Distinction: A Social Critique Of The Judgement Of Taste

In his book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1984) Pierre Bourdieu argues that cultural choice is related to social position that each individual holds within society. He argues that our everyday decisions are based on symbolic moments that we experience based on our understanding of good taste. His book is based on surveys and interviews conducted in France 1963. I will be critically analysing Distinction and Bourdieu’s Forms of Capital (1986) as well as many other works from Bourdieu and other published articles to develop a concrete understanding of the way Bourdieu’s forms of capital, habitus and fields are associated with social class, education and unequal opportunities that benefit prominent social groups in the everyday world. The focus of this paper will be on the forms of capital and the way it is …show more content…
What this means is that this form of cultural capital is recognized when a person is regarded with academic credentials and qualifications that can further them in life. Evidently, he argues that “it makes it possible to establish conversion rates between cultural capital and economic capital by guaranteeing the monetary value of a given academic capital” (Bourdieu, 1986) what this means is once someone is financially stable they are more likely to have a stronger sense of cultural capital then those who come from a working-class background. Parents often pass on cultural capital to their offspring form the knowledge that they inhibit characteristics and attitudes needed for success. Bourdieu would argue that cultural capital can be attributed from ones habitus in that their character and the way they behave in society all influence their potential of