes
of beholders,
aes-
judgement naturally takes the form of a hypothetical .judgement implicitly based on recognition of 'genres', the perfection and scope of which are defined by a concept. Almost three-quarters of the judgements expressed begin with an 'if, and the effort to recognize culminates in classification into a genre, or, which amounts to the same thing, in the thetic
attribution of a social use, the different genres being defined in terms of their use
and
their users ('It's a publicity photo',
laboratory photo',
'It's a
photo'
etc.).
comments
'It's a
competition photo',
And photographs of nudes them
'It's
a
pure document',
'It's
an educational
are almost always received with
of their social function: 'All right in Pigalle', 'It's the sort of photos they keep under the counter.' It is not surprising that this 'aesthetic', which bases appreciation on informative, tangible or moral interest, can only refuse images of the trivial, or, which amounts to the same thing in terms of this logic, the triviality of the image: judgement nevergives the image of the object that reduce
autonomy with
to the stereotype
respect to the object of the image.
Of all
the characteris-
proper to the image, only colour (which Kant regarded as less pure than form) can prevent rejection of photographs of trivial things. Nothtics
ing
is
more
alien to
popular consciousness than the idea of an aesthetic
Kantian terms, is independent of the charming of the senses. Thus judgements on the photographs most strongly rejected on grounds of futility (pebbles, bark, wave) almost always end with the reservation that 'in colour, it might be pretty'; and some
pleasure that, to put
it
in
respondents even manage to formulate the
when
tude,
graph taste
is
'if
for
their atti-
the colours arc good, a colour photo-
always beautiful.' In short,
when he
emotion its
they declare that
maxim governing
Kant
is
indeed referring to popular
added element of charm and delight, not to speakof adopting this as the measure of
writes: 'Taste that requires an
its
approval, has not yet emerged from barbarism.'
Refusal of the meaningless
(insignifiant)
image, which has neither
— The Aristocracy of Culture / 43 sense nor interest, or of the ambiguous image means refusing to treat as a finality
it
an image signifying itself, and therefore than itself. The value of a photograph is mea-
without purpose,
as
having no other referent sured by the interest of the information it conveys, and by the clarity with which it fulfils this informative function, in short, its legibility,
which itself varies with the legibility of its intention or function, the judgement it provokes being more or less favourable depending on the expressive adequacy of the signifier to the signified. It therefore contains the expectation of the title or caption which, by declaring the signifying intention, makes it possible to judge whether the realization signifies or illustrates
it
adequately. If formal explorations, in avant-garde theatre or
non-figurative painting, or simply classical music, are disconcerting to
working-class people, this
is
partly because they feel incapable of under-
standing what these things must signify, insofar
as they are signs.
Hence
may experience as inadequate and unworthy a satisfaction that cannot be grounded in a meaning transcendent to the object. Not knowing what the 'intention* is, they feel incapable of distinguishing a tour de force from clumsiness, telling a 'sincere' formal device from cynithe uninitiated
imposture.
cal
The
confessions with which manual workers faced with
exclusion (T don't understand what
modern
pictures be-
means' or 'I like it but I don't understand it') contrast with the knowing silence of the bourgeois, who, though equally disconcerted, at least know that they have to refuse tray their
or at least conceal
—the
it
naive expectation of expressiveness that
by the concern to 'understand' ('programme music' and the so
many
this
betrayed
on
titles foisted
symphonies are sufficient indication that not an exclusively popular one).
sonatas, concertos and
expectation
is
But formal refinement the
is
is
also that
artist, his specific interests, his
which, by foregrounding form,
technical problems, his effects, his
lusions and echoes, throws the thing itself into the
communion with
cludes direct
the beauty
child, a beautiful girl, a beautiful
representation
is
expected to be
i.e.,
animal or
background and
of the world
—
a
and, like
pre-
beautiful
a beautiful landscape.
a feast for the eyes
al-
The
still life,
to
up memories and anticipations of feasts enjoyed and feasts to come.' 29 Nothing is more opposed to the celebration of the beauty and joy of the world that is looked for in the work of art, 'a choice which praises', than the devices of cubist or abstract painting, which are perceived and unanimously denounced as aggressions against the thing rep'stir
resented, against the natural order and especially the short, is
however
only seen
represented,
perfectly
it
performs
as fully justified if the if
its
human
form. In
representative function, the
thing represented
the representative function
is
is
work
worthy of being
subordinated to a higher
function, such as that of capturing and exalting a reality that
is
worthy of
A
44 /
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
being made eternal. Such
is
the basis of the 'barbarous
taste' to
which the
most antithetical forms of the dominant aesthetic always refer negatively and which only recognizes realist representation, in other words, a respectful, humble, submissive representation of objects designated by their beauty or their
social
importance.
aesthetics, ethics and aestheticism When faced with legitimate works of art, people most lacking the specific competence apply to them the perceptual schemes of their own ethos, the very ones which structure their everyday perception
of everyday existence. These schemes, giving
products of an unwilled, unselfconscious systematicity, are opposed to the more or less fully stated principles of an aesthetic. ° The rerise to
sult
is
a systematic 'reduction'
of the things of
art to the
bracketing of form in favour of 'human' content, which
things of is
life, a
barbarism par
l
excellence place as
if
from the standpoint of the pure aesthetic. Everything takes the emphasis on form could only be achieved by means of a
neutralization of any kind of affective or ethical interest in the object of
which accompanies (without any necessary cause-effect, relation) mastery of the means of grasping the distinctive properties which this particular form takes on in its relations with other forms (i.e., through reference to the universe of works of art and its history). representation
Confronted with
a
photograph of an old woman's hands* the culturally
most deprived express a more or less conventional emotion or an ethical complicity but never a specifically aesthetic judgement (other than a negative
it, she's got her hands or even a typist's! ... I sorry seeing that poor old woman's hands, they're all knotted,
like that (imitates
like that.
Not
gesture)? Yes, that's
like a duchess's
you might say' (manual worker, Paris). With the lower middle classes, exaltation of ethical virtues comes to the forefront ('hands worn out by toil'), sometimes tinged with populist sentimentality ('Poor old thing! Her hands must really hurt her. It really gives a sense of pain'); and sometimes even concern for aesthetic properties and references to painting make their appearance: 'It's as if it was a painting that had been photographed Must be really beautiful as a painting' (clerical worker, Paris). That reminds me of a picture I saw in an exhibition of Spanish paintings, a monk .
,
.
with his hands clasped in front of him and deformed fingers' (technician, Paris). 'The sort of hands you see in early Van Goghs, an old peasant
woman in
or people eating potatoes' (junior executive, Paris). At higher levels
the social hierarchy, the remarks
become
increasingly abstract, with
(other people's) hands, labour and old age functioning as allegories or symbols which serve as pretexts for general reflections
on general problems:
1'he Arutocracy
'Those are rhe hands of someone hard manual work
As
.
a
who
has
matter of fact
of Culture / 45
worked too much, doing very it*s
very unusual to see hands like
rhar (engineer, Paris) 'These cwo hands unquestionably evoke a poor and unhappy old age' (teacher, provinces) An aestheticizing reference to painting, sculpture or literature,
more
frequent,
more
varied and
more
subtly
handled, resorts to rhe neutralization and distancing which bourgeois course about the social world requires and performs. beautiful photograph.
toil.
'J
find this a very
puts
It
me
in
mind of
That woman's gesture, at once very humthat work and poverty are so deforming' (engineer,
Jt's terrible
.
the very symbol of
woman
Flaubert's old servant
ble
It's
dis-
.
Paris).
A
portrait
of a
heavily made-up
woman,
taken from an unusual angle
with unusual lighting, provokes very similar reactions. Manual workers, and even more so craftsmen and small shopkeepers, react with horror and diswouldn't like that photo in my house, in my room. It isn't very nice to look at It's rather painful" (manual worker, provinces). Is she dead? Ghastly, enough to keep you awake at night ghastly, horrible, gust.
'I
,
,
,
I
While most of the office workers and junior executives reject a photo which rhey can only describe as 'frightful' or 'unpleasant to look at', some of them try to characterize the don't want to look at
technique:
The
photo
it*
is
(shopkeeper, provinces)
very well taken, very beautiful, but horrible' (cleri-
'What gives the impression of something monstrous is on rhe face of the man or woman who is the subject of the phoro and the angle from which it has been raken, that's to say looking up from below' (junior executive, Paris) Others appeal to aesthetic references, mainly drawn from the cinema: 'A rather fantastic sort of character, or at it could be a Dreyer characrer, Bergman at a pinch, least rather bizarre cal
worker T
Paris).
the expression
.
,
,
46 /
A
Souai Critique of the Judgement of Taste
The Lacq gasworks
by night
1
or perhaps even Eisenstein, in Ivan the Terrible
.
I
like
it
a lot
(techni-
Most of the senior executives and members of the professions find the photograph 'beautiful' and 'expressive' and make reference not only to the films of Bergman, Orson Welles, Dreyer, and others, bur also to the theatre, invoking Hamlet, Macbeth or Racine's Athalie. When confronted wirh a photograph of the Lacq gas refinery, which is cian, Parts).
likely to
disconcert realist expectations both by ks subject, an industrial
complex, normally excluded from the world of legitimate representation, and by the treatment it receives (night photography), manual workers perplexed, hesitate, and eventually, in most cases, admit defeat; *At first sight it's a construction in metal but I can't make head or tail of it, ft might be something used in an electric power station I can't make out what it is, it's a mystery to me' (manual worker, provinces). 'Now, that one really bothers me, I haven't got anything ro say about it I can't sec what it it wouldn'r be all headlights, isn't cm could be, apart from the lighring. It ,
Down
,
.
can see a railing and a goods lift, no, todo wirh really, \ can't say' (manual worker, Paris), That's something electronics, 1 don't know anything about that' (manual worker, Paris), Among small employers, who tend to be hostile to modern art experiments straight lines like that.
and,
more
generally, ro
all
here
art in
I
which they cannot see the marks and
sense of confusion often leads to simple refusal; That is of no interest, it may be all very fine, but not for me. It's always the same thing Personally that stuff leaves me cold' (craftsman, provinces) Tve of a tried to work out if it really is a photo. Perhaps it's a reproduction traces
of work,
a
I wouldn't know what to do with drawing done wirh a few pencil lines a photo like that. Perhaps it suits modern tastes. Up and down with the pencil and they like it. And as for rhe photo and the photographer, rhey don't deserve any credit, they've done nothing at all. The artist did it all, he's the one who ought to rake the credit, he's rhe one who drew it* (shop-
The Aristocracy of Culture / 47 keeper, provinces). Office workers and junior executives,
who
are just as
disconcerted as the manual workers and small employers, but are clined to admit
it
than the former and
less inclined
lenge the legitimacy of what challenges them, 32
verdict:
photo
like it as a
*I
seems immense to me captured by the camera'
lines, it
light,
.
.
.
.
,
because ,
A
it's
class,
who most
ment of form
latter to chal-
often decline to give a
drawn
all
out; they're just
vast piece of scaffolding
.
.
.
It's just
(clerical worker, Paris). 'Buffet likes
things like that' (technician, Paris). But only
nant
less
than the
less in-
among members of
doing
the domi-
often recognize the object represented, does judge-
autonomy
judgement of content ('It's inhuman but aesthetically beautiful because of the contrasts'), and the representation is apprehended as such, without reference to anything other than itself or realities of the same class ('abstract painting', 'avant-garde take
on
full
vis-a-vis
plays' etc.).
The
variations in the attitude to a very comparable object, a metal frame,
provide
a
numerical proof of
this: the
proportion of respondents
who
think
could make a beautiful photo is 6 percent among manual workers and domestic servants, 9 percent among craftsmen and small shopkeepers, 9.5 percent among the clerical workers and junior administrative executives, 24 it
percent
among
dominant
class
the primary teachers and technicians, 24.5 percent in the
—and 50 percent among the secondary and higher-education
(One may assume that the reactions aroused by the Beaubourg Centre obey the same principles.)
teachers.
the
The 'art
aestheticism which
of living' implies
a sort
makes the
architecture of
intention the basis of the
artistic
of moral agnosticism, the perfect antithesis of
the ethical disposition which subordinates art to the values of the art of living.
The
aesthetic intention can only contradict the dispositions of the
ethos or the norms of the ethic which, at each
moment,
define the
legiti-
mate objects and modes of representation for the different social classes, excluding from the universe of the 'representable' certain realities and certain ways of representing them. Thus the easiest, and so the most frequent and most spectacular way to 'shock (epater) the bourgeois' by proving the extent of one's power to confer aesthetic status is to transgress ever more radically the ethical censorships (e.g., in matters of sex) which the other classes accept even within the area which the dominant disposition defines as aesthetic. Or, more subtly, it is done by conferring aesthetic status on objects or ways of representing them that are excluded by the dominant aesthetic of the time, or on objects that are given aesthetic status by dominated 'aesthetics'.
One
only has to read the index of contents recently published by Art Vi-
vant (1974), a 'vaguely
modern review run by
a clique
of academics
are vaguely art historians' (as an avant-garde painter nicely put it),
occupies a sort of neutral point in the
field
of avant-garde
tween F/ashart or Art Press and Artitude or Opus. titles
one
finds:
Africa (one
title:
'Art
Must Be
In
the
who which
art criticism be-
list
of features and
for All'), Architecture (two
48
JA
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
including 'Architecture without an Architect'), Comic Strips (five nine pages out of the forty-six in the whole index), Kids' Art, Kitsch
titles,
titles,
(three
five
titles,
pages), Photography (two
titles,
three pages), Street Art
(fifteen titles, twenty-three pages, including 'Art in the Street?', 'Art Street, First Episode', 'Beauty in the Back-Streets; You Just Have to
How
in
the
Know
Suburb Sets the Pace'), Science-Fiction-Utopia (two titles, three pages), Underground (one title), Writing-laeograms-Grajfiti (two titles, four pages). The aim of inverting or transgressing, which is clearly manifested by this list, is necessarily contained within the limits assigned to it a contrario by the aesthetic conventions it denounces and by the need to secure recognition of the aesthetic nature of the transgression of the limits (i.e., recognition of its conformity to the norms of the transgressing group). Hence the almost Markovian logic of the choices, with, for the cinema, Antonioni, Chaplin, cinematheque, Eisenstein, eroticism-pornography, Fellini, Godard, Klein, Monroe, underground, Warhol. to Look', 'A
This commitment to symbolic transgression, which with
political neutrality or revolutionary aestheticism,
fect antithesis
often
is
combined
the almost per-
of petit-bourgeois moralism or of what Sartre used to
the revolutionary's 'seriousness'.
when
thetic disposition implies in fact the
is
33
it
The
ethical indifference
becomes the
basis
which the
of the
art
among
aes-
of living
root of the ethical aversion to artists (or intellectuals)
manifests itself particularly vehemently
call
is
which
the declining and threat-
ened fractions of the petite bourgeoisie (especially independent craftsmen and shopkeepers), who tend to express their regressive and repressive dispositions in all areas of practice (especially in educational matters and vis-a-vis students and student demonstrations), but also among the rising fractions of that class whose striving for virtue and whose deep insecurity render them very receptive to the phantasm of 'pornocracy'.
The pure
disposition
is
so universally recognized
as'
legitimate that
no
and through it the art of living, is an object of struggle among the classes. Dominated lifestyles {arts de vivre ), which have practically never received systematic expression, are almost always perceived, even by their defenders, from the destructive or reductive viewpoint of the dominant aesthetic, so that voice
is
heard pointing out that the definition of
art,
their only options are degradation or self-destructive rehabilitation ('pop-
why
34
Proudhon for a naively systematic expression of the petit-bourgeois aesthetic, which subular culture'). This
is
it is
necessary to look to
ordinates art to the core values of the art of living and identifies the cynical
perversion of the
artist's
life-style
as
the source of the absolute
primacy given to form:
'Under the influence of property, the solute in his morals, venal
ism, root,
The
and without
artist,
dignity,
is
depraved in his reason, the impure
dis-
image of ego-
idea of justice and honesty slides over his heart without taking
and of
all
the classes of society, the
strong souls and noble characters.'
\
artist class is
the poorest in
The Aristocracy of Culture / 49 'Art for art's sake, as
has been called, not having
it
its
legitimacy
being based on nothing, is nothing. It is debauchery of the heart and dissolution of the mind. Separated from right and duty, cultivated and pursued as the highest thought of the soul and the supreme manifestation of humanity, art or the ideal, stripped of the greater part of itself, reduced to nothing more than an excitement offantasy and the senses, is the source of sin, the origin of all servitude, the poisoned spring from within
itself,
which, according to the Bible, flow of the earth
its
.
.
Art for
art's sake,
form for form's
style's sake,
which
.
like a
plague of
condemned
I
the fornications and abominations
say, verse for verse's sake, style for
sake, fantasy for fantasy's sake,
lice are
gnawing away
refinement, the quintessence of
What
all
at our
all
the diseases
epoch, are
vice in all
3
evil.'
autonomy of form and the artist's right to the formal refinements by which he claims mastery of what ought to be merely a matter of 'execution': 'I have no quarrel with nobility, or is
is
the
elegance, or pose, or style, or gesture, or any aspect of what constitutes the execution
of a
work of
art
and
is
the usual object of traditional
37
criticism.'
Dependent on demand
in
the choice of their objects, artists take their
revenge in the execution: 'There are church painters, history painters,
genre painters (in other words, painters of anecdotes or farces), portrait painters, landscape painters, animal painters, seascape painters, painters of
Venus, painters of fantasy. One specializes in nudes, another in drapery, Then each one endeavours to distinguish himself by one of the means which contribute to the execution. One goes in for sketching, another for colour; this one attends to composition, that one to perspective, a third to costume or local colour; one shines through sentiment, another
through
redeems the futility of his subject by the fineness of his detail. Each strives to have his own trick, his own 'je ne sais quoi', a personal manner, and so, with the help 5" of fashion, reputations are made and unmade.' his idealized or realistic figures; yet another
In contrast to this decadent art cut off from social
God
life,
respecting nei-
worthy of the name must be subordinated to science, morality and justice. It must aim to arouse the moral sense, to inspire feelings of dignity and delicacy, to idealize reality, to substitute for the thing the ideal of the thing, by painting the true and not the real. In a word, it must educate. To do so, it must transmit not 'personal impressions' (like David in The Tennis-Court Oath, or Delacroix) but, like ther
nor man, an
art
Courbet in Les Paysans de Flagey, reconstitute the social and historial truth which all may judge. ('Each of us only has to consult himself to be able, after brief consideration, to state a judgement on any work of 39 art.') And it would be a pity to conclude without quoting a eulogy of the small detached house which would surely be massively endorsed by the middle and working classes: 'I would give the Louvre, the Tuileries, Notre-Dame and the Vendome column into the bargain to live in my own home, in a little house of my oum design, where I would live alone, in
—
—
— 50 /
A
Social Critique
the middle of a
little
of
the judgement
of Taste
plot of ground, a quarter of an acre or so, where
And
have water, shade, a lawn, and silence.
I'd
thought of putting a statue in it, it wouldn't be a Jupiter or an Apollo those gentlemen are nothing to me nor views of London, Rome, Constantinople or VeniceGod preserve me from such places! I'd put there what I lack mountains, vineyards, meadows, goats, cows, sheep, reapers and shepherds.'
—
if
I
—
—
NEUTRALIZATION AND THE UNIVERSE OF POSSIBLES
Unlike
non-
of a work of art (in which there are of course degrees of accomplishment) is armed with
Specific perception, the specifically aesthetic perception
a pertinence principle
which
principle of selection enables
elements offered to the eye
it
and acquired. This pick out and retain, from among the
socially constituted
is
to
(e.g., leaves
or clouds considered merely as
indices or signals invested with a denotative function
'There's
going
to
be
a storm'),
which, when relocated
in
all
the
stylistic traits
—
'It's
a poplar',
— and only those
the universe of stylistic possibilities, distin-
guish a particular manner of treating the elements selected, whether clouds or leaves, that
is,
a style as a
mode of perception and thought
mode of representation
that
is
expressing the
proper to a period, a
class
or class
group of artists or a particular artist. No stylistic characterization of a work of art is possible without presupposing at least implicit reference to the compossible alternatives, whether simultaneous to distinguish it from its contemporaries or successive to contrast it with earlier or later works by the same or a different artist. Exhibitions devoted to an artist's whole oeuvre or to a genre (e.g., the still-life exhibition in fraction, a
—
Bordeaux in 1978) changeable stylistic
are the objective
—
—
realization
of the
field
of
inter-
brought into play when one 'recognizes' the singularities of the characteristic style of a work of art. As E. H. Gombrich demonstrates, Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie only takes on its 'full meaning' in terms of a previous idea of Mondrian's work and of the expectations it favours. The 'impression of gay abandon' given by the play of bright, strongly contrasting patches of colour can only arise in a mind familiar with 'an art of straight lines and a few primary colours in carefully balanced rectangles' and capable of perceiving the 'relaxed style of popular music' in the distance from the 'severity' which is expected. And as soon as one imagines this painting attributed to Gino Severini, who tries to express in some of his paintings 'the rhythm of dance music in works of brilliant chaos', it is clear that, measured by this stylistic yardstick, Mondrian's picture would rather suggest the first Brandenburg Concerto. The aesthetic disposition, understood as the aptitude for perceiving and deciphering specifically stylistic characteristics, is thus inseparable from specifically artistic competence. The latter may be acquired by explicit learning or simply by regular contact with works of art, especially those assembled in museums and galleries, where the diversity of their possibilities
neutralized by their being displayed in a place con-
so that they invite pure interest its
in
form. This practical
possessor to situate each element of a universe of
representations
in a class
denned
in
relation to the class
ar-
composed
the artistic representations consciously or unconsciously excluded.
which make up the stylistic originality of all the works of a period relative to those of another period, or, within this class, of the works of one school relative to another, or of the works of one artist relative to the works of his school or period, or even of an artist's particular period or work relative to his whole oeuvre, is inseparable from an awareness of the stylistic redundancies, i.e., the typical treatments of the pictorial matter which define a style. In short, a grasp of the resemblances presupposes implicit or explicit reference to the differences, and vice versa. Attribution is always implicitly based on referThus, an awareness of the
stylistic features
ence to 'typical works', consciously or unconsciously selected because
they present to a particularly high degree the qualities plicitly
more or
less ex-
recognized as pertinent in a given system of classification. Every-
thing suggests that, even
among
specialists,
the criteria of pertinence
which define the stylistic properties of 'typical works' generally remain implicit and that the aesthetic taxonomies implicitly mobilized to distinguish, classify and order works of art never have the rigour which aesthetic theories sometimes try to lend them. In fact, the simple placing which the amateur or specialist performs when he undertakes attribution has nothing in common with the genuinely scientific intention of grasping the work's immanent reason and raison d'etre by reconstructing the perceived situation, the subjectively experienced problematic, which is nothing other than the space of the positions and self-positionings constituting the field and within which the artistic intention of the artist in question has defined
itself,
generally
by opposition. The references which this reconstructing operation deploys have nothing to do with the kinds of semantic echo or affective correspondence which adorn celebratory discourse they are the indispensable means of constructing the field of thematic or stylistic possibilities in relation to which, objectively and to some extent subjectively, the possibility selected by the artist presented itself. Thus, to understand why the early Romantic painters returned to primitive art, one would have to reconstitute the whole universe of reference of the pupils of David, with their long beards and Greek costumes, who, 'outdoing their master's cult of antiquity, wanted to go back to Homer, the Bible and Ossian, and condemned the style of classical antiquity itself as "rococo", "Van Loo" 42 or "Pompadour".' This would lead one back to the inextricably ethical and aesthetic alternatives such as the identification of the naive with the pure and the natural in terms of which their choices were made and which have nothing in common with the transhistorical oppositions be-
—
— —
loved of formalist aesthetics.
43
The Aristocracy of Culture / 33
But the celebrant's or devotee's intention is not that of understanding, and, in the ordinary routine of the cult of the work of art, the play of academic or urbane references has no other function than to bring the work into an interminable circuit of inter-legitimation, so that a reference to Jan Breughel's Bouquet of Flowers lends dignity to Jean-Michel Picart's Bouquet of Flowers with Parrot, just as, in another context, reference to the latter can, being less common, serve to enhance the former. This play of cultured allusions and analogies endlessly pointing to other analogies, which, like the cardinal oppositions in mythical or ritual systems,
never have to justify themselves by stating the basis of the relating which they perform, weaves around the works a complex web of factitious experiences, each
answering and reinforcing
all
the others, which creates the
enchantment of artistic contemplation. It is the source of the 'idolatry' to which Proust refers, which leads one to find 'an actress's robe or a society woman's dress beautiful not because the cloth is beautiful but be.
cause
it is
.
.
the cloth painted by
Analogy, functioning
Moreau
as a circular
or described by Balzac'
mode of thought, makes
it
possible
whole area of art and luxury without ever leaving it. Thus Chateau Margaux wine can be described with the same words as are used to describe the chateau, just as others will evoke Proust apropos of Monet or Cesar Franck, which is a good way of talking about neither: 'The house is in the image of the vintage. Noble, austere, even a little Chateau Margaux has the air of an ancient temple devoted to solemn. Vineyard or dwelling, Margaux disdains all embelthe cult of wine. lishments. But just as the wine has to be served before it unfolds all its to tour the
.
.
.
,
.
.
charms, so the residence waits for the visitor to enter before
own. In each
it
reveals its
same words spring to one's lips: elegance, distinction, delicacy and that subtle satisfaction given by something which has received the most attentive and indeed loving care for generations. A wine long matured, a house long inhabited: Margaux the vintage and Margaux the chateau are the product of two equally rare things: rigour ,45 and time, case the
distance from necessity
To explain
the correlation between educa-
and the propensity or at least the aspiration to appreciate a work 'independently of its content', as the culturally most ambitious respondents put it, and more generally the propensity to make the 'gratuitous' and 'disinterested' investments demanded by legitimate works, it is tional capital
not sufficient to point to the
fact that
schooling provides the linguistic
and the references which enable aesthetic experience to be expressed and to be constituted by being expressed. What is in fact affirmed in this relationship is the dependence of the aesthetic disposition on the past and present material conditions of existence which are the precondition of both its constitution and its application and also of the accumulation of a cultural capital (whether or not educationally sanctioned) which can tools
— 54 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
only be acquired by means of a sort of withdrawal from economic neces-
which tends to bracket off the nature and function of the object represented and to exclude any 'naive' reaction
sity.
The
horror
aesthetic disposition
at the horrible, desire for
the desirable, pious reverence for the
sa-
cred—along with all purely ethical responses, in order to concentrate solely upon the mode of representation, the style, perceived and appreciated by comparison with other styles, is one dimension of a total relation
to the
world and to others,
a life-style,
which the
in
effects
of
particular conditions of existence are expressed in a 'misrecognizable' 1
These conditions of existence, which are the precondition for all learning of legitimate culture, whether implicit and diffuse, as domestic cultural training generally is, or explicit and specific, as in scholastic training, are characterized by the suspension and removal of economic necessity and by objective and subjective distance from practical urgencies, which is the basis of objective and subjective distance from groups form.'
subjected to those determinisms.
To
be able to play the games of culture with the playful seriousness
which Plato demanded, a seriousness without the 'spirit of seriousness', one has to belong to the ranks of those who have been able, not necessarily to make their whole existence a sort of children's game, as artists do, but at least to maintain for a long time, sometimes a whole lifetime, a child's relation to the world. (All children start life as baby bourgeois, in a relation of magical power over others and, through themT over the world, but they grow out of it sooner or later.) This is clearly seen when, by an accident of social genetics, into the well-policed world of intellectual games there comes one of those people (one thinks of Rousseau or Chernyshevsky) who bring inappropriate stakes and interests into the games of culture; who get so involved in the game that they abandon the margin of neutralizing distance that the Mush (belief in the game) de-
who
mands;
treat intellectual struggles, the object
manifestos, as a simple question of right and is
why
the logic of the
or boor
— which
game
wrong,
has already assigned
life
them
many
pathetic
and death. This roles
— eccentric
they will play despite themselves in the eyes of those
who know how to stay within the bounds who cannot see them any other way. The
of so
of the intellectual illusion and
aesthetic disposition, a generalized capacity to neutralize ordinary
urgencies and to bracket off practical ends, a durable inclination and aptitude for practice without a practical function, can only be constituted
within an experience of the world freed from urgency and through the practice of activities which are an end in themselves, such as scholastic
works of art. In other words, it presupposes the distance from the world (of which the 'role distance' brought to light by Erving Goffman is a particular case) which is the basis of the bourgeois experience of the world, Contrary to what certain mechanistic theories would suggest, even in its most specifically artistic dimension exercises or the contemplation of
The Aristocracy of Culture / 55 the pedagogic action of the family and the school operates at least as
much through
economic and
which are the precondition of its operation as through the contents which it inculcates. The scholastic world of regulated games and exercise for exercise' sake is, at least in this respect, less remote than it might appear from the 'bourgeois' world and the countless 'disinterested' and 'gratuitous' acts which go to make up its distinctive rarity, such as home maintenance and decothe
ration, occasioning a daily
social conditions
squandering of
care,
time and labour (often
through the intermediary of servants), walking and tourism, movements without any other aim than physical exercise and the symbolic appropriation of a world reduced to the status of a landscape, or ceremonies and receptions, pretexts for a display of ritual luxuries, decors, conversa-
and
and enjoyments. It is not surprising that bourgeois adolescents, who are both economically privileged and (temporarily) excluded from the reality of tions
finery,
not to mention, of course,
artistic practices
economic power, sometimes express their distance from the bourgeois world which they cannot really appropriate by a refusal of complicity whose most refined expression is a propensity towards aesthetics and aestheticism. In this respect they share common ground with the women of the bourgeoisie, who, being partially excluded from economic activity, find fulfilment in stage-managing the decor of bourgeois existence, when they are not seeking refuge or revenge in aesthetics.
Economic power
and foremost a power to keep economic necessity at arm's length. This is why it universally asserts itself by the destruction of riches, conspicuous consumption, squandering, and every form of gratuitous luxury. Thus, whereas the court aristocracy made the whole of life a continuous spectacle, the bourgeoisie has established the opposition between what is paid for and what is free, the interested and the disinterested, in the form of the opposition, which Weber saw as characterizing it, between place of work and place of residence, working days and holidays, the outside (male) and the inside (female), business and sentiment, industry and art, the world of economic necessity and the world of artistic freedom that is snatched, by economic power, from that necessity. Material or symbolic consumption of works of art constitutes one of the supreme manifestations of ease, in the sense both of objective leisure and subjective facility. The detachment of the pure gaze cannot be separated from a general disposition towards the 'gratuitous' and the 'disinterested', the paradoxical product of a negative economic conditioning which, through facility and freedom, engenders distance vis-a-vis necessity. At the same time, the aesthetic disposition is defined, objectively is first
and subjectively, in relation to other dispositions. Objective distance from necessity and from those trapped within it combines with a conscious distance which doubles freedom by exhibiting it. As the objective distance from necessity grows, life-style increasingly
of what
Weber
calls
a
'stylization
of
life',
becomes the product
a systematic
commitment
56 /
which
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
orients and organizes the
most
diverse practices
vintage or a cheese or the decoration of a holiday
This affirmation of power over
— the choice
home
in the
of a
country.
dominated necessity always implies a claim to a legitimate superiority over those who, because they cannot assert the same contempt for contingencies in gratuitous luxury and conspicuous consumption, remain dominated by ordinary interests and urgencies. The tastes of freedom can only assert themselves as such in relation to the tastes of necessity, which are thereby brought to the level of the aesthetic likely to
and so defined
a
as vulgar.
This claim to aristocracy
be contested than any other, because the relation of the
'disinterested' disposition to the conditions
which make
it
less
is
'pure',
possible,
i.e.,
the material conditions of existence which are rarest because most freed
from economic necessity, has every chance of passing unnoticed. The most 'classifying' privilege thus has the privilege of appearing to be the most natural one.
THE AESTHETIC SENSE thetic disposition
is
AS THE SENSE OF DISTINCTION
one dimension of
Thus, the
aes-
a distant, self-assured relation to
the world and to others which presupposes objective assurance and distance. It
is
one manifestation of the system of dispositions produced
\>y
the social conditionings associated with a particular class of conditions of existence
when
they take the paradoxical form of the greatest freedom
moment, with
conceivable, at a given
nomic
necessity.
But
sition in social space its
it is
respect to the constraints of eco-
also a distinctive expression
whose
distinctive value
is
of a privileged po-
objectively established in
relationship to expressions generated from different conditions. Like
every sort of taste,
it
unites and separates. Being the product of the con-
ditionings associated with a particular class of conditions of existence, unites
those
all
who
guishing them from since taste that
one
is
is
it
product of similar conditions while distinothers. And it distinguishes in an essential way,
are the all
for others,
—
—
one has people and things and all whereby one classifies oneself and is classified by
the basis of
all
that
others.
Tastes
(i.e.,
manifested preferences) are the practical affirmation of an
inevitable difference. fied,
is
no accident
that,
when they have
to be justi-
they are asserted purely negatively, by the refusal of other tastes.
matters of taste,
and
It
more than anywhere
else, all
determination
is
49
In
negation;*
provoked by horror or visceral intolerance ('sick-making') of the tastes of others. 'De gustibus non est disputandum': not because 'tous les gouts sont dans la and so it almost nature', but because each taste feels itself to be natural which amounts to rejecting others as unnatural and is, being a habitus therefore vicious. Aesthetic intolerance can be terribly violent. Aversion to different life-styles is perhaps one of the strongest barriers between the classes; class endogamy is evidence of this. The most intolerable thing for tastes are
perhaps
—
those
who
first
and foremost
distastes, disgust
—
regard themselves as the possessors of legitimate culture
is
the
A ristocracy
The of
sacrilegious reuniting
castes
This means that the games of
which
of Culture / 57
caste dictates shall
be separated.
and aesthetes and their struggles for the monopoly of artistic legitimacy are less innocent than they seem. At stake in every struggle over art there is also the imposition of an art of living, that
The
ness.^
the transmutation of an arbitrary
way of
legitimate 1
is,
artists
life
which
way of
living inco the
way of living into arbitrarichallenge thrown at the bourgeois
casts every other
artist's life-style is
always a
which it seeks to condemn as unreal and even absurd, by a sort of practical demonstration of the emptiness of the values and powers it pursues. The neutralizing relation to the world which defines the aeslife-style,
thetic disposition potentially implies a subversion of the spirit of serious-
ness
by
required
bourgeois
who
judgements of those
Like
investments.
lack the
means
to
make
the
visibly
art the basis
ethical
of their
art
of living, to see the world and other people through literary reminis-
cences and pictorial references, the 'pure' and purely aesthetic judgements
of the
and the aesthete spring from the dispositions of an ethos;
artist
but because of the legitimacy which they
command
so long as their rela-
tionship to the dispositions and interests of a group defined by strong
and weak economic
cultural capital
remains unrecognized, they
capital
provide a sort of absolute reference point in the necessarily endless play of
mutually
self-relativizing tastes.
By
a paradoxical reversal, they thereby
help to legitimate the bourgeois claim to 'natural distinction' as
differ-
ence made absolute. Objectively and subjectively aesthetic stances adopted in matters like cosmetics, clothing or
home
decoration are opportunities to experience
or assert one's position in social space, as a rank to be upheld or a dis-
goes without saying that the social classes are not equally inclined and prepared to enter this game of refusal and counterrefusal; and that the strategies aimed at transforming the basic dispositance to be kept.
of a
tions
It
life-style
into
a
system
of aesthetic principles,
objective
differences into elective distinctions, passive options (constituted externally by the logic
of the distinctive relationships) into conscious, elective
choices are in fact reserved for very top bourgeoisie, and for sionals of the 'stylization of
one of the the
game
fine arts.
By
members of the dominant artists,
life*
who
class,
as the inventors
are alone able to
make
indeed the
and
profes-
their art of living
contrast, the entry of the petite bourgeoisie into
of distinction
is
marked, inter
alia,
by the anxiety of exposing
oneself to classification by offering to the taste of others such infallible indices of personal taste as clothes or furniture, even a simple pair of
armchairs, as
in
one of Nathalie Sarraute's novels. As
for the
perhaps their sole function in the system of aesthetic positions
classes,
to serve as a foil, a negative reference point, in relation to
thetics define themselves, by successive negations.
of manner and culturally 1
'pretty
working
,
style,
the 'aesthetic' (in
most deprived
'lovely' (rather
itself)
fractions of the
53
which
is
all aes-
Ignoring or ignorant
of the working classes and
middle
classes defines as 'nice',
than 'beautiful') things that are already defined as
58 / such
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
the 'aesthetic' of calendars and postcards: a sunset, a
in
playing with a cat, a folk dance, an old master, a dren's procession.
The
chic objects and practices
all
communion, a chilcomes in with petit-
first
striving towards distinction
bourgeois aestheticism, which delights in
little girl
the cheap substitutes for
—driftwood and painted pebbles, cane and
handicrafts and art photography.
fia, 'art'
This aestheticism defines
itself against
classes, refusing their favourite subjects,
the 'aesthetic' of the working
the themes of 'views', such as
mountain landscapes, sunsets and woods, or souvenir photos, such first
communion,
photography, this lar aesthetic
pictorial
human
raf-
the
monument
as the
or the old master (see figure 2). In
taste prefers objects that are close
but semi-neutralized by more or
tradition or by a visible
stylistic
to those of the popu-
less explicit reference
to a
intention combining the
picturesque (weaver at his loom, tramps quarrelling, folk dance)
with gratuitous form (pebbles, rope,
tree bark).
Technicians seem to offer the purest form of 'middle-brow'
taste.
Their
photography locate them centrally in the structure of the middle classes (see figure 2), with the craftsmen, small shopkeepers, clerical workers and junior executives inclining towards the working class and the primary teachers and new petit bourgeois inclining towards the upper classes. They are particularly drawn to the objects most typical of middle-brow photography the weaver, the still life whereas the new petit bourgeois prefer objects which they see as lying outside the repertoire of the traditional aesthetic and therefore more 'original' (rope, cabbages), and also those belonging to the 'social picturesque' (tramps quarrelling). tastes in
—
—
middle-brow art par excellence finds one of its preferred subjects in one of the spectacles most characteristic of middlebrow culture (along with the circus, light opera and bull-fights), the folk dance (which is particularly appreciated by skilled workers and foremen, junior executives, clerical and commercial employees) (C.S. VII). Like the photographic recording of the social picturesque, whose populist objectivism distances the lower classes by constituting them as an object of contemplation or even commiseration or indignation, the spectacle of It is
significant that this
the 'people'
making
a spectacle
of itself, as in folk dancing,
is
nity to experience the relationship of distant proximity, in
the idealized vision purveyed by aesthetic realism
an opportuthe form of
and populist
nostalgia,
which is a basic element in the relationship of the petite bourgeoisie to the working or peasant classes and their traditions. But this middle-brow aestheticism in turn serves as a foil to the most alert members of the new middle-class fractions, who reject its favoured subjects, and to the secondary teachers whose aestheticism (the aestheticism of consumers, since they are relatively infrequent practitioners of photography and the other arts)
purports to be able to treat any object aesthetically, with the excep-
*
The
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c
t>0
^—
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l=»
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e>
t> tJO
3 a o V -O y
&
•as 3 O
8L JC 4^
o *J-
c
013 .2
o
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£ «
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,o Uh
Aristocracy of Culture
/ 59
60 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
middle-brow art of the petite bourgeoisie (such as the weaver and the folk dance, which are deemed merely 54 'interesting'). These would-be aesthetes demonstrate by their distinctive refusals that they possess thepractical mastery of the relationships between objects and groups which is the basis of all judgements of the type 'Qa fait' ('It looks .*) (*C a Bttt petit-bourgeois', 'Ca fait nouveau tion
of those
so constituted by the
.
.
without being able to go so far as to ascribe beauty to the most marked objects of the popular aesthetic (first communion) or the petit-bourgeois aesthetic (mother and child, folk dance) which the relariche' etc.),
tions of structural proximity spontaneously lead
them
to detest.
Explicit aesthetic choices are in fact often constituted in opposition to
the choices of the groups closest in social space, with
whom
the
compe-
most direct and most immediate, and more precisely, no doubt, in relation to those choices most clearly marked by the intention (perceived as pretension) of marking distinction vis-a-vis lower groups, such tition
as,
is
for intellectuals, the primary teachers' Brassens,
Thus
the song, as a cultural property
universally accessible
exposed
at
and genuinely
one moment or another
which
(like
common
Jean Ferrat or Ferre. photography) is almost
(since hardly
anyone
is
not
to the 'successes' of the day), calls for
from those who intend to mark their difference. The intellectuals, artists and higher-education teachers seem to hesitate between systematic refusal of what can only be, at best, a middle-brow art, and a selective acceptance which manifests the universality of their culture and their aesthetic disposition.^ For their part, the employers and professionals, who have little interest in the 'intellectual* song, indicate their distance from ordinary songs by rejecting with disgust the most popular and most 'vulgar' singers, such as Les Compagnons de la Chanson, Mireille Mathieu, Adamo or Sheila, and making an exception for the oldest and most consecrated singers (like Edith Piaf or Charles Trenet) or those closest to operetta and bel canro. But it is the middle classes who
particular vigilance
photography) an opportunity to manifest their artistic pretension by refusing the favourite singers of the working classes, such as Mireille Mathieu, Adamo, Charles Aznavour or Tino Rossi, and declaring their preference for the singers who endeavour to dignify this find in
song
(as in
'minor' genre. That
is
why
the primary teachers distinguish themselves
from the other fractions of the petite bourgeoisie in this area, where, more easily than in the domain of legitimate art, they can invest their academic dispositions and assert their own taste in the choice most
clearly
of singers
who
offer populist poetry in the primary-school tradition,
such
Jacques Douai or Brassens (who was on the syllabus of the Saint36 Cloud entrance examination a few years ago).
as
In addition to the data provided by the survey question, use was also made of the findings of a survey by the opinion research department of the
The Aristocracy of Culture / 61 French broadcasting service (ORTF) (C.S. XIX) and of thirty in-depth interviews designed to grasp the constellation of preferences and refusals in conditions as close as possible to ordinary conversation. These interviews
confirmed is
that, as the
ORTF
— whose
more strongly a singer more he or she is refused by the most
survey also shows, the
preferred by the less cultivated, the
almost exclusively expressed in rejections. These refusals, almost always expressed in the mode of distaste, arc
cultivated
tastes in this area are
often accompanied by pitying or indignant remarks about the correspond-
ing tastes
('I
Similarly, jects
can't understand
one
how anyone
can like that!').
finds that the declining petite-bourgeoisie systematically
the virtues that the
new
petite bourgeoisie
self (witty, refined, stylish, artistic,
most
readily claims for
re-
it-
imaginative); whereas the latter signals
of the most typically 'bourgeois* configurations and by a concern to go against common judgements, in which aesthetic commitments figure prominently. Thus, when asked to state the ideal
its
aesthetic pretension
by
a refusal
of a friend or a domestic interior, they produce motley combinations such as: 'artistic, sociable, amusing, comfortable, easy to maintain, imaginative' (sales representative, Paris), 'dynamic, pragmatic, stylish, stud-
matic, comfortable, harmonious, cosy' (radio presenter, Lille). similar process that leads the
members of
It
is
again a
the professions to distinguish
themselves from newcomers to the bourgeoisie by rejecting the qualities of
ambition and upward mobility, such as 'pragmatic', 'dynamic' (often chosen by managerial executives), or the most 'pretentious' adjectives, such as 'stylish' or 'refined', which are much favoured by the new petite bourgeoisie.
may
assumed that the affirmation of the omnipotence of the aesthetic gaze found among higher-education teachers, the group most inclined to say that all the objects mentioned could make a beautiful photograph and to profess their recognition of modern art or of the artistic status of the photograph, stems much more from a self-distinguishing intention than from a true aesthetic universalism. This has not escaped the most knowing avant-garde producers, who carry sufficient authority 7 to challenge, if need be, the very dogma of the omnipotence of art,^ and are in a position to recognize this faith as a defensive manoeuvre to avoid look at self-exposure by reckless refusals: 'Who would say this: "When a picture, I'm not interested in what it represents"? Nowadays, the sort It
also be
I
who don't know much about art. Saying someone who hasn't any idea about art. Twenty years of people
that
is
typical
of
ago, I'm not even
ago the abstract painters would have said that; I don't think so. It's exactly what a guy says when he hasn't a clue: "I'm not one of these old fogies, I know what counts is whether it's pretty" (avant-garde painter, age 35). They alone, at all events, can afford the audacious imposture of refusing all refusals by recuperating, in parody or sure that twenty years
'
sublimation, the very objects refused by the lower-degree aestheticism.
The
'rehabilitation' of 'vulgar' objects
itable', the
smaller the distance
is
in social
more
risky,
but also
more
'prof-
space or time, and the 'horrors'
62 /
A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
of popular kitsch are easier to 'recuperate' than those of petit-bourgeois imitation, just as the 'abominations' of bourgeois taste can begin to be
found 'amusing'
when
they are sufficiently dated to cease to be 'compro-
mising'.
Suffice
it
to point out that, in addition to those subjects
been constituted
as aesthetic at
which had already
the time of the survey, either by a pictorial
of Leger or Gromaire, the tramps quarrelling, a variant of an old theme of realist painting often taken up in photogtaphy, or the butcher's stall), or by the photographic tradition (e.g., the weaver, the folk dance, the bark), most of the 'banal' subjects have subsequently been constituted aesthetically by one avant-garde painter or another (for example, the sunset over the sea, by Richer, who paints typically romantic landscapes from photographs, or Long and Fulton, English painters who make 'conceptual' landscape photographs, or even Land Art; or the car crash, by Andy Warhol; or the tramps quarrel, with the 'tramps sleeping in the Bowery' of the American hyper-realists; or the first communion, by Boltanski, who has even given artistic status to the family album etc.). The only 'unrecuperated' and, for the moment, 'irrecuperable' subjects are the favourite themes of first-degree aestheticism, the weaver at his loom, the folk dance, the tree-bark, and the woman suckling a child. They are too close to favour the flaunting of an absolute power of aesthetic constitution; and because they do not allow distance to be manifested, they are more liable to tradition (e.g., the metal frame
7
be mistaken difficult
for 'first-degree' intentions.
when
the aesthetic*in-itself
Reappropriation
which
it
works on
is
that
much more
clearly manifests rec-
ognition of the dominant aesthetic so that the distinctive deviation to
is
liable
go unnoticed.
The
with the 'bourgeois' in one respect: he prefers naivety to 'pretentiousness'. The essential merit of the 'common people' is that artist agrees
they have
none of the pretensions
ambitions of the
'petit bourgeois'.
to art (or
power) which
Their indifference
inspire the
tacitly
acknowland intel-
why, in the mythology of artists lectuals, whose outflanking and double-negating strategies sometimes lead them back to 'popular' tastes and opinions, the 'people' so often play
edges the monopoly. That
a role
is
not unlike that of the peasantry in the conservative ideologies of
the declining aristocracy.
In fact, their 'pretension' leaves the petit bourgeois particularly disarmed in
domains which the cultural 'elite' abandon to them, whether in photography or in cinema, in which their ambitions are often expressed (as is shown, for example, in the fact that the gap between the petite bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie is much less wide regarding knowledge of cinema directors than of composers). The new-style petit bourgeois, who, confronted with objectively ranked judgements, are able to choose the 'right' answer, are almost as disarmed as the working the
less
legitimate or not-yet legitimate
The Aristocracy of Culture / 63
when
classes
(not a single small art-dealer says that a car accident can make a beauti-
ject
ful
faced with an opportunity for aesthetic constitution of an ob-
photo, and the scrap-yard arouses similar responses).
Cultural Pedigree While
variations in educational capital are always very closely related to
variations in competence, even in areas, like cinema or jazz,
which
are
neither taught nor directly assessed by the educational system, the fact
remains that, at equivalent levels of educational cial
origin
(whose
'effecrs' are already
tional capital) are associated
capital, differences in so-
expressed in differences in educa-
with important differences
in
competence.
These differences become all the more striking (except at the highest educational levels, where over-selection tends to neutralize differences of trajectory), firstly, when one appeals less to a strict, and strictly assessable, competence and more to a sort of familiarity with culture; and, secondly, as one moves from the most 'scholastic' and 'classical' areas of culture to less legitimate and more 'outlandish' areas of the 'extra-curricular' culture, which is not taught in schools but is valued in the academic market and can often yield high symbolic profit. The relative weight of educational capital in the system of explanatory factors can even be much weaker than that of social origin when the respondents are only required to express a status-induced familiarity with legitimate or soon-to-be legitimated culture, a paradoxical relationship made up of that mixture of self-assurance and ( relative) ignorance, expressing true bourgeois rights, which are measured by seniority.
At equal educational
levels,
the proportion
who
say they
know
at least
twelve of the musical works mentioned increases more "sharply than the proportion who can attribute at least twelve of them to their composers, as
one moves from the working class to the upper class (and the gap is very narrow among graduates) (see table 4). The same logic governs the differences by sex, except that they are less marked. Whereas, as regards composers, no differences are found between the sexes among individuals of the same class, strong differences appear in favour of women as regards familiarity with works, especially in the middle and upper classes (in the working class, this knowledge is very limited in both sexes); in the two most feminine occupational categories the medical and social services and secretaries
—
all
—
the persons questioned claimed to
know
at least three
of the
works. This difference in the experiential or stated relationship to music
is
no doubt partly explained by the fact that the traditional division of labour assigns to women familiarity with the things of art and literature.
The
differences linked to social origin are also very strong as regards
knowledge of film directors, which, at equal educational social origin. So too does the proportion who assert that
secondary teachers (or even the art reachers, and the
*^j
*°f
^
an entirely analogous relation here between the
r
n(j s
P^
n
avant-garde theatre and Paris 'boulevard'
ijQjjj
*"
''
scores similar to those of students of bourgeois origin in
^
,
ci
iufc.
crcnces
]JlU sj c
vC y ^"*J tf suf ca
or
^
The
are differences in the nature of the
the academic curriculum, from literature to painting wav from and a fortiori jazz or avant-garde art.
P oVC
fl>
ode
beautiful photograph, Needless to say, corresponding to
_odes of acquisition, there
Ljects
«rt,rks
a
C
p.
clasPt
now
m iddle-class
being analysed—especially
mostly have very
origin,
when
is
they are of
and
'classical' tastes
to the teachers than to the artists). u ch closer who have acquired the bulk of their cultural capital in and for
Those ,
more
nave
j
'classical', safer cultural
cultural inheritance. For example, whereas the -reived a large the
class
dominant
who
investments than those
have
members of
with rhe highest qualifications (the agrqation or
a di-
grarxk hie) never mention certain works or certain painters loma from a or Utrillo, have considerable of middle-brow culture, such as Buffet
typical
knowledge of composers, and prefer the Well-Tempered Clavier or the
Fire-
educated members of the working and middle classes
bird Suite, the highly
more often make choices which indicate their respect for a more
'scholastic'
(Goya, Leonardo, Breughel, Watteau, Raphael), and a significant
culture
proportion of
them concur with the opinion
1
difficult
.
By contrast, those
who
that 'paintings are nice
originate from the
dominant
class
but
know
more works and more often choose works further from 'scholastic' culture
Hand).
(Braque, Concerto for the Left
Similarly, those
employees, junior executives)
who
relatively
low educational
capital
marked by
their trajectory.
Thus,
have
(BEPC or below) make choices clearly who are rising socially show their
those
various ways (e.g., they are
tw
press '°
COm
niStS
P° sers names), '
v ' sit
'
nce inn bo Onditj
uul like
just as
they more often say they like the Im-
°ftcri ar>d
more often choose academically
Raphael or Leonardo).
AND manner OF acquisition
Com
c
works (although they are no more familiar
museums morc
J^™s( con
but
equivalent levels of educational capital,
at
familiarity with musical e
likely to agree that 'paintings are nice
Danube). However, those whose fathers belonged
upper classes manifest,
|
*
more
respect for legitimate culture in
and choose works typical of middle-brow (Buffet, Utrillo) or
< v «n popular taste (Blue e
the estab-
bourgeoisie (craftsmen, shopkeepers, clerical and commercial
lished petite
difficult')
members of
wn
'
'
cn
'
,
^3
S
s
Cultural
acquired in relation to a particular
(or linguistic) field f unction-
° UrCC °^ ncu cat on in ^ as
a market, remains defined by its ° ns of a cquisirion. These conditions, perpetuated in the mode of '
'
'
12at
'*< j
itiarl^
,
in a
given relationship to culture or language— function
°' rf ade-mark',
and, by linking that competence to a particular
P to define the value of
its
products
in
the various markers. In
,
other words, what arc grasped through indicators such level or social origin or,
more
precisely, in the structure
eduaridj
as
of the
relarjj
m
ship between them, arc also different modes of production of the vated habitus, which engender differences not only in the
acquired but also
manner
the
in
constitute
manner of applying them. These
compete™ difference!
of secondary properties, revealing different
a set
ditions of acquisition and predisposed to receive very different valu(
1
the various markets.
Knowing
that 'manner'
and value depend
as
a
is
much on
symbolic manifestation whose meanj
the perceivers as
on the producer, oneil especially
m
regarded as the attributes of excellence, constitutes one of the key
ml
how
see
and also the
ers of 'class' as
Proust put
it,
ogy of natural its
days of
of distinction,
thaffl
of marking distances'. The id
'the infinitely varied art
taste contrasts
two modaliries of
and extended by
life
and completes
it,
differs
competence*
cultural
would have it— as
and culture which self-certainty
a scholastic learning
in
its
effects— as the ideology of cultural-
the modality of the relationship to lant It
confer
which accompanies the certainty of possessing cultur
gitimacy, and the ease which
is
the touchstone of excellence;
the paradoxical relationship to culture
made up of
(relative) ignorance
and of casualness amid
hand down
to their offspring as if
families
which presupa
simultaneously tends to inculcate.
it
the.;
from belated, methodical learning not so
the depth and durability of
neer'
in strategies
imperceptible learning, performed within the family from
early,
in
weapon
ideal
behind them, two modes of acquisition of culture™ Ti
use, and,
liest
manner of using symbolic goods,
that the
is
it
The competence of
pre
self confidence
which bourgj
familiarity, it
it
were an heirloom.
the 'connoisseur', an unconscious mastery
instruments of appropriation which derives from slow familiar^
and
the basis of familiarity with works,
is
which,
like an art
of thinking or an
art
an
is
'art',
of living, cannot be transmi|
solely by precept or prescription. Learning
it
presupposes the equtv
of the prolonged contact between disciple and master education,
And
i.e.,
ma
a practical
in
a fraditl
repeated contact with cultural works and cultured
just as the apprentice or disciple
can unconsciously acquire the j
of the
including those that are not consciously
art,
himself, by
means of a self-abandonment, excluding
known
to the
analysis
and sek
of the elements of the exemplary conduct, so too the art-lover, in surrendering himself to the work, can internalize struction, without these ever being
mulated or formulable
as
between the theory of
art
brought
such; and this
is
its
^
or J
principles
to his consciousness andj
what makes
all
the dinx^
and the experience of the connoisseur,
generally incapable of stating the principles
a
of
wti
his
judgements. By
a
degree of ration*
j
trast,
tion,
The
all
institutionalized learning presupposes
which
leaves
its
mark on
the relationship to the
goods consufl
sovereign pleasure of the aesthete dispenses with concepts.
It is]
o5C
through the myth of childhood and the innocent eye)
P
o$&
thought of the
pleasureless
jjy u s
to the thoughtless pleasure of the 'naive' (glorified in ide-
much
j
and
experience ledge above
thine tnere C
'
cnow
t0
s
a
'
30ut
'
^'
rducarional system ever entirely
1
f
sitions
j
which
in
own
ts
exercises etc.) or
on s
punishments
operation
its
schemes of
to practical contexts,
and for
all in
it
To
memory
form by
identical
* ^ oc ^ at
what
it
(mode
of assessment, rewards and has to perform a
at all, it
transmits, Thus, for example, in place
classification,
which
are always partial
and linked
puts explicit, standardized taxonomies, fixed once
which as
are expressly inculcated
the agents subjected to
all
higher one
and therefore con-
knowledge that can be reproduced
middle-brow culture
that the
es-
knowledge or through the po-
its
objectively defined,
is
it
the social hierarchy, the
rises in
in virtually
action.
avoid any absolutization of the culture in relation to
dict's
function: the
the form of synoptic schemas or dualistic typologies (e.g.,
'dassicai'/'romantic'), served in the
^ avc not seen
again acquired incidentally,
is
order to transmit
in
rationalization of degree of of practical
^
organization (the hierarchy of disciplines, sec-
But,
etc.).
who know
fulfils irs rational
inculcates
it
film-buffs
like
which the school system inculcates
system of classification h as the
zh the order
ms
communicate
schools part of wri at
tial
:
contemplation of the work to
sacrifice
the work, aislhesis to askush, sion of
.
f
bourgeois and the 'parvenu',
petit
aesthetic perversion which put always exposed to those forms of
P'
*
the
as ro
which the autodi-
has to be
remembered
more ones
tastes are
shaped by the organization and operation of the educational system, which is
responsible for inculcating the
'programme' (syllabus and intellectual
schemes) which governs 'cultivated minds' even sonal touch' cational
and their aspiration to 'originality
and
Qualifications
cultutal
in their
pursuit of the 'per-
1 .
Discrepancies between edu-
competence (linked to
social trajectory
largely attributable to
the domestic transmission of non-scholastic cul* ura capital) are, however, sufficiently frequent to safeguard the irreducibilv <
recognized even by academics, of 'authentic' culture to 'scholastic'
^%,
which
as
such
t0
bought
ro thc 'evel
con
orean e
/ec^
'
make a (
of quasi-systematic discourse and to be
aroun d explicit principles, the educational system
more or
'ess
adequate) symbolic mastery of the practi-
ti
Cl tj
devalued.
providing the means of expression which enable practical prefer-
7
cal
is
0l)a
j.
P
s
°f
As gtammar does
scnse °f beauty', in those
the &, S
pie)
taste.
B
tutcs t
C
h
r
^ '
tSl
«al
p rin
who
competence,
already have
it,
it
ra-
giving them
efetnng to principles (of harmony or rhetoric, for exam^ormu 'ae, instead
mcnt ona '
^kctiv C
for linguistic
'
s sre V maricity
P cs of taste
S
of relying on improvisation;
it
subsri-
uas ' systemaricity of a formal aesthetic for the
of the
'aesthetic-in-itself
Thus academicism
is
produced by the
pracri-
potentially present in every
other words, what arc grasped through indicators such as educating level or social origin or, more precisely, in rhe srruciure of rhe rebrj ship between them, are also different
modes of production of
the
cii| t
;
varcd habitus, which engender differences not only in the competence. acquired but also in rhe manner of applying rhem. These differences j
manner constitute
n
of secondary properties, revealing different CQft dirions of acquisition and predisposed ro receive very different values a ser
j
n
the various markers.
Knowing
that 'manner'
symbolic manifestation whose meanim* and value depend as much on the perceivers as on the producer, one can see how it is thar the manner of using symbolic goods* especially those regarded as rhe attributes of excellence, constitutes one of the key markers
as
of 'class' and Proust put
ogy its
it,
is
also rhe ideal
weapon
in strategies
'the infinitely varied art of
two and, behind them, two modes of
of natural taste contrasts
use.
a
of distinction, that
marking
distances*
modalities of culrural
The
J5
ideol-
competence and
acquisition of culture.
Total
imperceptible learning, performed within the family from the eai days of life and extended by a scholastic learning which presuppose
early, liesr
and completes
from belated, methodical learning not so much in the depth and durability of its effects as the ideology of culrural 'vc« neer' would have it as in rhe modality of rhe relationship to language 9 and culture which it simultaneously tends to inculcate.* It confers the self-certainty which accompanies the certainty of possessing cultural legitimacy, and rhe ease which is the touchstone of excellence; it produces It,
differs
—
—
the paradoxical relationship to culture (relative) ignorance and of casualness
made up of
amid
self-confidence amid
familiarity,
which bourgeois
hand down ro their off spring as if ir were an heirloom. The competence of the 'connoisseur', an unconscious master)- of the instruments of appropriation which derives from slow familiarization and is the basis of familiarity with works, is an 'art', a practical mastery families
which, like an solely
art
of thinking or an art of living, cannot be transmirtw
by precept or prescription. learning
it
presupposes rhe equivalent
of the prolonged contact between disciple and master in a tradition" education, i.e., repeated contact with cultural works and cultured peop' e
And
just as the
of the
apprentice or disciple can unconsciously acquire the
including those that are not consciously
art,
himself, by
means of a self-abandonment, excluding
known
to the
analysis
and
rules
mW tCf
selection
of the elements of the exemplaiy conducr, so too the art-lover, in a sen* surrendering himself to the work, can internalize irs principles of strucrion, without these ever being brought to his consciousness and
^ »
1 mulated or formulable as such; and this is what makes alt the differ^ between the theory of art and the experience of the connoisseur, *^ * generally incapable of staring the principles of his judgements- B)' erase, all institutionalized learning presupposes a degree of rationa tion, which leaves its mark on the relationship to rhe goods consult* " The sovereign pleasure of the aesthete dispenses with concepts. Ir ,s l
hc thoughtless pleasure of the 'naive' (glorified in idehroueh the myth of childhood and the innocent eye) as to the ifo pleasureless thought of rhe petit bourgeois and rhe 'parvenu',
i
^
P
much
as
t>l°£*
supP"
fo
(
to those forms of aesthetic perversion which put ° experience and sacrifice contemplation of the work to ledee above __« ^ of the work, ahthesh to asJkeih, like film-buffs who know fllS* »U^»» i'« rrt Ifnnnj ihrnit flmc rK^Vi h-avr** nnf CA^n Nor rhat ,u & there is to know about films they have not seen. aj
w ays exposed
W 1
£veryti ins . j U( ar ional the
,
,
system ever entirely
' „ iri fulfils its
.
,
r
rational function: rhe es-
of what schools communicate is again acquired incidentally, w p of classification which the school system inculcates ^rTas' the system 5 n which it inculcates knowledge or through the preueh mc order positions of its own organization (the hierarchy of disciplines, secexeicises etc.) or irs operation (mode of assessment, rewards and tions, punishments etc). But, in order to transmit at all, it has to perform a
•£
rvirr dit
i
sen"rial i
i'Li_i_i
*
degree of rationalization ofpractical
schemes of
ro practical contexts,
it
of what
it t
classification,
ansmits. Thus, for example, in place
which
are always partial
and linked
puts explicit, standardized taxonomies, fixed once
form of synoptic schemas or dualistic typologies (e.g., 'classicar/tomantic*), which are expressly inculcated and therefore conand for
in the
all
served in the identical
memory
form by
all
as
knowledge
that can be reproduced in virtually
the agents subjected to
To avosd any absolurization of the culture middle-brow culture
(iact's
is
its
action.
in relarion to
objectively defined,
it
which
the aurodi-
has to be remembered
higher one rises in the social hierarchy, the more One's tastes are shaped by the organization and opciarion of the educational system, which (hat the
responsible for inculcating the
'programme' (syllabus and intellectual schemes) which governs 'cultivated minds' even in rheir pursuit of the 'personal touch' and their aspiration to 'originality'. Discrepancies between educational qualifications and cultural competence (linked to social trajectory and largely attributable ro the domestic transmission of non-scholastic cultural capital) are, however, sufficiently frequent to safeguard the irreducibily. recognized even by academics, of 'authentic' culture co 'scholastic' owicdge, which a* such is devalued. is
^
enc
coik
•
°
ma^ cal
i
y
05
pnrf
8 tne mc a n s of expression which enable practical prefertrough* r o the level of quasi-systematic discourse and to be ° r ga n ued around explicit principles, rhe educarional system a
|
(
mc, re or
less
adequate) symbolic mastery of the practi-
^ s 8 rammar docs f° r linguistic competence, it ra'^iT ? scnse of beauty', in those who already have it, giving them fHe ineajJ % String to principles (of harmony or rheroric, for exam^ c )i Pre formulae, instead of relying on improvisation; it substillJt Cs th lnient *onal quasi systematicity of a formal aesthetic fa the tutive E
risce
^nali
QJ
Nnci
c,t y rCstcmat of '
P
taste.
of the 'acsthetic-in-itself produced by the pracriThus academicism is potentially present in every
pedagogy which tends to convey piecemeal, in a doctrinal S et r explicit norms and formulae, explicitly taught, generally negative rath^ than positive, what tradirional learning transmits in the form of a total sryle directly grasped m practice. Bur above all and rhis is why aesthete* rational
so abhor pedagogues and pedagogy substitutes for direct experience,
taste,
rhe rational teaching of art provide
on rhe long path
offers short cuts
f
makes possible practices which arc the product of corv and rules instead of springing from the supposed spontaneity f thereby offering a solution to those who hope to make up for 0s
familiarization,
ccpts
it
—
—
it
.
|
timc.
The ideology of natural fact rhat, like all
srruggle,
it
owes
taste
its
plausibility a/id
its
efficacy to the
the ideological straregies generated in theevejyday
naturalizes real differences, converting differences in rhe
class
mode
of acquisition of culture into differences of nature; it only recognizes as legitimate the relation to culture (or language) which least bears rhe
which has nothing 'academic', 'scholastic', 'bookish', 'affected' or 'studied' abour it, bur manifests by irs ease and naturalness rhat true culrure is nature a new mystery of immaculate conception. This is clearly seen in the remarks of an aesthete of the culinary visible
marks of
its
genesis,
—
art,
who
writes
no
differently
from Pierre Francastel when the
latter, in a
devastating confession for an art historian, rejects 'intellecrualized knowl-
which can only 'recognize', in favour of 'visual experience*, the 61 sole means of access to 'true vision': 'Taste must not be confused with ga\tronamy. Whereas taste is the natural gift of recognizing and loving perfection, gasrranomy is the set of rules which govern rhe cultivation and education of taste. Gastronomy is
edge',
to taste as
grammar and
literature are to the literary seme.
And
this brings
gourmet is a delicate connoisseur, is the gastronome z pedant? The gourmet is his own gastronome, just as the man of rasre is his own grammarian Not eveiyone is a gourmet, that is why we need gastronomes- We musr look upon gastronomes as we look upon pedagogues in general: they are sometimes intolerable ped* " ants, bur they have their uses. They belong ro rhe tower-, modest order, *n it is up ro them to improve this rather minor gente by means of ract, *J us to the heart of rhe problem: .
.
if
the
.
.
straint
and elegant lightness
persons of refinement are
know
.
.
.
There
is
,
.
such
rhis instinctively.
a
thing
as
For those
bad taste
who do
.
^
.
not, n***
needed? 62
experience* which, like Aquinas's cognith Dei ixperiiR**' * talis, feels and deplores the essential inadequacy of words and concept* l express rhe reality 'tasred* in mystical union, rejects as unworthy rnC
Knowledge by
knowledge which
rellectual love
of
work with an
intellecrual operation of deciphering.
art,
the
scholars and gentlcmen differences in
dominant
class
mode of
—which
The
acquisition
identifies
differences in
—
i.e.,
exp rience P»
r
65
manner
that
* * h
m
in seniority of access to
are generally as ociared
with differences in
c°
ss
^BHB««nBaBBBB Coix
and
n Wit
Respect for your grcar name, to say that you
Lear^flg
And
fusty
your,
all
kind would do well
to discuss
The
Sffl^ ^nr^ansay f
Th things
lie's
ro hear thls
,
Hc^ much tiiigbr cxp««,
and
as
one
friends maintain;
That
things there are viewed
all
,
court s misrrust shares the
He
harsh and
That rhe court is not so shorr of wit and brain As you and all your scribbling
said in rhis unpleas-
at court,
less
querulous;
,
ant &*y*
court in rones
of
with
common
Thar good
tnteJIcct,
courtier, del ends with zest And, as a that's in his interest. The ignorance
sense,
rasre, too, is
much
in
evidence,
And
that
its
knowledge of
the
world surpasses
MITANDKFYou're very hard indeed
poor court, Which hears each day
The
on the
TRiSscrriN
how
people
It
of your sorr,
Who
has good it
deal in inrellectual wares,
decry
fusty learning of pedantic asses.
taste,
you say?
If
only
had!
CUTANDRE
it,
What makes you
Complain rhat their careers arc blighted by it, Deplore its wretched taste, and
own
blame thcit
Unhappy
taste is
say. Sir, that its
bad 7
failures
on
fmrna $*waniet J 6 P dt Molicnr, Let Tht Learned L*dia, initiated (1672) vcree by Richard Wilbur English into (New York and London, HafCOurt Brace Javinovieh, 1978), pp 117-118.
rhar cause
m
alone Permit me, Mister Trissotin, with
due
^**"""*"**^*""«^"""*"" Position
of capital, are predisposed ro mark differences within the domiUi;t as differences in cultural capital mark the differences ben the classes. That is why manners, especially the manner of
nt c i ass
j
^
tonsnip to legitimate culture, are the stake in a
Can jn» t .
°PPOsing dispositions can be raken as complimentary or pejoran ^ on c ^ c nc °f v * Cw lr is no accident thar rhe opposition
,
tlv
P°*
**ftw* lcs S |
lgt
,
it
ti
,
v crv
in
aJ
onj
thc
?
v
,
permanent struggle,
n ° neu(f al starement in these matters: the terms designar-
^ !
-
and the mondatn, the eff'orris at the hearr of debates over taste and culture in every rwo wavs °f producing or apptcciaring culrural works;, scholasric*
(or 'pedantic')
lnt »
clearly designates
two contrasting modes of acquisition, and, two different relationships to the educa-
0c*ern period at least,
ju /
si
j«u«
K*7tt/4fMe v/ tf/v
juagemem
T i
first
—
La Mcsnardiere, Farer, Colletet, d'Aubignac theorists,
one
half of the seventeenth CCn by the antagonism between ihtdoctes Chapelain, Ba|
In France, literary debate in the
was dominated
Uf i
and ulrimarely to
etc.,
who
Aristotle, for the rules the)'
looked to \ t sought to i
^
^^
m&
on the construction of lirerary works, and at the same time strove ground these rules in reason and the mondains, who refused ^ o bound by precept, made their pleasure their guide and pursued the finitesimal nuances which make up the *je ne sais ^uoi* and the delir, perfection of savoir vivre. The great debates over raste which lir Cjworks arouse or dramatize (such as the question of the precieux w l' by codifying and rationalizing salon delicacy, an art of living defined as indefinable, changed its whole nature) involve nor only the virt^ with which the different fractions of the dominant class identify, but u the Chevalier de Mere so well puts it, 'the manners of practisine them, which are themselves kinds of virtues', and through which senior, ity in their class, and their way of getting there, are expressed or be"
—
i
trayed.
Innumerable co-jify,
be cited from the vasr lirerarure designed to inseparably, ordinary behaviour and the creation and perception of
works of art,
illustrations could
short everything which
under the absolute jurisdiction of taste, one of the key words of rhe age% but one example will suffice, be cause it explicitly links manner, mode of acquisition and rhe group it designates: 'The aurhot [Fureriere, the bourgeois author of Le Roman bourgeon who had criticized La Fontaine and Bcnserade] shows clearly rhat he is wither of society nor of the court and rhat his taste is of a pedantry one cannot even hope to rectify. Certain things are never understood if they are not understood at once: some hard and rough minds will never be led into the charm and grace of Benserade's bailers and La Fontaine's fables. Thar in
falls
door is closed to them, and so is mine One can only pray to God for such a man and hope never to have dealings wirh him* (Mme, de Sevigne, .
,
letter
to Bussy-Raburin,
14
Paradoxically, precocity
May is
an
.
1686).
effect
of
seniority: aristocracy
is
the for*
nothing other than the seniority which is the birthright of rhe offspring of ancient families (at leasr in sovirtually equivalent notions— cieties in which age and aristocracy
par excellence of precocity since
it
is
—
recognized as values).
And
this initial status-derived capital
*JJ
is
enhanced
cult 11 '* by rhe advantages which precocious acquisition of legirtmare co n gives in learning cultural skills, whether table manners or rhe art of
versation, musical culture or the sense of propriety, playing tennis of
p^ '*
nunciation. The embodied cultural capital of the previous genera" functions as a sort of advance (both a head-start and a credit) which, J providing from the outser rhe example of culture incarnated in fatf*" ^ models, enables the newcomer to start acquiring the basic element*
****"*"»^ ""** 1L
actions of the body and rrundV and
Cultivated
of ^iness
more one considers it, the more one is charmed by ir, without realizFor ing where it comes from. everything ihar is done our of conthe
H?tu
,
know CvCl ?' have a man I his manner of et by an 7 of havthing 'be convicted n 0( 1 speak"* Amo j nc Gombaud, J»
"^
.
td ,
,
^ Zrdc Meet (1607-16S5), D< SI
/,
.
oaten***corrccrion in mOSr .^hat nccds t0 ° composed, _-. ls something
straint or servirude, or
has any trace
of coarseness, destroys ir. And to render a person amiable in his ways,
you should please him as much as you can and take care not to burden him with tedious instruerions,' Mere,
Da agremmt
.
ofarrandstudy.1V *T
mJ
u-
all
matters,
,
of study or seems far-fetched. Above with all, since they are well pleased worth, refrain from
own
in-
chem on any matter, or
them, whatever mistakes you observe them to make.' Mere, De U dmitrrjation.
correcting
'This civility is perceived in rhe
fnrures, rhe
manner,
in
know
they
least
professional craftsmen,
concern
is
ro be expert in
as ro undertake .
.
.
such a like
whose
sole
to finish rheir task.
gentleman should
man
In
should not behave
case, they
go further, it is btener. Wit cannot intelligence. [he masreiptece of which savours Say 10 them nothing
structing
things, even rhe things of
whkh
kind words on
will gratify every agreeably uttered,
their
rimes obliged to rurn a hand to
many
Da agrmem.
„!. Mecc, 'But
'Persons of refinement are some-
This
comes from
seek,
A
nor so much
whar he underrakes, ir
air
like a gentle-
of ease which
a fortunare birth and an
one of the amenities of a gentleman; he should set about even the most difficult task wirh such detachment rhat ir seems ro cost him no effort.' Mere, Des excellent habit
is
rhe slightest
B«BHB|BggaME^n 1^1111 1
from the beginning, that is, in rhe most unconscious and impalpable way and to dispense wirh the labour of deculnation, correction and retraining that is needed co undo the effects of aPP r opniare learning. Ixgittmarc manners owe their value to the facr 5 legitimate culture,
T
—
"c
y manifest the rarest conditions of acquisition, rhat is, a social power over time which is tacitly recognized as the supreme excellence: to m * n gs from vli nit rhe past, i.e., accumulated, ctystallbed ctystallaed history, aris& - i. Cor lc nar nes and titles, chateaux or 'stately homes', paintings and colc .
,
l
*' all
«
r
vln tage wines
and antique
furniture,
is
ro master rime,
through
SC
tnm £ s whose common fearure is rhat they can only be acquired ril h° cou <"se of time, by means of rime, against time, that is, by inhcri* cg ncc
i
or tnio ugh disposirions which, like the taste for old things, are
12 f
A
Serial Critique
of the Judgement of TaUe
likewise only acquired with rime
and applied by thase
who
can take thw
time.
Every group tends to set up the means of petperuaring itself beyond the nite individuals in whom it is incarnated (This was one of Durkheim's
ft,
fundamental insights.) In order to do so, it establishes a whole set of meek. anisms, such as delegation, representation and symbolization, which confe r ubiquity and eternity. The representative {e.g., the king) is eternal As Kantar ovitch has shown, the king has two bodies, a biological, morral body, subject to biological infirmities, passion or imbecility, and a political body, immortal, immaterial and freed from infirmities or weaknesses.
f '^
He
can secure ubiquity by delegating to others the authority with which he is invested. His taxes are levied by jisats ubtque present, and, as Post obseiv^ the delegate
who
holds plena
p&mtm
agendi 'can do everything that the
thanks to his procuratio ad omnia faemda!* Again, univenitas non morttur. Death, from die point of view of groups, is only an accident; and personified collectives organize themselves in
mandator himself can
do*,
such a way chat the demise of the mortal bodies which once embodied the group— representatives, delegates, agents, spokesmen does nor affect the existence of the group or rhe function in which it is realized: digmlas non
—
moritur. If this
accepted (and
is
it
would need
to be esrablished
more
systemati-
makes it possible to appropriate the collectively produced and accumulated means of really overcoming anthropological limits. The means of escaping from generic alienations include represen ration, the portrait or statue which immortalizes the person represented (sometimes, cally), rhen capital
by
a sort
of pleonasm,
in his
own
lifetime); and memorials, the tombstone,
word, aere permnius, which celebrates and 'hands on to posterity', and, m particular, historical writing, which gives a place in legitimate hence the particular status which the public, especially the bourhisiory geois public, gives ro historians, the masters of scientific cternization and the commemorative ceremonies in which the group offers tributes of homage and gratitude to the dead, who are rhcreby shown to be siill living and active. Thus it can be seen that erernal life is one of the most sought-after social privileges, rhe quality of the eternity depends, of course, on the quality and extent of the group providing it, and can range from a requiern mass organized by the family ro an annual national holiday. the written
—
—
1
If
the foregoing argument suggests an 'analysis of essence (though
»
removed, ir would seem, from Heidegger and his 'old chest'), that is b^ •*? cause most groups have sought to lay down absolute, final difference* means of the irreversibility of time, which gives inflexible rigour T ° cvC T
form of
n
on the order of successions. The holders * » father and son, owner and heir, master and
social order based
claimants ro succession ciple, predecessor
but there
is
—
and successor
every sort of social
—
are separated
mechanism
to
by norhing, except
make
this
rirt 1
gap unbridgr
Thus, in the struggle between the different 'manners', i.e., the ">" ent manners of acquiring, the dominant groups are always on the sid c able.
'
/
— The
nsc nsible and invisible mode of acquisition, that is, the oldest precious one. This is what provides the invariant elements of n * discourse and gives an air of eternal youth to cerrain
j
^
th c
!T
mina
iN the 171
Aristocracy of Culture / 7}
'
although they are in reality strictly situated and dated, like all the aces of elegant disquisition on innate taste or the blundering i
of
mastery of social significance, based on funcrional and structural ^ uov underlies and facilitates everyday reading of the 'classics', and, encal use, literary quotation, a quite special use more, since it is a pr tical
""""i
cs
course which
i
f
{Q a 'Vjrrtsed 2
a sore of
is
p^
llcctual solidarity
summons
ro appear as advocate and witness,
author on the basis of a social solidarity disguised as inThe pracrical sense of meaning, which stops shotc of
which makes it possible—since that would by relativinng both the reading and the text pro-
social affinity obiectify'ng the
—
*hc desired effect, a social use and a denial of the social basis of that use. vides simultaneously nullify
Identifying the invariants lar state
must not, however, lead us to
treat a particu-
of the struggle as eternal, and a true comparative study would
have to take account of the specific forms that the struggle and the
themes in which
it is
expressed take on
when
the objective relations be-
rween the class fractions change. It seems, forexample, that in the second half of the
seventeenth century the growing authority of the mondains
and of the court,
combined with thc tendency of high society to become more cultivated, reduced the distance between doaes and mondains; this led to the rise of a new species of man of letters, typified by the Jesuits Rapin and Bouhours,*9 masters of rhetoric who were themselves both
doctes
and mondains,
who
frequented
and
aristocrars and helped produce a synthesis of the demands of the court and the academy (and did so by shifting the ccnue of the debate from the question of worthy artists
to
subjects to that
bui
i
style in
which they might be
iteated).
nowadays, the fact thar an increasingly large proportion of the bourgeoisie ts making intensive use of the educational system (and
t
c"n ia 'y.
t
^
of the
.
in France,
the gramki ecoki) is tending to modify the form of the ^'P between rhe ondain and the scholastic—cultural excellence 1 belongs t ( hose who combine the two modes of acquisition
n5
^?
nc
and en" ase (
^ ucml y mc content of the ritual antitheses in which the opposiwccnJscholats' and 'gentlemen is expressed. 70 ^^_
ion bc
1
~"
"
Th Vc niti
Ca C c
C rc ar * ons between the nineteenth-cenruiy
°
'
aA
German
uni-
^ e princely courts represents another state of the power ren £ in a different configuration of rhe images of the scholarly v rt ues C <0urt *y v rfue s. As Norbert Elias very clearly k° Ur shows, 2eo in caua s wer e much eatlier and much more completely inf
r
,
e5l
'
J,
^
'
'
'
' .
conventions of
and forms of
style
and
civility
which dominate the eoV
products, in particular the attention giv cn language and to intellectual propriety, derived, in the case of Fran,,
tional system
from court
all
its
whereas
society,
in
Germany
the intelligentsia, especially
up in opposition co the court and the Fn^, was importing, summing up its vision of 'high society* n
the universities, set itself
models
it
,
.
j
between Civilization', characterized by frivolity and supcnV and 'Culture*, defined by seriousness, profundity and authenticity *
antithesis alicy,
In other words, there
is
^
the same basic opposition between doctes
mondains, with identical content, but with the values reversed: here doctes could not assert their autonomy except by asserting their own tucs and their own 'manner of practising them', thereby devaluing
th*
v j.
w^
society virtues.
The
fact
remains that the 'pedant's' situation
is
never entirely comfort-
Against the 'populace' and with the mondain aristocracy
able.
have every reason also to accept rights
—he
it,
have an
since they
—who
interest in birth-
inclined to accept the ideology of innate tastes, since
is
rhe only absolute guarantee of his election; but against the
it (
mondain he
s
is
forced to assert the value of his acquirements, and, indeed, the value of the work of acquisition, the 'slow effort to improve the mind', as Kant
put his
which
it,
supreme
is
a
blemish
in
the eyes of the mondain, but in his
own
eyes
merit.
The embarrassment
of academic minds, indebted and
committed
ro acquisi-
whenever ir is a question of the adequate approach to a work and ihe right way to acquire it; and rhe contradiction is at the heart their aesthetic theories, not to mention rheir attempts to establish a
tion, surfaces
of art of
alt
pedagogy of
art.
The
ideology of natural gifts
the educational system, for nal pedagogy fied rules,
aimed
at
a
is
too potent, even within
n expression of faith in rhe powers of a
reducing the practical schemes of familiarity
ratio-
to codi-
despite the fact that this ptactical affirmation of the 'natural
1
knowledge and ideas and aim ro discredit rhe divine right of rhe advocates of immediate experience and pleasure. For example, mere are all rhe debares over the teaching of art (more specifically, the teaching of drawing) a contradiction tn terms for some* who hold that beauty is neirher raught nor learnt, *° bur is a grace rransmirred from invested masters ro predestined disciples; triC others, a field of pedagogy like any nther, (One thinks, for example, of polemics between the advocates of rational pedagogy, such as Guillaume* * and the champions of the charismatic view, such as Ravaisson, over the n traduction of drawing lessons into general education in rhe eadly years ° the Third Republic.) ^^^, righr
to art
is
the natural
weapon of those who appeal
to
—
*
expeiuence interest,
but
and knowledge a
well-grounded
Ideology illusion.
is
an illusion consistent
Those
who
*
1
invoke expcri^f the real opposi"
knowledge have a basis for their prejudice in between the domestic learning and the scholastic learning of
against
w
cult u
— culture 3nd the bourgeois relation to culture owe their inimi(jcier to the fact that, like popular religion as seen by Groe-
s
gouffr
^ey are acquired, prc-verbally, by carJIy immersion in a world of favYjZj people, practices and objects. When the child grows up in a which music is not only listened to (on hi-fi or radio h Id in h ouS j \ but also performed (the 'musical mother* of bourgeois auto s W ° n a f° rt '° f w hen the child is introduced at an early age to ohy)> 2n ^ k'^ instcument especially the piano the effect is at least to pro tfP*
t
'
i
—
hie*
*
—
musk, which
from the always contemplative and often verbose relation of those who rwhat distant, e t0 mus c trough concerts or even only through records, in rtjore familiar
*°
com
ch the
relationship to
differs
'
same way
as the relation to painting
of those who have discov
atmosphere of the museum, dif'he relation developed by those born into a world filled with art fers from family property, amassed by successive generations, testiobjects, rami liar crcd
it
ng
belatedly, in the quasi-scholastic
to their
wealth and good
taste,
1
and sometimes 'home made (like
jam or embroidered linen).
Differences linked to social origin are
no doubt most marked
in personal
production of visual arr or the playing of a musical instrument, aptitudes which, both in rheir acquisition
and
in their performance, presuppose not
long establishment in the world of art and culture but also economic means (especially in the case of piano-playing) and spare time. At equal educational levels, they vary strongly by social origin. Thus, among holders of the baccataareat, 11.5 percent of the respondents who originate from the dominant. class say they often play a musical only dispositions associated with
compared with
of those of middle-class or workingAmong graduares, the corresponding proportions are 22,5 percent and 5 percent. Painting and sculpture, relatively neglected by those with the highest qualifications, ace also, ac equal educational levels, much more common among respondents of dominant-class origin. instrument,
5 percent
class origin.
Status- linked familiarity is
manifested
in,
fa
example, knowledge of the
°pCotiunities ind conditions for acquiring works of an, which depends nor 11 J on the material and cultural capacity to appropriate but also on long-
ing
world in which art, being an object of ap is p rcSent in the form of familiar, persons! objects. Thus, in the Comm ss ' oncc by the Ministry of Culture (CS. Vll), the percentage oft** /indents abj c to gj ve * answer when asked the lowest price ar which 1 n °W k y *" or y '# na l lithograph or serigraph by a contemporary Profe!? 10na artist* varies considerably by social class, ranging from 10.2 pcrCCru f a g"cultural workers, 13.6 percent of unskilled and semi-skilled WOf i° ^7 6 percent of clerical and commercial employees co66.6 pcrr ccn
membership
in a social
F°pnation,
'
'
^
)
,
t
----^^orexecutives and
^lueJC thay,
a
0lCC °^
Wor ^ s suc ^
ankon g those °n
& others)
who
or
professionals.
M
crjc
Concerto for (he Left
play an instrument
L Enfant
tt
Us
—
tortiiiges is
Hand (much more
especially the piano
much more
strongly
linked to social origin than to educational capital. By contrast,
^
>
WeU-Tempzrtd Clavier or the Art of Fugue, thete % stronger correlation with educational capital than with social oripjp,
works
like the
\
Through
one can dis^ hieratchizing world of c^i
these indicators, despite' their imperfections,
guish different relations to the hierarchical,
which are closely linked to a set of interrelated difference* and which stem from different modes of acquisition domestic scholastic, or exclusively scholastic of cultural capital. Thus, when R^ land Barthes makes an aesthetic out of a particular relation to mu$i c produced by early, domestic, 'practical* acquaintance, and describes j^ thetic enjoyment as a sort of immediate communication between the Us. tener's body and the performer's 'inner body', present in *the grain of tr, e singer's voice' or 'the pad of the pianist's fingers', he is in fact referring t the opposition between two modes of acquisition. On the one hand, there is music fot record collectors (linked to a derural works,
—
—
mand
^
from the 'growth of the number of listeners and the disappearance of practitioners'), an expressive, dramatic, sentimentally clear wants art, art of communication, of understanding: 'This culture wants music, provided they be clear, that they "translate" an emotion and represent a signified (the "meaning" of a poem): an art that inoculates pleasure (by reducing it to a known, coded emotion) and reconciles the subject to what in music (an be said: what is said about it by Institu7 tion, Criticism, Opinion.' * On the other hand, there is an art which prefers the sensible to sense, which hates eloquence, grandiloquence, pathos and the pathetic, the expressive and the dramatic. This is French mik&t, arising
.
Duparc, the later Faure, Debussy, everything that in another age would have been called pure music, the intimism of the piano, the maternal instiument, and the intimacy of the bourgeois salon. In this antithesis between two relations to music which are aways defined, more uncon* sciously than consciously, in relation to each ists
other— the
taste for rhc
art-
of the past, Panzera or Cortot, loved even for their imperfections
which evoke the freedom of the amateur, implies a distasre for modern performers and their impeccable recordings for mass production—-o^ again finds the old opposition between the docre, who is k° un to the code (in every sense), the rules, and therefoie the Institution and Criticism, and the hedonistic mondain, who, being on the of natute, the 'natural', is content to reel and enjoy, and who exf*' trace of intellectualism, didacticism, pedantry from his arnSl all ^
experience.
speaking, al* cultural inheritance. Family heirlooms not only bear material witness
object LESSONS
Eveiy material inheritance
is,
strictly
and continuity of the lineage and so consecrate its social iocnf V which is inseparable from permanence over time; they also contribute a practical way to irs spiritual reproduction, that is, to transmitting the age
1
and competences which
virtues
U
bourgeois dynasties.
in
h
k CfS
What
are the basis is
of legitimate
mem
acquired in daily contact with
Dv regular visits ro antique-dealers and galleries, or, more n t obje ct5 > moving * n a universe of familiar, intimate objects which ate fa by says, 'guileless, good, simple, certain', is of course a ceras Ri'ke fC wri cn * s n °thing other than a relation of immediate familiar-
apCI
*
?irn
>
•
ra
s
'»
ta5
'
of "with the things
more
l
% T
e polished, a jn existing
But
tasre.
it
is
also the sense of
polite, better policed woflld, a
belonging ro a
world which
is justi-
by its perfection, its harmony and beauty, a world which Beethoven and Mozart and continues to produce people canrod uce d and appreciating them. And finally it is an immediate ble of playing
deepest level of rhe habitus, to the tastes and distastes, dherence, at the Sympathies and aversions, fantasies and phobias which, more than declared opinions,
a group's
If
forge the unconscious unity of a
whole
life style
furnishing or clothing, this objectiftcation of the
is
class-
can be read off from the style
it
adopts in
not only because these properties
economic and cultural
necessity
are the
which determined
but also because the social relations objectified in familiar their luxury or poverty, their 'distinction* or 'vulgarity', their
rheir selection,
objecrs, in 5
or 'ugliness', impress rhemselves through bodily experiences
'beauty
which may be as profoundly unconscious
as the quiet caress
of beige
car-
clamminess of tattered, garish linoleum, rhe harsh smell of bleach or perfumes as imperceptible as a negative scent. * Every intenor expresses, in its own language, the present and even the past state of
pets or the thin
its
occupants, bespeaking the elegant self-assurance of inherited wealth,
the flashy
arrogance of the nouveaux riches, the discreet shabbiness of the poor and the gilded shabbiness of 'poor relations' striving ro live beyond their
means; one thinks of the child in D. H. Lawrence's story The Rocking.Horse Winner' who hears thioughout the house and even in j«S bedroom, full of expensive toys, an incessant whispering: 'There
must
more money.' Experiences of this sort would be the material of a so
ta ^ in
the** place in a lasting relation to the
world and.to fcSts "self, for example, in thresholds of tolerance of the tU 3nC soc,a^ W0I °f noise, overcrowding, physical or verbal v iolen ~^ nd °{ which the mode of appropriation of cultural goods is one A' .l^'mension OtrJ
-
**
5
Whlch man
'
H
'
mo ^ c
CCt
Voices
f
w bich £ a
cvcryda
of acquisition
is
mosr marked
in the ordinary
y exisrence, such as furnitute, clothing
or cooking,
P art|Cu] arly revealing
of deep rooted and long-standing dispo3USC *^ n£ oursia e the scope of the educational system, they haVc to be COnfr0fUcd. as it were, by naked taste, without pI r any explicit 5
'tion 5
k
'
^
,n
*
a
iptio
«cnc> s
^ P roscri P tion such
as
othcr tnan from semi-legitimate legirimizwomen's weeklies or 'ideal home' magazines'
This means that, however imperfect it may be, given the present state of functioning of the educational system, the minimal rationalization imp[j«j by every institutionalized pedagogy, in particular the transformation of h 'sense',
functioning histor
(e.g., literal
in practical ,
with
form, into partially codified knowledge
its classifications
of what
is
among
the differences linked to economic and cultural inheritance. that these diffetences continue to function in other areas,
cover rheir
moves
full force as
its real
styles)
the most over-selected survivor* abandoned to inherited 'senses' and, consequently
has the effect of reducing, at least the weight
by periods, gemes and
soon
as
stakes into these
It is also true
and that they
^
the logic of the struggle for distinction
areas— which
it
of course always rends
to do.
The
adjectives the respondents have chosen to describe an interior, and the source of their furnirure, are more closely linked to their social origi n
than to their educational qualifications (unlike their judgement on pho, tographs or their knowledge of composers), because nothing, perhaps
more
depends on early learning, especially the learning which takes place without any express intention to teach, than the dispositions and knowledge that are invested in clothing, furnishing and cooking or, more precisely, in the way clothes, furniture and food are bought. Thus, the
directly
mode of
acquisition of furniture (department store, antique-dealer,
shop or Flea Market) depends at least as much on social origin as on schooling. At equal educarional levels, those members of the dominant class who were also born into that class— whoi more often than the acquire their furniture (espeothers, inherited some of their furniture cially those living in Paris) from an antique-dealer more often than those born into other classes, who tended to buy from a department store, a specialized shop or the Flea Market. (The last is especially frequented on
—
Table
5
Furniture purchases in the dominanr
respondents
who bought
their
by education and 1 furniture from each source).
Department Specialized shop store
Educational qualification
class,
Social origin
01 ' social origin (pert'
Am* Flea
market
Auction I'
Lower than bac Working and middle Upper classes
classes
Working and middle
classes
Technical
Upper
college
Licence
Agregacton, grartdc ecolc a.
Some
classes
Working and middle Upper classes
classes
Working and middle
classes
Upper
classes
25.5
41.5
11.0
14.5
n.5
235
150
31.5
13-5
36.5
4.5
32.0
6.0
24.5
30.5
20,5
11.0
28.5
11.0
11.0
4.5
21.5
21.5
14.5
21.5
46.5
32.0
21.5
!8.0
290
8.0
respondents indicated more than one source
f
dominant class who have rh e Jucational capital* and on theorher hand by members of rhe domttiosr born nt0 r ^ at c asSi w ho have less educational capita] chan c anr in n promised, i.e., rhose who have had one or two years of higher jjj^tort-ic ^ble 5.) probably in tasres in ,&*/ that one u'ould find the strongest d it is indelible mark of infant learning, the lessons which longest a mOS t an nd che distancing or collapse of the native world and most durhand by the
membeis
rising
j
or rhe
|
j
maintain nostalgia for ir. The native world is. above all, the maternal of primordial tastes and basic foods, of rhe archetypal id the world
i
ke archetypal cultural good, in which pleasure giving ts an ar t of pleasure and of the selective disposition towards pleasure
nofi t0
1
]
p
acquired rhrough pleasure-
is
which
(
in food, the search for the mosr While che aim "as ro identify preferences economical and 'synthetic' questions led me to question rhe respondents on the meals (hey served on special occasions, an interesting indicator of the
mode of sdf-presen ration adopte in 'showing ofT a Jife-sryle (in which fur nirure also plays a part), for a complete understanding of choices in this area, a particularly complex set of factors has to be borne in mind: rhe style of meal that people like to ofier is no doubr a very good indicator of the image they wish ro give or avoid giving ro others and, as such,
ir is
the
sys-
remanc expression of a system of facrors including, in a dition ro rhe indithe position occupied in the economic and cultural hierarchies,
cators of
economic This
and cultural
trajectory, social trajectory
bemg
so,
it
petite bourgeoisie.
is
not surprising thar rhe
The members of
trajectory.
effects are
most
visible in the
more
the established petite bourgeoisie
ofrcn serve
r heir friends plentiful and good', 'simple but weli-prcsen red* weals chan the new petite bourgeoisie, who prefer ro serve 'original* meals ° r "pot luck*. But one also finds strong differences linked to trajectory, Thus
ne* pc Mt bourgeois of middle or working-class origin plentiful a nd 1
10 K? CaD
the*
say
'
'*shed
J Spiva
good* meals, which
^
"'
dl^ ^ ™
iS
he
——_!mcv **°
*Hich
Jrc
in
.
rcfcrs tCriT
v°
is
never the case
1
'
-
aS stron £ am ong those in decline as among rhose c an ^ ° r, ginare from the working classes. The " UC,C
Uhough
or
^S"
11 *
who
are
former never anc* exotic' meals, whereas rhe latter
not, of course, as often as rhe
new
petit
bourgeois).
a c ^enr tn at
even the purest pleasures, rhose most purified of ° c0r P 0rca 1,r y (such as the unique, pure note' of the Philebm,
an v traJ°
tne
offer
with rhose of upper class conrrast are VCl7 '"dined to rhe 'original and exotic In petite hourgeoisie, the propensity to offer 'plentiful and
^ OC
^
Kirn
more often
^
'*v
served them
for the
few'), contain an element which, as
Sl *
diii
>ine
aS
Ur ful/i
s,
P lcasures of rhe tastts of ^ 00 ^ rhc archetype of all taste. ^ C ° the olc esr ant* deepest experiences, those which de0vcr'^ er ermine the primitive oppositions —bitter/sweer, nV *
P la- hot/cold, coarse/delicate, austere/aright
— which
are as
gastronomic commentary as to the refined appreciations aesthetes. To different degrees, depending on the art, the genre and L t c style, art is never entirely the casa mmtale, the discourse intended on y ° be read, decoded, interpreted, which the intellectualist view makes essential to
|
f
This product of an
1
Durkheim's
l
pure practice wirh rheory , and sometimes of a simple mimesis, a son of symbolic gymriai tics, always contains also something ineffable, not through excess, ^ 'art
in
sense,
i.e.,
a
1
i
f
would have it, but by default, something which comrnun cares, as it were, from body to body, like the rhythm of music or t nc a vourof colours, that is, falling shorr of words and concepts. Art is jj^'bodily thing', and music, the most 'pure and 'spiritual' of the arts, s perhaps simply the most corporeal. Linked to hats d'ame which are also celebrants
1
;
states rics in
of the body
away, moves.
gestures
where
or, as It is
they were once called, humouis,
it
ravishes, c , ,r
much beyond words
as
below them
pitched not so
and movements of the body, rhythms
— which
Piagei some'
says characterize the functions located, like everything
erns taste, at the articulation of the organic and the
which
gov-
mental—quicken ine 7>
and slowing, crescendo and decrescendo, tension and relaxation This 15 no doubt why, once it leaves the realm of pure technique, musical criticism scarcely speaks other than in adjectives and exclamations. As mystics
speak of divine love
in
the language of
human
love,
so the
least
inadequate evocations of musical pleasure are those which can replicate the peculiar
forms of an experience
as deeply rooted in the
body and
in
primitive bodily experiences as the tastes of food,
inherited capital ani> ACQutRiru capjtai
Thus, the
differences
which the relationship ro educarional capital leaves unexplained, ami which mainly appear in the relationship with social origin, may be due to differences in rhe mode of acquisition of the cultural capital now possessed Bur rhey may also be due to differences in rhe degree to which this capital is recognized and guaranteed by academic qualifications; a cerrain proportion of the capita) actually
academic sanction,
when
it
owned may nor have
received
has been directly inherited and even
has been acquired in school. Because of rhe long hysteresis
of acquisition, the same educational qualifications
when »' of the mode
may guarantee
quitf
culture—but dccreasingly so, as one rises in r " c educational hierarchy and as mote value comes to be set on ways of using knowledge and less on merely knowing. If the same volume of educadifferent relations to
tional capital (guaranteed cultural capiral)
1 to differen * because a
may correspond
volumes of socially profitable cultural capital, this is firsr rhough the educational system, by its monopoly of certification, govern the conversion of inherited cultural capital into educational capital,
does nor have irs
a
monopoly on
rhe production of cultural capiral.
sanction to inherited capiral ro a greater or
less
extent
(i.e.,
unequal conversion of inherited cultural capital) because,
1
1
g
'
lV
there is*
at differe"
same moment, at different levels and in different fpo^ w ar it demands is more or less identical to what the 'inheritors' t ° cCr and because it acknowledges more ot less value in othet forms of ' f n^ b ^ C apifal and other dispositions (such as docility towards the ints
jnd, at rhe
jj
*
'
,
itself)
[tttio^ si'
of strong educational capital who have also inherited strong capital. anc^ *° cn i° v a dual title to cu rural nobility, the selfof legitimate member hip and the ease given by familiarity (point
"*~"~IL 5Scssofs
I
ral
i
CJ
ancc
a fifiurc 3)i j
K
opposed,
fir
t,
to those
who
lack both educational capital
inherited cultural capital (A) (and to all those who ate situated lowet rhe axis representing perfect reconversion of cultural capital inro edu
V wn
a rional capif D-
Bur rhey
are also opposed,
on
the one hand, to those
with equivalent inherited cultural capital, have btained lower educaonalcapital (^ or C) (or who have an inherited cultural capita) greater 1
educational capital than rhctr
—
e.g.,
C
relative to
B\ or D'
relative ro
D)
rhem, especially as regards "general culture", rhan the holders of idenrical qualifications; and on the other hand, to those who have similar educational capital but who started off* with less culrural capital (Dor D') atid whose relation to culture, which rhey owe more to rhc
a nd
who
are closer to
t
school and less to rhe family,
secondary oppositions occut
The
Figure J
is less
at
familm and more
scholastic,
(Hiese
every level of the axis.)
relationship beri^een inherited CuLruraJ Capital
and
educational capital.
y
inherncd cultural
npitil
f
1
b* i
i
l
\
**K
/ %X
c
c
licence
/
fs //A /
//
X • D'
jr
-&L.
^^ ^ _
CEP
*
4
fx '
D 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
]
sir
jT
!
1
K
1
1
I
1
-
~~clp~
1
1
BEPC
bac
1
licence
1
educational
ca
'
One
could construct a similar diagram for each ry[>e of capital (economic, cultural and social) possessed initially and ar the time of observarion, and then define the set of possible cases for rhe relationship between
volume and composition) and eventual capital, characterized in the same way. (There would be, for example, n jviduals declining in all types of capital, or declining in only one and risjn (defined as regards
inirial capital
j
in others
—reconversion —
etc.) If
one
sufficiently refined the analysis
of n t
species of capital (dividing culrural capital, for example, into sub-species
such as
lirerary, scientific
level
would be
it
and legal-economic capital) or the analysis of the
possible to find
ail
rhe cases empirically observed,
in all
complexity bur also in their quasi-infinite multiplicity.
their
To be such as
one would have to allow for structural changes rhe devaluation of nominal qualifications which occurs in periods entirely rigorous,
(as in recent years)
when
the educational system
is
used more intensively
(This devaluation has been symbolized by placing rhe line indicating the real equivalents of qualifications below rhe bisector which marks the equiva-
of the nominal value of qualifications.)
lenrs
One would
also have to
make between the number of years of study and qualification obtained (which becomes more probable as initial capital rises and schooling becomes mote widespread so that it now affects even the working classes whose childten often leave secondary school without any qualification). It would then be seen that, to explain certain practices adequately (in particular, autodidacticism) one has to consider nor only the qualification and the number of years of schooling but also the relationship between rhe two (which may generate self-assurance or embarrassment, arrogance or resentment etc). One might also consider the relationship between age ar rhe end of schooling and the legitimate age for a qualification, allowance
^
for the discrepancy
—
the bac {buccal aureat) ar 17 or the age limits fot iht concours (entrance examinations for the grandd holts). One of the mediations through which cultural capital is transformed inro educarional capiral is speed of
such
as
progress through rhe system.
The discrepancy between educational capital and the culrural capi^l acrually possessed, which is the source of differences between holders of identical educational capiral,. can also result
educational qualification
duration
(i.e.,
tural capital).
study
may
there
The
in fact
is
may correspond
from rhe
fact that the
same
to schooling of veiy unequal
unequal conversion of scholasrically acquired
direct or indirect effects
of one or several years
nor be sanctioned.by the award of a diploma
who
cul-
—as
l*
01
tnC
rwo years leading to the baccalaurear or, ar a higher level, those who have spent one or two years * universiry without obtaining a qualification. Bur in addition, because tn rrl frequency of this discrepancy has risen with the chances of access of case with
all
those
drop out
in the
r and higher education, agents belonging <& generations (as identified by age-groups) are likely to have
different classes to secondary
different
voted fecrs,
a
very differenr
number of
years of study (with
all
the related
rn including greater non-certified competence, of course, but also
n of a different rdarion to culture
$c^\
merhods
'
&
tca cn
rheir social recruitment etc
salification.
,
ic
jde n
*
j^ational insritutions differing greatly
]
tt C-
—'studenrification
It
effect—
in their teachers,
their
order to obtain an
in
follows from this that rhe differences connected
miecrory and the nil trajectory
*L- ed infers
1
volume of of
inherited cultural capital are
by differences, mainJy visible among w ^° are tri cmsdves born into rhe
oisie
from rhe working
classes
members of
the petite
petite bourgeoisie or
(and particularly represented
in
the es-
bourgeoisie), which rerlecr changes in the srate of rhe reked pctire between thecducarional system and rhe class srructure. To these vocks of generation correspond different relations to the educa-
1"
-
jtf ereinc
which wmch
scrareeies are expressed in different straregies of cultural inr a t ftOt guaranteed by the educational institution (i.e., autodi-
"
extern system nona) sys i ]
rstment
-
-
dacticism)
of the overall style of culrural Le Canard consumption (e.g., rhe opposition between the satirical weeklies Enchdw^nd Cbariit Hebdo or, in rhe area of popular science, between Scican study rhe information the survey proence el ^/f and Psychologic), one that, at all vides on favourite singers. Ir might be thought that the fact absence of
In the
more
precise indicators
x
of educational capital, the youngesr respondents
levels
choose rhe singers of
younger generation (Franchise Hardy or johnny H ally day) more often than the older respondents, who more often choose older singers (Guetary the
or Mariano),
is
adequately explained by the dales of the singers'
firsr
appear-
among
baccalaurear-holders,
made
their breakthroughs
of culrural production. In facr, youngesr more often choose Jacques Douai (who was born in 1920and performed ar rhe Vieux Colombier in 1963), Jacques flrel (who was born in 1929, made his Paris debut in 1953 ar the Theatre des Trois Baudets and performed at the Paris Olympia in 1958 and 1961) or even Leo Ferre (born '9 l <$, degrees in Arts and Political Science, debut in Paris cabarets 1946), whereas the older ones more often choose Edith Piaf (born 1915, died 3, debut ar the ABC in 19>7), Luis Mariano (born 1920, iirst success ar Ca$mo Momparnasse, 1945), Gilbert Becaud (born 1927, first became "? Wn in right.bank cabarcrs and then at Olympia; consecrated in 1954, jn* u d year') or even Petula Clark (born 1933, top of the bill at 76 Olympia i%o, oted Ir can be
^
^a ,
k
only the singers' ages or the dates
^
V n t>uf ? '
so
aCCS P^
when
they
w bere
m ° re
kfiht c
^C
they were performing ar the time of the suivey, ~~^nd especially— the degree of affinity between the style of their
C
wo
'
.
generarions produced
sc nQo j
'hefp
ar
s,m 'l ar differences ber^'een educational generations within the * ract(on °^ trte class. The younger differ from rhe older nor so much In their overall competence as in the exrent and 'freedom of their in-
*'eeh
f
i
'
1
vestment? Ltke their elders they read they are slightly
more
scientific
and technical works, but
interested in philosophical essays or poetry.
They
ff
no more frequently to museums, but when they do, they go more often the Modern Art Museum. These tendencies are particularly pronounced amongst those of them (relatively more numerous than among the older ones) who originate from the middle or upper classes and who know a (relatively) very high number of musical works and composers, are interested in modern art and philosophy and often go ro the cinema But what perhaps most distinguish the two generations of technicians are the external signs dress and hairstyle, in particular and also their declared preferences, the younget ones, who seek to draw close to the student style say they follow fashion and like clothes which 'suir rheir person ality', whereas the older ones more often choose 'sober and correct' or 'classic^ cut' clothes (choices characteristic of established petit bourgeois).
—
The
—
old-style autodidact
was fundamentally defined by a reverence
culture which was induced by abrupt and early exclusion, and which
f0r |
Ccj
to an exalted, misplaced piety, inevitably perceived by the possessors
f
legitimate culture as a sort of grotesque homage.
The
recognition of incompetence and cultural unworthiness which charac-
terizes old-sryle
aurodidacricism
is
especially seen
among members of
the
es-
working or middle classes, who say very frequently (70 percent of them, compared wirh 31 percent of the new petite bourgeoisie originating from the same classes) char 'paintings are nice bur difficult. The clearest manifestation of the cultural alienation of old-style autodidacts is rheir readiness ro offer proof of rheir culture tablished petite bourgeoisie originating from the
even when ir is not asked for, betraying cbeir exclusion by their eagerness ro prove their membership (in contrast to the well-born, who mask their ignorance by ignoring questions or situations which might expose it).
In these outsiders,
who
seek to use a deeply orthodox self-teaching as
a
way of continurnga brutally foreshortened ttajeerory by their own initiative, the whole relation ro culture and cultural authorities bears the stamp of exclusion by a system rhat can get the excluded to recognize their exclusion, By contrast, new-style autodidacts have often kept a pl acC in the educational system up to a relatively high level and in the course of this long, iJl-rewarded association have acquired a relation to
leg'"'
once liberated' and disabused, familiar and discnchanted. It has nothing in common with the distant reverence of w* old-style autodidact, although it leads to equally intense and passions tfl investments, but in quite different areas, disclaimed or abandoned by mate culture
that is at
1
educational system—strip cartoons or jazz rarhcr than history or astro omy, psychology (even parapsychology) or ecology rather than archaeo
ogy or geology. 77 These arc the categories which provide the audience * all the productions of the 'counter-culture' {Charlie Hebdo, L'Echo del t
e tc.) which offer the products of the intellectual avant-garde others 'popularize' (i.e., transmit beyond the ijstic form, as I
ptfldr
olirr
in
J
gr° u P
,
yStUti'
^ Q{ e
intimate receivers) the products of the academic rear-guard fr* example) or the consecrated avant-garde (Lt Nouvtl Obser
f
o f the monopoly of manipulation of the sacred, the literati who 'claim to discover church, never have much time for those and to have direct se vCS the sources of traditional authority' j
C
v ery
c erS j
]
"' [
„ rh of which Lilt treasure *.
/~^^%
,,—
they are the guardians.
^
v LJ
As Gershom Scho-
usually do their best to place obstacles in the parh of hows, 'They They give him no encouragement, and if in the end the obtic
back to the old accustomed frighten the mystic and bring him 78 the better from the standpoint of authority.' But preso much *** by the institution can take place without anyone havvc censorship Whereas traditional autodidacts srill apply controlsor constraints. ing institution to indicate and open the short cuts of -ct the academic directjy or indirectly, popularization and the vulgate, which are always, 79 by the institution, the most liberated of the new autodidacts 5f3C
1
dominated seek their
gurus
among
the heresiart;hs
who
srill
perform the function
by the authorities, namely, as Scholem also says, every step' and that of 'showing exactly what the novice has to expect at 'providing the symbols with which this experience can be described or
traditionally fulfilled
ineeipreted.'
two markets The
the
family and the school function as sites in
which the competences deemed necessary by usage
itself,
competences
is
at a
given time are constituted
and, simultaneously, as sites in which the price of those
though acceptable in another context, in another market, here seem *out of place* and only provoke embarrassme/t or disapproval, quotations in Larin, for example which sound 'pedantic* or 'laboured'). In other words, the acquisition of culrural competence is inseparable from insensible acquisition of a 'sense' for tion (jokes
'fall flat'
or,
—
—
sound cultural investment. This investment sense, being the product of adjustment to the objecchances of turning competence to good account, facilitates forward
JStmCm culr
a-
rc> L
tw
ro thcsc
~ciOse or distant,
balan carjo •
is
irself a
dimension of
a relation to
hand or reverential, hedonistic or acawhich is the internalized form of the objective relationship ber c s te °f acquisition and the 'centre of cultural values*. The use C sense °^ investment', as in 'sense of propriety' or 'sense of * * 1S ,nten ded to indicate that, when, for the purposes of objectify terms are borrowed from the language of economics, it is in no '
of ju
cha nees, and off
way suggested
that the corresponding behaviour
guided by rational calculation of maximum profit, as the ordinary usage of these concept no doubt mistakenly, implies. Culture is the site, par excellence, Q f is
misrecognition, because, in generating strategies objectively adapted ta the objective chances of profit of which it is the product, the sense of fa,
vestment secures profits which do not need to be pursued
as profits;
and
who have
legitimate culture as a second nature the supplementary profit of being seen (and seeing themselves) as perfectly
so k brings to those
unblemished by any cynical
mercenary use of culture This means that the term 'investment*, for example, must be understood
disinterested,
or
—
of economic investment which it objectively always though misrecognized and the sense of affective investment which
in the dual sense
—
has in psychoanalysis, or,
involvement
in the
more
game which
no other guide than his love of
pursuing
a
asm which,
is,
at
and when he moves,
art,
each
cynical calculation, but his in such matters,
is
s (t
exactly, in the sense of Hlmto, belief, an produces the game. The art-lover knows
moment, the thing nessmen who make money even when they towards what
j
own
by
as if
some
to be loved, like are
not tiying
instinct,
to,
he
busi-
is
not
pleasure, the sincere enthusi-
one of the preconditions of successful
in-
vestment. So, forexample,
it
(rhe hierarchy of the
is
true that the effect of the hierarchies of legitimacy
arts,
of genres
case of the labelling' effect well
etc.)
known
can be described
as a particular
to social psychologists. Just
people see a face differently depending on the ethnic label
is
it
the value of the arcs, genres, works and authors depends
as
given,
on the
so
social
marks attached to them at any given moment (e.g., place of public*rion). But the fact remains rhar the arHover's sense of cultural investment which leads him always to love what is lovable, and only that, and always sincerely, can be supported by unconscious deciphering of the countless signs which at every moment say what is to be loved and what is not, what is or is not to be seen, without ever being explicitly oriented by pujsuit of the associated symbolic profits. The specific competence n classical music or jarz, theatre or film ere.) depends on the chances which the different markets, domescic, scholastic or occupational, together oner the degree to whicn they encoutage acquisition of this competence by promising or guaran-
for
accumulating, applying and exploring
teeing
it
profits
which
i.e.,
and induce new investments. Tr»c competence profitably in the different marW*;
will reinforce
chances of using cultural
it,
it
play a part, in particular, in defining the propensity to
investments and also the investments ture'
make
in extra-curricular
'seholasrit
'general cU
which seem to owe nothing to the constraints or incentives of
institution.
The more
more necessary and profitable more damaging and 'costly* to be
legitimate a given area, the
be competent in ii, and the competent. Bur this does not suffice is
to
1* 1
to explain
why
it is
that, as
I
o
,
f"
°
°n .
become
cat ional capital
i
f
the most legitimate areas, rhe
wards rt to
statistical differences related
increasingly important, whereas the
more
moves towards the lease legirimate areas, which might seem to be the inexplicable choice, such as cooking or interior decoraf ^e and
fC
choice °f founds or furniture, the more important are the statistical to social trajectoiy (and capital composition), with rhe rt& rences linked rhat are undergoing legitimation, such as 'intellectual' song, pho-
3
0CCU P vm g an intermediate position. Here too, ir is in raphv or a2Zt between the properties of the field (in particular, the n h reJario sh'P positive sanctions it offers 'on average', for any i ces of negative or J
\
f
>«
is
and (he properties of the agent, that the 'efficacy' of these proper* defined. Thus both the propensity towards 'non-academic' invest
which they are directed depend, srricrly speaking, menrs and the area to average rare of profit offered by the area in question but on not on the 1
rhe
of profit
f ate
it
offers
each agent or particular category of agents
in
and composition of their capital. terms of the volume The hierarchy of 'average' rates of profit broadly corresponds to the hiof degrees of legitimacy, so that knowledge of classical or even avant-garde literarure yields higher 'average* profits, in rhe scholastic
erarchy
market and elsewhere, than knowledge of cinema, or, a fortiori, srrip cartoons,, detective stories or sport. But the specific profits, and the conse-
quent propensities to invest, are only defined
and
a field
those
a particular
who owe most
in
the relationship between
agent with particular characteristics. For example,
of their cultural capiral to the educational system,
such as primary and secondary teachers originating from the working and middle classes, are particularly subject ro the academic definition of legiti macy, and tend to proportion their investments very strictly co the value the educational
system sets on the different areas. By contrast, 'middle-ground' arts such as cinema,
jazz,
and, even more,
strip
cartoons, science fiction or detective stories are predisposed to atthe investments either of those who have entirely succeeded in converting
1
icctively or objectively, or both. C arC *^ s ^ a - nc ^ or neglected by
eu
«-
u
These
arrs,
not yet
fully legitimate,
the big holders of educational capi-
r 3 ,e
S e and a revenge to those who, by appropriating them, sebest return on their cultural capiral (especially if ir is nor fully scholastically) while at the same rime taking credit for conK c esrablished hierarchy of legitimacies and profits In other
trie
tescto"
w Dr j
^
us uallv
p ro p ens ity ro apply to the middle-ground
eser
W*.j*J ^a n
^
system °
3
—
fr* rnc legitimate arts
^m
arts a disposition
that measured, for example,
by
less closely on educarional capital w}>0 - c relationship to scholastic culrure and the educational
which
j
directors—depends
rse ]f
d C p Cnci s on the degree to which the cultural capiral
possessed consisrs solely of the capital acquired in
educacionaJ system. (Thus,
members of
the
new
and recognized by
>t
petite bourgeoisie l
^
more cultural capital than the primary teache rs l e same educational capital: they know many more d{ * r
generally inherited possess
much
the
*
but fewer composers) In fact, one can never entirely escape from the hierarchy of legitj m cies. Because the very meaning and value of a cultural object varies
tors
1/
cording to rhe system of objects in which it is placed, detective stories science fiction or strip cartoons may be entirely prestigious cultural as$e/
on whether they are &» in which case they sociated wirh avant-garde literature or music appea as manifestations of daring and freedom—Or combine to form a constd. lation typical of middle-brow taste when they appear as what they are or be reduced to their ordinary value, depending
—
—
simple substitutes for legitimate Given that each social space
assets.
— family
example—fUnc
or school, for
.
one of the sites where competence is produced and as one of the sites where it is given its price, one might expect each field to set the highest price on the products created within it. Thus one might expect tions both as
the scholastic
field to
give the highest value to scholastically certified
cul-
and the scholastic modality, whereas the markets dominated by extra-scholastic values— 'society' salons and dinners, or all the occatural capiral
sions of professional ferences etc)
life
or even
(appointment interviews, board meetings, academic
life
(oral
Sciences Po, for example), in which the
would all
set the highest value
on the
examinations
whole person
But
this
would be
ENA
or
evaluated—
familiar relation ro eulrure, devaluing
the dispositions and competences which bear the
acquisition.
is
at
con-
to
mark of
scholastic
ignore rhe effects of domination
wheteby the products of rhe scholastic mode of production may be devalued as 'scholastic* in the scholastic market itself. 82 Indeed, rhe clearest sign of the heteronomy of the scholastic marker is seen in its ambivalent treatment of rhe products of the 'scholastic' habitts, which vanes in-
autonomy of the educational system as a whole (variable at difTerenr times and in different countries) and of its constituent institutions, with respect ro the demands of the dominant fraction of the versely with the
dominant
What
is
5 class.**
certain
is
that there exists an
immediate
affinity
between P*
dispositions that are acquired by familiarization with legitimate culture
and the 'high-society' market (or the most 'high-society* sectors of rtl I educational market). The ordinary occasions of social life exclude rests brutal as a closed questionnaire, the limiring case
of the scholastic
exarfl
clt nation which the scholasric institution itself refuses whenever, impli c accepting the high-society depreciation of the 'scholastic', it turns an
and measure competence high-society conversation. In contrast to rhe most 'scholastic* of scho blu ric situations, which aim to disarm and discourage strategies of amination intended
to verify
r
into a variant
high-society occasions give unlimited scope to an art of playing
*
•
which
is
competence what
to
cotf^^h accomplished
socialite
'play' is to the 'hand'
chooses his
m
card
terrain, sidesteps difficul-
g^rurnS questions 5
of knowledge inro questions of preference, ignodisdainful refusal— a whole set of strategies which may )f.assurance or insecurity, ease or embarrassment, and which
'
tic5» l
rJrt ce
sc
51
rtiani'^
uc y on l
dep
01
of acquisition and rhe corresponding familiar-
In other words, the lack of deep, tance as on educational capital. r *i systematic knowledge in a particular area of legitimate culw ay prevents nlm rom sansrying the cultural demands en-
,-
Ct
10
mode
'
no
tU
fa t3l c
Kv most social situations, even
in
the quasi-scholastic siruation of a
*
ife
survey-
about painters in such a way that the asking questions any way, rhe aim was not med could not be verified
knowledge m o much to meaT the specific competence (which, one may assume, depends on the same rc u knowledge of composers) as to grasp indirectly the relationship to factors of the suc^ey situation. Thus, respondents who e knowledge was not equal to their familiarity may have felt entitled ro use strategies of bluff which are highly successful in rhe or-
and the
keirirnate culture
differential effects
dinary u es of culture (rhis is particularly rhe case with rhe
new
petite
But blurt itself is only profitable if it is guided by the vague knowledge given by familiarity, Thus,- while the room for manoeuvre in rhis question allowed the least competent to fasten on proper names which corrc pond neirher to knowledge nor preference, such as Picasso (mentioned by 21 percenr of the unskilled and emi-skilled workers) or Braque (10 percent), who was being celebrated in various ways at the time of the survey^ it also functioned a a trap with Rousseau (10 percenr), who was practically never mentioned by the or her dasse and was probably confused with che writer. (Breughel, by conrrasr, was never mentioned by rhe unskilled and semi-skilled, no doubt because they would nor risk pronouncing 1 me rhey were not likely to have heard.) o bring to light rhis 'society sense', generally associated with strong inbourgeoisie).
^
j
C '
p
cultural capital bur irreducible to a sum of strictly verifiable knowN anc on 'y has to compare the variations in two dimensions of cultural
T
0SSC Slon
Q ^ s ec 'fK knowledge of compo P
ers and the 'flair' which malcC " ronra k' c measured by the capacity to recognize what P flauh would nave called the 'smart opinions' among rhe statements of%* foed UfC 4 corre 'ates rnc proportion of individuals in each category who ki°w th^ c /" 0m PpSCfs °f at 'cast twelve of the musical works wirh the proisnf
flr7 t0
'
P°rtion
classical
C
,m that
/* c k° hool$\
On
fjerer^
higher^d
3 uma Ce :
r
««
£ rcater
tJ>
'
the
an
P ainr 'ng interests them as much as the one hand there are rhe fractions whose strict com-
a 3srract
r *"lC ' r
8
bou^T
?^
,s
of the 'right* answer (secondary and on the other, tho e whose sense of the
efise
UC2c,on tCa chers), and
incommensurate with
le-
comperence (new producers). The gap is smallest their specific
nCw bourgeoisie, artistic £ rhV°' nS,n ^ P e ^ r bourgeois or bourgeois (primary teachers, junior ^'"'^rativ r eXccut ^s» engineer senior pubhe-sector executives). k was Sie>
3m ° n
x
n(
,
possible to u e rhe opinions selected
pe*
ad-
— unlike
on music because
Figure 4
Specific
Simfflertt; 'AbftfKt
competence and
talk
about
art.
punimg '
interests
mc
a*
rnvch *. the ttisucsj sthooli
XttliM produces
*
70
60
}0 higher- edyraiioo
•
tr.
icvhea
(
craftsmen
40
• priv»te-S*C«>!
»
medico
•
socitl *ctwJc?j
secretaries
-
«
lUftW
secondary leathers
rMCtKUtt
# induJifiaJiiTS g
professions
puWic-secfOfeMtticivej, en£i(\«»
ewiKTwrciiJ
JO technicians
commwciaJ
•
>^ b«i < pmmereial employers
employers to
*
]un
w
mdrrUftumitvc cttcufwi
Competence: fcno*
10 office
20
SO
40
vo
60
)
2 e*
«»
70
workers
craftsmen
manual worker* smalt shopkeepers
el
the sec of statements on painting, which offered an intermediate opinio^ l 1 love the Impressionists )— the range of possible judgements presented l0 °. great a discontinuity between the typically middle-brow opinion
(*I like
r '
and the chic opinion ('All music of quality interests "*. tin* rhe choice of the most legitimate judgement became more temp
Strauss waltzes')
so that for
all
those
who
refused to
make do with
a too visibly
naive'
judgemef^
,
'^ sC
(especially rhose in decline)
man-
knowledge and confused intuitions of familiarity. For examacademic routine which underlies most of the >,- rejection of ons of rhe new cul rural intermediaries (youth organizers, play s morc easily understood if one knows that rhe established ere )
^c
ne
i0%i
p)
which bourgeois agents
everything 'scholastic* is no doubt partly explained by the ion which the scholastic market inflicts, nonetheless, on the ap-
(
?
aste
e >
=
l0l
*
j
^3
bou r £eoisic ^ as re
'
high educational capital and
ac ^ ve ^y
a relatively
r* u ultural inheritance, whereas the new petite bourgeoisie (of which c w are the limiting case) has a strong cultural inheritance and relas
** ]y
low educational
verier, Parisian
capital,
Parisian or even provincial primary
can beat the small employer, the provincial doctor or the antique-dealer in rhe tests of pure knowledge, is likely to appear
who
incomparably inferior to assurance or
flair,
them
in all the situations
self-
or even the bluff which can cover lacunae, rather than
One
can confuse Bernard Buffet with Jean Dubufand yet be quite capable of hiding one's ignorance under the com
scholastic acquisition.
monplaces of celebration or the inspired pose;
knowing
most prestigious market-place? bates,
silence of a pout, a
nod
or an
one can identify philosophy with Saint-fixupeiy, Teilhatd
deChardin or even leprince-Ringuet, and
ser
which demand
prudence, discretion and awareness of limirs that are associated with
the
fet
The
still
—
hold one's
own
in today's
receprions, conferences, interviews, de-
seminars, committees, commissions
so long as one possesses the
of distinctive features, bearing, posture, presence, diction and pronun-
manners and usages, without which, in these markets at least, all scholastic knowledge is worth little or nothing and which, partly because
ciation,
schools never, or never fully, teach them, define the essence of bourgeois distinction
Educationally equivalent individuals (e,g„ the students of the grawki ccobi) ca l'y as regards bodily hexis, pronunciation, dress or familiar^7" crr iar W legitimate culture, not to mention the whole set of specific competpn capacities which function as admission tickers to the bourgeois *o 3S c' an<: ' n tne rarc sports, Of parlour games (especially bridge) Thcsr* S fcthrough the encounters they provide and the social capital they hcln
^
y
&
—i^J^aGcumulare, no doubt explain ^subsequent
differences in career.
'
Th ma " ncr which and
designares the infallible taste of the 'taste-maker' ex 0565 the P uncertain tastes of the possessors of an 'ill-gotten' culture is so ° oTtan *» in all markecs and especially in the market which decides the va] .
part
ttn c,
Cfac y
of th e>r
th °f cho os
.
*
^imate"^
ar| d arristic wotks, only because choices always owe value to rhe value of the chooser, and because, to a large ex-
uc makes
culture
known and
recognized through rhe manner
eamr through immersion in a as natural as the air one breathes is
^at is
itself
*
s
^
worlld in a sense
which
of the
lc
legit
.
convinces by rhc sheer manner of performance, like a successful bluff". Ir is nor only a sense of the right a ro invest in, direcrors rarher than actors, the avant-garde more than
imarc choice so sure of
itself char
ir
*?
classical or,
menr
which amounts to the same thing,
ro invest
or disinvest, to
move
a sense
into orher
of rhe
right
»*,
when
the gain* distinction become roo uncertain. It is, ultimately, the sclfassuran J confidence, arrogance, which, normally being rhe monopoly of the j> nJ* viduals most assured of profit from their investments, has every Ijfc fields,
1
i
hood
—
world
—
which everything is a matter of belief of imposin the absolute legitimacy, and therefore rhe maximum profitability r in a
in
rheir investments.
The paradox of the sible ever ro
imposition of legitimacy
is
thar
it
makes
determine whether rhe dominant feature appears
—
it
impos,
as distm.
dominant i.e., because it has the privilege of defining, by its very existence, what is noble or distinguished as beim> exactly what itself is, a privilege which is expressed precisely in its self, Or whether it is only because ir is dominant that it appears assurance as endowed with these qualities and uniquely entitled to define them. It u no accident rhar, to designate the legitimate manners or raste, ordinary guished or noble because
it is
—
language
is
content to say "manners' or *raste\
grammarians
The
'in
the absolute sense',
—
as
dominant Parts or Oxhave the power to discourage ford 'accents** bourgeois 'distinction' etc. the intention of discerning what they are 'in reality', in and for themselves, and the distinctive value they derive from unconscious referen« say.
properties attached ro rhc
—
to their class distribution
f actors
ani> powers
was due to the
It is
now
clear that the difficulty of the analysis
—
what rhe very tools of analysis educational and social origin designate is being fought our in struggles which rhe object of analysis art and the relarion to rhe work of art as fact that
—
prize in reality itself.
identified
—
These struggles
—
are
level
have their
fought between those who a*
with the scholastic definition of culture and the scholar
mode of acquisition, and those who defend a 'non-institutional' cultuff and relarion to culture. The lattet, though mainly recruited from the ow* of rhe bourgeoisie, receive unquestioned support from writ#* 1 and artists and from the charismatic conception of the production a* consumption of art, of which they are the inventors and guarantors ties over aurhors and schools, which hold rhe limelight of the literary artistic stage, cone al more important struggles, such as those which
w
pose teachers ffrom whose ranks, throughout rhe nineteenth centu'T* 5 critics were often recruired) and writers, who rend ro be more C '? T^
dominant fracrions of dominant class, or rhe endless srruggles between the dominated fraC cC as a whole and the dominant fractions over the definition of the * linked, by origin
plished
man and
and 'connections',
to the
the education designed to produce him-
.
what
m p|C) *°.
P
*
De™
Edo uar d
stake in the late-nineteenth-centuiy creation of
giving great importance
ecj u carion
re
n
is at
!1
^,
to
— with,
sport
among
the founder of the Ecole des Roches and dis
Baron de Goubertin, another advocate of a is the imposition of an aristocratic definition of nCW the academic institution itself. Knowledge, erudition, fion wirhin T t :ic docility symbolized by 'barrack like lycee (this is where '
r
Le 'u ri f fedenc ^P e f education
Play, like
i
—
'
children of rhe petite bourgeoisie, through which the
tnc fable t0 its hrxjl affirm*
in the
name of such
'courage', *wiir, rhe virtues of the leader (of the
fffv'
,
autonomy, areeonresred
time
ficsy^zi thar
^personal) initiative, baptized 'self-help' or 'enteiprise',
To put
orr
self,
the existence
hierarchy
of
is
to asserr,
withm rhe
vittues linked
all
in
'intel-
scholastic world
a hierarchy irreducible to the specifically
which privileges the second term
busi-
especially,
'education' before 'instruction', 'character' before
sport before culture
ligence',
army or
was almost the same rhing) and, perhaps
it
Values' as
it-
academic
each of these oppositions.
These struggles are not confined to the past, as
is
shown by
85
the exis-
two roures ro the senior positions in large firms, one leading from the Ecole des Roches or the major Jesuit colleges and great bour-
tence of
geois lycees (in the to Sciences
ingly,
l6th arrondissement) to the
Po
or
HEC
Law
Faculty or, increas-
provincial or Parisian lycee to the
the other running from the ordinary
Ecole Polytechnicjue.
8
It is still
more
en in the opposition, at the level of the grandes ccoles, between
clearly s
two academic markets differing profoundly in the concent of the cultural
competence demanded, to
evaluate them,
with
in
the value set on manners and the criteria used
one extreme rhe Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) and Polytechnique and at rhe other Sciences Po and rhe Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA). These snuggles over the legitimate «ctinirton of culture and rhe legitimate way of evaluating it are only one n lon of the endless struggles which divide eveiy dominant class.
J^ hm j
at
he virtues of rhe accomplished man the legitimate titles to the domination are ar stake. Thus the glorification of 'characterSSj.»ng sp ft and the valorization of economic and political culture, at c
f
k^
thro d 'scred
m
''terary .
or
two of of the dominant
artisric culture, are just
^
the strategies
C dominanr fractions class aim to the valu es recognized by the 'intellectual' fractions of the domi5 3nd (hC ?* tlXC bourgeoiSi'e—whose children compete dan-
k**
f '
[lt
friouslv"
A
3ca(
icmi
J
Airlift,* n,3
Cu
*i
children of the bourgeoisie on the rerrain of the most defined academic competence. But more profoundly, these °* anti * infe ^ecrualism are only one aspect of an antago-
j
whJh^Z C T
be y° nd
^e question
of the legitimate uses of the body or 0n cver ****** rrJ?j y dimension of exisrence, the dominant fractions ro lc conceive their relationship to che dominated fracrions in »t &of ° e opposition between the mal and the female, the serious and '
'tMre
C
f*
S
— the frivolous, the responsible the realistic
rile,
The classes
and the
and the
it
records abour
'sociological* division. ively defined)
and
l
^%
unrealistic.
principles of logical division
and the data
irresponsible, the useful
The
two main
which
Prodis
^
them
are therefore also prir>ci B statistical variations associated with
variables
—educational
can only be correctly interpreted so long as
bound up with antagonistic
statistics uses to
level
and
i
th social n
-
W
remembered
if is
that th definitions of legitimate culture and Je***
legitimate relation to culture, or,
more
precisely, with different
marL one or the other ate given?' ferent prices. It would be wholly mistaken to locate in any one of rijl factor an 'efficacy' which only appear in a certain relationship and therefore be cancelled out or inverted in another field or another state f the same field. The dispositions constituting the cultivated habitus only formed, only function and ate only valid in a field, in the relation. ship with a field which, as Gaston Bachelard says of the physical field in
which the
itself a 'field
characteristics associated with
of possible
forces', a
'dynamic situation',
87
'
in
which
is
fb r CCs
are only manifested in their relationship with cerrain dispositions. This why the same pracrices may leceive opposite meanings and values in
is
dif-
ferent
same
So
fields,
in different
configurations or in opposing sectors
f the
field.
reflective analysis of the tools
of analysis
is
not an epistemological
scruple but an indispensable ptc-condirion of scientific knowledge of the object. Poskivist laziness leads the whole, purely defensive, eftorr of verification to
be focussed on the intensity of rhc relationships found,
of bringing questioning to bear on
instead
the veiy conditions of measurement
of the relationships, which may even explain the
relarive intensity of the
independence of the 'inof positivist methodology, one has to be unawat
different relationships. In order to believe in rhe
dependent
variables'
1
which aieonly valid and operarhey Therefore depend on the struggles
that "explanatory factors are also powers' tive in a certain field,
and that
which are fought, within each field, to transform the price-forming mechanisms which define it. If it is easy to imagine fields in which the weight of the two dominant 'factors* would be inverted (and tests whrt° would be the experimental expression of this, giving greater prominency ,s for example, to less 'scholastic* objects and forms of questioning), th because what is ultimately ar stake in everyday struggles over culture rhe transformation of the price-forming mechanisms defining the wWJ !
values of the cultural productions associated with educational cap
and social gasped). If
it
is
trajectory (and the primary variables
true that the statistical relationships
through which
they
between rhe proper*
tached to agents and their practices arc only fully defined in the
1
1
**
rels* 1
ship between the dispositions of a habitus and a particular field, then afl limits within which the telations observed retain their validity
™
—
—
ion which is the pre-condition for full generalization can*:&* ^r ncd unf il onc M ucsr '° ns * nc relationship within which these c have been established. The relationship sec up by a closed Sot k •
s
,]ati
oflS
mainiy devoted to legitimate culture is akin to that of an (albeit without any institutional sanction at srake); and it is
tionna
n what a market-place, as a real-world site of exho astic market rhc 5 economic theory. Both in its subject matter to r0 the market of cS hai£ exchange it imposes (a questioning, which, as Charles £ fo :m of ,n ifP j always implies a form of intrusion, violence, challenge which normally accompany it), a survey by ques* he attenuations kctl / ^rvciallv when it takes the form of methodical, asymmetrical
q €%v ^ nZ
j
•
'
is
oarion,
im
;
it
has
with the cafe or campus discussions in which the constructed, or the high-society chatrer which shuns
common
n
nrer-culture'
•
the complete opposite or ordinary conversation;
is
and didactic insistence. The variations one observes in weight of educational qualification and inherited cultural h relative moves, within this quasi-scholastic situation, from what is ta as one and content to what is less academic either in mjrc academic in form without resting knowledge) or in form (questions measuring familiarity con rent (questions on knowledge of the cinema or preferences in cooking) give some idea of rhis relationship between 'factors' and markets. All the indices {difficult to obtain by questionnaire) of the manner of applying, showing or exploiting competence {self-assurance, arrogance, off -handedness, modesty, earnestness, embarrassment etc.) srricrly depend, fa their meaning and value, on the market in which they arc
mk precision
^j
j
placed,
because they are the visible rraces of a
mesne or scholastic),
i.e.,
a
mode
of acquisition (do
market; and also because
all
the markets
*hich arc able to assert their
autonomy of scholastic control give them The emphasis on manners> and through them on mode of acquisition, enables seniority within a class to be made the basis of the hierpriority.
archy within the class;*" it also gives the recognized possessors of the egic«m a ce manner an absolute, arbitrary power to recognize or exclude,
T^'e
of
£*cim*|)e
ru/ j <^'e thJT~ th c tarv
l
on ^ cxisrs for others, and the recognized holders manner and of the power to define the value of man-
J'.'kfi 11 "*
"'
—
^
bearing, pronunciation have rhe privilege of indifference to ° Wn manner (so tbey never have to put on a manner). By contrasr, pafVenuS wno piesume to join the group of legirimare, i.e heredi,
thes^ l*sea
>iSCSs0rs
SOc ' a
^
anX '° us
wh 0se °$teiu
mi ssio
n B, Ca
u
°^
legirimare manner, without being the product
of
conditions, are trapped, whatever they do, in a choice behyper-identification and the negativity which admits its
vcr y revolt; either the conformity
of an 'assumed' behaviour ^ corrcctness or hyper -correctness betrays an imitation, or the ° US asSert ' 0n of difference which is bound ro appear as an ad
°'^ abi l'fy
to identify.
90
fbey are acquired in social
fields
which are
also markets in
which rhcy receive rheir price, cultural comperences are depends rhese markers, and aJJ struggles over culture are aimed ar creatine market most favourable to rhe products which are marked, in their nets, by a particular class of conditions
market Thus, what
of acquisition,
i.e.,
a
0ty
c
a
p arf
-
^
nowadays called rhe 'counter-culrure' may ty.ii T the product of the endeavour of new-sryie autodidacts to free therrisH from the constraints of the scholastic market (ro which the less c ? is
dent old-style autodidacrs continue to submit, although their products in advance).
market, with
its
own
They
strive to
it
conder**
do 50 by producing annr^
consecraring agencies, rhat
is,
like the high-soc'
or intellectual markers, capable of challenging the pretension of theed carional system to impose the principles of evaluation of competes
and manners which reign in the scholastic marker, or ar least ts _ 'scholastic sectors, on a perfecrly unified market in cultural goods. i
jl
Economy
T^je
of Practices But on things whose
and principles had been instilled into her by her mother, on the way to make certain dishes, to play Beethoven's sonatas, to 'receive' with cordiality, she was quite sure that she had a right idea of perfection and of discerning how far others approximated to it. For rhese three things, moreover, perfection was rules
almost the same, a kind of simplicity in the means,
and
a
charm. She repudiated with horror the introduction of spices in dishes that did not absolutely require them, affeaarion and abuse of the pedaJs in pianosobriety
a
playing, departure
from perfect naturalness, and exag-
gerated ralking of oneself
in
deceiving.'
From
the
first
mouthful, from the Erst notes, from a simple letter she preened herself on knowing if she had ro deal with a
good cook, up. *She
woman
a real musician, a
may have many more
propedly brought
fingers than
I,
but she
lacks taste, playing rhac very simple Ana'ante
with so
much
woman
emphasis.'
of parts, but
such a
not
it
'No doubt want of
is a
a
most
tact to
brilliant
full
speak of oneself in
knowing cook, but she does and fried potatoes.' Steak and
case.' 'Possibly a very
know how
fried potatoes,
to
do steak
an ideal competition-piece, a kind of culi-
gastronomic equivalent to what is in social life the visit of a lady who comes for a servant's 'characrer' and who, in an acr as simple as that, can sufficiently display the presence or absence of tact and education nary Pathetic Sonata,
a
Marcel Proust, Days of Reading
T$)e Social Space Its
If rhc research
and
Transformations
had stopped
point
ar this
it
would probably not
raise great
of the irreducibility of artistic taste However, as has already been shown by the analysis of the social conditions of the aesthetic disposition, rhe dispositions which govern choices
objections, so self-evident is the idea
between the goods of legitimate cultuie cannot be fully understood unless
they are reintegrated into the
system of dispositions, unless 'culture',
the restricted, normative sense of ordinary usage,
in
Vulture' in rhe broad, anthropological sense
is
reinserted into
and the elaborated
taste for
broughr back into relation with the elemen*a*y taste for the flavours of food. The dual meaning of rhe word 'taste*, which usually serves to justify the illusion of* spontaneous generation which this cultivated disposition tends ro produce by presenting itself in £ uJse of an innate disposition, must serve, for once, ro remind us that taste tn the sense of the faculty of immediately and intuitively judging ^sdit;r ic va 'ues is inseparable from taste in the sense of the capacity to the
most refined objects
is
1
?
cern the flavours of foods
w ds
rvar, °n
1
Tk!!
q
'
through those elements (cultural capital and trajectory in below) which are the principles of its efficacy in the
ucs ^ on
/ on5um P
on of the most legitimate cultural goods is a particular P c tition for rare goods and practices, whose particularity no °^e$ more ro the logic of supply, i.e., the specific form of compecorri
'
c analysed
fiejj
case
some of
abstraction which isolates dispositions towards legitimate cul-
w^
k^
the
a preference for
f0 a further abstraction at the level of the system of explanat0rS" cn 'bough always presenr and acrive, only offers itself
r
for
which implies
fi
between the producers, than to the logic of demand and castes rhc logic of competition between the consumeis One only his / move rhe magical barrier which makes legitimate culture into a set**" univeise, in order to see intelligible relationships between choices rition
%
^
* seemingly incommensurable as preferences in music or cooking, politics, literature or hairstyle. This barbarous reintegration of acsth^ consumption into the world of ordinary consumption (against whi c k c endlessly defines itself) has, inter alia, rhe virtue of reminding us that *J~ consumption of goods no doubt always ptesupposes a labour of aph prianon, to different degrees depending on the goods and the consujw or, more precisely, that rhe consumer helps to produce the product C consumes, by a labour of identification and decoding which, in the ca> of a work of art, may constitute the whole of the consumption andgn t fication, and which requires time and dispositions acquired over timt «
who
an abstraction, can ignore what happens to products in the relationship with the consumers, that is, with the disEconomists,
never
jib at
positions which define their useful properties and real uses.
To
hypothe-
one of them does, that consumers perceive the same decisive attributes, which amounts to as uming that producrs possess objective
size, as
or, as they are
selves as such
known, on
all
which can impress them-
'technical' characteristics
perceiving subjects,
to proceed as if perception
is
only seized on the characteristics de ignated by the manufacturers* chures (and so-called 'informative* publicity) and as
if
bro-
social uses could
be derived from the operating instructions Objects, even industrial products, are not objective in the ordinary sense of the word, i.e., independent of the interest and tastes of those who perceive them, and they do not impose the self-evidence of a universal, unanimously approved meaning.
The sociologist's
task
would be much
easier
if,
when
faced with each
rela-
tionship between an 'independent variable' and a 'dependent variable', be did not have to determine how the perception and appreciation of whit is
designated by the 'dependent variable' vary according ro the classes
termined by the 'independent variable', or,
in
other words, identify
de-
th*
system of perrinent features on the basis of which each of the classes or 2 agents was really determined. What science has to establish is the objectivity of the object which is established in rhe relationship between an object defined by the possibilities and impossibilities
only revealed
in the
world of social use (including,
nical object, the use or function for
which
positions of an agent or class of agents, that
it offers,
in the case
which of
&
a teen*
&* was designed) and the perception; is, the schemes of
it
and action which constitute its objective utility in a p nCtl 1 cal usage. The aim is not, of course, to reinf roduce any form of "^^i lS called 'lived experience', which is most often merely a thinly disgt« ?~ appreciation
projection of the researcher's 'lived experience*;
4
bur to
move beyond
tn
&
consumers with interchangeable tastes products with uniformly perceived and appreciated properties to the I* rionship between tastes which vaiy in a necessaty way according to f ^ abstract relationship between
,
economic conditions of production, and the products on
j
a
confer their different social identities. One only has to ask the w hich economists strangely ignore, of the economic conditions
tfCid r
1
^h^*
qa& tl ° fnie r
%
.
case.
jS c ' lJ
sC
3
jyctjon of the dispositions demanded by the economy, i.e., in question of the economic and soda) detetminants of tastes, necessity of including in the complete definition of the prod-
'
he ij^enrial experiences which the consumers have of f
u
they derive the dispositions
f
from
their position
it
in
as a func-
economic
''°
have to be felr in order ro be undersrood These experiences do nor w may owe nothing to lived experience, still ^*h n understanding hich *' sympathy. ^ nc na ^' tus an objective relarionship between two ob»
(a
C naWcs an intelligible and necessary relation to be established practices and a situation, the meaning of which is produced by
* .
{C$
L weefi
through categories of perception and appreciation that are hemsclves produced by an observable social condition.
.
habitus
Condition
Class
Because
and Social
Conditioning
can only account for practices by bringing to light successively
it
which underlie them, analysis initially conceals rhe structure of the life-sryle characteristic of an agent or class of agents, thar hidden under the diversity and multiplicity of the set of is, rhe uniry the series of eflccrs
governed by different logics and therefore inducing different forms of reafoarion, in accordance with the formula: [(habitus) (capital)] *f field = practice. It also conceals the structure of the symbolic space marked out by the whole set of these structured practices, all the distinct and distinctive life-styles which are always defined objectively and sometimes subjectively in and through rhcit mutual relationships. So it is necessary ro reconstruct what ha been taken apart, first by way of verification but also in order to rediscover the kernel of truth practices per formed in fields
the approach characteristic of
in
mtumon of the they constitute
common
systematic nature of
To do
sense knowledge, namely, the
life styles
and of the whole
set
which
one must return to the practice-unifying and practice-generating principle, i.e., class habitus, the internalized form of class condition and of the conditionings it entails. One must therefore co Sttuct t h c ohjeaht class, the set of agents who are placed in homogene" Prod"
°^ cx 'Stence imposing homogeneous conditionings and £ homogeneous systems of dispositions capable of generating practices, and who possess a set of common properrie objectified e5 somcr m cs legally guaranteed (as posse sion of goods and 5
,n
...
ij r
,
p r0
Powell
'
r
te ni5
r°, ot
'
P^P^ties embodied
classificatory
f
this,
W ?T
c
classy
as class
habitus (and, in particular,
sys-
schemes)/'
AN ° SYSTEMS OH variables
Inde ignatmg
these classes
agents or, which amounts to the same thing in this context, conditions of existence) by the name of an occupation, one is
of productio n ems practices, in particular through the mechanisms which conrroj ^° v to positions and produce or selecr a particular class of habitus. By t * is not a way of reverting to a pre
in the relations
*
3
w
occupational category*.
The
individuals grouped in a class rhat
is
c
Stmered in a particular respect (rhat is, in a particularly determin anr specr) always bring with them, in addition to the pertinent properties
which they
are classified, secondary properties
into the explanatory
model This means
which
1
k
are thus smupjviJ!
rhar a class or class fraction
position in the relations of production, as idem fied through indices such as occupation, income or even educational
defined not only by
level,
but also by
space (which
a certain sex-ratio, a certain distribution in
neutral) and by
never socially
is
which may funcrion,
a
whole
geographi Ca of subsidiary i
set
the form of racir requirements •$ principles of selection or exclusion without ever being formall*
characteristics real
its
stated (this
is
a
and sex)
the case with ethnic origin
mask
A number
of
official
hidden critetia: for example, the requirgiven diploma can be a way of demanding a particular social
ctitcria in facr serve as a
ing of
in
for
origin.
One
needs to examine what the
list
of rhe criteria used by the analyst de
of chc struggle between the groups separated by these crireria, or mote precisely from the capacity of groups defined by these criteria! co get themselves recognized as such. There would be less likelihood of forgetting that unskilled workers are to a large extent women and immi' grants if groups based on sex or nationality of origin had constituted themselves as such within the working class. Furthermore, the fallacy of the apparent facror would nor be so frequent if it were not the simple rctranslation onto the terrain of science of rhe legitimating strategies whereby rives
from the
groups tend
state
or that legitimate property, the overt principle of their constitution, to camouflage the real basis of their existence. Thus the most selective groups (a concerr audience or the students of a gran de ecole) may doubly conceal the real principle of their selection: by to put
forward
this
declining to announce the real ptinciples of their existence and their reprosys-
duction, they are obliged to rely on mechanisms which lack rhe specific, tematic rigour of an explicit condition of entry and therefore allow
exceptions (unlike clubs and
alt 'elites'
the whole set of properties of the
The members
of groups based
based on co-option, they cannot
the total person). co-option, as are most of the corps p*
'elect', i.e.,
on
tected by an overt or covert numents
(doctors, architects, professors,
clamm
engineers etc) always have something else in teristics explicitly is
demanded. The
no doubt one of the
teal
vet
common
common beyond
image of the professions,
determinants of 'vocations',
unreal than that presented by statisticians;
the charac-
it
is less
w ^ lC
absrracr
» nd
rakes into account not only
the nature of the job and rhe income, bur those secondaiy characteristic which are often the basis of their social value (prestige or discredit) and
"
jjh absent from rhe official job description, function as tacit reovertly or implicitly suc h as age, sex, social or ethnic origin, option choices, from entry inro rhe profession and right through
^hich* "* 11
qU'^" u
members of the corps who lack these traits are excluded ot ^ /0mcn doctors and lawyers tending ro be restricted to a fe-
jdirt£
^ it
career
.
% l
,n
an d black doctors and lawyers to black clients or research). C emphasized by the name used to designate a carethe property s l fl occupation, is liable to mask the effect of all the secondary ^suai^y gpW* which although consritutive of the category, are not expressly rn*rg
?
^ "
«
[C | C
wncn onc
torly
is
u Y^ n £
t0 asscss tnc evolution
of a
social category
by occupation), crude errors are inevitable if, by considering substitution effects of the pertinent properties;, one ignoies all the l "one n ° the evolution is also expressed. The collective trajectory of a social .
J !
f ;6ed
hich
\x manifested in the fact that ii is becoming 'feminized' or 'mas* r ° wing older or young, getting poorer or richer. (The decline u ini zed,' g which may ac'feminization' lf position mayl>e manifested either in
^y
"J
C
—
l
a
^
or in 'democratization' or in 'agemg',) companied by a rise in social origm— any group defined by reference to a position in The same would be true of a universiry discipline in the hierarchy of disciplines, a title of t field— e.g., educational qualification in the acanobility in the atistocratic hierarchy, an
demic hierarchy.
The
between a dependent variable (such as polirical independent vatiables such as sex, age and reli-
particular relations
opinion) and so-called
income and occupation tend to mask the complete system of relationships which constitutes the true principle of the specific strength and form of the effects registered in any particular correlation. The most independent of 'independent' variables conceals a whole network of statistical relations which are present, implicitly, in its relationship with any given opinion or practice. Here too, instead of askm g statistical technology ro solve a problem which it can only displace, it is necessary to analyse rhe divisions and variations which the different secondary variables {sex, age etc ) bring into the class defined by the main variable, and consider eveiything which, though ptesent in the real defi-
gion, or even educational level,
nition of the class,
is
not consciously taken into account in the nominal
in the name used to designate heftfore in interpreting the relationship in which it is placed
definition,
the
^C
one summed up
it,
or
independence between scxalled independent variables is ^>Crwecn educational qualification and occupation. This is tot orH L auSC at ^casi ' n some arcas of social space (ro which educa^ r 'onil C3rtons give some degree of access), occupation depends on tyiakfie ? IQn ^ Ut a ^ SO ^cause cne cu ^ u ^»l capital which rhe qualification is Su P£CK^ t0 guarantee depends on rhe holder's occupation, which may presuppo-ma intenanee or increase of che capita] acquired within the family Ot ^ r °°1 (by and for promotion) or a diminishing of this capital (by f
the
t
Cl<
nS
^
'
•
'
.
^ a ' sc
^— To
of occupational condi(j in which one has to distinguish the specific effect of the work which, hb^ vety nature, may demand a more or less great, more or less constant jn v J** ment of cultural capital, and therefore more or less continuous maintop of this capital, and the effect of the possible career which encourages or 'de-skilling'
or 'de-qualification').
this effect
eludes cultural investments likely to assist or legitimate promotion— rnu. be added the effect of occupational milieu, i.e., the rcinforcemenr of disr^ tions (especially cultural, religious or political dispositions)
by
a
group
t
L*'*
most of the respects which define it. Thus one wquU ha^e to examine in each case to what extent occupational conditions Q f e istence assist or hinder this effect, which would mean taking into account the characteristics of rlie work (unpleasantness etc.), the condirions in which it is performed noise, or silence permitting conversation etc ^ temporal rhythms ic imposes, the spare time k allows, and especially the
is
homogeneous
In
—
'
—
form of the horizontal or vertical relations it encourages at the workplace during work or in rest periods or outside This effect no doubr explains a number of differences between office workers (ledger clerks, bank clerks, agency clerks, typists) and commercial employees (mainly shop assistants), which are not entirely accounrcd for either by differences hnked to class fraction of origin (office workers are rather more often the children of farmers; commercial employees the children of small employers) or by differences in educational capital (the first more often have the BEPC, the second a CAP). The commercial employees and the office workers, who ate distributed in much the same way as regards sex, age and income, are separated by important differences in dispositions and practices. Office wotkers are more asthey more often expecr their friends to be conscientious or well cetic bcoughr up, more often prefer a neat, clean and tidy interior and like Brcl, Guc'tary, Mariano, the Hungarian Rhapsody, VArihienm, Raphael, Watteau and l^onardo. By contrast, commercial employees more ofren look for friends who are sociable, bons vivants, amusing and stylish, for a comfortable, cosy mrerior, and prefer Brassens, Ferre\ Franchise Hardy, the Twiltgh,
—
—
of the Godi, rhe Four Seasons, Rhafiod} in Blue, Urrillo or Van GoghAmong the effects which the relationship berween class fracrion and tices
simultaneously reveals and conceals, there
is
prac*
also the cfTecr of the posi-
of the secondary properties attached to a class. Thus, members of the class who do nor possess all the modal properties e.g., men in a strongly feminized occupation or a worker s son ar ENA— have their social identity deeply marked by this membership and rhe social image which it imposes and which they have to situate themselves in rc a tion in the distribution
'
whether by acceptance ot rejection. Similarly, relationships such as those berween educational
tion
ro,
capital,
or age*
nr and income mask the relationship linking the rwo apparently independe variables. Age determines income ro an extent which vanes according ro edu educational capital and occupation, which is itself partly determined by «*• cational capital and also by other, more hidden factors such as sex and c° hcrired cultural or social capital. In anorher case, one of rhe variables is (i.e., degree merely a transformed form of the other. Thus, scholastic age euliu f age at a given educational level) i& a transformed form of inherired
lost years a.re
A sP'
ra
V
n
q$0 result in
1
f 5
i
°*
aS
°'l
expresses,
among
economic and social level of the family of origin. (This long process which is no way a mechanical relationship, since
a
tur ai
capiral
may be only
converted into educational capi-
partially
produce effects irreducible to those of educational cjualifkation, v j s whenever social origin distinguishes individuals whose qualifi-
.
Anneal)
are
c2ll °,
moment
More
triC
nm
"3
ral
educational capital held at a given
rhe
eraJ'/<
a step towards relegation or elimination.
vise
every relationship between educational capital and a given
in
one sees the effect of the dispositions associated with gender which f! determine the logic of the reconversion of inherited capital into capital, that is, the 'choice' of 'he type of educational capital
1
F
j
jjiowl
be obtained from the same initial capital, more often literacy for more often scientific for boys. Again, the relationship of a given pracmay conceal a relationship to educational capital when age is in * ace
h v i
will
different che key to
tT .
n3
|
modes of
—by qualification or
and diflcrcnr chances the educational system (the oldest agents have lower educa-
promotion—and
f access to
access to the position
tional capital
different school generations
than the youngest), or to social
of precociousness or enr social definitions
class,
by virtue of the
backwardness
in
differ-
the various areas,
particularly in schooling, [n fact,
the change in chances of access
is
only one aspect of a more
sys-
change which also involves the very definition of competence, and tends to make compar isons between the generations increasingly difficult. The conflicts between holders of competences of different ages and different educational levels old school-certificate holder versus new bachcim (baccatematic
—
laure'ar-holder)
— cenrre precisely on
rhe definition of competence, with the
complaining that the new generation does not possess the competences formerly defined as elementaty and basic: *Thcy can't spell nowadays', They can T r even add up' And finally, the variations in cultural practice by size of town of residence cannot be ascribed to the direct effect of spatial distance and t lie variation? in the supply of culture, until it is confirmed that the differences old generation
persisr aftet
discounting the
concealed (even ne opposition
eflccr
of the inequalities
in
educational capital
the occupational category) by geographical distribution,
in
between Paris and che provinces needs to be analysed in a similar to chat used for the notion of 'educational level'. Relationships evolving rnc variable 'place of residence' manifest not only the
^
effect
of
cultural supply, linked to the density
of objectified culrural capital and so consumption and the related remenr f the aspiration to consume, bur also all the effects of the un2 distribution of properties and their owners (e.g., possessor of
c
^°
objective opportunities for cultutal r
T
kJL
ar '° nal
group cui
omw
ca
on
P
ira
')>
icsclf *
j ,v __^ateo\ discouraging
in
Parriciliar rhc
circular reinforcemenr each
for example, intensifying cultural practice if
it
is
t
\*/hfn rhe t
2
ca crj
as
ir
by indifference or hostility if it
is
not.
t
often happens, the analysis is conducted variable by variable, n £ ct °f attributing to one of the variables (such as sex otage,
of which
ma y
CX p r ess in
its
own way
the whole situation ot trend of
,
of variables (an error which is encoura&*j rhe conscious or unconscious tendency to substitute generic aliens a class)
rhc effect of the
set
'
e.g., those linked to sex or age, for specific alienations, linked to ^u ^> Economic and social condition, as identified by occupation, gives
a
form to the properties of sex and age, so that it is the efficacy the whole structure of factors associated with a position in social
ciftc
all
sea
which
manifested in the correlations between age or sex and ptactir The naivety of rhe inclination ro auribure rhe differences recorded in lation to age to a generic effect of biological ageing becomes self-e V idis
when one
sees, for
example, that the ageing which, in the
manual workers, by
a
move
move
to the
with
classes, is associated
a
to the right, left.
is
J C
privil Ce 1
accompanied,
arrion
Similarly, in the relative precocitv
example by the age at which they reach given posirion, one sees in f acr the expression of everything which vides them, despite the apparent identity of condition at a given ment, namely rheir whole previous and subsequent trajectoiy, and the capital volume and structure which govern ir. of executives, measured
for
^
constructed class
by a property (not CVCn the volume and composition of capi-
Social class is not defined
most determinant one, such as tal) nor by a collection of properties (of sex, age, social origin, erhnic origin proportion of blacks and whites, for example, or natives and immigrants income, educational level etc.), nor even by a chain of properties strung out from a fundamental properry (posirion in the relations of production) in a relation of cause and effect, conditioner and conditioned; but by the srructure of relations between all the pertinent properties which gives its specific value to each of them and to the effects they 8 exert on practices. Constructing, as we have hete, classes as homogeneous as possible wirh respect to the fundamental determinants of the material condirions of exisrence and the conditionings they impose, therefore means thar even in constructing the classes and in interpreting the variations of the distribution of properties and practices in relation to these classes, one consciously takes into account the network of secondary characteristics which are more or less unconsciously manipulated whenever the classes are defined in terms of a single crirerion, even one as pertinent as occupation. It also means grasping the principle of the obrhe
—
—
jective divisions,
properties,
come
on the
i.e.,
divisions internalized or objectified in distinctly
basis
of which the agents are mosr
together in realiry
in their
likely to divide a^d
ordinaty practices, and also to
mobile
themselves or be mobilized (in accordance with the specific logic,
Jinke**
to a specific history, of the mobilizing organizations) by and for indivio ual or collective political action.
The
principles of logical division
which
of course very unequally constituted
are used to produce the classes afc
socially in pre-existing social classifies*
j
there is the simple exisrence of the name of a trade nc extreme, rts cne p r °duct of classification by a governmental agency, f|0 ca te£ory\ national de ia scaristique et des eludes economi' of ^'^ixjsEI: (J nsr rut **
yjch **
t (he social bargaining which leads co industrial 'collective agreeother extreme, there are groups possessing a real social j ar rhe
Q
qti« s )',
n< (ISC*
recognized spokesmen and institutionalized channels for expressing meresfs ctc The secondaiy principles of division (such ftdins rneir
1 **
'^jdc
'
9fd cou
f origin
!
aS
a^
rrie y
a 'y s ', .
p^wi
.1
j
serve as a basis for
some form of
mobilization, indicate
of division along which a group socially perceived as unitary ^^ ess c CC pjy ancj p Crm anently. Because the different factors
lncs
^^
j
j
niere
,,
principles rhcir structuring force, these
i
'
or sex), which are likely co be ignored by an ordinary
r
of division are themselves set
groups mobilized on the basis of" a secondary criterion (such bound together less permanently and less or age') ^ c likely to be on the basis of the fundamental determinants rrra n those mobilized
hie hierarchy;
n
sex i
]
y
condition
of their
To account and
unitary
for the infinite diversity of practices in a
specific,
one has to break with
way
linear thinking,
that
is
both
which only
rec-
and endeavour to reconstruct rhe networks of interrelated relationships which are The structural causality of a network of presenr in each of the facrors factors is quire irreducible to the cumulated effects of the set of linear re* larions, of different explanatory force, which the necessities of analysis oblige one to isolate, those which are established between the different facrors, taken one by one, and the practice in question, through each of the factors is exerted the efficacy of all the others, and the multiplicity of determinations leads not to indeterminacy but to over-determination. Thus the superimposition of biological, psychological and social determiognizes the simple ordinal structures of direct determination,
nations in the formation of socially defined sexual identity (a basic di-
mension of social personality) -
or a logic that
is
also at
is
only a particular, bur very important,
work
in other biological determinations,
Suc h as ageing.
S°cs without saying that the factors constituting the constructed
oo not cture
f
depend on one another to the same extent, and that the tnc S y 5tcm trie y constitute is determined by those which
all
r rie
greatest functional weight. Thus, the volume and composition S ivc specific form and value to the determinations which the act0rs a c 5 of residence ere J impose on practices. Sexe*, ( S » Crf cs i P are as inseparable from class properties as the yellowness of
f' ta '
oth
p^e
ual
a
^
Wk-
'
^sp 1
? ^rom
defined in an essential respect by the va ^ ue lt g' ves to tnc two s e*es and to their socially constituted l0n s. This is why there are as many ways of realizing femininity as
an
'
ts acidity: a class is
"
there are classes and class fractions, and che division of labour |^ the sexes cakes quite different forms, borh in practices and in repn^J***
So the true nature of a class or /' distribution by sex or age, and perhap s
tions f in the different social classes. fracrion
is
expressed in
irs
Jj
then at stake, by the trend of this distribu*-^ over time. The lowest positions are designated by the fact that r ^ c
more, since
its
future
is
.
—and growing — proportion of immigrancs or women
elude a large skilled
and semi-skilled workers) or immigrant
Similarly,
it
is
no accident
(
women (charwomen V*
that the occupations in personal scrvices-^i
medical and social services, the personal
like ha
new ones like beauty care, and especially domestic servjr which combine the two aspects of the traditional definition of feriia) tasks, service and the home are practically reserved for women. Nor is it accidental that the oldest classes or class fractions are also (k.
dressing,
—
classes in decline,
such as farmers and industrial and commercial
propric.
most of the young people originating from these classes can onlv escape collective decline by reconverting into the expanding occupations tors;
Similarly, an increase in the proportion of
trend of an occupation,
in
women
indicates the whole
particular the absolute or relarive devaluation
which may result from changes in the nature and organization of the work itself (this is the case with office jobs, for example, with the multiplication
women) ing,
of repetitive, mechanical
tasks
that
are
commonly
left
or from changes in relative position in social space (as in
whose position has been
to
teach-
affected by the overall displacement of (he
profession resulting from the overall increase in the
nun ber of positions
offered).
One would
have to analyse
in the
same way the relationship between
marital status and class or class fracrion.
example, that male celibacy
is
not
a
it
has been clearly shown,
secondary property of rhe small
for
peas-
antry but an essential element of the crisis affecting this fraction of the
peasant
class.
The breakdown of
the
mechanisms of biological and
social
reproduction brought about by the specific logic of symbolic domination
one of the mediations of the process of concentration which leads to * deep Transformation of rhe class. But here too, one would have to subject the commonsense notion to close analysis, as has been done for educa** tional level. Being married is not opposed to being unmarried simply the fact of having a legitimate spouse to the fact of not having one, On* only has to think of a few limiting cases (some much more frequent MP* is
others), the 'housewife', the artist supported by his wife, rhe employe'
executive
who owes
ficult to characterize
his position to his father-in-law, ro see that
an individual without including
all
i
[
'
11 the prope*
(and property) which are brought to each of the spouses, and not the wife, through the other
—
a
name (sometimes
$
^
oil
'
a distinguished *"C
an income, 'connections', a social status (each member 1 the couple being characterized by the spouse's social position, to dirTf re*
well), goods,
— and the gap between the two posi(JeS^ fhe properties acquired or possessed through marriage will be s stcm °^ properties which may determine practices a° flS \A f^>m tnc y olT,ltfC ^ft^s if- as usually happens, one forgets to ask oneself who is the 5
&\J the
^nd ?U
^
,CS
fo sc *j position
prices
more simply, if the 'subject' questioned is of the practices on which he or she is questioned. he subject r is raised, it can be seen that a number of srrateas fne question denned only in the relationship between the members e concretely
CC
\:c'i^y
^
£Cording
£ rou P
riomes^ic
depends h itself «##t*K associated
(
a
or,
household
on
or,
sometimes, an extended family),
the relationship between the two systems of
with the two spouses. The
common
eoods, espe-
hey arc °* somc economic and social importance, such as the menr or ^Jrnirure, or even personal goods, such as dorhing, are spouse for son or daughter in other societies the the choice of a of these (denied) power relations which define the domestic
ilv
whefl
[
—
ap' ,
rcome example, there is every reason to suppose that, given the logic nir For of the division of labour between the sexes, which gives precedence to
women in matters of taste (and to men in politics), the weight of the man's own taste in choosing his clothes (and therefore the degree to which his clothes express his taste) depends nor only on his own inand educational capital (the traditional division of roles rends to weaken, here and elsewhere, as educational capital grows) but also on his wife's educational and cultural capital and on the gap between them. (The same is true of the weight of the wife's own preferences in politics: the effect of assignment by status which makes herited cultural capita)
politics a
man's business
cational capital, or small
when
is
less likely to
the
occur, the greater the wife's edu-
gap between her
capital
and her husband's
is
or in her favour.)
and
social class
class Of trajectories
But
this is
not
all.
On
the
one hand, agents are not completely denned by the properties they posgiven rime, whose conditions of acquisition persist in the nab(the hysteresis effect); and on the other hand, the relationship between initial capital and present capital, or, to put it another way, boween the initial and present positions in social space, is a statistical relasess at a
jtus
onSni
C of
l
P of very variable intensity. Although they are always perpetuated
P 05
1 ' 0115 constituting the habitus, the conditions of acquisition ro P Petties synchronically observed only make themselves visible in '
° discotdance between the conditions of acquisition and the con use c when the practices generated by the habitus appear as []j. a P ced because they are artuned co an earliet state of the objective co n j,0 S n s wnat mi ^ hT ^e called the Don Quixote effect). The sratisr a? analysis which compares the practices of agents possessing the st^ bi^ -1 Perries and occupying the same social position at a given time P a rated by their origin performs an operation analogous to ordijji
.
*
*-
i
^
'
-*
* na[y perception which, wiihin
group, identifies rhe parvenus an j declasses by picking up the subtle indices of manner or bearing ^Kbetray rhe effect of conditions of existence different from the present a
or t which amounts to rhe same thing, rhe
modal
trajectory for the
Individuals
gtoup
do not move about
trajectory different
a social
fr
in quesrion.
in social
space in
random way,
a
p-
' .
u^
because they are subject to the forces which structure this space
through rhe objective mechanisms of elimination and channelling) -rj partly because they resist rhe forces of the field with their specific inertu that
ts,
rheir properties,
which may
embodied form,
exist in
To
tions, or in objectified form, in goods, qualifications etc.
ume
of inherired capital there corresponds
probable trajectories leading to more or
a
band of more or
as
dispo^
a given vol less equal!*
equivalent positions (thi$ir the fktid 0/ the passiblti objectively offered co a given agent), and the shift from one rrajcctoiy to another often depends on colleaive events a~ crises
etc.—or individual events
less
—encounteis,
—
benefactors etc.—
affairs,
which are usually described as (fortunate or unfortunate) accidents, jj. though they themselves depend statistically on the posirion and disposition of those whom they befall (e.g., the skill in operating 'connections' which enables the holders of high social capital to preserve or increase rhis capital), when, that is, they are not deliberately contrived by institutions (clubs, family reunions, old-boys' or alumni associations etc.) or by the 'spontaneous* intervention of individuals or groups. this that position
dent;
all
and individual trajectory are not
follows from
statistically indepen-
positions of arrival ate not equally probable for
points This implies that there sitions
It
is
a
all
strong correlation between
and the dispositions of the agents
who occupy
them,
starting
social poor,
which
amounts to the same thing, the trajectories which have led them to occupy them, and consequently that the modal trajectory is an inrcgral pan of the system of factors constituting the class. (The more dispersed the trajectories are
—
as in the petite bourgeoisie
— the
less are practices reduc-
of synchronically defined position ) The homogeneity of the dispositions associated with
ible to the effect
their
a position and
seemingly miraculous adjustment to the demands inscribed
in
if
K
"
from rhe mechanisms which channel towards positions * n 7^ viduals who are already adjusted to them, either because they feel 'ma** 1 asfor jobs that are 'made for them this is 'vocation the proleptic sumption of an objective destiny that is imposed by practical reference the modal trajectory in rhr class of origin or because rhey are secn v x this light by the occupants of the posts—this is co-option based on 11 immediate harmony of dispositions and partly from the dialectic w* sit,C> is established, throughout a lifetime, between dispositions and P°
suit partly
—
1
,
—
,
—
w
nothing other than slow renunciation or disinvestment (socially assisted and encourag^ aspirations and achievements. Social ageing
which
is
leads agents to adjusr their aspirations to their objective cna "
to espouse their condition,
become what
they are and
make do with
**
t
rn »s emails deceiving themselves as to what rhey are
if
even
h3V
wifh coIlcctivc complicity, and accepting bercavef\hey have, ?n d *^^jj f hc 'lateral possibles they have abandoned along the way. irttftf character of the relationship between initial capital and 3t s tical w hy practices cannot be completely accounted capital explains wesc^ , [e rm s of the properties denning the position occupied in sorhe/
1
j
for5°J i" -
*
1
sp ' 5 P t' 3i\
eiven given
3CC 3
pp a certain .^sessin^
to an educational and social trajectory leading to a
^probability,
p' given '* C nosition
£* rnined a
initi; moment. To 10 say that the members of a class initially economic and cultural capital are destined, with a
means
priori
in fact that a fraction
of the
class
{which cannot be
within the limits of this explanatory system) will de-
most common for the class as a whole and folfrom tne tf aj^ tt0i y or lower) trajectory which was most ptobable for the (higher 2 The trajectory effect which then manifests itclass.' another of embers
V1Jt
jp
j
jvrn
t»
does whenever individuals occupying similar positions at a differences associated with the evolution over e arc scparaced by
t
m
time of the
volume and
irajcctories, is
structure of their capital*
i.e.,
by
their individual
The
very likely to be wrongly interpreted.
correlation be-
father's position, the tween a practice and social origin (measured by the concealed by constant real value of which may have suffered a decline
nommal value)
the resultant of two effects (which
is
on
may
either reinforce
one hand, the inculcation eff ecr directly ex med by the family or the original conditions of existence; on the other
or off set each other):
the
hand, the specific effect of social trajectory, rise
or decline
this logic,
ihe slope is
13
rhat
is,
the effects of social
on dispositions and opinions, posirion of
origin being, in
merely the starting point of a trajectory, the reference whereby
of the
social career
sdf evidenr in
is
denned.
The need
to
make
this distinction
which individuals from the same class fracsame family, and Therefore piesumably subject to identical religiois or political inculcations, are inclined towards divergent in religion or politics by the different relations to the social world cases in
all
»ion or the
moral, stances
*>mch rhey
owe
to divergent individual trajectories, having, for example,
Receded or fa j] C(j n cnc reconversion strategies necessary to escape the f VC dccline °f fheir class. j
'
Thm?
l i
,
trajectory effect
P betw C en
ct
governs the representarion of the position occupied in the *'orld and hence the vision of its world and its future. In contrast ar(*v mobile individuals or groups, 'commoners' of birth or cutnavc f heir future, i.e., their being, befoie them, individuals or
tut
gr^ sen tl
that
social
no doubt plays a large part in blurring the relaclass and religious or polirical opinions, owing to
S i
!n
it
dedwe ln
endlessly reinvent the discourse of
all
aristocracies, cs-
^ c ctcrnit y of natures, celebration of tradirion and the C of history and its rituals, because the best they can expect fror^, Umr e is the return of the old order, from which they expect the r e ation of their social being. 14 T his ?[ b]ur r n g s p art cu i ar Jy visible in rhe middle classes and especially P*st
r
th .
j
;
i
new
which are grey areas, ambi& Uo located in the social structure, inhabited by individuals whose trajectn aie exrrcmely scarrcred. This dispersion of trajecrories is even found k 5* at the level of the domestic unit, which is more likely than in classes to bring together spouses (relarively) ill maTched not only in the
fractions
of these
classes,
•
1
^
gards social origin and trajectories but also occupational status and *,» carional level (This has the effect, among other things, of foreground I*
what The new vulgare calls 'the problems of the couple', i.e., essential^ the problems of the sexual division of labour and the division of sexy
[
labour.) In contrast to the effect
of individual
tion from the collective Trajectory (that
trajectory,
may have
which, being
a zero slope),
a devji,
is
imm*
of collective trajectory may not be noticed a* the rrajecrory eff cct concerns a whole class or class fraction
diarely visible, the effect
such. that
When
is,
a set
of individuals
who occupy
an identical position and
are en-
gaged in the same collective trajectory, the one which defines a rising or declining class, there is a danger of attributing to the properties ^^ chronically attached to the ions)
which are
analysis
is
class, effects (e.g., political
or religious
pin.
product of collective transformations. TV complicated by the fact that some members of a class fraction in reality the
may have embarked on
individual trajectories running in the opposite
rection to that of the fraction as a whole. This does not
mean
di-
that their
not marked by the collective destiny (It is questionable, for example, whether craftsmen or farmers whose individual success seems to practices are
run counter to the collective decline cease to be affected by that
de-
(>
But here too one must avoid substantial ism. Thus, some of the properties associated with social class which may remain without efficacy or value in a given field, such as ease and familiarity with culture in an area strictly controlled by the educational system, can take on their full cline. )
such as high society, or in another state of the sarfK like the aptitudes which, after the French Revolution, enabled the
force in another field,
field,
French aristocracy to become,
in
Matx's phrase, 'the dancing-masters
of
Europe'.
and the markgt But everything would still
be too simp^ J sucn it were sufficient to replace a factor, even a particularly powerful one effect: as socio-occupational category, which derives a major part of rts
capital
from the secondary variables tally
defined by
its
structure.
it ,{S
governs, by a system of factors fundanic In fact, what is determinant in a given
*J*J *
of the system of properties constituting constructed class, defined in an entirely theoretical way by the whole of actors operating in all areas of practice— volume and structure ° ^. &**, tal, defined synchronically and diachronicalJy (trajectory), sex, age. a particular configuration
is
tal
of residen e ere. It is the specific logic of the field, stake and of the type of capital needed to play for it, w»"
sratus, place
what
is
at
through those properties vcrnS established. g0 ,rtce is -
*
!jiact r '°
is
^
r
^
u
^
—
-
-
*
nds on the system it is placed in Ve' in fhe factor in question de ndirions it "operates* in; or, more simply, from failing to raise the principle of the efficacy of the 'independent variable', of the real designated as i( the relationship found between the fee tor
—
deeding
W P hat 1*n d
class
of each explanatory factor is not performed, every bic correlation _ all of them resulting from ignoring the fact chat what is |ik c jy p
rh» s ] f sflf
which the relationship between
usually
js
no more than an indicator of
practi this or that ca pacity
^ot
itsel
e
(e.g.,
(e.g.,
it
the rate of response to political questions,
to adopt the aesthetic disposition, or
fhavc
to
educarional level)
museum-gomg
etc.)
be explained,
w hy
same system of properties (which determines by the position occupied in the field of class struggles) ind is determined greatest explanatoiy power, whatever the area in quesalways has the
To undeistand
the
tion—eating habits, use of credit,
fcrriliry, political
opinion, religion
etc^-and why, simultaneously, the relative weight of the factors which constitute
it
varies
most important in
from one field to another one area, economic capital
only has to see that, because capital
which only exists and only produces
is
—educational in another,
and so on
a social relation,
its effects in
capital
i.e.,
the field in
value and efficacy
in a
by the
specific laws
of each
—one
an energy
which
produced and reproduced, each of the properties attached to class its
being
is
field. In practice,
it is
given
that
is,
particular field, the properties, internalized in dispositions ot objecti-
economic ot cultural goods, which are attached to agents are not all simultaneously operative; the specific logic of the field determines those which are valid in this marker, which are pertinent and active in the game in question, and which, in the relationship with this field, fied in
—and,
nction as specific capital practices*
consequently,
as a
factor explaining
This means, concretely, that the social rank and
specific
power on the
"hich agenrs are assigned in a patticular field depend firstly c Pital they can mobilize, whatever their additional wealth in
^
er rypes
TV class
of capita] (though
c *Pk' ns
^
w hy
this
may
also exert
an
effect
of contami-
the relationship which analysis uncovers between
through the me* 2 aCtor or particular combination of factors which varies acc Ordi t0 tnc field. This appearance itself leads to the mistake of inv^rj f as man explanatory systems as theie are fields, instead of see* in« mj^ Y tncm as a transformed form of all the others; or worse, the Crror of SCK,n Ur fi ij £ U a particular combination of factors active in a particuc diat
Pract,ccs a ppears
to
be established
in each case
P
c° [
ifi&
practices as a universal explanatory principle. The singular ration of the system of explanatory factors which has to be con-
U strucred in order co account for a state of rhe distribution
of a partial
of goods or practices, ic, a balance-sheet, drawn up ar a partic u moment, of rhe class struggle over that particular class of goods or
class
tices {caviar
or avant-garde painting,
enlightened opinion or a chic sport),
Nobel is
i
p fa C prizes or state contracts
the form taken, in rhar
field
the objectified and internalized capital (properties and habitus)
w
i
J
jJ«
and constitutes the principle of rhe production classified and classifying practices. It represents a state of the system properties which make class a universal principle of explanation and cja sifica.tion, defining the rank occupied in all possible fields. defines social class
A
( f
Three-Dimensional Space
Endeavouring to reconstitute the units mosr homogeneous from t |^ point of view of the conditions of production of habitus, ix with ^. ,
spect to the elementary conditions of existence and the resultant conditionings, one can construct a space whose three fundamental dimensions are defined
these
two
by volume of
capital,
composition of
capital,
and change
properties over time (manifested by past and potential
in
trajec-
1
tory in social space).
The primary
which distinguish the major classes of conditions of existence, derive from the overall volume of capital, understood as the set of actually usable resources and powers economic capital, cultural capital and also social capital. The distribution of the different classes (and class fractions) thus runs from those who are best provided with both economic and cultural capital to those who are most deprived in both respects (see figure 5, larer in this section). The members of the professions, who have high incomes and high qualifications, who vety often (52,9 pcrcenr) originate from the dominant class (professions or senior execurives), who receive and consume a large quantity o' both material and cultural goods, are opposed in almost all respects to the office workers, who have low qualifications, often originate from the working or middle classes, who receive little and consume little, devoting a high proporrion of their time to car maintenance and home improve menu and they are even more opposed to the skilled or semi-skilled work" tnC crs, and still more to unskilled workers or farm labourers, who have lowest incomes, no qualifications, and originare almost exclusively (9 percent of farm labourers, 84.5 percent of unskilled workers) from W* differences, those
—
working
The
18
classes.
,
of capital almost
stemming from the total volume both from common awareness and also from
differences
'scierH' ways conceal, 5 knowledge, the secondary differences which, within each of the c
defined by overall
volume of
different asset structures,
among
i-e.,
capital, separate class fractions, defined
different distributions of their total cap'
the different kinds of eapiral.
-
—
model aims to account for in a unitary #nori£ visible is the observation, which others have mati lC rt* J CS- VII), that the hierarchies, both in the dominant ifl d C (eg., employers, and in the middle class, beoftW fWCCn the executives and the d* 55 ^. junior executives and the craftsmen or shopkeepers, vary accordlC 9fifn c activity or asset in question. This effect seems ro support the which way, the most
-he difficulties
this
^
*
f
l0
ing
he -
.
c critique
of the
social classes unril
it is
seen that there
is
a rela-
rC at
the nature of these activities or assets, for example, hiD between ° nS tl and the structure of each #>ing or possession of a colour TV, '
g*§!± —
account of the structure of total assets and not only, Once one takes been done implicitly, of the dominant kind in a given has always «.«• *birth\» 'fortune' or 'talents', as the nineteenth century *put
$tnJctu rc> ,
.....
.
.
it
/ also or observing ,
means of making more precise divisions and one has the the specific effects of the strucrtire of distribution berween the different may, for example, be symmetrical (as in the case of which combine very high income with veiy high cultural the professions, capital) or asymmetrical (in the case of higher-education and secondary This kinds of capital.
teachers or
nomic
capital in
The
posirions. tal,
usually
level
employers* with cultural capital dominanr in one case, ecothe other).
One
thus discovers two
sets
of homologous
whose reproduction depends on economic
fractions
inherited— industrial and commercial employers
craftsmen and shopkeepers at the intermediate level
at
—
capi-
the higher
are
opposed
which are least endowed (relatively, of course) with economic capital, and whose reproduction mainly depends on cultural capital— higher-education and secondary teachers at the higher level, primary to the fractions
teachers at
the intermediate level.
c industrialists,
^-ho are grouped with the commercial employers in surrrP rc5cntat,vc sample because of their small number, declare consid^Ki ^£ ner incomes than the latter (33.6 percent say they earn more than Ktoft ,' ?? French francs, as against 14.5 percent of the commercial employ daSS,ficd as industrialises in the
mu c hi
er ro tnc
ncw bourgeoisie than
INSEE
survey (CS.
I) are
commercial employers: °^ tncm declare salaries and investment income, many fewer dec[mJ; COmmcrc a or non-commercial profits. For the working c l* Usses 3tC * tf0n 8'y ra °ked by overall capital volume, the dara available **° fiot ki 5i ? nc ro g ras P tr»e differences in the second dimension (compotion of" Ca c^ )* However, differences such as those berween semi-skilled, Uc atj f ir n ua 'ifi c d, provincial factory workers of rural origin, living ^ 9 an mh n cc ° ^tmhouse, and skilled workers in the Paris region who have ^n i n t 5 w ° r ^* n c ass for generations, who possess a trade' or technical man
mon
'
'
are rhe
'
>
^ificafonS
^d p
cal
*
must be the source of opmion.
-
.
jj
&
differences in life-style
and religious
one moves from the artists to the industrial and mercial employers, volume of economic capita) rises and vo!um e of Cl1 tural capita) falls, it can be seen that the dominant class is organize Given
that, as
'1 ''
cfuasric strucrure.
To
establish this,
it
is
necessary to use various
''
1
inrf'*
borrowed from a sui-vey which has the advantage of distinguish 5* between public-sector and private-sector execurives (CS V) to cxam^ successively, the distribution of economic capital and the distribute cultural capital among the fracrions; the structures of these distributi musr then be correlated. tors
*
Although it is self-evident when one considers indicators of wealth (as , be done later), the hierarchy of the class fractions as regards possession f economic capita), running from industrial and commercial employers ro teachers, is already less visible when, as here, one is only dealing with n dices of consumption (cars* boats, hotels) which are neither entirely adequate nor entirely unambiguous (see table 6). The first (cars) also depends on the rype of professional activity, and rhe other two depend on spare time which, as one learns in other ways, varies inversely wuh economic capital, Home ownership also depends on stability in the same place of residence (lower among executives, engineers and teachers). Incomes are very un,
j
evenly underestimated (the rate of non-declaration
may be
considered an
in-
dicator of the tendency to undcr-declare) and very unequally accompanied
by fringe benefits such as expense account meals and business are
known
one moves from
to rise as
and employers). As regards cultural
crips
(which
teachers to private-sector executives
capital, except for a
few inversions, which
reflect sec-
ondary variables such as place of residence, with the corresponding supply of culture, and income, with the means it provides, the different fractions are organized in an opposite hierarchy (see table 7), (Differentiation according ro the type of capital possessed, literary, scientific or economic and p°" lirical, is mainly seen m the fact that engineers show more interest in muitf and "intellectual' games such as bridge or chess than in literaiy activities^ theatre-going or reading Le Figara Liueraire.)
These indicators no doubt tend to minimize the gaps between rhe dine*' ent fracrions Most cultural consumption also entails an economic cost: tBP arre-going, for example, depends on income as well as education. Morco^f equipmenr such as FM radios or hi fi systems can be used in very diffcrc nl ways (e-g-» classical music or dance music), whose values, in terms of ***** <
dominant hierarchy of possible uses, may vary as much as the different V$f of reading-matter or theatre. In fact, the position of the different fraction* of reading-matte* rends to correspond to their position when ranked according ro volume cultural capital as one moves towards the rarer types of reading, which ranked according to their interest
known robe
in the different types
those most linked to educational
leve!
and highest
in the
archy of Cultural legitimacy (see [able 8).
One
also finds (CS. XIV, rable 215a) that the over representation
-
o'
teachers (and students) in the audience of the different theatres steadily
the over-representation of the other fractions (employers, SCn executives and members of the professions, unfortunately not distjriguj^ in the star is tics) increases as one moves from avant-garde or reputedly ^ avant garde theatre to classical theatre and especially from classical t0 ^
dines
anil
vard theatre, which draws between a third and a quarter of
from the
least 'intellectual fractions
Having capiral
is
of the dominant
its
audience
class-
established that the srrucrure of the distribution of econ 0n symmetrical and opposire to that of cultural capital, Wc
rurn to the question of the hierarchy of the
two
tion (without forgetting that this hierarchy
-
c
principles of hierarchi
rimes a stake snuggles and that, in certain conjunctures, as in present-day France is
at all
cul
may be one of rhe conditions for access to control nomic capital). We may take as an indicator of the state of the tural capital
^
f
powe?
between these two principles of domination the frequency of in, tergenerational movements between the fractions. If we use as indices of the rarity of a position (or, which amounts to
relation
the same thing,
who
irs
degree of closure) the proportion of
originate from the
in question, actly, for
we
both
(see table 9).
dominant
class as a
corresponds
class,
originated from the fraction to
fraction
fairly ex-
by volume of economic
The proportion of members of each
nated from rhe dominant
occupants
whole and from the
find that the resulting hierarchy
indices, ro the hierarchy
its
fraction
capital
who
origi-
and the proportion of individuals who which they now belong, decline in paral-
one moves from the industrial employers to the teachers, with a clear break between the three higher-ranking fractions (industrial and commercial employers and the professions) and rhe three lower-ranking fractions (engineers, public-sector executives and reachers). The use of rhese indicators may be contested on the grounds that the lel
as
different fractions
have very unequal control over the conditions of
social reproduction, so that rhe
their
high proportion of endogenous employ-
may express nothing other than rhe capacity of these fractions (or tf least of a proportion of their members) ro transmit their powers iw ers
without mediation or control- Indeed, this capacity is itself one of the rarest privileges, which, by giving greater freedom vis-a-vis ** demic verdicts, reduces the necessity or urgency of making the culture ° investments which cannot be avoided by those who depend entirely
privileges
the education system for their reproduction. tural capiral
do
in fact
tend to invest
The
c fractions richest in
in their children's
education
as in rhe cultural practices likely to maintain and increase their
^
.,
.
sp^ eo
economic capital set aside cultural and industrial carional investments in favour of economic investments j bourgeois^ commercial employers more so, however, rhan the new t private-sector executives, who manifest the same concern for ranon^ rarity;
the fractions richest in
—
vestment both in economic and in educational matters. The
5.S
the professions (especially doctors and lawyers), relatively well
with both forms of capital, but too
little
integrated inro
cm
economy
i^
usetheir capital in it actively, invesr in their children's education b u and especially in cultural practices which symbolize possession of r|,-
and
cultural
means of maintaining
a
bourgeois
^
*
*&
life-style
and *>k: of social connections, honourabjlj^ respectability that is often essential in winning and keeping the c dence of high society, and with it a clientele, and may be drawn o aerial
provide
^
a social capital, a capital
n
example,
in
making
f **
*
a political career.
Given that scholastic success mainly depends on inherited cultural capj ta and on the propensity to invest in the educational system (and that the ret varies with rhe degree to which maintained or improved social posi r depends on such success), it is cleat why the proportion of pupils in a given school or college who come from the culturally richest fractions rite with the position of that school in the specifically academic hierarchy sured, for example, by previous academic success), reaching its peak in the msntution responsible for reproducing rhe professorial corps (the Ecol c Normale Superieure). In fact, like the dominant class which they help to i
|<
,
(^
reproduce, higher-education institutions are organized
two opposing
principles of hierarchy.
educational system,
demic
criteria,
i.e.,
The
accordance with hierarchy dominant within the in
the One which ranks institutions by specifically
aca-
and, cotrelativcly, by rhe proportion of their students drawn
from rhe culturally richest fractions, is diametrically opposed to rhe hierarchy dominant outside the educational system, i.e., the one which ranks institutions by the proportion of their students drawn from the fractions richest in economic capital or in power and by the position in rhe economic or power hierarchy of ihc occupations rhcy lead to If the offspring of the dominated fractions are less represenred in the economically highesr institutions (such as EN A or HEC) than might be expected from their previous academic success and the position of these schools in the specifically scholastic hierarchy, this is, of course, because these schools refuse to apply purely scholastic
most
criteria,
bur
it
is
also because the scholastic hierarchy
faithfully respected (so thar the science section
of the
i*
ENS is p^
ferred to Polytechnic^ e, or ihc Arts faculty to Sciences Po), by those
who
most dependent on the educational system. (Blindness to alternant ranking principles is most nearly Complete in the case of teachers' children whose whole upbringing inclines them to identify all success with academ
are
success)
^^^^
The same chiasric structure is found at the level of the middle c asS~~j where volume of cultural capital again declines, while economic cap' increases, as one moves from primary teachers to small industrial '
commercial employers, with junior executives, technicians and clef workers in an intermediate position, homologous to chat of engt n and executives at the higher level. Artistic craftsmen and art-dealers, 5 earn their living from industrial and commercial profits, and arc clo
^
^
ifr
closer ro the new wfvely kigh cu rura capital, which brings rhem fc co»sic, The medical and social services, drawn ro a relarively
u
rc
-
J*$Ff \i.oW° y
5 *J ^
v
*°
m
i
ttfipes
i
me
or salaries but also, in
some
cases,
noncommercial
profits
professions).
imniediafely be seen that the homology between the space of the and that of the middle classes is explained by the fact that nanr d ass principles. In each case, there is rructure is rhe product of the same position between owners {of rheir own home, of rural or urban
("**
<
1
from rhe dominant class, are in a central position, roughly that of the professions (although slightly more tilted tooljs ro ^le of cultural capital); they are the only ones who receive
tlfC
"i
'
'
0$ pC
from them by
to othet small businessmen, are scr apart
[5
30 rtv.
of stocks and shares), often older, with
little
spare time, often
and non-owners, children of industrial or agricultural employeis, Ay endowed wirh educational capital and spare rime, originating
^i v.
of the middle and upper
from The occupants of homologous positions, primaiy the working class. and commerteachers and professors, for example, or small shopkeepers the wage-earning fractions
m
l.
cial
entrepreneurs, ate mainly separated
ital
that
degree scarce
dominant
is
in the structure
classes or
by the volume of the kiud of cap-
of
their assets,
i
e.,
by differences of
which separate individuals unecjually endowed with the same and, correctively, the dispositions resources- The lower positions
—
some of
of their occupants— derive
that they are objectively related
their characteristics
fact
to the corresponding positions at the
rowards which they tend and 'pce-rend'. This
higher level,
from the
is
clearly seen
of the wage-earning petite bourgeoisie, whose ascetic virtues and cultural good intentions— which it manifests in all sorts of ways, liking evening classes, enrolling in libraries, collecting stamps etc. vety case
in the
—
clearly
express the aspiration to rise to the higher position, rhe objective
destiny
of rhe occupants of the lower position
who
manifest such dispo-
sitions.
reconstruct the social conditions of production of rhe habitus as fully as C 2 ' S0 ^ aS IO cons cr e social trajectory of the class nr class 'baton' u° a ^CrTf ** [on ro whi ch, through ihe probable of rhe col-
m
^
^mtV Wie each
* Vcn tiki
&
rc
slope
'
engenders progressive or regressive dispositions rowards the V r ^ e Evolution, over several generations, of the asset structure of wn ich is perpetuated in the habitus and introduces divisions h n S r0u Ps tnaf af e homogeneous as the fractions. To give an *
3
j,
%>
«
of "k
nn & °f possibilities,
need only be pointed out that an "Rectory represents rhe combination of: the lifelong tv °'utio / fhc " ° vo,umc lrn?c of his capital, which can be described, very approx cL C mCl aSingl ^ cc, easin or stationary; rhe volume of each sort ita ,f|
I'
5
oc
'
a
it
'
"
yk'
l
s
(am
capiu
ki
f
of
tQ rhC Samc ^ junctions), ant* therefore the composition (since constant volume can conceal a change in structure).
same way, the
and, in the
and
father's
and mother's
asset
volume and
stru Ch
weights in the different kinds of capital (eg,,
their respective
**
fat |J
stronger in economic capital and mother in cultural capital, ot vice v^j, ?* equivalence); and therefore the volume and structure of the capiral f sets
of grandparents.
To
account more
ferent fractions
ty
*
l
berween z ^ one would have ro /7
fully for the differences in life-style
— especially
as regards cuJrure
account of rheir distribution
in
ranked geographical
socially
a
—
^^
*J
group's chances of appropriating any given class of rare assets
(^ ^J; suted by rhc mathematical probability of access) depend partly on j^ pacity for the specific appropriation, defined by the economic, cuirui^i and social capital it can deploy in order to appropriate materially or SVm boIicaJly rhe assets in question, rhar
on the relationship between
partly
and the distribution of the can be measured a
its
irs
in social space, ^tu
position
distribution in geographical
mat space. (This relationshm average distances from goods or facilities, or in travel. access to private or public transport)
group's
distance from cerrain assets
real social
geographical distance, which
must
depends on the group's distribution with respect
itself
bution and, more precisely, its point* of economic and cultural values, centres {in
o^
scarce assets in
— which involves
ling time
words,
in
is,
some careers—e.g.,
i.e.,
Paris or rhe
I
n
q^
integrate the spatial
to the
major
distril
focaJ
regional
banking system—employment or promotion enrails a period of exile). Thus, the distance of farm workers from legirimare culture would not be so vast if the specifically culrural distance implied by their low cultural capiral were not comin the postal
'
pounded by
their spatial dispeision. Similarly,
many of
the differences
observed in rhc (cultural and other) practices of the different fractions of
dominant
no doubt attributable to the size of the rown they live in. Consequently, the opposition between engineers and privatesector executives on the one hand, and industrial and commercial employers on rhe orher, partly stems from the facr that rhe former mostly live in Paris and work for relatively large firms (only 7 percenr of p n vate-sector executives work in firms employing from 1 ro 5 people- 8 the
class are
'
against 34 percent in medium-sized firms and 40 percenr in firms
c^ *
ploying more than 50 people), whereas the latter mainly run small fif* (in the 1966 survey by SOFRES [Societe franchise d'enqufres P ar **^ dages] ees;
—C.S„ V—6 percent of rhe industrialists had
70 percent, 6
to 49, 24 percent,
more than
from
50; in
1
to 5
emptof
commerce ™\
corresponding iigures are 30 percent, 42 percent and 12 percent) *? mostly live in rhe provinces and even in the country (according CO 1968 census, 22.3 percent of the industrialists and 5.5 percent ° commercial employers lived in a rural commune, 14.1 percent ana |
percent
in
communes of less
rhan 10,000 inhabitants).
The model which emerges would
not be so
difficult
to arrive a
i
a
,
r i'
lC
ot
fl
uppo&e a break with the common-sense pictuie of the social mmed up in the metaphor of the 'social ladder' and suggested everyday language oPmobiliry', with its 'rises' and 'falls'; and a
'
*° r'^hc *
bf
radicai
n°
mertly
r f, °
is
f
^
**
"fie
sC
*
tacitly
[^search
on
mobility' does, subjects
'social
('upper middle class\ 'lower middle
strata
when
ii
acccpring the one dimensional image of social space,
elaboration, reducing the social universe to a
Cf!
Str3C
break with rhe whole sociological tradition which,
it
10
a
pseudo*
continuum of ab2
class*
etc.)? obtained by
forms of capital, thanks to the construction of in gating different 23 (which are, par excellence, the destroyers of structures).
5?
action
onto
a s ' n g' c ax,s
>
'
n order to construct the continuous,
homogeneous, one-dimensional
series
lin-
with which the social hierar-
normally identified, implies an extremely difficult (and, if it is dangerous) operation, whereby the different types witting, extremely to a single standard. This abstract operation has an //capital are reduced
vj
C
l
s
hjccrive basis in the possibility,
which
is
always available, of converting
into another; however, the exchange rates vaty in acone type of capital cordance * ifh the power relation between the holders of the different f
By obliging one to formulate the principle of the convertibility of the different kinds of capital, which is the precondition for reducing the space to one dimension, the construction of a two-dimensional space makes it clear that the exchange rate of the different kinds of capital is one of the fundamental stakes in the struggles between class fractions whose power and privileges are linked ro one or the other of these types. In particular, this exchange rate is a stake in the struggle o vcr the dominant principle of domination (economic capital, cultural capital or social capital), which goes on at ail times between the different fractions of rhe dominant class. forms of capital
Reconversion Strategies Kfproduction strategies, the set of outwardly very different practices rct>v
individuals or families rend, unconsciously and consciously, to maintain or increase rheir assets and consequently to maintain or improve their position in rhe class srructure, constitute a system which, 6 the product of a single unifying, generative principle, tends to
on an ° change in
a systematic way. Through the mediation of the towards the furure, which is itself determined by the group's lVC c b ance s of reproduction, rhese strategies depend, first, on the
^
position v
]
on <.
c an< *
*
Us(Q
f*tids in
,
eit
re|>
ro
J
composition of the capiral to be reproduced; and, secondly, srarc of the insrruments of reproduction (inheritance law and la ^ 0ur market, the educational system etc), which itself del n ™c state of the power relations between the classes. Any change t c instruments of reproduction or the state of the capital to be 'J therefore leads to a esttucturing of the system of reproduc-
*
»««One of
rhe difficulties of sociologi-
cal discourse lies in chc fact that,
like all language,
it
first
(here, figure *
rions, as organized
whetcas, to
escape ovetsimplincarion and onc-
one ought to be able to recall at evety point the whole netwotlc of relationships found there. That is why it has seemed useful to present a diagram which has the property, as Saussure says, of being able to 'present simultaneous comsidedness,
plications in several dimensions', as a
The
presents the space
unfolds in
strictly lineat fashion,
sheets).
means of gtasping the correspon-
of social Con J by the
synchronic and diachtonic
distr'L
volume and compos" of the various kinds of capital- .J^ tion of the
position of each group (class fra tion) in this space is determined
L
the set of properties characterise the respects thus defined as j.
•
l
"
pe rr
The second
nenr.
rhe space of
life-styles, i.e.,
the
bution of the practices and
S
pr^
(figure 6)
proper-
which constitute the life-style which each of these conditions man. ifests itself. Finally, between rhe two previous diagrams one ought to inties
i
dence between the structure of sowhose two fundamental cial space
—
dimensions correspond to the volume and composition of the capital of rhe groups distributed within
—
and the structure of the space of it the symbolic ptopetties attached to those gtoups. But this diagram does not aim to be rhe crystal ball in which the alchemists claimed to see at a glance everything happening in the world; and like mathematicians
who
also treat
whar they
ety' as a necessaiy evil,
I
call
'imag-
am
sett a rhitd, presenting the theoretical
space of habitus, that
generative formulae
is,
(e.g., for teach-
ers, atistoctatic asceticism)
underllie tices
each of the
of the
which
classes of prac-
and ptoperties, thar
is,
the
transformation into a distinct and distinctive life-style of the necessities
and
facilities chatacterisric
dition
and
a position.
The
of
a con-
figures
presented hete are not plane
dia-
tempred to withdraw ir in rhe vety act of ptesenting it. Fot f ere is reason to fear that it will cucoutagc readings which will reduce the homologies between systems of diff'etences to direct, mechanical relationships between gioups and properties, or that ir will encoutage the form of voyeurism which is in-
grams of correspondence analyses, al* though various such analyses were drawn on in ordet to construct them, and although a number of
herent in the objectivist intention,
construct, the
putting the sociologist in the tole
due to the lacunae in the statisticswhich arc much better at measuring consumption or, at best, income
of the lame devil
who
takes off the
roofs and reveals the sectcts of do-
mestic
To
life to his
fascinated readers.
have as exact an idea
ble of the theotetical
proposed,
it
model
these ate organized in accordance with a similar structure (including rhe analyses of the survey data
which are presented below).
Among
the limitations of such
most important
»
4**
(setting aside secondary and hj", 1* profits) and property than cap*
._
1
as possi-
thar
is
has to be imagined that
three diagrams are superimposed (as
could be done with transpatent
the stricr sense (especially capita' a vesred in the economy): others a° to the inadequacies of the lytical categories. These are very
due
l
clonal level (inherited cultural capih<
r
criteria and, in
rt^" r],c Urtinenr ,
rfrds
^
ro ,dcncif y rhe can exen
rxartiP'c. pical that
tor
ble.
faca
,dff*
ho
and com-
industrial
f,j ie
big business. indicators of of rigorous 'he differences. i.e.,
vcr capital,
C
P°*' L.°lr
f^ian ^
and cultural he economic
ti]
^onofthemosthetetogene-
and the subject's educational level (scholastic capital) (CS. II); ftom the 1970 suivey on incomes, I have taken informarion on total incomes, rutal and urban property, shares, industrial and commercial profits, wages and salaties (eeo* nomic capital) (CS. I); ftom the 1972 survey on household consump tal)
Hon, data on the total amount spent, possession of a washing-
employers, craftscommercial com been „ and shopk«pers~has writing the correspondCleared by j d
'
p^es
[S»c
vertically
between the
M«remembered
ex-
defining the group.) It that the posi-
has (O be
marked by the names always point in a repiescnts the cenrral tion
extent which
spice of variable
some
in
may
be organized as a
cases
field
of competition.
of a survey (per hips impossible to cany our in praetice) rhat would ptovide, with respite to the same representative In
the absence
sample,
ail
machine and telephone, forms of tenancy of mam and second residence (CS. Ill); and ftom the 1968 census, data on rhe size of the town of residence. For each of rhe groups represented, I havc also indicated, firstly, the distribution of the occupants of each group according to the social ttajectoty which has brought them there, wirh histograms showing the pro rtion of each group having come ftom each of the different classes. For rhe sake of legibility, rhese histograms ate reproduced
only for
the indicators of eco-
a
few
illustrative caregories.
show
nomic, cultural and social wealth
They
md
portion of individuals from the
its
evolution which are needed
m
suffice to
that the pro-
order ro consriuct an adequate ^presentation of social space, a sim-
dominant
model of that space has been cotmrucrcd, based on information
the working classes (white) de
pfificd
acquired
2nd
on
rhrough
of data taken from wisurveys, all done by INSEE and
lous
hom °SCn ^^ m
A bS?/ scc Iw
ry
construction
h ave
J?
such as
0(
fda " n
j
^
(Cs iv% f frt,m ario
V
^enw havc L fa fher'
Cja '
s
tr fll
*«
nin n
0Ccu
'
*
one moves up the
(The histogram
'semi-skilled* workers,
social
for the
not repro-
fraction of origin.
1970 stixvey
l
on
(tablcs rclatin £
rakcn data on the
P ari °n2l
hierarchy.
e proportion from
mcn >
eate-
ndlc3tors spate time n th of rhc working week '
I
«
t0
clines, as
r
lcisurc ac
least as
of the
l%1 on
Strongly, while
duced here, is intermediate berween those of rhe unskilled and skilled workcis.) For the upper and middle classes ar leasr, one really needs ro be able to give the distribution by
3)^
app^x
«££ TZf*
voc
earlier research,
a set
class (black) discs
category (so-
Secondly, tory of the is
I
group
shown by
down
have indicated rhe
his-
as a whole. This
the arrows, pointing
which indicate thar between 1962 and 1968 the group in qucsrion expanded (by up,
or horizontally,
at least 25 percent),
contracted or
/ 1
*
o 1 "5
1
remained stable They rhus make visible the opposition between the
new, strongly growing fractions and stablished, stable or declining
t'ie
have rhus endeavoured to show both the stare of the power relation between the classes which frac lions. I
constitutes the snucture of the social
space ar a given
moment and
something which ously an effect of and also
is
simultanc
a factor in the
transformation of that structure,
namely the reconversion strategies whereby individuals (and groups) strive to maintain or improve rhcir position in social space.
The synoptic schema, by bringing
positions mosr remote from
one or both of the fUn j mental dimensions of social s ac p (i.e., with respect co volume and composition of capital): Goya 1,0 other
in
Renoir, avant-garde thearre and levard theatre, Jacques Brel arid
Tino
Rossi, France-
Luxembo u .
cinema clubs and variety shows z^A so forth, In addition to the informarion
gathered directly by the survey,
{
have used a number of indices of cultural consumption, such as poj. session of a piano Of records, TVviewing,
museums, cxhibishows and the cinema
visits
tions, variety
which the usual dassificatory systems separate so much so rhac they make mere juxtaposition appear unthinkable or scandalous and so making manifest the relarionships among all the properries and practices characteristic of a group, which are perceived intuitively and which
membership
—
K-.
M us ique and
France-Inter or Radio
together information from areas
—
^t
to
a library, evening
in
classes, collections, sports, aJl taken
from the 1967 INSEE survey on leisure activities (CS. IV); information on the consumption and life-styles of members of the dominant class
(hi-fi
equipment,
sailing,
cruises, bridge, picture collections,
of each of these systems of 'choices', on the one hand in the social conditions and conditionings characteristic of a given position in objective social space, which are expressed in
champagne, whisky, sports etc.) from surveys by the SOFRES and CESP (CS. V and VI); information on theatre-going from a survey by SEMA (Sociere d'economie et dc marhematiques appliquees) (CS. XIV); on favourite actors, from the
rhose choices bur in a misiecognij-
surveys by
guide the classifications of everyday life, forces one to look for the basis
able form; and
on the other hand,
in their relationship to the other
systems of 'choices', by reference to which (heir specifically symbolic
meaning and value cause
are defined. Be-
Jife-styJes are essentially dis-
tinctive, a
number of features do
not take on their until they are
full
significance
brought into relation
not only wirh the social positions ihey express but also with features
IFOP
(Irisricui francos
de Topinion publique) (CS. XIV); on the reading of daily and weekly newspapers and magazines, from ihc surveys by the
CSE
(Centre de
so iologie curopeenne) and
CESP
(CS. XXVIII); and on various cultural activities (ceramics,
from the sur vey by rhc Ministry of Culture pottery, funfairs etc)
(CS. VII). In the resulting figure, each
p^
1
an opposite pole of this space. This is the case, for example,
nenr ircm appears only once *no p therefore valid for a whole zone (
wirh the oppositions which are
varying extent depending on the
appearing
at
tablished primordially
es-
between the
'*
case) of social space, although
i
r
10
^ry
V
^ages/salaries',
U'^oPPO*^ 1
^/ the ]C °
corf" *' b
°
left
ce 'e
ana s^°
the
fig-
^
s'
.
'^^i
d of che
the univcrsiry
and also the pncDg n eers j
—
workers ln5 clerical che item workers. Similarly,
share
"ght-»P-
is
^IS and shares'-top the professions, W employers, lm cxccurivcs »* P vate-«< ror **T P
^)
it
rhe case, for example, with the library,
which appears
in
of the junior execurives, primary teachers and technicians, though it is at least as frequent among secondary and univcrsiry teachers; bur the latter are less marked by the practice since it is rhe area
can be seen immediarcly
the Ufi dd*d the Qwertojor of members
mosr typical
rhar walking of the professions; mountaineering are particularly
them with other groups. This
use of a
^pas^ionofapianoandrhc
/Ware
petite bourgeoisie and the
neers, belongs to the life-style of both these sets of occupations. Thus, grouped around the name of each class fraction are those features of its life-style which arc rhe most pcrrinent because rhey are the most distinctive though it may in fart
''^Uner^^r executives, and (WV
new
private-sector executives or rhe engi-
io "industrial and
hand
of secondary teachers
and public-sector executives* or rhat swimming, placed half way between
marked
side of fhe left-hand
itC
characreristic
characterizes the care-
a [y
and
al-
part of their occupational role.
The reconversion of capital held in one form to anorher, accessible, more profitable or more legitimate form tends to induce
rion strategics.
more a
transformarion of asset structure.
These reconversions correspond to has
nothing
in
so-called 'social
common
«es 'upward mobility
in
in a social space
with the unreal and yet naively
The same
mobiiiry' srudies. 1
movements
realisric
which
space of
which
posirivisric naivcry
rhe morphological transformations of different
or fractions is also unaware that the reproducrion of rhe social "rycturc may, in certain conditions, demand very little 'occupational heclasses
^'ty This social
rrue
whenever agents can only maintain
structure by
means of
a shift into a
from small landowner ro junior
r
m
is
new
civil servant,
their position in
condition
(e.g.,
the
or from small crafts-
t° office
worker or commercial employee). he social space, beine structured in two dimensions (overall capital
JJJ
^umc ^
a na rr i
,j dominant/dominated .
.
.
ix
capital),
11
r
'
allows two types of move*
ich traditional mobility studies confuse, although they are in no way j* Va erK am* are unequally probable: vertical movements, upwards or^g war ^ s ? » in rhe same vcrrical sector, that is, in the same field (e.g., '
I
fifcQj
nejs
^teacher to
m
an<*
'•
li'ay
r
^all
.
from small businessman ro big busi* transverse movements, from one field to anorher, which professor, or
either horizontally (a schoolteacher, or his son,
becomes
a
P^ecper) or between different levels (a shopkeeper, or his son,
becomes an
industrialist). Vertical
movements, the most frequent
only require an increase in the volume of the type of capital already
nam
the distribution
wirhin a field
and therefore a movement in the stry Ct capital which rakes the form of a mov
in the asset srructure.
of
total
(business
field
ere). Transverse
field,
academic
movements
field,
administrative
entail a shift into
field,
another
a^ ^ J^
rrJj^ ,c
field ari?
^
^
reconversion of one type of capital into another or of one sub-tyh. another sub-type (e.g., from landowning to industrial capita] or
11
from?
''
erature to economics) and therefore a transformation of asset stru which prorects overall capital volume and maintains position i n
Ul*
tne
tical
The
ft
dimension.
probability of entering a given fraction of the
other class
as
is,
we have
dominant
seen, in inverse ratio to the position
class fro
of
that
m% f^
of economic capital. (The only exception is the 'liberal professions', which tend to transmir both economic and cultural capital and have the highest rate of endogenous recruirment.) Similarly, tion in rhe hierarchy
major sideways movements wirhin the
sons becoming seeondaiy or higher -education teachers, or vice versa) are exrremely rare class (industrialists'
Thus, in 1970, the probability of becoming an industrial or commercial employer was 1.9 percent for a professor's son, and the probability of becoming a teacher was 08 percenr for an industrialist's son and 1.5 percent for i commercial enrrepreneur*s son. The probability of becoming a craftsman w shopkeeper was 1.2 percent for a primary teacher's son, and the probability
of becoming percent for a
primary teacher was 2.4 percent for a craftsman's son and small shopkeeper's son (C.S. II, secondary analysis).
a
1,4
class mobility and MOBtLE classes The recent changes in the rda wi'* t tons hip between the different classes and the educational system the 'schooling boom' and rhe accompanying changes in the system self- -and also the changes in the social struct ute resulting from the ne» relationship between qualifications and jobs, are the consequences of in tensified competition for academic qualifications. One important ftf ° in intensifying rhis competition has doubtless been the fact mat
—
1
it-
"
r
r
w&
fractions of the
nomic
capital
dominant
(i.e.,
class
and middle
class
who
ate richest
to
**
and and commercial employers, craftsmen PJ make greatly increased use of the education*
industrial
1
tradesmen) have had
to
system in order to ensure their social reproduction.
between the scholastic capital of the adults of a class or & or fraction (measured by rhe proportion who have a qualification equal perior to the BEPC) and the schooling race of the corresponding adolescents is much more pronounced among craftsmen, shopkeepers and *!**% industrialists than among office workeis and junior execurives. This in the usual correspondence between rhe children's eduearional P arl f '[rL^ u ,5r rates and rhe parents* cultural capital indicates a profound change in
The
disparity
,
'
* S r( s
scholastic investment
Many
fewer small craftsmen and
j
t0
rio" 5
wotkets have at least the BEPC (in rcof ** against 10.1 percent), but their 18 year old sons are school (42.1 percent and 43,3 percent in 1962). Simito be in
i£cd 45-54 than
hop^^ 5
!#£•
"rifely
rt^'^'J'srrialisf*
an(*
commcrc a '
'
enttepreneurs have
less
educational capi-
^nicians and junior executives (20 percent and 28,9 percent
'
lariy
office
th3n at least rhe BEPC), but their sons are equally likely to fj] v I|y have 1 *, [esp^ ?g. 3 percent and 64.2 percent), The same process has begun scbfi°
id
workers, as
is
shown
—
l** ! I raW between \%2 and ^f^Ung __ 1
be
by the rapid rise in their children's J4
i975.
^ract ' ons wn0 previously made little use of the school sys\y/hen c ' aSS the ra cc for academic qualifications, rhe effect is to force the
ter
rtftl
whose reproduction was mainly or exclusively achieved through up their investments so as to maintain the relative scareducation to step ty;
city
f their
qualifications and, consequently, their position in the class
Academic qualifications and the school system which awards rhem thus become one of the key stakes in an interdass competition which generates a general and continuous growth in the demand for education and an inflation of academic quali ft cartons. structure.
To
the effects
of the competition between groups struggling for 'upclassing*
'down classing* (deciassemmt), a competition that is organized around the academic qualification {litre) and more generally around alt the 'entitlements' by which groups assert and constitute their own scarcity value vis-a-vis othet groups, musr be added the effect of what might be and against
termed
a
urutturat factor. Generally increased schooling has rhe effect of
in-
mass of cultural capital which, at every moment, exists in an Vtnbodied* state. Since rhe success of the school's educarive action and the durability of *« effects depend on how much cultural capital has been "trecfly transmtrred by the family, it can be presumed thai rhe efficiency of fcnool based educative acrion tends to rise constantly, other things being 5norr r ^ c samc scholastic investment becomes more profitable, a fac k" vo doubt contributes to inflation by bringing diplomas within u* creasing the
'
r
f
J^[Vgrea ter^ num ber
of people.
rin
S In mind that the volume of corresponding jobs may also have °VCr C Samc ^ to ha Pcn0 ^' onc may assume that a qualification is likely un ° Cr S°ne devaluation if the number of diploma-holders has gtiwr/
^n
>
rn
5^^
te
Su ones rn
°^ v
PorKlin S°
me
JQbs_ "** a
*
^
all
1
. '
number of
tbat the hactalameal
^P
suitable positions. Everything
and
k v such devaluation.
CValuart °n resulting
from the
To
10u>er qualifications ate the
this
must be added the
facr that if the
less
number of corre-
^ 0CS P acc tnc P os r ons themselves are likely to lose ^ C2TCH y valuc Tn,s is whar has happened, for example, to ] evels of the teaching profession. rapid growth in girls' and women's education has been a sig-
of l°
Th c
^Se3r Ccr
j
iou
s
rapidly than the
'
'
'
academic qualifications. Becau*. image of the division oflabour between the sexes has also changed w, women now bring academic qualifications onto the labour market nificant factor in the devaluing of
*
wk^ M
previously were partly held in reserve (and were 'invested' only ij. J* marriaoe rhe higher hieher rhe marriage marker^: market); and the the dinloma. diploma, the mote mart^ marked ^
growth has been
(see table 10). Just as all segregation (by sex
orher criterion) tends to slow
down
devaluation by
^
0f
numerus cL effect, so all desegregation tends to restore full strength to the devakmechanisms; and, as an American study of the effects of racial dcseijre tion has
shown, the
least qualified are
the ones
who
its
feel
the effects
m
directly.
no paradox
to suggest that the chief victims of I}*, devaluing of academic qualifications are those who enter the lak^
Indeed,
it
presents
market without such qualifications. The devaluation of diplomas U ^ companied by the gradual extension of the monopoly held by academic qualification-holders over positions previously open to the academical^ unqualified, which has the effect of limiting the devaluation of qualifies, tions by limiting the competition, but only at the cost of restricting
and of reinforcing
career openings available to the unqualified
demic predetermination of occupational opportunity. In particularly the civil service, this leads to a decline
the holders of the same dispersal
words, a
qualifications
among
borh
in
the
certain
the aca-
areas,
the dispersal
different jobs
and
of
in the
of the qualifications of holders of equivalent jobs, or, in other reinforced correlation between academic qualification and job
occupied.
The market
open to formally qualified candidates has grown constantly, inevitably at the expense of the formally unqualified- Universal recognition of academic qualifications no doubt has the effect of unifying the official set of qualifications for social positions and of clitwin jobs
nating local anomalies due to the existence of social spaces with
own
rank-ordering principles. However, academic qualifications
then nevtf
achieve total, exclusive acceptance. Ourside the specifically schola^
market, a diploma
is
worrh what
irs
holder
is
worth, economically
4^
of return on educational capital is a function of the economic and social capital that can be devoted to exploiting if The change in the distribution of posts among qualification-hold^
socially; the race
Table 10
Rate
of"
employment of women aged 25-34. by education,
Yeu
CEP
CAP
BEPC
&ac
1962
4>.S
59.7
59 8
67.1
1968
46,5
60 6
65.5
74,3
l962ano^>
67? "
Source: i?68 census. a.
It
was nor possible
to isolate
women
without qualifications.
7j
|
rtieans that at every
^h'^ »#i
jfifid
s rarting }
.
moment
a
number of
formally quali-
propotrion of the qualifica-
no doubt, with those who are
least well
—
endowed
means of exploiting their qualifications are victims strategies by which those who are most subject to luatioa The V3
[10**? *' f k
inherited
their
f
by
ib c Y
fight against
endeavour to
ion
S
auromatically from the increased
(S
own
in
it,
the short
term (in the
careers) or in the long term (through the strategies
one of the decithe volume of qualifications awarded, which
for their children's schooling), constitute
growth in £ rt n the -
-onttibufcs to devaluation. The dialectic of devaluation and thus tends to feed on itself.
'
if
Jt$C
com-
sanon
fhe
svensioN strategies and morphological transformations strategies which individuals and families employ with a view ro safeimproving
uarding or
their position
in
social
space are reflccred in
which modify both the volume of rhe difTeiem and the structure of their assets.
class
fransformafions fractions
Table
1 1
has been constructed so as ro give at least an approximate idea of
Since
transformations
these
if
was not possible (though
it
would have
narrowly defined categories the changes
been desirable) to establish in
in
income and income structure for rhe period 1954-1975 (insread, table indicates these changes, in broad categories, for the period 1954-1968), 1
total 12
of income and the total income the source used by 1NSEE. 1 1 is known, however, that the degree of underestimation vanes greatly. According to A Villencuve," wages and salaries should be multiplied by 11, farmers' profits by 3.6, invcsimenr income by 2,9 and so forth Once these corrections arc applied, the members of rhe professions, and especially the farmers, have indicated the distribution by source
declared to rhe tax authorities,
craftsmen and small shopkeepers, return to their real places he categories (relatively) richest in economic capiral (as represented by '^tors such as stocks and shares, rural or urban propcrry etc) tend to £ ' s ^ arp,y ** ls shown by rhe decline in their volume (in the case 1
on^f"mCr
"
craftsmcn shopkeepers and industrialists) and by the fall or Sma" inCrcasc ,n rn e proportion of young people. (The feet that r CKcurfC in the 'small shopkeeper' and 'craftsman' categories is d J?? *'
>
Klati!
i
h^
%;
txp]^.
n
^C com n 8 °^ a
ncw
of shopkeeper and craftsman.) Parr tal increase in the educational (and, no doubt, economic) capjf S° ca tc 8°r cs ^ probably due to the fact that the reduction in their lumb^^^T fl y concerns their lower strara. By ct )n ^raclions » cncS( n cultural capital (measured by tl0j)a " cducaI QuaU Cai,0nS ^ haVC £ rcat * y Cx P an dcd. They hav e acquired more ^"S pcoDl' 3 highcr r °portion of 110,1,1 women, and a higher rate of educa P of l he
'
at)
st y' c
rCnt
t
'
^
1
S^altf'
*^n thT*
a**d
k
Cc»che
^crlinltV cd
,Qn TtlC care orics S \i
^osr typical of this process are office Wor,cers ' technicians, junior and senior executives, pri-
process seems to have stopped, since the rate of increase is lower ungesr generacion than for the group as a whole. Another remark
„
p
'
C f^
f
the relative stability of the 'libera! professions', «>hose deliberdatum has pievenred numerical growth and of tut*1*?** helped to mainrain scarcity value ioU and reproduction strategies which underlie these morphological re is
tJc i
P°
3 [C
nl
^ rf, '
cw
**ft*L
parrly in the increased afC seen
chaniP^ ona |iy cj
of
£tie
a3SC S '
importance of
salaries in the
income
'self-employed* categories and parrty in the diversified
j investments of the senior executives, who tend to hold their capiborh ec onom c ^ n ^ cultural form, unlike the employers, who mainly i
Salaries and pensions, as a proportion of employers' econ om ^ capital l2 9 percent in 1956 to 16.4 percent in 1965; in 1975, « rise from
\A
h
-
inC<
w
new
classifications, they
make up
income of crafts8 percent of the income of industrialism 19-2 percent of the
men and small shopkeepers and 31 commercial entrepreneurs* (By contrast, among farmers* the proportion 3 n<£ same 23.8 percent in 1956, 23 5 percent in 1965 and mains "Hich the 5*0 percent in 1975) In 1975, the proportion of income derived from inbuildings, stocks and shares is much higher among privestment in tend, an public-sector senior executives (59 percent and 2.7 percent sector r h vate
respect ively)
The reconversion of economic capital into educational capital is one of the strategies which enable the business bourgeoisie to maintain the position of some or all of its heirs, by enabling them to extract some of the profirs of industrial and commercial firms in rhe form of salaries, which aft a more discreet and no doubt more reliable mode" of appropriation ihan 'unearned' investment income. Thus, between 1954 and 1975 the proportion of industrial and commercial entrepreneurs fell sharply, whereas there was a very strong rise in the proportion of salary-earners, who owed their position to their academic qualifications executives, engineers, teachers and intellect uals (although, at least in che case of private-sector executives, a significant proportion of total income may be
—
—
—
derived
m any
from shares, as table 13 indicates). Similarly, the disappearance of small commercial or craft firms conceals the reconversion work
which individual agents perform, with varying degrees of success, in accordance with the demands of their particular situation, and which re %a
ts
m
transformarion of the relative weight of the different fractions ^e middle classes (see table 14). Here, too, the decrease in the proP°»ion of small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and farmers has been aceompa by an increase in the proportion of primaty-school teachers, a
nictans,
p ro
con
tw gr
and the personnel of the medical and
u ""ermore,
^^
social services.
the relative morphological stability of an occupational
concca * a transformation of its structure resulting from the t0n fl s * tu of agents present in the group at the beginning of the J* (or their children) or their replacement by agents from orher P$ For example, rhe relatively small decline in rhe overall volume of *
'shopkeepers', consisting very largely (93 percent) of the ory individual firms which have been able to withstand the f email ° v because of increased household consumption, conceals a
ci
the
^ftf 15
j
a
|0
-
P
^h *
^Lnd
& (
.
dcc ot*
r^d
Wjj!
retailing,
Wl '
i
rv
fncs
in rhe retail-
the figures tend to conceal changes that have led to
an ^ rura ' bakeries
stores
diet foods, 'natural'
,
growth
redefinition of the occupation; the closing-down
ressivc 4
?
a
yco™ 00 ^' domestic equipment (including furniture, interior so on) and especially sports, leisure and cultural goods g jfid and pharmaceuticals It may be assumed that, even rcc0 fds etc )
**"
°
almost been balanced by
has hinj? stores
1
ifl£
the $«ucuire of this occupation. The stagnation or decline of stores, particularly hard hit by supermarket competition, an
may
of small
coexist with the opening of shops
regional products and health foods, or ofbak-
specialijirig in old-style bread.
—
which arc related to in the nature of retail firms These changes the same period, in the structure of household consumphinges, over rhemselves telaced to the growth in incomes and above
M tfi
cultural capital resulting
increase in
—
from the upward
shift
suggests
Everything
that
the 'craftsman*
category
1
changes veiy similar to the 'shopkeeper category,
co the
of the struo
of educational opportunity are dialecricaily linked to a cultuial capital of their owners or managers. lure
all
rise in
the
has undergone
with the decline of the
mos: exposed strata of traditional craftsmanship being offset by the
boom
luxwy and aesrhcric' crafts, which require economic assets bur also cultural capital This would explain why the fell in the volume of these in
middle-class categories is
accompanied by
a
rise in
cultural capital as
measured by educarional level-
Craftsmen and tradesmen specializing in luxury, cultural or artistic Kerns,
managers of fashion 'bouriqucs*.
clothes, traders in
rerailers
of 'famous maker*
exotic garments and jewels or rustic objects, record
^j fnosc vendors of cultural goods and services seeking to ong t h c f U5 j on Q ( i c j surc aruj work, militancy and dilettantism, that characterize* 2 Zt \_ ustudent lire-style, use their ambiguous occupations, in *Ki h sUCCess depends at least as much on rhe subtly casual distinction of the
F
*
,
CSmai1
on the nature and quality of his wares, as a way of obreturn on a cultural capital in which technical compe* CtI Ke ss imporrani rnan familiarity with the culture of the dominant dais ^ mascci y °f the signs and emblems of distinction and taste. Because rh ,S nrcv r er yP c of culture-intensive craftsmanship and commerce "abl cs f t0 c ^ rawn ^ rom tnc cultural henitage transmirted di"^tly by rainin
38
i
,
ikT
^d t!0r
d,
/* "mily, (CrS
U] sy^ tc
jr is
predisposed ro serve as a refuge for those sons
°* thc dominant
class
who
are eliminated
by the educa-
'
time
Among
TO understand
rhc effects of the inflarion of q Ua j. tions and their associated devaluation, undoubtedly the most irmv\
whereby the holders of devalued qualify,
are the set of strategies
*ty
have sought to maintain their inherited positions or to obtain fr0rn J^l qualifications the real equivalent of what they guaranteed in an -.^
^ between diplomas and jobs. It is clear chat what an academic qualification guarantees is much than, and different from, the right to occupy a position and th^ can-^ lt 1 to perform the corresponding job. In this respect the diploma {//, la/rt) is more like a parent of nobility {titre de noblesse) than rhe tj t property {titre de propriete) which strictly technical definirions make of So one can well undersrand that the victims of devaluation are dj,' clined to perceive and acknowledge the devaluing of qualifications v which rhey are closely identified, both objectively (rhey constitute important part of these people's social identiry) and subjectively. But stare of the relationship
t
1
'
tk
which encourages attachment [0 ,^ nominal value of qualificarions and jobs, would nor be sufficient to maintain a misperception of this devaluation, if there were not aJso sou* complicity from objective mechanisms. The mo r importanr of these ait concern ro preserve
self esteem,
the hysteresis of habitus, which causes previously appropriate «fr gories of perception and appreciation to be applied to a new state of (he first,
qualification marker; and, second, the existence
of
relatively autonomous
markets in which the value of qualifications declines
The
hysteresis effect is
at a
proper rionarcly grearer for agents
slower
who are
rate
morc
remote from the educational system and who are poorly or only vaguely informed about the market in educational qualificarions. One of the
most valuable is
sorts of information constituting inherited cultural
capital
knowledge of rhe fluctuations of the market in the sense of investment which enables one to get
practical or theoretical
academic qualifications, the best return on inherited culrural capital
on
in rhe scholastic market
scholastic capital in the labour market, for example, by
knowing B*
to pull our of devalued disciplines and careers * n ° switch into chose with a fururc, rarher than clinging to the scholar*
right
moment
values which secured the highest profits in an earlier state of the tnitT^ By contrast, rhe hysteresis effect means that the holders of devalued si
plomas become, in a sense, accomplices in their own mystification, by a typical effect of allockxia ('misapprehension'), rhey besto^ * *_^ on their devalued diplomas which is not objectively acknowledged. explains how those least informed about the diploma market, * "^ [( long been able to recognize a decline in real wages behind the °V^ nance of nominal wages, can nonetheless continue ro accept an u^' r paper certificates which rhey receive in payment for their years o*** .^ de ing (despite the fact chat chey arc che first victims of diploma .
of their lack of social capital). This actachmcnc co an anachronistic idea of the
tion, because
Antt^
vjiluc
of quali"
— which diplomas can escape devaluation The value objectively and sub-
playS a part d 0U
at Jcast)
j
3l
f "nbced
(«pP
y
\cc&
f
'
n the existence of markets
on an academic
in fact defined oniy
by che
1
oncs 'class* or 'year ) and colleagues, can play an important L: np (he effects of devaluation. These phenomena of individcollective mtsrecognition are in no way illusory, since they can especially the individual and collective strategies eal pracric.es, ,
j,ude rO'
is
rnc social uses that can be made of ir. Thus the evaluation of the closest peer groups, such as relatives, neighbours, fellow
^'^as by
jiplo^
qualification
in
*
c ,
° nCil
establishing or re establishing the objective icaJicy of the value strategies can make a real conqualift carion or position; and these
\
^Mt
toward actual tevaluation. ^butiori tri transactions in which the . t he i
fl
market value of academic qualifiesthe strength of the vendors of labour power depends s denned, on the value of their diplomas, espeaside their social capital
—
°tine
and jobs is strictly is the case with established positions, as opposed to new codified (as that the devaluation of academic diplomas is of direct ones) So it is clear advantage to the suppliers of jobs, and that, while the intere ts of qualificaiion-holdeis are bound up with the nominal value of qualifications, Le., -ijv
when the relationship between
qualifications
with what they guaranteed by right in the earlier situation, the interests of job suppliers are
bound up with
oiher words, the value that
compeiltion
the
among
is
the real value of qualifications, in
determined
at
the
the candidates. (This
moment
is
a
in question in
srxucrural de-skilling
which aggravates the effects of the deskilling strategies that firms have been using for a long time.) The gicatest losers in this struggle are those whose diplomas have least relative value in the hierarchy of diplomas and are most devalued. In some case the qualificationholder fads he has no other way to defend the value of his qualification t™11 to refuse to sell his labour power at the price offered; the decision co 26 wroain unemployed is then equivalent to a one-man strike. [Qualification}
Tift
the
HtAT,NG OF A generation
^ispAnry
feefe
M
depcrid' N{ tw
acc^
" ierS f '
3
° sccon(^ ar y education are led, by the mere fact of having ° Cx P ect ir to ,vc r hem what it gave others at a time when
^'
^rrfed* t0 r
^c v ?r 4
r
^
•
£
still
excluded from
^ CSC as rat on s were P^ ^
it.
In
an
earlier period
and for
perfectly realistic, since they corre-
Elective probabilities, but they are often quickly deflated by X ^ C scno asr c markct or the labour marker One of the
^^KeTV* * hc °* what n
inflation'
C
^ty tht ntse !v cs were oih
^
of 'diploma
between the aspirations that the educational system pro^ C °PP orrunitics it really offers is a structural reality which afmembers of a school generation, bur to a varying extent 8 on the rarity of their qualifications and on rheir social origins, lC
tr
In a period
worki n
g
^
is called
classes,
'
the 'democratization of schooling'
who
had previously ignored or
is
that only
at best
vaguely
concurred in the Third Republic ideology of 'schooling
as a libera
entered secondary education, did tl ^j discover I'e'cok conservatnee, schooling as a conseivarive force, by w*J relegated to second-class courses or eliminated. The collective disj|] g force' (I'ecoie ijberatrice), actually
u
menr which
.
^
from the structural mismatch between aspirand real probabilities, between the social identiry the school syste^ -J** 1 to promise, or the one it offers on a temporary basis, and the social city that the labour market in fact offers is the source of the disaiTfv towards work, that refusal of social ftiitztdtt which generates all the rrf* v als and negations of the adolescent counter culture. results
T? -
1
This discordance
— and
the disenchant menr
ir
engenders
—
takes
t.
that are objectively and subjectively different in the various social cliJr Thus, for working-class youngsters, the transit through secondary schorii
ing and through the ambiguous status of a 'student
from the demands lectio
1
temporarily f^i of the world of work, produces misfirings of the ,
di
of aspirations and probabilities which led their predecessors
*
to
cept their social destiny, almost always unquestioningly, and sometimes with positive eagerness (like the miners' sons who used to identify chcir
manhood with
entry into
their
first
descent into the mine).
The J^.
chantment with their work that is felt and expressed particularly acutely by the most obvious victims of downdassing, such as bmcalaurwholders obliged to take jobs as factory workers or postmen,
common struggle,
volved
is,
in
a way,
whole generation. It finds expression in unusual forms of protest and escapism that the organizations traditionally in-
to a
or political struggle find hard to understand, because something more than working conditions is at stake These young peoin industrial
whose
and self-image have been undermined by asocial system and an educational system that have fobbed them off with worthless paper, can find no other way of restoring their personal and social integrity than by a total refusal, It is as if they felt that what is *
ple,
social identity
[
no longer just personal failure, as the educational system encourages them to believe, but rather the whole logic of the academic insula» tion. The structural deskilling of a whole generation, who are bound 0UW get less out of their qualifications than the previous generation * have obtained, engenders a sort of collective disillusionment: a v ^°^ stake
is
T
inclined to extend institutions the mixture of revolt and resentment it feels towart
generation, finding all
it
has been taken for
a ride, is
v^
dfl^ educational system- This anti-institutional cast of mind (which strength from ideological and scientific critiques) points rowards *^ nunciation of the
raoit
assumptions of rhe social order,
sion of doxic adherence to the prizes
and its
a
a a practical * ?j^
and the values it P^°f^5 withholding of the investments which are a necessaiy conoid it
offers
functioning.
So
it
is
j^
understandable that, not only within families but
cation al institutions and political
also
*
n
° or union organizarions, and * ,
^l
**H lines
Disenchanted did marker research surveys,
'First I I
had
char
L who
a friend in i
got
a lisr
of
all
was into
rhe research
two months phoning and writing, finally I got something. Then, several months still
hadn't got
touch
in
I
.
-
firms in Paris. After
brer, they
comb. djd phoros Bur there was a power strugo| c rhe paper. I couldn't be bothered fight. After six months, they fine-rooth
tD
stopped giving me work, 50 1 \^ gor taken in by the "public servjj myth and I signed on at the Pos t
,
t
with me. They weren't doing any more surveys, I was entitled to un-
Office.
I
weeks.
I
employment
was
benefit, a
thousand
month. We lived on that for seven monrhs, rhen we did two months' grape-picking. Then I went francs a
back ro surveys for seven months,
working
free-lance.
Then
place was full of lesbians
gave out rhe work to vourites, so
I
I
each work a bit
and chey
rheir fa-
we
In this
in turns.
work isn't the main Now, if things were
sort of sociery,
rhing in
life.
run the way they are in China,
1
mighr want ro work ren hours a day* (H., age 24, baccalaurear and a few monrhs in an Arrs faculty; father; private means)
the people that gor up
nose as the relations between them, rhe taU
There was no solidarity. After three weeks I chucked it in. There were five of us auxiliaries, one was fired on rhe spor for taking fifrcen minutes' exrra break, so
'Next
gor
I
office dealing
T
ere was a
I
could
It's a
'After
I
prefer ro stop
once
don'r ger into a failed
all
job through the as a clerk in an
with wholesale
row about
beef.
scoorer for
so
Anyway,
I
a
employment agency,
the craziest
while so
we
walked our. The worst of it is that you flunk your exams, you hated school, and you end up being treated as an intellectual.
stop working for a few months. I
much
my
money
I
saved up some
before. It wasn'r so
did were boring* so
can find arc completely useless.
I
known
1
I'd never
bonus that wasn'r given ro everyone. There was a slanging-match and I got out. fo been there two and a half months In September I picked grapes and rhen I went back to the employment agency. I was a courier on a
'Once you've flunked your bac, you're already in the shit. There are no possible careers and rhe jobs you 'All the jobs
work eitvironmcnr
relling.
quit; the
got out. Anyway,
a
was on sorting for thr^ couldn't take uny more
the bac,
I
in a
spent rhe
summer working as a monitor in vacation camp. Then I gor a job
a
was a Drenx. rrainee sub-ediror but afrer two months if was time to rake our my union card so I wenr free-lance. Bur I didn't seem to fit in. Eveiything 1 wrote, they went through with a with a newspaper
in
\
monrhs. That wa5 thing I've ever done
six
ghastly job, you get
plerety paranoid
rut.
a
on your
com
scooter,
n imagining they're all trying to r° you down. I chucked ir in, I couldn'r take any more.
'Afrer
rwo months on
got a remporaty job, jusr
rhe dole, for che
j
holiday period, on rhe railway^ opwas on electronic rcservanons. hi"!? or somet stayed for four
eraior" they called like char,
and
I
it r
.
wan ted to because /-nunffy. and that's how
u>fl*'*'
n
I
left
?
[f lt
£,i!~J /r 7i raiiea age
IMj
.
"
1
work lP
situation,
[
[
c
.
who starred our BEPC and bound-
whenever old-style autodidacts,
&tifa*t ditud& (CEP) or a Lcpccr for culture, come inro conracr wich young bmktlim or ncwautodidacts, who bring their ami-institutional stance with them wirh
year* ear,icr
n
&?"«« f">m C. Maihcy, Lent™ Jam U •* ***** Thiers du tent* d'etudes de rcmp ou l5 {?2fi$r PuF ,977), 479-67* passim (mirrvicwi with 50 unemployed jrou n g people). ,
.
rt
1
a
of generations ofren cakes the form of a wdown ovcr the very foundations of the social order. More radical, jess self Con fidcnr than rhe usual form of political conrestation, and remirhe
institution, the clash
l
.
mood
Romantic generation, this disenchanrcd temperament attacks the fundamental dogmas of the petit-bourgeois 'career*, 'srarus', promotion* and 'gerring on.' order of the
niscent
of the
first
—
strUcrvle
thii
to ke^p
The
vt>
specific contradiction
of the scholastic
mode of reproducrion lies in the opposition between the interesrs of rhe class which the educational system seives statntkedly and the inrerests of
whom
those class
members
who
are
threatened
with d&lassemmt for lack of rhe qualifications formally
re-
sacrifices,
it
rhat
is,
the
'failures'
members. Nor should one forget those holders of qualfteitiom which 'normally i.e., in an earlier stare of rhe relationship between diplomas and jobs gave access to a bourgeois occupation, who, btcauM.- they do not originate from that class, lack the social capital to cxtracr rhe full yield from their academic qualifications. The overproducquired of rightful
— — 1
*°n of qualifications, and the consequent dcv a luarion, tend to become a "uctural C onsranr when theoretically equal chances of obtaining qualifi* a 'uns arc offered
ro
the offspring of rhe bourgeoisie (regardless of ° r SC *' whi C lhc acccss of mher clas ses to rhese qualifications all '
also"
nCrtXSCS
emnl r °ry
f
^
^' n
a
^^ urc
rcrms )-
The
strategies
which one group may
t0 csca c ^ownclassing and to return to their class rrajecP
J°cnosc
which anorher group employs ro rebuild the interrupted 3 hoped or trajecroiy, arc now one of the most imporranr facrors in rransformar 0n of socia srrucrures The individual substitution Mr a(cj;, WhlcH Cnablc thc holders of a social capital of Path
f
i*
'
'
turns'
tHi!,
trnu
k^ucra
inherired 'con-
r
° makc "P
for rheir Jack of formal qualificarions or to get the refUrn ^ rom tnosc chc navc ^y moving into relatively uny -
rMS °^ S ° cia ?
S aCC wncre soc * al dispositions count for ^ ^ acadcm, eally guaranteed 'competences'), are combined with ^•ectivt" Strarc cs aim ed at asserting the value of formal qualifications °btai ntr i£ the rewards rhcy secured in an earlier stare of the market. ,n ° rc
^
ilia
^
'
Whereas
in 1962 only 1.5 percent of
semi-skilled workers aged 15-24 had
the
BEPC, and
0.2 percenr the bac-
caUureat or a htg ler diploma,
in
1975 the corresponding percentages were 8.2 and l.O. Among whitecollar workers, where by 1962 even in the oldesr age- group there relatively
high percentage of
was
a
di-
ploma holders, the proportion of the very highly qualified rose faster
among
young, so that by \975 larger proportion of them had the
a
higher qualifications than did the older workers (in 1962, 25.0 percent
of office workers aged
BEPC,
2
1
5-24 had the
percent the baccafaureat,
and 0.2 percent a higher education degree, compared with 38.0 percent, 8.0 percent and LO percent in 1975; the corresponding figures in 1975 for older
sraflf
members were
16,1
percent. 3.3 percent and 1,4 percent). In addition to in the relations
the changes
all
between colleagues
of different generations that arc im-
one has ro bear in mind the changed relation to work which results from putting agenrs with higher qualifications plied in these statistics,
into jobs that are often de-s killed
and all the forms of job mechanization which have (by automation
turned white-collar staff into the production-line workers of the great bureaucracies). There
is
every reason
to think that the opposition be-
tween the somewhat
and even stuffy rigour of the older staff and the casual style of the younger workers, which is doubtless perstrict
ceived as sloppiness, especially it
when
includes long hair and a beard
(rhe traditional
hemian
artist
presses rather
emblems
of the bo-
or intellectual )t ex-
more rhan
generation gap.
a
simple
The combined
effect
is
semi-hourgeatt positions,
to encourage the creation of a large
numk_
produced by redefining old positions or {?*
°f
and designed to save unqualified 'inheritors' fro m A classing and to provide parvenus with an approximate pay off f 0r
**"
devalued qualifications,
^l
ing
new
The
ones,
strategies agents use to avoid the devaluation
grounded
*fc
of their diplom-
the discrepancy between opportunities objectively aVa :i jj
in
any given moment and aspirations bas d on an earlier structure of jective opportunities. This discrepancy, which is particularly acute a
at
l
t
rain
moments and
in certain social positions,
generally reflects a
failure
achieve the individual orcollecrivc occupational rrajecroiy which was*° scribed as an objective potentiality in the former position and in th c
jeetoty leading to
example,
in
nkimi and
When
it
the case of a
'broken trajectory' effect occurs— fa whose father and grandfather were poiyttrk this
man
who becomes
a sales
engineer or a psychologist, or
of a law graduare who, for lack of social cultural
worker—the
jeetoty that
is
no
less real,
on by
or
its
own
an
inertia, describe
at any rate in
is
becomes a communiiv on above his real trajec-
capital,
agenr's aspirations, flying
tory like a projectile carried
in the case
idcaJ
no way imaginary
in the
ordinary sense of the word. This impossible objective potentiality, scribed at the deepest level of their dispositions as
or frustrated promise,
is
the
common
factor,
a
m. in-
sort of blighted hope
behind ah rheir
differences,
between those sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie to whom the educarional system has nor given the means of pursuing the trajectory mosr likely for their class and rhosc sons and daughters of the middle and working classes who have not obtained the rewards which their academic qualifications would have guaranteed in an earlier state of rhe market two categories who are particularly likely to try to move inro the new
—
positions.
Agents
who
more
pations
justified in
seek to avoid downclassing can either produce closely
(which were of relations between qualifications and
matching
an earlier state
new
their pretensions
social")
jobs) or
can refurbish the occupations to which their qualifications do give redefining and upgrading
When
them
occu
access,
accordance with their pretension
in
agenrs Starr to arrive in a job
who
1 possess qualifications differ* "
from those of the usual occupants, they bring hitherro unknown ap* tn tudes, dispositions and demands with them into their relation with job, in ily
terms of both
its
technical
causes changes in the job
and
itself.
social definition;
Among
and
1
this nccesS L
rhe mosr visible changes
when the newcomers have high qualifications aie an intensJ ° division of labour, with autonomous status being given ro some v lA seived
performed,
or in practice, by
11
I ;,| sc* and education jacks-of-all-rrades (e.g., the diversification of the c J welfare fields); and, often, a r definition of careers, relared ro the gence of expectations and demands rhat aie new in both for"1 tasks previously
content.
in principle
less
'
-
^
w * cn tr, c ^alist, sratic model implied in ccrcain -far the br of work, it h;is to be emphasized char the post of the sociology reduced tirh r to the theoretical post, i.e., as described in regula
'
r
tr^' '°h *10 ' or gan i 2af ion charts, or to the real posr, i.e., as described r* itulars or C nS (, ° of observation of the occupants r al function, or even to the c hasis Ljp between the two. In fact, posts, as regaxds both their thcorerion '
^
ti^°°? ** r
i^ i(
(c5,
nonP
****
may
of permanent struggles,
clash with their superiors or their suborcfi-
with the occupanrs of neighbouring and rival positions, or rhems Jvcs (old-timers and newcomers, graduates and non gradu-
on y Those
aspiring ro or holding a position
may have an
inter
n such a way that it cannot be occupied by anyone possessors of properties identical to their own. (Consider the [h**» tnc becw" 11 graduates of ENA and Polytechni^ue or, in the middle redefining
**Lrt 0t
their practical tcality, are the sire
position-holders
h '"
and
j^ n
lt
l<
'
peles s !
different generations of nurses.) Jj? between
There
every reason to suppose that the job redefinition resulting
is
of the occupants -and all their from a change in the scholastic properties is likely to be more or less extensive depending on associated propenies
—
of the technical and social definition of the position (which higher levels in the hierarchy of positions) and on is probably greater at the social origin of the new occupants, since the higher rheir origin, the the (lottiaty
inclined
less
they will be to accept the limited ambitions of petit-
modest, predictable progress over a lifetime. probably not independent Whether led by their
bourgeois agents looking for
These factors are sense
of
a
good investment and
awaiting their capital, or
by the
their awareness of the opportunities
refusal ro
demean themselves by entering
one of the established occupations whose elementary definition makes them invidious, those sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie who are
with downclassing tend to move, if they possibly can, into the indererminare of the older professions and into the sectors where
thteatened itjost r
c
nnv
under construction. This 'creative redefinition' is found particularly in rhe most ill-defined and professionally unmcturcd occupations and in the newest sectors of cul rural and artistic f ^ct ion, such as the big public and private enterprises engaged in cul professions are
c rcfoic
Production (radio, TV, marketing, advertising, social science
^
re-
*° on ^' wncre J°^ s anc carcers nave not vcr acquired the ? °^ tn c older bureaucratic professions and recruitment is generally d co n abir * "°P tlon that is, on the basis of 'connections' and affinities of u j*i fcfbw than formal qualifications. rigid"
'
»
th an j.
mpans that the sons and daughtets of the Paris bourgeoisie, rather
i»ig) ig\
t^jj vpp^
Ccr
™/v
cnr ermgaa weil-defined and lifelong profession (e.g., tcachentering ni ^ote ° rc likely ^kely to enter and to succeed in positions, half-way be
^u^y^J^^rhood and rJ&tai ttia
by the big cultural
°^ cl*P at io ns fc which the specific qualifications (e.g., a photography or filmmaking, or a sociology or psychology
Clcs *
B
a profession, thar are offered
degree) arc a genuine ticket of entry only for those who are able
ment rhe
The
qualifications with
official
relative
the real
rosy^
—social—qualification?
weight of rhe differenr categories involved
in the cultural r^.
^
two decades. The new gories of wage-earning producers Created by the development of radio art? television and the public and private research bodies (especially in the jq.duction system has radically changed in the
last
sciences) have considerably expanded, as has the teaching profession, c tally in
its
lower
strata,
whereas the
artistic
and
^^
legal professions, that
[T
have declined. These changes, together wirh n*. ways of organizing intelleerual life (research committees, brain trusts, thint
intellectual craftsmanship,
tanks etc.) and
new
modes of communication
institutionalized
(confer.
ences. debates, etc) rend to encourage rhe emergence of intellectual pro-
ducers more directly subordinated to economic and political demands,
bringing new modes of thought and expression,
new themes and new wi*
of conceiving inrellecrual work and the role of the intellectual The main rogerher with the considerable growth in ij^ effcer of these developments
—
student population, placed
in
the position of apprentice intellectuals,
— may
the emergence of a whole ser of semi-intellectual occupations
mj
well be
have provided 'intellectual production* wirh something once reserved fa 'bourgeois art', namely, an audience sufficiently latge to justify the existence to
production and distribution, and the appearance,
of
specific agencies for
—
But the site pat excellence of rhis rype of transformation is to be found in rhe group of occupations whose common factor is that they ensures maximum return on rhe cultural capital most directly transmitted by cht family: good manners, good taste or physical charm. This group include rhe aesthetic and semi -aesthetic, intellectual and semi-intellectual occupt consultancy services (psychology, vocational guidaflfr speech therapy, beauty advice, marriage counselling, diet advice and* tions, rhe various
on), the educarional and para-educational occupations (youth l«
runners of day-care centres, cultura
I
programme
organizers)
and
jobs
w
and representation (rour organizers, hostes** ciceroni, couriers, radio and TV announcers, news anchormen and <$& show hosts, press attaches, public relations people and so on). volving presentation
Public and, especially, private bureaucracies are
now
obliged to perform
*"*
resenradonal and 'hosting* funcrions which are very different in both sC .\ and style from those traditionally entrusted to men (diplomats, minister cl on) ofren drawn from those fractions of the dominant " (the aristocracy and the old bourgeoisie) who were richest in social cap and in the socializing techniques essential to the maintenance of that car of ral. The new requirements have led to the emergence of a whole set female occupations and to the establishment of a legitimate market in P*^ "°^ profit
attaches and so
1
ical properties.
The
fact thac certain
women
derive occupational
and that beauty thus acquires a value on the labour market, ff" to produce not only a number of changes in the brleS* helped "° u * clothing and cosmerics, but also a whole set of changes in ethics fitf * rn pt> definition of the legitimate image of femininity-. Women's maga* % a leginmar ^fid authorities on the body and the leginmare j j] the acknowledged % fA a |] an by incarnated those pt pto ijn^ uSC ii Transmit the image of womanhood l ,J,S who charm, ate rationally selected * °%\ manipulators of bureaucratic &3fi0 career-structure programmed j n accordance with a strictly r && schools, beaury contests and so on), to fulfil the most ttasoC cialized (*'' feminine functions in conformity with byreaucraric norms. rrn(s).
I
K
f|
v
j
i
indeterminate sectors of the social structure offer the most The m°st fot the opetations which, by transfotming old posibl e ground
new ones ex nihilo y aim to produce areas of specialist or 'creating' particularly in rhe field of 'consultancy', the perfotmance of otrcise, ujch requires
no more than
a rationalized
form of competence
in a class
of a socially recognized corps of experts specializing in advice on sexuality, which is now coming about thtough professional iza Hon of voluntary, philanthropic ot political asthe gradual sociations, is the paradigmatic form of the process whereby agents tend,
Th e
culture-
constitution
which is the basis of ail missionary zeal, ro satisfy their group interests by deploying the legitimate culture with which they have been endowed by the education system to win the acquiescence of the classes excluded ftom legitimate culture, in ptoducing the need for and the rariry of rheir class culture. Ftom marriage counsellots to the vendors of slimming aids, all those who now make a ptofession of supplying the means of bridging the gap between 'is* and 'ought* in the realm of rhe body and irs uses would be with that deep conviction of disinterestedness
nothing without the unconscious collusion of all those who contribute 10 producing an inexhaustible market fot the products they offer, who by
new
imposing c flCTv
uses of the body and
a
new
bodily hexii
—the
hexii
which
gymnasium and the ski slope discovered for itself— produce the cottesponding needs, expectations
'
'
bourgeoisie of the sauna barh. the
dissatisfactions.
Doctotsand diet experrs armed wirh the authoti'ty of who impose their definition of normality wirh height- weighr s, balanced diets or models of sexual adequacy; couturiers who con* sanction of good taste on the unattainable measurements of fash0cle ls; advertisers for whom the new obligatory uses of the body K C0 C for count css wa mmgs and reminders ('Watch your *eiehH< ^ ^ Someone isn't using .'); journalists who exhibit and glorify th Clr 11 ''k" 5r e ^ in w o men*s weeklies and magazines fot well-heeled ^ccutt* S Ca *^ COm bine, in the competition between them, to advance a Usc w* C€j
r
'
,
of
g " tnc y
^^
f
^nd k 'fcearij f
hc
,
Q
can setve so well only because rhey are not always aware oreven observing rhemselves in the process,
/ Cmcrgence of this new petite bourgeoisie, which employs new "Manipulation ro petform
c f. 5
and which by
its
an intermediary between vety exisrence brings about a transformation its role as
of the position and dispositions of rhe old petite bourgeoisie, can understood only in rerms of changes in the mode of dominarior^
j
t
'(\
substituting seducrion for repression, public relations for policing using for authority, the velvet glove for rhe iron fist, pursues
*\
V
r jJ
bolic integration of rhe dominated classes by imposing needs
nu nc ]%
%n
inculcaring norms.
the educational SYSTEM Clearly it would be na merely m&hamcal process of inflation and devaluation at work
CHANCER see a
in
:
massive increase
6 "n!
the school population has caused a wholeset c f formations, both inside and ourside the educational system, modify' its
in
organizations and operation parrly through morphological
*"
8
,
rr , n
r
but also through defensive manoeuvres by ts dirional users, such as the multiplication of subtly ranked paths rhrou it and skilfully disguised 'dumping grounds' which help to blur marions
at
all
'
its levels
j
perceL
For the sake of clarity, one may contrast two stat of the secondary school system In the older srate, rhe organization Q ( ,l tion
of its
hierarchies.
pathways it offered, rhe courses ir raughr and the qualiftcations it awarded were ail based on shaip divisions, clear
institution, rhe
careers promised. {It
is
significant that the division has been maintained
or even strengthened ar the poinrs
where access to the dominanr class now decided— thar is, at the point of streaming for the baccalaurcat, and in higher education, with the division between the grandes ecolcs and
is
the rest.) In the present stare of the system, the exclusion of the
great
mass of working-class and middle-class children rakes place nor at the end of primary schooling but sreadily and impalpably, all through the eaity years of secondary schooling,
rhrough hidden forms of elimination
such
as repeated years (equivalent to a deferred elimination); relegarion into
second-class courses, entailing a stigma rhar tends to induce prolcptic
ognition of scholastic and social destiny; and valued
certificates. (It
is
remarkable that jusr
finally,
when
rcf
the awarding ofdf
rhe division into t*°
srreams— strictly speaking, there were always three* wirh 'higher prima*? education and the whole ser of internal training courses and compel' rions offered by all the major government departments was tending w
—
disappear and to be reconsritured at another
Roger
llsrahler discovered
level.
arid
Christian Baudelor
dichotomy, which no one would ha* was the clearesr manifestation of the scho'*5
this
rhought of denying since it tic mechanisms of reproduction./"
Whereas
ihe old system with
its
N7 srrongjy marked boundaries led to <*
internalizing of scholastic divisions clearly corresponding to social
,v
fuzzy classifications and blurred cdg c5 ' courages and entertains (ar least among the new 'intermediaries' n $** *
sions, the
new system with
its
.
'
space) aspirations that are themselves blurred and fuzzy. Aspir anon cV '
are
now
adjusted to scholastic hurdles and standards in a less
strict *
j
'
harsh ise
^
i,cA
*-*
va
rem orse css '
'
^
is
(
]
^f
i
f
hat
character-
'g°ur of the national competitive examination.
new system
fobs oft
on
a
good number of
users with
its
the faulty perceptions that are en-
^ anarchic profusion of courses and diplomas which are compare and yet subtly ranked in prestige. However, it does
'
tri
bV
^utfp :
t
i-°
me
r
unifications, playing
l
manner than under the old system, which was
hem
c
f
****!
into such abrupt disinvestment as the old system: the
hierarchies and boundaries between the elected and the re* rrue anc^ fa,se qualifications, plays a part in 'cooling out*
Mber**^
in being cooled out. The new system favours aim acquiescence of a less realistic, less resigned relationship to the future J"' lopmenr °f p ro p cr limits, which was the basis of an acute sense old sensC a ^ The aUodvxia which the new system encourages in innu[\
^
i
r
rrC hy,
^ e rtason w ^ y "-'legated agents collaborate in their own overestimating the studies on which they embark, over^k-cation hv ^1 mS rne r qualifications, and banking on possible furures which do exist for them; bur u is also the reason why they do not truly ways
hie
s
f
'
real'y
of their position and qualifications And the attractiveness of the new or renewable positions lies in the reason for the ha thai, being vague and ill-defined, uncertainly located in social space, 'intellectual' in the past) often offering (like the occupations of 'artist' or promotion, benefits, increnone of the material or symbolic crireria reality cccpf fhe objective
ments.
— whereby social
—
time, and also social hierarchies, are experienced
and measured, they leave aspirations considerable
They thus make
it
room
possible to avoid the sudden,
for
final
manoeuvre.
disinvestment
imposed by occupations that arc clearly delimired and defined from cruitment to retirement.
The indeterminate
hitherto reserved for artisrs
privilege
and
future which they offer, a
intellectuals,
makes
it
possible
to treat
rhe present as a sort of endlessly renewed provisional status •o regard one's 'station 5 as an accidental detour, like the painter *orks
m
"* Sjsts
that this merccnaiy rrade
advertising bur continues to consider himself is
re-
and
who
a 'true' artisr
and
only a temporary expedient thar
will
abandoned as soon as he has put hy enough money to be mdepen *•** These ambiguous occupations exempt their practitioners from be ^ork of disinvestment and reinvestment that is implied, for example, wltcn ing from a Vocation' as a philosopher to a Vocation' as a philos.
tea leas
r
*
or ^ rom
arr ' s *
t° publicity designer or arr teacher
W hem
—or
at
to defer their transfer indefinitely, It is not surprising ch People should be drawn to schemes of 'continuing education' f
'hat -j (e
U l° r
unit
[
Permanmi?)>
C
torn
pOsJSU 5
4 s
?,0f>S 1
U
brace
ho^
studenrhood which offers an open, with the system of national designed to demonstrate, once and for all, and as early as wnat ,s done cannot be undone. 11
ls
understandable thar, like
kc
ac sthetjc
8
to oneself
t
a perpetual
rure a nd contrasts diametrically
artists,
they should so readily em*
and ethical modes and models of yourh: it is a way of and others rhar one is not finite, finished, defined In
place of abrupt, all-or nothing breaks,
work and
retirement, there
is
between study and work,
be.
an impalpable, infinitesimal slippage
***!
,
semipermanent occupations, often t a jtc students approaching the end of their course, which cluster arouru
°**
research or higher education o another level, consider the phased retirement now offered by the
c
sider
all
the Temporary or
p
established positions in scientific
*'
h!
'advanced' firms). Everyrhing takes place as
if
the
new
logic of
m e J}
economic system encouraged people to defer f possible the moment of ultimate crystallization roward which ?
carional system and
long as
rhe infinitesimal changes point, in other words, the final balancc-sKm*. which sometimes rakes the form of a 'personal crisis*
goes withour saying rhar the adjustment between objective chanc and subjective aspirations that is rhereby established is both more subtU and more subtly extorted, but also more risky and unstable. Maintaining It
images of the presenr and future of one's position i$ way of accepting limits, but it is also a way to avoid acknowledging them, or ro put it another way, a way of refusing them. But it is a refusal vagueness
in the
the product of an ambiguous cult of revolution which springs from resentment at the disappointment of unrealistic expectain
bad
faith,
Whereas rhe old system tended to produce clearly demarcated social den rines which left Jit tie room for social fantasy but were comforrable and reassuring even in the unconditional renunciation which they demanded, the new system of structural instability in the reptions.
i
resentation of social identity and
its
legitimate aspirations tends to
shift
agents from the terrain of social crisis and critique to the rerrain of sonal critique and
per-
crisis.
COMPETITIVE STRUGGLES AND DISPLACEMENT OF THE STRUCTURE
how
can be seen
naive
it
is
to claim to settle the question of
change* by locating 'newness* or 'innovation
groups, for
all
in all
'socii!
in a particular site in soci>'
the bottom; and it H the 'new', 'marginal', 'excluded' or 'dropped-our
space. For some, this site
always elsewhere,
1
U
is
at
the top; for others,
at
those sociologists whose chief concern
is
cW to bring *n
'
But to characterize a class as 'constf' vative" or 'mnovaring' (without even specifying in what jespect it i* * by tacit recourse to an ethical standard which is necessarily situated corn cially, produces a discourse which states little more than rhe site if from, because it sweeps aside what is essential, namely, rhe field ° [Jl gles, the system of objective relations within which positions and V~* rures are defined relational^ and which governs even those SrrU ^Lc aimed at transforming it. Only by reference to the space m the which defines them and which they seek to maintain or redefine. can understand the strategies, individual or collective, spontaneous or *^ ness' into the discussion at
all
costs.
P
^
nized,
which
to conserve.
are
aimed
at conserving,
transforming or transforming
-
version strategics are nothing other than an aspect of the perma-
&& pd* n
nons aR d factions whereby each group j
position rn the social structure, or,
s
^ cv olution
strives to maintain or
more
precisely
—
at a stage
which one can conserve only by in « to change so as to conserve, Frequency the actions whereby ^ c ass ^ ract on ) works to win new advantages, i.e., to gain lass ( or vcr c ^ c otner classes and so, objectively, to reshape the dvantag c ° lfl % relations between the classes (the relations revealed (t of objective stfU distributions of properties), are compensated for (and so sta iistical ordinally) by the reactions of the other classes, directed to relied out C objective. Jn this particular (though very common) case, rd the same outcome of these opposing actions, which cancel each other out by r which they generate, is an overall displacevery countermovements the distribution, between the classes or class ment of the structure of the assets at stake in the competition (as has happened in fractions, of the chances of university entrance see table 5 and figure 7). die case of
c^
of
class societies in
r
.
l
'
'
—
1
shows the relationship between morphological change in the different classes and class fractions and the extent to which the members of these classes and class fractions make use of the educational system. The volume of the groups whose social reproduction was based, at the beginning of the period, on economic inheritance tends to decline or remain sra-
'fable 15
nonary, while, over the extent, loin
archy
same period,
their children
— who
will,
to a large
rhe wage-earning categories at the same level of the social hier-
—make increasing use of the educational
system.
Those
class fractions
and which
which are expanding, which are mainly rich in cultural capital
educational system as their main means of reproduction (junior
used the
and senior executives, clerical workeis) rend to increase their children's schooling
m much
rhe
same proportion
as the self -employed categories oc-
cupying an equivalent position in the class structure. The reversal of the relative positions of the commercial employers and clerical workers, and also the farm •
workers and industrial manual workers* is explained both by intensified schooling that is forced on the numerically declining catego-
t
(commercial employers, farm workers) and by the
>~
"tical
" 5 )- resulting from change
in their internal
in their
edu-
structure—
k*5 dispersion—-and, more precisely, from the fact that their lower aVc been particularly hard hit and have disappeared or reconverted,
it
»h the
rhe overall
cha r acreristics of these categories (seen, for example,
^^c^'
rotraA r s
rise in
5" 00
*
'
,n
g
rates
shown
in
the graph are probably overestimates, since
laC|SCICs
only take account of young people living at home, more espedoubr, at lower levels of the social hierarchy. The slight narrow-
ciall
ing to a
of s
'he sr at
,
c fari ge
Uratlon r
CS
apparent in rhe most recent period is due parrty in triC highest categories and partly to the face rhar
which
^^
is
'gnore the distribution of adolescents from different classes be**sn 2 j courses that are themselves srrongly ranked. Between 196$ *nd lh > 7 f "t 40) proportion of industrial workers' children (who made up to rcc nt of the i7-year old age groups in 1977) in the fifth grade of l
(25.7 percent and 23.9 &. 1 respectively), whereas the proportion of senior executives and profess children rose from i5.4 percent to 16.8 percent. Moreover, in 197? t ln grade, }7.6 petcent of the senior executives' and professionals' children in section
C
(scientific),
children and 21
compared
percent of
*>
to 20.6 percent of the farm worker? the industrial workers* children. Converse!
Ctfl|
j^h*
1
***
only 9-8 percent of the senior executives* and professionals' children Wev a 'technical* sccrion. as agamst 246 percent of the farm workers' childr**, ^
and 28.7 percent of the industrial workers* children, Similar tendencies a found in higher education, where students of working-class origin are in creasingly relegated to the arts and science faculties or to short technical courses, whereas the upper-class students tend to be in the grandes ecolcs the medical faculties or, if academically less successful, in the minor bu$i.
new
schools.
In the case of tlic social sciences, scientific discourse
conditions of
own
its
reception. This depends at
rhe prevailing social problematic which
all
cannot ignore
is itself ar least
the reactions to an earlier form of that discourse. Those the arguments of
my
earlier
the
times on the state of partly defined by
who
oversimplify
works, The Inheritors and Reproduction
—which —
subsequent research has shown to err on the side of simplification share with those who criticize them without understanding them a taste for simnot a
and an
think relarionally. Ideological stubbornness is sufficient explanation for naiveties such as thar of 'referring to a Vise
ple truths
inability to
middle class recruitment'
between 1950 and I960 and concludmg that the bourgeois university had been transformed into one 'domJ: inated by rhe middle classes*. One only has to look at the position of the in the hierarchy of higherfaculties—especially those of arts and science education institutions by social origin of their students to know what to in
to universities
—
rhink of such a regrets that
it
statistical analysis
(highly praised by Alain Peyrefirtc, who
has nor had the success
it
deserves, thereby giving further 1
knowledge of university matters),' These faculties, which are situated at the lowest point of a field naturally dominated by the grandes ecoks and now even lower, to judge from the economic and social value of their diplomas, than the least presrigious and most recent of ihe business schools thsit hsive proliferated in recent years—have all the characteristics of dumping grounds, nor least theit level of 'democratization (and feminization). It is as if the 'democratization' of secondary education were to be measured in a technical high school in an industrial suburb. Nor could anyone speak of a 'middlc-class-dominated university unless t* o had, consciously or unconsciously, confused the level of representation the middle classes in the facuky-student population with the chances ot proof of
his great
—
1
—
words, confused change tf* 1 the social composition of the faculties with change in the structure of P r "° abilities of schooling, a structure which has been shifted upwards wi ulty entrance for the middle classes
real
in other
transformation,
^
^^__^**
development seems to nke ° n w henever the strengths and efforts of the groups competing for a ° ^t ryp pe of asset or entitlement tend to balance one another out, as in * «r in which, after a series of bursts in which various runners forge ah ca
A
similar process of nomothetic
the initial U P*
^(tb 3l tef
5C
t1
arc maintained;
Sa P s
in
ocher words, whenever the
^ e inirially mosr disadvantaged groups ro come into pospreviously possessed by groups immediately above c assets
r
t
P
t
|
^ soc a hierarchy or immediately ahead of them in the race are ^55 counterbalanced, at all levels, by the efforts of bctterplaced ° maintain the scarcity and distinctiveness of their assets. One f
ssic»n
j
the*" (fi
ofC
|
'
gfoup 5
, f
^ c struggle which rhe
of letters of nobility provoked the second half of the sixteenth censale
^ aristocracy in rhe English anttng o a self sustaining process of inflation and devaluation of fiCf n rUf V ' The lowest titles, such as esquire or arms, were the first to be f
j
'
rles
C
^
followed by the rank of knight, which was devalued so fast that holders had ro press for the creation of a new title, that of
d
ldtrst
But this new title, which rilled the gap between knight and peer was seen as a threat by the holders of the higher rank, # he realm, 4 on maintaining %.*«* value VAIUZ depended a a certain distance. Thus the r whose existing holders by acquiring the titles eweomers conspire to ruin the net
_
which made purchase
it
[
hem
rne surest
'
wa X
.
ro devalues
commoner. The existing holders, the newcomers either by abandoning
title
,
of nobility
is
ro
for their part, objec
as a
devalue
tively
rarc
,
their titles to
them
in
or by introducing differences among the title* holders linked to seniority in accession to the title (such as the manner of posseting ir). k follows that all the groups involved in rhe race, whatorder 10 pursue rarer ones,
occupy, cannot conserve their position, their rariry, their except by running ro keep their distance from those immediately
ever rank they
rank
behind them, thus jeopardizing the difference which distinguishes the
group immediately
in front; or, to
sea that w'hich the
group
selves will
another way, by aspiring to pos
ahead already have, and which they them-
g the group
^ a,n[a ined
rarest titles
up
can also prorect themselves from com-
numerus clausus. Such measures generally whenever the statistical mechanisms 'normally' pro-
by serting
become necessary
UP
ir
have, but later.
The holders of the petition
just
put
are
so long as
a
found it
ro
be inadequate
The
laisser-faire
which
is
discreetly procecrs the interests of the privileged
which calls on instituneutral mechanisms did invisibly. To prarecr themselves against excessive numbers, the holders of rate rirles S mu5t defend a definition of the job which is nothing other l
ro
replaced by a conscious protectionism,
do openly what seemingly
t fj
,
^
f
ll,
Qn
l
n
changes
pj -
of
it
would bring.
stacistical
boundaries, which leave groups surrounded by
the 'hybrid' zone of which Plato speaks apropos of the boundary Q fL^ and non-being, and which challenge the discriminatory power of c~ ?8
taxonomies (Young or old? Urban or rural? Rich or poor? 'Middle or 'lower middle'?), thenumerus clausus, in the extreme form it nrce^ from discriminatory law, sets sharp, arithmetical limits. In place f ** l
eiples of selection, of inclusion
and exclusion, based on
a
numbe ^
^
and normally implicit criteria, it sets u p stitutionalized and therefore conscious and organized process of se^rtion and discrimination, based on a single criterion (no women 0r Jews, or no blacks) which leaves no room for reclassification. In t?° the most select groups prefer ro avoid the brutality of discriminat fairly closely interrelated
***
measures and to combine the charms of the apparent absence of criteri which allows the members the illusion of election on grounds of »*» sonal uniqueness, with the certainties of selection,
mum
which ensures nu*
group homogeneity.
Smart clubs preserve strict procedures—an
homogeneity by subjecting aspirant* ro ve™ of candidature, a recommendation, sometimes
their
act
sentation (in the
literal
bers for a cerrain
number of years,
pre
who
have themselves been memelection by the membership or by 2
sense) by sponsors
committee, payment of sometimes veiy high initial subscriptions 0,000 francs per person at the Ccrcle du Bois dc Boulogne in 1973, 9,500 francs at the Saint-Cloud Golf Club in 1975), plus the annual subscription special
Cloud) and so on. In fact, it would be pointless to seek to discover whether the formal rules, which aim above all to protect the group against outsiders (not so much other classes, which are excluded from the start, as other fractions of the same class, or even parvenu mem' bers of the same fraction) and which generally prove superfluous, are intended to disguise the arbitrariness of election, or whether, on the contrary, the conspicuous arbitrariness which makes election a matter of indefinable l flair is intended to disguise the official rules, We rake you if we like the look of you {Cat a la tite du client )* said one club chairman; and another 'There are clubs where you need two sponsors and they accept almost anyone; there are others with two sponsors where they're veiy choosy.' Beside*, everything depends on the quality of the sponsors: 'Normally you have to wait two or three years; with good sponsors, you don't wait at all' (a men* ber of the management committee, Ccrcle du Bois dc Boulogne). Siroil*")"* although membership is not officially hereditary, a young woman who ap of plies to join the Cerele du Bois de Boulogne will be asked if her father 1 elder brother is a member. All the evidence suggests that although a nun ber of them are officially organized around some rare, selecrive activity, which is often a mere pretext (golf, polo, hunting, riding, pigeon-shoot w club*, sailing etc.), smart clubs (ks club r c pie, a yacht in the case of the Cerclc dc la Voile de Paris), in That they account of the whole social person; and the more prestigious they are, n the more concerned they are to achieve a total harmony of interests * (2,050 francs
at
Saint
1
^
cxa^P' c r ^ c J oc ^ cy Club, the Cerele du Bois dc Boulogne or ^Iae5 u Cerele), rhe more this is the case. v \jc the social reality of the criteria of selccrion can only come from aL, from an objectificarion of what is refused in advance as th? t is, fS di» nd vulgar, the group is able to persuade itself that its own it
'
»
r
^
^
^ '
red
3
uC
!V
on no other
based
jj
mcm ^
principle than an indefinable sense of propria
rs bip cm procure. The miracle of mutual election ch on 'y wuh groups of intellectuals, who are not so naive as to perfection imal object ificatjon required to form a club Because they jn c^ c trust in the quasi-mystical sense of participation which does ink
^^h <*Y
ach ,c
m
c° nC
c jf
p'^.
j_f;
ne the Participants, the excluded outsiders
{who cannot even prove
*^ istence of the exclusive group except involuntarily, through their de*** " '^'ng against windmills when they attempt to (pons of it)' cn< U P £
*
"a
'b' c barriers which separate them from the ccct. intellec rout tnt nv 5 ar rhe most prestigious ones, are extraordinarily im^Tfiroups, P ticularly mune
'
one cannot objectify the intellectual
asc
stake in the
own
one's
The
dialectic
game
—
a risk
game without
which
is at
once derisory and absolute.
of downclassing and upclassing which underlies
of social processes presupposes and entails that
set
cerned
run
properties,
in
putting at stake
the
same
direction,
ail
group and which,
they are modified and qualified by
intrinsically,
and
rhe groups con-
the groups following, since, whatever
by definition, are unavailable to
may be
whole
toward the same objectives, the same
those which are designated by the leading
these properties
a
no longer be what they are once they arc multiplied and made available to groups lower down. Thus, by an apparent paradox, the maintenance of order, chat is, of the whole set of their
and thus of the relations of order which formation its structure, is provided by an unceasing change substantial (i.e., non-relarional) properties. This implies that the social Established at any given moment is also necessarily a temporal r an order ofsuccessions', as Ijeibniz put it, each group having as its c f0U g p immediately below and for its future the group immedi*° nC SCCS thc attracr on of evolutionist models). The comr
^
,
it
,
^
petm^
'
K groups a rc separated by differences which aie essentially located in
'
Y^' of
tj
,,
me
V
.
J)® *ccid cn t that credit
0n
^mrTUc
is
important in
so
this system, live imposi-
which occurs through the competitive st ggle and is y the gentle violence of cultural missionaiy work tends to pro05 "' n thc Knsc °* a tiec^ which pre
ar
,
y
'
'
i
'
'origf^ '
'
deprived have the right to every satisfaction, but only in rhe cnc only alternatives are credit, which allows immediate enjoy-
ment of
the promised
goods but implies acceptance of
future
wl 'imitation'— mock u
merely the continuation of the past, or the cars* mock luxury holidays and so on. But the dialectic of downclassing and updassing
a
'»
J
^
is
predispose function also as an ideological mechanism, whose effects conscrv discourse strives to intensify. Especially when rhcy compare their
tQ
preJ**
conditions with their past, the dominated groups are exposed to the 11 " sion that they have only to wait in order to receive advantages which they will obtain only by struggle.
By
situating the difference K? twecn the classes in the order of successions, the competitive strueoL reality^
which separates predecessor fr successor in a social order governed by well-defined rules of succession not only the most absolute and unbridgeable (since there is nothing tablishes a difference which, like that
do but
sometimes
wait,
quire their
own
generations, trajectories
cent (since
houses
whole
ar
the
lifetime, like the petit bourgeois
moment
the petit bourgeois
like
through person
a
a
their children)
knows
that
if
who extend
their
own
seven!
foreshortened
but also the most unreal and evaneshe can wait, he will in any case get
promised by the ineluctable laws of evolution). In the competitive struggle makes everlasting is not different
what he
who ar
of retirement, sometimes
is
short, what conditions,
but the difference between conditions.
Collective
and
individual delay has social consequences
plicate this process. Relatively late arrival nor
enjoyment; ity
it
which
further com-
only reduces rhe duration of
also implies a less familiar, less 'easy' relationship to the
or asset in question, which
—
may have
— in
Technical consequences
—
acrid-
e.g., in
may also represent the disguised equivalent of pure and simple privation when rhe value of the asser or activity lies in its distinguishing power (which is clearly linked to exclusive or priority access) rather rhan in rhe intrinsic satisfactions it gives. The vendors of goods and services, who have an interest rhe use of a car
or
symbolic ones
the case of cultural goods.
It
in
these effects of allodoxia, exploit these lags, offeting, outof-season (e; g-
in
the case of holidays), or
ties),
when
things which have their
Once abstract
full
they are out of fashion (clothes,
value only at the 'right' rime,
activi-
^_^*
mechanism is understood, one perceives the futility ot debates which arise from the opposition of permanent
this
change, structure and history, reproduction and the 'production °
of such debates is the refusal ro acknowledge social contradictions and struggles ate not all, or always, in contraa' with the perpetuation of the established order; that, beyond rhe *** n escs of 'thinking in pairs', permanence can be ensured by change »
ciety*.
The
.
( j
that the frustrated cX PcCta irf m lfl J are creared by the time-lag between the imposition of lcg
structure perpetuated by
which
f
real basts
movement;
needs (musts', as the markering
men put
-
it)
and
access to the
m&
tW
:
&*
f
Kt
ko *
1*
.
while transforming the 'nature' of conditions. of positions becomes clear that those who point to what might be called
tiUCt *
m
^° nor nct^^tily threaten the survival of the system; uCtu taJ gap and the corresponding frustrations are the very displacement which perpetuates the rhc reproduction through rhe
^isfy "^ 1
and speak of the 'embourgeoisement* of the working wn0 [r Y to refute them by pointing to ordinal properties, d those unaware that the contradictory aspects of reality which rhey |jy
,.
ci
(&**
p to
petries
a $(C
indissoluble dimensions of a single process. The rcproate in fact of the social structure can take place in and through a comperi-
2t
leading to a simple displacement of the structure of
rrU e<»Je
long and only so long as the members of the dominated JT* [buttons, so enter the struggle in extended order, that is, through acrions and 1 «es aie compounded only statistically, by the external effects rionJ which
*Wh
of some exert on the actions of others,
absence any interaction or transaction, and consequently in conditions of ob-
of
the actions
without collective or mdi vidua] control and generally against
jectivity,
the agents' individual
and collective
The limiting case of these processes of uhich each agent helps to produce spired lective
in the
by the feared
statistical action
what he
fears
is
panic or tout, in
by performing acrions
effect (as in financial panics). In all these cases,
mere
action, the
interests.
statistical
sum of uncoordinated
in-
rhe col-
individual actions,
collective result irreducible or hostile to the collective interests
leads ro a
pursued by the individual actions. This is seen clearly when the demoralization produced by a pessimistic picture of ci« future of a class contributes to the decline of that class; in a number of *'»ys, the members of a declining class contribute to the collective decline, !kc the craftsmen who push their children through school while complain£ that the educational system discourages young people from entering rhe
and even ro the particular interests
1
;
t4t 've
in
"f?P* *™ 'classes
oy the
struggle
dominant '
v! '*
sr
3nc
sols paj t
W»Vin* ^hich c°
U:
^
classes.
It is
when
which they
dom-
they accept the stakes
an inrcgrarive struggle and, by
handicaps, a reproductive srruggle, since those
c hase, in
P Ursuc d
the form of class struggle which the
allow ro be imposed on them
,mr 3 trir
is
vir-
who
are beaten before rhey start, as the con-
£ a P s testifies, implicitly recognize the legitimacy of the by rhose whom they pursue, by the mere fact of raking ...
5cstaDr, shed the logic of the processes of competition Cor rout)
emn ules
eac ^ a S ent co react
*
n isolation to the effect of the
rcaa *° ns of other agents, or, more precisely, ro the result of the ^siica] a rc S a t'On of their isolated actions, and which reduce rhe e srare of a mass dominated by its own number, one can pose
^to
.
^
i
the cjuesrion,
much
debated at present
among
historians, ^
of the
c
(economic crisis, economic crisis following a period of e Xp and so on) in which the dialectic of mutually self-reproducing obi chances and subjective aspirations may break down Everything sui> rions
that an abrupt
tions
is
slump
likely to
chances relative to subjective St?** break in the tacit acceptance which the
in objective
produce
a
—now abruptly excluded from the dominant —previously granted to the
J
^
J
.^
race, objectively
iftared classes
subjectively
^ ^ ^
goals,
possible a genuine inversion of the table of values.
and so
t
f
ihe Habitus and t\)e
3
Space of Life-Styles
The mere &ct that rhe social space described here can be presented as a diagram indicates that it is an absttact representation, deliberately constmcred, like a map, to give a bird's-eye view, a point of view on the of points from which ordinary agents (including the socioloand his reader, in their ordinary behaviour) see the social world.
whole gist
set
Bringing together in simultaneity, in the scope heuristic value
its
—positions
of a single glance
—
this is
which the agents can never apprehend
in
their torality
and in their multiple relationships, social space is to the practical space of everyday life, with its distances which are kept or signalled, and neighbours who may be more remote than strangers, what geometrical space is to rhe travelling space' {espate hodotogiqui)
of ordi-
mrY
experience, with irs gaps and discontinuitiesouc the most crucial thine to note is rhar rhe question of this space
within the space t
J.
the
ctlVc space
—
have points of view on this which depend on their position wirhin it and in which itself
w hich
s
b 0r
*
(>oi
.
s
hi?ir
C&t c
he *ob-
%S
is
often expressed-
ciology uses to designate the classes
it
Thus many of consrructs are
rom ordinary usage, where rhey serve to express the (generally V Cw r ^ at onc r0U nas 0r another. As if carried away by £ '
c
that the agents
t0 trans ^ orm or conserve it
W
is
P
"
g r e a ter
CClS
r
b'
objecriviry, sociologists almost always forget that ^ e ^ c ^ ass ^X produce not only objectively classifiable prac-
a "° classifying operations that are no less objective and are ms /VC classifiable. The division inro classes performed by sociology leads Ky ^ c comm n ° f oot of the classifiable practices which agents proa j
fhe
^c
n
f
o* the classificatoiv
judgements they make of other agents'
practices and their
own. The habitus
objectively classifiable
both the generative prin c judgements and the system of classification
j
^
r
the relationship betweeif*7* capacities which define the habitus, the capacity ro produce c\
cipium divisionh) of rhese practices.
two
is
It is in
^
and works, and the capacity to differentiate and appJr ^ these practices and products (taste), that the represented social w J* K i,e., the space of iife-styJcs, is constituted. The relationship that is actually established between the p^: 5
able practices
r
of economic and social condition (capital volume composition, in both synchronic and diachronic aspects) and the dacharacteristics
with the corresponding position in the univ only becomes intelligible when rhc habitus is consructed
tive features associated
of
life styles
the genetative formula which makes
and
classifiable practices
possible to account both f .l 0r products and for the judgements, themselw* it
which make these practices and works into a system of disti nt tive signs. When one speaks of the aristocratic asceticism of teachers or the pretension of the petite bourgeoisie, one is not only describing these groups by one, or even the most important, of their properties, but also endeavouring to name the principle which generates all their properties and all their judgements of their* ot other people's, properties. The classified,
habitus
is
necessity internalued and converted into a disposition
thar
generates meaningful practices and meaning-giving perceptions; it is 3 general, transposabJe disposition which carries out a systematic, universal
—of
application— beyond the limits of what has been directly learnt necessity inherent in rhe learning conditions. That is why an
whole ilar
set
the
agent's
of practices (or those of a whole set of agents produced by
sim-
conditions) are both systematic, inasmuch as they are rhe product of
the application of identical (or interchangeable) schemes, ind systemati-
from the practices constituting another life-style. Because different conditions of existence produce different habitue systems of generative schemes applicable, by simple transfer, to the mast varied areas of practice— rhe practices engendered by rhe different habi»>* cally distinct
appear as systematic configurations of properties expressing the
differ-
ences objectively inscribed in conditions of existence in the form
°*^j
perceived by agents endo**"
of differential deviations which, when with the schemes of perception and appreciation necessary in Qfdtfidentify, interpret and evaluate their perrinenr features, function ** terns
!
1
styles (see figure 8).
The
habitus
is
not only
a structuring structure,
which organizes p
and the perception of practices, but also a structured structureprinciple of division into logical classes which organizes the F* rcCP of rhe social world is itself the product of internalization of the di*J cices
into social classes. Each class condition
defined, simulraneously.
J ^
and by the relarional properties which it derives tCtP position in the system of class conditions, which is also a sys
intrinsic properties its
is
$
j
,n
w of
K>nl of existence, habitus
and
life-style.
perception and appreciation
system of
schemes generating classifiable
Habims
1
asuuctuied and 'ifpiiioiiinstnietMfe
practices
and works
of classified and classifying
strumimg suuau/e
Ure-Srjlel a system
system of
scheme of perception
practices, i.e., distinctive
signs {'tastes')
and appreciation ('taste')
system of
schemes etc,
aw ds
i
Kins of
Life-StfJe 2
existence 2
tic
etc.
system of
schemes etc-
etc.
,
differences, differential positions, it
ftom what
it is
cial identity is
i.e.,
by everything which discing:
not and especially from everything
opposed toThis means l^
it is
defined and asserted through difference.
inevitably inscribed within the dispositions of the habitus
the W k presents itself in theew^, ence of a life-condition occupying a particular position within that s structure of the system of conditions, as
is
it
t
The most fundamental oppositions
turc.
in the structute (high/1
rich/poor etc.) rend to establish themselves as the fundamental
srnjrr
ing principles of practices and rhe perception of practices. As a
systern
i
which expresses systematically the necess and freedom inherent in its class condirion and rhe difference constitu ing that position, the habitus apprehends differences between conditi 0n which it grasps in the form of differences between classified, classifyin practice-generaring schemes
pactices (products of other habitus), in accordance with principles r$ differentiation which, being themselves the product of these differences are objectively attuned to
them and therefore tend
to perceive
them »
natural
The
observer
which
has
its
who
divides a population into classes performs an operation
equivalent in social practice. If he
likely to present a
more
or less modified
scientific classification (a
tion,
number of
form of
is
nor aware of
this,
he
is
a native classification as i
'typologies' are precisely this). In addi-
he has no chance of bringing to the
level
of consciousness the true
status of his classifying operations which, like native knowledge, presuppose
connections and comparisons and which, even the realm of social physics, tions, in short,
While
it
in
fact
they semi to belong
produce and interpret signifying
to
distinc-
belong to the order of the symbolic,
must be
reasserted, against all
nary experience of rhe social world
to realize
when
— conrrary
is a
forms of mechanism,
cognition*
it is
that
ordi-
equally important 0l
to rhe illusion of the spontaneous generation
theories of the 'awakening of class consciousness' (prise de amscim(e) amount ro that primary cognition
consciousness which so
many
—
misrecognition, recognirion of an order which
mind.
Life-styles are
is
also established in V®
thus the systematic products of habitus, which, P*
ceived in their mutual relations through the schemes of the habitus,
t
*vulg*
come
sign systems rhat are socially qualified (as 'distinguished', c"c etc.). The dialectic of conditions and habitus is the basis of an a ^
which transforms the distribution of capital, the balance-sheet of a P° relarion, into a system of perceived differences, distinctive properties* capital, whose obfec is, a distribution of symbolic capital legitimate truth
is
misrecognized.
As structured products
(opus
op^atum) which
struC a structuring
^
$ f Jp
(modus operandi) produces through retranslarions according to inC .Jpp eifve logic of the different fields, all the practices and products of * %
.
The Habitus ana objectively harmonized
nj
rhemselves, wirhour any deliber
of coherence, and objectively orchestrated, wirhour any conP conC crtation with those of all members of rhe same class The (
&°
l1
*]
f
con( inuously generates practical meTaphots, rhat is to say, trans which f he transfer of motor habits is only one example) or, more
rs f
systematic transpositions required by the particular conditions
.
u c u the habitus
? '"
is
'put into practice' (so that, for example, rhe as
which might be expected aiways
ethos cC "
i
/
r
ate
k
among
Mjvjyw
*
iff
fc
the spate &}
to express itself in saving
context, express itself in a particular way of using credit)
vcn in a C'
same agent, and, more generally, the practices of all owe the stylistic affinity which makes each of B f the same class, m a metaphor of any of the others to the fact that they are the prodof the same schemes of action from one field to another f transfers nracti ccS °r"the
would be
obvious paradigm
A*i
the disposition called 'handwriting, a
tracing letters which always produces the same writing, neu ar way of graphic forms which, in spite of all the differences of size, material or colour due to the surface (paper or blackboard) or the instrument (pen ]
of the
spite, therefore,
chalk)— in
or
different use of
immediately perceptible family resemblance, like
mannet whereby
or
man by
a painter
all
muscles— present an the features of style
or writer can be iccognized as infallibly as a
his walk-
True pastiche, as Proust does
of a
tng features
style
—
like
example, reproduces not the most srrik parody or caricature—-but the habitus, which it,
Jacques Riviere calls 'the hearth discourse is generated: with his whole
'We
are
for
of mental
amused
activity*, in
which the
original
to see each writer "resurrected"
personality and, faced with an event he has never experi-
enced, react jusc as ">s
he did ro those which
mental activity
", ind V| ^als
.
T *
s
'
lamp
relit in his
brain/*
3u5C
—
—
perfume, clothes, and in the practices in their distinction, sports, games, entertainments,
P* r ' tS( c, g af ertes,
mariifest
C
onlvu
....
is
r
C3rS
vhi h
rekindled, the
brought him. The hearth of
found in the opus opcratum because it is in the modus and property wirh which ' s found in all the properties and groups surround themselves, houses, furniture, paintings,
Systematicity Operandi.*
is
life
n f he synthetic unity of the habitus, the unifying, genprinciple of all practices. Taste, the propensity and capacity to app k ( matCf a l'y or symbolically) a given class of classified, classi^' n £ l? ^Crs or practices, is the generative formula of Jife-style, a umrary se r of ,MI " ct vc ln preferences which express the same expressive intention 'he c, "c logic of each of the symbolic subspaces, furniture, lt
ctari
'
s
'
'
,J1
€v
'
^
I
a
*fcV f
clothua S c ot body hexis Each dimension of life-style 'symbolizes C othcrS in Leibniz's phrase, and symbolizes them An old cabi'
^
^rnafc
,
s
^orld view, the way he manages
his
budget, his time or his
body, his use of language and choice of clothing are fully prcse,,, nt ethic of scrupulous, impeccable craftsmanship and in the acst^r
^
i.
lc work for work's sake which leads him to measure the beauty f ^of rr P >i ucts by rhe care and patience that have gone into them. The system of matching properties, which includes people—one 5**. of a 'well-matched couple', and friends like to say they have the c tastes— is organized by taste, a system of classificatory schemes may only very parcially become conscious although, as one r sCS
^^
i
what Weber
social hierarchy, life style
is
increasingly a matter of
Taste
is
the basis of the mutual adjustment
'stylization
of
life*.
featuies associated with a person,
which the old
aesthetic
•
"J
call f a
!? /*
h
tecommcndJ
for the sake of the mutual reinforcement they give one a norher & countless pieces of information a person consciously or unconscious!*
imparts endlessly underline and confirm one another, offering the alc observer the same pleasure an artJover derives from the symmetries
and
correspondences produced by a harmonious distribution of redundancies The over-determination that results from these redundancies is felt the
more
strongly because the different features
observation or measurement strongly
which have to be
in terpenetrate in
isolated fat
ordinary percep-
each item of information imparted in practice (e.g., a judgement of painting) is contaminated and, if it deviates from the probable fea-
tion; a
—
ture,
corrected— by the
effect
of the whole set of features previously
simultaneously perceived. That
why
or
which tends ro isolate features for example, by dissociating the things said from the way they are said and detach them from the system of correlative features tends ro minimize the deviation, on each point, between the classes, especially that between the petit bourgeois and the bourgeois. In the ordinary situ ations of bourgeois life, banalities about art, literature or cinema are inor separable from the steady tone, the slow, casual diction, the distant
—
is
a survey
—
measured gesture, rhe well-tailored bourgeois salon of the person who pronounces them. self assured smile, the
suit
and
the
into absentvj mindedness. Bourgeois respondents particularly distinguish themselves analysis of survey their ability to control the survey situation (and
Thus, lacunae can turn into disdainful
refusals
and confusion
my
should take
J* account)- Control over the soeia situation in wn,c given to rhem by the very unequally distributed ca P^[J,
this into
culture opetates
is
I
.
language which is called for in ail situations °' r lire conversation (eg., chatter about cinema or travel), and which P^yjj poses an art of skimming, sliding and masking, making abundant use °. *> the hinges, fillers and qualifiers identified by linguists as characterise to adopt the relation to
bourgeois language.
rhe practical operator of the transmutation of things tn ° 1 tinct and distinctive signs, of continuous distributions into disco*
Taste
[
is
"
slt fons;
raises the differences inscribed in the physical
order of
the symbolic order of significant distinctions. Ir transforms or> classified practices, in which a class condition signifies itself
¥*
ifi
if
bo^i
r info classifying practices, thar is, into a symbolic expresl^ u h rasre). ^hr° » position, by perceiving them in their mutual relations and ir '
,
*'
°
ofl
;
classincatory schemes. Tasre
f social
tlS
is
thus the source of the
sys-
which cannot fail ro be perceived as a systemic* °f a particular class of conditions of existence, i.e., as a n ressiO n *° C by anyone who possesses practical knowledge of the rjve life-style, stl d' ^,p S between distinctive signs and positions in the distribu^ _4>ecwcen the universe of objective properties, which is brought ro construction, and rhe no less objective universe of life bv scientific as such for and through ordina y experience. 1« which exists system, which is the product of the internalization This classifkatory r the sttuctuce of social space, in the form in which it impinges thtough fCr
'
f distinctive
features
1
J!
r
°^ a particular position in that space,
k e experience
nomic
r cCo
in
own
its
possibilities
and impossibilities (which
is,
within the limits
tends to reproduce
tt
logic), the generator of praences adjusted ro the regularises
mherenr in a condition. It continuously Transforms necessities into strategies, constraints into preferences, and, without any mechanical determination,
generates the set of 'choices* constituting
it
denve their meaning, oppositions
i.e.,
their value,
and correlations
,
ft is
from their position
a virtue
tinuously transforms necessity into virrue
correspond to rhe condition of
which
life-styles,
it
is
in a
so that
its
specific efficacy
con-
by inducing 'choices' which the product. As can be seen
can be isolated,
it
taste
is
—
f^cessity
system of
made of necessity which
vhenever a change in social position puts the habitus into tions,
which
new condi-
—the taste of
or the taste of luxury and not high or low income which commands the practices objectively adjusted to these resources. Through raste, an agent has what he likes because he likes what he has, that is, the Properties actually given to him in the distributions Sl n « cd ro him in the classifications.'
and legitimately
as-
'** Homology between the Spaces ti
"f
v
dissi
mm
'
nt^ a ^ rna f precedes, in parti culat the fact that the genera*
CT1nes
i'
ot Enc habitus are applied, by simple transfer, to the most
r area s
p rac
0r
3l Cas
tion
r
Practice are organized in
.
accordance with structures of opposihomologous to one another because they arc all homolosfru cture of objective oppositions between class conditions.
K
gou s
arc
^'rho °f th e fiil t
of practice, one can immediately understand that the S 00efc associated wirh the different classes in the different
P rcsu ming to demonstrate here r
c
in a
few pages what the whole
°f this work will endeavour to establish
me wood
for the trees of detailed analysis
— but
—
I
lest
shall
the reader
me
ely indi-
1
76 I
The Economy of Practices
cate, very schematically,
how
the two major organizing principles of the
govern the structure and modification of the space of cultural consumption, and, more generally, the whole universe of life-styles. In cultural consumption, the main opposition, by overall capital value, is between the practices designated by their rarity as distinguished, those of the fractions richest in both economic and cultural capital, and the practices socially identified as vulgar because they are both easy and common, those of the fractions poorest in both these respects. In the intermediate position are the practices which are perceived as pretentious, because of the manifest discrepancy between ambition and possibilities. In opposition to the dominated condition, characterized, from the point of view of the dominant, by the combination of forced poverty and unof which the work of art and the justified laxity, the dominant aesthetic social space
—
aesthetic disposition are the
most complete embodiments—proposes the
combination of ease and asceticism, i.e., self-imposed austerity, restraint, reserve, which are affirmed in that absolute manifestation of excellence, relaxation in tension.
This fundamental opposition tion.
Through
is
specified according to capital
composi-
means of appropriation available to cultural on the one hand, mainly eco-
the mediation of the
them, exclusively or principally
nomic on the other, and the different forms of relation to works of which result from them, the different fractions of the dominant class
art
are
oriented towards cultural practices so different in their style and object
and sometimes so antagonistic (those of 'artists' and 'bourgeois') that it is easy to forget that they are variants of the same fundamental relationship to necessity and to those who remain subject to it, and that each pursues the exclusive appropriation of legitimate cultural goods and the
Whereas the dominant fractions (the 'bourgeoisie') demand of art a high degree
associated symbolic profits.
nant
class
of the domiof denial of
the social world and incline towards a hedonistic aesthetic of ease cility,
and
fa-
symbolized by boulevard theatre or Impressionist painting, the
dominated fractions (the
'intellectuals'
and
'artists')
have
the ascetic aspect of aesthetics and are inclined to support lutions conducted in the
name
tentation and the bourgeois
cowards the social incline
them
While
it is
to
affinities
with
all artistic
revo-
of purity and purification, refusal of os-
ornament; and the dispositions world which they owe to their status as poor relations
welcome
taste
for
a pessimistic representation
clear that art offers
it
of the social world.
the greatest scope, there
is
no area of
which the intention of purifying, refining and sublimating facile impulses and primary needs cannot assert itself, or in which the stylization of life, i.e., the primacy of form over function, which leads to the denial of function, does not produce the same effects. In language, it gives the opposition between popular outspokenness and the highly censored language of the bourgeois, between the expressionist pursuit of the picturesque or the rhetorical effect and the choice of restraint and false
practice in
The Habitus and the Space of
The same economy
simplicity (litotes).
of
means
Life-Styles
is
found
/ 111
in
body
lan-
guage: here too, agitation and haste, grimaces and gesticulation are op'the slow gestures, the slow glance' of nobility, posed to slowness
—
according to Nietzsche
—
to the restraint
and impassivity which
signify
Even the field of primary tastes is organized according to the fundamental opposition, with the antithesis between quantity and quality, belly and palate, matter and manners, substance and form. elevation.
form and substance
The
fact that in the
realm of food the main op-
position broadly corresponds to differences in income has masked the sec-
ondary opposition which within the dominant
and
exists,
both within the middle
classes
and
between the fractions richer in cultural capital economic capital and those whose assets are structured in
less rich in
class,
the opposite way. Observers tend to see a simple effect of income in the
one rises in the social hierarchy, the proportion of income spent on food diminishes, or that, within the food budget, the proporfact
that, as
tion spent
on heavy,
fatty,
fattening foods,
potatoes, beans, bacon, pork
—
declines (C.S.
which
are also
XXXIII),
as
cheap
—
pasta,
does that spent
on wine, whereas an increasing proportion is spent on leaner, lighter (more digestible), non-fattening foods (beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and especially fresh fruit and vegetables).
ences
is
taste, a
virtue
made
Because the
real
principle of prefer-
of necessity, the theory which makes con-
sumption a simple function of income has all the appearances to support it, since income plays an important part in determining distance from necessity. However, it cannot account for cases in which the same income is associated with totally different consumption patterns. Thus, foremen remain attached to 'popular' taste although they earn more than clerical and commercial employees, whose taste differs radically from that of manual workers and is closer to that of teachers. For
a real
explanation of the variations which
J.
F.
Engel's law merely
one has to take account of all the characteristics of social condition which are (statistically) associated from earliest childhood with possession of high or low income and which tend to shape tastes adjusted to records,
The
these conditions.
found in the area of the opposition between the tastes of
true basis of the differences
consumption, and far beyond it, is luxury (or freedom) and the tastes of of individuals
who
necessity.
The former
are the tastes
are the product of material conditions of existence
defined by distance from necessity, by the freedoms or
facilities
stemming
from possession of capital; the latter express, precisely in their adjustment, the necessities of which they are the product. Thus it is possible to deduce popular tastes for the foods that are simultaneously most 'filling' and most economical from the necessity of reproducing labour power at the lowest cost which is forced on the proletariat as its very definition.
The
dom
idea of taste, typically bourgeois, since of choice,
is
it
so closely associated with
presupposes absolute
free-
the idea of freedom
that
1
78 / The Economy of Practices
many people find it hard to grasp the paradoxes of the taste of necessity. Some simply sweep it aside, making practice a direct product of economic
necessity (workers eat beans because they cannot afford anything
else), failing to realize that necessity
time, because the agents are inclined to
what they are anyway condemned
for
most of the because they have a taste
can only be fulfil to.
it,
Others turn
freedom, forgetting the conditionings of which reduce sort
it
of congenital coarseness, the pretext for
it
is
it
into a taste of
the product, and so
for (basic) essentials, a
a class
populace with everything heavy, thick and
ates the fati,
morbid preference
to pathological or
fulfilled,
racism which associfat.
Taste
is
amor
the choice of destiny, but a forced choice, produced by conditions of
existence which rule out
all
alternatives as
mere daydreams and leave no
choice but the taste for the necessary.
One
only has to describe the tastes of necessity as
if
they were tastes of lux-
whenever one ignores the modality of prac" tices) to produce false coincidences between the two extreme positions in social space: fertility or celibacy (or which amounts to the same thing, late marriage) is an elective luxury in one case, an effect of privation in the other. In this respect, Nicole Tabard's analysis of women's attitudes to 'working wives' is exemplary: for working-class women, 'employment is a constraint which weakens as the husband's income rises', for the women of the privileged classes, work is a choice, as is shown by the fact that 'the rate 13 of female employment does not decline as status rises.' This example should be borne in mind when reading statistics in which the nominal identity imposed by uniform questioning conceals totally different realities, as often happens when one moves from one extreme of social space to the other. If in one case women who work say they are in favour of women working, whereas in the other they may work while saying they are against it, this is because the work to which working-class women are tacitly referury (which inevitably happens
ring
is
the only sort they can expect,
which has nothing
in
common
i.e.,
unpleasant, poorly paid work,
with what 'work' implies for bourgeois
women. To
give an idea of the ideological effects which the essentialist and
anti-genetic
dominant vision produces when, consciously or unconsciously,
it
naturalizes the taste of necessity (Kant's 'barbarous taste'), converting
it
it from its economic and one only has ro recall a social psychology experiment which showed that the same act, that of giving blood, is seen as voluntary or forced depending on whether it is performed by members of the privileged classes or the working classes.
into a natural inclination simply by dissociating
social raisons d'etre,
The which
taste is
of necessity can only be the basis of
a life-style 'in-itself,
defined as such only negatively, by an absence, by the relation-
ship of privation between itself and the other are elective
emblems,
for others stigmata
bodies. 'As the chosen people bore in
life-styles.
For some, there
which they bear
in
their features the sign
their very
that
they
were the property of Jehovah, so the division of labour brands the manu-
-
The Habitus and
the Space of Life- Styles
facturing worker as the property of capital.
1
/ 179
The brand which Marx
nothing other than life-style, through which the most deprived immediately betray themselves, even in their use of spare time; in so doing they inevitably serve as a foil to every distinction and contrib-
speaks of
ute,
is
purely negatively, to the dialectic of pretension and distinction
changing of taste. Not content with lacking virtually all the knowledge or manners which are valued in the markets of academic examination or polite conversation nor with only possessing skills which have no value there, they are the people 'who don't know how to live', who sacrifice most to material foods, and to the heaviest, grossest and most fattening of them, bread, potatoes, fats, and the most vulgar, such as wine; who spend least on clothing and cosmetics, appearance and beauty; those who 'don't know how to relax', 'who always have to be doing something', who set off in their Renault 5 or Simca 1000 to join the great traffic jams of the holiday exodus, who picnic beside major roads, cram their tents into overcrowded campsites, fling themselves into the prefabricated leisure activities designed for them by the engineers of cultural mass production; those who by all these uninspired 'choices' confirm class racism, if it needed to be confirmed, in its conviction that they only get what they deserve. The art of eating and drinking remains one of the few areas in which the working classes explicitly challenge the legitimate art of living. In the face of the new ethic of sobriety for the sake of slimness, which is most recognized at the highest levels of the social hierarchy, peasants and especially industrial workers maintain an ethic of convivial indulgence. A bon vivant is not just someone who enjoys eating and drinking; he is someone capable of entering into the generous and familiar that is, both simple and free relationship that is encouraged and symbolized by eating and drinking together, in a conviviality which sweeps away re-
which
fuels the incessant
—
—
straints and reticence.
Sixty-four percent of senior executives, professionals and industrialists and 60 percent of junior executives, clerical and commercial employees consider that 'the French eat too much'.
Farm workers (who
clined to think the quantity 'about right'
upper
are
— 54 percent
by
far the
most
as against 32
in-
percent
and industrial workers are the categories who least often accept the new cultural norm (40 percent and 46 percent), which is recognized more by women than men and more by young people than old. As regards drink, only farm workers stand out clearly against the dominant view (32 percent of them consider that 'French people drink about the in the
classes)
right amount'), though industrial workers also accept it less frequently than the other categories. Sixty-three percent of the industrial workers (and 50 percent of the farm workers, as against 48 percent of the executives, pro-
and industrialists) say they have a favourable opinion of someone who enjoys eating and drinking. Another index of their willingness to stand up in this area for heterodox practices which in cultural matters thcv fessionals
180 / The Economy of Practices
would
try to disguise
is
that they say that, in a restaurant, they
would
(favoured by the senior executives) or that they would have both cheese and a dessert. This is understandable when it is remembered that, by its very rarity, a visit to a
choose
a substantial dish rather
than a light
grill
farm workers and — percent cent of workers hardly against only 6 percent of the upper something extraordinary, with the — restaurant
for
is,
most of them
44 per-
of the
51
ever ear in a restaurant, as
the industrial
associated
classes
idea of abundance and the suspension of ordinary restrictions. Even as gards alcohol consumption, where the weight of legitimacy
re-
no doubt
is
working
greater, the classes are the least inclined (35 percent of farm workers, 46 percent of industrial workers, 55 percent of the upper classes) to set
the
minimum
age for drinking alcohol above fifteen (C.S.
The boundary marking runs,
XXXIV).
the break with the popular relation to food
without any doubt, between the manual workers and the
clerical
and commercial employees (see table 16). Clerical workers spend less on food than skilled manual workers, both in absolute terms (9,376 francs as against 10,347 francs) and in relative terms (34.2 percent as against 38.3 percent); they
consume
less
bread, pork, pork products
milk, cheese, rabbit, poultry, dried vegetables and smaller food budget, spend as
lamb
— and
more on
much
on meat
—
fats,
(cbarcuterie),
and, within a
beef, veal,
mutton and
and aperitifs. These changes in the structure of spending on food are accompanied by increased spending on health and beauty care and clothing, and a slight increase in spending on cultural and leisure activities. When it is noted that the reduced spending on food, especially on the most earthly, earthy, downto-earth foods, is accompanied by a lower birth-rate, it is reasonable to suppose that it constitutes one aspect of an overall transformation of the relationship to the world. The 'modest' taste which can defer its gratifications is opposed to the spontaneous materialism of the working classes, who refuse to participate in the Benthamite calculation of pleasures and pains, benefits and costs (e.g., for health and beauty). In other words, these two relations to the 'fruits of the earth' are grounded in two dispositions towards the future which are themselves related in circular causality to two objective futures. Against the imaginary anthropology of economics, which has never shrunk from formulating universal laws of slightly
'temporal preference',
it
fresh fruit
fish,
has to be pointed out that the propensity to sub-
ordinate present desires to future desires depends on the extent to which this sacrifice
is
'reasonable', that
is,
on the
likelihood, in any case, of ob-
taining future satisfactions superior to those sacrificed.
Among
the
economic conditions of
the propensity to sacrifice
diate satisfactions to expected satisfactions one
must include
imme-
the proba-
which is inscribed in the present condition. There is still a sort of economic calculation in the unwillingness to subject existence to economic calculation. The hedonism which seizes day by day the rare satisfactions ('good times') of the immediate present bility of these future satisfactions
