Philosophical Critique: Pierre Bourdieu
The postmodern influential thinker, Pierre Bourdieu (1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002), was a French sociologist and philosopher. Bourdieu worked to reveal the dynamics of power in social relationships by coining and exploring the ideas of cultural, symbolic, and social capital and ideas of location, habitus, and field, (Bourdieu, n.d.). According to Jameson (1991), postmodernism is as the “dominant cultural logic of late capitalism.” Social theory encompassing class distinctions supported Bourdieu’s vision that judgment and taste preferences relate to individual experience about social position. Bourdieu was a controversial public figure in France, considered an outstanding scholar with influence in sociology (Englestad, 2008).
Bourdieu’s theory founded on traditional ideas of social order, domination, and symbolism supported social classification. Bourdieu’s postmodern theories drew on work by Marx, Weber, Levi-Strauss, Husserl, and Wittgenstein. Transcending polarity by examining and overcoming opposing forces such as micro/macro, subjectivism/optimism, and freedom/determinism through the ideas of field, capital, and habitus represented the work of Bourdieu (Karakayali, 2004). The purpose of this analysis is to discuss Bourdieu’s phenomenology and major theoretical ideas and to examine critically personal beliefs, to deconstruct my current world view in the context of underlying assumptions, paradigms, and models introduced to break out of limiting ideas and viewpoints.
Bourdieu on Cultural Capital
Fundamental Concepts
Bourdieu embraced an idea that the educational system breeds social inequality through mirrored correlations because of habitus and cultural capital. The concept of habitus originated with Aristotle and is understood as a biased interpretation of social construction. Examples of habitus include dispositions, taste, and preferences. A field is the space of an agent and the social position. A position of an agent in a field composed of field rules, habitus, and the social, economic, and cultural capital of the agent. Cultural capital is non-financial assets such as intellect and education that may influence social mobility. The concept of social capital refers to the value of social networks that create equality or inequality. Symbiotic capital grants resources to an individual based in honor, fame, or prestige (Bourdieu, 1984).
Major Theoretical Concepts
Significant paradigms in Bourdieu’s work bridged the relationship between constructing a world view through social dynamics. Bourdieu’s best known book, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, relates opinions of preference and taste to social position. The theories substantiated by interviews, surveys, and data while considering tacit experiences mitigated with social structure. Ties between social class and artistic, linguistic, and stylistic choices draw class relationships based on emptirical research (Bourdieu, 1984).
Social Stratification. Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) observation of a social hierarchy or stratification based on aesthetic preferences discusses the way an individual presents him or herself to the world as a viable mechanism to establishing social position. Symbolic goods establish distinction, and “differences in cultural capital mark the differences between the classes,” (1984). Upward social mobility through education is common. Early childhood influences shape tastes and ideals, so a social position is thereby replicated from parent to child. Individuals work through complex social relations directly and indirectly, amassing present-day ideals in politics, education, and the arts. Social class ties not only to, but also the cumulative experience of all social relations experienced. Preferences in media as well as the degree of power and influence cumulatively influence determination of social class position.
Language. As with other postmodern philosophers, Bourdieu acknowledges the power how language is used. Manifestations of social mobility through the cultural capital use of language, acquired through exposure to the intellectual classes rather than formal education. Bourdieu (1984) believed the power of formal education is proportionate to the social class experienced in family upbringing. Education assists in reproducing the higher social classes through development of language, skills, and gifts. The influence of education is significant, but inequality in social mobility is achieved based on the social background of the student as social dispositions learned at a young age.
Food, Art, and Culture. Bourdieu (1994) theorized that the preferences in food, art, and culture an individual grows up with influences later social practices determining social position. Economic ideologies are insufficient to analyze social class. Fields as guidance are wider than previous social guidelines, using exploration of postmodernist strategy in all disciplines characterized by looking beyond previously accepted models and paradigms, regardless of its previous influence in culture.
Class Fractions. Symbiotic goods composed of economic, social, and cultural values deemed class fractions that teach the younger generation aesthetic judgment serves to mark social class, stated Bourdieu (n.d.). Social origin largely influences taste in presentation, art, and food considered determinants in the social strata. Though individuals may shape their actions, Bourdieu (1884) indicated “respondents are only required to express a status-induced familiarity with legitimate…culture.”
Personal Reaction and Critique
Postmodernism discusses communication and meaning in an environment of constant flux and change. Pierre Bourdieu controversially addressed the effects of environment, education, power, and influence on the social milieu and social class distinction. To create a reaction and critique of major theories and ideas, I deconstructed my ideas of social class, education, and visual preferences of my cultural environment in Los Angeles, California.
Growing up in the Westside of Los Angeles, the cultural surroundings forming my aesthetic tastes as a child rooted in wealth. I grew up in a community populated with successful, wealthy families working in the entertainment industry. I agree with Bourdieu’s assessment that lifestyle preferences exposed as a child shape adult taste. Though I do not live in the same community as an adult, I am in a similar neighborhood about an hour south of my childhood town. I live in a wealthy country setting, drive a Mercedes, am discriminating in my activities and run my business from home.
Education in the United States does influence social position. I agree that identity can change based upon the situation. Kalampalikis Haas (2008) discuss “cognitive polyphasia” that results from “the dynamics of social thought and its entry into moving settings” (p. 453). As people go through their daily lives, they play different roles in relationship to the people around them – parent, spouse, customer, employee, boss, neighbor, etc. – and each of these social relationships requires a different pattern of speech. The transit to a high-level career relies on more than education and language. Cognitive abilities, the economic areas of growth, and competition all affect opportunity. I disagree with Bourdieu’s assessment of inequality based on the social class one is brought up in, as other mitigating factors influence social position. In the United States, upward social mobility through education is common.
Aesthetic influence plays a part in social activities such as choices in food, art, and social activities. Class fractions including particular symbiotic goods could improve a social position, for example joining an upscale tennis club may result in friendships and socializing with a higher social structure, categorizing tennis an upscale sport.
Pierre Bourdieu embraced the postmodern approach of considering the entire social construct of a person inclusive of an entire field and habitus. I agree random expressions of cultural capital benefit individuals and businesses. In my consulting practice, to enhance client public relations I encourage businesses to build Facebook and Twitter followings. The symbiotic capital I enjoy from social media interventions wins clients and revenue. The increased cultural capital built successfully increases my personal and business social mobility. To close, Bourdieu opened significant opportunities for exploration too finite for absolution, though the influence and exploration of the ideas Bourdieu created have value in social consideration. Bourdieu contributed thought to the suffering of lower classes and cultural diversity.
References
Bourdieu, P. (n.d.) Pierre Bourdieu on cultural capital. Retrieved from: http://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-5-learning-personalities/pierre-bourdieu-on-cultural-capital/.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved July 23, 2010 from https://www.ecampus.phoenix.edu
Engelstad, K. K. (2008). eMuseum at Minnesota State University – Pierre Bourdieu. Retrieved from http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/bourdieu_pierre.html
Fowler, Bridget, Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory: Critical Investigations (London, California and New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997).
Grenfell, Michael (2004). Pierre Bourdieu: Agent Provocateur. Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-6709-1.
Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Kalampalikis, N., & Haas, V. (2008). More than a Theory: A New Map of Social Thought. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38(4), 449-459. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5914.2008.00381.x.
Karakayali, Nedim. 2004. “Reading Bourdieu with Adorno: The Limits of Critical Theory and Reflexive Sociology,” Sociology (Journal of the British Sociological Association), v.38, n.2, pp.351-368.
