Dlstlnctl0n A Social Critique of t&e Ju agement of Taste Pierre Bouraieu

Translated by Richard Nice

Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts

Contents

Preface to the English-Language Edition Introduction

I

XI

Copyright @ 1984 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. All rights reserved Primed in the United Stato of America

Par! I

A Social Critique of the judgement of Taste

The Aristocracy of Culture

11 18

The Titles of Cultural Nobility Cultural Pedigree 63

Part II
97

Originally published in 1979 by Les Editions de Minuit, Paris, as La Distinction: C,ili'lue Jociaie du jugtmml by Pierre Bourdieu. The preparation of this volume was assisted by grams from the Translations Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. an indcpC'ndcm (rocral agency, and from the Cultural Exchange Service of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The assistancc of the Maison de Sciences de I'Homme is also appreciated.

The Economy of Pradices

The Social Space and Its Transformations

Class Condition and Social Conditioning A Three-Dimensional Space 114 Reconversion S tr ategies 125 3 The Homology between the Spaces 175 The Universes of StyliStic Possibles 208 4

101

99

The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles

169

Library of Congress Cataloging in Puhlication Dat2 Bourdicu, Picrre. Distinction: a soci.al critique of the judgement of taste. Translation of: La distinction: critique sociaJc du jugement. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Fr2nce-CiviJization-19452. Aesthetics. French. 3. Social c1asse5---:-Francc. I. Tide. 84-491 306'.0944 DCH.7.B6\13 1984
.

226 The Correspondence between Goods Produnion and Taste Production 230 Symbolic Struggles 244
257

The Dynamics of the Fields

Part III

Class Tas!es and Life-Styles

The Sense o f Distinction

260 267

ISBN 0-674-21277-0 (paper)

The Modes of Appropriation of the Work of Art The Variants of the Dominant Taste 283 The Mark of Time 295 Temporal and Sp iri rual Powers 315

Cultural Goodwill

318

Knowledge and Recognition 319 Education and the AutOdidact 328 Slope and Thrust 331 The Variants of Petit-Bourgeois Taste 339 The Declining Petite Bourgeoisie 346 The Execucanr Petite Bourgeoisie 351 The New Petite Boutgeoisie 35 4 From Duty to the Fun Ethic 365 7 372 The Taste for Necessity and the Ptinciple of Conformity 374 The Effects of Domination 386 397 Selective Democracy 399 Status and Competence 405 The Right to Speak 411 Personal Opinion 414 The Modes of Production of Opinion 417 Dispossession and Misappropriation 426 Moral Order and Political Otder 432 Class Habitus and Political Opinions 437 Supply and Demand 440 The Political Space 451 The Specific Effect of Trajectory 453 Political Language 459 Culture and Politics The Choice of the Necessary

Appen dices 503 1. Some Reflections on the Method 503 Complementary Sources 519 2. Srlrisrical Data 525 3. Associarions: A Parlour Game 546 4.
561 Credits 605 Index 607

Notes

Tables

1 Class preferences for singers and music 15 2 Aesthetic disposition, by educational capital 36 3 Aesthetic disposition, by class and educarion 37 4
Knowledge

of composers and musical works,

by

education and class of

)
6

origin 64 Furniture purchases in the dominant class, by education and social origin 78 Some indicators of economic capital in different [ranions of the dominant class, 1966 117 Some indicators of cultural practice in different franions of the domi nant class, 1966 118 Types of hooks preferred by different (ranions of the dominant class, 1966 119
Social

Conclusion: Classes and Classifications 466 Embodied Social Structures 467 Knowledge without Concepts 470 Advantageous Attributions 475 The Classification Struggle 479 The Reality of Representation and the Representation of Reality 482 Postscript: Towards a 'Vulgar' Critique of 'Pure' Critiques 485 Disgust at the 'Facile' 486 The ITasre of Reflection' and the 'Taste of Sense' 488 A Denied Social Relationship 491 Paretga and Paralipomena 494 The Pleasute of the Text 498

origin of members of the dominant class, 1970 121

by

class franion,

10 11 12 13 14 15
16

17

Rare of employment of women aged 25-34, by education, 1962 and 1968 134 Changes i n morphology and asset structure of the class fractions, 19541 975 136 Changes in morphology and asset structure of the class franions, 1954196R 13B Morphological chaoges wirhin the dominant class, 19541975 140 Morphological changes within the middle class, 19541975 140 Changes in class morphology and use of educational system, 1954 1968 158 A t:; nnu al household expenditures on food: skilled manual workers, aremen and clerical workers, 1972 181 Yearly spending hy teachers, professionals and industrial and commercial employers, 1972 184

18
20 22 19

21

Variations in value placed by Frenchwomen on body, beauty and beauty care, 1976 203 Opinions on literary prizes, by class fraction, 1969 Classfracrion variarions in moral attirudes 312 Class variations in sports acrivities and opinions on sporr, 1975
320

Annual household expenditures on food: fractions of the dominant class, 1972 188 Variations in enterraining, by class fraction, 1978 198
216

23 24 25 26 27

Awareness of social factors in educational and social success, by class fraction, 1971 388 'Don't know' responses to political guestions, by sex, 1971 403
404

Knowledge and preferences of established and new petite bourgeoisie, in Paris and in the provinces 364 Views on ways of reducing ineguality, by class fraction, 1970
389

Chances of entering the dominant class, and fertility rares, by class fraction, 1970-71 332

29 30 31 32 33 36 35 34

28

. . itus and life-style 171 ons of existence, hab co nditI 186 food space 8 The es 248 eaI hom d 9 l 1O taste: the space 0f properties 262 tS 0f the dominant . . VarIan 11 taSte: the space of mdividuals 262 dominant . riantS 0f the . . , !2 Va dominant taste: Slmpltfied plane dIagram of 1st and 3rd the VanantS 0f . 13 Ia 266 axes of inert 271 Films seen: 1 . 14 ois taste: the space of propertIes 340 petit-bourge . VariantS of . . 15 the space of mdlvlduals 340 rgeois taste: Vartanrs of petit-bou 16 e diagram of 1st and 3rd nts of petit-bourgeois taste: simplified plan 17 Vana axes of inef(ia 343 II 361 18 Films seen: nce 423 Permissiveness and political prefere 19 ence 427 Opinions on foreign policy and political prefer 20
. . . . . . .

The imposition effect: responses to question on the business world and, politics, by class fraction, 1971 429 The imposition effecc responses to question on the new socialism, by sex, class fraction and party, 1971 430
436 445 446

1970

'Don'r know' responses to questions on teaching, by educarional level.

21

The political space 452

Views on political order and moral order, by class fraction,

1959-1972

Newspaper reading by men and women, by class fraction, 1975 Percentage of each class fcaccion reading each daily and weekly paper 448

Newspaper reading by men, by age, 1975 445

Newspaper reading by men, by educational level, 1975

Figures
3 4 2 1

The relationship between inherited cultural capital and educational capital 81 Specific competence and talk about art 90

The aesthetic disposition in the petite bourgeoisie 59

Distribution of preferences for three musical works

17

The space of social positions 128 6 The space of life-styles 129 7 Displacemenr of schooling rates of 16- to 18-year-olds, 1954-1975

159

preface to t&e Eng[is& Language Eaition

French it is, of course, by virtue of its empirical object, and it can be read as a sort of ethnography of France, which, though I believe it shows no ethnocentric indulgence, should help to renew the rather stereotyped

I have every reason to fear that this book will strike tbe reader as 'very French'-which I know is not always a compliment.

namely, the persistence, through different epochs and political regimes, of the aristocratic model of 'court society', personified by a Parisian haute bourgeoisie which, combining all forms of prestige and all the titles of eco nomic and cultural nobility, has no counterpart elsewhere, at least for the arrogance of its cultural judgements.' It would, however, be a mistake to regard all that is said here about the social uses of art and culture as a col1ction of Parisian curiosities and frivolities-and not only because, as Ervl,n?" Gottman once pointed out to me, the Parisian version of the art of hVlng has never ceased to exert a sort of fascination in the 'Anglo Saxon' world, even beyond the circle of snobs and socialites, thereby at talOlfig a kind of un iversality. e model of the relationships between the universe of economic and SOCIal conditi ons and the universe of lifestyles which is put forward here,

renouncing the ambition of drawing out universal propositions. It is, no doubt, only by using the comparative method, which treats its object as a 'particular case of the possible', that one can hope to avoid unjustifiably universalizing the particular case. With the aid of Norbert Elias's analy ses, I do indeed emphasize the particularity of the French tradition,

image of French society that is presented by the American tradition. But I believe it is possible to enter into the singularity of an object without

,-- --

- - - -

based on an endeavour to rethink Max Weber's opposition between and Stand, seems to me to be valid beyond the particular French case antl, no doubt, for every stratified society, even if the system of distinctive tures which express or reveal economic and social differences variable in scale and structure) varies considerably ftom one period, one society, to another. 2 For example, the slightest familiarity with structural mode of thought tells one that the use of French words, pCClp!!r names, preferably noble, or common nouns---Institut de Beaute, Con: seur, Haute couture, etc-performs the same function for shops on Avenue or Madison Avenue as English words like hairdresser, s : , or interior designer on shop fronts in the rue du Faubourg S , ore.' But, more btoadly, the sense of distance, even strangeness, WrllC)1' scientific objectification itSelf produces and which is intensified differences in historical traditions, giving different contentS to realizations of the same structures, must not prevent the reader from fleeting ooto his own society, onto his own position within it, in 10rt.' onto himself, the analyses he is offered. That is why, though I am aware of the dangers of a facile search for . partial equivalences which cannot stand in for a methodical between systems, I shall take the risk of suggesting, within the my knowledge of American society and culture, some guidelines for reading that seeks to identify, behind the specific institution of a paJrti(:u, lar society, the structural invariant and, by the same token, the equivalent, institution in another social universe. At the level of the 'international" pole of the dominant class the problem scarcely arises, since the cultural " ptoducts are ( relatively) international. One could replace Les Motkrnes by Partisan Review,' France-Musique by educational television' ( Channel 13, WQXR, WGBH etc) and perhaps ultra-leftism by sixties, 'camp',' while the New York Review o Books would ( alas) represent an: f unlikely combination of the weekly Nouvel Observateur, the review Cri- ' tique and, especially in its successive enthusiasms. the journal Tel Que!. As: regards bourgeois taste, the American professionals, executives and man-: agers might ask of the film, book, art and music critics of the New York " Times or magazines like Time and Newsweek the same balanced, subtly di versified judgements which their French opposite numbers expect from Le Montie or Le Figaro or weeklies like L'Express or Le Point. The titles and authors favoured by the best-seller readership will vary from country to country, but in each case there will be a preponderance of the life stories and memoirs of exemplary heroes of bourgeois success or 'non-fic tion novels'. The undemanding entertainment which Parisians expect from boulevard theatre, New Yorkers will seek in Broadway musicals. But I believe I have said enough to encourage my readers to join in the game, at least so as to correct my mistakes and perhaps to pursue the search for equivalents, which would have ro be sought in song and cin ema (Is Brigitte Bardot like Marilyn Monroe' Is Jean Gabin the French

::

Tracy')-and also in Wayne, or Humphrey Bogart or Spencer ohn . . 'or decoration ' sport and cooking. For It IS certam that on J Interl d ress" 'b the Channel or the Atlantic some things are compatl le, d . Sle of eaeh ' ' r , and the prclerences 0f a c1 ass or c1 ass f faction conSt lt.ut e rs are not" e . o th ' IC s ystems. To supporr this hypotheSlS, wh' h a11 the empmca1 erent COh 10 invoke Edgar Allan Poe, wh0 spe11 s out the l' k es co nfi rm ' I can analys c , . . most everyday chOIces, In decoratIOn, lor examp1 e, and ween. the bet 'fine arts', seeing in the ordinary arrangement of the Olces iO the . ch lIe of his country the expresSIOn 0f a way 0f l' r and parrments alth we "We speak of the keeping of a room as we would of the keeping thoug r . re for both the picture and the room are amenable to those a i f t o d eP crU pr incipl eS which regulate all varieties of art; and very . nearly . un Vla 1ng . ' laws by which we deCide on the hIgher ments 0f a paInting, the same . tment 0f a chamb er.,r, Ii ce for decision on the adJus su be undersrood if Co Io ltS I' rm, toO, this book is 'very French'. This will . I try ro show, the mode of expresSIOn character as the reader accepts that, . f a cultural production always depends on the laws of the market In

d ahich it is offered. Although the book transgresses one af the fun ental taboos of the intellectual world, in relating intellectual products doubt, and producers to their social conditions of existence-and also, no because it does so-it cannot entirely Ignore or defy the laws of academIC or intellectual propriety which condemn as barbarous any attempt to treat culture, that present incarnation of the sacred, as an object of SCl
'

IS(lC 0

"

ence. That is one of the reasons---along with the costS of book produc tionwhy I have only very partially reproduced the survey material and the statistical data used, and have not always glven the expOSItIOn of the method as much prominence as the rhetoric of scientificity would de mand. (As in the French edition, some passages of the text, contaInIng detailed statistical material, illustrative examples or discussion of ancillary

things while setting them in rigorous perspective-stems partly from the endeavour to mobilize all the resources of t he traditional modes of ex pression, literary, philosophical or scientific, so as ro say things that were de facto or de jure excluded from them, and ro prevent the reading from shpping back into the simplicities of the smart essay or the political po Finally, I realize how much the specificity of the French intellectual field may have contributed to the conception of this book, in particular to Us perhaps immoderate ambition of giving a scientific answer to the old questions of Kant's critique of judgement, by seeking in the struc ture of the social classes the basis of the systems of classification which

issues, are printed in small type so that the reader who seeks an o erviw of the main argument may pass over them on a first reading.) LikeWISe, the style of the b ook , whose long, complex sentences may offend-wn struc rcd as they are with a view to reconstituting the complexity of the social world in a language capable of holding together the most diverse

lemic .K

struCture perception of the social world and designate the objects of aes. thetic enjoyment. But in an age when the effects of a premature of labour separate anthropology from sociology, and, within the the sociology of knowledge from the sociology of culture, not ro mc," tion the sociology of food or sport, it is perhaps the advantage of a we,rle still haunted by the ultimate and total questionings of the prophetic tn.,.' tellectual that one is led to refuse the self-induced myopia which makes impossible to observe and understand everything that human pra.ctic:es reveal only when they are seen in their mutual relationships, that is, as totaliry'" At all events, there is nothing more universal than the project of objec:-; tifying the mental structures associated with the particularity of a social, strucrure. Because it presupposes an epistemological break which is also social break, a sort of estrangement from the familiar, domestic, native world, the critique (in the Kantian sense) of culture invites each reae through the 'making strange' beloved of the Russian formalists, to produce on his or her own behalf the critical break of which it is product. For this reason it is perhaps the only rational basis for a trullv universal culture.

Distinction

Introauction
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 diligent, from his earliest grammar classes he's kept a lit rIe 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 money? Paul Claude!,

Le soulier de satin, Day

III,

Scene ii

There is an economy of cultural goods, but ir has a specific logic. Sociol ogy endeavours to establish rhe condirions in which the consumers of cultural goods, and their taste for them, arC produced, and at the same time to describe the differenr ways of appropriating such of these objects as are regarded ar a parricular moment as works of arr, and the social conditions of rhe constitution of the mode of appropriarion thar is con sidered legitimate. But one cannot fully understand cultural practices unless 'culture', in the restricted, normative sense of ordinary usage, is brought back into 'culture' in the anthropological sense, and the elabo fated taste for the most refined objects is reconnected with the elemen tary taste for the flavours of food. Whereas the ideology of charisma regards taste in legitimate culture as a gift of nature, scientific observation shows that cultural needs are the product of upbringing and education: surveys establish that all cultural practices (museum visits, concert-going, reading etc.), and preferences in literarure, painting or music, are closely linked to educational level (measured by qualifications or lengrh of schooling) and secondarily to social origin. ' The relative weight of home background and of formal education (rhe effectiveness and duration of which are closely dependent on social origin) varies according to the extent to which the differen t cultural praCtices are recognized and taught by the educational system, and the influence of social origin is strongest--{)ther things being c'jual-in 'extra-curricular' and avant-garde culture. To the socially recog nized hierarchy of the arts, and within each of them, of genres, schools or periods, corresponds a social hierarchy of the consumers. This predisposes

/ Introduction

Introduction / 3 work. 3 Thus the encounter with a work of art is not 'love at first sight' as is generally supposed, and the act of empathy, Ein/iih/ung, which is the art-lover's pleasure, presupposes an act of cognition, a decoding opera tion, which iTplies the implementation of a cognitive acquirement, a cultural code. This typically intellectualist theory of artistic perception directly con tradicts the experience of the art-lovers closest to the legitimate defini tion; acquisition 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 his tory reproduced by education. This is true of the mode of artistic percep tion now accepted as legitimate, that is, the aesthetic disposition, the capacity to consider in and for themselves, as form rather than fuoction, not only the works designated for such apprehension, i.e., legitimate works of art, but everything in the world, including cultural objects which ar 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 auton omous field of artistic production, that is, a field capable of imposing its own norms on both the production and the consumption of its prod ucts6 An art which, like all Post-Impressionist painting, is the product of an artistic intention which asserts the primacy of the mode of representa tion over the object of representation demands categorically an attention to form which previous art only demanded conditionally. The pure intention of the artist is that of a producer who aims to be autonomous, that is, entirely the master of his produn, who tends to re ject not only the 'programmes' imposed a priori by scholars and scribes, but also-following the old hierarchy of doing and saying-the interpre tations superimposed a posteriori on his work. The production of an 'open work', intrinsically and deliberately polysemic, can thus be under stood 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 au tonomy 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 ref erent, which involves suba,rdinatiofl to fUflctions-even if only the most elementary one, that of representing, signifying, saying something. It also means a refusal to recognize any necessity other than that inscribed in the specific tradition of rhe artistic discipline in question: the shift from an art which imitates nature to an art which imitates an, deriving from its own history the exclusive source of its experiments and even of its breaks with tradition. An art which ever increasingly contains refer ence to its own history demands to be perceived historically; it asks to be referred not t an external referent, the represented or designated 'reality', but to the UnIVerse of past and present works of art. Like artistic produc-

has s' The mnner i which culture tastes to function as markers of 'clas . g It: the Importance attached ner of usin been acquired lives on in the man it IS these Imponder be understood once it is seen that to manners can es of the different-and ranked-mod abIes of practice which distinguish ss of domestic or sc olastlc, nd the clas culture acquisition, early or late, datm). erize (such as pedants and mon individuals which they charact l ility-awarded by the educationa CuI"ture aIs0 has its titles of nob . ty 10 admISsIon t the . sured by seniorI system-and its pedigrees, mea nobility. IC is the stake 10 a sttuggIe wh h h as The definition of cultural nobility century to the present day, nteenth one on unceasingly, from the seve ure and of rhe legItImate ups differing in their ideas of cult etween gro of art, ad threfore dlffenng 10 th relation to culture and to works duct. ch these dIspositions are the pro conditions of acquisition of whi ate way of t defimtlon of the legitIm Even in the classroom, the dominan y art favours those who have had earl of a ro riating culture and works of scholastic cultured household, ?utslde a es to legitimate culture, in a larly educatlon1 system I,t devale: scho disciplines, since even within the 10 favour 'scholastic or even pedantic knowledge and interpretation as dehght. , , of direct experience and simple . typI. Cally pedan1C language, c of whar is sometimes called, 10 The logi 1on. rs an objective basis for thIS oposlt the 'reading' of a work of art, offe mctIon, that e in a process of commu Consumption is, in this case, a stag , l or exding, whICh presupposes practICa is an act of deciphering, deco that the capacity can say In iicit mastery of a cipher or code.knoa sense, oneOIr), or concepts, that IS, wledge (sav of the o see (voir) is a function a e. as It name VISible thmgs, and hlCh the words, that are available to meanmg and Interest A work of art has were programmes for perception. , that IS, the ' possesses the cultural competence onlY for someone who or uconsC1ous Impl:mn conscious code, into which it is encoded. The on and appreCIation or implicit schemes of percepti tation of explicit on for sical culture 15 the hidden conditi which constitutes pictorial or mu ,od, a school or an author, tic of a perI recognizing the styles characteris works iliarity with the mternal logIC of and, more generally, for the fam spec'fic oses. A beholder who lacks the . that aesthetic enjoyment presupp thms, colours and hnes,. WIth a chaos of sounds and rhy code feels lost in os learnt to adopt the adequate dlsp out rh me or reason. Not having ies , pert in Panofsky calls the 'sensIble pro t" on h . stopS short at what Erw I . as delicate, or at the emotional -work ' percelvlng a skin as downy or lace to 'austere' colours or a sed by these properties' referring . resonances ar0u f the ve from the ' nmary stratum, 'joyful' melody. He cannot mO to the e basis of our ordmary expelenc meaning we can grasp on the 'level of the mean109 of what IS i.e., the 'stratum of secondary meanings', ch go beyond the senSIble . ess he possesses the concepts whi fied' , unl slgm the I IStlC specificaIIy styI ptopertes of ptoperties and which identify the

r t

/ Introduction

Introduction / 5
ethos) which is the exact opposite of the Kantian aesthetic. Wherea s in order to grasp the specificity of the aesthetic judgement, Kant strov to dlsttogUlsh that whIch pleases from that which gratifies and, more gen erally, to dIStingUIsh disinterestedness, the sale guarantor of the specifi cally aesthetic qualtty of contemplation, from the interest of reason whIch defines the Good, working-class people expect every image to ex pltCltly perform a function If only that of a sign, and their judgem ents , make reference, often explICItly, to the norms of morality or agreeable ness. Whether reJecttog or praising, their appreciation always has an eth Ical baSIS. Popular taste applies the schemes of the ethos, which pertain in the or . dtoary CIrCumstances of life, to legitimate works of art, and so performs a systematic reductIon of the Ihtngs of art to the things of life. The very senousness (or naIvety) whICh thIS taste tnvests in fictions and represen tan.on; emonstrates a c otrario tha pure taste performs a suspens ? . ion of . , n lve mvolve ment whICh IS one dImenslOn of a 'quasi-ludic' relation . shIp ';lth the necessities of the world. Intellectuals could be said to be lIeve I the representation-literature, theatre, painting-mo re than in the thtngs represented, whereas the people chiefly expect represe ntations and :he conventions which govern them to allow them to believe 'na Ively to the thtngs represented. The pure aesthetic is rooted in an ethic or rather, an ethos of elective distance from the necessities of the naturai and social world, which may take the form of moral agnosticism (visible when ethICal transgressIOn becomes an artistic parti pris) or of an aesthet ICIsm whIch presents the aesthetic disposition as a universally valid prin CIple and takes the bourgeOIs dental of the social world to its limit. The detachment of the pure gaze cannot be dissociated from a general . dispo SitIOn towards the world whICh IS the paradoxical product of condition Ing by negtIve economic necessities-a life of ease-that tends to induce . an actIve dIstance from. necessity. . Although art obviously offers the gre test scope to the aesthet ic dispo SItiOn, there IS no area of practice 10 whICh the aim of purifyi ng, refining nd sblImatIng pnmary needs and Impulses cannot assert itself, no area to whICh the stylization of life, that is, the primacy of forms over func tIon, . of anner over matter, does not produce the same effects. And nothtog IS more distinctive, more distinguished, than the capacity to confer aesthetic status on objects that are banal or even 'comm on' (be cause the 'common, peopI e mak e them their own, especially for aesthetic . purposes), or the ablltty to apply the principles of a 'pure' aesthetic to the most everyday chOIces of everyday life, e.g. , in cooking, clothin g or deco ration, completely reversing the popular disposition which annexes aes thetics to ethICS. In fact, through the economic and social ndicions which they pre : suppose, the dIfferent ways of relating to realttles and fiction s, of believ Ing to fictions and the realities they simulate, with more or less distance
_

rion, in that it is generated in a field, aesthetic perception is necessarily historical inasmuch as it is differential, relational, attentive to the devia* tions (ecrts) which make styles. Like the so-called naive painter who, operating outside the field and its specific traditions, remains external to the history of the art, the 'naive' spectator cannot atratn a speClfic grasp of works of art which only have meaning--or value-in relation to the specific history of an artistic tradition. The aesthetic disposition de manded by the ptoducts of a highly autonomous field of production IS 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, all the distinctive features and only these, by referring them, consciously or unconsciously, to the uni verse of possible alternatives. This mastery is, for the most part, acquired simply by contact with works of art-that is, through an implicit learn ing analogous to that which makes it possible to recogntze famlltar faces without explicit rules or criteriaand it generally remams at a practtCal level; it is what makes it possible to identify styles, i.e., modes of expres sion characteristic of a period, a civilization or a school, without having to distinguish clearly, or state explicitly, the features which constitute their originality. Everything seems to suggest that even among profes sional valuers, the criteria which define the stylistic properties of the 'typ ical works' on which all their judgements are based usually remain implicit. The pure gaze implies a break with the ordinary attitude towards the world, which, given the conditions in which it is performed, is also a so cial separation. Ortega y Gasser can be believed when he attributes to modern art a systematic refusal of all that is 'human" i.e., generic, com monas 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 novel and especially the theatre, where the working-class audience refuses any sort of formal experimentation and all the effects which, by intro ducing a distance from the accepted conventions (as regards scenery, plot etc.), tend to distance the spectator, preventing hIm from getttog In volved and fully identifying with the characters (I am thinking of Brechtian 'alienation' or the disruption of plot in the nouveau roman). In contrast to the detachment and disinterestedness which aesthetic theory regards as the only way of recognizing the work of art for what it is, i.e., autonomous, JelbJicindigJ the 'popular aesthetic' ignores or refuses the re fusal of 'facile' involvement and 'vulgar' enjoyment, a refusal 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

6 / Introduction
and detachment, are very closely linked to the diff erent possible positions in social space and, consequently, bound up with the systems of disposi tions (habitus) characteristic of the different classes and class fractions. Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which their position in the objective classifications is expressed or be trayed. And statistical analysis does indeed show that oppositions similar in structure to those 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 neces sity-between the taste of necessity, which favours the most 'filling' and most economical foods, and the taste of liberty-{)r 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 trans 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, liter ature and hairstyle. This barbarous reintegration of aesthetic consump tion 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 ro 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 sa cred. Cultural consecration does indeed confer on the objects, persons and situations it touches, a sort of ontological promotion akin to a tran substantiation. Proof enough of this is found in the two following quo tations, which might almost have been written for the delight of the . sociologist: 'What struck me most is this: nothing could be obscene on the stage of our premier theatre, and the ballerinas of the Opera, even as naked dancers, sylphs, sprites or Bacchae, retain an inviolable purity." 'There are obscene postures: the stimulated intercourse which offends the eye. Clearly, it is impossible to approve, although the interpolation of such gestures in dance routines does give them a symbolic and aesthetic quality which is absent from the intimate scenes the cinema daily flaunts before its spectators' eyes . . . As for the nude scene, what can one say, except that it is brief and theatrically not very effective? I willllot say it is chaste or innocent, for nothing commercial can be so described. Let us say it is not shocking, and that the chief objection is that it serves as a box-office gimmick. . . . In Hair, the nakedness fails to be symbolic.'8

Intro duction / 7
The enial of lower, coarse, vulgar, venal, servile -in a word, natu ral---enjoyment, which constitutes the sacred sphere of culture implies an affirmation of the superiority of those who can be satisfied ;"'ith the subltmated, refined, disinterested, gratuitous, distin guished pleasures for ever closed to the profane. That is why art and cultur al consumption are predISP?sed, conSClously and deliberately or not, to fulfil a social function . of legitImating social differences.

Tbe Arjstocrac of Cu[ture

Sociology is rarely more akin to social psychoanalysis than when it con fronts an object like taste, one of the most vital stakes in the struggles fought in the field of the dominant class and the field of cultural produc tion. This is not only because the judgement of taste is the supreme manifestation of the discernment which, by reconciling reason and sensi. bility, the pedant who understands without feeling and the mondain1 who enjoys without understanding, defines the accomplished individual. Nor is ir solely because every rule of propriery 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 WOltllin 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 up perclass propriety which treats taste as one of the surest signs of true no erring taste to anything other than itself bility and cannot conceive of ref Here the sociologist finds himself in the area par excellence of the de nial of the social. It is not sufficient to overcome the initial self-evident appearances, in orher words, to relate raste, the uncreated source of all 'creation', to the social conditions of which it is the product, knowing full well that the very same people who strive to repress the clear relation between taste and education, between .culture as the state of that which is cultivated and culture as the process of cultivating, will be amazed that anyone should expend so much effort in scientifically proving that self evident 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 oj the Judgement oj Taste

The Aristocracy oj Culture !

13

with educational capital is just as strong in areas which the educational system does not teach. And he must do. this without evet being able to appeal unconditionally to the POSItlVIStlC arbitration of what ate called facts. Hidden behind the statistical relationships between educational capital or social origin and this or that type of knowledge or way of ap plying it, there are relationships between groups maintaining different, and even antagonistic, relations to culture, dependtng on the Cndlt1nS in which they acquired their cultural capiral and rhe markets In which they can derive most profit from it. Bur we have nor yet fimshed with rhe self-evident. The question irself has to be questioned-In orher words, rhe relation to culture which it tacitly privileges-in order to esrabltsh whether a change in the content and form of rhe question would not be sufficient ro transform the relationships observed. There IS no way out of rhe game of culture; and one's only chance of objectifying the true na ture 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 Ie jabula narratur. The reminder is meant for the reader as well.s the SOCI ologist. Paradoxically, the games of culture are protected against obJeCtI fication by all the partial objectifications whICh the actors Involved In the game perform on each other: scholarly critics can no'. grasp the objective reality of society aesthetes without abandomng 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 antago nism 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: ont IS stIll liable ro be led into accepting one or the other of the self-Interested representa tions 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 curren'. tax onomy puts it) subject their opponents and their strategies to an obJecti vist 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 fails to construct the game as a whole. Only at the level of the field of positions is it possible to grasp both the generic interests aSSOCIated with the fact of taking part in the game and the speCIfic Interests attached to the different positions, and, through this, the form and content of the self-positionings through which these interests are expressed. Despite the aura of objectivity they like to assume, neither the 'SOCIology of the in tellectuals', which is traditionally the business of 'right-wing intellec tuals', nor the critique of 'right-wing thought', the traditional speciality of 'left-wing intellectuals' , is anything more than a senes of symbolIC ag gressions which take on additional force when they dress themselves up in the impeccable neutrality of science. They taCItly agree In leaving hld-

den what is essential, namely the strucrure 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 re ceive a group's partial truth as if it were a full account of the objective relations between the groups. The analyses presented in this book are based on a survey by question naire, carried out in 1963 and 1967-68, on a sample of 1,217 people. (Ap pendix 1 gives full information concerning the composition of the sample, the questionnaire, and the main procedures used to analyze it. Appendix 3 contains the statistical data drawn from the survey , as well as data from other sources.) The 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 academic'-in which they may be placed. Two basic facts were thus es tablished: on the one hand, the very close relationship linking cultural practices (or the corresponding opinions) to educational capital ( mea sured by qualifications) and, secondarily, to social origin ( measured by f ather's occupation ) ; and, on the other hand, the fact that, at equivalent levels of educational capital, the weight of social origin in the practice and preference-explaining system increases as one moves away from the most legitimate areas of culture. The more the competences measured are recognized by the school sys tem , and the more 'academic' the techniques used to measure them, the sronger is the relation between, performance and educational qualifica tion. The latter, as a more or less adequate indicator of the number of years of scholastic inculcation, guarantees cultural capital more or less completely, depending on whether it is inherited from the family or ac quired at school, and so i t is an unequally adequate indicator of this capi tal. The strongest correlation between performance and educational capital qua cultural capital recognized and guaranteed by the educational system ( which is very unequally responsible for its acquisition) is ob served when, with the question on the composers of a series of musical works, the survey takes the form of a very 'scholastic' exercise on knowl edge very close to that taught by the educational system and strongly rec ognized in the academic market.

The interviewer read out a list of sixteen musical works and asked the re sponden t 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

14 / A Social Critique ofthe Judgement of Taste

sixteen works), compared to 45 percent of those with a BEPC, 19 percent of those with the baccalauriat, 17 percent of those who had gone to a tech nical college (petite ieole) or started higher education and only 7 percent of those having a qualification equal or superior o a licence.2 Whereas none of 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 pro ducers' and the teachers (and 78 percent of the teachers in higher educa tion) achieved this score. The rate of non-response to the question on favourite painters or pieces of music is 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 this case whether or not people answered the question doubtless depended as much on their dispositions as on their pure competence, the cultural pre tensions of the new petite bourgeoi s e---junior commercial executives, the i medical and social services, secretaries, and the various culwral interme diaries (see Chapter 6)-found an outlet here.) Similarly, listening to the most 'highbrow' radio stations, France-Musique and France-Culture, and to musical or cultural broadcasts, owning a record-player, listening ro records (without specifying the type, which minimizes the differences), visiting art galleries, and knowledge of painting-features which are strongly correlated with one another--obey the same logic and, being strongly linked to educa tional 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 sys tem and (relativel y) 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 closer one moves rowards 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 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, be tween 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 presup pose), are opposed to the Strauss waltzes and the Sabre Dance, pieces which are devalued either by belonging to a lower genre ('light music') or by their popularization (since the dialectic of distinction and pretension desig nates as devalued 'middle-brow' art those legitimate works which become 'popularized'),3 just as, in the world of song, Georges Brassens and lio Ferre are opposed to Georges Guetary and Petula Clark, these differences corresponding in each case to differences in educational capital (see table 1). In fact, the weight of the secondary factors---composition of capital, vol-

The Aristocracy of Culture / 15

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16 / A Social Critique o the Judgement of Taste f

ume of inherited cultural capital (or social trajectory ), age, place of resi dence-varies with the works. Thus, as one moves towards the works that afe least legitimate (at the moment in question), factors such as age be come increasingly important; in the case of Rhapsod in Blue or the Hungar y ian Rhapsody, there is a closer correlation with age than with education, father's occupational category, sex or place of residence. Thus, of all the objects offered for consumers' choice, there are none more classifying than legitimate works of art, which, while distinctive in general, enable the production of distinctions ad infinitum by playing on divisions and sub-divisions into genres, periods, styles, authors etc. Within the universe of particular tastes which can be recreated by suc cessive divisions; it is thus possible, still keeping to the major opposi tions, to distinguish three zones of taste which roughly correspond to educational levels and social classes: ( 1 ) Legitimate taste, i.e., the taste for legitimate works, here represented by the Well-Tempered Clavier (see fig ure 1, histogram 1 ) , the Art of Fugue or the Concerto f the Lift Hand, or, or in painting, Breughel or Goya, which the most self-assured aesthetes can combine with the most legitimate of the arts that are still in the process of legitimation----<: inema, jazz or even song ( here, for example, Leo Ferre, 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' taste, which brings together the minor works of the major arts, in this case Rhapsody in Blue (histogram 2 ) , the Hungarian Rhapsody, or in painting, Uttillo, Buffet or even Renoir, and the major works of the minor arts, such as Jacques Brel and Gilbert Becaud in the art of song, is more common in the middle classes (classes moyennes) than in the work ing classes (classes populaires ) or in the 'intellectual' fractions of the domi nant class. ( 3 ) Finally, 'popular' taste, represented here by the choice of works of so-called 'light' music or classical music devalued by populariza tion, such as the Blue Danube (hisrogram 3 ) , La Traviata or L'Arlhienne, and especially songs totally devoid of artistic ambition or pretension such as those of Luis Mariano, Guetary or Petula Clark, is most frequent among the working classes and varies in inverse ratio to educational capi tal ( which explains why it is slightly more common among industrial and commercial employers or even senior executives than among primary teachers and cultural intermediaries) . The three profiles presented in figure 1 are perfectly typical of those that are found when one draws a graph of the distribution of a whole set of chQices characteristic of different class fractions (arranged in a hierarchy, within each class, according ro educational capital ). The first one (the WeI/ Tempered Clavier) reappears in the case of all the authors or works named above, and also for such choices in the survey questionnaire (see appendix 1) as 'reading philosophical essays' and 'visiting museums' etc.; the second

The Aristocracy of Culture / 1 7

riJIure 1 Distribu tion of preferences for three musical works by class fraction.
I Wdl-Tempered Clavier
1I11111(1al workers 11PI Il(...tic servants HII\lllCn, shopkeepers IIH II Oil and commercial employees

IUlIII'1 administrative executives lUl l I, II commercial executives, secretaries tf! hnirians "trill( aJ social services

HtlilllaJ intermediaries , art craftsmen

Jndu\lriai and commercial employers Imlillt -sector executives IJlI,'! ('-sector executives , engineers lllll(\., jons

IIIIIOIry teachers

'l lIl1dary teachers hlMhn-cducation teachers, an producers ,. tth:lp.mdy in Blue ithHillal workers thH1j("tic servants 11I111'>I11t"n, shopkeepers

1111'01'1 :d-social services 1111I1l,uy teachers

1Ii'III :,1 and commercial employees 1111111)1 administrative executives 11111101 wmmercial executives, secretaries It'l llll icians

nil!lIlai intermediaries , art craftsmen

IHlv,llr-sector executives , engineers IHllt('sjons .l-I I)lhlary teachers hiil('r-ducation teachers, art producers

Il1d\I! I ial and commercial employers Ill i lli l( -sector executives

20.5 3 20 22 27.5 26.5 42 20 20 22.5 22 5 15 29 19 12 5 12

A IUIlt, Danube 50.5 35.5 49 I j1 i( ill and commercial employees 52 " 111111 administrative executives 34 11111111 (ommercial executives , secretaries 29.5 !t>l 111111 ians 21 IlIfdu ai -social services 15.5 ll!II'IIY teachers 10 HtlllI!:d Intermediaries, art craftsmen 12.5 lfId llllliai and commercial employers 21.5 Illd 1111 ("rtor executives 20 Ilill',II(" .';("(tor executives , engineers 18.5 /llliln,>ill!lS 15.5 it'I IIIlIL,ry teachers 4 hllwl -("ducation teachers , art producers 0
Inrll l;!1" workers 111>1I11"r j( servants I-Itl\ll l('n, shopkeepers

,.)

f gement o Taste 18 / A Social Critique of the Jud y (RhapJod in Blue) characterizes, in addition to all the works and authorsosy le, mentioned (plus the Twilight of the Gods), 'photogtaphy', 'cmfortab valId for love stones home' etc.; and the third (Blue Danube) IS equally
and 'clean, tidy home' etc.

f The Aristocracy o Culture / 19

ture' i s not a cultural display like others: as regards its social definition, 'musical culture' is something other than a quantity of knowledge and experiences combined with the capacity to talk about them. Music is the most 'spiritual' of the arts of the spirit and a love of music is a guarantee of 'spirituality'. One only has to think of the extraordinary value nowa days conferred on the lex is 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 'interiority' ( '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, 'insensi tivity to music' doubtless represents a particularly unavowable form of materia:list coarseness. But this is not all. Music is the 'pure' art par ex cellence. It says nothing and has nothing to say. Never really having an expressive function, it is opposed to drama, which even in its most re fined forms still bears a social message and can only be 'put over' on the basis of an immediate and profound affinity with the values and expecta tions of its audience. The theatre divides its public and divides itself. The Parisian opposition between right-bank and left-bank theatre, bourgeois theatre and avant-garde theatre, is inextricably aesthetic and political. Nothing comparable occurs in music (with some rare, recent excep tions ) . Music represents the most radical and most absolute form of the negation of the world, and especially the social world, which the bour geois ethos tends to demand of all forms of art. For an adequate interpretation of what would be implied in a table pered correlating occupation, age or sex with a preference for the Well-Tem or ClaVIer or the Concerto f the Left Hand, one has to break both with the blind use of indicators and with spurious, essentialist analyses which are merely the universalizing of a particular experience, in order to make completely explicit the multiple, contradictory meanings which these works take on at a given moment for the totality of social agents and in particular for the categories of individuals whom they distinguish or who differ with respect to them (in this particular case, the 'inheritors' and the 'newcomers') . One would have to take account, on the one hand, of the socially pertinent properties attached to each of them, that is, the so cial image of the works (,baroque'/,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, the distributional properties acquired by these works in their relation ship (perceived with varying clarity depending on the case) with the dif ait ferent classes or class fractions ( ',a f . . . ' ) and with the corresponding conditions of reception (belated knowledge through records/early knowledge through playing the piano, the bourgeois instrument par excellence) .

y The Titles of Cultural Nobilit

ed by du A relationship as close as that between academic capital ( measur dge or practices in areas as remote from ration of schooling) and knowle the cin academ ic education as music or painting, not to mention jazz or between museum visits and level of educa ema-like the correlation of the tion-raises in the highest degree the question of the significance the question of the real identity of the two relationship, in other words, has ex linked terms which are defined in their very relationship. One understood nothing by establishing the existence of plained nothing and ent' varI a correlation between an 'independent' variable and a 'depend determined what is designated in the particular case, able. Until one has ship (for i.e., in each particular relationship, by each term in the relation ion and knowledge of omposers) ,. the statIStical example, level of educat remams relationship, however precisely it can be determined numencally, ding a pure datum, devoid of meaning. And the 'intuitive' half-understan gists are general ly satisfied m such cases, whIle they with which sociolo the rela concentrate on refining the l;11casurement of the 'intensity' . of er with the illusion of the constancy of the vanables or fac tionship, togeth s whatev er they tors resulting from the nomina! identity of the indicator ' ( tends to ule out may indicate) or of the terms which des.ignat them, g they any questioning of the terms of the relationshIp as to the meanin receIve from It. take on in that particular relationshIp and Indeed . Both terms of the relationship have to be quened m each case: the in places of dependent variable-occupation, sex, age, father's occupation, differen t effects-and the depen residence etc., "which may express very vary ,con dent variable, which may manifest dispositions that themselves divided up by the independent siderably depending on the classes ces found variables. Thus, for an adequate interpretation of the differen class as regards their relation to between the classes or within the same erc., one the various legitimate arts, painting, music, tetre, lirertur . uses, legitimate or Illegitimate, to would have to analyse fully the social lends it which each of the arts, genres, works or institutions considered affirms one's 'class', nothing more self. For example, nothing more clearly by VIr infallibly classifies, than tastes in music. This is of course becau.se, acquiring the corresponding dISpo tue of the rarity of the conditions for t-gomg or sitions there is no more 'classifactory' practlce than concer ties which, other things being equal, playin a 'noble' instrumen t (activi VISitS to are less widespread than theatre-gomg, museum-gomg or even because the flaunting of 'musical culmodern-art galleries) . But it is also
'

20 ! A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

The opposition found at the level of distributional properries is generally homologous co that found at the level of stylistic characteristics. This is be cause homology between the positions of the producers (or the works) in te fi ld of production and the positions of the consumers in social space ( I . e., In the overall class structure or in the structure of the dominant class) seems to be the most freguent casco Roughly speaking, the amateur of Mal larrne is likely to be to the amateur of Zola as Mallarme was to Zola. Dif ferences 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, retransl ated .a a function of the positions in the field of production which . rhese dlsposItJons played a large part in determining) ; and partly because they remain marked by the social significance which they received from their opposition, and that of their authors, in the field of production (e.g., . left/nght, clear/obscure etc.) and which is perpetuated by the university tradmon.

The Aristocracy of Culture ! 21

or the accordion and so on. The statistics of the class distribution of news paper reading would perhaps be interpreted less blindly if sociologiSts bore in mind Proust's analysis of 'that abominable, voluptuous act called "read ing rhe paper", whereby all rhe misfortunes and cataclysms suffered by rhe universe in the last twenty-four hours--battles which have cost the lives of fifty thousand men, murders, strikes, bankruptcies, fires, poisonings, sui cides, divorces, the cruel emotions of statesman and actor, transmuted into a morning feast for our personal entertainment, make an excellent and par ticularly bracing accompaniment to a few mouthfuls of caf au lait. ,4 This i description of the aesthete's variant invites an analysis of the class variations and the invariants of the mediated, relatively abstract experience of the so cial world supplied by newspaper reading, for example, as a function of variations in social and spatial distance (with, at one extreme, the local items in the regional..dailies-marriages, deaths, accidents-and, at the other (:xtreme, 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 sig nificance 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 . they are put to, many surveys on consumption impose on them taxonomies which have sprung straight from the statisticians' social unconscious, asso ciating things that ought to he separated (e.g., white heans and green beans) and separating things that could be associated (e.g., white beans and bananas-the latter are to fruit as the former are to vegetables). What is there to be said about the collection of products brought together by the apparently neuttal category 'cereals'--bread, rusks, rice, pasta, Aour-and especially the class variations in 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 man ufactured product is equally adaptable to all possible social uses, rhere are very few that are perfectly 'univocal' and it is rarely possible to deduce the social use from the thing itself. Except for products specially designed for a particular use (like 'slimming bread' ) or closely tied to a class, by tradition ( like tea-in France) or price ( like caviar ) , most products only derive their social value from the social use that is made of them. As a consequence, in these areas the only way to find the class variations is to introduce them from the start, by replacing words or things whose apparently univocal meaning creates no difficulty for the abstract classifications 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 ways of c90king-in the casserole or the pressure-cooker, i.e., without counting time and money, or quickly and cheaply-or to rhe products of these operations-family snaps or phoros of folk dancing, boeu/ bourguignon or curried rice.

I t is also clear what would be required for an adequate interpretation of the bourgeois predilection for the 'Impressionists', whose simulta neously lyrical and naturalistic adherence to natural or human nature contrasts both with realist or critical representation of the social world ( 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 differen t classes have of the costs (economic, cultural and 'physica!') and benefits attached to the different sports---immediate or deferred 'physical' benefits ( health, -beauty, strength, whether visible, through 'body-building' or invisible through 'keep-fit' exercises), economic and social benefits ( upward mo bility etc. ) , ImmedIate or deferred symbolic benefits linked to the distri butional 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 body building evoking the working classes, rennis and skiing the bourgeoisie and golf rhe upper bourgeoisie ), gains in disrinction 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 indica tors would be to carry Out a-strictly interminable-analysis of the social value of each of the properties or practices considered-a Louis XV com mode or a Brahms symphony, reading Historia or Le Figaro, playing rugby

22 / A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

Appearances, need 1 repeat, alays support appearances; and sociological , f science, which cannot find the dlf erences between the sO lal . classes unless it introduces them from the start, is bound to appear preJudlCcd to those who dissolve the differences, in all good faith and with impeccable method, simply by su rrendering to positivistic laisser-faire.

The Aristocrary of Culture / 23

virtue of the logic of the transmission of cultural capital and the func tioning of the educational system, one cannot impute the strong correla tion, observed between competence in music or painting (and the practice it presupposes and makes possible) and academic capital, solely to the operation of [he educational system (still less to the specifically artistic education it is supposed to give, which is clearly almost non-exis tent). Academic capital is in fact the guaranteed product of the com bined effects of cultural transmission by the family and cultural transmission by the school ( the efficiency of which depends on the amount of cultural capital directly inherited from the family). Through its value-inculcating and value-imposing operations, the school also helps ( to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the initial disposition, i.e., class of origin) to form a general, transposable disposition towards legiti mate culture, which is first acquired with respect to scholastically recog nized 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 ptof itable in the academic market.
The educational system defines non-curricular general culmce (ta culture 'fibre'), negatively at least, by delimiting, within the dominant culture, the area of what it puts into its syllabuses and controls by its examinations. It has been shown that (he most 'scholastic' cultural objects are those taught and requi red at the lowest levels of schooling (the extreme form of the 'scholastic' being the 'elementary'), and that the educational system sets an increasingly high value on 'general' culture and increasingly refuses 'scholas tic' measurements of culture (such as direct, closed guestions on authors, dates ana events) as one moves towards the highest levels of the system.

But the substantialist mode of thinking is perhaps most unrestrained when it comes to the search for 'explanatory factors'. Slipping ftom the substanrive to the substance ( to paraphrase Wittgenstein), from the con stancy of the substantive to the constancy of the substance,. it treats the properties attached to agentcupa io? , ag, sex, qah cat1?ns-:--a.s orces independent of the relationshIp wlthm whIch they act . ThIS elimI f nates the question of what IS determmant m the determmant vanable and what is determined in the determmed vanable, m other words, the question of what, among the properties chosen,. consciously or uncon sciously, through the indicators under conSIderation, constitutes the per tinent property that is really capable of determmmg the relationshIp wlthtn which it is determined. Purely statistical calculation of the vanatlons 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 effects whICh are expressed tn the statistical relationshIp and which statistical analysis, when oriented towards the search for Its own intelligibility, can help to discoveL One has to rak e .the relationship itself as the object of study and SCrutl 'ze ItS soclOlo?,cal slgntficce (signification ) rather than ItS statIstICal slg n dicantness (srgnificattvtte ) , only in this way is it possible to replace the relationshIp between a sup posedly constant variable and different practICes by a senes of dIfferent effects-sociologically intelligible constant relationshIps whICh are SImul taneously revealed and concealed in the statiStical relationshIps between a given indicator and different practices. The truly sCIentific endeavour has to break with the spurious self-eVIdences of Immediate understandmg (to which the pseudo-refinements of statistical analysis-e.g., path analysls the phenomenal relatIOn bring unexpected reinforcement) . In place ship between this or that 'dependent vanable and vanables such as level of education or social origin, which are no more than common-sense ntlons and whose apparent 'explanatory power' stems ftom the mental habits of common-sense knowledge of the social world, it aims to establish 'an exact relation of well-defined concepts',' the rational principle of the effects which the statistical relationship records despite everything-for example, the relationship between the titles of nobility (or marks of infamy) awarded by the educational system and the pracuces they Imply, or be tween the disposition required by works of legmmate art and the dISpo sition which, deliberately and consciously or not, IS taught m schools.

0'

THE ENTITLEMENT EFFECT

Knowing the relationship which exists be tween cultural capital inherited from the family and academic capital, by

In fact, the generalizing tendency of the cultivated disposition is only a necessary, not a sufficient, condition for the enterprise of cultural appro priation, which is inscribed, as an objective demand, in 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, [he one it produces by im posing 'titles',6 a particular case of the attribution by status, whether positive (ennobling) or negative (stigmatizing), which every group pro duces by assigning individuals to hierarchically ordered classes. Whereas 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 cultural production, the holders of titles of cul tural nobility-like the titular members of an aristocracy, whose 'being', defined by their fidelity to a lineage, an estate, a race, a past, a fatherland or a tradition, is irreducible to any 'doing', to any know-how or func tion--{)nly have to be what they are, because all their practices derive their value from their authors, being the affirmation and perpetuation of

24 / A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

the essence by virtue of which they are performed. ' 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 func tions 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 vir tue of which they are accomplished. The same essentialism requires them to impose on themselves what their essence imposes on them-noblesse oblige-to ask of themselves what no one else could ask, to 'live up' to their own essence. This effect is one of the mechanisms which, in conditions of crisis, cause

The Aristocracy of Culture / 25

or the incest taboo exposes himself to ridicule as soon as he ventures outside the circle of his peers, whereas Claude Levi-Strauss or Jacques Monod can only derive additional prestige from their excursions into the field of music or philosophy. Illegitimate extra-curricular culture, whether it be the knowledge accumulated by the self-taught or the 'expe rience' acquired in and through practice, outside the control of the insti tution 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) when ever it emerges from the domestic universe to compete with authorized competences. Thus, it is written into the tacit definition of the academic qualifica tion formally guaranteeing a specific competence (like an engineering di ploma) that it really guarantees possession of a 'general culture' whose breadth is proportionate to the prestige of the qualification;" and, con versely, that no real guarantee may be sought of what i t guarantees for mally and really or, to put it another way, of the extent to which it guarantees what it guarantees. This effect of symbolic imposition is most intense in the case of the diplomas consecrating the cultural elite. The qualifications awarded by the French grandes ecoles guarantee, without any other guarantee, a competence extending far beyond what they are sup posed 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. \0 This process occurs at all stages of schooling, through the manipula tion of aspirations and demands-in other words, of self-image and self esteem-which the educational system carries out by channelling pupils towards prestigious or devalued positions implying or excluding legiti mate practice. The effect of 'allocation', i.e., assignment to a section, a discipline (philosophy or geography, mathematics or geology, to take the extremes) or an institution (a grande ecole that is more or less grande! or a faculty), mainly operates through the social image of the position in question and the prospects objectively inscribed in it, among the fore most of which are a certain type of cultural accumulation and a certain image of cultural accomplishment. " The official differences produced by academic classifications tend to produce (or reinforce) real differences by inducing in the classified individuals a collectively recognized and sup ported belief in the differences, thus producing behaviours that are in tended to bring real 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, wri ting poems or play ing rugby can thus find themselves inscribed in the position allotted within the institution as a tacit demand constantly underlined by various

the most privileged individuals, who remain most attached to the former state of affairs, to be the slowest to understand the need to change strategy and so to faU-victim to thei r own privilege (for example, ruined nobles who refuse to change their ways, or the heirs of great peasant families who remain celibate rather than marry beneah 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 self exploitation characceristic of these classes.

This gives us an insight into the effect of academic markers and classi fications. However, for a full understanding we have to consider another property of all aristocracies. The essence in which they see themselves re fuses to be contained in any definition. Escaping petty rules and regula tions, it is, 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 title. So there is 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 in kind between the highly valued 'extra-curricular' culture of the holder of academic qualifications and the illegitimate extra-curricular culture of the autodidact. The reader of the popular-science monthly Science et Vie who talks about the genetic code

26

gement of Taste / A Social Critique of the jud

The Aristocracy of Culture / 27

year olds and 1.1 percent of the over-6)s ) , and between the most and least highly educated ( 18.2 percent of those who had been through higher edu catIOn, 9.) percent of those who had had secondary education, and 2.2 per cent of those who had had oply primary education or none at all had been to the cinema in the previous. week) (C.S. XIIIa). 12 Knowledge of directors is much more closely linked to cultural capital than is mere cinema-going. Only ) percent of the respondents who had an elementary school diploma could name at least four directors ( fcorp a list of twenty films) compared to 10 percent of holders of the BEPC or the baeea laurea! 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, 3 3 percent and 40 percent respectively. Thus, although film viewing also varies with educational capital ( less so, however, than visit.s to e museums and concerts) , it seems that diff rences in consumption are not sufficient to explain the differences in knowledge of directors between e holders of diff rent gualifications. This conclusion would probably also hold good for jazz, strip cartoons, detective stories or science fiction, now that these genres have begun to achieve cultural consecration. 1 3 Further proof is that, while increasing slightly with level o f education ( from 13 percent for the least educated to 18 percent for those with second ary education and 23 percent for the most gualified ) , 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 TV person alities, presupposes a disposition closer to that required for the acquisition . of ordInary knowledge about everyday things and people than to the legiti mate diSPOSItIon. And IOdeed, these least-educated regular cinemagoers 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 35 percent of those who had had a secondary education and 47 percent of those who had had some higher education. Interest in actors is greatest among office workers: on average they named 2.8 actors and one director, whereas the craftsmen and small shopkeepers, skilled workers and foremen named, on average, only 0.8 actors and 0.3 directors. (The secretaries and junior commercial executives, who also knew a large number of actors-av erage 2A-were more interested in directors-average l A-and those in the social and medical services even named more directors-1 .7-than actors1.4). The reading of sensational weeklies (e.g., lei Paris ) which give infor mation about the lives of stars is a product of a disposition similar to inter est in actors; it is more frequent among women than men ( 10.S perce'n t had read lei Paris in the last week, compared to 9.3 percent of the men ) , among skIlled workers and foremen ( 14.5 percent), semi-skilled workers ( 1 3.6 percent), or office workers ( 10.3 percent) than among junior execu tlves (S.6 percent) and especially among senior executives and members of the professions ( 3.8 percent) (C.S. XXVII I ) . . By contrast, although a t equivalent levels of education, knowledge of dIrectors IOcreases with the number of films seen, in this area assiduous cin ema-going does not compensate for absence of educational capital: 45.) per cent of the CEP-holders who had seen at least four of the films mentioned

mediations. Among the most important of these afe teachers' conscious or unconscious expectations and peergroup pressure, whose ethical ori entation is itself defined by the class values brought into and reinforced ect and the status assignment it en by the institution. This allocation eff tails doubtless play a major role in the fact that the educational institu tion succeeds in imposing cultural practices that it does not teach and does not even explicitly demand, but which belong to the attributes at tached by status to the position it assigns, the gualifications it awards and the social positions to which the latter give access. This logic doubtless helps to explain how the legitimate disposition that is acguired by freguent contact with a particular class of works, namely, the literary and philosophical works recognized by the academic canon, comes to be extended to other, less legitimate works, such as avant-garde literature, or to areas enjoying less academic recognition, such as the cinema. The generalizing tendency is inscribed in the very principle o f 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 (he capacity to rec ognize in them something already known, i.e., the stylistic traits appro priate to characterize them in their singularity ( 'It's a Rembrandt', o r even 'It's the Helmeted Man') or a s members of a class of works ( ,It's Im pressionist' ) . This explains why the propensity and capacity to accumu late 'gratuitous' knowledge, such as the names of film directors, are more closely and exclusively linked to educational capital than is mere cinema going, which is more dependent on income, place of residence and age. Cinema-going, measured by rhe 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 relation ships are found in rhe surveys by the Centre d'etudes des suppOrtS de publi cite (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 oversrate is particularly strong) is rather greater among men than women (7.8 percent compared to ) . 3 percent), greater in the Paris area ( 10.9 percent) than in towns of over 100,000 people (7.7 percent) or in rural areas (3.6 percent), greater among senior executives and members of the professions ( 11.1 percent) than among junior executives (9.) percent) or clerical and commercial employees (9.7 percent), skilled manual workers and foremen (7.3 percent), semi-skilled workers (6.3 percent ) , small em ployers ( 5.2 percent) and farmers and farm workers (2.6 percent). But the greatest contrasts are between the ' youngest (22.4 percent of the 2 1-24 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

28 / A Social Critique of the jud gement of Taste

could not name a single director, compared to 27.5 percent of those with a BEPe or the baccalaureat and l 3 percent of those with a higher education diploma. Such competence is not necessarily acquired by means of the 'scholas tic' labours in which some 'cinephiles' or 'jazz-freaks' indulge (e.g., tran 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 to wards 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 John Sturges' or 'the latest Sam Peckinpah'. In identifying what is worthy of being seen and the right way to see it, they are aided by their whole social 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 pro duce legitimate classifications and the discourse necessarily accompanying any artistic enjoyment worthy of the name. I t is possible to explain in such terms why cultural practices which schools do not teach and never explicitly demand vary in such close rela tion to educational qualifications (it being understood, of course, that we are provisionally suspending the distinction between the school's role in the correlation observed and that of the other socializing agencies, in particular the family ) . But the fact that 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 hid den effect which the educational system, again reinforcing the work of the bourgeois family, exerts through the very conditions within which it inculcates. Thtough the educational qualification certain conditions of existence are designated-those which constitute the precondition for obtaining the qualification and also the aesthetic disposition, the most rigorously demanded of all the terms of entry which the world of legiti mate culture ( always tacitly) imposes. Anticipating what will be demon strated 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 istence presupposed by prolonged schooling, or ( most often) to both of these combined, that educational qualifications come to be seen as a guar antee of the capacity to adopt the aesthetic disposition. Any legitimate work tends in fact to im pose the norms of its own perception and tacitly defines as the only legiti mate 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 AESTHETIC DISPOSITION

The Aristocracy of Culture / 29

falling into the illusion which is the basis of recognition of artistic legiti macy. I t does mean taking note of the fact that all agents, whether they Itke 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 rela tion 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 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, that is, as both demanding and deserving to be approached with a specifically aesthetic intention capable of recognizing and consti 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 endlessly 're-produced' by education, it is unable to reconstruct its sole raison d'etre, that is, the historical reason which underlies the ar bitrary necessity of the institution. If the work of art is indeed, as Pan ofsky says, that which 'demands 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 'inten tion', in the Scholastic sense. A purely 'practical' perception contradicts this objective intention, just as an aesthetic perception would in a sense be a practical negation of the objective intention of a signal, a red light for example, 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 function. But how can such a definition be made operational? Panofsky hImself observes that i t is virtually impossible to 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 invite him to dinner, my letter is primarily a communication. But the more I shift the emphasis to the form of my script, the more nearly does it become a work of literature or poetry d5 Does this mean that the demarcation line between the world of tech nical objects and the world of aesthetic objects depends on the 'intention' of the producer of those objects? In fact, this 'intention' is itself the prod uct of the SOCIal norms and conventions which combine to define the always uncertain and historically changing frontier between simple tech nIcal obJects and objets d'art: 'Classical tastes', Panofsky observes, 'de manded that private letters, legal speeches and the shields of heroes

30

/ A Social Critique o the Jud f gement o Taste f

The Aristocracy of Culture / 3 1

Icl lcctual field) produced this new fetish. 17 But never perhaps has he I wen given so much in return. The naive exhibitionism of 'conspicuous , onsumption', which seeks distinction in the crude display of ill-mastered luxury, is nothing compared to the unique capacity of the pure gaze, a quasi-creative power which sets the aesthete apart from the common herd hy a radical diffetence 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 art, which is 'essentiaBy unpopular, indeed, anti popular' and from the 'curious sociological effect' it produces by dividing I he public into two 'antagonistic castes', those who understand-and those who do not'. 'This implies', Ortega goes on, 'that some possess an organ of understanding which others have been denied; that these are twO dis IinC( varieties of the human species. The new art is not for everyone, like Romantic art, but destined fat an especially gifted minority.' And he as nibes to the 'humiliation' and 'obscure sense of infetiority' inspired by 'fhis art of privilege, sensuous nobility, instinctive aristocracy', the irrita lion it arouses in the mass, 'unworthy of artistic sacraments': 'For a cen IUry and a half, the "people", the mass, have claimed to be the whole of ." Kiety. The music of Stravinsky or the plays of Pirandello have the socio logical power of obliging them to see themselves as they are, as the "common people", a mere ingredient among others in the social struc ture, the inert material of the historical process, a secondary factor in the spiritual cosmos. By contrast, the young art helps the "best" to know and recognize one another in the greyness of the multitude and to learn their mission, which is to be few in number and to have to fight against the , multitude. ls And to show that the self-legitimating imagination of the 'happy Ji:w' has no limits, one only has to quote a recent text by Suzanne I.anger, who is presented as 'one of the world's most influential philoso phers': 'In the past, the masses did not have access to art; music, painting, and even books, were pleasures reserved for the rich. It 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 rcad, 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 clear that great art is not a direct sensuous pleasute. Otherwise, like cookies or cocktails, it would flatter uneducated , l aste as much as cultured taste. 19 I t should not be thought that the relationship of distinction (which may or may not imply the conscious intention of distinguishing oneself ifom common people) is only an incidental component in the aesthetic disposition . The pure gaze implies a break with the ordinary attitude to wards the world which, as such, is a social break. One can agree with Or lega y Gasset when he attributes to modern art-which merely takes to its extreme conclusions an intention implicit in art since the Renais-

should be "artistic" . . . while modern taste demands that architecture , and ash trays should be "functional". ,6 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 ob serve 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 artistic production. An art which, like all Post Impressionist painting, for example, is the product of an artistic inten tion which asserts the absolute primacy off orm over function, of the mode of representation over the object represented, categorically demands a purely aesthetic disposition which earlier art demanded only conditionally. The demiurgic ambition of the artist, capable of applying to any object the pure intention of an artistic effort which is an end in itself, calls for un limited receptiveness on the 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 objectified in the art museum; there the aesthetic dis position becomes an institution. Nothing more totally manifests and achieves the auronorriizing 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, Pied and still life ) , these juxtaposed works tacitly demand 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 of realistic representation as defined by the arbitrary canons of an every day aesthetic, and so lead naturally from stylistic relativism to the neu tralization of the very function of representation. Objects previously treated as collectors' curios or historical and ethnographic documents have achieved the status of works of art, thereby materializing the omnip otence of the aesthetic gaze and making it difficult to ignote the fact that-if it is not to be merely an arbitrary and therefore suspect affirma tion of this absolute powet-artistic contemplation now has to include a degree of erudition which is liable to damage the illusion of immediate illumination that is an essential element of pure pleasure.
TASTE In short, never perhaps has more been asked of the spectator, who is now required to 're-produce' the pri mary operation whereby the artist (with the complicity of his whole inP U R E TASTE AND ' BARBAROUS '

32

/ A Social Critique 0/ the Jud gement 0/ Taste

The Aristocracy 0/ Culture / 33

the 'vulgar' arrracrions 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 0/ an Author, Comme ci (ou comme (a ) 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 and sufferings, worrying abou t their fate, espousing their hopes and ideals, living their life, is 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 eff ects only to the extent that they can be forgotten and do not get in the way of the substance of the work. The cultural divide which associates each class of works with its public means that it is not easy to obtain working-class people's first-hand judge men ts on formalist innovations in modern art. However television which brings certain performances of 'high' art into the hom, or certai 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 ex perimental situations, neither more nor less artificial or unreal than those necessarily produced by any survey on legitimate culture in a working class 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 fleld and ts relatively autonomous history" is seen as a sort of aggression, an affront to common sense and sensible people. Likewise, when formal experimentation irisinuates itself into their familiar entertainments (e.g., TV variety shows with sophisticated technical effects, 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 some times 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: . . . First you see a singer all drawn out, three metres tall, then the next minute he's got arms two metres long. Do you find that funny' Oh, I just don't like it, it's stupid, 1 don't see the point of distorting things' (a baker, Grenoble). Formal refinement-which, in literature or the theatre, leads to obscu rity-is, in the eyes of the working-class public, one sign of what is some times felt to be a desire ro keep the uninitiated at arm's length, or, as one respondent said about certain cultural programmes on TV, to speak to

sance-a systematic tefusal of all that is 'human', by which he means the passions, emotions and feelings which ordinary people put into their ordi nary 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 2 they were real-life events.' 0 Rejecting the 'human' clearly means reject iog what is generic, i.e., common, 'c3;sy' and immediately accessible, start ing with everything that reduces the aesthetic animal to pure and simple animality, to palpable pleasure or sensual desire. The interest in the content of the representation which leads people to call 'beautiful' the representation of beautiful things, especially. those which speak most im mediately to the senses and the sensibility, is rejected in favour of the in difference and distance which refuse to subordinate j udgement of the " 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 oppos ing visions ( which does not mean that one has to subscribe to aesthetic relativism, when it is so obvious that the 'popular aesthetic' is defined in relation to 'high' aesthetics and that reference to legitimate art and 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 co mmitments 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

Everyihing takes place as if the 'popular aes thetic' were based on the affirmation of continuity between art and life, which implies the subordination of form to function, or, one might say. on a refusal of the refusal which is the starting point of the high aes thetic, i.e., the clear-cut separation of ordinary dispositions from the spe cifically aesthetic disposition. The hostility of the working class and of the middle-class fractions least rich in cultural capital towards every kind of formal experimentation asserts itself both in the theatre and in paint ing, or still more clearly, because they have less legitimacy, in photogra phy and the cinema. In the theatre as in the cinema, the popular audien.ce delights in plots that proceed logically and chronologically towards a happy end, and 'identifies' better with simply drawn situations and char acters than with ambiguous and symbolic figures and actions or the emg matic problems of the theatre of cruelty, not to mention the suspended animation of Beckettian heroes or the bland absurdities of Pinteresque di alogue. Their reluctance or refusal springs not just from lack of familiar ity but from a deep-rooted demand for participation, which formal experiment systematically disappoints, especially whefl, refusing to offer
' AESTHETIC '

34 /

Social Critique o the Jud f gement (1 FelSle

The AriJtocrary of Culture / 35

! wSS of them, tending to assume that intellectual creativity is 'opposed to
Woolf when

paraphe rnalia other initiates 'over the viewers' head<;'"u I r is pan of the and separati ng, of which always announ ces the sacred character, separate . the grandIose high culture-the icy solemn ity f the great musums, and decoru ffi of luxury of the opera-houses and major theatres, the dec r . the workm$-c1ass aU lence concert-halls.23 Everything takes place as if both 10 art vaguely grasped what is. implied in conspicuous ormallty , . ive content whICh ex and in life, i.t., a sOrt of censorship of the express same token, plodes in the expressiveness of popular language, and by the of al 1 formal expio,ratl ?n , a distanci ng, inheren t in the calculated coldness . nlcatlOn a refusal t o commu nicate concealed a t the heart o f the commu what it seems to deliver itself both in an art which takes back and refuses ' is a permanent and j n bourgeois politeness, whose im pe,ccble ormalis m I{y . Conversely, popular ent r warning against the temptation of fam ll!a . . and collectiv e tainmen t secures the spectator's paniCip atiOn In the show ns. If circus and me lodrama pa rti c ipation in the festivity which i.t occasio . m g and, (which are recreated by some sporting spectacles such as wrestl s ch as thse to a lesser extent, boxing and all forms of team games, r' than entertainments like which have been televised) are more 'popula orma ized less f dancing or theatre, this is not merely beca se, being ) and less euphemlzed, or example, acrobatics with danCIng ( compare, f IS a l so because , they offer more direct, more immedi ate sa(lsfact lons. It rise to and th array o spectacu through the collective festivity they give all, l i g h t opera lar delight s they offer ( I am thinkin g also of the mUSIC-h sets, , giItten ng costumes, CX.CItIng or the big featur film ) -fabul ous _ comIC and music lively action, enthusia stic actors-like all forms of the through satirc or parody of the 'great' ( mlmi(s; especi lIy those workin g : the plain or chansonniers etc . ) , they satisfy the taste f and sense of revelry, . sooal world speakin g and hearty laughte r which liberate by setting the . overturning (onven [1ons and propnetlcs head over heels,

Itluch passion in the things of the mind or to expect too much serious

.noral integrity or political consistency, have no answer to Virginia she criticizes the novels of \ Vells, Galsworthy and Bennett I wcause 'they leave one with a strange sense of incompleteness and dissat I.'.ftction' and the feeling that it is 'necessary to do somethingto join a "(leiety, or, more desperately, to write a cheque', in contrast to works like his/ram Shandy or Pride and Prejudice, which, being perfectly 'self-con tained', 'leave one with no desire to do anything, except indeed to read , t he book again, and to understand it better. 2'i But the refusal of any sort of involvement, any 'vulgar' surrender to C:lSY seduction and collective enthusiasm, which is, indirectly at least, the origin of the taste for formal complexity and objectless representations, is pcrhaps mos t clearly seen in reactions to paintings. Thus one finds that '" t he higher the level of education, the greater is the proportion of re 'pondents who, when asked whether a series of objects would make kauriful photographs, refuse the ordinary >objects o f popular admira t IOn-a first communion, a sunset or a landscape-as 'vulgar' or 'ugly', or reject them as 'trivial', silly, a bit 'wet ', or, in Ortega y Gasset's terms, naively 'human'; and the greater is the proportion who assert the auton omy of the representation with respect to the thing represented by de , laring that a beautiful photograph, and a fortiori a beautiful painting, , :In be made from objects socially designated as meaningless-----a metal I ramc, the bark of a tree, and especially cabbages, a trivial object par ex I c llence--o r as ugly and repulsive-such as a car crash, a butcher's stall ( chosen for the Rembrandt allusion) or a snake ( for the Boileau refer mce )---or as misplaced--e.g., a pregnant woman (see tables 2 and 3 ) ,
Since it was not possible to set u p a genui ne experimental situation, we ( n ll t'c ced the interviewees ' statements about the things they consider 'pho

This popular reaction is the very opposite of AESTHE TIC DISTAN Cl Nl; the detachment of the aesthete, who, as is seen whenever he appropriates 'Yesterns or srr ip . car oons ) ' i one of the objects of popular taste (e.g., \ . , lon-vls-a troduces a d istance, a gap--the measure of his distant dlstmct vis 'first-degree' perception, by displaci ng the iteresr fo th_c 'conte t', c effects whICh characters, plot etc., to the form, to the specific ally: art!st With othcr wOrks are only appreciated relation ally, through a con: panso , larJty of the work If' which is incomp atible with immers ion in the slng . cnc-aesth etlc medi atel y given, Detach ment, disinterestedness, Indlffer ze the work theory has so often presented these as the only way to recogm up forgetting of art for what it is, autono mous, se/bs/iindlgl that onc ends erence, in other that they really mean disinve stment , detachmen. t, indif y. Woridly words the refusal to invest oneself and take things senousl been wise r aders of Rousseau's Lettre sur /eJ spectacles, j who have long invest too than to aware that there is nothing more naive and vulgar

( ogenic' and which therefore see'm to them capable of being looked at aes I h eti cally (as opposed to things excluded on account of their triviality or ugliness or for ethical reasons), The capacity to adopt the aesthetic at titu de 1:-' thus measured by the gap (which, in a field of production that evolves ( b rough the dialec tic of distinction, is' also a time-lag, a backwardness) be J wcen what is constituted as an aesthe tic object by the individual or group ( Ilflcerned and what is constituted aesthetically in a given state of the field j ) f produc tion by the holders of aesthetic legitimacy. The f J iow ing question was put to the in terviewees : 'Given the following o ;.,ubjens, is a photographer more l i kely to produce a beau ti ful , i nteresti ng, Illc;m ingless or ugly photo: a landscape, a car crash etc.?' In the preliminary \IJ rvey, the in tervi ewees were shown actual photographs, mostly famous ones, of the ob jects which were merely named in the full-scale survey-peb hies, a pregnant woman etc. The reactions evoked by the mere idea of the Ullage were entirel y consistent with those produced by the image ' itself (evi dence that the value at tri bu ted to the image tends to correspond to the

Tabk 2

Aesthetic disposition. by educational capital ( % ) ,1

First communion Folk dance No reply or incoherent
1.0 4.0 3.5 2.0 6.0 2.0 4.0
--..... w '"

Educational capital No qualification, CEP CAP BEPC Baccalaurelt Staned higher education Licence Agregation, grande ecole

N
314 97 197 217 118 182 71

No reply or incoherent
2.0 4.0 2.5 2.0 4.0 1.0 4.0

Ugly
5.0 1.0 7.0 12.0

Meaningless
19.0 26.0 27.0 43.0 45.0

Interesting
23.0

Beautiful
51.0
31.0

Ugly
0.5 0 0 0.5

Meaningless
3.0 3.0 7.0

Interesting
4}.0 33.0 33.5

Beautiful
54. ')

'"
"

38.0 31.0
24.0 23.0 28.0 6.0

32.5
19.0 15.0 7.0 25.5

60.0 56.0
37.0 41.5 36:> 39.5

13.0
13.0 11.0

47.5
37.0

]3.0
11.0

2.'
1.0

15.5

53.0 49.0

49.5
28.0

6.0

22.5

Tabk 2
(continued).
Bark of a tret' Educational capital No qualification, CEP CAP BEPC Baccaiaureat Started higher education Licence Agregation, grande ecole Butcher's stall Cabbages

'" 0% ;;:

N
314 97 197 217 ll8 182 71

No reply or Meaning InterestMeaning lnterestNo reply or Meaning- InterestNo reply or Beautiful ing I,,, Beautiful incoherent Ugly I", incoherent Ugly "" ing Beautiful incoherent Ugly '"g
2.0 5.0 2.5 2.0 6.0 0 4.0

14.5
1.0

46.5
20.0

21.5

15.5 37.0 27.5 42.0 45.0

l.5 60 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.' 4.0

31.0
15.5 28.0 295

46.0

16.5

'.0 6.0 '.0 10.5 18.0

2.0 5.0 2.0 2.0 6.0 2.0 3.0

28.0
16.5 17.0

37.0
30.0

8.'
3.0 1.0 3.0 3.0

31.5
21.0 23.0 18.0 8.'

48.5 47.0
32.0 29.0 22.5 23.0

24.0
17.0

56.0 63.0
55.0 48.5 475 51.5 38.0

10.0 7.0 1 3.0 19.0

4.0 8.' 13.0 13.0 18.0

32.0
2'5.0 23.0 24.0

25.0
18.5

17.5
9.0 16.0 11.0

30.5
29.5 295

19.5
8.0

56.0 60.5

24.0
18.0

19.5 25.5

21:0

22.5 27.0

a. The respondents had to answer this question: 'Given the f ollowing subjects, is a photographer more likely to make a beautiful, interesting, meaningless, or ugly photo: a landscape, a car crash, a little girl playing with a cat, a pregnant woman, a still lif a woman suckling a child, a e, metal frame, tramps quarrelling, cabbages, a sunset over the sea, a

weaver at his loom, a f olk dance, a rope, the bark of a tree, a butcher's stall, a f amous monument, a scrap-yard, a first communion, a wounded man, a snake, an "old master" ?' In each column, the italic figures indi cate the strongest tendencies.

Table 3

Aesthetic disposition, by class and education ( % ) . Pregnant woman Cabbages

Classes

Educational qualification

N
143 18 243 335 149 140 46 25 432 31 76 325 80 174 71

No reply or No reply or incoherent Ugly Meaningless Interesting Beautiful incoherent Ugly Meaningless Interesting Beautiful
1.5 0 1.0 3.5 3.5 3.5 4.0 20.0 3.0 6.5 0 3.0 7.5 0.5 4.0 40.0 39.0 46.0 34.0 39.0 37.0 8.5 36.0 36.0 48.5 60.5 30.0 17.5 36.0 29.5 36.5 22.0 27.5 30.0 35.0 21.0 42.0 24.0 22.0 38.5 16.0 22.5 30.0 21.5 17.0 14.0 1 1 .0 15.0 13.5 9.0
17.5

Working None, CEP, CAP BEPC and above Middle None, CEP, CAP BEPC and above BEPC bac higher education Uppe' None, CEP, CAP " BEPC and above BEPC bac highe education "r technical college licence

8.0 28.0 10.5 19.0 1 3. 5 2 1 .0 32.5 8.0 20.0 6.5 18.5 21.5 12.5 22.5 29.5

1.5

28.0 5.5 22.5 17.5 21.0 15.5 13.0 36.0 14.5 6.5 21.0 14.0 6.5 18. 5 11.0

57.0 72.5 61.5 49.5 56.0 45.0 41.0 28.0 48.0 38.5 55.5 47.5 52.0 49.0 38.0

8.5 16.5 10.0 14.5 8.5 19.5 20.0 12.0 15.5 32.5 17.0 13.5 20.0 7.5 21.0

5.0 5.5 4.0 16.0 12.5 17.0 22.0 4.0 19.0 16.0 6.5 22.0 15.0 23.0 27.0

0 2.0 2.5 2.0 3.0 4.0 20.0 3.0 6.5 0 3.0 6.5 2.0 3.0

13.0 12.0 19.0

...

", .

'"-

0
5.0 2).0 32.5 19.5 20.0

agreg., grande ecole

(;\
;:," --..... w

'-'

38

/ A Social Critique o theJudgement of Taste f

C! C! O: O: ..,r r...:. r..: r..: OO N OO .r\
\D \D ,..... r-- ", ,,, ,,, v:;
0 0 "' ,,", 0 "' 0 0

The Aristocracy of Culture / 39

value attributed to the thing). Phowgraphs were used partly to avoid the legitimacy-imposing effects of paintings and partly because photography is perceived as a more accessible praccice, so that the judgemencs expressed were likely to be less unreal. Although the test employed was designed to collect statements of artistic intention rather than to measure the ability to put the intention into prac tice in doing painting or photography or even in the perception of works of an, it enables one to identify the factors which determine the capacity to adopt the posture socially designated as specifically aesthetic. Factorial analy sis of judgements on 'photogenic' objects reveals an opposition within each class between the fractions richest in cultural capital and poorest in eco nomic capital and the fractions richest in economic 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 op posed to industrial and commercial employers; private-sector executives and engineers are in an intermediate position. In the petite bourgeoisie, the cul tural intermediaries ( distinctly separated from the closest fractions, the pri mary teachers, medical services and art craftsmen) are opposed to the small shopkeepers Or craftsmen and the office workers. In addition to the relationship between cultural capital and the negative and positive indices ( refusal of 'wetness'; the capacity to valorize the trivial) of rhe aesthetic disposition--or, at" least, rhe capacity to operare the arbi rrary classificarion which, within the universe of worked-upon objects, dis tinguishes the objects socially designated as deserving and demanding an aesthetic approach that can recognize and consrirure rhem as works of artrhe statistics establish that the preferred objects of would-be aesthetic pho tography, e.g., the folk dance, the weaver or the little girl wirh her cat, are in an intermediate position. The proportion of respondents who consider thar 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 either interesting or meaningless. The proportion of respondents who say a first communion can make a beautiful photo declines up ro the level of the licence and then rises again at the highest leveL This is because a relatively large proportion of the highest qualified subjects asser't their aesthetic disposition by declaring that any ob jeer can be perceived aesthetically. Thus, in the dominant class, the propor tion who declare that a sunset can make a beautiful photo is greatest at the lowest educational level, declines at intermediate levels (some higher educa tion, a minor engineering school ) , and grows strongly again among those who have completed several years of higher education and who tend to (on sider that anything is suitable for beautiful photography. The starisrics also show that women are much more likely than men to manifest their repugnance [Oward 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 differences for the butcher's stall ( 3 3 . 5 and 27 percent), the snake (30.5 and 2 1 . 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 as-

;C
O ll"'. V'l O O

-o oo 0 o:,
t
> o

0 0

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"':; 0

N o\ ci ci

",", 0 11"1 0 0

0 0 "' ''' 0 0 0 '''

oo ...-\ N ci ""'; o\
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0 0

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0 0 0 "'1 0 0 0(', '0 0 '"

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0 0 11"' 0 1/'1

..0 00 0\ o- oZ "'; 00 00

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0 0 0 '"

or-.

0'0 0

II" O "1' -..:r o-. c(') H'\ M'\ ......

0: '0 0: 0: 0:

a:i o:. o "-; 0 "'; 0

N H'\ N "' ,...., ..,.., H'\ .......

0 0 0 0 ", 0 0 '"

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0 0

0: 0: '0 0: 0:

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""'; 0 oo "", ci oo
..... ...... ..... N .....

0 0 0 0 "", 0 ", ,,,

0 "", 0 0 ,,,

"'-\ 00 00 ""; 0\
N N ....., N ......

'-Ci oci o\ N 0 ci ""';

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0 0 "' ''' ''' 0 0 ''''

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40

/ A Social Critique of the Judgement o TaJte f

The Aristocracy of Culture / 41

photographed or by the possible use of the photographic image, is being brought into play when manual workers almost 10vanably reject photog raphy for photography'S sake (e.g., the photo of pebbles) as useless, per verse 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 ' It must never be forgotten that the working-class 'aesthetic' is a dominated 'aesthetic' which is constantly obliged to define itself in terms of the domi nant aesthetics. The members of the working class, who can neither ignore the high-art aesthetic, which denounces their own 'aesthetic', nor abandon . their socially conditioned inclinations, but still less proclaim them and legit i mate 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 recognitio ( this is also the cae with many petit bourgeois and even some bourgeOIs who, as regards paInt ings, for example, differ from the working class mainly by what they know is the right thing to say or do or, still better, not to say ) : 'It's beautiful, but it would never occur to me to take a picture of a thing like that', 'Yes, it's beautiful, but you have to like it, it's not my cup of tea.'
' ' AN ANTJ-KANT IAN AESTHETIC

signs 'humane' or 'humanitarian' tasks and feelings to women and more readily allows them effusions and tears, in the name of the opposition be {ween 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 'natu ral' feelings as the aesthetic disposition demands (which indicates, inciden tally, 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 self-control-is the basis of the aesthetic disposition ) . Women's revulsion is expressed more overtly, at the expense of acsthetic neutralization, the more completely they arc 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. Women in the new petite bourgeoisie, who, in general, make much greater concessions to affective considerations than the men in the same category (although they are equally likely to say that there can be a beauriful photo gtaph of cabbages ), much more rarely accept that a photograph of a preg nant wom'an can only be, ugly than women in any other category ( 3 1.5 percent of them, as against 70 percent of the wives of industrial and com mercial 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 sions and their desire to be seen as 'liberated' from the ethical taboos imposed on their sex. 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 aestheticallyand therefore put forward for the admiration of those who hav,e learned to recognize the signs of the admirableand the even rarer capacity to constitute aestheti cally objects that are ordinary or even 'common' (beGause they are appro priated, aesthetically or otherwise, by the 'common people' ) or to apply the principles -of a 'pure' aesthetic in the most everyday choices of every 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 made more ex plicit) of the 'pure' disposition. However, because it inevitably looks like a scholastic test intended to measure the respondents against a norm tac itly regarded as absolute, it may fail to capture the meanings which this disposition and the whole attitude to the wotld expressed in it have for the different social classes. What the logic of the test would lead one to describe as a deficiency (and that is what it is, from the standpoint of the norms defining legitimate perception of works of art) is also a refusal which stems from a denunCiation of the arbitrary or ostentatious gratui tousness of stylistic exercises or purely formalistic experiments. A certain 'aesthetic', which maintains that a photograph is justified by the object

It is no accident that, when one sets about reconstrucring its logic, the popular 'aesthetic' 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 a thesis contradicting it. In order to apprehend what makes the speClfiCIty of aesthetic judgement, Kant ingeniously distinguished 'that which pleases' from 'that which gratifies', and, more genrally, strove t separte 'disinterestedness', the sole guarantee of the speClfically aesthetic qualIty of contemplation, from 'the interest of the senses', which defines' 'the agreeable', and ftom 'the interest of Reason', which defines 'the Good'. By contrast, working-dass people, who expect every image to fulfil a function, if only that of a sign, refer, often explicitly, to norms of moral ity or agreeableness in all their judgements. Thus the photograph of a dead soldier ptovokes 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 denun ciation of the hortors of war which the photographer is supposed to produce simply by showing that horror. 27 Similarly, popular naturalism recognizes beauty in the image of a beautiful thing or, more rarely, 10 a beautiful image of a beautiful thing: 'Now, that's good, it's almost sym metrical. And she's a beautiful woman. A beautiful woman always looks good in a photo.' The Parisian manual worker echoes 'the plain-speaking of Hippias the Sophist: 'I'll tell him what beauty is and I'm not likely to

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sense nor interest, or of the ambiguous image means refusing to treat it as a finality without purpose, as an image signifying itself, and therefore having no other referent than itself. The value of a photograph is mea sU red 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 rhe title or caption which, by declaring the signifying IOtentlOn, 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 the uninitiared 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, rhey feel incapable of distinguishing a tour de force from clumsiness, telling a 'sincere' formal device from cyni cal imposture,
The con fessions with which manual workers faced with modern pictures be , , tray their exclUSIOn ('I don't understand what it 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 or at least conceal the naive expectation of expressiveness that is betrayed by the concern to 'understand' ( ,programme music' and the titles foisted on so many sonatas, concertos and symphonies are sufficient indication that this expectation is not an exclusi,,:ely popul ar one),
-

be refuted by him' The fact is, Socrates, to be frank, a beautiful woman, that's what beauty is" ( Plato, Greater Hippias, 287e). This 'aesthetic', which subordinates the form and the very existence of the image to its function, is necessarily pluralistic and conditionaL The insistence with which the respondents point out the limits and condi tions of validity of their judgements, distinguishing, for each photo graph, the possible uses or audiences, or, more precisely, the possible use for each audience ('As a news photo, it's not bad', 'All right, if it's for showing to kids' ) shows that they teject .the idea that a photograph can please 'universally'. 'A photo of a pregnant woman is all right for me, not for other people', said a white-collar worker, who has to use his concern for propriety as a 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 thetic judgement naturally takes the form of a hypothetical judge :n ent implicitly based on recognition of 'genres', the perfection and scope of whICh are defined by a concept. Almost three-quarters of the judge ments 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 erent genres being defined in terms of attrib tion of a social use, the diff th,ir use and their users ( ,It's a publicity photo', 'It's a pure document', 'It's a laboratory phoro', " It's a competition photo', 'It's an educational phoro' etc . ) . And photographs of nudes are almost always received with comments that reduce them to the stereotype of their social function: 'All right in Pigalle', 'It's the sort of photos they keep under the coun ter ' It is not surprising that this 'aesthetic', which bases apprecia tion 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 never gives the image of the object autonomy with respect to the object of the image. Of all the characteris-. tics proper to the image, only colour (which Kant regarded as less pure than form ) can prevent rejection of photographs of trivial things. Noth ' ing is more alien to popular consciousness than the idea of an aesthetic pleasure that, to put it in Kantian terms, is independent of the charming of the senses. Thus judgements on the photographs most strongly re jected on grounds of futility (pebbles, bark, wave) almost always end with the reservation that 'in colour, it might be ,pretty'; and some respondents even manage to formulate the maxim governing their atti tude, when they declare that 'if the colours are good, a colour photo graph is always beautiful.' In short, Kant is indeed referring ro popular taste when he writes: 'Taste that requires an added element of charm and emotion for its delight, not to speak of adopting this as the measure of , 'H its apptoval, has not yet emerged from barbarism Refusal of the meaningless (insignifiant ) image, which has neither
.

But formal refinement is also that which, by foregrounding form, i.e., the artist, his specific interests, his technical problems, his effects, his al lusions and echoes, throws the thing itself into the background and pre cludes dIrect commUnIon with the beauty of the worlda beautiful child, a beautiful girl, a beautiful animal or a beautiful landscape. The representatlOn IS expected to be a feast for the eyes and, like still life, to 'stir 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 arr, 'a choice which praises', than the devices of cubist or abstract painting, which are per ceIved and unanImously denounced as aggressions againsr the thing rep resented, against the natural order and especially the human form. In shorr, however perfectly it performs its representative function, the work is only seen as fully justified if the thing represented is worthy of being represented, if the representative function is subordinated to a higher function, such as that of capturing and exalting a reality that is worthy of

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'Ihe

AriJtocracy 0/ Culture /

45

beauty or their social importance_

most antithetical forms of the dominant aesthetic always ref negatively er and which only recognizes realist representation, in other words, a re spectful, humble, submissive representation of objects designated by their

being made eternal. Such is the basis of the 'barbarous taste' ro which the

AESTHETICS, ETHICS AND AESTHETICISM When faced with legitimate works of art, people most lacking the specific competence apply to them

their everyday perception of everyday existence. These schemes, giving rise to products of an unwilled, unselfconscious systematicity, are op posed to the more or less ful l y stated principles of an aesthetic.'o The re sult is a systematic 'reduction' of the things of art to the things of lif a e, bracketing of form in favour of 'human' content, which IS barbarism par Everything takes

the perceptual schemes of their own ethos, the very ones which structure

excellence from the standpoint of the pure aesthetic."

place as if the emphasis on form could only be achieved by means of a neutralization of any kind of aff ective or ethical interest in the object of lation) mastery of the means of grasping the distinctive properties which this particular form takes on in its relations with other forms (i.e., through ref erence to the universe of works of art and its history ) . representation which accompanies (without any necessary cause-effeq re

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 nega tive one ) : 'Oh, she's got terribly defotmed hands' . . . There's one thing I don 't get (the left hand)-it's as if her left thumb was about to come away from her hand. Funny way of taking a photo. The old girl must've worked hard. Looks like she's got arthritis. She's definitely crippled, unless she's holding her hands like that (imitates gesture) ' Yes, that's it, she's got her hand bent like thar. Nor like a duchess's hands or even a typist's! . . . I really feel sorry seeing that poor old woman's hands, they're all knotted, you might say' (manual worker, Paris) . With the lower middle classes, ex altation of ethical virtues comes to the f orefront (,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 concrn for aesthetic properties and references to painting make their appearance: 'Ir's as if it was a painting that had been photographed . . . Must be really beautiful as a painting' (clerical worker, Paris) . 'That re minds 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' (tecnician, Paris). 'The sort of hands you see in early Van Goghs, an old peasant woman or people eating potatoes' ( junior executive, Paris). At higher levels in the social hierarchy, the remarks become increi:lsingly abstract, with (other people's) hands, labour and old age functioning as allegories or sym bols which serve as pretexts for general reflections on general problems:

'Those are the hands of someone who has worked too much, doing very hard manual work . . . A.s a matter of fact it's very unusual to see hands like (har' (engineer, Paris). 'These twO hands unquestionably evoke a poor and unhappy old age' ( teacher, provinces ) . An aesthticizing reference to paint ing, sculpture or literature, more frequent, more varied and more subcJv handled, resorts to the neutralization and distancing which bourgeois d is course abom the social world refluires and performs. ' J find this a very beautiful photograph. It's the very symbol of toil . It puts me in mind of Fl auberr' s old servant-wOman . . . That woman's gesture, at once very humble . It's terrible that work and poverty are so deformif],g' (engineer, Paris ) . A portrait o f 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 dis gust: 'I wouldn'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, I don't want to look at it' (shopkeeper, provinces ) . While most of the office workers and junior executives rej eer a photo which they can only describe as 'frightful' or 'unpleasant (Q look at', some of them try to characterize the technique: 'The photo is very well taken, very beaut.iful, but horrible' ( cleri cal worker; Paris ) . 'What gives the impression of something monstrous is the expression on the face of the man or woman who is the su bj ect of the photo and the angle from which i t has been taken, 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 least rather bizarre . . . i t could be a Dreyer character, Bergman at a pinch,

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keeper, provinces) . Office workers and junior executives, who are just as disconcerted as the manual workers and small employers, but are less in clined to admit it than the former and less inclined than the latter to chal lenge the legitimacy of what challenges them, less often decline to give a 32 verdict: 'I like it as a photo . . . because it's all drawn out; they're just lines, it seems immense to me . . . A vast piece of scaff lding . . . It's just o light, captured by the camera' (clerical worker, Paris) . 'Buffet likes doing things like that' ( technician, Paris) . But only among members of the domi nane class, who most often recognize the objeer represented, does judge ment of form take on full autonomy vis-a-vis judgement ofcontenr ('It's inhuman but aesthetically beautiful because of the contrasts') , and the rep resentation is apprehended as such, without reference ro anything other than itself or realities of the same class (,abstract painting', 'avant-garde plays' etc .). The variations in the attitude to a very comparable objeer, a metal frame, provide a numerical proof of this: the proportion of respondents who think it could make a beautiful pharo 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 adminisrrative executives, 24 percent among the primary teachers and technicians, 24.5 percent in the dominant class-and 50 percent among the secondary and higher-education teachers. (One may assume that the reactions aroused by the architecture of the Beaubourg Centre obey the same principles. )

The Lacq gasworks by night or perhaps even Eisenstein, in Ivan the Terrible . . . I like it a lor' ( rech ? i cian, Paris) . Most of the senior executives and members of the professIOns find the photograph 'beautiful' and 'expressive' and make reference nor only to the films of Bergman, Orson Welles, Dreyer, and others, but also to the theatre, invoking Hamlet, Macbeth or Racine's Athalie. . . When confronted with a photograph of the Lacq gas refinery, whICh IS likely to disconcert realist expectations both by its subject, an industrial complex, normally excluded from thl:;" world of legitimate representation, and by the treatment it receives (night photography), manual workers per plexed, hesitate, and evencually, in most cases, admit defeat: 'At firs sight . . it's a construction in metal but I can't make head or tat! of It. It might be . . . I can't make out what it is, something used in an electric power station it's a mystery to me' (manual worker, provinces) . 'Now, that one really bothers me, I haven't got anything to say about it . I can't see what it could be, apart from the lighting. It isn't car hed.lights, it wouldn'.t be all straight lines like that. Down here I can see a railing and a goods lift, no, really, I can't say' ( manual worker, Paris ) . 'That's something ro do :-rith electronics, I don't know anything about that' ( manual worker, Pans). Among smaIl employers, who tend to be hostile to modern art experiments and, more generally, to all art in . which they cannot. see the marks and . , traces of work, a 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 ) . 'I've tried to work out if it really is a photo. Perhaps it's a reproduction of a drawing done with a few pencil lines . . . I wouldn't know what t? do with a photo like that. Perhaps it suits modern tastes. Up and down with the pencil and rhey like it. And as for the 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 ro take the credit, he's the one who drew it' (shop-

The aestheticism which makes the artistic intention the basis of (he 'art of living' implies a sort of moral agnosticism, rhe perfect antithesis of rhe ethical disposition which subordinates art to the values of the art of l iv ing. 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 oi;>jects and modes of representation for rhe different social classes, excluding fro m the u niverse of the 'representable' certain realities and certain ways of representing them. Thus the easiest, and so the most fre quent and most spectacular way to 'shock (epater ) the bourgeois' by proving the extent of one's power to confer aesthetic status is to tram gress ever more radically the ethical censotships (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 aesthetit status on objects or ways of representing them that are excluded by the dominant aesthetic of the time, or on objects that are given aes thetic status by dominated 'aesthetics'.
One only has to read the index of contents recently published by Art Vi ( 1974), a 'vaguely modern review run by a clique of academics who are vaguely art historians' (as an avant-garde painter nicely put it), which occupies a sort of neutral point in the field of avant-garde art criticism be tween Flashart or Art Press and Artitude or Opus. In the list of features and titles one finds: A/rica (one title: 'Art Must Be for All'), Architecture (two

vant

48 / A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

tities, including 'Architecture without an Architect'), Comic Strips ( five titles, nine pages out of the forty-six in the whole index ) , Kids' Art, Kitsch (thtee tides, five pages) , Photography ( two titles, thtee pages) , Street Art (fifteen titles, twenty-three pages, i ncluding 'Art in the Street?', 'Art in the Street, First Episode' . 'Beauty in the Back-Streets: You Just Have to Know pia ( two titles, How to Look', 'A Subutb Sets the Pace' ) , Science-Fiction-Uto thtee pages), Underground (one title), Writing-Ideograms-Graffiti ( two titles, four pages) . The aim of inverting or tramgreJJtng, whICh 15 clearly mani fested by this list, is necessarily contained within the limits assigned to it a (cntrado by the aesthetic conventions it denounces and by the need to secure recognition of the aesthetic nature of the transgression of the limits (Le., recognition of its conformity to the norms of the transgressing group). Hence the almost Markovian logic of the choices, with, for the cin ema, Antonioni, Chaplin, cinematheque, Eisenstein, eroticism-pornography, Fellini, Godatd, Klein, Monroe, undetground, Wathol.

The Aristocracy of Culture / 49

'Art fot art's sake, as i t has been called, not having its legitimacy within itself, being based on nothing, is nothing. It is debauchery of the heart and dissolution of the mind. Separated from tight and duty, culti vated and pursued as the highest though't of the soul and the supreme manifestation of humanity, art or the ideal, strifwed of the greater part of itself, reduced to nothing more than an excitement off antasy and the senses, is the source of sin, the origin of all servitude, the poisoned spring from which, according to the Bible, flow all the fornications and abominations of the earth . . ' Art for art's sake, 1 say, verse for verse's sake, style for style's sake, fotm fot form's sake, fantasy fot fantasy's sake, all the diseases which like a plague of lice are gnawing away at our epoch, ate vice in all , its refinement, the quintessence of evil. 36

This commitment to symbolic ttansgtession, which is often combined with political neutrality Ot tevolutionary aestheticism, is the almost pet fect antithesis of petit-bourgeois moralism Ot of what Same used to call , the revolutionary's 'seriousness . ll The ethical indiffetence which the aes thetic disposition implies when it becomes the basis of the art of living is in fact the root of the ethical aversion to attists (Ot intellectuals) which manifests itself particularly vehemently among the declining and threat ened frac t ion s of the petite bourgeo isie (especially independent crafts men and shopkeepers), who tend to exptess theit tegtessive and repr:essive dispositions in all areas of practice (especially in educational . matters and vis-a.-vis students and student demonstrauons), but also among the rising fractions of that class whose striving for virtue and whose deep insecurity rendet them very teceptive to the phantasm of 'pornocracy' . The pute disposition is so universally recognized as legitimate that no voice is heatd pointing out that the definition of art, and through it the art of living, is an object of struggle among the classes. Dominated life styles (arts de vivre ) , which have practically nevet teceived systematic ex ptession, are almost always petceived, even by their defenders from the : destructive or reductive viewpoint of the dominant aesthetIC, so that theit only options ate degradation or self-desttuctive tehabilitation ( 'pop ular culture') . This is why it is necessary to look to Ptoudhon 34 for a naively systematic exptession of the petit-bourgeois aesthetic, which sub ordinates art to the cote values of the att of living and identifies the cyn ical perversion of the artist's life-style as the source of the absolute ptimacy given to fotm: praved in his teason, dis 'Undet the influence of property, the artist, de and without dignity, is the impure image of ego solute in his morals, venal ism. The idea of justice and honesty slides over his heart without taking root, and of all the classes of society, the artist class is the pootest in " strong souls and noble chatacters.' .

What is condemned is the autonomy of form and the artist's tight to the formal tefinements by which he claims mastery of what ought to be metely a mattet of 'execution': 'I have no quartel with nobility, or 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 . , CritICIsm. 37 Dependent on demand in the choice of theit objects, artists take theit revenge in the execution: 'There are church painters, history painters, gente painters (in other wotds, painters of anecdotes or fatces) , portrait painters, landscape painters, animal painters, seascape painters, painters of Venus, painters of fantasy. One specializes in nudes, another in dtapety. Then each one endeavours to distinguish himself by one of the means which conttibute 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 his idealized or realistic figures; yet another redeems the futility of his subject by the fineness of his detail. Each strives to have his own trick, his own 'je oe sais quai", a personal manner, and so, with the hdp of fashion, repu tations are made and unmade.' 3H I n contrast to this decadent art cut 'Qff from social life, respecting nei ther God not man, an art 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 teal. In a word, i t must educate, To do so, it must transmit not 'personal im pressions' (like David in The Tennis-Court Oath, Ot Del acroi x ) but, like Courbet in Les Paysans de Flagey, reconstitute the social and histotial truth which all may judge. ('Each of us only has to consult himself to be able, after btief consideration, to state a judgement on any work of att.') 19 And it would be a pity to conclude without quoting a eulogy of the small detached house which would SUtely be massively endorsed by the middle and working classes: ' I would give the Louvre, the Tuileries, Notte-Dame-and the Vend6me column into the batgain-to live in my own home, in a little house of my own design, whete 1 would live alone, in

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Piet

Mond ri an , Broadwa,.y Boogie-Woogie

the middle of a little plot of ground, a quarter of an acre or so, where I'd have water, shade, a lawn, and silence. And if [ 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 Venice. God preserve me from such placesI I'd put there what [ lack-mountains, vineyards, meadows, goats, cows, sheep, reapers and shepherds.'40
A N D T H E UNIVERSE OF POSSIBLES Unlike non specific perception, the specifically aesthetic perception of a work of art (in which there are of course degrees of accomplishment) is armed with a pertinence principle which is socially constituted and acquired. This principle of selection enables it to pick Out and retain, from among the elements offered to the eye (e.g., leaves or clouds considered merely as indices or signals invested with a denotative function-'It's a poplar', 'There's going to be a storm' ) , all the stylistic traits-and only those which, when relocated in the universe of stylistic possibilities, distin guish a patticular manner of treating the elemen ts selected, whether clouds or leaves, that is, a style as a mode of representation expressing the mode of perception and though t that is proper to a period, a class or class fraction, a group of artists or a particular artist. No stylistic characteriza tion of a work of art is possible without presupposing at least implicit reference to the compossible alternatives, whether simultaneousto dis tinguish 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 Bordeaux in 1978) are the objective realization of the field of inter changeable stylistic possibilities which is 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 Boogze-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 pri mary colours in carefully balanced tectangles' 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, mea sured 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 ex plicit learning or simply by regular contact with works of art, -especially those assembled in museums and galleries, where the diversity of their N E U T R A LIZATION

Piet Mondrian,
Painting I

Gino Severini, Dynamzc Hierogly phic o the Bal Tabarin f

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original functions is neutralized by their being displayed in a place con secrated to art, so that they invite pure interest in form. This practical mastery enables its possessor to situate each element of a universe of ar tistic representations in a class defined in relation to the class composed of all the artistic representations consciously or unconsciously excluded. Thus, an awareness of the stylistic features 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 oeu'vre, is inseparable from an awareness of the stylistic redundancies, i.e., the typ ical 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 refer ence to 'rypical works', consciously or unconsciously selected because they present to a particularly high degree the qualities more or less ex plicitly recognized as pertinent in a given system of classification. Every thing suggests that, even among specialists, the cri teria of pertinence which define the stylistic properties of 'typical works' generally remain implicit and that the aesthetic taxonomies implicitly mobilized to distin guish, classify and order works of art never have the rigour which aes thetic 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 genu inely 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 de ploys have nothing to do with the kinds of semantic echo or affective correspondence which adorn celebratory discourse-they are the IOdlS pensable means of consttucting the field of thematic or stylistic possibili, ties in relation to which, objectively and to some extent subJewvely, 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" 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

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 refer ence to Jan Breughel's Bouquet 0/ Flowers lends dignity to Jean-Michel Pi cart's Bouquet of Flowers with Parrot, just as, in another context, re(erence to the latter can, being less common, serve to enhance the former. This play of cultured allusions and analogies endlessly pointing to other anal ogies, 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 factirious expe riences, 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 Moreau or described by Balzac.''' Analogy, functioning as a circular mode of thought, makes it possible to tour the 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 solemn . . . . Chateau Margaux has the air of an ancient temple devoted to the cult of wine. . . . Vineyard or dwelling, Margaux disdains all embel lishments. But just as the wine has to be served before it unfolds all its charms, so the residence waits for the visitor to enter before it reveals its own. In each case the same words spring to one's lips: elegance, distinc tion, 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 bouse long inhabited: Margaux the vintage and Margaux the chateau are the product of two equally rare things: rigour and time. ,4
DISTANCE FROM NECESSITY To explain the correlation between educa tional capital and the propensity or at least the aspiration to appreciate a work ' independently of its content', as the culturally most ambitious re spondents put it, and more generally the propensity to make the 'gratui touS' and 'disinterested' investments demanded by legitimate works, it is not sufficient to point to the fact that schooling provides tbe linguistic tools 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

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The Aristocracy of Culture / 55

[he pedagogic action of the family and the school operates at least as much through the economic and social conditions which are the pre condItIOn of Its operation as through the contents which it inculcates.47 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 'bour: geOis' world and the countless 'disinterested' and 'gratuirous' acts which go to make up its distinctive rarity, such as home maintenance and deco. ration, occasioning a daily squandering of care, time and labour (often through [he intermediary of servants), walking and tourism, movements without any other aim than physkal exercise and the symbolic appro pnatlon of a world reduced to the status of a landscape, or ceremonies and receptlons, pretexts for a display of ritual luxuries, decors, conversa tions and finery, not to mention, of course, artistic practices and enjoy ments. It is not surprising that bourgeois adolescents, who are both economically privileged and ( temporarily) excluded from the reality of 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 aes theticism. 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 is first and foremost a power to keep e<.:onomic neces . Sity at arm's length. This is why it universally asserts itself by the destruc tion f nches, conspicuous consumption, squandering, and every form of gratuitous luxury. Thus, whereas the court aristocracy made the whole of hfe a contlnuous spectacle, the bourgeoisie has established the opposition between what IS paid for and what is free, the interested and the disin terested, in the form of the opposition, which Weber saw as characteriz ing it, between place of work and place of residence, working days and hohdays, the outSIde (male) and the inside ( female) , business and senti ment: industry and art, the world of economic necessity and the world of artistic f:eedom that l snatched, br economic power, from that necessity. Matenal or symboltc consumpuon of works of art constitutes One of the supreme manifestations of ease, in the sense both of objective leisure and subjective facility.'8 The detachment of the pure gaze cannot be sepa rated from a general dIsposition towards the 'gratuitous' and the 'disin terested', the paradoxical product of a negative economic conditioning WhICh, through faohty and freedom, engenders distance vis-it-vis neces sity. At the same rime, the aesthetic disposition is defined, objectively . and subleCtlvely, 10 relation to other dispositions. Objective distance from necessity and from those trapped within it combines with a con scious distance which doubles freedom by exhibiting it. As the objective dIstance from necessity grows, life-style increasingly becomes the product of what Weber calls a 'stylization of life', a systematic commitment

only be acquired by means of a sort of withdrawal from economic neces sity_ The aesthetic disposition which tends to bracket off the nature and function of the object represented and (0 exclude any 'naive' reaction horror 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 appre ciated by comparison with other styles, is one dimension of a total rela tion to the world and ro others, a life-style, in which the effects of particular conditions of existence are expressed in a 'rnisrecognizable' form.'6 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 explicii and specific, as in scholastic training, are characterized by the suspension and removal of economic necessity and by objective and subjective distance from practical urgen cies, which is the basis of objective and subjective distance from groups subjected ro 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 necessar ily 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 them, over the I 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 intellec tual 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 il/usio (belief in the game) de mands; who treat intellectual struggles, the object of so many pathetic manifestos, as a simple question of right and wrong, life and death. This is why the logic of the game has already assigned them roles--eccentric or boor-which they will play despite themselves in the eyes of those who know how to stay within the bounds of the intellectual illusion and who cannot see them any other way. The aesthetic disposition, a generalized capacity to neutralize ordinary urgencies and to bracket off practical ends, a durable inclination and ap titude 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 exercises or the contemplation of works of art. In other words, it presup- ' poses 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

56 / A Social Critique 01 the Judgement 01 Taste

which orients and organizes rhe mosr diverse pracrices-rhe choice of a vintage or a cheese or the decorarion of a holiday home in rhe country. This affirmation of power over a dominated necessiry always implies a claim to a legitimate superiority over those who, because they cannot as sert the same contempt for contingencies in gratuitous luxury and con spicuous consumption, remain dominated by ordinary interests and urgencies. The rastes of freedom can only assert themselves as stich in re lation to the tastes of necessity, which are rhereby brought to rhe level of the aesthetic and so defined as vulgar. This claim to aristocracy is less likely to be contested than any other, because the relation of the 'pure', 'disinterested' disposition to the conditions which make it possible, i.e., the material conditions of exisrence 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. Thus, the aes rhetic disposition is one dimension of a disrant, self-assured relation to the world and to others which presupposes objective assurance and dis tance. I t is one manifestation of the system of dispositions produced l;>y the social conditionings associated with a particular class of conditions of existence when they rake the paradoxical form of rhe greatesr freedom conceivable, at a given moment, with respect to the constraints of eco nomic necessity. But ir is also a distinctive expression of a privileged po sirion in social space whose distinctive value is objectively established in irs relarionship ro expressions generared from different conditions. Like every sort of raste, ir unires and separates. Being rhe product of the con ditionings associated with a particular class of conditions of existence, it unires all those who are the product of similar conditions while distin guishing them from all others. And it distinguishes in an essential way, since raste is rhe basis of all rhar one has-people and things-and all thar one is for others, whereby one classifies oneself and is classified by others. Tastes (i.e., manifested preferences) are the practical affirmation of an inevitable difference. It is no accident that, when they have to be justi fied, they are asserted purely negatively, by the refusal of other tastes.' In matters of taste, more than anywhere else, all determinacion is negarion;')o and tastes are perhaps first and foremost disrastes, disgust provoked by horror or visceral intolerance ( 'sick-making') of the tastes of others. 'De gustibus non est dispurandum': not because 'tous les gouts sont dans la nature', but because each taste feels itself to be natural-and so it almost is, being a habitus-which amounts to rejecting others as unnatural and therefore vicious. Aestheric 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 rhing for those who regard themselves as the possessors of legitimate culture is rhe
THE AESTHETIC SENSE AS THE SENSE OF DISTINCTION

The Aristocracy of Culture / 5 7

sacrilegious reuni ring of tastes which taste dictates shaH be separated. This means rhar rhe games of artisrs and aesrheres and rheir struggles for rhe monopoly of arrisric legirimacy are less innocent rhan rhey seem. Ar stake in every struggle over art there is also the imposition of an art of living, that is, the transmutation of an arbitrary way of living into the legitimate way of life which casts every other way of living into arbitrari ness.'1 The areisr's life-sryle is always a challenge rhrown ar rhe bourgeois life-sryle, which ir seeks ro condemn as unreal and even absurd, by a sore of practical demonstration of the emptiness of the values and powers it pursues. The neurralizing relarion co rhe world which defines rhe aes rheric disposirion porentially implies a subversion of rhe spirir of serious ness required by bourgeois invesrmencs. Like rhe visibly erhical judgemencs of rhose who lack rhe means co make are rhe basis of rheir are of living, CO see rhe world and orher people rhrough lirerary reminis cences and pictorial references, rhe 'pure' and purely aesrheric judgell1enrs of rhe areisr and rhe aesrhere spring from rhe disposirions of an erhos;" bur because of rhe legirimacy which rhey command so long as rheir rela rionship to rhe disposirions and inceresrs of a group defined by srrong cultural capiral and weak economic capiral remains unrecognized, rhey provide a sorr of absolure reference poinc in rhe necessarily endless play of murually self-relarivizing rasres. By a paradoxical reversal, rhey rhereby help co legirimare the bourgeois claim ro 'narural disrincrion' as differ ence made absolute. Objecrively and subjecrively aesrhetic srances adopred in marters like cosmetics, clothing or home decoration are opportunities to experience or assere one's posirion in social space, as a rank co be upheld or a dis rance co be kepr. Ir goes withour saying rhar rhe social classes are nor equally inclined and prepared co encer rhis game of refusal and councer refusal; and that the strategies aimed at transforming the basic disposi rions of a life-sryle into a sysrem of aesrheric principles, objecrive differences into elective distinctions, passive options (constituted exter nally by rhe logic of rhe disrinctive relarionships) inco conscious, elecrive choices are in fact reserved for members of the dominant class, indeed the very top bourgeoisie, and for artists, who as the inventors and profes sionals of rhe 'stylizarion of life' are alone able co make rheir art of living one of rhe fine ares. By concrasr, rhe enrry of rhe perire bourgeoisie inco rhe game of disrincrion is marked, inrer alia, by rhe anxiety of exposing oneself ro classification by offering co rhe rasre of orhers such infallible indices of personal rasre as clorhes or furnirure, even a simple pair of armchairs, as in one of Nathalie Sarraute's novels. As for the working classes, perhaps rheir sole funcrion in rhe sysrem of aesrheric posirions is CO serve as a foil, a negarive reference poinc, in relarion CO which all aes thetics define themselves, by successive negations.3 Ignoring or ignorant of manner and sryle, rhe 'aesrheric' (in irself) of rhe working classes and culrurally mosr deprived fracrions of rhe middle classes defines as 'nice', 'prerey', 'lovely' (rarher rhan 'beauriful') rhings rhar are already defined as

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The Aristocracy 0/ Culture / 59

such in the 'aesthetic' of calendars and postcards: a sunset, a little girl playing with a cat, a folk dance, an old master, a first communion, a chil dren's procession. The striving towards distinction comes in with petit bourgeois aestheticism, which delights in all the cheap substitutes for chic objects and practices--<lriftwood and painted pebbles, cane and raf fia, 'art' handicrafts and art phorography. This aestheticism defines itself against the 'aesthetic' of the working classes, refusing their favourite subjects, the themes of 'views', such as mountain landscapes, sunsets and woods. or souvenir photos, such as the first communion, the monument or the old master (see figure 2). In phorography, this taste prefers objects that are close ro those of the popu lar aesthetic but semi-neutralized by more or less explicit reference ro a picrorial tradition or by a visible stylistic intention combining the human picturesque (weaver at his loom, tramps quarrelling, folk dance) with gratuitous form (pebbles, rope, tree bark). Technicians seem to offer the purest f orm of 'middle-brow' taste. Their tastes in photogtaphy locate them centrally in the structure of the middle classes (see figure 2), with the craftsmen, small shopkeepers, clerical work ers and junior executives inclining towards the working class and the pri mary teachers and new petit bourgeois inclining towards the upper classes. They ate particularly drawn to the objects most typical of middle-brow pho tography-the weaver, the still life-whereas the m:w pt:tit bourgeois prefer objects which they see as lying outside the repertoire of the traditional aes thetic and therefore more 'original' (rope, cabbages) , and also those belong ing to the 'social picturesque' (tramps quarrelling). It is significant that this middle-brow art par excellence finds one of its preferred subjects in one of the spectacles most characteristic of middle brow 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 ob jectivism distances the lower classes by constituting them as an object of contemplation or even commiseration or indignation, the spectacle of the 'people' making a spectacle of itself, as in folk dancing, is an opportu nity to experience the relationship of distant proximity, in the form of the idealized vision purveyed by aesthetic realism 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 second ary 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-

60

gement of Taste ! A Social Critique of the jud

The Aristocracy of Culture !

61

rion of those so constituted by the middle-brow art of the petite bour geoisie (such as the weaver and the folk dance, which are deemed merely " 'interesting' ) . These would-be aesthetes demonstrate by their distinc tive refusals that they possess the' practical mastery of the relationships between objects and groups which is the basis of all judgements of the type 'Ca fait' ('It looks . . . ' ) ( 'Ca fait petit-bourgeois', 'Ca fait nouveau riche' etc. ) , without being able to go so far s 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 rela 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, wi th whom the compe tition is most direct and most immediate, and more precisely, no doubt, in relation to those choices most clearly marked by the intention (per ceived as pretension) of marking distinction vis-a-vis lower groups, such as, for intellectuals, the primary teachers' Brassens, Jean Ferrat or Ferre. Thus the song, as a cultural property which (like photography ) is almost universally accessible and genuinely common (since hardly anyone is not exposed at one moment or another to the 'successes' of the day ) , calls for particular vigilance from those who intend to mark their difference. The intellectuals, artists and higher-education teachers seem to hesitate be tween systematic refusal of what can only be, at best, a middle-brow art, and a selective acceptance which manifests the universality of their cul ture 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 Chan son, 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 find in song (as in photograph y) 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 de claring their preference for the singers who endeavour to dignify this 'minor' genre. That is why the primary teachers distinguish themselves most clearly 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 of singers who offer populist poetry in the primary-school tradition, such as Jacques Douai or Brassens (who was on the syllabus of the Saint. . r 'l C oud entrance exammatlOn a lew years ago ) . '"

French broadcasting service (ORTF) (C.S. XIX) and of thirty in-depth in . terviews deSIgned to grasp the constellation of preferences and refusals in conditions as close as possible to ordinary conversation. These interviews confirmed that, as the ORTF survey also shows, the more strongly a singer is peferred by he less cultivated, the more he or she is refused by the mOSf cultIvated-whose tastes in this area are almost exclusively expressed in re jections. These refusals, almost always expressed in the mode of distaste, art' ? ften accopanid by pitying or indignant remarks about the correspond109 tastes ( I can t understand how anyone can like that!' ) . Si mi larl, one finds that the declining petite--bourgeoisie systematically re . jects the virtues that the new petite bourgeoisie most readily claims for it elf (witty.' refined, .stylish, artistic, imaginative) ; whereas the latter signals ItS a:sthetlC pretenSIOn by a refusal of the most typically 'bourgeois' con fig urat ons and . by a concern to go against common judgements, in which aes thetic commitments figure prominently. Thus, when asked to state the ideal qualities of a friend or a domestic interior, they produce motley combina tions such as: 'artistic, sociable, amusing, comfortable, easy to maintain, imaginative' (sales representative, Paris), 'dynamic, pragmatic, stylish, stud ied, warm, i?1aginative' (galery director, Lille), 'dynamic, refined, prag . n:at.lC, comfortable, harmonIOUS, cosy' (radio presenter, Lille) . It is again a SImIlar process that leads the members of 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 'styl ish' or 'refined', which are much favoured by the new petite bourgeoisie.

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

It may also be 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 artis ic sta us of the photograph, stems much more from a self-distinguishing lfltentIOn than from a true aesthetic universalism. This has not escaped . the most knowmg avant-garde producers, who carry sufficient authority . to challenge, If need be, the very dogma of the omnipotence of art," anJ are m a pOSItIOn to recognize this faith as a defensive manoeuvre to avoid self-exposure by reckless refusals: 'Who would say this: "When I look at a picture, I'm not interested in what it represents"? Nowadays, the sort of people who don't know much about art. Saying that is typical of someone who hasn't any idea about art. Twenty years ago, I'm not even sure that twenty years 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 3 5 ) . They alone, at all events, can afford the au dacious imposture of refusing all refusals by recuperating, in parody or sublImation, the very obJects refused by the lower-degree aestheticism. The 'rehabilitation' of 'vulgar' objects is more risky, but also more 'prof. Itable', the smaller the distance in social 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 'compto mising'.
Suffice it to point out that, in addition to those subjects which had already been constituted as aesthetic at the time of the survey. either by a pictorial tradition (e.g., the metal frame of Uger or Gromaire, the tramps quarrel ling, a variant of an old theme of realist painting often taken up in photog taphy, 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 subse quently been constituted aesthetically by one avant-garde painter or another (for example, the sunset over the sea, by Richer, who paints typically ro mantic 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 Bol tanski, who has even given artistic status to the family album etc.). The only 'unrecuperated' and, for the moment, 'irrecuperable' subjects are the fa vourite themes of first-deg ree 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 be cause they do not allow distance to be manifested, they are more liable to be mistaken for 'first-degree' intentions. Reappropriation is that much marc difficult when the aesthetic-in-itself which it works on clearly manifests rec ognition of the dominant aesthetic so that the distinctive deviation is liable to go unnoticed.

The Aristocracy of Culture / 63

classes when faced with an opportunity for aesthetic constitution of an ob ject (not a single small art-dealer says that a car accident can make a beauti ful photo, and (he 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 j azz , which are neither taught nor directly assessed by the educational system, the fact remains that, at equivalent levels of educational capital, .differences in so cial origin (whose 'effecrs' are already expressed in differences in educa tional' capital) are associated 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' cul ture, which is not taught in schools but is valued in the academic market and can often yield high symbolic profit. The relative weight of educa tional 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 le g i ti mated culture, a paradoxical relationship made up of that mixture of self-assurance and ( relative) ignorance, expressing true bourgeois rights, which are measured by seniority.

The artist agrees with the 'bourgeois' in one respect: he prefers naivety to 'pretentiousness'. The essential merit of the 'common people' is that they have none of the pretensions to art (or power) which inspire the ambitions of the 'petit bourgeois'. Their indifference tacitl y. acknowl edgeS the monopoly. That is why, in the mythology of artists and intel lectuals, whose outflanking and double-negating strategies sometimes lead them back to 'popular' tastes and opinions, the 'people' so often play a role not unlike that of the peasantry in the conservative ideologies of the declining aristocracy.
In faer, their 'pretension' leaves the petit bourgeois particularly disarmed in the less legitimate or not-yet legitimate domains which the cultural 'elite' abandon to {hem, whether in photography or in cinema, in which their am bitions 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, confron{ed with objectively -ranked judgements, are able to choose the 'right' answer, are almost as disarmed as the working

At equal educational levels, the proportion who say they know at least twelve of the musical works mentioned increases more 'sharply than the pro portion who can attribute at least twelve of them to {heir composers, as one moves from the working class co the upper class (and the gap is very narrow among graduates) ( see table 4 ) . The same logic governs the differ ences by sex, except that they are less marked. Whereas, as regards com posers, no differences are found between the sexes among individuals of {he erences appear in favour of women as regards familiar same class, strong diff ity with works, especially in the middle and upper classes (in the working class, this knowledge is very limi{ed in both sexes); in the Cwo most femi nine occupational categories-the medical and social services and secre taries-all {he persons questioned claimed to know at lease three of the works. This diff erence 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 diff erences linked to social origin are also very strong as regards knowledge of film directors, which, at equal educational levels, rises with social origin. So too does the proportion who assert {hat 'ugly' or trivial

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Cultural (or linguistic ) t nce, which is acquired in relation to a particula r field function as a source o f inculcation and as a market, remain defined by its s cOnd' o . . . . l . ''' ns of ac9U1Slf on, Thesc con d' ' HlOns, perpetuated 10 the mode o f . Utilizat ' lik. a 'Ol1--l .e., in a given relationship to culture or language-function o of'tr ade-m ark', and, by linkin g that competence to a particu lar . 1Ilarke , e1p to define the value o f its products in the various m arkers, In

NERS t: ing :

beautiful photograph. Needless to say, corresponding to m ke a (!bjters can odes of acquisition, chere are differences in the naeure of the ere [ be ditf er ed. The differences linked to social origin tend to increase as prc ay from the academic curriculum, from literature to painring ov a usic and a fortiori jazz or avant-garde art. J1l . oflt' tn showed that students of working-class or middle-class er survey .A ea l had scores similar to those of students of bourgeois origin in ng'n VI lture fell back as the test moved wwards 'extra-curricular' cul , clJSSlCal C oth avant-garde theatre and Paris 'boulevard' ( middle-brow) the ture:, I ,e., finds an entlfely analogous rclanon here between the artistIC One at,re: reachers (or even the art reachers, whir-as is and the secondary oduce pr ther survey now being analysed--especially when they are of t n ano e cv,dk t class middle-class origin, mostly have very 'classical' tasres and or . wat mgr to the teachers than to the artists) . close u h art who have acquired the bulk of their cultural capital in and for safer cultural investments than those who have h have more 'classical', SC cultural inheritance. For example, whereas the members of e ed a large ominanr class wirh rhe highest qualifications ( the agregation or a die lema from a grande ecole ) never mention certain works or certain painters ical of middlebrow culture, such as Buffet or Utrillo, have considerable knowledge of composers, and prefer the Well-Tempered Clavier or the Fire bird SlIite, the highly educated members of the working and middle classes mort' often make choices which indicate their respect for a more 'scholastic' culture ( Goya, Leonardo, Breughel, Watteau, Raphael) , and a significant proportion of them concur with the opinion that 'paintings arc nice but difficult'. By contrast, those who originate from the dominant class know more works and more often choose works further from 'scholastic' culture (Braquc, Concerto f the Left Hand) . Similarly, those members of the estab or lished petite bourgeoisie (craftsmen, shopkeepers, clerical and commercial employees, junior executives) who have relatively low educational capital (BEPC or below) make choices clearly marked by their trajectory. Thus, th who are rising socially show their respect for legitimate culture in nou s ways (e.g., they are more likely to agree that 'paintings are nice but d dlieul t ') and choose works typical of middle-brow ( Buffet, UtriIlo) or even popular taste (Bille Danub e ) . However, those whose fathers belonged to [he upper classes manif est, at equivalent levels of educational capital, 8 tet familiarity with musical works ( although they are no more familiar h corn sers' names) just , as they more often say they like the Im l? i n1sts, VISit museums mote often and more often choose academically conseerated works ( Raphael or Leonardo) .

rkS SlC, or das o

; s l;;

AND MANNER OF ACQUISIT ION

other words, what art grasped through indicators such as educlti! level or social origin or, more precisely, in the structure of the rel'tt. ship between them, are abo diffetent modes of production of the vated habitus, which engender differences not only in the cornp'etel acuired but also in the manner of applying them. These erent,_ manner constitute a set of secondary properties, revealing diff the various markets.

erent valu. ditions of acquisition and predisposed to receive very diff Knowing that 'manner' is a symbolic manifestation whose mea

and value depend as much on the perceivers as on the producer, one, see how it is that the manner of using symbolic goods, especially regarded as the attributes of excellence, constitutes one of the key
ees of 'class' and also the ideal weapon in strategies of distinction,

seh :

as Proust put it, 'the infinitely vatied art of marking distances'. The ogy of natural taste contrasts two modalities of cultural co;mF,e"'nce' its use, and, behind them, two modes of aC9uisirion of (uiture,,)R early, imperceptible l ea rn i ng, pe rfo rmed within the family from Iiest days of life and extended by a scholastic learning which

to the thoughtless pleasure of the 'naive' (glorified in ide as m uch rOsed the myth of childhood and the innocent eye) as to the t ro ugh o sureless thought of the petit bourgeois and the 'parvenu', y ol g sed l plea supp orms of aesthetic perversion which put always exposed to those f ",ho arc ledge above experience and sacrifice contemplation of the work to ss kno"' ion of the work, aisthesis to ask"is, like film-buff who know s u . 60 dlSc there IS to k now about films they have not seen. Not that th ing e e d ucat iO n al system ever entirely fulfils irs rational function: the es e t rial part of what schools communicate is again acquired incidentally, as the system of classification which the school system inculcates order in which i t inculcates knowledge or through the prerough Ihe sitio ns of ItS own organtzatton (the hterarchy of dlsClplmes, secppo etc. ) or irS operatIon (rnode 0f assessment, rewards and dons, exerci ses ut, in order to trans it at all, i t has to perform a pun ish men ts etc). , ee of rationaltzanon of what 1l transmItS, Thus, for example, in place degr of practical schemes of classification, which are always partial and linked

"

neer' would have it-as in the modality of [he relationship to and culture which it simultaneously tends to inculcate.')') It

ers from belated, methodical learning not so and completes it, diff in the depth and dutability of its eff ects-as the ideology of cultur

or and f all in the form of synoptic schemas or dualistic typologies (e.g., 'c1assical'j'romantic' ) , which are expressly inculcated and therefore con served in the memory as knowledge that can be reproduced in virtually orm by all the agents subjected to its action. identical f

to practical contexts, it puts explicit, standardized taxonomies, fixed once

-certainty which accompanies the certainty of possessing self gitimacy, and the ease which is the touchstone of excellence; it pre), the paradoxical relationship to culture made up of self-confidence ' ( relative) ignorance and of casualness amid familiarity, which bO'"1 families hand down to their offspring as if it were an heirloom.

The competence of the 'connoisseur', an unconscious mastery instruments of appropriation which derives from slow and is the basis of familiarity with works, is an 'a rt' , a practical which, like an art of thinking or an art of living, cannot be transln; solely by precept or prescription. Learning it presupposes the e'lIJi..: of the prolonged contact between disciple and master in a education, i.e., repeated contact with cultural works and cultured

himself, by means of a self-abandonment, excluding analysis and sele< of the elements of the exemplary conduct, so toO the art-lover, in a surrendering himself to the work, can internalize its principles struction, without these ever being brought to his consciousness

And just as the apprentice or disciple can unconSCiously acquire the . are not consciously known to the of the art, including those that

: to en

tion, which leaves its mark on the relationship to the goods c The sovereign pleasure of the aesthete dispenses with concepts. I t

ormulable as such; and rhis is what makes all the mulated or f between the theory of an and the experience of the connoisseur, . generally incapable of stating the principles o f his j udgements. By trast, all institution alized learning presupposes a degree of ra

:::

prOV idi ng the means of expression which enable practical prefer S be brought to the level of quasi-syste matic disco urse and to be ConSCIO . . . usly organ" d lze around expI" Kit pnnClpIes, t he ed ucauonal system make o . ca s"b le a (more or less adequate) symbol ic mastery of the practi l pr (Iples of taste. As grammar does for lingu istic competence' it ratiOnal Izes the .sense , . 0f beauty , m those who already have it, giving them the III s o referring to principles (of harmony or rhetoric, for exam Pie), ep s tUtes th . , f rmul ae, Instead of relym g on ImproVIsatIOn; it substi e Inten tIonal quasi systemaricity of a formal aesthetic for the objectiv s sremati city of the 'aesthetic-in-itself' produced by the pract iCal p i r n ip es of taste. Thus academICIsm 15 potentIal ly presen t in every

To avoid any absolutization of the culture in relation to which the autodi dact's middle-brow culture is objec tively defined, it has to be remembered that the higher one rises in the social hierarchy, the more one's tastes are haped by. the organization and operation of the educational sysrcm, which IS responSible for inculcating the 'programme' (syllabus and intellectual schemes) which governs 'cultivated minds' even in their pursuit of the 'per soal touch' and rheir aspiration to 'originality'. Discrepancies between edu cational qualifications and cultur al competence ( linked to social trajeerory and largely attributable to the domestic transmission of non-scholastic cul ural capital) are, however, sufficiently frequent to safeguard the irreducibilk Yt recogn ized even by academics of 'aurhentic' cultu re co 'scholastic' U nowledge, W . ' ICn h' , as such 15 devalued.
_

;:

r ;

other words. Whl! arc gn.ptd rhrough mdicators such as k,cI or OCia1 origin or, morc precisely, In rho: StruCTure of Ie ship !lelwn them. arc anI) different modes of produnion of the valed habi!l.'S, whkh engender differences not only in fhe 'O;"I''"''; . aC(luired but also in rhe manner of applying them. These dif(t'rtnces I manner (ons(iwtc 1 5([ of sondary proptrti. caJin8 different dilions of aC<juisilion and predisposed [0 rt(eh vcry difl'erent values I Ihe various markets. Knowing thaI 'manner' is a symbolic manifcstation wh and value depend as much on Ihc perceivers as on Ihe pro<il. l(cr. how il is lhar the manner of using symbolic goods. especially ,: rcgarde<l as rhe urribuIC'S of txcel1cocc. conSflfUICS Or'IC of thc key crs of 'class' and also rhc ide:ll w(':I.pon in srr:l.lcgics of distinnion, that as Proust put it, 'the infinitely varied art of marking distances'_ The ogy of na!llral tlste contrasts twO modalities of culrural competence liS use. and, behind them, twO mooes of acquisition of culture.'" 1,01 early, imperccplibk learning, performed within the family licst days of life and eXlendcd by a schobsllc learning which p and complctes iI, differs from belated, melhodical learning not so in Ihc deplh and durability of its effc<:tS-IIS Ihe ideology of culrur:al ' O nen' would have il-lls in the modality of rhe rciationship IO ' : 10 incul<;ale.>II II c' , , and culture which il simultaneously tends sdf-cenainty which accompanies Ihe certainty of possessing cul!llr:al gilimacy, and rhe ease which is rhe touchstone of excellence; it p"xl",. (he paradoxical relalionship to culture made up of selfconfidence (relative) ignor:ance and of casualness amid familiarilY, which 00","" families hand down ro their offspring as if ir ..ere an heirloom. .. The compelence of the 'connoi55<:ur', an unconscious instruments of appropriation which dertves from slow and is Ihe basis of familiarity wilh works, is an 'an', a pr:aclical which, like an an of thinking or an lrt of living, onnot be solely by precept 01' prescription. Learning it presupposn the of the prolon contact bclween disciple and master in a I education, i,e., repealed contact with cuilur:al works And jusr as the appremice or disciple can unconsciously aCtluire of the lrt, including those that are not consciously known 10 himself. by means of a selfabandonmem, excluding analysis and of Ihe elements of lhe exempbr}' conduct, SO {oo the artlover, in a . surrendering himself 10 Ihe work, on internalize irs principles struction, without these ever bcing brought to his ':; ; ," :;:: ;. ,, ormulabk as such; and this is whal makes all the i mulaled or f bc:tween the theory of art and Ihe experience of the connoi55<:ur, gener:ally inopabk of suting the principles of his jUdgemen ". .BY I Ir:lSI, al! inSlitutionalizccl learning presupposes a ckgree of :: : . tion, which blVes its mark on the relationship 10 the goods , The sovereign picasure of Ihe aesthete di$penses wllh concepts. It

";

::;:o;

froum:::;:i

. . ",ho are al...1hove expenence nd sacrl!1ce comempbnon of the work to jp " kdge i k(I": of the. work, disthtsis to ajl!tjs, like filmbuffs who know .:I,SCU'"'ion I)'thing there IS to know a001,11 films they have not seen. Nor rhat e: cclucational system ever entirely fulfils its r:ational function: rhe es t c schools communicate again acquired incidentally, nrialasparr of whlt of clssification whichisthe school syStem inculcates .l" h Ihe system :ugh Ihe or.:lr in which il !nclc1tes knoledge or through the pre. ..--.s ....itions of lIS own . orgalllDuon (Ihe hler:archy of disciplines, sec. _ L . '"w s exercises ere. ) or Irs oper:auon (muuc 0f assesmenl, fCWards and nons, punishmenrs ete). But, in order. 10 Ir:lns?,it at all, il has to perform a de&rtC or rattOnairzauon of what II tr:lnsmlfS. Thus, for example, in place ofpr.lctical schemes of classificalion, which arc always partial and linked 10 prartiol conlextS, il pUIS explicit, standardi taxonomies, fixe<! once': and for all in Ihe form of synoptic schemas or dualiSlic typologies (e.g., 'clmicaJ'rromantic'), which are expressly ineulcaled lIld Iherefore con. served in rhe memory as knowledge thaI can bc reproduced in virtually Icknucal form by all the agentS subjected to its action. To a'old any :wsotuliQtion of lhe culture in relalion to whieh Ihe autOOi. d.er's midd]ebrow culTure is objectively defined, il hlS to tx, rememtx,red ,hat Ihe hlsher one rises in Ihe social hierarchy, the more one's tastes are shape<! by lhe organization and oper.lrion of the rouotional syslem, which . 11 1P(lflSlble for incukning It.c 'progr.lmme' (syllabus and inlelJtuat . mrs) wlCh sovrn, 'utliV1llled mi.nds' eve in. rheir pursuil of the 'per. ,I lo"ch and lhe,r asp,rallon 10 'ongmailly Olscre""neies , tx,tween edu. Oflonal qua1 ' "callons and cuITur:a1 c0 pelcncc lnk ," I< . ' ed to social Ir:I.jcclory .( r:' and I gely atrnbulable (0 the domestic transmISSIon of nonschol.slic cui I I':II "'J>II I) wever, sufficiently frequent 8nl>:edare, hoby academics, of 'authenlic'10 safesuard'scthelirreducibil. II ven cultule 10 ho astic' h';'ge, whICh :u such ;s devalued.

_ "d :15 ough the myth of childhood and Ihe innocent e'e) as to the P"'"' - _ fhr pleasureless Ihought of rhe petit bourgeoiS and rhe 'pancnu', 1o
(l

IY .ays eposcd to Ihose forms of 1C$thetic perversion which P"

much to (he thoughtless pleasure of the 'naive' (glorified in ide

'h:,:;;;

; :

By I'rO 'd" the means of expression which enable pr:lc{ical prefer. '"8 O k brought to Ihe level of quasi'syslematic discourse nd to bc COllse/ Jy OUS rganl'O:cl 1round explicil principles, rhe e<!ucario nal syStem .: rna cal prt,' Ie a (more or less adequale) symbolic mastery of {he pr:lcti. . . CIP c-s of r,me. lor mgulsllc compelCnce, it r:I. tlon1hzC'S 'scnse "s grammar docs ' I' h the l'n<::l. 1 .of heaul(, i,n ns o refernng to pnnClp those who already have tt, giving them pk}, les (of harmony or rheroric, for exam. t\ltC'S J>CJ>ts, frmulae, instc:ld of relying on Improvisation; it substi. Ihe ll l ent'o.n1 quasi syslemaricilY of a formal 1CSthellc for the Ob tIY s l (! Pfillci jSlernaltwy of Ihe '1C$thel1cinitself' prooucc<i by Ihe pr:lCli. p C'S of taSte. Thus academicism is polemially prescnt in every
encc-s

lends 10 convey piecemnl, in :a docuinal stl explicit norms and formube. explicidy laughf, gener-lIly negalive "\lional so abhor pedagogues and pedagogy-the ralional leaching of art p substifutes fOf direcl experience, it offers shon cutS on the long familiuiulion. it makcs po:miblc practiccs W hiCh ' ' ' ccpts and rules inSlnd of springing from the s; ; lUte, fhereby offenng a solution ro diOse who hope to lime. . " sryle direcdy g Ihan posilive, whal lradirional lnrning transmils in Ihe f orm of a

pnbgogy which

rasped In praclice. BUf above all-and rhis is why

";:: t;:: : ;
,

The

I . ,alSSOT N riK"d to hear thiS , '''' nv<. '''.... 'r J krnall say gc:nt things hc's said in this I,Inplas. al (ourt, and 15 one He's much ",ight CJX"I, , . Ihe court s mlsrrust of
1111

Wit and , oS' ct Cou Learmng fusty

' . , s . . . , .ss' , s " , , .s, ,. . .

Respect for your grear name, to say thai you And aU yOUt kind ...ould do weU
1 0

Struggle, it nalufa/ius real differences. converting differences in :: : " of acquisition of culture imo differences of nalure; it only n ; g . i as legltimale Ihe relation to cuiture (or language) which least bears visible marks of its gencsis, which has nothing 'academic', 'bookish', 'afftni' or 'slUdied' about ii, but m:anif esrs b)' irs ease uralness rhal true culrure is nuure-a new mystery of immaculate (cption. This is ckarly setn in Ihe remuks of an aesthete of the devastating confession for an :art histOrian. rejects 'imcllcctualizcd

The ideology of natural taSle owes ilS plausibiliry :and its efiiocy I faCt Ihat, like aU Ihe ideological Sfraregics generaled in the everyday

f/"2.y.
<

:.::'
,"I,"

,-u-rA1'-ORfi

AIltl, as a (ol,lfficr, ddends with esr The igno/"2.nCe thlt', in his interest.
You'..: '..:ry hud

He shardt, lIe
InlC

The COl,lrl in IOnes less harsh and querulol,ls; That Ihe coun is nOf 50 shorr of wit and brain As you and all your scribbling friends maintain; That all Ihings Ihete arc viewed wilh common sensc, That good ta.sre, tOO, is ml,l(h in And that ils knOWledge of the world sl,Irpasses The fuSlY Ic:aming of pedantic asses.
TkISSOTIN

diS(l,I

evidence,

an, who wrilcs no differemly from Pierre FranoSlel when the lafter.

Which hl"llf$ l"lIch day

of your

edge', which can only 'recogniu. in favour of 'visual cxpc:tience', l sole mnns of access 10 '/rue vision:o

'Tast( mUSI not be confused with gaslrrmtmty. Whereas tasle is " , .. UTa/ gift of recogniing and loving perf ection, IS the SCI which govern the cultivuion and NiU(4Iion of taste. to taste u g'4mm4' and literature are to Ihe liu,a" JmJl. And fhis us 10 the hean of the problem; if the gourmet is a delicate (omloi Mtllr, the gUtrOnome :a JNdtJI/l? . . The gourmel i I

,liltS

Ihat Iheir l"lIrcef$ arc bllghled by it, Ikplo..: il$ wrelChed lasle. lnd
Complain
<kery iI,

SOrt, Who deal in intc!le'::ll,Ial wues,

poor COUf!,

indeed on lhe how people

[r

it had!

h15 good

taste, you say) [f only

Unhappy failures on
u

Ihe m:an of tasle is his own grammarian . . . NOl e..-eryone is a that is why we need gastronomes We must look. upon we look upon pedgogucs in general: they are sometimes

i'(,rmil me, Mislet Trissolin. wilh d

.I

blame Iheir own

rhat cal,lSC

J 8. P. dec Molte..:, LnJ- ......,.. .

joY'hOY"''', 1978), 1'1'. 1 1'-118.

What makes you say, Sir, Ihat ils IUle is bad?

CUTANDRE

improve this '41htr min()r gmrt by mens of tCI, stfint and eleganl lightncss . . . There is such a Ihing as bd taSle .

ir is up to lhem

ams, but Ihey have Iheir uses. They belong 10 the lowtf, t or-dtr,
1 0

persons of rt nnnml know this imlinrlivtf,. For Ihose who do nOI. fi are needed.'61 Knowlnige by cxpc:rien ce. which, like 14li f J, eels nd lkplores {he essemial inadequacy of word s express the reality 'lasted' in myslical union, rejecls as unworthy tcllcctual love of an. Ihe knowledge which idenlifies expc:rience work wilh n imcllrual operation of diphering.61
SCHOlARS AND GENTlEMEN

:;;;i:; ":;!;: : : :

Thc differenccs in manner that ;"d ;'". ;, diffi:rcnces in mode of acquisilion-i.e., in scniority of access to domina", cJass-whkh are generally associatni wilh differences in -

. PQ5iuon of Op-taI, are P" . - I __ .J O ' "Spo,.;u 10 mark d. I erenccs WIthin Ihe cIomi. ' . . ' I"" s d, I erences In cultural capllal muk rhe differences be. t..._n . " Ihe cI 64 Thai lS why manners, cspcc:iaJly Ihe manne r of n:11(Ionship 10 uses.. . Ic glumate culture, are the stake in .....rmanrn l stru,. c ,, ln .. - o neulral SUtemeOl m Ihese mailers: . (erms desig 1 . ' thc Ing the 0 nat. . . : tsmg dlsposl lons c n be t ken as compitment IIt ary or pcjora . ... on Ihe poml of vIew. It IS no aCCident {har t Ihe opposition h n I e scholastIC' (or 'pedamic' ) and Ihe monda II'$Slo in' (he efforr. I ,eganl, IS t t ' he hearr of debates over tUfe and cullure in eve'" " 8t, h' -, md rwo B ys r , . _ -. 0 P'U<lucmS or apprcclumg culrural __ . vtl) cI ....orks., . I Ih rn':;ly desgn'cs IWO conlrasting modes of acquisition, and, tlonal m pcnod at least. two different relationShi ps to the educa. sysrem.

'i, , S ' S , " , , ' ' .S, ' , S . ' .S" ,'S'

(1672) In T Lu.'WII "" in", En8h$h "" by (N... yo, J><! London, H11"(QUrI 11<0

L.Jm, Irl",blN R,ch.rd Wilbur

"', t cIas " s

depc

In France, literary debate in {hI' firs( hlf of the severm:tnth was dominated by (he antagonism betwn the dO(ft1--Chpdain U Mesnardi, Fartl, Colk(el, d'Aubignac elc" who looked t throrists, and ulrimarely to Aristotle, for the rults thl')' sought to on Ihe construction of l iterary works,61 nd at the me time ground these rules in rtason-and the mondains, who fuscd bound by precq>t, madt their pltasurt their guide and pursued finittsimal nuancts which make up the 'je ne sais <juoi' and the perfeoion of savoir vivrt, l'h( g!'C:a1 debates over t:lSte which I works arouse or drllmatize (such as the question of tht precieux ' by codifying and raILonalizin8 salon dtlicacy, an m of Iivin8 fi b as inde na le, changed its whole nalU) involvt not only Ihe with which Inc diff fC1lt fractions of (nc dominant class idtntify e the Chevalier de Mere so well putS it, 'the marmers of ' them, which art {htmsclvts kinds of virtues', and throu8h t ity in their class, and their way of 8e((;n8 then:, an: expl'C'SSCd or

j j 70 I A SiaJ Crili'luf o INJudgnnml o TIf

Cultivated se or

:lfllt'21nes.s
U {IJII,>tf1A

s'sss,s'" " " s," ,'" ,ss,','

know every' d ha"': 1 man manner of 'I .... yet by his an "0'' (Ollvicu:-d of hal' th,nS " bc "

t<i ' Antoine Gombaud, 'U ' j Me": (1607-168)), Dt ,nS S ()tCV'hcr "':"
I

spC"

ouj

{rayed,

Paradoxicall y, precocity is an efftct of seniority: aristocracy is ,he par cxcellence of precocity since it is nothin8 other than tht K"'ori which is the b irthright of the off pring of ancien( families (at leasr s . cietLes in which a8e and aristocracy-virtually Iuivllent recognized as values) _ And this initial stalus..:lerived capital is g by tht adVllntages which precocious acquisi tion of It itimart 8ivts in Itaming cultural skills, whClher table manners or the art vc:rsation, musical culture or Ihe $Cnse of propr ielY, playing tennis nUncialion. Tht embodied cul tural capi tal of the pn:vious funClions as I son of advance (both a headstut and I providing from Iht OUtsel Ihe example of cultu n:: in modds, enablts the newcomer to Sian aC<juiring Ihe basic dementS

Innumerllble illustrations could be cited from the vast liter:l.lun: wd;fy, inKplrably, ordinary behaviour and the cmltion lnd works of art, in short everything which falls under the I of lasle, one of lhe key words of lhe age;"" but one exampk caU$C il explicilly links manner, mode of acquisilion and rhe , nllts: '1bc: author [Furerire, lhe bourgeois author of U Ro""." who had c;tic;:ted La fontline and Bcnsende] sho,""" clnrly that he i lhel of soc,ety nor of lhe court and that his tasle is of a pedantry one not even hope to reClify. Ccmin things are never undcmood if they arc not unde,.,tood at oncto some hard and rough minds will never be led the charm and grace of Bcnserade's balku and La Fonnine's f ables. Th1l door ;s dosed to Ihem, and so ;s mine . . , One can only pny to foe' slOCh a man and hope: never to have dealings wirh him' (Mme, de letter to BussyRabutin. 14 May 1686).

tters, 'Sut kind words on all ma ry agrtt'/.bly uuercd, will gralify eve . go further, \I IS I ener Wit cannot t . t m15tC'P'e(c of intelligence, Soy to them nothing which savours ofstudy or setms F.ar-fctchcd. Above all. since (hey are: ....ell pleased with thrir O""n worth. refrain from in structing them on any matter, or rorrcung th{:m, whatever mistakes c: you observe them to make.' Me":.

correction in mosr 'What nceds tOO composed, ;s mething ""hers all and. study. The ..hteh -ks of " ' ,e " setm nltu I,m IOUSt be to ma ,

I/(Jtl.

anions of the body lnd mind: and the more one considers it, the more: one is charmed by it, without realiz ing where it comes from. . . . For everything that is done OUt of con stnint or se....itude, or has any tnee of coarsc:ncss, destroys it. And to lender a person amiable in his ways, you should please him as much as you can and lake care: nOI to burden him with tedious instructions.'
Mere, CNs "grimm!,

"I: Mbi. Dts "gr.rwrnu

en

'11111 civility is perceived in the brulCS, rhe manner, in the sligh(est

Dr '" _I,w... Irf'UJ

S i ,s s" " " " , s " , '" ' s " , s " " , ' " ss

times obliged 10 rurn a hand to man)' things. even the things of which they know Ins,- In such a case, they should not behave like professional cnftsmcn, whose sole (oncern is to finish their lask. A gt'ntleman should setk. flOt so much to be expert in what he undertakes, as to under"ke it like a gentle man , . This air of case which comes from 1 fortunat bit!h and In e excellent habit is one of the ameni ties of a gentltman; he should set about even the mOSt difficult tuk with such detachment that it setms to COSt him no drot!.' Me.. CNs
_

'PclSOns of refinement an:: some

"grim.m!

rarest condirions of ove.rmaniftst tht is taeitly cogn i ed asc<juisition, Ihat is, a social time which tht suprtme ex(dlence: 10

cuhure, from the beginning, that is, in the most u ncon sc'ous and impalpable way-and to dispense wilh the labour of dccul . turatlon, cor tc{S of 1'C(:tion and n::tnining that is nttded 10 undo the eif t lppropriar c iClmin8' legitimarc mannrs owe their value to (he fact at they

tk lcgitimue

t Osc taturt is that they can only be anluiTed itl1hc thtngs whose common f cOurse of {Lme, by means of rime, against time, that is, by inhen t ncc
Ot

Ih to( t lOgs from tht past, i.e., aecumulatt-d, crystallized hislOry, anI' c n es and r rn {illes, chiteaux or 'Stately homts', paimings and col 0 tlS, VI t3ge wints and antique furniture, is 1 mast r time. Ihrough t all h

T(

Ihrough dispoSItions which. like the taSle for old things. are:

om c,

likewise only Olcquiml with time and applied by those who on

f f 72 / A S()(i,,1 Criliqut (I 1mJudgnnml (I TaJlt

"., ,

If the foregoing argumcnt suggestS an 'analysis of cw::""," ;: ' removed, it would m, from Heidegger and his 01.1 C nuse mOSt 8rouP hl'e sought to lay down absolule, S means of the irI'Cversibilily of time, which gives i n fbible form of social order based on the order of succes:\ions. cJaimanlS to sueces:\ion-father and son, owner and heir, master ciple, plC'decasor and successorre sepalated by nothing. bUI there is every SOrt of social mechanism to make this gllp able. Thus. in fhe scruggle belween the diffent 'manners', i e (he em manners of acquiring the dominant groups arc always on the i

If this is accepted (and it would n('Cd to !xc esrablish(d more systemOlli_ oily), then capital makes it possible to appropriOlte the colleaivdy prO' duc(d Olnd accumulate<! means of r(illy overcomin8 anthropol08ical llii,mi., The means of escapin8 from generic alienadons include rcpresentafion, t pollrait or statue which immollOllizes the person repr=nt(d (sometimes, by a son of pleonOlSm. in his own lifetime): lnd memor;als. the .""',,,.. Ihe wriuen word, am """,,,iIlJ. which cdebrates and 'hands on to pos,er' ity', and, In pmicular, historical writing, which gives a place in legilimne the bour hislory-hence the particular smus which the public, geois public, gives to hiscorians, ,he masters of so::iend6c che eommemo.."tive cemonies in which the group offers i age and gntitude co rile dead, who are thereby shown (0 be liH ctive, Thus it nn be ittn rhal crernal life is one of the most w.,,'''' social privileges; the qualily of the eternity depends, of course, on ity and eKtCm of the group providing it, and can range from "'l"" m mass organized by lhe f mily to n annuOlI national holiday. a

mor;IIiIT.

Every gro tends to set up tile mC'Olns of pcrpetuting nitc indivi uals in whom it is incarnat(d. (This was one fundlment.1 insights.) In Or<kr to do w, i t C'ltwlshe1 whole sel :misms, such :as ddCSation, rcprcscntafion and symboliufion, which ing) is etemOlI. As ubiquity :and eternily, The rcpreseTlluive (e,g" the k Kanlarovitch has shown. the king h:as tWO bodies. 01 biological, mortal body. subject to biol08ical infirmities. p.JS1ion or imbecility, body, immorlOll, immaf(rial 3nd ftttcl from infirmilies or can 5C'Cu ubiquity by dele8atin8 to Others the IUlhofity wilh I he inVCSI(d, His laU$ a levi((! by [uatJ lilbiqlilt prtJmJ, 3nd, as Po$I OOs.:,tvQ, Il e dek8ue who holds pima fIO'tSla} agmd; 'can do everylhing that lhe l mandnor himself nn do', fhanks to his ptYxIiITalio ad l11n"ialacim"".... A8ain 1I11IW1'1ilaJ _ "'tmIIlT. Oeuh. from Ille poinl of view of groups, is only an accident. and personified coJ[tives organize themselves in such Ol ""'Y that lhe demise of Ihe morul bodiC'l which once embodi(d 8roup-reprtsentOltivC'l. ddegatC'l, OlgentS. spokesmen----JOC'l nOt affe(l Ihe existence of the 8rouP or the funcfion in which it is realized: dig";laJ _

1.

.rJ

that is. the oldest ac 'nsensible and invisible mode of qui sition ' t recious one. This is whal provides thc invariOlnt elements of moSt and , n( discourse and gives an air of eternal youth to cerrain doml trictly situated Olnd dOlled, like all the Ie l hOugh they Olre in realily s mes, a the bces of elegant disquisition on innate taste or Ihe blundering (Ommonp . . anIS. of ped

most I

T ArlJ/t)CI'ary o fCullurt / 73

:'h' t

Ii

gnificance b:tSed on funcrional and stfUClural ' I mastcry of social si )' underlies and f.!ci itues ev r day reading of the 'Iics'" and, . it is a pracncal use. hterary qUOlallon, a qUite spec,al use m ".,mo O sin(c which is l son of summons 10 appear as a,h'oote and wilflCSS, of b:asis of a soci:!1 wlid:!rilY disguised as in 10 a pasl author on lhe sense of mC'Olning, which SlOPS Sholl of . ,luaI >VIidlrlly , Th' ,rKliol td.. 'LI ' '- II es ICh mal< - f'OSS'u <"-Since thIt wouId affinily wh' ob uylng the social hc tCXI-pro. the <ksircd dfC<I, by Iativ;l;ng boh lhe rndin$ lnd nu y and a denial of Ihe SOCIal baSIS of that use, slmuh:lneously a social use

" r:tC'I. _ ""!

"des

Identifyin8 Ihe invariants must not, howcvcr, lead us to tre:at a panicu tive study would jar scace of the struggle as eternal, and Ol true compar:a havc ro take account of the specific forms that the struggle and the themes in which it is expressed take on when the obiective relations be rween the d fr.l({ions change, I t seems, forenmple, that in the second half of the seventeenth (entul')' Ihe growing authority of the mondains and of the COUll, combined with Ihc tendency of high society to become mo cuhivlled, reduced che diStOlnCe between dones and mondains; this Ie.:! to the risc of a new species of mOln of leners. typified by the Jesuits Rapin and Bouhours,69 masters of rhetoric who were themselves both doctes and mondains. who frequemed artists and aristocrats and helped 1 produce synthesis of the demand of Ihe coun Olnd the academy (and 0 dld so by Shifting the cemre of the debale from the question of wonhy . subf('(ls co ch:!1 of the slyle i n which (hey might be tte:lted),
m llarlr , IIOw:>dlyS, the f." thr .n Increasingly luge proportion of the

\(';','\:

SlflCu bou'grolsie 's making ;nlen$ivtc use of the (duca,ionl1 system (and ::!:1.lJy, In Fnncr, the gra"dtJ kokJ) is tending to modify Ihe form of lhe lOnShlp betWeen the mandOlin and ,he scholast1c--<ultural excellence t 1 .tId ,"gly belongs 10 ,hose ....ho combi ne ,he 1"''0 modes of Kquisilion IIOq nucnrly the COOlCnt of the ,itual antitiw:scs in which the opposi. _ tWn 'scholars' and 'gentlemen' is expressed.'" case of Ihe b tions between Ihe nineteemh-cenmry German u ni e and the 'prin<cly courts prescms another state of the power re l atl on'CS . r e irtu esulting In Ol diff ren t configuralion of rhe images of the SCholarly an rhe courtly villues. I\s Norbcrr EIiOlS very clearl y shows, bour I Intel t lc<tuals were much earlier and much more complelcly in_ tgntCd Into Ihe world of Ihe cou/1 rn Fr:ancc ,han in Germany. The

,"

b:

14

conventions of style and f orms of civililY which domin3tc the tion31 ystem nd Il its pwducu, in panicu !u the arrention given language and to intellectual propriety, derived, in the case of from coun 5OCiety, whereu in Germ:lfly the intdligenuia, especi;rJly the universities, set itself up in opposition w the court and the modds it was importing, summing up its vision of 'high 5OCieey' in riVOlitY '" d anlirhesis between 'Civilization', char:l.cteriled by f aliey, and 'Culture', defined by seriousness, prof undi,y and , : ; , i In other words. there is the SlIme basic opposition between doctes mondains. with identicli coment, but with the values reversed: h", . doctes could not assert their utonomy except by asserting (heir own tu and Iheir own 'manner of pr:l.<Tising them', thereby dev1l.luing . SOCiety VirtUes, The fact remains tha! the 'pednt's' sitution is never entirely abk. Ainst the 'populace' 1nd with the mondin h3ve every rc:a50n Iso to :Kcept it, since they h2ve an inteI'CSt ' I riglus-ht is inc!intd to acctp t (ht ideology of inn(t tastes. since it [he only absolute guar:l.ntee of his ekction; but ag.tinst the mondain forced w assert the value of his aC<juirements, and, indeed, the the work of :K<juisition. the 'slow effort {O improve the mind'. as put it, which i$ a blemish in the eyes of the mondain, but in his own his supreme merit.
The embarrassment of audemic minds, indebw:l and commi{[ed

1'1

J()IIIJ'

......."1".

(I "... J"Ut;<II,.,,, " , ...... } }

; :f.

s .S cuilure and th bourpi relation 10 culture owe their inimi BOUr c<'I g ocr to the bct thu, like popular religion as secn b y Groc table Chl ey are aC<juired, pre-verblIy, by arly immeion in a worl? of (hU ople, pr:l.ctic ad objects. "':'hen the child gr<.>ws up m a pe . cu]U which musIC 15 not only 115tene.::l to (on hi-fi or r:l.dto hoId in houS' performc-d (the 'musical mother' of bourgeois 3Uto 'l/lada s) but "o Y) and a foniori when the child is introduced at an euly ag to bi g nt---aiall the piaQ-(e dft is at least to pro ! ? e' i slrume I nob relationShip to mUStC, which differs from the alWo1)'S ore &miliu du(C t distant, contemplative nd often vrbosc: relation of those who rn me: to music through concerts or even only through records, in hav CO Wo1y as the relation to pa inting of those who hvc discov. h he same p i heluedly, in the <juasi-schol:uti( atmos here of the museu, dif from the rdatio developed by those born mto world fil1ed wllh a1 . objeCtS, familiar family propertY, amassed by succlve gener:l.flOn {tJ taste, and sometimes ,homem1de (like {ylng to their wealth and jam or embroidered linen).

m / ; krs

i ;

:Uso

good

lion, surfaces whever i[ is a <jueslion of Ihe adcquae approach to a of art :lnd lite riShl way to u<juire it; and rhe cOnlr:l.diCfion is at he of all {h<:ir t'lhcdc Iheories. no 10 mendon heir I!emps !O eslblish a pcda,gogy of an, The ideology of naur:l.l gifs i$ 100 potent, even wihin he roundonal SYSTem, for a n expression of flith in hc powel"$ of a nal pcdagogy :limed at reducing Ihe pr:l.Cfinl Kltemes of f:lmiliarilY !O fied rulcs, dcspit( the fac that (his pranical affirma(ion of h( 'na(Ur:l1 riSlu' !O an is h( naTural weapon of those who appeal o knowledge and ideas and aim o discredit he divine right of rh advocles of immedirc e>p<'ricrn:e and pleasure. For eumple, rhre are all rhe rcs over the tellching of an (more specifically, he aching of drawing)----'OI (omradic !ion in ttrms (or lOme. who hold hlt beauty i$ neithr Iughl " ' bur is I grace rr:l.n$mirrc-d from inves{ed miSters to predestined sci , , I ohe", a field of pcd:lgogy like :lny mher. (On<: (hinks, ' ';: . 11;,."__ po!emio berween the advOC1tcs of ruion:ll pcdagogy, such Ind lhe chlmpions of the charismltic view. such as RlvaiS$On. over [he I trodunion of dr:l.wing les$Ons ;mo gener:l.l eduntion in rhe ClIrly years the Third Rq>I.Iblic.)

"":'

;: ;;:;

::::: :. :

Ideology is an illusion consisttnt . int(I'CSt. but I wdl.grounde.::l illusion. Those who invoke ag3insl knowledge h3ve 3 basis for their pre;udi in the rc:al between {he domesti( learning and the Kholastic laming
EXPH, IENCE AND KNOWLEDGE

:f:E

Diffcrern:es linked to $OCi31 origin Itt' no doubt most marked in penonal prodction of visu:ll art or th playing of a musical in$uument, apdfUdes ..hich, both in lheir acquisition and in their p<'rformance, presuppose not only disp05i{ioru :1S$OCiued with long cstablishmcm in the world of UI lnd cI(rc but al$O economic mans (especially in the cue of piano-playins) and spare time. At C<:Jual educ.uional levels, they vary srongly by social ori IJ gin. Thus, among holde" of rhe b;at(tWuri /, II" p<'rcent of ho originate from the dominanr.dw uy [hey ofm play 3 musiol .. inmumtn(, compared with ' p<'rcen( of those of middle<lw or working dlS$ orisin, Among gr:l.duares, the corresponding proporfions are 22.' p<'r t and p<'rcent. Pinrin8 lfId sculpture, rdaivdy negle<:led by thO$<: "'th hc highot <juaiifio.lions, are mo, ar C<:Jual edunional levels, much more common among respondentS of dominam<lw origin. Status-linked familiriry is manifested in, for enmple, knowledge of the PP<l(tunities :lnd conditions for .c<juiring works of all, ....hich depends nor only ?R the maferial and cullur:l.l capaciry ro appropriate bUI 11$0 on IonS lfandn meo:nbe" hip in a $OCiai world in which art, being an objec of ap' B: nlUOn, s present in the form of familiar, person:ll obje<:lS. Thus, in the r v>:y commissioned by ,he Ministry of Cullure (CS, VII), the p<'rcentage o ! C$pondmtS wle (0 give 1fI :lnswer when asked the lowesl price al which 'Ooc flOw buy an original lithogr:l.ph or 5erigr:l.ph by a contempor:!.ry nal arliu' varies conSider;tbly by social class, !";Inging from 10.2 p<'r (Ot ag "<I llcultur:l.l workel"$, 13.6 percent of unskilled and semiskilled r percent of clerical 3nd commercial employttS to 66.6 per <tnt _ er r sllo eecutives and profnsionals.

dms

rhe rcspon

;os' Pfo ;a k :; 17.6

e
til,.,.

lb cho fCf) Ice 0f "'orla such as the CtmarltJ[ IIx u HIJ"d (much more fW ft
amo ng Others) or L'E"[IJ,,I II Its

/J\ong those who play an insuument-espedally the piano J(WlilJ is much more slrongly

linked 10 socil origin than to educational capital. By conUUt, f works like the Wt(f.Ttmptrtd Gavin- or the lir' o Pugu" thelt stronger corrdation with educational capiul than with $OCial on"; ections. one can Through thot indicators, despite' their imp(rf guish different relations 10 the hierarchical, hier:lfchizing world 1Ur:l1 works. which arc closely linked to a set of interrelated d;,r, and which stem from different modes of acquisition-domestic scholastic, or exclusively scholutic-of cullural capital. Thus, when bnd Barthes makes an aesthetic out of a puticulu relation (0 produced by rly, domestic, 'practical' acquaintance, and describes thelic enjoyment as a sort of immediate communication between tener's body and the p(rformer's 'inner body', present in 'the grain singer's voice' or 'the pad of the pianisl's fingen', he IS in fan "f'.;" the opposition between twO modes of acquisition. On the one hnd, there is music fot rccord colle<lon (linked ing mand aris from the 'growth of the number of listeners and the pearance of practitioners'), an exprnsive, dr:lmatic, sentimentally art of communicuion. of understanding: 'This cultutt . . , wants wants music, provided they be clear, that they "tr:lnslate" an '"". and represent a signified (Ihe "meaning" of a poem): an art that lues pleasure (by reducing il to a known, coded emotion) and Ihe subject to what in music (an IN said; what is said about it b don, Criticism, Opinion.'71 On the other hand, there is an art which fen the sensible to sense, which htes clO<juence, grandiloquence, and the palhetic, lhe exprt$Sivc and Ihe dramatic. This is French Oupare, Ihe later Faure, Debussy. everything that in another age have been called pure music, the intimism of the piano, the instrument, and the intimacy of the bourgeois salon, In this between twO relations to music which are aways defined, more sciously than consciously, in relation (0 each olher-the taste for ists of the past, Panzera or Cortot, loved even for their i which evoke the freedom of the amateur, implies a distaste performen and thcir impcble recordings for mass again finds Ihe old opp05ition between the docte, who IS 10 {he code (in ,,'cry sense), the rules, and thetefore the and Criticism, and the hedonistic mondain, who, being on the of n2lute, the 'ntur:d', is contenl to fed and enjoy, and who all tr:lce of intdlCClUalism, didacticism, pedantry from his exp(tlence,

76 / Ii Sod'" Criti o ,btJud nnml o J qu, j g

I am

.";

f'

; "',':,

I",";'''

OIlJECT LESSONS

Every material inhetitance is, suiclly cultural inherilance, Family heirlooms not only bear muerial I the age and continuity of the lineage and so consecrate its social which is inseparable from permanence over time; they also a pr:lctical way to irs spiritual reproduction. thaI is, to

3 ( with the things of taste, SUI it is also the sense of belonging to a mo polire. ?tiler policed world, a world which is justi orC pOlished, lIS p(rfccllon. Its harmony and beauty, a world which fied In exisling by uced ,Beethoven and, M,ozart and continues to rruce p(ople (a. hlS prod , ble of pJaymg and pprcctatlng them, And finally It IS an Immediate hercnCC. at lhe deepest level of the habitus. to the lastes and distastes, )'mpathies and aversions. fanlasies 2nd phobias which, more than de opInions. forge the unconscious unify of a class. If a group's whole life.style can be read off from the style it adopts in furnishing or clothing, [his is not only bcouse these properties are the ob)tilication of ,he economic and cuitur:ll necessity which determined their selection, but also because the social relations objectified in familiar ob)l5, in thdr !UKUry or poverty, their 'distinction' or 'vulgarity', thdr 'bc:luty' or 'ugliness', imprtSl rhemselves through bodily exp(riences whICh may br: as profoundly unwnscious as [he quiet caress of beige car. ptlS or the thin clamminess of tattered, garish linoleum. lhe harsh smell of bleach or perfumes 2S imperceptible as a negative scent." Every inte rior exp, in its own language, the present and even tm: PlSt state of liS occupants, bespeaking the elegant self'assur:lnce of inherited wealth, the flashy arrogance of the nouvux riches, the discI'CCt shabbiness of the poor and the gilded shabbiness of 'poor relations' miving to live beyond thw means; one thinks of the child in O H, Lawrence's story 'The . O(klng.Horsc: Winner' who hears throughout Ihe house and even in s kdroom. full of expensive toys, an incessanl whispeling: 'There mUSt notc money.' Experiences of this son would be the material of a so ' '''t psychoa , nalysis which set OUt 10 grasp the logic wheteby the social rc anons oo' . ,, _ . , ,, f' 111 , ,,-, 10 rhmgs and also, of COUr1C, in people arc insensibly '"' . ern11zcd tak' . " 109 (hCit P,ace 10 a lasllng relauon to the world and.(o . alh<: whICh manifests itself, for example, in thresholds of lolerance of the nalu . . ral and SOCI'" worfd. 0f nOIse. overcrowdIng, physical or verbal '.' Ylolen (t--ad of which the mode of apptOpriarion of cuhur:ll goods is 0", d '. 'ITlenw_ >. "e effect of - . . mvue 0r acquISItion IS most marked in the ordinary ' " L 1 {'01C(S f eveday existence, such as furnjtute, clothing or cooking "'hlch a $111Ons e prllcularJy revealing of deep-roote.:! and long.standing dis L , . ur:cau ' Iy 9 OUtS' e thc scope 0f the e.:!ucallonal system, they ha 10 d Ve to be . confron' , II were, by naked taste. withou t any explicit t<! ripllOn or 18 18tnc, prOSCnptlon, other than from semilegitimate legitimiz. I(S such as women 's weeklies or 'ideal home' magnines.

wmp(tences which ''1.IU' ,.irlues ndois dynasties. What isarc the basis of legitimte memo u<Juircd in daily COntact with In bourge bC I objcctS, by regular visits to antique(!calers and galleries, or, more ac!C; by moving in a universe of familiar. intimate obiccls 'which ltt "P S" .Y"as Rilke .uys. 'guileless, good, simple. (emin', is of (ourse: a cer. is nothing other than telation of immediate familiar.

lhe;aste. which lrl

larcd

rs,

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78 j A Soda' Crlllqllt o fht)lIdgtmtnl o J j

I am

This

means
I

It m1y

by every i I I 'sense', funCt o ing in i I ra (e.g.. lilerary history. at Iwt among the most has the eift o I the weight of what is abandoned to o economic and cultul"lLl inhetilance. e that these diff" t('nces (Ontinue to function in Olher cover .heir full force as soon as the logic moves real mkes into these areas-which it of course a to do.

Ihe

Ihe p1

in f reducing. the diff"et('nces linked t iu

inheriled 'senses' and.

of.he Struggle f": :;,';,,f .

r ./Jk ,

The 1djectives the tapondenls ha chosen 10 describe an ;","'0" . the source of their furnirure. are more closely linked 10 their social than to their educational qualifications ( un l ke their judgement on togl"lLphs or their knowleJge of composers), more directly depends on etfly letm in , especi11ly Ihe letming takes place without any eprns imention to tC2Ch, than the and knowledge that are investeJ in clothi , furnishing and more precisely. n the way clothes, furniture and food the mode of acquisition of furniture (department store, shop Ot Flet Mukel) depends at leul 15 much on social sc ooling. A. equal eJucarional levels, .hose members of the class who were also born nto that class-who. more often than Olhers, in heri ted so e o .heir umi tut('"--1c<jui red their furniture cially those living in Pari ) from an anti<jue..detlcr more oftcn than artment born into other classes. who tcnded to buy from a dep spec alized shop or the Flea Market. (T e I:IS{ i

of rhe dom inant class who have ri ng h,nd by I capital. and on .he orher hand by mcbcrs of rhe dom rllt" cd ,nosr born into .hat class. w o have 1e5ii educanonal capi al than r 'lus. years 0fl' her 11.'; Ina" prom sed. i.e.. those who have h.d O e or tWO ir OTiSIn II>( iOn table .) (lf)l/ Ihat onc ""ould find thc strongest 't IS probably in lasles in f ' am learning. the Icssons which longest t Indelible mark of nf .... nd " .nd most rlUT' a Ihe dis a c ing or colbp c of t e native world ,,'Irhs an native world is. above all. thc maternal " in .for il..Thc hll' ,naln I oous . f- . ....orld of primordial lastes and basic '- 0 'he a. i . .Ch ple1Sure.gIVLng t an r d the pal cul mral good. in w I . ,d.lIon to the aIChe.y " Isposulon towards p easure ' art of pleasure and 0f the seieC([Ve d' . In!CS!1II P pIeuure. "'hich is

ofIcuC1rional

si mcmbers h i s

tJLId mOld t ,,0

tn nOSlalgia

1C<ju,rcd through c

f a chcypa S I

bec1Use nothing.

h ;' l

ng

mS te s n n ' Cmlol lnd 'synrhelic" oo:casions, an i i ingthe sponden!s on : IS a lifc-style in s completc undem.nding fm be horne. mm.!: mco c " IS ,ml,1;<" lher g i 1 SYSlcm Th,s bcmg surprising ls m

m f s

e ce in food. h search for the O l y the 11m ,,'as to id l'lif pref rcn queslio s led me to quesl o indICator of the nteres! they served on special ,,hich fur. ' . of elf.procm.llon ,"iopled in 'showi ng off" , III Ih,s o .'ho n"UfC 11$0 plays a pm). For . rhc Style f faClnrs has '0 I t<: . ' p1tliCU\1r!y complex se' o h at r of thc . of mel1 th.. peopk like 10 offet 15 no doubl v ry good 1m- sys (h. ....ish 1 #vc or avo.d glvmg to OIhers and. as 0 udm . m adduLOI\ 10 .he md , of faClon nc .eml!I( expression of 1 . of Ihe position oo:cupicd in the economic and cultural hlc1':lrch'. CI'O'S

s especially f;;; ;;;d ; rc

"'"

in ,he dominan, d.... by \>C1I.ion .nd soci.l origin .heir furnitut<: from nch sou e) .' Social origin Oq>anmcru Specialized
,,

Educatiorul

Lowc. th.n b1{ Working .nd middle d.""

ThnioJ

licence

,.kg<

Upper cluses

Working and duses

Upper Working and middle cluses Upper cluses

middle dmcs

2'.'
U.)
" "

mark

e'

lU

41.) n
'"

1l.0 1.O
,.., .,

24.

. Some

and middle dmcs

1l.0

2U

28.'

18.0

.. ,

2U

".0

11.0

""

) .0

,,

' ;\.,

cconomic rr.jectory. social Ifajtory and ,uhura! tl"lLleClory. . e thar the eff" C ..e mos! " I ibe in the w. " is nO! ('ClUe bourSCO'sie. Thc mcmbers of the csubloshe<l pcflte bour ro, , morc ofrcn sef','c ,he,r friend 'plenflful tnd good'. 's, ple bur ""el 'presen ted' m("1ls ,han he new petite bourgeoisic. who prefcr 10 'PO' luck' IIUI differences linked 10 1fOjen ry. Thus ilso finds ... pe." bourSCO's of ,dd e and good' mnls. ".hich ., '""" thc case ... jth rhose of upper-class o"l\ln. who. by conffOSI. t<: very and no",' to ,he e;-l1bl,shd pe,ite hourgeoisie. 'hc pr pe suy to off"er 'plentiful and good meals .s as among those in d dine 0$ . on,!: 'hose who uc Up...ardly mobile a d onginaiC from he "'orkin classes. The f r er nc,'C! o "Y 'hey <.>Ifer -PO' luck' or ori o al .nd exotic' mea s. whern$ the ("mC1 do m (.hough cour . as ofren as Ihc ncw peru bourg<:Qls). se
.... U C .

11.0

2U '2.0 '.0

14-' 2\.)
U.O

s g sc l s !iCrVC origm.1' mnls t Or o STrOng one m l or workingdass origin mOre often off"cr plentiful In mdlned Ihe 'ot;gin1 o n m e StrOng g m n t blfcr l ' gn nOt. of l! 'S Il .n;;aeO accident thn even Ihe p f St pleasures hose mOSt puritieJ of
of corpofCllllY (such as thc unlque. pure nOtc' of the PhtltbllJ. , lrndy reserve<.! thcm for {hc f ) . con.1In on element wh,ch. as ew 10 th food, !hc archetype of all 'aslC, of the er ref s d "c ly b a k c 10 the oldest and deepest CKpenen(es. Ihose which de ttml d <:," cr-<k,crmin the primLli"e opposilions-bl1tCrj5weer. lb I IlI' p,d, hOljcold. coar /delica c. aus!crejbnsht-whLCh at<: as se

responden.. indicuro mo ,h.n One )Oun:e.

crudest" plesurcs t ""'f:7 :n c r

!astes of

essemial [0 gastronomic commc:muy as 10 the: refined pprecia{i(ln$ aC'Sch(u:s. To different degrees. depending on the an, the genre Style, u[ is n(yer cmirdy the (11M mm/l1ft, the diS(:oul"S( intcnded 0"",' be read, de<:odw. interpreted, which the intdle<:lualist view makC$ This product of an 'arl' in Durkheim's n, I.e., 'a p :; rheory', and sometimes of a simple mimesis, a son , symbolic of . , Iks, always contains also something ineffable, not through excess. celebrants would ha,c it, but by default. something which ,om'n (2ICS,2S it wen::, from body to body, like the rhythm of music or t your of colours, [hat is, falling shorr of words and concqm. An is itual' of (he arts, 'bodily thing', and musIC, the most 'pure:' and 'spir perhaps simply the mOSI corporeal. linktd 10 ttlllJ d'8nu which , '" statts of the body or. s they ....ere once cl1ro. humours. it nvishn, riC'S Jway, movC'S. II is pitchro not so much beyond words a:s below in gntufC1 Jnd movements of the body, rhythms-which where s:ays char.lCterile the funClions located. like everything ems tste, u the articulation of the organic and the and slowing. CfC1Cendo and drC1Cendo. tension and relaX1tion.n 1111s no doubt why, once it leaves the realm of pure thnique. musical eism scarcely speaks other than in adjenivC'S and exclamations. As tics speak of divine love in the language of human love, so inadequate evocations of musical pleasure are thosc ....hich can pli,,* the peculiar forms of an experience as deeply rootro in the hody : primitive bodily experiences as the tastes of

;;'
.

lod

nng erfl
(\I

t levels and in different and at the same moment, jl.{ dIfferen cnls 1 " h "!flhemors ' ' ....orfl Wlar ,I demands is more or less ldenncaI to what t e . p' . orms o, seCrorS and becausc it acknowledges more or less vale In orher , . It, J pital and mher dispositions (such as dOCI!try towards the !fl. bOdle<J . n itsclf) , lt"IIO sr

el

fl>C" I (a. and $0 cnjoy . I(Ural cap' amI I:lmy , gitimarc membership and rhe cue g,ven by ' 'I' ' (pamr fI 1SIuran( lack boIh educ:ltional upital opposed. firs!. to , ar<c g . ate situated Io....er eel cuitur.ll capilal (A) (:lnd 10 all 8 ".. fi .rod ,ohern capilal inro edu .... aXI '-r r rfn:r rn:oovcrsion of cuitur.ll -' ' ,, 0 rhe on (he one n . t t osc o nal). BUI rhey :Ire also ou CIllOnal P ui":licnr !flheri(ed cullUr.l1 cap,nl. have OOl1med 1?",'<Cr eduea h have an inhcrired euhunl caplr,1 gr(jlter (C or C') (or ,,'1'00. ,," oonalopua . " D' reI:l1I'e ro D) . ' ., L_ _ c lo al capllal_g.. C <cIa(lV( ro B' or , J Ihall r",1f e<JU U 1 cu1rUf(. ( lin Ihe ....... , -" .,- ' , -3rc ".....,.. 0 them' ($r 'all, a:s re"" , s genera '" _ -. cal1ons; and, 00 the orhcr hnd. 10 1hQs( ""h0 . holMn of idenrical quahfi J"C1(ional (apilal bUI ""ho Slatled off wl lh 1m culrural capnal o. r _ o m,1 " , rhey owe mo 10 r'" (001 D,) alld ""hose rel1don to culture. whIch amily, is 1m familillr lind mre scholaSftc, (ThC1C f and 1m 10 aXls_) 1C'C0ndary oppositions occur lI( every level of

: - O;:::;: 'i'""P,,,' who h;;;i""'"d; - " ,: "'":I:;;; " ":i," , ,,g ; - ' , ro"g :;::' :1 , ,, , 'oo ,: :;; a dual title ro eullUral nOOIIIlY. the self

; i

, n"'nl'C1Cnr'ng n

who

(hose who ,hose who h ' o h opposcd

Jnd ho school

' h

(he

(he

dOC'S nor have a monopoly on rhe production of cultural capital. I t irs sanction 10 in herired capinl 10 a greater or Ies;s eXlelll (i,c_. {h " 'iI Une<IUal conversion of inherired culrural capital) because, a( "i <"<

Thus. rhe which the relationship ro educarional capilal leavC$ ""hieh m1in!y appear in Ihe relarionship with social origin. may be differences rhe mode o( acquisition of Ihe culluraJ capillil no"" scsscd. Bur rhey may al$O be due to diffcrencC'S in rhe degree to whi'" rhis capital is recognized and gUlf"ante<:d by acad.:mic <jualifications: cerrain proportion of (he capin! a((ua!Jy o""ned may nor have iled and even ....hn acdemic sanction. when il ha:s bttn directly inher ha:s bttn acquired in school. Because of rhe long hysteresis of th of ac<juisition. 'he s:ame educalioMI qualifications may gU2rant(C differ<cnt r{lalions 10 cuhurc-but dreasingly so. a:s one riscs In eduC2fional hierarChy and a:s mon: valu comes; to be SCt on knowkd and less on merely knowing. If the same "olumc of tional capital (guaramc:ed cuhural apinl) may corfC1pond 10 i volumC'S of soci111y profitabk {uhural capital. this is firsr because . rhough fhc rouational systm. by its monopoly of certificalion. the conversion of inhnited cuhural apilal 'IlIO roucational cap'Ial. I
INflP.IlITf-D CAPITAL AND ACQUIRt;[. CAPITAL

food,

The rci.""nshlp bc''''ttn inh"i,w culrunl copiul and WU<:2"on.1 (lp".1

in

---------_

f.
I

c .

".

c"

----------------

---ccr"P---;BC.'PC;;C----""'---":"'!m;;;;,,--..l---;'dUC'"0n'l

, , , , ,

I ,

"pn.1

O"e could con$fru(t a simillr diagram fo( ech 'ype of npit.l nomic, culfu..! .nd social) po=SS<od initi.lIy nd :I( ,he rime of rion, .nd then ddine the set of possibl( ca!':s for rhe rd.rionship iniria! "piu! (defined as regards volumc and composition) and opit.l, characrerizc<'! in rhe same way. (There would be, for example, i vidu.ls declining in .1I types or capiul, or declining in only one and in orhers-ronversionfC_) If one sufficienliy refined thc i sp:ci of capit.1 (dividing cuitural capital, for example, into such as lite..ry, scientific and Iqpl-<:conomic capira!) or levet it would be poSl;ible fO find all rhe cases empirically their complexity but also ,n their <juasi-lllfini,e muitipliciry, To be entirely rigorous, one would have to .1I0w for s,ructur.l such as the devlluation of nominal <jualificarions which occurs in (as in recenr years) when the educational syslem is used (This devaluarion h.s be.:cn symbolized by pl.cing the hne i real equivalent, of 'Iualifications below Ihe bi!':C!or which marks lents of the nomin.1 value of <jualications ) One would also have , .1I0wance for ,he discrepancy be,wcrn the number of years of Sfudy and 'IU.lification obt.ined (which becomes more probable as initial capital i .nd schoolins becom more widespread th.t it now affects even the wotkins classes whose children of(en leave secondary school wilhour any <juali!ication). It would then be seen (hat, (0 explain cerrain p..ctices ide: <juarely (in particular, au,odidacdcism) one has to consider no, I the <jualific.tion ind the number of )'eus of schooling but also ,he I ' betwcrn the twO (which may general( self-assurance or I rogance or resentmcnt etC)_ One migh, also consider thc ,"'een age ar ,he end of schooling and the legitimare age for a i bar (barralaJir i al) ar 17 or ,he age limits for the (/J7I(()JlrJ (en such .s the mnce examinations for ,he gralldtJ kfll'J)_ One of ,he mc<'!iations ,hrough which cultur.1 capinl is transformed imo eduutional capi,al is sp:ed of , the
-

of a different rdarion 10 culture-'Studenrifinrion' effl,qu'SIUu(alional institulions differing greatly in thtir le:ichers, their (rc. l ,0 erhods, their social rruitment etc in order 10 obrain an r,,(I1n g rn'lification. II follows from this that the differences conneCted al i<kotlc .l'1U ,",'(:CIOry and Ihe volume of inheriled cultural capinl arc , . . ,,'I'h S()( l y differences, mainly viSIble among memutrs 0f lIe pemc L_ ' cd. b !C,nfole . who are Ihemselves born inro Ihe petlte bourgeOIsie or . . bOUI,c-olSle f m the working classes (and partlcularly represenred In Ihe C'Sdran ; ,ire bourgeoisie), which reflect changes in Ihe stale of Ihe re !ahsh r:ccn the educarional system and thc class srructure. To these bllOns be:udtJ 0/gmffdtion correspond different relations to the educa d,ffcrt'nt which are expressed in dif(erenr slraregics of .(ultural in . {Ion., systern . uucattona , . . . ( I_e_, aut00' InS\ltulton t ,'<!'Slmenr "0< guar.lll tttci by Ihe _" dacritism ). . ..
,,,".. ,, In t"e a.--"Ie of mOl( precise indicarors of Ihc overall style of cuiru..1 .. . cOnlumplion (c.g., the opposition between ,he sa"flol .weeklles Lt Canad Enchainl ind Char/if Htbik, or, in Ihe area of pular lCnce, be,ween Sa gif), one can Study 'he ",forma(lon the survey pro m fI Vi, ,nd PJyrMo .ioo on favou,;,e singers. lr might be thought ,hat ,he fact th.t, t .11 Ie,'els of eduution.l caplla!. the younges, respondents choose ,he slllgers of Ihe )'ounr generation (Fr-anoise Hardy or johnny Hallyday) more oftcn than fhe older respondentS, who more often choose older slIIgers (Gui'tary 0' Moriano), IS .dequ.tely explained by thc dates of ,he singers' firsr app:ar. .n(( 111 the field of cultural producrion. In facr, among b.cC:llauri'arholders, tk young<!'Sr more often choose jac<jues Douai (who was born in 1920.nd pt,formed at the Vieu. Colombier in 1963), ja('lues Brei (who was born in 1929, made his Pans debur in 193 at the Thane des Trois Budets and performed.t the Paris Olympi. in 1958 and 1961) or eyen lio Ferri' (born 1916, 'kgrtts in ArtS .nd Political .xiencc. debu' in Poris cabarets 1946), wherc-as the older ones more often choose Edi,h Pi.f (born 19n, diC<.! 1%.3, debut "' the ABC in 19>7), Luis Mariano (born 1<)20, 'OO Montparnasse, 194), Gdberr B&aud (born 1927, f"Sffitst success at bec1me nOwn III righ,.bank c.barets and then at Olympia: consecrated ,n 1954, the '1(1ud year') Or even Petula Clark (born 1933, tOP of Ihe bill .t Olympia 1%0, 'oltd 'moSf likeable and popular sm' in 1%3).'" It can be le<cn ,h., '0 One has to rake infO accoun, OOt only them.ke sccnse of ,hese relarionshipsthey made their b.nkthfOughs singers' ages or ,he d.,es when r beven the pl.ces where they were performing at the (ime of the survey, 11S<l--and especially-the degree of affinity betwcrn the styk of their SS, Iight more 'Intelltual' in one case, closer to pedt.bourgeo,s taSte for ',"o e7r. :od realiS! song in ,he orher, and ,he cultural dispositions of ucallo seh I n: SYSlCmnal gene..tions producc<1 by IWO very diffefl:nt States of Ihe e " "h . are similar differ(nces ber"'een edu(:Ition.1 generarions wi,hin the n'(1,n ' r . !f _ a much In Iheir CtiOn of 'he cl.ss_ The younger dIffer from the older not SO ' over.1! competence as ,n 'he exrem and freedom' of ,he!f in-

The discrepancy between educa(ional capt!1 and Ihe cuirural actually possessed, which is thc source of dtfferences belween idenrinl educational npirat can also result from rhe faci Ihat (he educational qualification may correspond to SChooling of very duralion (i_c., Ihcre is unC<jual conversion of scholastinlly acquired (ural opital). The dircct or indirect effects of one or several ycrs sludy my in fact nOt be sanctioned -by the award of a diploma-as I case with all those who dtop OUt in (he IWO )'ears le:iding to the b"'" lauriat or, at a higher level, those who have spent Ont or univcrsity withoul obtaining a <jualification. But til addition, frequency of this discrepancy has risen with [he chances of different elasSl's to Sl'condary and higher education, agcnts different generations (as identified by age-groups) are likely to voted a vcry diffcrenr number of years of study (wilh all lhe f(:Cls, including greater noncertified competence, of course, but also

""" '

,,''''" :

t older .mongst thost of them (rel.tively more numerous th.n ones) who origin.,e from [he middle or upper <I.sscs and who know a (!lel.tively) very high numr of musical works .nd composers, i tereste.! in modern Ut nd philosophy .nd often go to the cinema. But what perhaps most distinguish the twO gener:ations of thnici.ns .re the extern.1 signs-lress and haimylc, in particular-and also their declared prdetences; the younget ones, who seek to draw clost to ,he student say they follow f.shion .nd like clothes which 'suit their personality', whereas the oldet ones more often choosc 'sor and correct' or 'dassic.lIy I cut' clothes (choices char."eristic of establi shed

ves'mnfS. J..jk ,hir ddrs 'hey read scientific nd ,echninl works, but ,hey He slighdy mO!le Imeresu:d In philosophic.1 ess.ys Or poetry, no more fre<Juendy to museums, but when thy do, 'hey go mOre the Modern At! Museum. These ,endencies .re pmicularly

""n, .

ire n

;: uP . grO ( HiJlpfltl,
rtlltllf).

Sf rstic form, as others 'populanze (I.e., Itansmn beyond the r jn jOu !glrimale receivers) the products of the academic re.r.guard for example) or the consecrated vatll.garde (Lt Noul'el Obm', of the monopoly of manipulation of the sacred, the literati "[he holders ch, never have much time for those who 'claim to discover (very Chur of <"lves the sources of tl"3ditional authority' and 10 have direct , ,Ihln the, ,""" of which they .t"(C the guardians. As Gershom S<:hoW, 55 lO the treasure 3 Cc C s 'They usually do their besr 10 place obstacles in the path of lem sh0,":,, ' him no encou r,,,- etll, and if in the end the ob w t"m I Th J give ,he myS I accustomed f ghttn the mystic and bnn,ll him back 10 the old 511CI6 ' much the bener from Ihe standpoint of authoriry.'18 But pre , W2 ) p by Ihe institution can take place wi thout anyone hav. :nf e censorshi apply controls?r consmints. .Whereas mditional autodidcts srill g IIIS!l!UnOn to indicate nd on the short CUIS of expect Ihe academic , IfeCfIy or IIId' ' I!leCfIy, ularization and the vulgate, whlCh are aiways, d' . inaled by the institution,'9 the most liber:i!Cd of the new autodidacrs among Ihe hereSl 1rchs who sllil perform the func!1on sk Iheir ,Ilurus ulfilled by the aurhontics, namely. as Scholem also says, traditionally f that of 'showing exactly what the nOV1{e has to expect at every step' and 'pro\'idi ng the symbols wah which this experience can be described or

4"" etc) which offer the products f the in tellectal avanl.gude

The oldsryle autodidact was fundamemally defined by reverence cultut"(C which was induced by abrupt and early exclusion, and which to an exalted, misplaced piety, inevitably perceived by the possessors legitimate (uhure as a SOrt of groteS<jue homage. The reCO,llnition of in(Qmpetcnc( and eultur:al unwoflhiness which char;ac. ,(rizes old.sryle aurodidacticism is especially seen among of the t.blished petite bourgeoisie originating from the working or I who say very f re9uently (70 percent of Ihem, compared wilh 3 1 percem the new petite bourgeoisie originaring from the s.me cla) Ihar 'paim ings are nice bu, diffic lt. The cle.resl manifesmion of the cultural .Iien .tion of old-style .utodid.cts is their readiness '0 offer proof of rheir "',,. even when il is nOt asked for, ,r:ay ing ,heir exclusion by their eagerness to prove Iheir memrship {in comrast to the weU-born, who mask their ignor:ance by ignoring <Juestions or situations which might expose it).

S:--S :

inlerprCled.'

THE TWO

In Ih outsiders, who seek 10 use a dceply orlhodox way of continuing. brutally foreshortened Itajtcrory by thtir own i tive, tht whole rdation ro culture and cultural authoritits beus Stamp of exclusion by a system that can get the txcluded to og'' their exclusion. By conltast, new.stylt autodidacts have often kept a in the educational system up to a relarively high level and in Ihe of this long, illrcwarded associadon have aC9uired a relation to I mate culture that is at once 'liberated' and disabused, familiar and chanted. It has nOlhing in common with the distant reverence old.style autodidacr, although ir le.ds ro ually intense and investments, but in 'luitt di/fet"(CtII areas, disclaimed or abandoned educational system--strip cartOOnS or jall rarher than history or omy. psychology (even par:apsychology) or ecology r;lther Ihan ogy or geology n These are Ihe caregories which provide the all the productions of the 'countercuiturc' (Charlie HtIxio,

P"'!''' :

':; ;

MARKETS The f amily and the school funCtion as sitcs in which the competences deemed nece55ary at a given time are constituted by usage itself, and, Simultaneously, as sues in which the trice of those compelenees is determltled, i.e., as markCls which, by their positive or orcing what is accep,able, negative sanctions, evalu.1e perf ance, reinf orm d,scour:aging whal is not, condemning valueless dispositions to extinc . lion (Iokes which 'fall Aat' or, though acceptable in anolhn context, in another mrket. here seem 'OUI of place' and only provoke embarrass -men Or disapproval, 9uOtatlons-in L:lIin, for example---which sound l ,po:danlic' Or 'laboured') In Olher words, the aC<Juisition of culrural compelcnce is Inseparble from insensibic acquisirion of 'sense' for SOund cuhur:al inveslment. . This investment sense, being the produ" of adjustment to {he objec. ch.nces of turning competence to good account, facilitates forward uslment e 10 chese chances, and is irself a dimension of a rdalion to 're--<lOSe or diSInt, off-hand or reverential, hedonistic or a a e e which is Ihe internalized form of the objective relationship be I,.,ml n the sire of aC<juisition and the 'centre of cuhur-:ll values'. The usc ofe b:.l. hra.sc 'sense of investmenf. as in 'sense of propriety' or 'sense of ee , IS Inlended to indicalC Ihal, when, for the purposes of obJectifi. (ati n, term s alC borrowed from the language of economics, il is in no

:;. .k\

way SUggeiled thaI th cormponding behaviour is guided by nlculation of maximum profil, as th ordinary usage of IIu:5c: no doubl miStaknly, implk$. Culture is th site.. par misrecognition, because, in generating str:l.legies objectively the objective chances of profit of which it is the product, the sense vestment secures profits which do not nted to be pursued as profits; so it brings to those who have legitimate cul{U as a second natur supplementary profit of being Sttn (and 5tC'ing themselves) disinterested. unblemished by any cyninl or mercenary use This means that the term investment'. for eample, must be in the dual sense of economic investmenr-which it objectively al ways though misrecogni=lnd the sense of affecliv inves.tmet wich . has in psychoanalysis. or, more exactly, 10 the sense of ,/lIISM, belief, ,:;;''"::';: , involvement in the game which produces the game. : no other guide than his love of UI, and when he moves. as i lowards what is. at each moment, rhe thing 10 be loved. like some nC$Smen who make money e\/tn when they art nOt trying 10, he is . pursuing a cynical calculation, but his own pleasure, the sincere um which, in such mailers, is one of rhe precondillons of successful ' vestment. So, for example. it is lrue thu the effect of t'; ':;;:i : ; ' :'.: ' : a (rhe hierahy of the ans, of genm ete.) nn be des<:ribed is ; case of the 'Iabelling' effect well known 10 social psychologisls. people set' a face differenrly depending on the ethnic label it is the value of the am. genres, works and authors depends on the marks attached 10 them at any given moment (e.g., pia" of I rion). BUI the fiet remains rhu the an..lover's sense of men! which leads him always to love what is lovable, and only ",.", '" always sincerely, can be supported by unconscious deciphering countless signs which at every moment say what is !O be loved and is not, what is or i.s nO! to be 5tC'n, without ever being explicitly "i'", by pursuit of Ihe associate<! symbolic profiu. The specific competence classinl music or jazz, theatre or film ere.) depends on the chances -,'" Ihe diffent markets. domeSI1C, scholaslic or occupational. IOgether for accumulating, applying and exploiring it, I.e., the degree IO,",, they encoutage aC'luisition of Ihis compelence by promising or leeing il profils which will inforce it and induc new i".vC'Stm'""., :; : chances of using cuilural compelence ptofitably III Ihe dlffent pl3Y 3 pare. in particular. in defining the propensity !O make investments and also the invC'Slments in extra..curricular 'general

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tu' which Sttm to owe nothing 10 the constraints or incentives of instilution. The mo legitimate a given area, the more necosary and is 10 competent in iI, and the more dam3ging and I compctent. [lUI this does not suffice 10 explain why it is t

wards the m05t legitimate arns. rhe slatistical diff erences related ($ ' to J1'lO ucatio nal npital become incrnsingly important, whereas lhe mo 1 0 ",0'1($ towards the lem legirimate areas, which might seem to be the on m and inexplicable choice, such as cooking or interior decora.. of Ulllilu. the mo importanl a the statistical choice of friends or f to ial tratory. (and capital ompositio), with rhe linke<! , are undergolllg legmmal1on, such as 'IIltellt<:tual song, pho Ihaf .. raphy or jau, occupying an intenne<!ialC position. He tOO, ir is in rdarionship tween te properties o the field (in paniculat, the hances of negaove or poslttve sanCllons 11 offers 'on average', for any C gent) and the properties of the agent, that the 'efficacy' of these proper.. s defined. Thus both the propensity towards 'non..academic' invcst.. i menlS and the area 10 which they a direeled dcpend. sitterly speaking, not on the 'average' rate of profit offed by the area in 'luestion but on rhe rate of profit it offers each agent or particular category of agents in terms of the volume and composition of their capital. 1llt' hienrchy of aver.age' ntes of profit broadly cormponds 10 the hi.. mrchy of dcgreC'S of legitimacy, so thaI knowledge of cimini or n 2vllll..garde liter.aturt yields higher 'average' profits, in rhe scholasdc market and dsewherc, than knowledge of cinema, or, a f ortiori, srrip car.. toons, dttective stories or sport. But the profits, and the conse.. quent propensities 10 invest, arc only defined in the Iationship belween a field and a put1cular agent with particular characteristics. For example, Ihose who owe most of their cultural capiral to the educational system, 5uh as primary and secondary teachers originating from the workin g and m,ddle classes, nc particularly subject ro the academic definit ion of legiti.. macy, and tend to proportion their investments very StriCTly to the ""Iue tht educational system selS on the different areas. By COntrasl, 'middle-ground' arrs such as cinema. jnl, and, even more, Str,p call?<>ns, scienc e fiction or defective SlOries are pdispose<l to at.. t the investmentS either of those who have entirely succtede<! in con.. er!'ng rheir cultu ral capiral inlO e<!ucational capital or Ihose who, 1'101 ::8 acquired gi im te cultu .re .in lhe legilimat ma ntr (i.e., t . . b 8 early famll11llZanon), mallltlln an uneasy rtlaoo nshlp WIth it, ! lIvdy or bjectively, or both. These ailS, nOt yet fully legitimate, ? h; are flO disdallled or neglected by the big holders of educ ational capi.. tal o a refuge and a veng e 10 Ihose who, by appropriuing them, se Cu; I e . best turn on their cultural capital (especialJy if il is nOl fully ltco n, tti8 scholaslically) while at the same rime taking credit for con.. esrblised hier.archy of legitimacies and profit s. In other t . propenSl!y 10 apply to the mldd uSualJ le..ground artS a dIsposition ItflO" cservcd for he legitimate arts-that measured, for example, by I thafl '0 gc of film dlf(tors-nds IC$S closely on e<!un (' -dcpc rional capital I)'$telll fl a .whole Iationship to seholastic culru re and the educuional wh1(h ilself depends on Ihe degree 10 which the cultural capit al

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possessed consists solely of (he capilli acquired in and recognized educational system. (Thus. membc:rs of the new recite bourgeoisie generally inherited more cuhur;lJ capital than the primary lcachers possess much the same educational capital: they know many mort ' tors but fewer composers.) [n fact. one can never entirely escape from the hierarchy CiC5_ ikcausc the very meaning and value of a cul{l,Hal object t cording to the system of objects in which it is placed. sdcncc ficcion or strip cartoons mly be entirely prtStigious cultural or bc: reduced to their ordinary value. depending on whether they art socialcd with avant-garde literature or music-in which case they : as manifestations of daring and freedom---<Jf combine to form a ,,; blian typical of middlebrow taste-when they appear as what they simpk substitutes for legitimate assets amily or SChOO ' . 'o , O ' ' Given that each social space-f competence is F;o , , ; tions both as one of the sItes where the sit where it is given its price, one might expen each field 10 hight prke on the products created within it. Thus one migh ' i the scholastic field to give the highest value 10 scholastically . i I tural capital and the scholastic modality, wherea.s the markets and dinners, or all {he by exnascholastic valu-'society' salons sions of profcssional life (appointment intervIews, board meetings, ferenc etc. ) or even academic life (oral examinations at ENA Sclenc Po, for example), in which the whole person is wotlld SCt the hight value on the familiar relation 10 t all the dispositions and competences which bear the mark acqtlisirion. But this would be to ignore the df e<:ts of whereby the products of the scholastic: mode of produnion may be valued as 'scholastic' in the scholastic: market itself.sl Indeed, ' : sign of the hetcronomy of the scholastic marker is secn in its a b I. ncatment of the products of thc 'scholastic' habittl s, which vanes verscly with thc ltllOnomy of the educational system as a whle , and of its conSlltuent I at different urnes and in different countri) IUtions, wah respect 10 thc demands of the dominant franion of dommant dass,) What is certam is that thcrc exists an immediate affinity betWeen disposItions that are acquIred by farTllliarization with legitimate and the 'highsociety' market (or the most 'highsociety' senors of educational market), The ordinary occasions of social lifc exclude i bllltal as a dosed qucstionnairc, the hmiting ose of thc nation which thc scholastic institution itself refuses whencver, an aepting the highsociety depreciation of the 'scholastic', i t turnS, . nl amination intended 10 vcrify and measurc competcnce mt : varta l high.socielY conversation. n contrast 10 the most 'scholastic, ric situations whic:h aIm 10 d,sarm and d.scourage strateglcs of high.society :Xcasions give unlimited scope to an art of playing

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questions about painters in such 2 wa tha[ the knowled<, 'fi m L L I 'meci (ould not X: ,'en <:<J any way. the aIm was not so much to mea the specific competence (whic:h, one may assume, depend, on the same JC!Ors 11 knowledge of composers) as to grasp indirt1y the relationship to kgitimate culture and the differenllal c:ffls of thc: survey situmon, Thus, roponcieMs whose knowledge was not ual to teir familiarity may have f,1I enritled to uSC str.Heg'c> of bluff whIch are hIghly suw:ssful In the or dinary uses of culture (this is pmicularly the case with the new petite by the vague bourgeoisie), But bluff itsclf is only profitable If II is knowledge given by familiarity, Thus,-whiie the room for manoeuvre in rhis <jucstion allowed the least competent to fastc:n on proper names which correspond neirher [0 knowledge nor preference. such as Picasso (men tioned by 21 percent of the unskilled and semiskilled 'Workers) or Braque (10 pernt), who was being celebrated in various ways at the !lme of the surver it also functioned as a trap with Rousseau (10 percent), who was P',1C!1call never mentioned by the other dasses and was probably wnfused wl.'h 'he writer, (Breughel, by contras" was never mentioned by ,he un s.,lIed and semiskilled, no doubt beuuse rhey would nOt risk pronoun cing n.me 'hey were nOt likely to have heard.) heo bring to light rhis 'SQ(iety sense', generally aSSQ(;ated with Strong in_ /ue ., d cultural capital bu, irreducible to a sum of strictly verifIable knowl c.g, one only has to comp.re the variations in ,wo dimensions of culrural ' PI --POcssion of specific knowledge of composers and the 'fhir' which $ d to moke it profitable. measure d by the capacity '0 rccognitc what . would have ulled thc: sma!! opinions' among rhe stateme f . nts of 'gure 4 wrrelates the proportion of individual> in each category who ' kno"' the composers 0 r at least twelve of the musical works with the proportIo who cl"m that abstract painting Interests them as much n a.l the dUsir , s '. chool$'. 0n the one hand there are the ft:ilctions whose strict com !>ete c ' n g.ter (han their sense of the 'right' .nswer high (secondary and uca on .r chers), and on the other, those whose sense of the g.'ti",. f'Os re IS '"commensurate , wllh their specific comperencc (new pe. u'g"o'SIt . .", ' , armur pruuueers). . , _ , ' The gp is smalbt Ong the "sIngne '"-peUt bourgeoi, or bourgeois (primary teac:hers, junior ad. I'Illni!''''tIve I1 "' eecu,IVes, eng.neers, sen or pubhesector . ' ' I "Ot f>Ossible [0 use ,he opinions on music because-unlike
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. distaste which bourgeo!s,ants (especially those in dline) man " ,e ything 'scholasuc IS no doubt pardy c::tplalOed by the f ever s' or if( on which the scholastic muket inflicts, nonetheless, on the 1p dev..IU:I' knowledge and confused intuitions of f amiliarity. For exam e rejection of academic routine which underlies most of the ie, ( e p .ons of rhe new culrural intermediaries (youth organizc!S, pby is more easily unde!S:ood if on knows thal rhe establihed . . le:l bourgeoisie as relatively high educatlonal capital and a rclatlvly dtt . inhefltance, whereas the new pellte bourgcolslC (of which pC k cultural .. the limiting ca.sc:) has a StrOng cullul":ll inheritance and rebartistS are ' " no " , ovlOCIa . Iy low cducallOna] cap,ta], The rnSlan or even pr . ' ] pnmary u e who can beat rhe small employer, rhe provincial doctor or rhe h r antique-d1er in the tts of pure no,,:le<lgc, i likely TO appear , r sji complrably infenor to them 10 all the sltuallons whICh demand self or Aair, or even the bluff which can cover lacunae, r.lther than the prudence, discretion and awareness of limirs that arc .associalCd with scholastic acquisition, One can confuse Bernard Bu ff with Jean Dubuf et fef and yct be quitc capable of hiding one's ignorance under Ihe com monplaces of celebration or the knowing s ilence of a POUI, a nod or an inspired pose; one can identify philosophy wilh Saint.Exupery, Teilhatd de Chardin or even Leprince-Ringuct, and still hold one's own in today's most prestigious market.placcs-rcceprions, conferences, inlCrviews, de bares, seminars, commiltees, commi:ssion long as one possesses the SCI of distinctive features, bearing, posture, presence, diction and pronun ciation, manners and usages, without which, in these markers at least, all scholastic knowlcd is worth li{tle or nothing and which, partly because sch!s never. or never fully, teach {hem, define the essence of bourgeoiS distinction.

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Educationally c:quialent indiidua ls (c,g., the students of rhe grllnmJ irrHn) ay d,ffer radically as regards bodily heis, pronunCiation, dress or familiar ?l ,y With lgitimi lC cultun:, not ro mention the whole set of specific compe c and capacities which function as admission tickets to the bourgeois rl , s Ch as dancing, the rare sportS, or parlour games (especially bridge) . n, sk,lls, through the enrounters they provide and the social capital th9 hel '0 lCcumul _ llc, no doubt explain subsequent differences ,n car_

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,be sel of Sta" mcms on paiming. which offered an imerm.,]i>le opinion lov, the ImpressionistS')-.he ..n of possible judmen!S prescnt.,] gfeit a discominuity between .he t)'pinlly middlebrow opinion ('I iLkc Smuss walt=') :lnd the chic opinion ('AI! muSIC of quality imerl'sts , so .ha. the choice of .he mosr legi.imilC judgement became . for all those who refused .0 make do wi.h a ,00 visibly 'naive'

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im{c choice so $U of Itself {har it convinces by {he sheer the performance. like a successful bluff. II is no! only a sense of 10 in,'cst in, dirlors r:l.lhn than anol'S. thc avam.gardc mor<: I of rhe ci2SSial or, which amounts to fhe same thing. a sensewhen right men! [0 invest or disinvest, to move into olhn IKlds, the I distincrion become tOO unccmin. It is. ultimately. confidence, arrogance, which, normally being the viduah mOSt assured of profit from their Investments, hood-in a world in which cverything is a mattcr of I;': : : h, : : ,, [he absolute kgidmKy, and therefore Ihe maximum rheir investments. The padox of fhe imposition of legitimacy is Ihar ;1 makes it : sibk ever to determine whcther rhe dominant fe:,p,ture appe:.a ,," ,; guishd or noble because it is dominant-i,e., because it hu I , ,, I defining, by its very existence, what is noble or discinguished as' of exactly what itself is, a privilege which is expressed precisely in assunnCe--Qr whether it is only because il is dommant lhat it endowe<! with these qualities and uniquely entitled [0 defme no accident [hal, to designate the legitimue manners or [aste, language is Content co say 'manners' or 'Iaste', 'in the absolute gnmmarians say, The properties anache<! lo rhe [0 ford 'accents" bourgeois 'distinction' etc.-ha the po"'erand the intention of diseerning whal they 'in reality', in selves, and the distinctive value they derive from unconscious ,,', 10 lheir class distribution. h:; POWERS I t is now clea ' h FACTORS ";';: ";"f"::' ,. . :,:: : : was due 10 the fut that what [he very I, wh,ch -<l and social origin--esignate is being fought our in strugglesan-as rhe object of analysis-an and the relarion to rhe work of who prize: in reality itself. These snuggles ate fought between those identified with the schobslic definition of culture and thenal' I mode of aC<Juisition, and those who defend a 'non-institutio md relation to culture. The lanet, though mainly recruited from ('5t scctors of the bourgeoisie, receive unqu('5tioned support from and artiSIS and from the charismatic conceplion of the consumpcion of art, of which they are the inventors and Ihe 10 ties over aUlhors and schools, which hold the limelight those such as anistic srage, conceal more important struggles, rhe nineteenth pose teachers (from whose r:mks, throughout to critics were often recruired) and writers, who lendant be more fractio ' linked, by origin and 'connections', 10 the domin dominatedn,"",. the domiMnt class: or [he endless struggles between definicion of the as a whole and Ihe dominant fractions over the him. plished man and the education designed 10 produce

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what xample,Jrion is 2t stake in the latenineleenth-century creation of e giing great imporunce to among fO're edu Dc:moltns, the founder of the Ecoleiporl-with, and dis. pro des Roches lllCl"S'fEdouard Lc Play, like Baron de Coubertin, another advoulC of a o le FridCric clp sylc of edcation-i5 th iitim o.f an aristocratic definition of n(Vo' d on wirhm the audeml( mstltutlon Ilsclf. Knowledge, erudition, edholasric' docility symbolize<! by -brrack-like' Iycee (this is where to<: \leh.repeated theme originates), and all the criteria of assessment ',lC rI1(1.ble to (he children of rhe petite bourgeoisie, through which the 1 . . J''OI,I affirms liS autonomy, are contlCd m ,he nme of such 'values' as 1>001 'couge',.'will', virtues of the !C2dcr (of the army or busi. 18Y" thr tIm II was ,het Ihe sae (mg) ad"perhaps especially, Im t . . (personal) InlUl(lVe, bapme<! self.help or enterpnsc, all V!tlues linked put 'education' fore 'instruct.io', 'character' before 'intel. fOJPOl1. To encc', SrI before culture IS to. asserr,. wllhm lhe scholastic world it. lig lf, the eXlstencc of a hler-:lrchy Irreduc,ble to the specifically academic hie!1lrchy which privileges the second term each of [hese oppositions.81 These sfruggles are not confined to the past, as is shown by the exis of tWO roUles [0 the scnior positions in luge firms, one leading (rom Ihe Ecok des Roches or the major Jesuit colleges and great bour. grolS Iyctes {in (he 16th arrondissement) to Ihe Law Faculty or, incrns- msly, &iences Po or HEC, the other running from Ihe ordinary provincia! or Parisin lycee 10 the Ecole Polytechnique.16 II is still more dorly seen in Ihe opposition, at the level of the grandes ecoles, between ["10 lcademic markets differing profoundly in Ihe Content of the cultunl COmpetence demanded, in the value SCt on manners and the criteria used 10 Iuate them, wilh at one extreme rhe Ecole Normale Suptrieure (ES) and Polytcchnique Po rhe Ecole N;u'ale d'Administr-:l[ionand at [he other Sciencesover and legitimate (ENA). Th struggles the nlll?n ofCulture nd Ihe legitimate way of evaluating it are only one r;:en;lon of the endless slruggles which divide every dominant class. I the tides ro the .xercosc ,of dvortues of !he accompliShed man the IegilimalCof 'character . . ommatlon are al stake. Thus Ihe 810rifiction hU''ld''ng sport and the valoriution of economic and nnlitic l culture, at 'he e 1' . Kpensc of rlI or altlSll' culture, are JUS[ tWO- of a strategies , the er-:lry th oll h hleh the dominanl fr-:lctions of rJ ' the dominant class aim to dlsc t t e values recognize<! by the "1111 c; and the petile bourgeoisi'intelleclual' fr-:lctions of the domi. e--whose dan. OU$ I:US . 'I<ldc:/2I'!h Ihe children of the bourgeoiSie on children compete most r de the retrain of the ,,'2tlons fined academic compclCnce. But more profoundly ,h= : ,Y , '''In;f .. . '. .1$", w of antHn[eIIC(rual,sm are only one aspect of an antago" h, (ar {ulrurc,hi"ouchcsbeyond the <Jucstion of Ihe legitimate uses of Ihe body " a.J 0n every dImenSlon 0, eXlsrence; the dominant . ""a)1 lend to ,oncive their relnionship. 10 the dominated fr-:lfnctions Ir'lrIs orthe crions in OPPOS'"on between the male and the female, the rious and
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So reflective analysis of Ihe [ools of analysis is not an scple but. an indisJ:>Cnnble ptNondilion of scicntific knowledge . . I de errSive, effoT! oble([. PoS!ILVLS[ lnmess It:lds the whole, I fication to be focusd on the Imensity of I of bringing queslioning to be:ar on lhe very of lhe relationships, which may even explain the relarive i dIfferent relationShips. In order to believe in rhe independence dependem variables' of positivist me[hodology. one has 10 be rhal 'expbnatory faCtors' are also 'powers' which are onlt Ii tiv in a certain field, and thai Ihey rhe[eore depend on Ihe wh"h are foughl, within each f transform {he Ield, . mechanisms which define il. [f it is easy to imagine fields i

ivdy defined) tWO main varilblducadonal level ,nd SOCial can only be correctly imerpreted so long as il is remembered 'h,,, , bod up wilh. am'g(lOisti( definitions of legitimare cull u re and leg[umate relauon 10 culture. or. more precisely, with different " , in which the char:lcteristics associated with one or Ihe " " erenl prices. It would be wholly misr,ken 10 locate in any f . faclors an 'effic:lcy' which only appars in a cemin Iherefore be cancelled out or inverred in anorher field or rhe same field. The dispositions constiruting Ihe cultivated ormed, only funerion and are only valid in , field, in Ihe only f ship wih a field which. as GaslOn Bachelard nys of Ihe physical [tself a field of possLble forces', a 'dynamLc situation','7 in which are only manifesled in Iheir relationShip wilh cerrain dispositions. why [he same pracrico may receive opposile meanings and values e erent fields, in diff rem configurations or in opposing SCClOrs f same field.

;,::;:;:: 'socia-Iogial' division. The StltiSlical vuiations associated

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. ion which is the pre-condition for full nen.lization-<an. until one quesrions rhe relalionship within which these n e r;,{ be d . hive been cstablished. The rehtionship SCI up by a closed an minly devoted 10 legilimate culrure is akin to thaI of n n at luke); and it is qtiOf1 " n: albcir wilhou[ any insritulional nnctio ( market what a markelplace, as a TC'1l-worid site of ex
(

rent ,d:d b[jOMhlS a[l o ,lf!'lln.sc oaSric subject mattCf to [h !O fhe market of economic Iheory. Bo[h in its ch,ngCS:form ofexchange il imposes (a C[uesrioning, which, as Charles e:and In cd always implies a form of intrusion, violence. challeng y by <Jues 6ally nt ;tcnuations which normally accompany it), a surve l, asymmetrical o . hCn : ially when il takes Ihe .f rm ofr:"ethodica a iOJI galion.- is the compkle opposne of or y convef'$1110n; 11 has dmar [ rr 1!I{C o lhe cafe or campus discussions in which the in comm [hln<uhure' ison wilh cled, or Ihe high-society challCf which shuns constru no weighl of edu(1llional qualdiC::lllon and m on l observes al : % precision and didaCli{ insistence: Th varialionsheTled cullurin r {Cbuvt
I

'1" ;"."""'! '

(ontcnt h 2pplying,

ro

If it is [fue that [he s[alislical relationships between rhe p" p,, , tached 10 agents and Iheir pr.lc[ices arr only fully defined in ship between the dispositions of a habitus and a particular limirs wilhin which (he n:lations observed relin their """d,,y"

grasped) .

would be the experimenlal expression of this. giVing !. I for example, [0 less 'scholastic' objects and forms of t:>tnuse wht is ultimalely a[ stake in everyday snuggles over rhe [ransformalion of the price-forming mechanisms d.:fining the values of the cultural productions associted with educatioml and social trajeclory (and [he primary variables Ihrough which Ihey

""eight of Ihe twO dominam 'faCiOrs' would be inverted (and tCSIS

:: i :;

P:"::'

offhandedness, modesty, t:lrnesrness, emba r:lssment eIC,) srrictly de nd, for their meaning and value, on [he market in which they are pled, becau!iC they are the visible [races of a mode of acquisition (da mesue or scholutic), i.e., a marker; and also because all .he markels ... able 10 assert Iheir autonomy of scholastic con trol give Ihem pflority. The emphasis on manne, and hrough Ihem on mode of ac I enables seniorit wilhin a clm 10 be made rhe basis of lhe hier y an:hy w,thin the das:89 il also gives lhe recognizc.:l possessors of the s

wilhin [his quasischolaslic situalion, from whal is tal as one moves, what is less academic either in academic in form and contenl 10 amiliarily withoul lesting knowled) or in fosm (queslions measuring f . prefertnces III cook (questions on knowledge of rhe cmema or be{een 'factors' and markets. Ing) give somc idea of rhis relalionship . , ) of the manner of AU t e indices (dIfficult to obtam by qucs[IOnnaLrr showing or exploiling competence (self assu n.nce, arrogance.

hich afC qU'mlon, kglllmatc manner an bsolute, arbirrary power {O recognile or exclude. "anner, by definilion, only eisrs for others, and the recognized holders
0 10 /)1/

l'S--dres "'ell wn s, th manner presume t n Ihe pili manner). i,e., hef(di tth .palVenu' who(so Ihey neveroihave togroup ofa legi[imate,By contrast,
I
e

t legitimale manner and of [he power ro define the value of man be:lring, pronuncial1on-have [he privile of indifference to

rs without being ,he prodUCl of the ' J>O$sesso of Ihe legilimale manner, s mc ial conditions, are !rapped, whatever Ihey do. in a choice be (,(: ",,

a and the n g [y which anlous hyper.identificationconformity ofalivi'mumed' admits its <kfea In Lts very revolt: either the behaviour an "hOse: Very correctness or hyper<orreclness betrays an imilalion. or lhe OStenallous assertion of difference which is bound 10 appear as an ad ItlIS$i Ik.: n of ,"abililY 10 identif y,90
ause Ihey are acqui"'" in $OCial fields whICh art al50 markets in

which rhey re<:eive rheir price, cultural eomperences re

the product of the endeavour of new.style aUlodidaclS 10 free <hom; from the conslraims of the scholasnc market (ro which the less dem old.style autodidacrs cominue to submit, ahhough it or imdlectual markelS, capable of challenging the pretension carional sysrem 10 impose the principles of evaluation of "ml'';; and manners which reign in the schobstic mrker, or ar least 'scholastic' sectOI'5, on a perfecrly unified market in cultural goods_ market, wilh its own consecrring agencies, rhat is. I their products In advance). They strive to do
so

ners, by a parricubr class of conditions of lC<juisition, i.e., a market. Thus, what is nowadays called the 'eoumerculrure'

market most favourable to rhe ptoducrs which are marked,

rhese markers, nd II struggles over cuhure re imed ar

in

11

T&e Econom;!7 of Practices

i

But on things whose rules and principles had been In stilled into her by her mother, on the way to make cer tam dishes, to play Bttthoven's sonatas, to 'm;eive' with cordiality, she was qutte SUr( that she had a right idea of perftiOn and of discerning how far others approximated to it_ For rhese three things, moreover, perfrion was almost the same, kind of simpliciry in the means, a sobriety and a charm. She repudiated with horror the in troduction of spices in dishes that did not absolutely rjuire them, affectation and abuse of the pedals in piano playing, departure from perft naturalness, and exag rated ralking of oneself in 'm;eiving.' From the first mouthful, from the first notes, from a simple lctter she preened herself on knowing if she had ro deal with a good cook, a real musician, a woman properly brought up. 'She may have many mOf( fingers than I, but she lacks tntc, pb.ying that very simple IIndantt with so much emphasis.' 'No doubt a most brilliant woman full of parts, but it is a wam of tact to speak of oneself in such a case.' 'Possibly a very knowing cook, but she does nOt know how to do steak and fried potatoes.' Steak and fried pot2IOCS, an ideal competition-piecc, a kind of culi nary Palhttir Sonata, a g-amonomic equivalent 10 what is in social life the visit of a lady who comes for a servant'$ 'characrer' and who, in an acr n simple as thaf, can suffi ciently display the presence or absen(e of tact and education. Marcel PrOUSt, O.. ys

u Rt..mng f

Tbe Sociaf Space and Its Transformations

If rhe r,h had Slopped al {his poiol if would probably nOf n.iSl: great obfCCllonS. so lkvidem is ,hc ida of {he irrWucibiliry of artistic 1;lSle. Ho",.cer. as has already been shown by Ihe analysis of {he $(Kial condi tions of the a('Slhcric disposition. Ihe dispositions which govern choices bclwC(On Ihe goods of legitimate culture cannot be f ully understood un'

"'hleh thIS (uhiVlte<l disposition tends ro produce by presenting itself in the gUise of an innte disposition. must seNe. for once, ro remind uS that taSlt tn the sense of the 'fcuhy of immediately and intuitively judging tl lellc values' is insepanble from taStC in the sense of the eapcily to e n he : l r flavour.; of foods which implies a preferen(c for some of t; The absll'2Ction ""hkh isolates dispositions towards legitimte wi lUI ds to a further abstl"Ktion at the level of the system of expbna I Q tors. whkh. though lway5 present and xlive. only offcrs itself r Q rvallo n through those: eIcments (cuhunl capital and tnjc<:tory in Ihe analsed below) whkh a the principles of its efficcy in the fi.:ld c Iluesllon, onsumption of the most legitimate cuhunl goods is pHticuhr caS/: doubO COmpetition for nre goods and pncti(es. whose: pHt1cularity no l owes more to the logic of supply. i.c., the spceinc form of compo:-

'cuhure' in Ihe br<):ld, anthropological sensc and thc elaborated astc for t most rdined objtt"IS IS broughl back infO relation with fhc clemen ,;II)' taste for the Aavours of food,' The dUlll meaning of the word 'tastC', "'h'eh usually serves [0 justify Ihc illusion of spontUICOUS ner:.l(ion

'n Ihc rcsfri,ud, normative sensc of ordinary usage. is reinserted infO

kss they a rtintcgn.ted infO the system of dispositions, unless 'culture',

:S

: (

lh1n/

tirion between the producers, Ihn to the logic of demmd and <u,," rhe logic of competition between the consumers. One only h , mo,"c rhe magical barrier which makes icgitimate culture into a universe, in order to sec irllC:lIigiblc relationships between " ' i,' seemingly incommc:nsun-blc lS preferences in music or cooking, politics. l;u:r.nurc: or ha irstyle. This barbarous reirltcgruion of consumption into the world of ordinary consumption (against endlessly defines itself) has, inter alia, rhe yircue of reminding us that consumption of goods no doubt always presupposes a labour of priadon, 10 different degrees depending on the goods and or, more precisely, [hac rhe consumer helps {O produce the consumes, by a labour of identificarion and decoding which, of a work of an, may constitute the whole of Ihe consumption '"'. ficadon, and ... hich requirt$ lime and dispositions acquired . Over Economists, ....ho never jib at an abstraction, can ignore ....hu Co.. (0 products in the rehtionship ....ilh Ihe consumers, that is, ....i th positions ....hich define their useful properties and real uses To hypo< . size, as one of them does, that consumers perceive the same attributes, ....hich amounts to assuming that products possc:ss or, as [hey are known, 'tcchniol' characteristics ....hich can selves as such on all perceiving subjccts, is to proceed u only sei on the character istics designnC'd by the churcs (and sox.lled 'informative' publicity) and as if social uses be derived from the operating inmuctions Obiccts. even indumial . ucts, are not objective in the ordinaty sen$/: of Ihe ....ord i.e" . of the intert$t and tUtes of those ...ho perceive them, and they . impose the sdkvidencc of a univerut, unanimously approved ,w'i' The sociologist's task ....ould be much easier if, ....hen faced ....ith tlCh tionship between an 'intkpcndent variable' and a 'dependent variable', did not have to determine how the perception and appreciation of is designated by [he 'dependent variable' vaty according [0 [he classes termined by [he 'independent variable', or in other ....ords, identify . system of perrinent features on the basis of ....hich each of 'h''''''; agems ....as really determined,I What science has to establish is the tiviry of the object ....hich is established in The relaTionship bet....een object defined by the possibilities and i j i e it off rs, which only rrvcaled in the ....orld ofsocial uses I in the cue: of a nical ob;CCt, the usc or function for it was and the positions of an agent or class of agems, that is, the appreciation and action ....hich constitute its objective utility cal usage.) The aim is nOI, of course (0 reinTroduce any f orm of . . called 'lived experience', ....hich is most often merely a i projeclion of the researcher's 'lived experience';' but to move abSlracl relationship bet....een consumet$ .... ith interChangeable TU(lS products with uniformly perceived and appreciued properties to thc tionship between tUtes ....hich vaty in a necessaty way Kcording 10

:i:

cconomie conditions of produCtion. and the produCls on O al a. .... eonfer their differem social identities. One only has to ask the ".. ,..... i II . . LIIons el1 "", ... . h economists stran"..ly ignore, 0f the economIc cood , ..""'i 0....,,'e . . ,,011, demanded by the ecooomy, [.e., In . ... q...... adUCII" of thc disntKitions . ". . Pr ... of o(11lC <1' \ t"e que5tion . the .economIc and soc[al detetmlnams of tastts, . . _ nnmon 0f t"e pr....... _, is e,..... melud[ng m the complete ..... . . of ,l1 C th C ,0 so:c: ex..... riences ....hieh the consumers have of il as a func . e d,nenrial "' , . ' ' [ II ' ."""itions they derive from theIr posmon m c<onom[c UC ( the , b ,_ _ _ . uoo 0 ,x.....tienees do not hve to be felt m order to be understood . . e. 1best ,. . ,. _ spJc g which may owe no[hmg to IV,"" exper[encc, SI1,' "",[h)O undcrslandin The habilUs, n objecrive relationship bet....een tWO <>b IOS fO sympathy. abies n intelligible lnd necessaty relation 10 be established [ tc' I" Iiees and a silunion, the meaning of ....hich s produced by bc[",ee P through cnegories of perception and appfCClallon that are . , [he habitUS . L, _ , v . produced by 1n obscrvau e SOCIa condItlon. ,hemS!:

essiTY

:;

Class Condition

the series of elketS ....hich

i",;',<,,,

underlie them, analYSIS [nmally conceals the S[ru(tuof the life-style characteristic of an agent or class of agents, that . ,[C" is. the unity hidden under the diversity and mu,lip ' ty 0f the SCI 0f different logls and thercfo prlc[icCS performed in fields govered : . ormula. orms of realoulloo. In accordance ....[th the f Inducing different f [(hlbi,us) (capital)1 + field " practice. It also (onceals the structure of the: symbolic space marked out by the whole SCI of thcst structured pl1lc, lices. all the distinct and distinCtive life.styles ....hich arc al....ays defined oottivcly and sometimes subjectively in and through theit mutual la lIonshlPS. So it is occessaty to reconstruCl what has been taken apart, Iirst by way of veriOC2lion but also in order to rediscO"er the kernel of lruth 'n the approach chal1lcteris!ic of common-scnse kno....ledge, namely, hc 'ntui[ion of the systematic na[l.lre of life-styles and of the ....hole SCI h ch [hey constitute. To do this, one must return to the pl1le\lccuntfymg and Pt:lc[ice'gcneratlng principle, i,e., class habitus. the internalized form of class condilion and of Ihe conditionings it entails. One must therefore cOnslluC! the 06jli ellUl, the set of agents ....ho uc placed in homogene. w US COnditions of existence impos ing homogeneous conditionings nd o Pr duc, ng homogeneous syStemS of dispositions capable of genel1lung mllar pllCtices; and who possess a sc, of common properties, objectified I"Op(rllcs, SOmetimes legally guaramced (as possession of goods and po....cr) Or properties embodied as class habitus (and, in panicular, sys[ s em uf c,aSSIficat ory schemes),

and Social Conditioning ely Bec:lUS!: it un only KCOUn[ for pl1lClices by bringn [? _light successiv Y

AND SYSTEMS O V"R[AIILES In desig?atig these elasses of agents or, which amounts 10 Ihe same thmg In thIS conteX[, (I asses asses of condi tions of e)!:is[enee) by the name of an occuJ'I'tion. one is

RI

... au.s

onglO

Ill? ?f a
.

ral principles of selt(:tion or eclusion without e"er Slaled (this is the 05C with ethnic origin and $(). A number riteria in acr ser:e as a mask for hidden crileria; for eamplc, Ihe

defined not only by ils position in the rc:bt;ons lied through indices such as occupation, income or even eI, but also by a cenain 5e>;r;u;o, a enta;n dislribulion i space (which is never socially neutral) and by a whole set char.lCferisrics which may funcrion, in (he form of tKit

IS nOI a way 0f reverllng to 1 prc:-<ons!ruc,,:d variable such as occupational category'. 11u: individuals grouped in a class rhal is mUCled in a plrticular rtSpe<:1 ( rhal is, in a puticuJuly cklcrmin alit speer) always bring with [hem , ; n addition to the peflincm which rhey arc: classified, sondary prnies which arc: thus into rhc cplannory mood.' This means that a elm or class

merely indicating rhat rhe position in the rtiltions of productio ems pr.lClices, in particu lu through the mechanisms which contro

[0 posirions and produce or sden a pankula! elm of habitus. B" .

!> absen l from [he offICial job descriprion. function 15 [aci( re thOUs ...hlch. such as age, sex. social or c,hnic origin. ovcrtly or implicitly en i choices, from enlry in,o the profession and right through qVII'Cm C pt on I!>ese tr:lil$ 1fe cxcluded O! &u,dln& that membel$ of ,he corps who lack r (",omen doc,ol$ and lawyers ,ending ro be ro:sniClcd to a fc , ,", ' n l m,rSl " cle and black doctols and lawyers fO black c1ienrs or research). en n'I,k ch I c property emphasized by the name used 10 clcsign1<e a (alt orl III sh gory. usuaUY oupation, is lible 10 m..sk lhe effC'Ct of all the secondary ",hlCh although cons[itulive of lhe calCSOry, :lrC nOf exprnsly r0"'wcs '

gIven dIploma can be a way of demanding a particular

One needs to examine what Ihe list of Ihe crileria u by Ihe analrs! de rives from the state of Ihe struggle betWtcn ,' (rileria, or more precisely from the capacity : leria, to gel Ihemselves recognized as such. There would be of forgtling thaI unskilled workers are '0 a brge extent women grants ,f groups bued on scx or nationali!y of origin had cons!iTutcd sclves as such within The working class. Furthermore, the fallacy of the apparent facror would nor be so frequem if il were nOI the simpk '"'''''' , non onto Ihc lerrain of seience of Ihe kgilimaling stratcgio:s whereby groups len [0 pUt. fo,:",ard [his Of lhat legidma!e prOp<'rly. ,he overl . "pk of {he'r eonsmunOll, 10 nmoulbge the rc-al basis of their i Thus {he mOSt selective groups (a conccrr audience or rhe of a gran. Ceok) may doubly conceal [he real rincipk of their selection: by r dcclrn,ng to annOOIl(( Ihe rc-al principles 0 their nislmce and [heir ducri, hey 1f obliged to rely on mC'Chanisms which lack ,hc spific, lemmc ngoul of an nplicn condition of mtry and rherefore allow exceptions (unlike clubs and all 'ditcs' on co-oplion, tilq canno lhe whole SCt of propcnics of rhe 'Clecl', i.c., rhe rotal . The membel$ of g.oups on (O'Of>lion, as are lceled by an oven or coven ""mHlIJ dallJltJ (docrol$. architC'C(S, enin.n elc) always have somelhins else in common beyond t <', [enSIICS cxpl'(lIly demanded. Tho: common image of rhe professions, is no doubl one of [he real determinants of 'vocations', is less absrraCI and unre:al Ihan Ihu prncmed by sla!isticians; it [ako:s imo Iccoonl nOI only lhe nature of the job and rhe income, bur lhosc secondary char:lcter CS isti . which arc oflen Ihe basis of .heir social value (prO:Slige or diseredil) and

1,.d'c:I' I ",hm one is TryinS 10 assess the .....olu!ion of a social cuegory Y Som! b . y oo:euparion), crude crrOI$ are in....ilabJc if, by considering of Ihe pertincn1 prope'li(:l, one ignores all he sU?slilution effccs . {ollC'C've rr:llory of a ' also exprcsscd.. lhe evolulion . (11\ hiCh ,femlllized, or 'mas ay be manifnted III lhe fael that II IS bC'ComlllS growing older or youn, sc[inf f>O?re. f r cher. (Tho: ck<linc u n . . O:Sled euher Ill femllllZ>.nn -:-wl(h .my may be. mani . of' po$Ulon III 'dcmOCr:ltlZ>.lIon or m agemg .) comn.cd by a risc ,n SOCial ollgm--or TllI' mc woold be lrue of lny group defined by referencc !O a posilion in in ,he hier:lrchy of di$Ciplines,. a title of , licld-e.g., a univel$i[y. diipline . In the lIiS\ocr:lllC hierarchy, an cducallonal qualdicallon III lhe aca

('tn ! ' "

'

soc,al

ao;'

demIC hierarchy.

nobiliTY

'';:;:,,:'; :

kSS'Ii'"':;;; ;

gion. or even educadonal level, income lnd occupation lend to mask the

The particular relations be(wn depen dcnt variable (such as poliricll opinion) lnd $(rcalled indep<'ndent vatiabl" such as sex, age lnd reli

complete system of relationships which constirules Ihe (ruc principle of ,he specific strength nd form of the effccts registered in any particulaf

corrclllion. The mt independent of 'indcp<'ndent' varibl" conce:als a whole nelwork of statistic1 relations which Ire present, implicitly, in ils relllionship wilh any given opinion or practice. Here tOO, instead of ask IIlg smistical lcchnology to solve a problem which il can only d isplace, il
'S ne<:nury "

:;::

'

:k on.of ,he class, is not con$Ciously liken into account in lhe nominal I I. falsc independence between so-called independent v1!iablcs is r,onShlp belWttn educational qualification and occupation. This is nol '1Ort Yu bC'(au, It leas, in somt areas of social space (ro which edun qUal,r:! hficanons give some deSr of access), occupalion depends on
rc-

ondary varilbl" (scx, 1ge elc.) bring into the class defined by Ihe main "anable, and consider cvcrylhing which, Ihough prescnt in the real defi,

to analyse rhe divisions lnd variations which lhe differenl sec

nl(lOn, the onc summed up in the name used !O designale ii, or t'; refore in interpreting Ihc relationship in which il is placed.

to. suar:lnltt depends on lhe holder's occupalion, which may p sU P!>osc (It I sc'ntenance o. increase of (he capital acquire<! within the family I (by and for promolion) or a dimini$hing of (his capilal (by

1111Ofl. but also bC'Cause the cullunl npiul which the qualincuion is

Or 'de-qual ification' ). To ,his effect of occup3tional in which one has 10 di inguish the spe<ifK dfeel of the work very na.ul"(', may mand mol"(' Of 1$ grelf. mol"(' or 1m men! of (ullul':Il upiul. and <he.dol"(' morc' or 1m continuous of this Upitll, and .hot effect of II\(, possible eludes cul!ur:l1 investments likely to ;mlSI or I i he ad<kd tl>( ,tree! of occupational milieu, i.e., i uh ural, rdiSious or poli(ical dispositions) by ions (especially IS homogeneous In most of the [('SpeCIS which define it. Thus one hl"C to ex.amine i.n cach asc to what. txtent occupational conditions Istenet aSSIst or hmder thiS effec'. which would mean taking in o K"" the. chr:I(crisfi{s of tile ... (unpkUlnmcss etc.), the condirions In ork ICh II IS pc'rformro-noisc, or silence permitflng COIl'"CfSllion wh remponl rhythms i( Impo:>KS, (he sre lime II ,lIows, and ; II (or of Ihe hor;onral or venical rdilions II encour:lgcs al dUring work Of .In fCSl penoos---or oUlside. This eff Ci no doubl explains numlxr of dlffel'(nccs Ixtween office e wOlkers (leds<"r derks, bank derks, agency clerks, typistS ) ": :::: ,. fu:' "OI: ": d employees (mainly sh.op assisnnu), which are nOI entirely 1 : I ellher by dlfferenccs hnkro to class (raCl;on of origin (offICe workers 1 IlIlher more o(len Ihe children o( (armers: commerCIal emplo}'ccs Ihe 1'( dren of small emplors) or by dlfferenccs in rouu[ional upiral ([he more o(len have lhe BEPC. Ihe le(:ond a C.... P). Tht commercial employccs and the office workers, woo arc d;smbulro much lhe s:&me wly I'(gards 5CX, age and income, arc stpalllled by I lin.[ differenccs in disposi tions and prac[iccs. Office workers arc more (ellc-they more oflCn expecl (heir friends to Ix conscienlious or well btoghl up, more oflen prefer a neal, clean and lidy inicrim and like Gueury. Manano. Ille Htmgariall RhapJody, l.'//d/jin71l/, Raphad "" ' ;;. ' ad leonardo. By C?nlf1lSI. commercial emplo)'ccs more often Ik fr nds wh.o a sociable. bons vivants, amusing and Slylish. fOf a ':::I;. able. cosy mtcllOf. and ptcfer Brassen!, ft.orrt. Ft:l.n(oi5C Hardy, III ' GodJ, lhe FOil. , i" BI"', Urrillo 01 Van Gogh JIM J ....m)Ilg 11K cff" eclS ...1I"h lhe rdallOlulllp Ixlween class fra{fion and . IICCS 51mullancously reveals and conceals. there is also Ihe effC<1 of ,h, i"" tion in Ihc dimibution of Ihe sc<ondary properlies a!l1(hed [0 a I Thus, melxrs of [he dass ,,:ho do nOI possess all Ihe mooal properlies . c.g., mc In a.sl,?ngl feminized occupation or a worker's son al ENA ave their soclal. Iden lllY deeply marked by tIllS memlxrship and Ihe $OC11i . Imas<" whICh II Imposes and ...hich Ihey have [0 situale [hem5Ch'cs ;n reia non 10, whether by acpllnce or rejeClion. Si-:nilarly, rcJauonshlflS such as IhO$( Ixl... en wucauonal capilal, or ast. e an ,"come muk rhe rcialionshlp l inkins Ihe r...o arrarcntly indcpcmknr . . varlabl. "ge Ierm,"cs Income 10 an eK[em which vuics according edcallonal .capllal and occup2lion, ....hich is il lf pard)' delermined by catlonal capllal and also by olher, more hidden faclors sucll as sex nd in' heriled cultural or social capil2!. In another ca5C. one of the variables IS 10 degree me.rely a IfInsformw form of rhe other. Thus, schol:l.Slic age (i.e., as<" al a s,ven roucallOfla! level) 1$ a lransformro form of inherited 'i"'''
'dc.,kiJling'
H 1 ( "01 U as ... 5C 10

d losl years are a slep toward c>I" IJI.lan he educalional capinl IKld al a given moment expresses. among r:lJ Y, lhe economic and social level of rhe family of origin. (This ln no .... a mechanical oIJ>tfSIh a long I"occss behich is artiallayconenro inforelalionship, since c-duclIional upi ,-tSuiI f:r11 capinl rna)' only p y l 'u I produce eKeclS irrroucibk [0 ,hose of roucarionil qUilifKarion, In,lll ar 01 or ".:c ds whenever social o,igin diSlinguishes individuals whose qUllifin n' nare IMndca,.) lIS 0 callons in every relalionship Ixlween roucalional capilal and a given "'CWI wilh gender .... e sees the elfC<1 of rhe disposilions associ2lro led capi[il intohich aCllct'; rr [ermlllf! Ihe logic of Ihe reconversion of inheri help {OfIll capllal. thaI is. the choice o he type of rouC2lional capilal . .Imual Illenry for cd III bc oblained from the samegain. Ihcap'lal. mOle oflengiven pnc e relarionship of a ..h" ofren scienli for boys .... g"ls. ;, may conceal ficrela[ionship 10 rou(2lional capillI ...hen age is in a _, L . 1", 10 a,,- 10 differenl moocs 0f access 10 Ihe POS'llon--...y qua, II...auon or bet he key rnotion---:md different school generati ns and different chanccs . ,nter..., pro Ihe educational syslem (the 01dCSt agents have lower eduea' 10 f aCCCSS by I). or 10 social ,onal capllal Ihan Ihe younlousncss or backcb,nessv.iflue of !e differ, Ihe vanous areas, wlld enl ial definitions of prC<OC parucularly '" schoo],ng.chanccs of :Kress is only On<! aspecl of a more sys In fael, lhe change in lematlC change- whICh also invoh'CS lhe very definirion of competence. and increasingly difficull. tends 10 make comparisons Ixl...een Ihe s<"nerations crcn[ a cs ind differenr diff The conAl(u bel....een holders of compelenccs of h11 lIl i (baeo roucallonal Icvels-l--o d school-(:enir.c1lc holder Versus new l nce,". ilh Ihe laurc'or,holder)-ccn[re precisely on Ihe definition of compele .. Ihe old gcnCr.llion complai ning Ihal Ihe new genemion docs not possess <ompercnCts formerly defined 1$ elementary and basic: 'They can'l spell nowadays', "They nn'[ even add up'. And finally. the varialions in culluf1ll praCtice by si:te of lo...n of resi den" cannol be ascribro 10 Ihe direrl effecr of spalial distana and 11K """aIlOOI '" Ihe supply of culture. until il i$ eonfirmro Ihn the differcnccs J'C'fSlsr aflcr dlscounlins Ihe effecl or Ihe inequalitics in rouutional capilal COnc<:lIlcd (evcn in 11K occupational C2legOry) b)' geographical d,mibUlion. n.., Opposilion bel....een !':aris and [he provi nccs nceds 10 be analysed in a ;o-ay Similar 10 that used for the nOlion of 'eouC1lional levcl'. Relalionshi ps InvolVing Ihe variable 'place of residence' maniftsl nOI only Ihe effec( of cultUral supply. linked to Ihe tknsily of objeCtified cultul1ll capital and so IO lhc oblCClive opportunitics for cullural consumplion and lhe rcia[ro re 'nOr{emcnl to consume. ual spallal of rhe aspiralionpl"O(Xrlics and bUI also all ,he effectS of thesun IlKir owners (e.g., possesrso of d,mibuflon of 8 upcducalional upinl). in rticulal lhe circular reinforcemenl each ':t on il5Clf, nCl <ulllvaperformsouraging irfor enmple, intensifying cullur:a1ispnot.ice if i! is led, dise hostililY if;( by indifference or _ Wh as often happens. [he an31ysi5 is condUCted variable by variable, [ht e cn,d nger of a atlnbuling 10 one of the variables (such as 5CX or age. eoc o} which may express in ils o'Wn 'Way Ihe whole silualion or trend of s relegation or elimin2lion.
.... ,, .
__

More

III

'

SocLal class is not defined by a property (nO! " rhe most determinant one, such as the volume and composition "',, tal) nor by a cllcction of properties (of sex, age, sodal origin, " " ongm-proporuon of blacks and whites, for example, or natives and migrants-income, educational level etc.), nor even by a chain, undamental property (position in [he rtI ties Strung out from a f ,,[, conditioner and production) in a relation of cause: and clf tioned; but by the srruCture of relations between all the pertinent ties which gives its specific value to each of them and to exert on pl':ICtices.8 Constructing, as we have here, classes as geneous as possible wirh respect to the fundamental L material condirions of exisrence and the conditionings [hey therefore means [hal even in constructing the classes and in the variarions of the distribution of properties and pl':lctices in these: classe:s, one consciously lakes into account the network of L ary characteristics which are more or Jess unconsciously the classes are defined in terms of a single criterion, even whenever perrinent as occupacion. It also means grasping the prinople of the 0b s jective divisions, i.e., divisions internalized or obieetified in di tinctj..e properties, on the basis of which the agents are mosr likely to divide and come togecher in realiry in their ordinary practices, and also to mobiJilt themselves or be mobilized (in accordance with the specific logic, linked co a specific history, of the mobilizing organizations) by and for Lndivid
CONSTI\UCTED CLASS

a cbss) [he (free! of the stt ofvariabJes (an uror which is the conscious or unconscious tendency to substitute generc e.g., those: linked to sex or age, for sptcific alienations, linked Economic and social condition, <l$ identified by occupation, dlic form to all the properties of scx and age, so that it is the whole structure of factors associated with a position in ested in the correlations between which is manif and The naivety of the inclination TO amibure {he buon to age (0 a generic effect of biological ageing bemmcs when one $tts, for example, that the ageing which, in the classes, is associated with a move to the right, IS j manual workel'5, by a move to the left. Similarly, in the of executives, measured for example by the age at which they given posilion, one sees in fact the expression of everything whkh vides [hem, despite the apparent identity of condition at a given ment, namely their whole previous and subsequent tl':ljCClOry, capLtal volume and structure which govern it,

':':;::

--,

the name of 1 trade ne extreme, there is Ihe simple exisrence of s, O'le80ry', the product of classification by a governmemal a8<"ncy. "on I Of 'SO' 'ISEJ: (Insritut nalional de 11 staristique et des etudes onomi, s,h as the social bargaining which leads to industrial '(QlIoxtive agrtt s)'" "< 0f at the other extreme. there are groups posse1fl8 i ra1 SOCIa1 d <lue ",cot5 . ognized pokcsmen and institut;onalied '.hinnds for. xpressing idcn[ldiog their Intercsts el': The ondry pnClpks of diVISIon 5sueh ... aod d ry of oriSin or sex), whIch are lokdy 10 be Ignored by an ordlfliry (ou.OI as they serve as 1 basis for some form of mobilization, Indiote nalySIS otil of division along which a group socially perceived 1S unimy a I"'ICOII ' lines t more or less dttply and permanently. &cauS( the different factors ma) SP of determinallons constituting a class condition (which can re S!Cm 10 15 real principles of division betwttn objt;vely serante or ;!C' fU[ln mobilized groups) vary greatl y in their fun".ional weights and Ihere !U I y sllucturins force, ,heS( pnnoples of d,v,s,on are themselves S(t " forc w their suell .LI __ ' " rchy; groups mUUI ILI;U on tile baSl5 0f a seeondary cmenon ( in I hie are likely 10 be bound t08<"ther less permanently and less or age) Iy than thoS( mobilied on Ihe basis of the fundamental dClerminants of Iheir condition.

"

"

"

; ;

,.

To account for the infinite diversity of practices in a way thaI is both unitary and specific, one has to break with fintar thinking, which only rec ognizes the simple ordinal structures of direct determination. and endea, "our 10 10nS(fuct the networks of mterrelated relationships which are prrsenr in each of the facrors.9 The srru(tut:.ll causality of a network of

acfOrs is quite irreducible [0 Ihe cumulated effects of the se:t of linear re f lations, of different explanatory force, which {he necessities of analysis oblige one 10 isolate, those: which are established belwttn the different faClOrs, taken one by one, and the practice in question; through each of [he faCtors is exerted the efficacy of all the others, and the multiplicity of determinatiOns leads not to indeterminacy but 10 overdetermlnation, Thus the superimposition of biological, psychological and social determi, nanons In the formation of socially denned sexual identity (a basic di mension of SOCial personality) is only a particular. bur very important, caS( of a logic that is also at work in other biological determinations,

SUch as ageing
d It
ass do

produce re The principles of logi o l division which are used the classes , to of coutS<' very unequally constituted socially in prexisting social classin'"

ual or collective political action,

without saying [hat the factors consl11uting the constructed not all depend on one another to the $.;Ime extent, and that the rUqUre of [he system they constitute is determined by thoS( which - 'h. greatest . " " lunCllonal Weight. Thus, the volume and composLllon of (a .tal p give specific form and value 10 the determinations which the olher a ors (age, se:x, place of residence etc.) impoS( on practices, Sex q ual pr0 rnes are as inseparable from class properties as the )'ellowness of aI e on 1$ from its acidity: a class is defined in an essential respect by the PI.cm a disn.d value it gives to the twO se:xes and to their socially constituted 1hOns, This is why there are as many ways of realizing f emininity liS

goes

p<:

mtdiol and social services. {he personal-orc trades. old ones hkc dressing, new ones like beaUty care, and cspcdal!y domestic --. which combine lhe IWO aspeclS of (he mditional definition -,; and the horne-ar( practically reserved for women. 11Sks, scrvicc Nor is it accidental that the oldcst cbsses or class fflctions are also umen and indusuial and commercial classes in decline, such as f IOn; moS! of the young people originaling from these clasSC'S , CSClpe collective decline by reconvening into the eKpanding ""'"'''' Similarly, an incfC:lSC in Ihe proponion of women indintes !fend of an occupation, in particular the absolute 0' ""i" d,,,,,',,,," organization of which may result from changes in the nature work itsclf (this is Ihe case with office Jobs, for eKample, with Ihe plintion of repelitlve, mechanical tuks thu are commonly left women) or from changes in relative posilion in social space (n In ing, whose position has been affected by Ihe overall displacement profession resulting from the oveflll increase in Ihe "", ;'b,,- of prui"" ' offered). One would have to analyse in the same way [he reladonship mari131 sta[us and clm or class fracrion. It has been clearly shown, eumple, Iha[ male celibacy is not a of Ihe small i anu), bUI an essenlial clemenl of the crisis peasant class, The breakdown of the mechanisms ::,i : ' ;:; ,:: : i reproduclion brought about by Ihe spc.:ific logic 0 i is onc of the mediations of the process of concentration which leads

there rc clUSC'S and class f ractions. and the division of labour {he sexes nkcs quite different forms, both in practices and In , lions, in the dilk1 social lasses. So the true nature of fr.llcrion is expressed in irs diStribution by sex or age. and more, since its (ulure is then at stake. by lhe trend of (his over time. The lowest positions are designated by lhe bel that elude a Jarge----\ilnd growing-proportion of immigrams or women skilled and scmiskilkd workers) or immigrant women ( h : ,: , : Similuly, it is no accident Ihal I (Kcupalions in persoal

"""'!

deep lransformation of Ihe class. But here too. one would have 10 the commonsense nmion to close analysis, as has been done for tional level. Being married is nm opposed to being unmarried the fact of having a legitimale spouse to the fact of nOI only has to think of a few limiting cases (some much more others), the 'housewife'. (he artist supponed by his wife, eKccutive who owes his position to his fatherin,bw. 10 sec Ihat i ficult to Chnlcteri:ec an indIVidual wilhoul including all Ihe p" no[ (and propeny) which are broughl 10 each of the spouSC'S, the wife. through the olher-a namc (sometimes a distinguished ' well ). goods, an income, 'connections'. a social StatuS (each Ihe couple being charaCterized by the spouse's social pOsition, to

,",

":;:,:

r'

By! this is nOI all On Ihe one hand, agents arc not completdy defined by (he properlics they pos scs! 11 1 gIven lime, whose condilions of acquisition persist in the hab (Ihe hysteresis eff el); and on the Olher hand, the relationShip c "'etn Initial capinl and present capilal, or, 10 put il anOlher way. be r I"'etn Ihe inilial and present positions in social space, is a Slalistinl rela :,onShl of very variable imensilY. Although they are always perpetualed r e dIspositions consliluling the habitus, the conditions of acquisition o I <1 propellics synchronically observed only make themselvcs visible in of dl5Cotd nce between the condilions of acquisition and the con dl I nS . . O of usc," I.e., when Ihe pracllccs generated by Ihe hab nus appear as I)] d aplcd becausc they are anuned 10 an earliel slate of the objective (on I $tlIIS' .'OflS (this is whal mighl be called the Don QuixolC effect). 1bc hell analY !.arne r crl Sis which compares the pl':I.cticcs of agents poSSC$sing the b l $ P O)"> leS and occupying the same social position at a given time Cparatcd by rheir origin performs an operation analogous 10 oroi
so... Zo\l Clo\SS O\NO Co\SS OF TRo\JECTQRtES

ordtng 10 sex, position and the gap belween the IWO posi. through mmiagc will be e properties uquired or S) III Ihe SYSlem of properties which may determine praCtiCes IIQI'I df offIllfc ies if. as usually happens. one f orgets to uk oneself who is the the practices or. more simply, if the 'subject' qucstioned is of Ihe pr.l(liccs on which he or she is queSlioned. e subject re,lIy I qucslion is raised, it can be secn that a number of suale SOO as (he ,, ncretcly defined only in Ihe relationship belween [he members SIC:S tiC group (J household or, sometimes. an eXlended family), of' self depends on the reltionship between the tWO sYSlems of whIch aswcialed with Ihe tl\'O spouSC$, The common goods. cspc l r P Orf l n they are of some economic and social imporrnce, such as the he al y w " a!lCn! or furnilUre, or even pelsonal goods, such as clorhing, arc a e choice of a spouse for son or daughter in other societics--the II ( these (denied) power relalions which define the domcstic , outeo" e of . . . For example' there IS every reason 10 suppose Ihat, g[ven the logl( ynll . . { lhe dIvision of labour between Ihe sexes, whICh gIVes precedence to omcn in mailers of lute (and 10 men in politics), the weight of the man's own tUle in choosing his clothcs (and lheldore the degree 10 "'h,ch his clothcs express his IUle) depends nOI only on his own in heme<! cullur.ll capinl and educalional capital (the traditional division of IOks lends to weaken, here and elsewhere, as educational capinl grows) bUI also on his wife's educational and cullural capital and on Ihe gap bclween Ihem. (The same is Hue of the weight of [he wife's own prtfercnccs in polilies: the effen of assignmem by St1tUS which makes poluics a man's business is less likely to occur, Ihe greuer the wifc's edu nuonal capital, or when Ihe gap belwccn her npital and her husband's is small or in her f avour.)

dcSfCCS ;" ,ndPrort'; subid\O '

possessed

us

e /

nary perception which, wirhin a gr?up, idenrjfi rhe parvens an d or bnnng d&lasses by picking up rhe subtle IndiCes of betr::ly rhe efl"! of condirions of existence diffent or, which amounlS 10 rhe same rhing, a social {r;ljecrory the modal trajectory for {he group in Cjuesrion. Individuals do no! move about in social space in a nndoID I' bco.use rhey an: subject to {he fOfCes which strunure this . through rhe objcnivt mechanisms of diminalion and ' l' pudy because they resisl rhe forces of the field with thir : {hal is. Iheir properties, which may exist in embodied form, as lions, or in objectified f orm, in goods, qualifications tIC- To a i umc of inhcrirtd capital chen: corresponds a band of mon: probabk trajcctories leading to more or cquivall"nt po$itions (he fltld fl 'lNjIOSJibin objecrively offered 10 a given agent), and l from one rflljlory 10 another often depends on coJlecri\'e aClors crises etc.--<lr individual eventcounters, affairs, benef ....hich are usually described as (fortunace or unf ortunate) accidents, though they themselves depend statistically on the posirion and {ion of {hose ....hom they befall (e.g., the skill in operating :o ....hich enables the holders of high social capital to prve or rhis capital), when. that is, they ue not deliberately contrived . d amily reunions, old.boys' or alumni associations etc.) tions (elubs, f the 'spontaneous' intervention of individuals or groups. I t follows this that position and individual trajectory are not statistically dent: all positions of arrival are not equally probable for all points. This implies that there is a snong corn:lation between social silions and the dispositions of the agents who occupy them. or, amounts to the same thing. the trajectories which have led them cupy them. and consequently that the moclal trajlOry is an i of the system of bctors constituting the class. (The more _ trajectories arc-a.s in the pelite bourgeoiSie-the less ible 10 the eff ct of synchronically defined position.) e The homogeneity of tm: dispositions associated with a iti?n

'::; ;
: "" " _"

::'!:

: ::

;"'

their seemingly miraculous adjustment to the <kmands ins.cnbc:d III suit p:mly from the mechanisms which channel towards positions viduals who an: already adjusted to them, either beouse they feel I for jobs that are 'made' for them-this is 'vocation', the sumption of an objti oXstiny that is imposed by the moclal trajectory in tm: cla.u of origin--<lr beouse they are on this light by the occupants of the posts-this is co-option. ie<:lLc immediate harmony of dispositions--and pardy from the d,a . .ecn dispositions and is established. throughout a lifetime, bet... ' than aspirations and achievements. Social ageing is nothing other slow renunciation or disinvestment (socially assisted and ' o which l(';Ids agents to adjUSt their aspirations to their objecti; ve . to espouse their condition, become what they are and make do wllh

even if this entails deceiving themselves as to what they are ave ley t' they have. ....ith collective complicity, and accepting bereave ... aJ the 'Iateral possibles' they have abandoned along the ....ay. l Cl,t 0 charaCler of the relanonship betwecn initial elpital and (I1 s atistical e"plains why pr.llctices cannot be completely accounted apital t pt SC of the properties defining the position occupied in so t I in terms for o at a given moment. T 52y that Ihe members of a cla.u initially sp economic a nd cultural cpital re destined with a {.,J ing a certain : . to an educallonal and soc,al IrajCClOry l(';IdlOg to a probbility, a n g,. e position m(';lns in fact that a fraction of the class (which cannot be e g,,' ine<l a priori within the limits of this eplanatory system) .... ill . de(e (r.lljcctory mOSt common fOf (he class as a whole and fol. e from the er) trajeclOry which was most probable for tile (higher or lo... I class. I The trajectory effect which then manifests il' embc of another . If. :15 it docs ... henever individuals occupying similar positions at a time arc separated by differences associated with the evolution over gll'en "me of ,lie volume and Structure of their capital. i.e., by thl'ir individual tr.l)tories. is very likcly 10 be wrongly interpreted. The correlation be a practice and social origin (measured by the falher's position, the ' !"tal value of which may have suffered a decline conC(';lled by constant nominal value) is the resultant of twO effects (....hich may either reinforce or offsct each Other): on (he one hand. the inculcatton effeCl directly e. metl by ,he family or the original conditions of e",stence: on the other nand. 'he specific effl'CI of social mjectory.') thai is, the effects of social rise or decline on dispositions and opinions. posirion of origlO being, in this logic. merely the staning point of a mjl'ctory, the refl'rence whl'reby the slope of the social career is defined. The necd to make {his distinnion 1$ seJfYident in all cases in which individuals from the same class frac. lion Or the same f amily. and therefore presumably subjccl to identical moral. rdigio\ls or political inculcat ions, are inclined towards dtvergefl! stan<e! in rc:ltgion or politics by the different rdation! to the social world ...h'ch they o.... 10 e divergent individual trajeclories. having. for exampk. or f ilcd in ,he rttonversion strategies nccCSS2ry to escape the tlve dec],ne of their cla ss. tra/ttlory effect no doubt plays a large part in blurring the reb. tl $ be''':'ecn social class and religious or polirica l opinions. owing to t $0(. t that " governs the reprcsefl!arion of the position occupied in the aI ""orld and hence the vision of its world and its futun:. In connast to ardly mobile individu als lUll: 'o\l ... ,0 have their future, i.e., or groups, 'commoners' of birth or (ul. g their being, before them, individuals or .." ,"' tn , dttline endlessly reinvent the dis.couT$C of all ariSlocracies' es. a . ' ' ]lu . '$t allh tn the eternlly of natures, cdebration of tr.lldirion and the l , cuh of .Sfory and . ,tS rituals. because ,he best they can e"ptel , froO't the uture t res . l'h, tOrauon IS the return of the old order. from which they expect of their social being." S blur ring is particularly visible in the middle elasses and especially

jnd

::n
... cen

; 'fhe

tP

But everything would still be . it were sufficient to Teplace a I a part J as socio-occupational category, which from the secondary variables it governs, a system of factors tally defined by its srrunure.'6 In fact, what is dercrminant in a is a particular configuration of the system of properties COnStruCted elus, defined in an entirely thretical way by the of factors oper:ating in all areas of practice-volume and struClure tal, defined synchronictily and diachronically (tn.jectory), tal sratu5, pl:l(e of residence elC. It is the specific logic ,I or what is " stake and of the type of opital needed to play f it,

CAPITAL AND THE MARJ{ET

may have embarked on individual tr:ajectories running in 'h', 0ppM;., rection to that of the fr:action as a whole. This does not me:.ln practices :are not marked by the collective destiny. ( I t is example, whether cn.ftsmen or farmers whose individul s run counter !O (he collenive decline cease to be affecTed cline.)') But here tOO one must avoid substami:alism. Thus, ';m, o,'d properties associated with social elus which may remain Without or value in a given field, such as ease and familiarity with culture in uea striClly controlled by the eduotional system, can take on their ;: ' : force in :another field, such as high society, or in '"O'h<' " ''' : field, like the aptitudn which, after the French : : French aristocracy to become, in Mux's phr:ase, 'the Europe'.

In the ne.... fr:.acI;ons of these classes, which a grey areas, located in the social stru((ure, inhabited by individuals who are erremeJy 5C;lncred. This dispersion of {r:lljecrori is even at the level of Ihc: domestic unii, which is more likely [han III classes to bring IOfher spousa (rei)r;vely) ill mal(hed not only : S ; :; gards social origin and trajectories bUI al$O : ' ' carional levcl. (This has the effect, among ; : what (he new vulgare calls 'the problems couple', i.e. , thc problems of the sexual division of bOOu! and the division bbour.) In com{ 10 the effect of individual tr:.ljcclOry, which, being a !Ion from {he (Qilea;vl' rrajcoory (that may have a zero slope), is diardy visibk, the effect of collective lr:.ljCCIOry may not be such. When {he U':ljeclOry effect concerns a whole elm or class thaI is, a set of individuals who occupy an identiol position gaged in the ume collective tntjectory, the one which defines :II or declining elus, there is :II danr of attributing to the properties religious chronictily a!!:l(hed to the elus, eff cts (e.g., politiol e ions) which are in mllity the prodUCl of collective i an:alysis is complicated by the faCl thu some memben of a <Ius

f: : :

d
-

q:::,":;, ,:

;:

;h ; ; ' .

o T Ill1delStal1d why the ume system of properties (which determines 2Ild is Octermined by the position occupied in the field of class struggles) test expl1natry por, whatvef th rea in es a1W1.YS has the g . tiofl---"Oting habits, use of cred!!, ferullty, pollllcal opmron, rellgLon Cfc.-and why, simultanusly, Ihe rdative weight of the facton which cOl1Stitute i. varies from one fidd to anolher-ducational capitti being mos! imporrant in one area, economic capin.1 in :lnmhc:r, and so on-one only has 10 see that, because capital is a social relation, i.e., an energy ",hkh only exists and only produces its effcclS in the field in which it is produced and reproduced, each of the properties attached to class is given its value and dlic:l(y by the specific laws of each field. In pntcrice, that is, n i 1 pmicular field, the properties, internalized in dispositions Ot objecti. lied in economic or cu]tuntl goods, which are attached to agentS are not all simultanrously oper:ative; the specific logic of the field determines rhose which are valid in .his marker, which are peninent and active in g me in question, and which, in the relationship with this field, a . nCt,on as specific opitaJ...-and, conseqllently, as a factor explaining . Il(es. This mons, concretely, thn the social r:ank and specific power '" h ars are usigned in a patlicular field depend fintly on the LC "'p"al they on mobilize, whatever their additional wealth in 01 r . types of capital (though this may also exert an cffC(t of contami. ItLon) . iS xplains why the relationship which analysis uncovers between CI n rnclLces appears to be established in each C:lSI': through the me diati n 0 a factor or particular combination of factolS which varies ac, COrdin to the field. This appean.nce itself leads to the mistake of in"Cn L ga ing s many explanatory syStems as Ihere are fields, instead of scc+ of them as a tr:ansformed form of all the Others; or worse, the . trror o stltlng up a particular combination of factors letive in a panicu Jar Id o practi ces as a univerul explanatory principle. The singular {Orr6gu !"alLon of the system of explanatory (letors which has to be con.

uOt)' fKor is not perf ormed, every bk correbtion of each expla . S th rTOf is likdy, all of them rtSlilung from Ignonng the fact that whu If o ,ott 0f e epends on the system it i$ pl:&(ed in .'/C. in tnt faClor in quation d i ns il 'opcn.tes' in; or, more simply, from filing 1 n.ise the 0 ' ndirio il: opCl1-o t t t rc:II principle of.he effiocy of lhe 'independent Vlriable', qo( uon of t l S ng :IS if the relationShip f ound between the ia Clor-designated i g., eduearional lcvel) by pr;;ct is usually no more than an indicalor of it (e. lhi5 or that pr.lctice (e.g., th rae of.' !ponse 10 political. questions, to adopt Ihe acsthcuc dlSPOSrll0n, or museumsomg elC.) pacilY or thr c d. itself have to be explarne did not

t' through which the relationship between elus hoS properties cro .o s \ c is established. p"-'u
--

struclCil in order (0 a(CQUnl for a StHC of [he distribution of a elm of goods or practices. i.e, :I. balancshtt[, drawn up :1.1 a moment, of [he class slruggk over that particular class of dces (oviar or aV:l.m.gardc paiming. Nobd prizes or Slale enlightened opinion or a chic sport), is the form laken, in [hal {he objectified and internalilC'd capital (proper!ies and habitus) defines social class and consli!Ulcs [he principle of the proou(!ion classified and classifying practices. It reprcsc:nu a Slate of the properties which make class a universal principle of explanation sifiC:l.tion, dtofining the rank occupied in all possibk fields.

----- difficulties which this modd aims to accOUlll for in a unillry I ,he

. . . ...

-r

......

...

.-J

. ... ....
.

:h ':::"

,l.JIIOf rr,,'ic ""'Y, the most visible is the fV:lItion. which Others have e "'" s made (e.g., CS. VII), Ihat the hier.r.rchies. borh in the dominanl ofrd' ,ween the executivcs and the employers, and in the mlddk dass. be . !It . cI).IS. rl>( junIOr execul!ves and the cr.r.flsmen or shopkeepers. vary accord 'n Ihe :activity or asset in qucstion. This dfect secms 10 support the InS critique of the social classes unril. it is seen thaI rhele is , !CIa. . . ,e 1 2!11 tic , f h h hip between t e nature 0 t ese actlvlUCS or assetS, or example. .ons pos.sess,on of a colour TV, and Ihe strucrun: of each :,rc.going or .

r!

It

pace Three-Dimensional S

Endovouring (0 fonsrillHc the units mOSI homogeneous from point of vicw of the conditions of production of habItus, i.e.. with specr to the c1emcnluy conditions of existence and the resul ''" " ; I donings, one can conSHUCt a space whose three fundamental di : , 1fe defined by volume of capital, composition of capinl. and : t twO propertics over time (manifcsted by past and potential tory in social space)." The primary differences. those which distinguish the major cJnsa conditions of existence. derive from the over.r.ll volume of capital, stood as [he set of actually usable n:wurces and capitl1. cuhural capital and alw social capital. The distribution ferenl classes (and class fractions) thus runs from those who an: provided with both economic and cultural capilal to those who 1fe deprived in both pects (sec figure ), la[er in this secrion). r essions, who have high incomes and high bers of the prof who very often (2.9 percenr) originate from the dominant class sions or senior execurives), who receive and consume a large both material and cultur.r.1 goods, an: opposed in almosr all the office workers, who have low <jualifications, often originate working or middle classes, who receive little and consume little, a high proporrion of their time !O car maintenance and home ' menl; and [hey are even mon: opposed to the have ers, and still more 10 unskilled workers or farm bboun:rs, who ively 10""est incomes, no qualifications. and originare almost exclus from percent of farm laboun:rs, 84.' percent of unskilled workers) working classes. ' almOS! The differences stemming from {he total volume of capital ' ways conceal. both from common awan:ness and alw from the I knowledge. the secondary dIfferences which, within each of defined by over.r.ll volume of capilli, sepulHe class fr.r.ctions. IOtal diffen:nt a5S(r struClU, i.e., diffen:nt distribulions of their among the different kinds of capiral.

the structure of total a$Se(5-1nd nOt only, Once OtIC takes account o( :always bn done implicitly, of the dominanl kind in a given :IS has 'birth', 'forrune' or /alents. as the nineteenth century PUt it J{tuctun:, one has the means of making more precise divisions and alw o( observing tMe specific cifeCts of the StruCfttn: of distribution bcrwccn Ihe differenr kinds of capital. This may, for example, be symmetrical (as in the case o( essions. which combine very high income with very high cultur.r.1 the prof capital) or asymmetrical (in the cue of higher<ducation and secondary or employers, with cultural capital dominanr in one case, eco nomic capital in the other). One Ihus discovers tWO setS of homologous posirions. The fractions whose reproduction depends on economic capi tai, usually inherited-induStrial and commercial employers a( the higher kvet cr.r.ftsmen and shopkeepers at (he intermediate level_re opposed 10 [he fr.r.clons whICh are least endowed (relatively, of course) with eco . nom".cap'(al, and whose reproduction mainly depends on cultur.r.1 capi t2l--htgher-educuion and SC'Condary tcachers at the higher level. primary tcar:hers a( the inrermedia/e level.

C , I ':: ,,"pCN ":. : -

t \

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

trachers

The indusiliar I$IS. ':"h0 an: grouped with the commercial employers in survtys by nrulve sample because of [heir small number, declale consid. a (' bl h het Incomes than [he laller (H.6 percenr say they earn more than a or noo-(omrntrc,al profits. For the ..-orking I te $!tongly ",nked by over.r.1I capital volume. Ihe dua avaIlable ;:'ab OI'te . grasp the differenccs o in [he second dimenSion ( com"'" "tio" of . , ..... Capllal) Hwever, d. ' e,:nccs such :IS 1hase berween semi.skilled. lICa"ona J ' . l Y nqualtfied. prov,"c!al factory workers of rur.r.l origin, livinS inhe . e: atmhouse. and skilled workers in [he Paris ....gion who have (. n in h" l t '!Ualifir :otklng dass for genemions. who posscs.s a 'mde' or thnical ario ' Ut be the source of differences in lik-style and ....Iigious d PoliticaJ -.....:...::::. opinIon. do
c r ro the I1CW boutgeoisie than are ,he commercia! employer s: llUny InOl"C ?f them declan: salaries and invcstmenr income, many fewer de:cbrc, i . (nduSlnai cmrnt r(l. ho v

100 French ncs. as against 14.' percent of the commercial employ. Ill). 10 classIfied as indu5lrialiS ls in [he INSEE survey (C.S. I) an: mUch
ra

I:.an

,." J

" " .....,,"''') " J

,,... ",

.".

, .. _.

vr--'

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"

Givtn rh:l.I, liS ont movC'S from lht uriSIS to (ht industrill mtrc:ill tmplors, volumt of onomic upiul riSC'S lind volumt lills, il un be n lh1 1m: dominant class is tUDI upiul f chiaslic structure. To C'S,abl ish rhis, i, is ne(C'SSary (0 use tors borrowed from a SUl"\'ey which has the advamage of be'... een publiNcClor and privue-sector cxurivcs (CS. successively , Ihe: distribution of onomic capital lind tht i (uhunl capiul among the: fractions; (hc Structures of (hese must then be correlated.

" . ...._" . - I . "

.

,.,

i\hhough it is self-evident when one (Onsidcrs indiotors of ... nhh (1$ be done lafcr), the hicnrchy of the class fnctions as rcguds SIOl"l economic capilli, running from induwial and commercial cmployen to teachers, is alread)' less visible: when, as here, one IS onl y dc.hng with dices of (OmMmpI/M (cars. boars, hOlels) which arc nei ther enrirely nor cntlrely unambiguous (see rable 6). The first (ors) also thc type of professional aCfivity, and rhe other tWO depend on spare which, as one Inrl'ls in Olher ways, varies II'Ivemlr ....ith c(onomic Homc o""nership also pends on stability in the same placc I (Io""er among eeculI''CS, CI'Igineers and lochcrs). Incomes arc very un C"cnly unrc:stimate-d (he rale of non-<k-cbrallon may be (Onslre-d dlCalor of the tendcncy to umkr-<ledare ) and "cry unequally by fringe benefitS such as expense-account mnls business arc known 10 rise as one moves from rcachers to P';"""'" ,:w.. , ' lind employcrs) . As regards cuhural capinl, except for a few Inversions. which ondary v;lfilbln such as place of residence, with the of culture, and II'ICOm(, ....ith tlK mnns " prOVIdes, Ihe arc ot8l'nize-d 11'1 an opposne hierarchy (set" !able: ( i ercntial1on l possessed. literary, $ClCnl1fic or onomic nd mg to the type or capitl 'ilical. is mainly seen 11'1 tlK fl(1 Ih1 engineers sho... morc i n1c.o; , ; , " and ';ntdleclu1' gmes such as bridge or chess Ih.an in lirerary rhe1rc-go;ng or leading Lt Figaro Lillirain.) These indicators no doubt lend 10 minimIze: the gaps be,,"ecn thc enl fractions. Most cultural consumption also tnnils an alrc'going, for campk, depends on income as ...ell as educrion. equipment such as FM radios or hifi systems un be used in "ery i ""ars (e.g. cbnlul music or dance music). whose valun, in terms of dominant hierarchy of possible uses, may vary 15 much as the of mding-maltcr or lhelrc. In facI, thc position of the ranke-d ac{ordll'lg to tlKir imern1 in the ddl'cren1 1)'pes I lends 10 corrnpand 10 their pasHion when ranked according 10 cultural C1pital IS one moves towards the rarer Iypes of reading, known 10 b t hose 1}l0St linked ro educational level and highcst in e Itchy of cultural !cSilimacy (see uble S) Onc also finds (C.S, XIV. table 211) thaI ' ' ' ' : ' d fn<hcrs (a nd sludents) in the audiencc of Ihe :

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le members of the n of the other clinesulan<esl tiandove,-representatioprofessions, fr1lnions exct: isurisdcs) increases as one moves from n the iaVant-8,'arde theatre to classical theaHe and especial y vard Iheatre,lStwhincldJdr1ltual'belw<xnnsa of theand a nquanerass. ils 'auditonc from Ihe Je 'i h ws fnetio third domi ant cl of e esnbl fio and opposire: to of of s uti n , Havinisgsymme:islhedlIhu Ihe: strucrure: thatthe: dicultriWbr1l1 ocapioftaloo.. capiralto rhe: qucstion of the hierarchy of the IWO principlcs of turn (without forgcuing thu this hierarchy is all rimes a flounUIcs and Ihu, in cernin conjunCiUrtS, in present-day str l capital may one: of rhe: conditions for a((ess Control IUr1l diOlOf ati n state: of nomiocncapital). We may uke:ncipanesinof dominof otheIhe: fqo,rhe:"",,,. ri ational Ihcsc IWO bet . l relragene:rIxlwctnmovements pri .ctn the: fnctions_ " Ie: If we usc indices of the nrily of a position (or, which '; proporti the orig aleg, r degree of clo class Ihe whol o o , whosameointhinwefrofiimsdthe dominantsure)gashiacr:archye: andnfrofmitthebirly resultin n, in qucsti both indinces,that the hie:rarchy by volumecorresponds c for aClly.table 9). The proportiIhe:n of members of each of economi (see from Ihe dominant cloass. and the proportion fractidinviwhos o dual of rmednalCd from Ihe fraction to which they now Ixlong. idecline origasi one moves from ,he industrial e:mploye:TS Ihe lnCachers, lcldear break betWeen Ihe thrct higher-ranking fracdons (industrial al employers and sector executiv and reachers) commerci(engineers, public-,he: profe:ssions)csand rhe: Ihree Clio usc fr:.lThe:ns of rhcsc indicators may COntcsled on ,he: grounds ,hat dil arlent fr:.l(lio have very unC<:Jhiu control on of proporti lY thcsc soci1e:mayreproduCtinson, ng,hat ,hethangalh,he capaciove:rof,he: condirions e:le:fSasl of cxprcss nOlhi o(other members) ro transmit rh('ir proportimedi on a without on atitheiror COntrol. lndctd, Ihis capaCity privIhI:-gcsrcst plivikgcs, which, by giving gmte:r freedom vis_ivis of ilcc \'r:a('rdi(lS, reduces the necessity or ulg('ney of making the: demi nts which cannot be avoided by thosc who depend i invCSlm(' on syslCm (or their reproduCtion_ The fractions richcs! ruraleducatial hdo in fan tend lik inyvcst mainta childdren's educatioin capircu ural praclices to to in their i h as iny;rhe: franions richCSI in C'Conomic opilal .SCt:"; raritonalrheinvcstmentS in (avourdof C'Conomic ji": ' ':,::.:'. '.,'.::.: i" cari comm('srcial employerscsmore so, how('vthe: rhan Ihe: ne:w forurgIn_:Sal_I.t ('r, same concern bo rarto privtate:-nenor exC'Cutiv . who manifcdstucational mat(e:fS. Th(' vC'$ m(' t both in economic and in ('
bc
as as

=1
N

to

as

10

10

10

so

Ix

];

IhI:-

as

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(he profesis ons (especially with bolh forms of eapilal,doclol'$ and lawyel'$), rdativody well li(I bUI tOO . us(lheireapital in il actively, investliuk i ii int econol'l in ' and espt'ciaJJy in culuml pr.lelices which terial and cuhur.ll means of maintaining provide a social capilal, capilal of social a respectabilily Ihat is often essc:ntial in winning cknce of high sociely, and wilh il a clientele, olmple, in making political earec:r. Given Ihat scholastic SllCCns mainly dept'nds on inheriled I and on lhe.propensity 10 invest in the eduulional syslem (and IeI' Y1Ilics .ilh Ihe degm: to which maintained or improved social dept'nds on succCS is ckat why the propo given schoolsuchcollegl: $), it come from Ihe cuitur.lrtion t il i 01 who lly rich.cs wilh the position of that school in the spificatly aeademic hier.lf(hy su, f?r eample" previous academic succns), rnching iu pak In mSIJ(Ullon responsIble for reproducing the professorial corps (the E.;o Normale reproduce,Supbieure). IniofaCl. like tionsdominant class which they I higher-educat n inllitu the are organi in accordance (wo oppos of educationaling principlec.s. Ihehief1lrchy. The hierarchy dominant withinII . syslem. i. one which ranks i demk (filelia, cOlre {10m Ihe culturand. richCSlativecly. by thediametrically oppos'edsludents .llly t fr.l tions. is proportion to chy dominant oUlside the educalional sysrcm. i.e., the one whichrhe . stitutions by the proporlion of their sludents dr.lwn from the f.actions richcst in economi.c capital or in power and by the position in rhe nomtc or power hIerarchy of ,he occupations they I"d 10. If the off'p" ominated arc less ?f teuons (such fractions 0' HEC)leprcsenrcd in the economically mSlllu as ENA than be CXpl vious academic success and the position ofmight schools ined from scholaSTic hier"1rchy, this is. of (outse. becauthese schools se purely scholastic criteria. bUI II is also because thesescholastic hicrirchy . Ihe mOST faithfully respted (so that the science section of the ENS is {erred 10 Polyu'"chniqu or the Arts (acuity 10 are mmt dependent onc,,he educational system. Sciences Po), byernall>'C' (Blindness to alr those: r:Inking principles is m05t n".ly complCie in the c of tC'lChel'$' il whose: whole upbringing inclines them 10 ,denlify all success w;th Slt(cns.)
1 1

po

by

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prt

by l businessmen, are 10 othet smalcapital. which bringssel apart from ,hemnew them doser 10 Ihe. th f t'<resSy 'sie, The medical and social services, drawn to a relaltvely b"ve high cultural ufgeol , tit'< lJ" (rom the dominant class,19 are ' a cenlra poSlnon,lilted hiy tens 10 Ihal of Ihe professions (although slighlly more roug to. \,r c . )lonlOlogo Ie of cul!ural <1.pital): Ihey arc the only ones who rc<elve I le ot'S "rds ) ro or laries but also' in some Ca5CS, non-commerclal profitS .. I)' ttOlOnthe ""'D-- sions) . (hk( I ediately be $(Cn that the homology between the space of Ihe . rofes It an tCiISS and thai ofthe middle classes is eplained by Ihe f.t(l Ihat . dO"'lnan ffilffi is the product of Ihe me pnnnp es. I h here IS . SffuClU" betwecn owners (of theIr own home, 0f rur.l or urn'n tlltl' . . a an ....ctfy. Of slOcks and shares) oflen 0 ucr, WIIh l'IIIle spare I1me. 0flen ' ' .... n of induslI'lal or agncu tu.ra empIoyers, nd nownrs, . r'e til-'chlldnrc wilh edu(;llional capllal and spare nme, ongmanng d 'hidl wge-earning fr.lClions of the middle and upper .,!asses or. from poSlI ons, pnmary The OCcuMnl$ wor profCS. $OI'$. for example,of homologousccper5 Ian commet or small shopk and hcrs-",urs ale mainly by Ihe volume of the kllld of up" is dominant in tndlvlduals of !hell end I e WIt",elenc 0 tlaI lh'twhich scparate the.structureunequaIlyaSSl'ts,owe.dby ' h !he sesme . . . ons lower positions--an, correla!ld. (heod,sposmfact sc!rce fC$Our(es. The ive some of thelf char:Klen$ttCS fr Ihe of ,heit occupanls--der to Ihe (orrespondmg polfIons at the that they are objectively relaled tend and p.e.t nd. ThIs IS. dearly secn hIgher level, lowards which Ihey . . ing pt'lite bourgeoiSIe, whose ascencofVITlues the case of the wage-carn ways. cultural good intentions-which it manifests in all SOflSelC.:-vry aking evening classes. enrolling in librariC5, collening stamps Ibrly CKpress the aspir.llion 10 rise to the higher posilion, the obl'e{[ve tksuny of who manifest such dlspo $I1ions. Ihe occupants of (he lower posilion
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The me chiaSlic structure is found at the level of Ihe middk whre volume of cultural upital again decl;nes, while';:: i inc:un. one moves from primary teachefS to sma ll ' : i commercial employefS. wilh junior eeculives, lechnicians and workers in an intrmediJle position. homologous 10 Iht of and ecutives at Ihe (;lrn their living fromhigher Ivd. ;'rliSlic craftsmprofits, and indusllial and commercial en and
a.s

rtlOnSlrlt(t the SOCII] conditions of production of Ihe habilus fully cclory of the class t ant has '0 consider the social Ir:Ij,he probable slope of the col 1C'1OIl also to. which. th.ough future, cngct\dcrs progressive or regressive dispositions tOw:l.rds Ihe Uturc; and h 1II"IC:lgl:the C'\'OIUIiOn. ovet $('"Cr:l1 gcner:ltions, of the lSS(t slruCture of which IS rpetuated in the habitus and inlloduces :;;: "'"hln.group$ ,hat are as homogeneous as IheJrxtions. Todivisions t r:Ingl: ofpossibilities. il need only be pomted Out thll give In \>o u 'I tIfIr:!a;Vi<!01al's social tr:ljCCtory rep.esenTS the combination of: the lifelanng o "l'I tU;1 o the volume of his capilli. which un be described, very appro ' I t a I'I<reasing, dccreasins or stationary: tht volume of each sort of ( l'llc (since o(h::I (tP"alnable to the samt dls,in(fions). and thetefore the composition s (OI'lSIanl volume can (onceal ! changl: in stru(lure);
To poss,b].

,,,

one

bt'longs

<>r

:as

d:ass

of

1$

an<t in (he s:arTle way, ,he father's and ffiO!her's { volum.. and , and lhoti, respective ....(ights in ,he diffem kind, of Upilll ((.g., ( Sfronger in onomlC capilal and mOlher Hl cultur:al (lpill], or vicc equivalence): and therdor.: the volume and struCture of the capilli XIS or gr:andparems.

": , ;::.-

dagcs]-C.S. V percent of the industrialists had from 1 (0 , ttS; 70 percent, 6 to 49; 24 percent, mort than '0; in commerce, corresponding figures are 30 percent, 42 percent and 12 percenl) mostly li"e in the provmccs and even in the country (according 1968 census. 22.3 percent of the industrialists and I '. percent commercial employers lived in a rural commune, 14.1 percent and percent in communcs of less than 10,000 inhabitants). Thee mockl which nnergcs ....ould not be so difficult to arri"e a r '

poundrd by their spatial dispersion. Similarly. many of Ihe obscr.'ed in rhe (cultuul and other) punlccs of Ihc differtnt f Ihe dominant class are no doubt amibutable 10 Ihe size of Ihe t live in. ConSC<Juendy. the opposition betwttn engineers and scctor executivcs on the one hand, and industrial and plo)'ers on the Olher, JY.Irtiy stems from the f1Ct thaI Ihe former percenr I"'e in Paris and work for relatively luge firms (only vatescCtor execulives work in firms employing from 1 ro , ,..op" : against 34 percent in mediumsi=! firms and 40 percent in, ploying more than '0 people), wherc:l$ the latter mainly run S l (in the 1966 survey by SOFRES {Sodetl fun<;aisc d'enquetcs par

To IOUn{ mOr( fully for the differences in life-style Ixrwec:n fncm fflclions---<specially as regards cuhure--one would have account of (htir distribution in a J()(iallJ ranktti gMgraphkal '", ' .. group's chances of appropriuing any given class of nrc assets sured by rhe rn;lIhcmaliOiI probability of access) depend Plrfly On pKily (or the specific approprinion, ddincd by the economic, and social capilal it can deploy in order !O appropriate materially or bohuJly the asselS in question. Ihal is, irs posi!ion in 5()Cial sPl. pardy on Ihe reladonship bet,,:ttn its distribution in graphiC11 and th distribution of th SC1r( asselS in thai SJY.IC.lO (This 1Cilities, or in can be measured in average distnc from goods or f ling time-which involvcs access to privale or public transport,) words, a group's real social distance from cerrain assets mUSI graphiC11 dimnce, which itself depends on the group's sl budon and, more precisely, its distribution with respecl (0 the ' point' of economic and cultural valucs, i.e.. Paris rhe major centres {in some can--c.g., in the postal ment or promotion entails a period of exile)." Thus, i workers from legilimale cuilure would not be so vast if the cultural distance implied by their low cullural C1pinl were

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;"",

a brc:lk with the commonscnse picturc of the social up in thl': metaphor of IhI': 'social ladder' and suggested (101 , su orld , d,y " "gua.... of'mobility', with itS 'rises' and 'falls'; and a ' . . II IC 0d" soclologl(a, tra 1{10n wh ' h , when ' y' d'caI bleak with the whole . " <ra , , ,mage 0f soc,a space, ' " (10 1< accepting the one-dimenSlona e I lacitly lOI subjls II 10 a pseudo is f rch on 'social mobilil( . m of al> ahoration, rc.:Iucing th SOCial universe (0 a continuu e1 :as (t"I sei<nunc , "p""f middle class', 'lower middle elm' etc. ) ,11 obtained by . rstrata ( ' sll1lct . erent forms of capital, thanks 10 the conStruC{lon 0f m anng diff , a ggrt' .... Kh ,' p'r excellence the deslroyers 0f struCtures) ." . . ( h' ' . . ' J,CC:S tion OnlO a single aXIS, I order 10 construct Ihe conunuous: ,m Pt " Oi mogent'Ous. onedimenSlonal series w!lh whICh the SOCIal .hlra. dl, o m,IIy idenlified implies an etremely difficult (and, ,f It IS . ' y IS nor Ch . d" __!... ' g, extremely dangerous) rallon, lO:he.....y the merent Iypes nwlflln ' IS L rc<Iuced 10 a .single stand1!d. Th' a""tUCl opcunon has an . . . . , of ",p,taI arc ' " a ways aval ab'e , of convcrtmg 'cctiv( basis in the posslbtlllY, whlCh IS ob, . however, the exchange ratcs vary m ac ,f "pital into another one Iypc .' ,"ercnt ",, the ho'"_ 1"$ 0f Ih e d" ' , o ncc \10'1Ih thl': power rclauon betwttn r. oa c ' . ormulate Ihe pnnClple 0f Ihe con , ms or "pital. By obli,ing one to f or . mon .or 'b"',y of the differtnt kinds of capital, which IS the precond' " ,"(eTU " . Imen mlucing the space 10 one dimension, Ih construction f a two-d' . Slonal space makcs il elcar that the exchange rate of the dlffercnt kinds of .... pltal is one of the fundamental Slakes i the siruggies bel cen class fractions ....hose po....er and priyileges are ltked ro one or the othcr of IMse t)'pes. [n p-.irrieular. Ihis echange rate IS a stake n Ihe struggle o.ver (he dominant plinciple of domination (onomlC C1pltal, cullUul capital . Of social capilal), ....hich goes on al all times betllo,n Ihe dlffercnt fnc lions of the dominant class.

,' thecv "

pldUmmed

Rtconversion Strategies
Rtproduction strategics, IhI': SCI of out....ardly very differenl pucticcs whcrtby mdividuals or f amilics lend, unconsciously and consciously, to mainlain or incrca.sc their assets and consequently 10 maintain or im proe their position in Ihe class structure, constitute a system which, bring lilt prodUCf of a single: unifying, generative principle, lends (0 nc"on and change in a systematic way. Through the mediation of Ihe ition towards the future, which is itself determined by Ihe group's POS tlve chances of reprodunion. these slutegies depend, first, on the t( umc and composllion of the C1pilal to be reproduced; and, secondly. \'u lhe Slate of the instruments of rcproduction (inheritance law and rn, lhe labour markel, the educational system ere.), which itself dc . s On the State of the pollo'er relations bctwttn the classes. Any change in c het Ihe inslruments of rcprotiuClion or the Slate of the capital 10 be rtpr uc theref ore leads to a fCSllucturing of rhe system of rcproduc-

O:: I

like all languase. if unfolds in ${ticdy linear whion, whereas, (0 escape oversimplification and one sidednns, one ought (0 be able 10 =all 1r every paim Ihe whole n(t work of rdatiQnships f ound cilCCl'l:. Thar is why il hu sccrrn:d us({ul to present 1 diagram which has rhe property. as Sa...ssure says, of being able to 'preKnt simultaneous com pticuions in severa! dimensions', as a means of grasping ,he cor<npon <knee bcr"ttn the srfU((ure of $00 cia! space-whose two f undamcnlaJ dinsions (Or=pond 10 rhe yol. umc and composition of rhe (Ipiut of rhe groups distributed within ;,-;and the SlrU(IUI'l: of rhe space of the symbolic properties 11tIChed 10 tOOse groups. 81,1{ this diagram docs nO' aim [0 be lhe CI)'$I:tI ball in which rhe alchemists claimed to Sol:\" al a gbnce cry(hing happening in the wor!d and like malhemari,i'ns who also lrot whr rhey call 'imig' el)" :I.! a ncccsury evil, I am tempred ro withdraw ir in rhe very act of presenring it. For the is ro. $On ro fear rhat ir will CfIcourage rodings which will [(duce rhe ho mologies tween sy$ tems of differ. ences to direct, mechnical [(luionships between groups and propcnies; or that ir will encourage rhe form of voyeurism ....hich is in herent in rhe objectivist inrenrion, putting the sociologist in rhe role of the lame devil who takes off the roofs and [(vels the secrets of do mestic life to hi, fascinared rad.:rs. To have :l.$ exacr an idea :I.! paui. ble of rhe rhcor(tiaJ model rhar is proposed, ;t h:l.$ ro imagined thar thm: diagrams a superimposed (:I.$ could be done ""ith transparent

Onc.o of lhe difIKuhies of sociologi. nJ discouQ( lies in fM fa({ rllll,

rions, :I.! or8l'nized by the synchronic and diachronic . , , lion 0( the volume and of the various kinds of po$ition of each (ion) in space the SCt the respects :1.$ nent. The sccond (figure rhe space of lUestyles, i.e., bution of the practices and ties which constitute ; which etCh of these ,di if('Sts itselL Finally. twetn lbe pv;ous diagrrm one ought to set! a third, presenting the cal Space of habitus, that is generative formulae (e.g., f r o ers, aristocratic asceticism) underlie each of the I rkes and properties, thar is, the tr:lnsformarion into a distinct dis!incrive life-style of the nd facilities charctcri$ !ic ... dition and a po$ition. The presented here Ire nOt grams of corresponden .: ] I though various such " :]r.:: drawn on in ordet ro eonsrruCl f o them, and although lh are organized in ....ilh a similar srruetu[( data rhe analyses of which are Among construCt, the most i due to the laeun;l( in which are much bener at ,

presencs the JPlce of SOCial

sheers). 1lle fil1l (he, figu

r.b

;":

c,,,

' ;i;o;' ;

o""

vcsred in due to the lytical ealegorics.

...- e<)US even IS . -n . . . h(llTlb " nl cmena an" '" , JlIY nine r/IC / industrial an com. . , o IC make 11 lmpou" rllt cVCe'" Lo)'(;rs. 1 the ....((11 eaP ple' 10 identify rl " . , " m or exe can bit.'. s o( a "pual Ihnb' ' . ' ] '"r l,e., 19 busmess pilal, 110 ,e ' rors 0( o, r ca 'I ' rigorouS Ind>ca 1""" llck f of lhe diffe[(nt CIte iofl (For d,!ope"; lilt ecooomic and cuhur:ll t"'id. ne of lhe mosl helelOge , indu$1riaJ oori(S-""farmcl$ us C3IC... ]oyers, cra, ts ",erci,l emp o d com ecpcrs-has been I" and shopk (he correspond. ,td by writinS n the ex (1o rtlCS vertiully betwee , , , defining the IIroup.) It red ,hat ,he po$i. (0 be remembe ,he nam a!WOIYs (Ion ",3rked by po,",. '" a reprCS(ntS Ihe ccntral ch may f spue o variable ex,ent wh' field ,n some = be organized as ofcompcrllion. In lhe absencc of a survey (per' hlj'S 'mposis ble 10 Clrry OU, in pr1C' IOce) ,h,l would provide. with rt$p1 to ,he same [(presentative S1mple. 111 Ihe indicators of (Co nomic, cultural and social wealth us evolution ....hich II( needed In ordor ro COflSI1U(1 an adc<juate rtprt:so:mallon of social space, a sim model of th1 space has been cons'rUcred. based on information "u"ed . rhrou,h arlier rarch' .nd On 1 lie! of d.la take from v:ar. n all done by INSEE and Ie homou, a, Icas , :1.$ "'8ards r constructio of ,he U!e n 1 (sec append ix 3), From Ihe E survey of 1967 on leisu ae !lvl( '0:$ (lables rda!ing to men) I have . ' 'CI,ors of spare lime liken 'nd' 'u<:h (C.S i englh of the workins week ), frorn r 1970 survey on "o.:al'Onal . . I1:1,n,ng {tables [(bting 't} file fllher,n) I have taken da,a on the (" I : :cupar;onal category (so"I tory), Ihe fa,her'$ eduea.

dllf'C'lS'

'::;' ' hml!S l!I

phlitd ;;

lnd

:nrc)"S, J

lional level (inherited cuhu11l1 capi. ,all and the subject's edUClliOnl1 level (schollStic capilal) (C.S. II); ftom the 1970 survey on incomes, [ hve taken informalion on 101.1 in comes. rural and urban properly, shares, indumial and commelci.l profiu, wases and salaries (eco nomic upinl) (C.S. I); from the 1972 survey on houschold consump I;on, dan on the loral amount spent, p<mC$sion of a w:l.$hing. machine and telephone, forms of lenancy of main and second resi denee (C.S. Ill); and from Ihe 1<)68 census, dat on rhe sitt of the lown of residence. For och of the groups repre sented, I have also indiClled, firstly, Ihe dimibution of the occupants of ach group according 10 ,he social mieclory which has brough, ,hem the, wilh hisrogr.lmJ mowing the proporlion of each group havinS e (ome from each of 'he diff renl cI:wcs. For the sake of legibility, ,hese hislograms are reproduced only for a fe"" illuSlr:llive catesor;es. They suffice 10 sho"" ,hit the pro ponion of individual! from the dominant cla.ss (black) rises llrongly, while ,he proportion from ,he workins cl:wcs (while) de clines. as one moves up the social hierarchy. (The hislosram for Ihe 'scmi-skilled' workers, nOI repro duced here, is imermedia,e between illed IhO$C' of the unskilled nd sk workers.) For the upper and middle classes II lC:l.$t, one really needs 10 be able 10 sive the disrribUlion by {raCiion of origin. 5c<ondly, I hive indiel1ed ,he his lOry of rhe sroup :1.$ a whole. This is snown by rhe arrows. pointing up. down or horizomally, ...hich in dicle ,har berween 1962 and 1<)68 Ihe group in 'luC$lion expanded (by a, le:l.$' 2 percem), conrrac,ed 01

;---s-I 'P'" I 1: . ; ",,","" I

"

i!';

< i !
,

1
,

remained Slable. Thcy thus make visible the opposition IxtwCI!n the new. mongly growing franions .nd t'J<: established. sl.ble or declining 1'2(:1;on5. I have thus endeavoured ( to show both the SI.le of the por rdation bcfwn IIxe dassn which conU;tU1C'S the structure of the so c;,1 sp.ce 1t given moment and .lso something which is simultane_ ously an cfi"e<t of lind . faCtor in Ihe transformation of that seructure, namely the ronv(l1ion strategiC'S whereby individuals (and groups) strive 10 maintain or improve their position in social space The synoptic schema, by bringing together information from are" which ,he: usu.1 d:lSSific.lory 5y$ lems SCPU:lft'---!iO much so that they make mere juxnposillon .J>Pnr un ,hin\c)bk or scand.lous-,md so making manifest the rdarionships among ,II the prorriC'S and pna( ricC'S (h.raC!< risti( of. group, which are perceivtd imuicivcly nd which guide (he cla5$ifi(ations of everyday orces one (0 look (or the basis life, ( of each of thCK syStems of 'choi(', on the one hand in the social condi, tioM and conditionings chuctcris, tic of a givcn posilion in objenivc social SPKC, which are cxprc55ed in those choic" but in a mistccogniz, ablc form: and on thc Other hand, in Iheir relationship to the olher syStems of 'choic"', by Icf crcnce to which their specifically symbolic meaning and value arc defined. Sc UU$C [if,.sty[" arc essentially dis tinctiv" a number of fcalur" do not takc on Iheir full sisnificance unlit they are brought imo rclation nOI only with the social positions ell ,hey express bUI also with f ,um appearing at an opposite pole of this space. This is the case. for eumple, with the oppositions which an: es tablished primordially betwn the

XXVI!l); and on various cultur;l[ activities (cel":l.mics. ponery. funfairs cte.) from the suI'" vey by the Ministry of Culture (CS. VII). In the multing fisure. each ncnt item ppcars only oncc then:forc vlid for a whole zone varying extent dcpcndinS on the cas-e) of __ial space. a[lhough it

from surveys by the SOFRES and CESP (CS. V and VI); i, "m". i" theatregoing from a survey on SEMA (Socien: d'economie CI de matllematiqu app[iqu:s) (CS XIV): on (avourite actors, from survcys by lFOP (irutitul de ["opinion pub[ique) (CS. on the reading of daily and ncpapcrs and magazines, from surveys by Ihe CSE (Centre de $OCio[ogie europeenne) and CESP

positions mOSt remote frOm other in one or bo,h of Ihe mental dimensions of social (i.c., with mpcct [ i of Goya theatrr Brei Tino ROS$i, Fnnce-inter or cinema clubs and so f orth. In addition to the ,nformario gathered directly by the survey, have used a number of indices cuitUr;I[ consumption, such as session of a piano or rt.:ords. vicwing, visils to mU$Curns, tions, variety sho and membership in a Ii claSS($, coJltions, sports" aJl (rom lhe 1967 INSEE survey sun: activities (CS. IV): informa tion on the consumption and litylcs of e O rn ; nant dau (hifi "'" ; ' cruises, bridge, pictun: II Champagne. whisky, sports el<-)

or

rizes the Catc I chaN.cte .-nit !trOo it is dosesl. (Thus . . ... '" ,eh ' -n t , Isa cs, mark" o h Ct1 Jan 'j;c 'iterfl kf'hand side of fig. l 10 'tnduslrial and f..n1 O ;S valid (or Ihe rt' I al "' ""m< , .. . kfl,hand side of the "0 stly _ i.e., for the unt\-cr o:;lchers, s-enior exu, "",,! sP ' r)' t d nd also the pri. ',i . , CIl nters d 10 ... . s, junior exultV r " I ro:;l'hc and ry . m ho" " n,. clerical workers . ' ," . StmllarIy, t he !tem aI '"orkers ' lou m k nd sharcs'-tOP ngh1-11" IOC 'crs, the professions, I 1,_plo , ', . , . Id tO '" r exuuves an enSt . "vale.5O:(tor en Immn . teIy - lll ) It an be se and the ion of pi:mo t " fM JJft f ..:.cc o the UPM6f(li mbers an: mo5t Iypical of me. that W1[ktn8 and f the professions: y .o.. :.nl1,nrinS an: particularl

dU ts',
I' ''' cc

..'[IV'"'

...J
,S

s s s S S S i S s s s S ' S 'S' s S' S, , s , , s " S S

chll":l.ctcristic of secondary leachers and pub[ic.sector exutivcs; or that swimming, placed halfway betwn the new pctite bourgeoisie and lhe priVJte-$C(tOf exutivcs Of the engi. . Attn belongs to the lif"c.styJc of both these $CIS of occupations. Thus. grouped around lhe name of each class {raction are those featum of its life-style which ue the mOil pertinent bn:au$C Ihey are the most distinctive-though il may in fael shan: them wirh other groups. This is the case, for example, with the usc of a [ibmy, which appea's in the area of rhe juniOt exutivcs, prim:lry Iellchers and tcchnicians. a[ though it is at lellst as frl'<!uent amons secondary and university tochers; but the latter an: las ince it is marked by the practice s pan of the;, occupational role.

tion wlttegies. The reconversion of capit[ held in onc form to anolher.

mOil: accessible, more profitable or more legitimate form tends to induce

social space which a h s nOlhinS in common with the unreal and yet naively rcalisric space of JO.c'Illcd '5OCial mobility' studies. The ume positivistic naiv"y which e 'upward mobility' in the morphological Il":I.nsformations of diff rent

I tr:lnsf onnlllon of asse:t structure. These: rt.:onversions correspond to movements in

(CS.

cl1S:ic:s or fractions is also unaware that the reproduction of the social cture may, in cenain conditions" demand very littlc 'occupational he :ty' This is ' tRlC whenever agents can only maintain their poSitiOn in he aJ StRIcture by means of a shift into a new condition (e.g., the '7' ft m ' rom small landowner to junior civil se:rvant. 0' from small CI":I.(tS ofl!.ce worker or commercial employee). SOctal sfY,lcc, being structured in tWO dimensions (overall capital vol a \nd dominant/dominated capital), allows ("'0 types of movc w 'ch tl":l.ditio nal mobility studies confuse:, al(hough they are in no . dUIValcn( and are unequally probable: vcrtical movements, upwards Or wards, in the same verrica[ sector, that is, in (he same field (e.g., lOrn : f lflil1 lteacher to professor. or from small businessman to big busi .... ..... ) . :lnd , tl":l.nsversc movemcnts, from one field to another, which "'- C Ur . L _ horizontally ( a schoolteacher, or his son, becomes a "nil[ shopt"oo::, ceper ) or betwn different levels (a shopkeeper, or his son.

"3 y

i"dusuialis.), Vertical movemems, the most only requIre an increase i n t volume of the type of capi'lIl nlln. in the IsseI srructure, and Iherefore a moYemem in the Ihe distribution of total capital ....hich rak($; .he form of a llIithin a fidd (business field, amic field, admi n srntiye ' ;;.'
bo:comes lin fidd ere_)_ TflInsyersc movements enrail a shift into another onvefSion of one type of capit l into another or Of:" " :":, ; ; anolhe. sub-type (e,g" from landowning to industrial ;i:,;; , )

er:l.tu.e to

economics) and therefore a IflInsformation asset which pro.[s overa l capi[al volume and mainrains posI.ion in tical dimension.

rds scholasric invcslmenr, Many fewer small cnfrsmen and BEPC ( in OnS !O....I .gt<! 4''" th n office workers have at !east ti ktcfC" f1lt :IS against 10.1 p:'rcent), but their lS.ynr-old sons are 12' "'0 !O be in school (42.1 p:'rcent and 4}.} petCCIII in 19(2). Simi e l t<lu,Ir h srJal slf and commercial CIIlrcpreneurs have Ie$s educational capi_ ndu I,M ,ln hnicians and junior exC'(utiycs (20 perccn[ and 28,9 percenl f "I th ; BEPC), but Iheir sons are equally likd to be at InS! nt and 64.2 percent). The same process has begun perce "'1 fm workers, s is shown by the npid risc in [heir children's 'f 16'.8 in h " 1 V'.'f,ng r,ltC belwe<:n 1962 and 19n. ......,.

the

i have

rhe

The of enrering a gi"en fn([ion of [he dominanr dass other dm is, :IS ....e have $ttn, in inyerse fll.io '0 [hc position of [hal tion in the hienrch of ccollOmic capital. (The onl exccp.ion is 'libeflll professions', ....hich tend to transmit bolh economic an: capiul and have the higheu fllte of endogenous rccrulfment.) a major side.... movcmems within the eli" (indumialists' sons secondary or higheriucation tnchcf'S" or vice versa) arc eK.rcmdy Thus, n 1970, the probability of i>oming an industrial or plocr W:lS 1.9 percelll for a profcssor'11Of1, lind Ihe probabi lit ' I U ing a tcacher W:lS 0.8 percenr for an commercial enrrcpreneur's son. The 't shopke<:per WliS 1.2 percent for a pri ary of i>oming 1 pri a ry teacher ....as 2.4 percen t ' for 1 mlll son (C.S, II,

probabili.y i

i:::: ,; ::; ;

u y :ion !O step up Iheir investmentS so as 10 maintain the relative scar qualifications and, consequentl , rheir position in the class of (heir (;crure. Academic qualifications and the school system which awards :t.rm thuS becomc one of the key stakes in an interclass competition "'hich gc-netales a general and continuous growth in the demand for e<lucation and an inflation of academic qualifications_ r

IlIho previously made little use of the school s o f r academic u lificnion the eifC'(t force the ler the race fC1T' C11 whose reprod ti n was m nly o excl s vel achieved through Whc'n class ffllctions

uc o

q a ai

s,

is 10

To

CLASS MOBtLlTY ANI) MOBILE CLASSES

The tC'(cm chan in 1I)e onship Ixtwe<:n Ihe different d:.lSSCS and the educational 'y,,,,m-" ti the 'schooli ng boom' and Ihe aompanying changes in self---1lfld also the changes in the social struClure resulting from the re ationship Ixtwe<:n qualifications and jobs, are the consequences tensified competition for academic qualifications. One importan t in imensifYlflg this competition has doubtless been the faCt thaI ractions of the domin an t class and middle class who arc richest ill f om mercial e plo ers. no ic cap i tal i .e., mdesmen) have had to make greatly incrc-ascd u of the

( industrial and c

system in order to ensure their social reproduction.

m y ';'':;;,

The diparit

Ihe scholastic capital of Ihe adul.s of a cl:lS by !he proportion who have a qUllificarion perior TO the BEPC) and rhe schooling fllre of the corrcsponding ,,'01.' cen.s is much more ptonounced among (f.fumen, shopkeepers,;;:: indumialim rhan among office workers and junior CKCCUrivCS. , ," in the usual corrcspondo::ncc between the children's educarioml fll!1"I and !he parents' cul!uflll capital indicates a profound
belwe<:n

y ffllction (measured

t ring in mind that the volume of corresponding jo s may also have over Ihe -hme to h ave undergone period, one may a"ume Iha. a qualification is likely gro"'n dev2luation if the numlxr of diploma-holders has mOre fllpidly Ihan Ihe numlxr of suitable positions. Everyfhing s to su rn ssest Ihar the baaalaurial and 10lller qualifications are the d such devalua!ion. To this must Ix added the less olrviou;:ffcc[e I o aluatl,on resulting from the fact {hal if [he num er of corre. P din . sarn tt:'s does keep pace, the positions themselves are likely '0 lose ol lObs ", l' lf scarC t value. This is ",hat has happened, for cKample, to a l evels of the teaching profession. . lhc v ry rapId growth i n girls' and women's education has been sig-

'rn!itkmcnts' by which groups assert and constitute their own scarcity the effcct of what migh. be ,'.Iul .is-i-vis other groups. must be '.rmro a )/'II(/lIr,,1 faCtor. Geneflllly incrc-ased schooling has the effect of in :faS,ng rhe mm of cultural apilal which, al eyery moment, eists in an school's educarive action and Ihe rmbodir-d' slllte_ Since the success of UrabiliCy o( liS cif ts depend on how much cullur:l.l capi'al has been C'( ';:Iy tr:msm,uro by the efficiency of Cln be prC$umed l-b eduCitiye action tends 10 risc contandy, Olher Ihings being I< . n shorr, ,he same scholastic invC$tment bomes more profitable, a l h'" ICh no doubt conrributes to inAation by bringing diplomas within ' of. grealer number of people.

the elfccls of the comp:'tition betwe<:n groups struggling for 'upclming' nd Igl'nst 'downdassing' (didammrt ), a competition that is organized I academic qualification (liITt) and more geneflllly around all the around

the

the family, it

added the

thu

by iy

nificam factor in the devaluing of academic qualifications. image of the division of labour between the sexes has women now bring academic qualifications OntO the I previously were partly held in reserve (and were 'invested' marriage market); and the higher the diploma, the more m,,,k," growth has been (sec table 10). JUSt as all segregation (by se other criterion) tends to slow down devaluation by its effect, all desegregation lends to restore full strength to mechanisms; and, as an American study of the e!tects of racial tion has shown, the least qualified are the ones .,,ho fed the dirtly. Indeed, it presentS no paradox to suggest that the chief " " '""" devaluing of aodemic qualifications are those who emer the . market without such qualifications. The devaluuion of I companied by the gradual extension of the monopoly qualification.holders over positions previously open to the unqualified, which has the effect of limiting the devaluation tions by limiting the competition, but only the COSt of "'"'<""1 career openings available to the unqualified and of rc:inforcing , demic predetermination of occupational opportunity. In, cercain particularly the civil service, this leads to a decline borh in the d". the holders of the same qualifications among di!terem jobs >;,, dispersal of the qualifications of holders of equivalent jobs, or, . words, a reinforced correlation between academic qualification and occupied. The market in jobs open to formally qualified candidates has constantly, inevitably at lhe expense of the formaHy unqualified. sal recognition of academic qualifications no doubt has unifying the official set of qualifications for social positions ,,,' " nating local anomalies due to the existence of social spaces with own rank-ordering principles. However, academic qualifications achieve: tOtal, elCclusive acccptancr. Ourside the specifically market. a diploma is worrh what irs holder is worth, socially; the rate of return on educational capital is a function nomic and social capital that can be devoted to I i it. The chang.: in the disuibution of postS among
so

1/lIf114rllS

,c

which }ndiYid !lies ploy with a ;rateglnimpromg therals an.d. famIn SOCia space arc: view SJe posltlon l reRened
10
,

,jeo'll u r their own careers) or in the long lerm (through th srrategi cOurse 0 loy for rheir children's schooling), constitute one of (he deci t(c rtnP the growth in the volume of qualifications awarded. which ;triburcs devaluation. The dialcctic of devaluation and com usel/ 'n thuS tends to fcc-d on ilsel. pt(1....n
rs

,i( e t Illeans thaI at every moment a propot!ion of rhe qualifica. fitd ag J rS-'S,arting, no doubt, with rhose who ue least well endowed ti,,o nherired means of explOiting Ihir qualific21ions-ar victims .. ,h Ih:uaI [Ion. The srrategies by which those who arc: most subject to i of ,jI:V2 l ar on endeavour to fight against iI, in Ihe short term (in the

Its auromatically from the increased number of formally quah. rCS

:;

10

svEliSION STII ATEl.> IES AND IOIlPHOlOGtcAL TIIANSFORMATrONS

31

TIIbk 10
y, ""

""

CEP

CAP
"'" '"

,,

n-}<i.

WC
6}.

by <:<Iue..;on, 1962 :and

BK

t5168 IISus. o. It .... no' f'O"ibk '0 ilOlo, W1)mn wi,hou' quolific:uions.

Sour:

.,. .. .

9.8

67.1 7.}

has been construCted $0 as 10 give al leasl an approximate idea of transform:uions. Srnce il was nor po;$sible (though it would have bttn dn,rable) to eslablish in Mrrowly defined Cllegories the changes in lOul ,nCOme and income SlrUClure for th period 194-197 (ins,ead. table mdic::n 'hese changes, in broad categories, for the period 19H-I96B), I n"c indiol<:<l Ihe diSlribution by $Ource of incom and Ihe 10lal income dccla,ed 10 rhc tax aUlhorities. Ih $Ource used by INSEE. I I is known. however. that the degree or underestimation varies sreatly. IIccordrns to V,llel\('uve.l' wases and salaries should be multiplied by 1.1, farmcrs orth. Once these corre<. p,o/i15 by 3.6, nv l men, income by 2.9 and $0 f a applied, the members of rhe prof sions and espially fh farmrs. (r:lftlmcn and sm ll shopkeepers, Iurn to Iheir r(:ll pbccs. Tho: ntesorics ( relatively ) riches, in econo ic m upital (as represented by ind"ators such Jlocks and shun. ru....! or urban prrry etc.) tend to g7:: Ycry sharply is shown by ,he decline in their f1fmers. ,....flSmen. shopkapcrs and industrialists)volumt (in Ihe Cl$( and by the fall or tdy mall 'ncrease in Ih proportion of younS propie. (lbe fac, tha, thlS f t'PI . OC(Ur rn ,he 'small shopkeeper' and craftsman ca'gories is . \Or ,he by eomrng of w Style of r and 'he rent IIlcreas.e 'n theneducational shopkccpcdoubt,craftSman.) Parr (and, no <xonomic) 1.11 of = ch COlcSO,ics is probably dlUC to the fCt that ,he uC1ion in up' their 8y ,dly conUms their lower st.... ( 'lQnlJ ;n' , Ihe fractions richest ;n cultural opital (measured by cduo uaanons) , hav 10unll tlOrt1 ::r a. h'sher proportion of womn, and a higher ....Ie of educa. ',on The gr(:l<iy up:onded. lbey ha, acquired mo "'o'k.: 80ries mos, Iypical of this procas ar office a the shop ....orkers, technici:ans, junior and s.enior exutives. prj. and especially secondary and .erriary l(:Ichrs (in th 10" CIS( 'ilt 'tclli kcd changes :ar particularly inten). Amons ensinr:ers. ho.....
T:ablc I I
,he!<: t2 lIons II ;
C$

In . uardlng or whICh modIfy both Ihe volume of rhe dl!terent cla$S g sformations structure 0( thelr assets. . frawons and the

cs

Il

. Il

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of _/l","/IS da/lJIIJ has pn'enrl"d numC1'ic1 8ro...,h and l l,t pO ICY tL nd hdped '0 minrlin scarcity vlu(. io ... rq>roduCiion !trllt(giL"$ which underlie the'$( morphological '(he impornnce of $aluies in fhe income pardy ,w,gdr3di tionally 'sclf.employl"d' categorics and pudy in rhe diversified ' of senior execu,ies, who tend to hold ,heir upi. investments of s d a%' :;,h (Conomic and (ultunl form, employers, who mainly I;r n " co omic capitaL Salaries and pensions, as a proportion of employers' hO()ll>tS. rise from 12.9 percent in 19)6 ,0 16.4 percent in 196): in 197),

fi>I ( )'" ""Ie kl'u ((

,,>(f.

h3V SlOpped, since (he rue of increase is lower Punges' gener ion than for lhe group as a whole. Another remark. . (( ,s Ih( n'I:I{i( sfbilily of fh( 'Iiber:ll profasions', ... hose deliber
:n

coCC$S seems IQ

1t"" n,zJ:(( seen nf tM ,t ..

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in ,he increased the

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dassific.l.lions. they make up 19.2 percent of the income of cnfls pen:enl of the incom( of industrialists and small shopkIXpers and 31.8 (ommef('Lal enlfpn'neurs. (By conlraSt, among farmers, Ihe proportion much the m(: 23.8 percent in 19)6, B,' percent in 196) and , percenl In 197). ) In 197\ the proportion of income deried from in slOcb a d sham is much higher among pri. Imtnr p lic.sect r SCIlLO' cxcculiv('J (.9 p ccn! and 2.7 p<:',cent !<Spl'Clively) .

,nc

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In' a more discrcelnd no doubt more reliable-mod!'of appropriation

profits industrial and commercial firms in the form of

sition of some or all of ils heirs. by enabling them to

,he S(f1lt(gles which enable lhe business bourgroisie to maintain he p0The Ionv(rsion of economic capilal imo educational

capi,al is on<: of

exn1(t some of the

salaries, which

... perform. wilh varying degrees of success, in a( (0d 1ncc with th demands of their particular Situalion, and which reo ; in s t 1 Innsf rm1lion of the relalive weight of the different franions o o t middle elasses (SC'C table 14). Here. roo, the decrease in Ihe lOn of small shopkeepen, craftsmen, and farmers has bttn accompa ::U :: ' b tch . r an increase in Iht proportion of primary,school rnchcrs, t I' nlClans. and th personnel of the medical and social services. ullhermore. the relative morphological stabiliry of an occupuional ay conceal a transf . ormation of ils Sllucture resulting from the . r p<: ' s'on of agelllS presclll in the group at the beginning of th( r or their children) or their rcplaccm(llI by agents from Olhcr gru ( ps. For relalively small decline in Ihe overall volume of

...ho owed their posilion ro cheir academic qua1ificat;onxccut;ves. en gUlttl'$. lCachers lnd intellectuals (ahhough, 11 1('151 in Ihe case of Vlttor execulives. a significant proporlion of total income may be dc"ved from shaICS, as table 13 indicales). Similarly of . 1111ny small commercial or craft firms COnceals Ihe reconversion work

"'hcfC:!s chere was a very sllong rise in Ihe proportion of saJary.arners,

Ihan 'unearned' inveslment income. Thus. between 194 and 1915 the proporrion of induslrial and commercial entrepreneurs f ell sharply,

pri. Ihe disappearance

hich individual agellls

e

pro

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of incrc:lSCd housc:hold consumption, conceals a uf>'oers rlIy wailS(' S p ht struCTure of this occupation. The SI:l.gnadon or decline of c(151 r 'hJ/1gc stOres, fX1llkululy hud hil by supermarket competition, and ',JI clothing stores has alosl n b70lan by growt in r re'iI. dornesflc UlpmCn! (mcludmg f umlnnc, mlcnor ( ulomobil 0 :lJld SO on) and especially SpoHS, lrisun: and cuhur:al goods ,g f'1.fln8 . deCO be records etc.) and pharmaccuuols. it may assumed thaI, even retailing, thc figures lend to conceal changes that have led (0 (. . .,!h,nS,food reddinition of ,he occupation: the dosing-down of small e pr08ressiv J stofCS and rural bakeries may coexist with the oJXning of shops oods, or ofbakoods 'natural' regional produClS and health f die! f sd'"8 . . '.n 0Id-styIe bmid. spec,ahzll"lg I cn changes in the nature of retail firms-which are rebtw to same JXriod, in the structure of household consump(h1ngts. ovcr the n rhc sdves relarw to the growth in incomes and above all (0 the in cultural capilal fCSulting from the upward shift of the StrucruJ"r of niucltional opportunitre dialectically linked (0 a rise in the cultural capital of their owners or managers. Everything suggestS that the 'craftsman' category hu undergone chanS" very similar to the 'shopkeeper' cuegory, with the decline of the mosl exposed str:m of traditional craftsmanShip bring offset by the boom In luxury and 'aesrhetic' crafts, which require economic assets but also cultural Glpital. This would explain why the fall in the volume of these middle-cbss caregories is accompanied by a rise in cultural capital as measured by educarional leveL Craftsmen and tradesmen specializing in luury, cultural or artisric lIems, man gers of fashion 'bouriqucs', rerailcrs of 'famous maker' a tr:ars in exotic garmelllS and jewels or rustic obicc,$, ford Ius, antique dalers, illlerior decorators, dc:signcrs, photographers, resurs, managers of trendy 'bistros', Proven",l 'potters'. aVant-gaMe lIers, all ,hose vendors of cuhural goods and services seeking to ptoIong ,h e char (ellzes fusion of leisure nd work, militancy and dilettantism, that "h use ,heir ambiguous occupations, in l succ ,he s,udent life-style, ess depends a, least as much on the subtly casual distinction of rhe Cl IC$ rllni man as on the nature and quality of his waTCS, as a way of obhe r(nee f ; bcs, return on a culcural capital in whkh ,echnical comJXess lmporran, than f amiliarity wirh ,he culture of rhe dominant 112$$ lall5!: .2 mastery of the signs and emblems of distinction and taste. Beth tyJX of culture.intensive craftsmanship and commerce trl'lblts IS , ,o bc drawn from ,he cultural heritage transmiltw dift!:lly . am,]y, i, is pm:lisposcd ro serve as a rdugc for those sons lnd o:4ug e f h()I'IJ SYS t rs of ,he dominant class who arc eliminued by the wucale
()

, e , ! S;s ml11 indiVidual firms whrch hlve been able to wuhsland thc rt>t

rr 'shopk

rs', consisting vcry largdy

(93 percem)

of the

lJll

8fry ::

Z;bn,

ad

cw b:

Among the (!Teets of the infbrion of dons and their associatr:ci devaluation, undoubtedly the most uc: (he: 5(t of sll1Itcgia whereby the holden of devalued have sought to maintain thdr inherited positions or to qualifications the Inl equivakm of ....hat they gUlnmeed Slatt of the rtbtionship between diplomas and jobs. It is clear that what an :aodc:mic qualification guarantees is than, and different from, the r ight to occupy a pos ition lmd 11 to perform the corresponding job. In this respect the diploma is more like a palcnt of nobility (/;1" tit nlJblmt) than the properly (Ii'" 'qroprilli) which strictly technical definitions m,,,, So one nn well understand that the victims of devaluation dined perceive and acknowledge the devaluing of quali'' '','"' ,, ; , ;,;; which they are closely identified, both objectively (Ihey , impomnt pm o( these people's sodal identity) and subjectively. concern 10 presc:rve sel(-estttm, which encoul1lges allachment nominal value of '1ualifications and jobs, would nOI be ,"f" ' maintain a mispcrccption of this devaluation, if there were not complidty from objective mechanisms. The mOSI importanl of first, thc hysteresis of habitus, which causes previously 'P1P" ,;", ; gories o( perception and appreciation to be applied to a qualification market; and, second, the exislence of relali"ely markets in which the value of '1ualifications declines at a The hystercsis effect is proporlionatcly greater for agents who remOte from the educational system and who are poody or oof, ". informed aboul Ihe muket in educational qualifiGlions. One mOSI valuable sons of information constiluting inherited is practiGl or theoretical knowledge of Ihe Auctualions of Ihe academic qualifications, the sense of invCSlment the best tum on inheriled cultul1l1 capital in the scholalIic on scholaslie Gpital in the labour muket, (or example, by righl moment 10 pull OUt of devalued disciplines and cafCCrs switch into those: with a futurc, I1Ilher than cling ing to Ihe values which secured the highest profits in an earlier Slale of the By contrast, the hysteresis effecl mC"lns Ihat Ihe hOld' '" 'f . I in their own n , I plomas become, in a sense, ' , rhey bestOW by a typical effect of alloMxia ' i is nOI j on their devalued i explains how those I informed about the diploma market, long been able to recognile a decline in real wages behind Ihe
TIME TO UNDERSTAND

lairt)

;
; ;

(0

'::::

: : ; d ::

nance of nominal wages, can nonetheless continue to acCepl paper certificates which Ihey receive in payment for . ing (despite the fact Ihal Ihey are the firsl victims tion, because of lheir lack of social capilal). " This allachmcnt to an anachroniSlic idea of the " ,,f q"';.

Ihe members of a school genel1ltion, bUI 10 a varying eXlent mg on rhe I1Irtly of Ihdr '1ualificalions and on rhdt social origins. Newc rs 10 secondary l(<:o:sso"' educalion are led, by Ihe mere fa" of having h . _ . . . ' IO eXpecl 11 10 give Ihem whal It gave 01hers at a time when I.... , th elve$ were still exdu.:le olhe, "'s d (rom it. In an (;;Idier period and for <kdasses. Ihese c aspil1ltions were perfectly realistic, since Ihey eorre. lhe veld.to obJCCtive probabilitics, but Ihey arc oflen quickly deAared by ,s or the ':tod scholaslic muket or Ihe labour markel. One of the o "'he" 0f ","at is called Ihe 'demOCl1ltiution ofschooling' I Work1 is Ihal only l1g classes. who had previously ignored or al best vaguely

n:'

:[d(.ftE...TlNG ... GENUATION In a period of 'diploma inRation' 'Sf'arlly be'","ccn the aspil1ltlons Ihal Ihe educational syslem pro du( Id the opponunirics il '(;Illy offers is a structural r(;llicy which af.
Of

in Ihe uistence of markels in which diplomas can bI plays a pan U d , al leasl) escape devaluation. The value objectively and sub. pe.:lO y ('f'I'a laced on an academic qualificalion is in fact defined only by Ihe ) Ihe social uses thai Gn be made of it. Thus Ihe evaluation of oohlY l by lhe clOSCSI peer groups, such :as relativcs. neighbours, fellow .:Ilplortl (ones d:ass' or 'y(;lr') and coll(;lgucs, Gn play an importanl n' sluJc l$king Ihe effe<:ts of devaluation. These phenomena of individ. n 1 colle<:tive misre<:ognition are in no way illusory, since Ihey Cln .:l uJl an I pracriccs. cspecially Ihe individual lnd collecrive slralegies or -establishing Ihe objective realiry of rhe value al csl,blishing n or position; and these stralegies C3n make real con l ouaifle'lio o. ", l,e , . d acluaI I(vaIuallon. IOwar b don Ihe Il1Insaclions in which the market value of academic (lualifica. defined, Ihe slrenglh of Ihe vendors of labour power depends I !IS is !lng aside Iheir social capil1l-on Ihe value of thdr diplomas, cspe. iJ.llv when Ihe rclationship betwccn qualificalions and jobs is strictly ,odlficd (1$ is the case wilh cstablished posilions, as opposed 10 new QIlC$) So it is cl(;lr Ihal Ihe devalul1ion o( lCadcmic diplomas is of .:Iirect :adn11gr to Ihe suppliers of jobs, and Ihat, while lhe inlefCSts of'lualifi. nllonholdcrs are bound up wilh Ihe nominal value o( qualifiGtions, i.e., "'1Ih ""hal Ihey guanmlccd by right in Ihe C"lrlier silualion, Ihe intete$ts of rob suppliers are bound up wilh Ihe real vlue of qualifiC3tions, in Olher words. Ihe value Ihal is determined al the moment in qucstion in the compelition among Ihe candidatcs. (This is a SIrucrul1l1 deskilling [dlqJJaliiralion] which aggravalS Ihe effects of the deskilllng slralegics f Ihal firms have been using for a long lime.) The grealeSI losers in Ihis lIruggle a Ihose whose diplomas have leasl rebllve value in rhe hierar. Ihy of diplomas and arc mOSI devalued. In some C1SCS the qualification. holik, finds he has no other way defend the value of his qualtficallon Ihan 10 refuse 10 sell his labour pawel al Ihe price offered; Ihe decision 10 i"tmaln unemployed is Ihen C<juivalelll 10 a one.man sltike.16

7 ''C rt<11

raj(

{Iii:

one;:;

10

10 11

discover

concurred in [he Third Repl.lblic ideology of 'schooling as a ]' f orce' (I'kq/t libiralria), actually entered secondary CdUC1lion,

rckgalcd

tlrolt (()1ISn'IJalrirr,
10

schooling as a consccrvar;v(

sondclass courses or eliminated.

men{ which results from {he SlruClural mismatch between and rt:ll probabilities, between the social idcnliry {he school system 10 promise:. or the: one if offers on a Icmpor.try buis, and the lily thar Ihe labour markef in fa" offers is the: source of Ihe {Owards work, thaI

11

r't llJai o sDda!fi"ituat, j f

which

als and neguions of Ihe adolescem cOuntCHu]lure. This discordance-and ,he discnchammenr it cngcn<krs-12kn [hat are ob;eclivcly and subjectively different in {he vuious SOCial ing and Ihrough Ihe ambiguous Slatus of a 'S[I"dcm'. (rom the demands of the ....orld of ....ork, produees lenic of aspir:uions and probabilities ....hich led their predecessors cept their social destiny, almost al....ays unquestioningly" ,"d O ....ith positive e:.\gerness (like the miners' sons ....ho use<! .t , : , . entry into manhood ....ith Iheir first descem imo (he mine). The chammem ....ith their work (hat is felt and expressed panicululy by the most obvious vinims of do....ncbssing, such holders obliged to take iobs 15 bnory workers or postmen, is, in common to a ....hole generation. It finds expression in unusual volved in induSlfial or political struggle find hard to understand, something mon: [han ....orking conditions is at stake. These
as

Thus. for working<lass youngsters, Ihe Il1Insil through

: :;;:
I

struggle, protest and escapism {hat the organizations oo,di" oo,',',

pie, whose social identity and self.image have been undermined cial system and an educational syStem that have fobbed them ....orthless paper, can find no other ....ay of restoring their personal (ial integrity than by a lo[al refusal. It is as if they felt that ....hal

YO,;,o, I ' :

gc-t less out of [heir qualifications than [he previous gc-neu!ion have obtained, engc-nders a $Or( of collec[ive disillusionment: a gc-ner:r.tion, finding il hu been taken for a ride. is inclined to all inslitutions the mixture of revoh and resentment it f eels

stake is no longer jusl penonal f ailure, 15 the educational system ages them to believe, but rather the ....hole logic of the academic i lion. The structuul de.skilling of a ....hole generation, ....ho are ____

educational system. This antiinstitutional CUt of mind strength from ideological and scientific critiques) poims rowards nunciation of the tuit assumptions of the social order. a pUClical sion of doxic adherence to the prittS it offers and the values " ' , and a ....ithholding of the investmems ....hich an: a necessary c< its funClioning. So it is understandable that, not only ....ithin families but
-;-

: ; ;.i,:"
"_

cltional institutions and political or union organizarions and .

Disenchanted
'Finl I did markel I'CSC)rdl s...rveys. had a friend in L ",ho "':IS i Ihal. I BOI a lisl of all Inc I'CSC)rch Paris. Mler t"'O months phoning and finally I gol something. seenl lJler they hadn't gol lo...ch . ",ilh me. They OIICrcn', doing any m ...rvcys. I "':as e l lk.! 10 un employment benefit, a lho...nd fnncs a month. We lived on Ihal fol 5CVCfl monlhs, lhen "'e did gnpc-picking. Then [ went back to for seven monlhs, I q...it; t e working fftt-lance. ... lesbians and place ....:as f gave 0...1 Ihe ....olk 10 fa so [ gol 01,11. Any....ay, ....e och ....olk a turns. In sort sociely, ....ork isn't Ihe life. ..... if Ihings ....ere 1 r... Ihe ....ay Ihey are mighl ....ant 10 ....olk ho...rs a baeca1a...,,:al and a day' (F., fe.... an Am f c...1ry; fa a Iher: priJle

nlO

firms in

",riting, Then. still

months in

gOi

o s

ni

months'

t"'O

s...rvcys

Then

ll of

vo...rites, of thing in n

their

h lhey

finc'lOoth comb. ! did a power I the papc:l. [ co...ldn'l be fight. After Slopped $0 1 taken in by Ihe ., mYlh and I signc<:l on II Office. I ....:as on sorting for ...ccks. I co...ldnt take y W:lS a work Cflvi.onment I'd known befole. It ....:asn't so th people up flOSI: Inc relations bet....ccn the w:as solidarity. wccks [ ch...ckcd ;1 Aflel Thc we five of us li . ...a fired the S OI fr , P o,

But Ihe w:as

pho<o" ,

ause wan (Cd I lefl bc<y, 1nd! Ih11'S hoto. I hID<" f..,.., Co M"ney. L'",,.;. "", I" ... ",on l s'l counu ,." "''''"'. uhl<n du un". d'f,us de (G., age 21. (ailed h'"(" In f'I\Cn:' Icmplo,. I (Po",. PUF. 1977). 479-6'8 n: pmim (in'."' ..... "','h Xl unemplOj"...t <"Jedl "'; farher: policma " tu" a Ch.-'man). young pt<>pk) ,V toel'

six giving me

",01

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they

,n

Ihlt gOl

lelling. llle three

no

my them,

; ; ;;

bit in No

this main

ag<: 24, months in mons).

in China. ICfl

...hile so [ don't g<:1 into 1 lUI. 'Mlel [ failed Inc bac, I $p(n, the a summer "'orking :as a monitor V)(:;Ilion camp. Then I gOt a job ....i,h a in Dre"'K. I ....:IS a tnincc s...itor ...t aflcl I'NO 10 take 0...1 months it "':as union card SO I .... frttbncc. I didn'I fit in. 1 wIOle. lh ... gh .... a

'Once you've A...nked yo...r bac, yo...'re allody in Ihe shit. There are n no possible calccn and the jobs yo... In ,.." find a completely ...seless. 'All tnc jobs I did OIIC.e boring, so SCOOter for six m n h . I saved ...p some money so I could Ihing SlOp ....olking for . fe.... months. Its I ghurly job, yo... SCI com' Anyway, I prefel 10 Slop once in a

i exams, yo... ,- -'; school. and you up being intellce""a!' 'Nexi gOI a employmenl <kaling a bonus gi e
...alked 0...1. The ...om of t , you H...nk yo.... end trealed as an I job a8en9. as a office with wholesale here ...as a .0.... .bo...t T ...am'l v n 10 everyone. a slanging.match and I there Scptembcr I i lhen I wcnl 10 ment ag<:ncy. I was a o t s Th.I ..... I'vc ever done. lhe cruiol pletely pU:l.noid on yo... r SCOOlCi, all Il)'ing 10 )'0'" do...n. I ch ...cked il in, I ...ldn'r rake any more. Ihe .. 'Afler " got a lemporary job, ju t . holiday peliod, was on elcelronic called it. or like and I 51ayed for

:: ; on tccn minutes' extra break,

::

Ordcf-'oreer. 'SI21uS', 'promOlion' and 'gelling on.'

nlS(cnt of the mood of the first Romamic genera.ion. this disenchanled r(mramenl utKks Iht fundamental dogmas of lhe tilbourgeois

;; JdSk : n
sil

$llullion, whenever oldstyle autodidans. who SialiC<! out Ih ...'(Irk IS c;lrlier wilh a Ctrlifual d'iludn (CEP) or a SEPC and bound. Ih'It . 1 for c...llure, comt imo conran ... ;,h young hachtlim or new who bring Iheir amiinstitutional s.ance ...ilh ,hem a...todidaclS. the 11I$IIIUlion, Ihe duh of .g<:nerations often tako the form of a

vry foundnions of rhe social order. MOle radical. ...do... over lhe: . lf<onfKk:nl than the usu.1 fOlm of polilical comtation. and remi Ic5s

cllss wlllch Ihe ed...calional syslem scrvo JiafJlirally and the inlCls of i

rltr TR(I(;(;I.E TO KI!I!P UP The specific comradiccion of the scholastic mOlk of reproduction lies in {he opposilion betwctn the inter1S of Ihe

tho!: class members whom it sacrifices, Ihat is. the 'failures' who are Ihrealened wilh didaJJtmmi for lack of rhe qualilic21ions formally rt. 'I",red of "gll(ful members. Nor should one forgel those holders of 9ual.
,(,(jflons which normally'-i.e.. in an earlier Siale of Ihe relationship

imagining they're

when lt1ns are offered 10 all Iheoretically e9...al chnces of obuining (lualifi. .he off spring o( Ihe bourgeoisie (regardless of rank or sex) while (he access of Olhn classes to these 9ualilications , 'nc..... ( In ," __I , ' .. ' ,., ule lerms). The s.ra.eglcs whICh one group may a, I or: oyd10 (ry 10 escapc downclassing and to relurn to theil clau lraj. I a (hOSe which another group employs 10 rebuild the interrupled ' Ih
' 10 C ln 'n '" .. ..... .

hcl"'ccn diplomas and jobs-gave access 10 a bourgeois occupation, who. b.:-cau);( Ihey do nOI oliginale (rom Ihat clau. lack Ihe social capital 10 extract Ihe (u ll y,eld from their academic <jualili(ation. The ovrplod...c.
lion of <j...alolic3Iions and {he consc9...ent devl... ation, {end to bome a IlfU""'f".l1 (Onstanl .

in

co

nCWsp:lpc:r

b time my ent But seem to Everything ey went thro ith

month on s on rh

eraTOI" lhey Iha

four

0 hope l < .for 1r:ljlOry, a now one of the mosl important fanon t sformalion of social Slrun...res. The flllll individual s...bstiwtion whICh enable Ihe holden; of a social capital inheriled 'conII 1Itlm s 10 make up for Iheir Jack of formal <jualifiotions or 10 p,el the tel...ln flom thos.:: rhey have, by moving into rdnivdy un. lito", h fllaJ areas of social space (where social dispositions coum for l n academ,cally guuanlctd compclenco) )lk.: 'v . are combined with IIId <>b e S f".lle8'c .1 asserting rhe value of ( ormal 9ualificl1iolls la Ihe rewanls Ihey in ur of {he fOuke!.

it,II; ,,

!: buu:m
t

of

t 'n,ng

s aimed

secured

an earlier s e

Whereas in 1962 only I., pcrcem of scmi-skilkd ....orkers aged 1)-24 had Ihe BEPC. and 0.2 pcrcCnI til<: hac "[lureu Of 1. hig},(,r diploma, in 197) ,At corresponding pcrccnr1gc1 ",.,re 8.2 and 1.0. Amt)ng ...hite collar workers, who:n: by 1962 even in ,he oldest ago:-group ,her( was a r.:luive1y high percentage of di ploma.holden, the proponion of ,he very highly <Jualific<l lose fntcr among (he young, SO th?1 by 197) a lugcr proportion of them had higher 'lualitiotions (han did the older workers (in 1962, n.o percent of offICe workers aged I )-24 had the BEPC. 2.0 pcrccm the bacnbureal, Ind 0.2 pcrm a higher educmon dcgrtt. compartd with }S.O pcrccm, 8.0 ptrccnr Ind 1.0 percent in 197); IhI: cOTraponding figura in 19n for oldc:r snll" members wtfC \6.1 percent. 3.3 pe.cen, and 1.4 per cent). In addition 10 111 1h( changes in the rdadons bctwttn collcagu($ of differenl gener:l!ions that aft im plied in these statistics, one has to btar in mind the chulged relatiOn to ""ork which re5ulrs from puuing 1gents with higher qualifications into job-; that arC oftcn deskillw (by automadon and all tnc forms of fob mechanizuion ....hich ha'{c rurnw white-(ollar staR' ;nlO tnc produC!1on.line workers of the great bUfC'iu(racics). There is eery reason to think that tnc opposirion bt tween the 5Ome"'hat SttlCt and e>;en stuff)' rigour of the older staR' and the casual style of the younger workers, whkh is doubtlcss per ceived as sloppincss, especially when it indudes long hair and a beard (the traditional emblems of Ihe b0hemian utist or intellcctual), cx pr ?,lhcr more than a simple gencn!1on gap.

to c:ncour.agc the: emdon of a brge "'0;, J _;'&!IIgtoi positions, produced by redefining old positions or ing new ones, and designed to save un<;jualificd 'inheritors' from classing and to provio:k parvenus with an approximate pay-off devalued <.juaJifications. The: strategies agents uS/: to avoid the devaluation . grounded in the: discrepancy bctwt(" opportunities al any given moment 2nd aspir.l(ions based on an earlier tective opportunitics. This discrepancy, which is particularly lain moments and in ccnain social positions. generally reflcCls a achieve the individual or colk<:rivc occupational Ir:aiecrory which scribed :.IS an obicctivc potentiality in the former position and in j jtory lClIding to iI, When this 'broken effect example, in the ( of a man whose: father nkif1lJ and who becomes a sales engineer or a psychologist, or in of Iw gr.ldutc who, for Ick of soci1 capi[al, becomes a "'nm culwr.l1 workcr-the agent's aspirations, flying on above his real [01)' like a pro;ectile carried on by its own iner!i, describe an ItOI)' that is no less raJ, or is at any r.lte in no way ordinary sense of [he word, ThLS impossible objective scribe.:! at the deepest level o( their dispositions as or frustr.lted promise, is the common (Klor, behind 11 i belween Ihose sons and daughters of Ihe bourgeoisie 10 whom calional syslem has nOI given the means of pursuing (he InIjCl:tory likdy for their class and rhose sons and daughters of the middle working elasses who have not oblained the rewards whkh 'h ' ;;" ... : '1ualifintions would have gU2r.1ntec:d in an earlier state of the -11'1'0 categories who arc puticularly likely to II)' to rno"e inro positions. Agents who seek to avoid downdassing can either pations more closely malChing their pretensions justified in an earlkt state of relations between can Il:furbish the occupations to whkh redefining and upgr.lding them in with their When genrs sur! to arrive in a job who qualifications from those of the usual occupantS, they bring hilherro tudes, dispositions and demands with them into [heir Il:lation with job, in terms of both ilS technical and social definition; and this ily caU5CS changes in [he job itsdf. Among rhe mOSI visible served when the newcomers have high qualifications are n i division of labour, with autonomous status being given ro some tasks previously performed, in principle or in practice, by less -all-rr:ades (e.g., the diversification of rhe education jacks-of wdfarc fields); and, oflen, a redefinition of careers, relared ro [he genee o( expc'CIuions nd demands rhat are new in both form

The combined effect is

,lQr the break ...ilh ,he mlist, sratic model implied in certain o( the sociology of work, it h:l$ 10 be: cmph:l$ized [hal the pas' 1"0 [f.ld,r ;oo uccd eirher 10 rhe theorerical POSt, i.e., as de$Cribcd in Il:gula "nnor 'f(uJar5 or organization charts, or to the real posr, j,e., 1S de$Cribed n5, (is of observation o( the occupant'S real function. or even to rhe r;o {WOo In fact, po5tS, as Il:gards borh their thcoKri ip betWCC1l [he l[ioOSh re! r ition nd their pr.lclieal mlily, 1K Ihe sire of pcrm11lCnt srruggles, "I di. posi[ion.holders may cl:l$h with their supctiors or their subor h ,n ,, 'C with the occupanrs of neighbouring and rival poSitions, or ' themselves (old.eimers and newcomers, gr:adu1tcs and non.gr.ldu aspiring ro or lding 1 position 'y have an inler so on). [ . g It In such 1 way that II cannOt be occup,ed by anyone . .:s redefinin so cS;;" [han the possesrs of propcrtics identical ro their own. (Consider rhe 01 bc:1'Nttn ,Ilr:aduatcs of ENA and Polytcchnique or, in the middle . S[rueo I ell:nt generlILons 0f nUI'SC$. ) : be[WCC1I d' cll.

,..,fd. 0;

nh

, : .Jes

!h.G$('

p;,,,

',:;

There is every reason [0 suppose that the job redefinition f"CSulting rom 1 change in Ihe scholastic properties of the occupants-and all their ( :WQ(i.led propenin-is likely to be more or less extensive depending on lhe tliJJlidfJ of the technical and social definition of the position (which robably greater at highet levels in the hierarchy of positions) and on is p rhe J()(itJi origin o( the new occupant5, since the higher their origin, the kss inclined they will be [0 accept the limited ambitions of pelit. bour8CQis agentS looking for modest, predictable progms over a lifetime. Thest faclGrs ue probably not independent, Whether led by their 5ClIS( of 1 good investment and Iheir awareness of the opportunities .waiting ,heir eapil.l, or by the refusal to demean themselves by entering oroe o( the cslwlished occupations whose dementaty definition makes them invidious, those sons and daughters of the bourgeoiSie who arc thratencd with downclassing tend to move, if they possibly can, inlG the mas[ Lndererminue of the older professions and into the sectors where new professions are undc;r constructi n. This 'crealive redefinition' is ,;, . <tfore ( ound p.mcularly In rhe mOSI IIIMned and professionally un. . . StruCture d OCCUpafLons and m the newesl sectors 0f cuirural and unstic ProdUCtlon, s ch as 'h big public nd private enle!priscs engaged in cui IUra.] roducfLon (rullo, TV, markCling, advertising, social science re sear P h and $0 on), where jobs and careers have not yet ajuired the rigi ' o( the lder bu ucr.lfic professions and recruitment is generally cO habir Y -Opnon, Ihat IS, on the basis o( 'eonneclions' and affinities of I1Ither than formal qualifications. ns that [he sons and daughters ?f the Paris bo rgeoisie, rather than . log), di 1 essLon (e.g., tC:ILch Y ent.ermg a wdl-dcfined and hfelong prof e ore r hkely to enter and to succeed in positions, hal(-way be s nrhood and a profession, thar all: offered by the big cuitur:al

'

done' n,s, : bultau.

cLploltla

contcm.

. 1($,

OCcupations (or which the specific qualifications (e_g., a photogr.lphy or filmmaking, or a sociology or psychology

mem the official quali cations with the

degree) uc a ,genuine ticket ofentry only for those who are able

u I

'

'''

'-W"''''') , " ... )

,,

"

fi

The rdative .. .. e::ight of rhe differenr (uegorin invohed in duction system has radially changed in the last t.. dc::adcs. TlKc o gori of """sc-nrning producers (r("atcd by the ,x...eloprJl(nt of , . IC!C::Vlslon and rhe ublk and privatc rnnrch bod,n (npecially Ienc). have consIderably expanded. as has The re hin profess g ion, cr Ially In 115 lo.. strara: whe::re;lS the anisric and legal prof essions, rhat IIlrellec( al craftsmanship, have:: declined These changn, IOge::ther w ith . ways of organizing ImeJkcrual hfe (research commillec::s, brain t ranks erc.) and Institu tio a ized modes of communication . encn. ddmn. eIC ) te::nd II

to

ac

ndi,.

J J ,1.,6

and ,hal r.:auly (hus l(quire::s a ,alue on !he labour mukcl. I ' !o plodue:: not on Iy a n u ""r f changn III tIt ,1 b'kSS ,tI I<Jl Jou of chan8es III elhlCS ( c1olhing and cosmeuc" but also a ,.,hole SCt maga r""'! linilion of Ihe:: legitimale:: image of "o n on the body an the acknowl go:d aUlhoriti and f nansmil lhe ima of womanhood inarnued by ,hose: proI 1 .,.i 0 rnanlpulators ofbureaucralic charm. who arc rarionally sckcu:d carrmu({ure J ce ....irh a Slric::lly pro ra ,n accordan 1r.l1 m ful l lhe ihzc::d schools, Uty COntcsts and 50 on), fO ( .,Ih reau ric norms. ormity ....ith bu funCtions in conf

,lIalf"1'1.

II lu
n<d

helped

ed

ge

. m 0 (emllllll!!). Women, d rhe legillmate

d,{lOf1' The lions

Bu( (hc si(e par e::xce::lle::ncc of this rype of tnnsformation is "" "' fu in l e:: group of occuparions whose common faClor is rhal they mU:lmum re::lurn on rhe cultural lapilal mosr rransmi!lcd fiamily: good manners, good taste or physical charm. the :.\eSrhetlc and semi :.\eSlhe!ic intdltttual and .J I lions. rhe vanous nsultancy services {psychology, voellional speh rhenpy. baUty advice:, marriage (ounselhng diel : on), the educarional and par:t-eduCllional occupllins (youth I runners of d y< re:: CCntres, cultur:tl programme organiz rs) and v?lving. prcscmalion and re::prc::sc:mllion (rour organizers, h,,',. . CICe::rOnl, COUrlCr.)', radio and TV announcers, ne::ws ancho me::n show hosts, pinS atuch6. public relations people and so on ) .

bri nging new odn of rhought and expression, new themn and new . of conce::lvlllg IIlldlrual work and rhe role:: of thc intdk<"rual. The dfr of rhoc 'doprJl(nt:rogerh r wirh The considcnbk growth In . Slu<i<m populaTIon. placed In lhe POS'tion of app.cntice intdl luals' the emergo:nc of a ....hole set of scmiimcllIual c 10 have:: intdltual production' ....lIh i an'. namdy, an audience:: suffiCIently large:: I j for production and d tribution. Ihe unive::rsilY fidd II field. of a 'h,

nl 10 encourage the ducef$ more dirr!y subordlnared 10

new

Ii

r.c :\:

lc:: fIOOUf"1.r

((;minine

g mmed

orman(e:: of articularly in rhe field of 'consultancy', the perf r sr. p : rationalizc::d form of compete:nce in a class h uiKS no more:: .lhan a experts constilUlion of .' sOCllIy recogmzc::d corps culMc. The . . comln,,? abour hrough iahzlIlg in advice on sexuahty, whICh IS no . e gr.1dual profssionaizario.n of volunral), philanthropIC or pollllcal as whereby agents lend. wclallons. is 1M: paradIgmatic form of the process which is the:: basis of .al1 . ....uh that deep (Qnvicrion of d isintelnledn . mlsMnary zeal, 10 satiSfy their group Imctcsrs by dc::ploYlIlg ,be legl".

: offer lhe most OSI inde::rcrminate scctOr.)' of ,he social SflUctUrc: groun for (he operations which, by mnsforming old posi. .crc::lling' new oncs ex nih ilo, aim 10 produce areas of specialis!

cra

fi

most

of

and

is

cultufC.

marc culture:: wirh which they have:: been e::ndowro by the education sys win Ihe aC<ju ieS(ence:: of the classes e clu ed from lc::gitima!e ,em rhclr class cultu re::. in pro ucing the ncc:d for and rhe rarity From marri:lge counsellors to rhe vendors of slimming aIds, all those

c::ss

10

x d of

a a

co

Imposing ne::w uses o f the body an a ne::w bodily iNxis-the:: iNxlS which the nc::w u r isie o f the:: sauna bath. the:: gymnasium and th ski slope diSCovered for ilsclf-proclucr Ihe cor rc::spon ing needs. expc::cmions :and d'S5:u isfaCtions. Doclors and diel c::xpertS armed wilh the:: authority of

o \IIh now make:: a profc::ssion of supplying the means of bridging the gap b(t"cen 'is' and 'ought' in !he:: re::a lm of the:: body and its uses would be:: IlOThlllg ",ilhour the unconscious collusion of all thos who comribme 10 pro Cing an inexhauSlihk market for !he:: pro uCls they off r, who by e::

dU

bo

geo

Public and, npecially, private bUf(aucracics are:: n .... obliged !O perform o . rescmallonal and 'hosllng' funcrions ",hic::h are:: very diffcre::nt in both and stylc:: from tl>o5e traditionally e::ntrusr 10 mcn (diploma!$, i amch6 an 50 (0) ofren drawn from rhose: fractions of lhe:: i (the:: arislocracy and rn.: old bourgeoisie) who "<ere:: richcst in social and in ,he socializing thniqucs nsc:nl al 10 ,he malnte::nance:: of d" '" ,' . lal llIc new mJuire::menrs have led rO lhe:: rnce:: of a ....hole ma "'("panons and '0 rhc cstabllshmcnt of a ic siTimate marke::r Ical propcmn. llIc fact thu (e::rta;n worJl(n derive ",cupationa "',',

ed

"--

SCience::, who impose: the::i r definirion of ntmnality ,,ith hc::ighl.we::ighr l. balanced diets or modc::ls of s xual ad!uacy; cou ruricrs ....ho con I the sancti on of good rasre on the unallainable:: me::asuremenn of {ash In O modc::ls: whom rhe new obligatory uses of the body . P !OvlljC ' pc r "o lor .counde::ss wrnl gs and re::mmdelS (. arch your . \IIei htl' : . and . Someone Isn, own lif st . e:: yle in women's wcc:klics and magnin s for wellheeled vlI combine::, in the compelition be::twc::c:n them, 10 advance:: a r:l 1-lIch !he::y on serve so ",e::11 on ly bause the::y are:: nO lways :aware:: of krv I lflg it or evcn of scrving themselvn in Ihe:: process. .\nd IlIt:!.n I emergence:: of this ne::w petite bourgcOIsie::, which e::mploys ne::w 0 tho: f11anipulaTion ro perform il$ role as an illle::rmediary beTwcc:n and which by its very exisren(e:: brings abom a Transformarion

IlleS ex:; u::

-

adve::nisc::rs for W . bu glorify using . . .'); lourn:lhsts who e::xlll

ct

bolie imegtion of the domina[ed cl:usc:s by imposing nttds """ " incukating norms. LIIAN(.. f.s t N THE EUIlt:ATIONAl "TH[ Clearly i t would be ' see a merel)' mKhanica/ process of inl1a.ion and devaluation a. _ , .. mmive increase in the school populatton has caused a w'",,,,, ", f ormalions, both inside and outside the educational 5)'S[em, ma[ions at all its levels bUI also through defensive manoeuvres by ;" , ditiona] users. such as Ihe mu]tlplieauon of sublly ranked pths it and skilfully disguised 'dumping grounds' which help [0 blur lion of ils hierarchi". For [he sake of clarity. one may contras[ .. '.- of [he second1fY school system. In the older statl:. lhe organiz:ttton i.s organizattons and opcmion pmly through morphological

of [he posinon and disposi[ions of [he old 1>1:[I[e bourgeoisie, tan I underslood only in terms of changes in the mO<k of dominalion II ' ' subs[i[u[ing seduction for reprcssion, publie relations for tising for authority, the vel"e[ glove for the iron fist. pursucs

JrcJ b)'

;1 IS ::;;

tnsli[ution. the pa[hways i t offere<!. [he courses it [aught and'

C1uons it u:arded were all based on sharp dIvisions. cleaHul b the primary/secondary division pr()(]uced s)'s[ematic diff rences In I e mensions of [he culture taught. [he teaching melhods used and om:rs promised (It is signiflCan[ [hat thc division has been m";,,,.. or even slrtngthened a[ [he points where access (0 Ihe dominant now decidl-d-thu is. al Ihe point of slleaming for [ I in hi):;her eduulion. with thc division I>l:tween Ihe grandes ecolcs the rest.) In the prescnt stale of the system. [he excillStOn of the mass of working-elm and middleclass chtldren 'akes place nor a[

:,;

than under Ihe old system, which was chara[er. harsh manner 1& compelltlve exammatton. remorseless rigour of the natIonal 1;1 J Ih e new system fobs off a good number of tiS users with Ihat [he percetions lhat are en ualiflCa[ions, playing on [he faulty y [he anarchic profuston of courses and diplomas whICh are J<',.,I .-I cout1'-[O compare and )'el sublly ranked in prestige. However. it docs ificulr t as the old system: the Jl ,hcf1l into such abrupl disinvestmen o e [ f rc ( hierar h,es and boundan" between Ihe elte<! and the re (IO c t>iurlln wttn true and false 'jualifiC2uons, plays a pall in 'cooling 01,1[' 1("d. 1 m acquiescence in being coole<! 01,11. The new system favours t c Id n, opmcnl of a 1= realtstic. less resigned relationship to ,he future St"nSt" o( proper limilS. whIch was the basis of an acute sense I old [han I C ,,y The a/!Qti()xia which dIe new sys[em cncouragl"S in innu . f hlCr.lr, . . o bl ways is dl<: r ason why rclega[cd a}Jencs collaborate In theIr own overes[imating the s[udics on which [hey embark: over al on h)' . . banktng on posstble fUlures whICh do "lIm" hel! "ual ifKalions. and . ' ";J \ tbe reason why [hey do nOI Iluly ally eKtS[ for [hem; bUl II IS also and <Juali&aions. Ad ,he [ [he objective reality of chelf position . _ for the a[[Cliventsi\ o( tbe new or renewable positions lies tn tht n locale<! in social space, fan thaI. bein,l\ vl,l\ue and iII-dcfined. uncertalnl)" al" tn [he pas[) e often off ring (!Ike Ihe occupallons of 'anis!" or -inlelllU no of Ihe malerial or symbolIC cfl[cria--promo[ion, benefi,s, inCle

fx, [hc.kc

:p

!Mills-whereby social nme, and also social hierarchi", arc eKpcrienccd and musurcd. ,hey leave aspiraions considerable room for manoeuvre. They hus make i[ possible to avoid the sudden. final disinvesmem (r,,"ment [0 r(lircment. "!lIe indelerminate fUlure which [hey offer, a

years of secondary' schooling, Ihrough h,dden forms of eliminalion as repe:ue<! years (<<Juivalent [0 a deferred ehmma'tion); rdegallon ogntlton of scholasuc 3nd soci31 dcsllny; and finally. the lwardin eduC2tion and the whole sel o( internal [raining courses and second<lm courses. emailing a sflgma thaI [ends
(0

of primary schooling bUl sleadtly and Impalpably, all Ihrough ,b, '" induce i

Imposed by

'ision 1010 value<! cercifiC2tt:$. (I[ is remarkable [hal JUSI when lhe d" s[reams-strictl} 5pea.king, lru:re ""ere always thm:. with '

i tions offered by all the major government depanmentS--W2s disapl>l:u and !<) be recons[itUled at anolher level. Christiln Ihuddot Rocr Es[ahlct discoven.-d dlls dichotomy. which no one would

.orks and to cons"kr himself a 'nut' ;:'SIS In ad"erusing but conltnucs only a [empory expedientaliisl WIll tha[ Ihis mercenary Ir;I,Je IS Ih)t ! de: :lb lldoned as 500n as he has PU[ hy enough money [0 be ,"depcn. ; r. ork ambiguous OC(up:oltons exemp[ rheir praCtilioners from These t.

10 ttnt Ihe presem as a SOrt of emllcssly renewed provisional S[)[U$ and to n:gard one's 's[alion' as an accidental detour, like Ihe paimer who

pr1Vlle hilherto reservtd (or artisrs and imdlcctuals. makcs i, possible

occupations thaI arc clearly ddimi[ed and defmed from rc

mternahzing o( scholastIC divISIOns dcarly corresponding !<) social sions. ,he ntW system with " S fuzzy cbssifiC2tion$ and blurred edges couragcs and emefla;ns (a[ lea$t amonA tht ne... 'Imermt:(liarics' in space) np,rallons thai are [hcmse"'" blurred and fuzz}. Aspiration are now adjusled 10 seholasnc hurdles and $Iandard$ m a less SIn"

[houghl of denying since i[ was the clI:arc[ marllfts[tlon of ,,,, ,.,"0. [ie mtthanisms of rtproduClion.)I" Whereas the old system wllh i!s sllong]y marked ooundarics led

.... of disinvcs[menl and 'einv"lmenl thaI is implie<!. (or eampJe, In ""I[( hing from a 'vocation' U :I pllllosophcr 10 a 'vocation' as a phtlos. [t::Ichcr. or (rom allist to publici[y designer or all [eacher-or at [ 1110w them [0 dcfer thcir [ransfer indcf tnitely. 11 is not surprisin.t: tha ch people shoul,] be drawn [V sehemes of 'continuing education' (i) SU 'r<lI'ol1 r"m<ll1mlt). a perpetual s[udemhood WhKh oilers :In open. d un], ITtttcd {Utun; and conlraSIS diamctrically wi[h Ihe system of nalional rorn lIt lons designe<! 10 demonstrate, once and for all. and as early as lc [hal Ir. , whal IS dont cannol be undone.)1 t[ IS undersrandabk ,hal, like artlSIS. Ihey should 50 r adily em e :tes "" ng 10 1h.cItC and educal modes and models of youlh: II 15 a way of oneself and olhers [hal one 15 nOl fini[e. finishe<!. defined In

I b.r;:;

pIKe of abrupt, allr-nOlhing breaks, bel,,'eeo slUdy and work, work and retirement, !hcre is an i mpalpable infinllC'SimaJ Ii sider all the Icmponry or semi permanent occupations. students approaching rhe cnd of theiT course. which cluster '",.j, ('Stablished posi rions in scienti fic research or higher eduntion er anmher level. consider !he phaSl':d retirement now off ed by the . Evcryrhing take'S place as if the new logic of 'advanced' firms) the carional system and tconomic SySltm cncour:aged pwple to dder long as possible the momcm of ultimate crySTallization 1O": : ': .''d ; [he infinilC'Simal changes poii'll. in other words, the final t I , : which sometimes uke'S the form of a 'pc'rsonal crisis', I! goes withou l saying (har the adjustment between objective and subJcctive aspil':ltions [hat is rhereby C'STablished is bO!h and more subtly I'xtoTll'd. but also more risky and unSlabk. vagul'ncss in thl' images of Ihl' prcsenr and futurl' of onl"s way of acctpling limits. but it is also a way to avoid them. or 10 pUI it anO!hn way. a way of refusing them But it is a in bad faith. the produ<l of an ambiguous cult of revol ulion springs from resemmem at the disappoi mm l'nt of unrl"'Ii" k : ;: tions. Whl'reas the old system lended 10 producl' cleuly d : , . : , : cial idenr; t;es which Idl Imlt room for social fanr2SY but comfonablt and reassuring I'vl'n in thl' uncondillonal which lhey demanded, Ihe new system of srrunural instability in reserHation of socilll idenrity and its legi timatl' aspiratio ns lends to agems from the terrain of social crisis and critique to the rerrnin sonal critique and crisis.
. _

n be :secn how nai it is 10 claim 10 se:ult the qucstion of ' change' by locating 'newness' or 'innovation' in a particular JIlt space. For some. this site is at the tOp; for others. at the bottom. always eise:where, in all the 'new'. mar;l:tnal . 'excluded' or groups. for all Ihose: sociologists whose chid concern is to ness' into the discussion at all cosu. But 10 charactl'riZl' a class as v:ilive or 'mnov)ting' (without eVl'n spedfying in what respect It , by laci! rt"Course: to an ethical standard which is nl'cessarily cially, produces a discourse which states little more than the site ,r ". ' from hccause it sweeps aside what is essential. namely. the field gles. thl' systl'm of objl'crive relations within which positions and lUres are definl'd relationlilly and which governs I"'en those t aimed at transforming it. Only by rderence to the space 1II the ... hich defines Ihl'm and which they seek to mallltain or redefine. or undemand the stutegies. ind ividual or col1c<:tive.
ca
' ' ' ,

I.:OMPETITtVE STRUGGLES IINI) I}tSPLAI.:EMENT OF THE STRUI.: UR T

nized. which arc aimed at conse:rvint:_ transform in,!: or t to conserve.

nbk I) sho""s the relalionship hctween morphological changc in the dif krtnt cI:lSSCS and class (Uctions and Ihe exrent to which the members of ,lin( cla5SCS and class fractions make use: of lhe educalional sySfem. The as .'(I/umc of the groups whose soci:ll reproduction .... based. :I( Ihe beSin the period. on onomie inheri tance tcnds to decline or remain sta nln8 of lIonlry, ... hile. over the same period. theil children-who -...ill. to a rllent. loin the wagcaming catcgorio:s at the same level of the social hier ItChy-mike ,ncrcasins use: of Ihe educational system, Those cbss fractions "hieh arc expanding, which are mainly rich in cultural upiul and which the I'duc:ltional syslem as theil mam means of rcproduwon ( junior and 5t:nlor execulives. ckriul workers) tend 10 increase theil children'S !Choohng 11\ much Ihe same proportion as the se:lfmpIO)'cd caregorin oc Cupymg an C<:juivaknt posilion in the class Slructure. The reversal of ,he rd .v posillons of the commercial employe,! and derical workers. and also . the f.r workers and indus"ial manual workers. is I'Xplaincd bo,h by h r IntenSIfied schooling that is forel'd on the numerically <kclining ulego . <:5 (commercial cmployen, fa,m workers) and by the risc in the overall 1 characrcristics of rhese categoncs (seen. for example. in Iheil I'du qualtfic:ations) resulring from change in rheir internal SlTuctUr(" '11" ' " ns dlsperslon_nd. more precise:Jy. from the fact Ihat their lower :lve been particularly hard hil and have disappeared or reconvened. Ihr Si C hoollng rates shown in the graph ate probably overestimate!, since (iall allsllcs only take account o( young people living .t home. more espe doub" at low("r levels of the social hrcrarchy. The slight narrow In& I tan '0 1 which is pparent in lhe most recent period is due pudy rl<. 1 :U I1"Gn efft In Ihe highcst caregories and putly to tile fact ,hal S! 'nore the distribution of adolescents from diffelent cla.sscs be In ml( Courses that are IhemKlves strongly ...nkcd. Iktwecn 1968 1nd 1977 .0,] the proportion of industrial workers' children (who made up to rcent of the 17-ye:lr-old age groups ;n 1977) In rhe fifth grade of

tilt (iISC

n p.(,(o , n s and I'ClIctions whereby tach group suives 10 mai n tai n or (!I'llt ae: o s l osition in the soc:al sl((ure, or. more prc<:isely_t a stage p . . {!" ngcel'olution of class SOCIeties tn whtch one can conserve only by e 11\ Ih . O chanse SO 15 10 conserve. Frequently the actions whereby g I ehlns:;s (or elas:>; fraction ) works to win new adv2n tges i,e., to gain er classes and so, objC<:lively, fO reshape Ihl' ",11 . d n lge over the ot . obieClt reJauons belween fhe classes (fhe reJauons revtaled , , ure of Sin.t l Slalislical distributions of propcnies), are compenUted (or (and so t !ro' OUt ordinally) by the reactions of thl' O!hl'r classes. dirc<:led to n (1. rhe same objeclive. In this panicuJar ( thouSh very common) case. of these opposing aCtions. which cancel each Olher OUt by ..-:1 u!Come te countermovements which they generale. is an ove rall displace. t e ery nt of thl' structure of the distribution. hctween the classes or class nons. of Ihe aMelS at Slake in the competition (as has happened in
_

"ersion strategies arc nothing other than an aspect of the perma

Ied

of Ihe chances of univl'rsity I'ntrancl'-SCe tabll' I ' and figure 7).

Illgc

, 1"ShC:lI I I rt /'(I'\
0
.

::

pipbmcnt of KhQOling rates of !6- 10 !g.yelf.()l<l. !9H-!9n -_._ JCnlOI u<:curiVd,

j,1t J/II141

Jpdft IIlId IIJ I rllllSjtJr'rIlIlIlOIlS /

1J9

" ... ". ".

ess 92 prof ion.

H ,

... ... .... ..; "' ..;

- ....

'0: ...
...

40 42

39

//

/ // /. manila! ....orkers , 4) /,

/,' / 62 /' /
,
"

/ employers
"

/)6

, fU1TIIe1S

derinl :and

commercial employees

,-

/lO

,.,..

farm ....orkelS

...

(The do"od linn in<licut the ..hooIi,.

t t a ..

""

""

lxtwrtn 1968 >n<I 191).)

of l8yt",,01<10

191'

snu:: K'<ondary schooling n:m2med ConSt2n1 (.n.7 po=rccnt :lnd n.9 rcsp,,'ln. when:as Ihe proportion of SC'nlor execu{I"(S' lndl chIld ren ro5e from 1.4 po=rcen' 10 16.8 po=rccnL 1II0rwer, in " grade:. H.6 percen! of Ihe SC'nlor xecu{ics' :lnd I I in secllon C (scIentific). compared '0 20.6 children and H po=rcenl of Ihe mausmal ,,'olkers' childlen. only 9.8 po=rcenl of {he KnlOI C'xecu liv(S' :lnd prof(Ssion3lf childlen a '{edonie..!" SC'Clion. as 19a1nSI 24.6 po=rccnl of the firm workers' ana 28.7 po=lcenl of the mduwial workers' children. S,milar found Tn higher edUCUlon. ....hen: Sludents of working.ellW cfC'Olslngly releglled 10 til( lrtS and SCIence b""lti(S or to COUf:\C'S, when:as Ihe uppo=r.elass Sludents tend 10 be In aculties or. if academically less successful, in the medical f n.css school5. In the (OI:IC' of Ill( social SCIences. sclen,,6c discourse cannO! I condlllons of Its o....n <epllon This dcpo=ndS :lt all limes on the pn:vailing social problematic. which is itself ar kast pmly (1)(" reaClions 10 3n earlier f orm of thaI discourse. the irgumentS of my earliel "orks. Tht l"htrilQrs subsc<jUCnl rncareh has sho....n /0 erl on SIde "'Ith those who cfl"cie Ihm Wilhoul pic Irulhs ana an inability 10 think relationally. I 'i ' ; nOt a sufficient nplanation fOI nai"eties such lS th3f : , , In ml<idk-cI1S:5 Ie.::ruil!llem' 10 uni"ersili(S belween 19)0 I the bourgeois university had been transformed inlO OJ>(" , eludmg that mated by the middle dassesd' One only has 10 look at Ihe i faculriespo=ciaHy those of :inS and scien(ein the i I cducuion insfllutions by social origin of 'he" s,udcn,s fO kno.... ...haf Alain rhink of such .. $latisnul .nalySlS (highly pt:lliso:! t regn:ts thl1 " has no, hd Ih SU((C'SS II dncrvcs. proof of his greit knowledge of uniersity I t ....hich are situated at the 1 ....C'S, point of a fteld 0 gr.tndcs e.:olcs--'Olnd no.... even lo... el. 10 ludge from (Ill value of .he" dIplomas. 'han ,he- leas! presligious and mas. .he business sehools .h... h..ve prolifelated in .ecent O " h'' ' ' " ch..r:Ktcrisriu of dumping grounds. nOl leas. theil I : (and feminiul1on). It is as if Ihe "dcmoc{UiUlion' i I ... ele 10 be measured in .e.::hnial hIgh school in ,n Nor could anyone spok of a 'middk-class.oominlted uni"erslly had. consciously or unconsdously, confused Ihe level of rep!C'SC " ,, ,,," .he middle daS51:5 in the fiCuhysludenl popul..don ...i,h the ; : < ulty COlnncc for tIM> middle classes-in other ,,olds. confused the soci)1 composition of the fKulties wuh chlnge in lhe srrucrure ablliTlC'S of schooling, ) SlfUCIUn: ....hich has been shifled .eal ,nosfolmal1on.

160 / Fht iiClJTIomy o Pra(/utj J

'"';

'he inuial gaps :.tre mlinl3ini: in other words. ....hellC'ver Ihe u p f ",ch the inirill1y mosr disadlnta groups 10 come into po$" pt asset preiously poSSCSSC<l by groups immdialcly aboe . (he J.tefll S,on he SOCial h,erarchy or , mmedll(cly ahead of Ihem m the race are ortS o bc:mr.placed til'''' counterbalanced, al all level, b the eff . . ",ore miinuin .he scarelly and dlsnncflveness of .helr a5SC't!. One rOupS u ; struggle which rhe sale of leiters of nobility provoked g Ihe .hinks in the sccond half of Ihe sixtccnth cen e English aristocr.lcy long ,n ring a sdf.sustaining process of inHanon and devalualion of ur . I d , } (f ' The lowesl litlts, such as esquire or arms, were the first to be II which ....as devalued so fas, Ihar ,)ld( o f lowed by Ihe rank of knighl. a st holders had . to pres for the crealion of a new .title. that of jf (he ld IlIle. whtch 61led the gap betWCCn knIght and peer t Bu( this new f(1lm. was seen as a ,hn:u by the holders of the higher rank.

t ' 0 cSS \

'

;i : ; ;

; : :

i b:ro;:: Ihe ceruin depcmkd o :h alueconspire rummaintainig aholders bydislane:}<g Thusmb , aC<jumn Ihe the eXlstmg n "corners ' :hiCh mide: them rare; the suresl w:.ty dellu e :l tilk nobility is 10 holders, for their pan. objt< rchue tt as a commoner. The existing litlcs Il>C"m in f''dy dc"alue Ihe newcomers eilher by abandoning Iheir among Ihe litle erenccs r:.rrer ones, or by intrOOudng diff
10 .. 10

of

to

order 10 pursue holders linked to seniority in acceSSIOn to the tide (such as the manner s ofpo:sseslOg il). It follows thn all the groups il'l\'ol"ed in rhe race, ....har . e C\'er rank Ihe}' occupy. cannOI consc. .. rheir position, their r:.rriry, 'heir rank xcep' by running 10 kt"C:p Iheit distance from th immedialely

behind them. thus jeopardizing the difference which dislinguishes Ihe group immediately in front: or, to PUI il anOlher way, by aspiring to po$"

f;:[::
:; ;

50.! thaI "'hieh the group jusl ahead allady have, sd,'C'S will have, but laler.

and ....hich they them

The holders of Ihe r:.rreSI tirles can Iso prolCI themselves from com ptUlton by scning u p a numerus clausus. Such measures generally

....heneer the srreng.hs and etrorn of Ihe groups compo=.ing for a lyPC of isset or entitlement tend to ballncc one anolhe( oul. as in in which. ..fter SC'ries of bursIS in whiCh various runners forge 'h''''

A similar process of homotbetic deelopment seems 10 take

-- -

br.;omc necessar whenever rhe statistical mt<hanisms 'norma11y' pro y tc(flng .he group are found 10 be inadequale. The laiSS({bire which is ma'nt1lned so long s It discreetly protccrs Ihe mleres.s of Ihe privileged roup IS repllced oy a conscious prolcctionism, which nlls on institu IOnJ r do o opo=nly whal sccmingly neutral mechanisms did inisibly. To teC( themsclvcs against eKcC'SSie numbers. the holders of rare ,irlcs re lObs must defend a definition of rite job which is nothing other !h n t e def ,nition of those who occupy the posinon al a given Slale of t It: 1110nso lp bet"'ccn titles and jobs. Dccbring that the doctor, the 1rch t t Or the professor of rhe r Ulur mus, be ....hat they are ,OOay, i.e., "h1 t themselvcs arc. they wrile into Ihe definition of Ihe poSI. f or 111 te ty all the propcnics il derives from its small number of occu' Pnts . such as lhe K<ond..ry propo=wcs aSSOCIated with sc"ere sel CCtion , 'lJclu(j . '-<1(j ng hIgh social origin). thaI is, Ihe hmils pbced on compo=mion Ihe Changes it would bring In pI)cc of .a{istical bouOlbrics. which \c..ve gloups surrounded by

: : ;"' o.:

the 'hybrid' zone of which Plato speaks apropos of the boundary " ;:, and non.being, and which chalkngt'! the discriminatory : uxonomies (Young or old? Urban or rUI';II? Rich OT I : ; I or 'Iower.middle,?), thc numerus clausus, in Ihc extreme for it m ory Jaw, SCtS sharp, uirhmcrical limits. In pbcc from discriminat ciplo$ of selection, of inclusion and exclusion, based Ofl a "'";,:; fairly closely interrelated and normally implicit eritcria, it sets up an sdtutionalittd and therefore consdou$ and organize<! process of rion and discrimination, b:utd on a singk criterion (no women, Jews, or no blacks) which le:aves no room for miscl:assifiCltion. In thc most select groups prefer 10 avoid thc brutality, Of ;: : , mosures and 10 combine thc chums of Ihc apparent , , which allows Ihc members Ihc illusion of denion on grounds sanal uniqueness, with the Ctrlaint;es of selection, which ensu mum group homogtlltity.

: ::

: ;,;;:

Smut dubs preserve their homogeneity by subjecting upinnt to ry striCt procc.:lun ao of candidatull:, a recomod" ;OO' sentuion (in the litenl sense) by sponsors who have bers for a cerrain number of years. dection by The inidal special committee, payment of sometimes very high (,OOO francs per person li the Cerclc du Bois de Boulogne in fnncs al the SaintCloud Golf Club in 19n), plus The annual ,;;b;;,';;; (2,OO fnncs at Saim Cloud) lind 50 on. In facl, il would be pointless seck to discover whether the formal rules, which aim IOO"e all ,he group against oUlSiders (not so much other classes. which afe from the start, as other fractions of the same class, or even prove bers of the same fnoion) and on i tended to disguise the arbitrariness the conspicuous arbitminess which makes election a maner of i Aair is intended to disguise the official rules. 'We rake you if we Ii '0." took of you (C'tSl .. 14 lit, a" rli",, ),' uid one dub chairman; and 'Theil: arc clubs whet(' you need tWO sponsors and they accept almOSt Oil(: 'here are others with twO sponsors where: they're very chOOSY." ::: ; t on the quality of the sponsors: 'Normally you , everything depends 'WIit tWO or thrtC rs; with good sponsors, you don't 'WIil a< all' ber of the management committee, Cercle du Bois de Boulogne). although membership is not officially heitary, a ,,,,", plies to join the Cef(le du Bois de Boulogne will elder brother is a member. All the evidence suggeSIS that ber of them are: officially orvnired around some which is often a fC pretet (golf, polo, hunting, riding, sailing etc.), smm dubs (ItS d,,1n 'hia) are: 0f>P0$N " '1'";' ' ....ho5c members are: defined by po5SC$$ion of I common property ( fo' de la Voile de flaris), in That ' pk:, a yacht in the cue of the Ccrde ""''' account of ,he ....hole social person; and the more: pratigious they " , interats the mOil: concerned they at(' to achieve a total harmony of

;!2mi.'';

Club. the Cercle (for 'Irnple, the Jockeythis is tile case. du Bois de Boulogne or "-u Ccrcle), ,he morc only come from t is,social rality .of he ciTeria of sekcrion (an in advance as ]..t f'I :c. lhe from an obI'Xuficarlon of what IS Il:fuscd ,hi o<It51', C ,na vulgar, the group is able to persuade itself thaI ;t$ own uC; is buC<.I on no Olher principle lilan an indefinabk sense of propri :h;h only .memrship can pr,:"ull:. The mincle of mutual election elf. ,-d pcrfcc,,n wnh .gup5 ?f rntelle:C1uals, who are: not $0 naive as to ,chit' co:k the minmal ob)CC,ficat,on r'<!ullcd to fo a lub. ause lhey . (lUSI rn Ihe quasI-mystICal seruc of paru"p:mon whICh docs in cd" hC:ir h /J" p .kline t e" participants, the e_cluded outsiders (who nnnat even prove exclusive group e_ccpr involuntarily, th<ough ,heir de drc<I Istenee of the they 1IIempt 10 It) nd up ilting g:tin5t windmills "ons orinVI:sble burlers whICh separate them when the elcct. Intcllec, from ,out the: I arly Ihe. t p<esligious ones, Ill: extraordinarily im rgroups,. paticul. ThIs IS not only because one has to belong in o.der obJUuficlllon. :une 10:I praClinl mastery of ,he mechanisms of membership; it is also be hi''': canflO( objectify the intellectual ga ....ithout putting at sllke Ciu one 's o....n stake in the gamc--<a <isk ....hich is al once derisory and absolute. one
,.,Id

'

of downdassing and updassing which underlies a whole set of social proceues presupposes and entails thlll all Ihe grou con rned run in the same direction, toWard the me objectives, the same propt'tlies, those which af( designated by the leading group and which, by defini,ion, are unavailable to the groups following, since, whatever th ropert.ies may be intrinsically, Ihey arc modified and qualified by thell dllInCtlVe nrity and will no longer be what they arc once they are: multlplrcd and made available to groups lower down. Thus, by an ap plrt:nt pndox, the mainlCnllncc of order, (hat IS, of the whole SCt or frs, di,ffell:nces, 'differentials' . ranks, pre<:edcncc:s, prio<ilies. e_clusions. IStonctlons. ordinal properties, and thus of the relations of order which 81 a social formation its structure, is provided by an unceasing chan8e bstantia.1 (i.e., non.relaional) properti.es. This implies that the social CSt bhshcd ordc: , n order ofat any gIven moment IS lIlso necessarily a lemporal )lUt succions', as Leibniz pt it, C<lCh group havin8 as ils : , grouP ImmedIately below and for liS future rhe 8rouP immcdi lle1 abovc (one IY sees the atlracrion of evolutionist models). The (om. toUPS.are: scparafcd by differences which are essentially located in , 'he 8. 'uer of lime. It ident that mil;, is so important in Ihis system. The impost tlot) htnc t ltmacy which occurs through the compe.itive StT U8,!;ie and is l d"'t pre: Y.th.c gende violence of cuhura.t missionary work tends 10 prote slon, 9Uttly satsfyil'I in the sense: of a need which pre-c:xiSIS {he me:.ans of ade tho: 1Tl0 ' g. And in a social Ordcl which acknowlcdgcs {hat even , & IIIs{ depnvc.:l have {he right to every satisfaction, bIll only in ,he l1, the only aIlemauves are (=<11, wh' h allows immttlilile el1;oy, ' IC

The dialec,ic

fr;:

'

j 164 / 'fht /:.co'lomy o l'racllus

mem of the promisl goods but implies l((tplnce of a future merdy the (Ominultion of the past, or the 'imiluion'-m<.k cars, mock luury holidays md so on, Bu[ (he dialectic of downclassing and upclassing is p funClion also as an ideological mechni5m, whose dfec s
[

,,-. .,.

discourse strives to imensify, E1;pec;lty when rhey compare e labJishes a diff' rence which, like that which separ.lles

twecn the classes in the order of succions,

are exposed [0 [ conditions wilh rheir past, {he dominated sion that [hey have only to wail in order (0 realilY, they wilJ oblain only by struggle, By situating the

:;.

; generations, lik(' [he petit bourgeois who extend [heir own f , ,: ;: : th rough their children) but also [he mOSt unreal tr:.ljcctories

not only [h(' most absolute and unbridgClbk (since Ihere is t do bUI wait. sometimes a whole lif('time, lik(' [he pelit bourgeois quire {heir own houses a[ [he momem of retiremem, somecim('S cent (since a person knows that if he can W1l;t, he will in

successor in a social order governed by w(,lJddined ruks

whu he is promised by the ineluctable laws of evolution), In [he competitive struggle makes ev('rlasting is not diff'er('m
but the diff'erence betwttn conditions.

::;;<:
,",

m, do nOI nco:ssarily threaten the survival of the yslem; , lng ,he !iS{y gap and the corresponding fruSlrations arc the very s;I [ruclu ral re , !r he reproduCtion through displacement which perpetuatC$ the c rc0 sD of posi rion$ while transforming the 'nature' of conditions, r strU' bcCOmC$ clClT that those who point to what might be called I[ l properties and speak of the 'embourgcoiscment' of the working , ,,, ,lIna : .. e who try to refute them by pointing to ordinal properties, and Ihos laSS, are that the conuadictory aspectS of reality which they c aJ 1y unaw o ,rr in faCt indissoluble dimensions of a single process, The repr nalaf( a tltt' social structure can take place in and through a compeli. llon of d C ,.ggle leading [0 a simple displacemcnt of [he structure of ,. ' . ns, so long and only SO long as the members 0f [he domlll1[cd ' d,SIflbutio . ' suugs,e III eXlen"",d order, hat IS, through actIOns and dJSS(S enter the , lly, by thc eternal eff' clS e tiOM which art compounded only sl1usuca ('xert on th(' actions of others, in [he abscnc(' ch rhe aCtions of som(' f : any in[craction or rransa(lio, a d consequently in conditions of,ob ["'ifY, withou colle(llve or mdlvldual control and generally agamst . . , . rilt lntS' IOdlVldual and collective mteres[s.

I'-.

..-

.,

J '-' . " " "" " " i

'

f<lu

The limiting usc of these procesSC$ of su[;stical action is panic or tOUl, in

Collective and indIvidual delay has social consequences which furlhcr plicate this process, Relatively la[e arrival nor only reduces rhe d." i enloymeO!; il abo impliC$ a less bmilia!, less easy' relallonshlp ro ily or 15SCr in q estion which may have [cchnical rhe use of a car--or symbolic ones-in and al50 represeO! (he disguised e(juivaJcnt , rhe value of the aSSl:r or aCtivity lies in fhan i rhe deady linked fO exclusive or priority acccu) ""ho have an isfacllOfls i[ gives, The vcndall of goods and in [hese effcc[s of allodoxia, exploi[ these lags, offering, o;'.::: In the caSl: of holidays), or when they are our of fashion ties), ar the ' which have their ful! value

orming actions in ears by perf ,,'hich each an[ hclp$ to produce what he f Ij>lrtd by the fcared efl'cc[ (as in financial panics), In all [hese cases, rhe col Itcr;"t action, the mere sta[istiul sum of uncoordinued individual lCiions. b<b 1(} a collecrive result irreducible or hOSlile [0 rh collec[ive inteteSts lnd cn 1 the particular inte!CSts pUlSued by the individual actions, This 0 IS dearly wlltn rhe demonliu[ion produced by a pessimistic picture of rbe future of a class connibute5 [0 It.c decline of that class; in a number of )'s, the membelS of a declining daS$ contribure to the collective decline, I e rhe craftsmen who pus their children rhrough school while complain. h hl[ the cducuionll sYStem people from entering rhe :

diseourages young

Change, structure and history, reproduction and rh 'production dety", The real basis of such deba[es is the refusal w

II Once [hi$ mechani$rn i$ umkrstood, one perccivC$ the abur1c[ debates which arise fwm the opposilion of permanence

soci1 contradictions and strugslC$ arc nOt all, or always, in

with the perperua[ion of the C$tablished order; rha[, beyond C$CS of 'thinkin$ in pairs', permanence can be ensured by h structure perpetuated by mo"ment; that the 'frustrated which a (rea[ed by the [ime-lag between the imposition accC$s to needs (,mus[s, as [he marketing men PUt it)

and

',",;: :;;

. Compcullve struggle is [he form of class Struggle which the dom In ed claS$cS allow fO be imposed on them when they accept the s[ak('S , by Ie domInant classes, It is an inregrnh<e siruggle and, by vir rllO: f the Inilial handicaps. a rcproduCfive s[ruggle, since those who tt h chase, in which they are belten btf ore they start. as the con, srf)(/ '; the gaps tcstific:s, implicitly recognize the legitimacy of the Boals pO 't Yrsucd by lOose whom Ihey pUlSue, by the mere fact of raking

"'hich

J.tvln8 CSt2b ' hshed the logic of the proc('Sscs of competit on (or roul) C%f) den each agtnt [0 react in isolation to rhe effect of the tl C1 tlo I C ns of olher agenu, or, more predsdy, 10 the result of [he tahsllclJ regation of their isolated actions, and which reduce the (I 10 r gg state of a mass dominated by its own number, one can po:se

166 / TIN I!.()nomy oJ JJra(/I(tJ

rhe question, much debated at present ",, ; hi5!Olians,}' of th : ,!;; : e lions (economic crisis, economic crisis a period of and so on) in which the dIalectic of mutually chances and subjective aspirations may bre2k down. that an abrupt slump in objcctive chances relat;ve [0 {Ions is likely 10 produce a break in (he tacit ac(tpUnc( I irmcd elmes-now abrupdy excluded from Ihe race, objectivcj subjcCf;vdy-prcviously granted to the dominant goals, and so toY possible a genuine Invtrsion of the table of values.

Tbe Habitus and tbe Space of Life-st[es

The mere (act Ihal rhe social space described here 0,11 be prcS(nted as a diagram indkaus that it is an abstract rcprcS(ntllion, dclibc:rately con )t!ucre<l, like a map, (0 give a bird's-eye view, a point of view on the whole SCI of points from which ordinary agents (including the sodolo gist and his !"Mder, in their ordinary behaviout) see the social world. Bringing together in simultaneity, in the scope of a sin le glance-this is ;: It! h(uristic value---positions which [he agcnts nn never apprehend in thcir torality and in [heir multiple relationshLps, social space is 10 the Pr:lctical spacc of everyday life, with its distanct$ which arc kept or sig, nailed, and neighbours who may be more remote than strangers, what geOR1wical spac( is to the 'travelling spacc' (tJpa(( IxJdologique) of ordi nuy (xperience, with irs gaps and discontinuitit$. But the most crucial thing to notc is thar the Guesrion of this spacc is Within the space itself-that the agenrs have points of vicw on this ,e II , t( Vl space which depend on their position within it and in which wl ] t!\e'l ords [0 transform or conserve ir is often cxpresse<l. Thus many of Which SOCiology uses 10 designate the classes it constructs are k. W '-'QIIowed from Or ' nary _, m usagc, where rhey serve 10 cxpress the (genenlly ' f'ok Iew thaI one group has of anOlher, As if carried away by thei 'CI.I) V the 'o es[ or gre:l.ter objectivity, sociologists almost always forget thaI 1 ticcs b JeqS they classify produce nOl only objectively dassifiabk pne th.:fllkt also classifying oper:oIIions that are no less objectivc and are [ lta<ls ves dassifiable, The division inro classes performed by sociology O e antofcommon rOOt of Ihe c1assifiablc pucriccs which agents prothe c1assifintory judgemems they make of other agems'

::!({j

<lce

I IV

pr:anices nd their own. The hbitus is both the gener:ltiv objcrively dassifiabl judgemms and th system of ri pium dillisirmis ) of these pr:actices. It is in the rebtionship tWO capacities which define the habitus, the cap:idty 10 able practices and works, and the capacity 10 dilfcremiale nd these practices and products (tute), that the represented i.e.. the space of life.styles, is constituted. 1be relationship that is actually established between the char::llCleristio of economic and social condition (capital composition, in both synchronic and diachronic aspects) and the tive f aturtS auociued with the cormponding position in the of life-styles only bomes intelligible wh<-n th<- habitus is """ ; ormula which makes it possible to accoum both th<- gener::lltive f classifiable pr:aClices and pro<!ucu and for the judgemcots, .h,_ classified, which make these pr:actices and works into a system tive signs. When one spaks of the niSH.)Cr:atic asceticism of the pretension of the petite bourgeoisie, one is not only groups by one, or even the most important, of their endeavouring to name the principle which gener:ates II and all rheir judgemems of their. Ot other people's, habitus is necessity internalized and converted into a I generates meaningful pr:anices and meaning"giving perceptions; il gcner:al, transposable disposition which carries Out a systematic, application---beyond the limits of what has been directly necessity inhtnt in the learning conditions. That is why an whole SCt of pr:actices (or those of a whole SCI of agms produced ilar conditions) are both systemtic, inasmuch as they are the p the application of identical (or imcrchangeable) schemes, ( cally distinct ftom the pr:actices constituting another lifestyle. Because different conditions of existence produte differem h,b; systems of gener:ative $Chemes applicable, by simple Ir:ansfer. 10 the varied areas of pr:acticc-the pr::llctices engendeml by Ihe diffn:m the i appear as systematic configur:ations of properties the ences objectively inscribed in conditions of eistence tems of diR"cn:ntial deviations which, when perceived by agents with the schemes of perception and appriation necessary in order identify, interpn:t and (Valuate their perritH:"nt f eatures, function styles (5 figure 8).' The habitus is nOt only a structuring structure, which tices and the perception of pr:actices, but also a principle of division into logical classes which orpnill:S the of Ih<- social world is ilSd( the product o( imernaliZ)tion into soc ial classes. ch elm condition is defined, imultancously. intrinsic properties and by the relational properties which il deries it position in the syS!(1I1 of class conditions. which is also 1

I I f r.UI'''' J " N ''' I

r"'''"''

;;

$UUClurinc
...

wuc,..,d

I-bbd... t

""=,,," """" ...

"".m of
... (", .')

'pp'.."on

r of cWsi Kd and dossify,.., p'KtIC", i. . , distinct;" lie'" f' ... ..)

JTSIo",

.....,. .

;.:

....,""" of ;I"II(C 1 ...

c,e.

It ... l .'

differences. diff rcmial positions, i.e. by everything which e it from what It is not and especially from everything i t I'" i1 demit! is efinw and assc:rtd th:ugh diffcrence. I ffiClII$ . . . InevItably JIlswbed wlfhlll the dlsposmons of thc habitus is the structure of the system of conditions. as it pres<:nu itself in "'Co, ence of a life-condition occupying a particular position within ture. The most f undamemal oppositions in the snucture rich/poor ere.) rend to establish themselves as the fundamemal . ing principles of practices and rhe perception of . As a practicegcneraring sehemes which epresses the and freedom inherem in its class condirion the i ing that position. thc habitus apprehends differences between which it grasps in the form of differences between classified. pracdces (products of other habitus). in accordance with diff remiuion which, being themselves the product of Ihese e are obctivcly aHuned to them and therefore tcnd to perceive natural.

172 / Tht Elonomy 0/ Pr411iltJ

01'";;;:

observer who divide!! a population imo elana performs an which has ils equivaknl in social practice. If he is nor aware likely 10 prescnt a more or los modifiro form of a i scienlinc classincalion (a number of 'typologies' are precisely this). tion, he has no chance of bringing 0 the level of conS(iousnas the 1 status of his clmifying operadons which, like native knowledge, ,;, conncctions and comparisons and which. even ....hen they seem to the realm of social ph)1ics. in faC! produce and interpret SignifYing tiOlls. in shorr, to lhe order of the

ll>c

tively harmonized among themselves, wirh?ul any deliber ..riIt Ire objec y orcheslt:lte<l, wlthour any con )5 p rSull of coherence' and objectivel of rhe same cIus. The ,t U conc,rlalion' with Ihooc of all members . . S Cl s oll conrinuously generates pracncal mctaphols, thaI IS to say. trans ,bltU only one eample) or, ":,ore which the mnsrer of otor habitS is . . jtrS (0 the particular condLtlons s stemadc tt:lnsposlnons reqUIred by habitus is 'put into pt:lClice (so that, for example. Ihe as \Io'hlc t e In be eJfpct:tw always to eJfPrcss iuelE in saving ( cthOS . which might ' " --' . l ; cct " ,onteXI. eJfPrcss lise'" Ln a parucuIaf way 0 uSlIlg Cll Utl) . . y, in a g" ices of the same agent, and. more generally, the pt:lWces of all 1hc prac' affinity which makes each of , . , SlIme class owe (he stylistic age OIS 0 IrI __ .... of the olhus !O the fact that they are the p" . . ,,,,m a metaphor of any field to another. of the same schemes of action from one ' , uct 0, lrJ.nsfcrs 1 = " . tsposlnon ca 1-" nandwrmng, a _. ' , paradigm would be the d' ' An ""vtOU . lracing leucrs which a ways produces tne same writing, SlnguIar 'f, of . ' " C forms ....hich in spite of,1I the d merences 0, SIze, matenaI or L ,. ent pen blackboard) or the IIlsrrum colour due to the surface (paper or dLfferent :st of muscles-prestnt an r o chalk)-in spitt, therefore, of the wiardy perceptible family restmblance, Irke all the features of style 1nner whereby a painlCr or wriler can be recognized as infallibly as a

f prt'Isc:I

_ "

'

man by his walk.

;;;;'

JxquC$ Riviere calls the hnrth of mental activity', in ...hich the original .

True pastiche. as Prous! docs it, for eample, reproduces not !.he mOSt, Strik ,ng fe:aturcs a style-like p;arody or nr;cuurut the habllu$, ....hICh
ducoulSC is generated: 'We are amused to $a: each writer n:sU!recled"
,.."h hiS whole personality and, faced ....ith an eV(flt he hu n("Ver upen . . ....<:d. ruct jus. as he did '0 those which Irk brought him. The he nh of hit mental aCl\vity is rc:kindled, the limp relil in his br.lin:' of

While it mUSt be rC1SSCffed. againsr all forms of , nary eperience of rhe social world is a cognition. ir is e<:Jually i to realize-<onrrary to (he illusion of the spontaneous I consciousness which 50 many (heories of the awakening of class . sciousness' (pM di ltmltimu) amount ro--that misrecognition, recognilion of an order which is I Ln mind. lifestyles are thus the systematic products of hbitus, which, ceived in their mutual relations through the S(hemes of the come sign systems (hat are socially CJualified (as distinguished', etc.). The diakctic of conditions and habitus is the basis of an I ....hich tt:lnsforms the distribution of capital, the balancesheet relarion, into a system of perceived differences, dislinctive is. a disuibution of symbolic capill. legilimate capital, rruth is misrecognized, optratum) which a slfuCiuring . As structured produCls (modus optrandi) produces through rett:lnslarions according cific logic of the different fit/tis, all the pracrices and products of f '

(opus

""

SYSlematicity is found in the opus operatUm because it is in the modus Opel1l.ndi.' [I is found in all the propertind property-with which viduals and groups surround themsdves, hou!;CS. f milUre, paintin , ks. can, spirits, cigarettes, perfume. clothes, and III the practices III "'hLch they manifest their distinClion. sports, games, entertainments. only beca use it is in the synthetic unily of the habitus, the unifying, gen ' eltle . . . rrnCJpIe of all practices. Taslc. InC propenSLty and capaCIty 10 rDJ>l1a te (materially or symbolically) a given elm o.f classified. dmi. $I: g ob . IS or practices is lhe generative formula of !rCestyk, a umrary . t In t diStinctive pferences ....hich eprcss the same eplC$sivc intention specific logic of each of the symbolic sub-spaces, furniture. clolh Inll I anguage Ot body heis, Each dimension of life.style 'symbolizes "It . 1he others, in L.cibnizs pht:lse. and sym lilcs them. An old cabin lll'1 . e akef's . ....orld vicw. the way he maMges hIS budget, hts lime or hIS

'

"

/ "X

J t:."'''''ry

rTaUJ(fj

body, his use of langage and choio: of clolhing a("(" fully p nt ethIC of scrupulous, Impeccable cr:Jftsmanship and in the work for work's sake which leads him fO measu("(" the beaU ty UCfS by Ihe cue and patience thu have gone into them. :", The system of matChing properties, which includes p ,:: -: : : of a 'wlI.matced couple', and friends like fO say have tUtes-IS organtzed by tlSte, a system o( da.ssificafOry sche may only very partially become conscious although, as o fists social hicr:Jrchy, lifesryk is incrtasingly a mmer of what 'slylizalion o life', T:lS!e is the basis of Ihe mutual adjuslment , "m eatures associated WIth a person , which the old aesthetic '"', .;.; f for the sake of Ihe mutual reinforcement they give one anOI tr: . ' c coum"css plCCes 0f Imormanon a person consciously or imparts endlessly underline and confirm one anOlher, off ring e observer the same pleasure an anlover derives ffOm Ihe correspondences produced by a harmonious diStribution 0 The overdetermination tha, results from the rWundancil"S is t more str?ngly because the different f eatures which have fO be ;",11 servauo or mureme ! st.rongly In terpene!l'2te in ordinary . . lion ea.'h uem of mfo?,"allon Imparted In pr:JCfice (e.g., a ' . : a p;:nnung) IS conlam.nucd---and, if it deviates from the ture, corl"C([eO-by the efl"C(:t o( [he whole set of f ealu, .. ' , " Simu taneously perceived. That is why a survey which tends 10 i f C;ltufor example, by disSOCiating the things said from the way are sad-and detach them (rom the system of correlative f C;lWrtS 10 minimize the deviation, on each point, between the u th. between [he J:"tit bour is and [he bourgeois. In II . allons of bourgeoiS hfe, b:a nalltics aboul an, liter:J[ure or cinema scpar:Jble ftom [he steady tone, the slow, casual diction the d;,,,. , self.assurW smile, the mC;lSurcd gesture, the wdl. tailo r d suit and bourgeois salon of the person who pronounces them,

:.

es

';:t:
..d

;:: ;

': ;,1:;:

Thus, lacunae can {urn into n:fusals and confusion midc.:l?S. BourgNis rrspondcms puticubrly distinguish [hm ab.lity [0 conuol the JUr'lll1' sinmiOrl (and should take this into 1(coun[). Comtol over the i i i cultun: opelatcs i given to [hem by [he very un<:<lually distribu[cd to adop[ [he relation to language which is called for in all situa.ions lite convcrution (e.g., cha[tcr about cinema Or .r:tvd), and which poses an an of skimming, sliding and masking, making abundan{ . . the h.nges, hllen and q alifiers i<icn{ificd by linguists ; ,h"..."".,,;, bourgeois

disdainful

. ions; il r:Jiscs [he diffen:nces insctibed in [he physical order of form ob I[ t',lns. symbolic order of sign.ificam distinctios: t whICh a class COndillOn slgmflCS llself bodid 'l:iSSificd pnctices, in pr:Jctices, that is. imo a symhc eKp [.eiY t:lSle), into claSSifying, . . j(' h and IrI by percelvlllg them IrI lhelr mutual rela(lons (!rOug,bss position. S?urce of thc sys o classifica[ory schemes. Tasre, is thus [he s IrOn . f ocial Ch canno[ fall to be perceived as a, system el[u ' 'nct o( dSI/ ive f res whI , , <",' ' 1I10ns 0f eXIStencc. I C., lS a f cond" ((f"I on of a particular class 0 e rcssi who posses pr:Jclical knowledge of [he JIll x lifc-style, by anyone d!S[I"'{I s belween distinctive signs and positions in !he diSlribu p [ ctive propenics. --:hich i brought. to fdl twecn the universe of obje e universe of hfe [Ion (OnsuuClion, and the no less obJcctlV y scientific b nce, light as such for and through ordinary experie which exiStS 1cS: rnalization ry syStem. which is the product of the inte nlls classificato Im I( 't " pm.ges thtugh ' . ofsocial space. in the ' rm In wh' h the Sl/UClUn: l,mits of icular position ,I .Ihat space..15, wlthm !he . cpelicnce of a part lilt oSSIbilities (whICh It lends to reptoduce ib nomic """ ilides and imp r-0f,0 IUSICd to [11C regu"antICS ' , the ""ner:Jtor 0f practices ad' , in ItS own logic), " orms necesslt.es intO SIl1ItC n, II continuously Hansf hcn:n ' in a conditio without any. mccanical dCler:ni. cons[r:Jints into prefcrences, and, . lln hfe:styles. whICh cr-lles thc sel of 'choices' const!tu . nation, i[ gen . . their poslllon m I system of [heir meaning. i e , thcir valuc, from denve . made of necessity which con oppositions and correlatiOns " It is a virtue virtuc by inducing choices' whICh Itn o sly tr:Jnsforms neceSSIty into product. As on be secn correspond [0 [he condition of which i! is the condi ...hcnever a change in social position puts thc habitus into new taste of tlons, so thai i[s specific efficacy can be isolated, it is tlSl(-{he c which S l\t(eSlly or the laste of luxury-and not high or low incom . Through [t.(: pr:Jclices ob;cctivdy adjus[cd to these: tesources taste, an agenl has what hc likes because: he likes what he has, thai is. the P[opctliC$ actually given to him in the distributions and IcgilimalCly as SlgJlCd to him in the classifications.!

. '.. . ....... .

orr:;

uu

commands

Tht Homology between the S m pa

language.

Taste is the practical operator of the tr:Jnsmutation of ;:":,;::: . tinct and discinctive signs, of continuous distributions IIItO

lkanng in mind gener:J all thai pn:cedes' in palliculal [he faCt that Ihe . . tWe 1(11 emes of [he habilus are applred. by Simple tr:Jnsfer. to the mGS[ . dl1tllIla p r a("("as of pr:JClice, one can immediately undcrstand thaI [he lc s or g.oods 3ssocia[(d with [hc different classes in Ihe diff ren.t e e a: . StruCtures of oppos o [IOn f practice are organize.:! in accordance WIth "'hlcn are homologous (O one anOlher because they are all homolc) s to I Structure of objc<ti,'c oppositions between class conditions. WI/h whole of Ih (lu[ presuming 10 demonSlr:Jle hen: in a few pages what [he sh-but leSt [he reader t fail I 'Cli of this work will endeavour to cs[abli (} [he wood for the ItCCS of detailed analysis-I shall merely indi-

1 76

/ The Economy o Practices f

The Habitus and the Space of Lif e-Styles /

1 77

cate , very sche mat icall y, how the two maj or orga nizi ng prin cipl es o f the sOCI al space gov ern the stru cture and mod ifica tion of the space of . Cult ural con sum ptio n, and , more gen eral ly, the who le universe of l i fe-st yles . . In cult ural con sum ptlo n, rhe mam opposi tion , by ove rall capi tal val . ue, IS between the prac tice s deSI gna ted by thei r rarit y as dis ting uish ed, thos e of th fraC tion s nch est In both econ omi c and cult ural capi tal, and the prac tice s SOCi ally iden ti ed as vulg ar beca use they are both easy and com mon , thos e ? f the fraC tion s poo rest in both thes e respects . In the in ter med iate pos itIOn are the ract ices whi ch are perceived as preten tiou p s, because of the man Ifest dIsc repa ncy between amb ition and pos sibil ities . In opp oSIt IOn to the dom mated con ditio n, char acte rize d, from the poin t of Vlew of the dom man t, by the com bina tion o f forced pov erty . and un J usti fied laxi ty, the dom man t aest heti c-o f whi ch the wor k of an and the aes thet ic dIsp OSI tIOn are the n ost com plet e emb odim ents-p ropo : ses the com bma tlO of ease and aSCe tiCis m, I.e., self- imposed aust erity , rest rain t, reserve whI Ch are affirmed In that abso l ute man ifest atio n of exce : llen ce rela xatI On In tens ion . ' Thi s fund ame ntal opposit ion is spec ified acco rdin g to capi tal com . pos i tIOn . Thr oug h the med iatio n of the mea ns of appropr iatio n avai labl e to them , excl USIv ely or pnn Clpa lly . . . cult ural on the one han d , mai n I y econom Ic on the othe r, and the diffe rent form s of rela tion to works of an whI ch resu lt from them , the diffe rent frac tion s of the dom inan t clas s are one nted towards cul tura l ract ices so diffe rent in thei r styl e p and object and som eti mes so an tagol11st lc ( thos e of 'arti sts' and 'bou rgeo is' ) 6 that it IS easy to forget that they are vari ants o f the sam e fun dam enta l rela tion shIp to necessity and to tho se who rem ain sub ject to i t, and that each pursues the excl USIve app ropr iatio n of legi tima te cult ural goo ds and the aSSO Ciate d sym bol IC profi ts. Wh ereas the dom inan t frac tion s of the dom nan t class ( the 'bou rgeo isie' ) dem and of art a hig h degree of den ial f . the SOCI al world and mcl me tow ards a hed oni stic aest heti c of ease and fa Clht, symbolI zed by bou levard thea tre or I mpr essi onis t pain ting ' the dommated frac tion s ( the 'i ntel lect uals ' and 'art ists' ) hav e affin ities Wit h the ascetIc aspect o f aest hetl.ss and are incl ined to sup por t all arti stic revo lutI ons con duc ted m the nam e of purity and purifica tion , refu sal of os tent atIo n and the bou rgeois taste for orn ame n t; and the disp osit ions owards the SOCI al wor ld whI Ch th y owe to thei r stat us as poo r rela tion s . . nclm e then to wel com e a peSS ImI stIC represen tatio n of the soci : al wor ld Wl l1le It IS clea r that art offers it the greatest scop e, ther e is no . area o f practIce In whI Ch the m tent lOn of pur ifyin g, refin ing and sub lim atin facI !e Impulses and prim ary nee ds can not assert itse lf, o r in . whi ch th styh zatl on of hfe, I.e. , the prim acy of form ove r fun ctio n, whi ch lead s to the denIal of fun ctio n, does not pro duc e the same effects. I n lang uage, it gIves the opp oSIt IOn between pop ular ou tspo ken ness and the hig hly cen sored language of the bou rgeo is, between the exp ress ion ist pur suit of the plctureSljUe or the rhetoncal _ effect and the cho ice of res trai nt and false

simplicity ( l itotes ) . The same economy of means is found in body lan guage: here too, agitation and haste, grimaces and gesticulation are op posed to slowness-'t e slow gesturs, the s low gla ce' o nobili :y, . according to Nietzsche -to the restrall1t and ImpassIvIty whIch slgl11fy elevation. Even the field of primary tastes is organized according to the fundamental opposition, with the antithesis between quantity and qual ity, belly and palate, matter and manners, substance and form.
FORM A N D 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 exists, both within the middle classes and within the dominant class, between the fractions richer in cultural capital and less rich in economic capital and those whose assets are structured in the opposite way. Observers tend to see a simple effect of incom in the fact that, as one rises in the social hierarchy, the proportion of Income spent on food diminishes, or that, within the food budget, the propor tion spent on heavy, fatty, fattening foods, which are also cheap--pasta, potatoes, beans, bacon, pork-declines (C.S. XXXI I I ) , as does that spent on wine, whereas an increasing proportion is spent on leaner, ligh ter ( more digestible ) , non-fattening foods ( beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and espec ially fresh fruit and vegetables ) . 8 Because the real principle of prefer ences is taste, a virtue made 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 ne cessity. However, it cannot account for cases in which the same income is associated with totally different consumption patterns. Thus, foremen re main 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 records one has to take account of all the characteristics of social condi tion wh ich are ( statistically ) associated from earliest childhood with pos session of high or low income and which tend to shape tastes adjusted to these conditions.9 The true basis of the differences found in the area of consumption, and far beyond it, is the opposition between the tastes of luxury (or freedom ) and the tastes of necessity. The fo rmer are the tastes of individuals who are the product of material conditions of existence defined by distance from necessity, by the freedoms or fac ilities stemming from possession of capital; the latter express, precisely i n their djust . . men t, the necessi ties of which they are the product. Thus It IS pOSSIble to deduce popular tastes for the foods that are simultaneously most ' fill ing' and most economical1o from the necessity of reproducing labour power at the lowest cost which is forced on the proletariat as its very defin ition. The idea of taste, typically bourgeois, since it presupposes absolute free dom of choice, is so closely associated with 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 eco nomic necessity ( workers eat beans because they cannot afford anything else ) , failing to real ize that necessity can only be fulfilled, most of the time, because the agents are inclined to fulfil it, because they have a taste for what they are anyway condemned to. Others turn it into a taste of freedom, forgetting the conditionings of which it is the product, and so reduce it to pathological or morbid preference for ( basic) essentials, a sort of congenital coarseness, the pretext for a class racism which associ II ates the populace with everything heavy, thick and fat. Taste is amor lati, 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.

The Habitus and the Space of Life-StyLes /

1 79

One only has to describe the tastes of necessity as if they were tastes of lux ury ( which inevitably happens whenever one ignores the modality of prac tices) 12 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 l uxury i n one case, an effect of privation i n 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 constrain t 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 , of female employmen t does not decline as status rises. 1 3 This example should be borne i n mind when reading statistics in which the nominal iden tity imposed by uniform questioning conceals totally different reali ties, as o ften 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 refer nng IS the only sort they can expect, i .e., unpleasant, poorly paid work, which has nothing i n common with what 'work' implies for bourgeois women . To give an idea of the ideological effects which the essentialist and anti-genetic dominan t vision produces when, consciously o r unconsciously, It naturalIzes the taste of necessity ( Kan t's 'barbarous taste' ) , converting it lOto a natural inclination simply by dissociating it from its economic and social raisons d'etre, one only has to recall a social psychology experiment whICh showed that the same act, that of giving blood, is seen as volun tary or forced depending on whether it is performed by members of the privi leged classes or the working classes . 14

, facruring worker as the property of cap i ta l . ! ) The brand which Marx speaks of is nothing other than l i fe-style, through which the most de prived i mmediately betray themselves, even in their use of spare time; in so doing they inevitably serve as a foil to every distinction and contrib ute, purely negatively, to the dialectic of pretension and distinction which fuels the incessant changing of taste. Not content with lacking virtually all the knowledge or manners which are valued in the markets of academic examination or pol ite 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, appear ance 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 themsel ves into the prefabricated leisure activi ties 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 expl icitly 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 j ust 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 straints and reticence.

The taste of necessity can only be the basis of a life-style 'in-itsel f', which is defined as such oDly negatively, by an absence, by the relation ship of privation between itself and the other life-styles. For some, there are elective emblems, for others stigmata which they bear in their very bodies. 'As the chosen people bore in their features the sign that they we re the p roperty of Jehovah, so the di vision of labour brands the mal111-

Sixty-four percent of sen ior executives, professionals and industrialists and 60 percent of junior executives, clerical and commercial employees consider that 'the French eat too much'. Farm workers ( who are by far the most in cl ined to think the quan tity 'about right'-54 percent as against 32 percent in the upper classes ) 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 ( 3 2 percent of them consider that 'French people drink about the right amount' ) , though i ndustrial workers also accept it less frecl uently than the other categories. Sixty-three percen t of the industrial workers ( and 50 percen t of the farm workers, as against 48 percent of the executives, pro fessionals and industrialists ) say they have a favourable opinion of someone who en joys eating and drinking. Another index of their willingness to stand up in this area for heterodox practices which in cul( Ural matters they

1 80 / The Economy 01 Practices

would try to disguise is that they say that, i n a restaurant, they would choose a substantial dish rather than a light grill ( favoured by the senior executives ) or that they would have both cheese and a dessert. This is un derstandable when i t is remembered that, by its very rarity, a visit to a restaurant is, for most of them-5 1 percent of the farm workers and 44 per cen t of the industrial workers hardly ever eat in a restaurant, as against only 6 percent of the upper classes-somethi ng extraordinary, associated with the idea of abundance and the suspension of ordinary restrictions. Even as re gards alcohol consumption, where the weight of legitimacy is no doubt greater, the working classes are the least inclined ( 3 5 percent of farm work ers, 46 percent of industrial workers, 5 5 percent of the upper classes ) to set the minimum age for drinking alcohol above fifteen ( C S. XXXIV ) .
The boun dary marking the break w i t h the popular relation to food runs, w i t h o u t any doubt, between the man ual workers and the clerical and commercial employees ( see table against food than skilled manual workers, both in abso l u te terms
If'.

The HabituJ and the S pace 01 Lile-StyleJ / 181

16).

Clerical workers spend less on

,r, N
'" -

......

rI"\ ""'"

percent ) ; they consume less b read, pork, pork products

10,347

francs ) and i n relative terms

( 34.2

percent as against

( 9,376

m i l k , cheese, rabbit, poul try, d ried vegetables and fats, and, w i t h i n a smaller food b u dget, spend as much on meat-beef, veal, m utton and lamb-and s l ig h t l y more on fish, fresh fru i t and aper i t i fs. These changes in the Structure of spend i n g on food are accompanied by increased spending on heal th and bea u ty care and clothi ng, and a s ligh t increase i n spending on c u l tural a n d leisure activi ties. When i t is noted that t h e re duced spending on food, especially on the most earth l y , earthy, down to-earth foods, is accompan ied b y a l o wer b i rth-rate, i t is reasonable to suppose that it constitu tes one aspect of an overalI transformation of the relationship to the worl d . The 'modest' taste which can defer i ts gratifica tions is opposed to the spon taneous materialism of the working classes, who refuse to participate in the Ben thami te calculation of pleas u res and pains, benefits and costs ( e. g . , for heal th and bea u ty ) . I n o ther words, these two relations to the ' frui ts of the earth' are grounded in two dispo s i tions towards the fu t u re which are themselves related in c i rc ular cau sality to two objective fu tures. Against the i magi nary anthropology of economics, which has never shrunk from formulating u n i versal laws of ' temporal preference', i t h as to be poin ted out that the propensity to sub ordi nate presen t desi res to fu t u re desi res depends on the e x tent to wh ich this sacrifice is 'reasonable', that is, o n the l i kelihood, i n any case, of ob tain i ng fu ture satisfactions superior to those sacrificed. \ (, A mong the economic condi tions of the p ropensity to sacrifice i mme diate satisfactions to expected satisfactions one must i nclude the proba b i l i ty of these fu ture satisfactions which is inscribed in the p resent con d i t i o n . There is still a SOrt of economic calculation in the u n w i l I i ngness to subjec t existence to economic cal cu lation. The hedon ism which seizes

38.3 ( charmterie ) ,

francs as

day bv day the rare satisfactions ( 'good times ' ) of the i m mediate p rese nt

1 82 / The Economy oj Practices

The Habitus and the S pace oj Life-Styles /

1 83

c: IJ o '""

no future' and, in is the only philos ophy concei vable to those who 'have fro m the future 1 7 I t becom es clearer why the any case, l ittle to expect in the relatio n to practic al materi alism which is particu larly manifested the popula r ethos food is one of the most fundam ental compo nents of which is affirme d in and even the popula r ethic The being- in-the-present and take time as it the readiness to take advan tage of the good times ity with others ( who are often comes is, in i tself, an affirma tion of solidar future ) , inasmu ch as the only presen t guaran tee agains t the threats of the a recogn ition of the limits which define this tempo ral imman entism is bourgeois is fel t as a the condit ion. This is why the sobriet y of the petit from having it with break: in abstain ing from having a good time and his ambit ion of escapi ng o thers, the would-be petit bourgeois betray s is, he does not constr uct his whole from the comm on presen t, when, that i s h o me and the cafe, absti self-image aroun d the oppo sition betwe en h word s, betw een indiv id u al salva tion nence and intemperance, in other and collective solidarities .
for a drink but a place he goes to in . The cafe is not a place a man goes to can estab lish relati onsh ips of familiar he o rder to drink in comp any, wher e rships, conv entio ns and proprieity based on the suspension of the censo contrast to the bourgeois or petit ties that prevail among stran gers. In ter each table is a separate, appropriated bourgeois cafe or resta uran t, wher e , the working-class a chair or the salt) _xitory ( one asks perm ission to borrow al gives a colle ctive greet ing, site of comp anion ship ( each new arriv cafe is a is the coun ter, to be leaned on after 'Salu t la compagnie!' etc ) . I ts focus is thus defined as the host (he often shaki ng hand s with the landl ord-who shak ing hands with the whol e leads the conversation)-and some times who any, are left to 'stran gers' , or wom en comp any; the table s, if there are phon e calL In the child or make a have come in to get a drink for their of the joke-the art of rein is given to te typic ally popu lar art cafe free 'No joke' , ( hence the reiterated 'Joki ng apart' or seeing every thing as a j oke a second-degree joke ) , or prelu de whic h mark a retur n to serious matt ers okes, often a t the expense o f the 'fat u t also the art o f maki ng or playi ng j b se, in the popu lar code, his fat man' . He is always good for a laugh , becau than a defec t, and because the good ness is more a pictu resque pecul iarity sposes him to take it in good heart and natur e he is presumed to have predi word s, is the art of maki ng fun with see the funn y side. The j oke, in other mockery or insul ts whic h are neutra out raisin g anger, b y mean s of ritua l iarity , both s and whic h, presu ppos ing a great famil lized by their very exces whic h they use it, are in om with in the know ledge they use and the freed of build ing up while seem ing to fac t tokens of atten tion or affec tion, ways to condemn-although the may run down , of accep ting while seeming signs of stand-offishness. I also be used to test out those who show

:2 -- 0 0.... >< 0 ...c v . 2 .- M 2 ::;:j 0 -0 -0 0

...c: ....

5 .:; J2 ;..a ...9 c: as

c: '" :

u
'"

-0 v
::l

1:L t) t) <R

c: c:: '-' IJ IJ ...... 0... 0... 0

.
0
'0 c:

8 0 0 ..c ..c c: -;; 0

\..0

'" -0 -0 V) C _ _ o 0 0 '" ..c ..c:: -o

-0

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u v b.O b.O b.O-O (0::1 c:: '- '- '- V 0....

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THREE STYLES OF D ISTINCTIO N The basic opposition between the tastes of luxury and the tastes of necessity is specified in as many opposi-

184 / The Economy of Practices tions as there are different ways of asserting one's distinction vis-a.-vis the working class and its primary needs, or-which amounts to the same thing--different powers whereby necessity can be kept at a distance. hus,. within the dominant class, one can, for the sake of simplicity, dis tingUIsh three structures of the consumption distributed under three items: food, culture and presen tation ( cloth ing, beauty care, toiletries, domestic servan ts ) . These structures take strictly opposite forms-like the structures of their capital-among the teachers as against the indus trial and commercial employers ( see table 1 7 ) . Whereas the latter have exceptionally high expenditure on food ( 37 percent of the budget ) , low cultural costs and medium spending on presen tation and representation, the former, whose total spending is lower on average, have low expendi ture on food ( relatively less than manual workers ) , limited expenditure on presentatl n ( though their expenditure on health is one of the high est) and relatively high expenditure on culture ( books, papers, entertain ments, sport, toys, music, radio and record-player) . Opposed to both these groups are the members of the professions, who devote the same proportion of their budget to food as the teachers ( 24 .4 percent ) , but out of much greater total expenditure ( 57,122 francs as against 40,884 francs) , and who spend m uch more on presentation and represen tation than all other fractions, especially if the costs of domestic service are in cluded, whereas their cultural expenditure is lower than that of the teach ers ( or even the engineers and sen ior executives, who are situated between the teachers and the professionals, though nearer the latter, for almost all items ) . The system of differences becomes clearer when one looks more closely at the patterns of spending on food. In this respect the industrial and commercial employers differ markedly from the professionals, and a for tlon from the teachers, by virtue of the importance they give to cereal based products ( especially cakes and pastries) , wine, meat preserves ( foie
Table 1 7
Yearly spending by teachers, professionals and industrial and commercial em ployers,

The Habitus and the S pace of Life-Styles / 1 85

meat, resh gras, etc. ) and game, and their relative ly low spendin g on teachers, whose food purchases are almost Iden fruit and vegetab les. The all other tically structu red to those of office worker s, spend more than o s on bread, milk produc ts, sugar, fruit preserves and non-alc fraction than the profes holic drinks, less on wine and spirits and distinc tly less expensive sions on expensi ve produc ts such as meat--especiall y the most fresh fruit and vegetables. The meats, such as m u tton and lamb-and high propor members of the professions are mainly disting uished by the goes on expensive produc ts, particu larly tion of their spending which most expen meat ( 1 8.3 percent of their food b udget) , and especia lly the lamb, mutto n ) , fresh fru i t and vegetables, fish and shell sive meat ( veal, fish, cheese and aperi tifs.19 ial and Thus when one moves from the manual workers to the industr en and small shopkeep comme cial employ ers, throug h foreme n, craftsm ental change ers, econom ic constra ints tend to relax withou t any fundam figure 9 ) . The opposi tion . between the in the pattern of spending ( see nch ( nouveau tWO extremes is here establis hed between the poor and the and la grande bouffe;2 the food consumed is in riche ) , between la bouffe ingly heavy creasin gly rich ( both in cost and in calories ) and .increas ex gras ) . By con trast, the taste of the profeSS IOnals or semor ( game, foie for the heavy, ecutives defines the popular taste, by negation, as the taste and the the fat and the coarse, by tending towards the light, the refined ic constra ints is ac delicate ( see table 1 8 ) . The disappearance- of econom forbid compan ied by a strengt hening of the social censorships which slimness and distinct ion. The taste for coarseness and fatness, in favour of expensi ve or rare, aristocr atic foods points to a tradi tional cuisine , rich in vegetab les, meat ) . Finally , the teac.her , richer in cul rare produc ts ( fresh to scetlc tural capital than in econom ic capital, and therefore mclmed ption in all areas, pursue origina lity at the lowest econom ic cost consum culinary and go in for exoticis m ( I talian, Chinese cooking etc . ) 21 and usly opposed to populis m ( peasant dishes ) . They are thus almost conSCIo bouffe, the ( new ) rich with their rich food, the buyers and sellers of grosse have the econom ic means to the 'fat cats',22 gross in body and mind, who remains flaunt, with an arrogance perceived as 'vulgar ', a l ife-style which classes as regards econom ic and cuI tural very close to that of the working consumption. conEating habits, especial ly when represen ted solely by the produce cannot of course be considered indepen dently of the whole Itfe sumed, ar style. The most obvious reason for this is that the taste for particul only the vaguest dishes ( of which the statistic al shopping-basket gives con idea) is associated, through preparation and cooking, with a whole of the division of labour between ception of the domesti c econom y and bianquette, the sexes. : A taste for elabora te casserole dishes (pot-au-feu, a big investm ent of time and interest, is li nked to daube ) , which demand arly a traditio nal concept ion of woman 's role. Thus there is a particul

1972.
Teachers I n d ustrial and Professionals Francs commercial employers Francs

Type of spending Food' Presen tat ion Culture'

b

( h igher and secondary ) Francs

of total

of total

of total

9,969 4,9 1 2 1,753 ( 1972 ) .

24.4 1 2 .0 4.3

1 3,956 1 2 ,680 1 ,298

24.4 22.2 2.3

1 6,578 5,616 574

37.4 1 2.7 1 .3

Source: C.S. I I I

a. Includes restaurant o r cameen meals. b. Clothes, shoes, repairs and cleaning, toiletries, hairdressing, domestic servants. c. Books, newspapers and magazines, stationery, records, sport, toys, music, enter tainments.

1 86 / The Economy of PracticeJ

Fi gure 9 The food space.

The HabituJ and the Space of Lif e-StyleJ / 187

delicate lean

raw grilled healthy recherche exotic natural-sweet

beef ftsh fruit

reftned light

and of t h e sexual division of labour ( a woman entirely devoted t o house work is called 'pot-au-feu' ) , j ust as the slippers put on before dinner sym bolize the complementary male role.
Small industrial and commercial employers, the incarnation of the 'grocer' traditionally execrated by artists, are the category who most often ( 60 per cent ) say they change into their carpet slippers every day before dinner, whereas the professions and the senior executives are most inclined to reject this petit-bourgeois symbol ( 3 5 percent say they never do i t ) . The particu larly high consumption of carpet slippers by working-class women ( both urban and rural ) no doubt reflects the relation to the body and to self presentation entailed by confinement to the home and to domestic life. ( The wives of craftsmen, shopkeepers and manual workers are those who most often say that their choice of clothes is mainly guided by a concern to please their husbands. ) It is among manual workers that most time and interest is devoted to cooking: 69 percent of those questioned say they like doing elaborate cook ing (fa grande cuisine ) , as against 59 percent of the junior executives, 5 2 percent o f the small shopkeepers and 5 1 percent o f the senior executives, professionals and industrialists ( C S. XXXIVa ) . ( Another indirect index of these differences as regards the sexual division of labour is that whereas the teachers and senior executives seem to give priority to a washing machine and a dishwasher, for the professionals and industrial or commercial em ployers priority seems to go rather to a TV set and a car-CS. I I I . ) Finally, when invited to choose their two favourite dishes from a list of seven, the farm workers and manual workers, who, like all other ca tegories, give the highest rank to roast leg of lamb, are the most incl ined (45 percent and 34 percent, as against 28 percent of the clerical workers, 20 percent of the se nior executives and 19 percent of the small employers ) to choose pot-au-feu ( the farm workers are almost the only ones who choose andouillette pork tripe sausage-14 percent of them, as against 4 percent of the man ual work ers, clerical workers and junior executives, 3 percent of the senior executives and 0 percent of the small employers ) . Manual workers and small employ ers also favour coq au vin ( 5 0 percent and 48 percen t ) , a dish typical of small restaurants aiming to be 'posh' , and perhaps for this reason associated with the idea of 'eating out' ( compared with 42 percent of the clerical workers, 39 percent of the senior executives and 37 percent of the farm workers ) . The executives, professionals and big employers clearly distin guish themselves solely by choosing-from a l ist which for them is particu larly narrow-the dish which is both relatively 'light' and symbolically marked ( i n contrast to the ordinary routine of petit-bourgeois cooking ) , bouillabaisse ( 3 1 percen t , as against 2 2 percent o f the clerical workers, 1 7 percent o f the small employers, 1 0 percent o f the manual workers, 7 per cent of the farm workers ) , in which the opposi tion between fish and meat ( especially the pork in sauerkraut or cassoufet ) is clearly strengthened by regionalist and touristic connotations ( C S. XXX I V ) . It is obvious that the i mprecise classifications used in this survey prevent one from seeing the ef fects of the secondary opposi tion between the fractions, and that the ten-

strong-fatty-salty

yogurt

spices wine-spirits

fruit juice
CUL CAP. + T. ECON. CAP. SPARE TIME STATUS \;? +
food cons. cult. cons . +

frozen

jam

aperitifs patisserie

CULT. CAP. ECON. CAP. + SPARE TIME STATUS \;? + food cons. + cult. cons . -

charcutene pork pot-au-feu bread

salty-fatty-heavy-strong-simmered cheap-nourishing

CUL CAP. T. ECON. CAP. SPARE TIME STATUS 9 -

strong opposi tion in this respect between the working classes and the dominated fractions of the dominant class, in which the women, whose labour has a high market value ( and who, perhaps as a result, have a higher sense of their o wn v al ue ) tend to devote their spare time rather to child care and the transmission of cultural capital, and to contest the tra ditional division of domestic labou9 The aim of saving t i m e and labour . In preparatIon combInes with the search for l Ight, low-calorie products, and points towards grilled meat and fish, raw vegetables ( 'Jalades com pOJees' ) , frozen foods, yogurt and other milk products, all of which are diametrically opposed to popular dishes, the most typical of which is po t-au-feu made with cheap meat that is boiled ( as opposed to grilled or roasted ) , a method of cooking that chiefly demands time. It is no acci dent that this form of cooking symbol izes one state of female ex istence
,

Table 1 8

A n n ual ho usehold txptc n di t u res o n food: fractions o f the do m i n a n t class, 1 9 7 2 .

_._-------_._ . ------- ---- ._----

Teachers ( h igher and secondary ) Average n u mber persons per household Average total household expend i t u re ( francs ) Average total household expendi t u re on food ( francs ) Expend i t u re on food as % of total expen d i t u re
3. 1 1 40,844 9,969 244

Ind ustrial Sen i o r executives

3.6 5 2 , 1 56 1 3, 1 58 25.2

and commer Professions

3 5 57,122 1 3 ,956 24.4

Engineers
3.6 4 9, 8 2 2 1 2 ,666 2 5.4

------3 6 44,339 1 6 , '5 7 8 374

cial employers

'-.....

"OJ OJ

'"

Average expo As % o f all food Type of Food Cereals bread cakeS, pastries rusks flce flour Vegetables potatoes fresh vegetables dried or can ned Fru i t fresh fru i t ci trus fru i t, bananas d ried B u tcher's meat beef veal m u rton, lamb horse pork ( fresh ) Francs
865 322 452 16 3 ') 40 766 81 5 ') 5 131 632 295 236 102 1,556 814 3 3 ') 1 56 31 221

A v erage exp A s % of a l l food Francs

993 347 552 27 32 35 1 , 01 ') 94 729 191 871 405 313 122 2,358 1 ,291 452 315 49 251

Average expo As % of a l l food Francs

1 ,0 1 1 326 518 33 62 41 1 , 1 00 95 811 216 990 586 303 98 2,552 1,212 630 438 31 239

Average expo As % of all food Francs

95 1 312 539 28 41 31 899 98 647 1 54 864 424 324 116 2,07 3 1 , 1 44 402 242 37 247

Average expo

-----As % of all food expo

9.2 2.5 5.6 0. 1 0. 1 0. 1 7.4 0.8 5.1 0.8 5.2 3.1 1.4 0.4 14.0 7.2 2.3 2.2 0 5 1.3

"

expo
8. 7 3 2 4.5 0.2 0.3 0.4 7.7 0.8 5.6

expo
7.5 2.6 4.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 7.7 0.7 5.5 1 .4 6.6 3 1 2.6 0.9 1 8.0 98 3.4 2.3 0.3 1 .7

expo
7.2 2 3 4.0 0.2 04 0.3 7.9 0.7 5.8 1.5 7.2 4.2 2.2 0.7 18.3 8.7 4.5 3.2 0 2 1.7

expo
7 . '5 2.5 4.2 0.2 0.3 0.2 7. 1 0.7 5.1 1 .2 6.B 3.3 2.5 0.9 1 6. 4 9 0 3.1 1 .9 0.3 1 .9

Francs
1,535 4 ')4 989 29 33 28 1 ,2 2 2 1 52 91 5 153 877 547 2 56 72 2,323 1,273 377 390 94 187

i ;::;,

13
6 3 2.9 2.4 1 .0 1 5. 6 8. 1 3.4 1 .6 0.3 2.2

'ork products

634 336 336 235 36 149 299 692 399 320 66 12 1 304 711 457 82 13 157 3 44 152 82 9 745 2 64

6.3 3.4 3.4 2.3 0.3 1.4 3.0 6.9 4.0 3.2 0.6 0. 1

741 350 503 31 1 97 172 271 776 5 64 408 136 17 2 395 1 ,365 869 91 12 391 3 42 215 1 ,863 562 379

5.6 2.6 3.8 2.4 0.7 1.3 2.0 5 .9 4.3 3.1 1 .0 0. 1

774 233 719 399 148 1 90 2 49 843 525 379 132 12 1 265 1,329 899 40 0 389 267 291 1 , 562 22 1 258

5.5 1.7 5.1 2.8 1.1 1.4 1 .8 6.0 3.8 2.7 1 .0 0. 1

705 310 396 310 89 178 287 785 504 371 103 29 1 327 937 392 1 84 8 352 295 1 78 1,372 773 432

5.6 2.4 3.1 2.4 0.7 1 .4 2.3 6. 1 4.0 2.9 0.8 0.2

812 1 , 362 588 333 289 185 309 1 , 090 551 405 112 19 13 407 2,2 1 8 1 , 881 93 5 237 327 298 1 , 1 79 299 324

4.9 8.0 3.5 2.0 1.7 1.1 1 .9 6.5 3.3 2.4 0.6 0. 1 0.1 2.4 1 3. 4 1 1 .8 0.5

.feat preserves

'ish, shell fish

Joultry

{abbit, game

eggs

vf ilk

:':heese, yogurt Oats butter oil marganne lard ugar, confectionery, cocoa Icohol wine beer cider aperit i fs, liqueurs etc. Non-alcoholic drinks Restaurant meals Canteen meals M iscellaneous Source: C.S. I I I

'"

o
3 .0 7.1 4.6 0.8 0. 1 1 .6 3.4 1.5 8.3 7.5 2.6

o
3.0 1 0. 3 6.6 0.7

o
1 .9 9.5 6.4 0.3

o
2.6 7.4 3.1 1 .4

go
'"

<::!-

o
3.0 2.6 1.5 1 3. 0 4.0 2.7

o
2.8 1 .9 2.1 1 1.2 1 .6 1 .8

o
2.8 2.3 1 .4 10.8 6.1 3.4

o
1 .4 2.0 1 .8 7.1 1 .8 1 .9

:;:, ;:!

:s:.
:;:,

Coffee, tea

S-; '" t--, -'-..... "OJ 'D

( 1 97 2 ) .

10:

1 90 / The Economy of Practices

dencies observed would have been more marked if, for example, i t had been possible to isolate the teachers or if the list of dishes had been more diversi fied i n the sociologically pertinent respects.

The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles / 1 9 1

Tastes in food also depend on the idea each class has of the body and of the effects of food on the body, that is, on its strength, health and beauty; and on the categories it uses to evaluate these effects, some of which may be important for one class and ignored by another, and which the differ ent classes may rank in very different ways. Thus, whereas the working classes are more attentive to the strength of the ( male) body than its shape, and tend to go for products that are both cheap and nutritious, the professions prefer products that are tasty, health-giving, light and not fattening. Taste, a class cul ture turned into nature, that is, embodied, helps to shape the class body. It is an incorporated principle of classification which governs all forms of incorporation, choosing and modifying everything that the body ingests and digests and assimilates, physiologi cally and psychologically. It follows that the body is the most indisput able materialization of class taste, which it manifests in several ways. It does this first in the seemingly most natural features of the body, the di mensions ( volume, height, weight) and shapes ( round or square, stiff or supple, straight or curved) of its visible forms, which express in coun tless ways a whole relation to the body, i . e., a way of treating i t, caring for it, feeding it, maintaining i t, which reveals the deepest dispositions of the habitus. It is in fact through preferences with regard to food which may be perpetuated beyond their social conditions of production ( as, in other areas, an accent, a walk etc. ) , 23 and also, of course, through the uses of the body in work and leisure which are bound up with them, that the class distribution of bodily properties is determined. The quasi-conscious representation of the approved form of the per ceived body, and in particular its thinness or fatness, is not the only me diation through which the social definition of appropriate foods is established. At a deeper level, the whole body schema, in particular the physical approach to the act of eating, governs the selection of certain foods. For example, in the working classes, fish tends to be regarded as an unsuitable food for men, not only because it is a light food, insufficiently 'filling', which would only be cooked for health reasons, i.e., for invalids and children, but also because, like frui t ( except bananas) it is one of the 'fiddly' things which a man's hands cannot cope with and which make him childlike ( the woman, adopting a maternal role, as in all similar cases, will prepare the fish on the plate or peel the pear) ; but above all, it is because fish has to be eaten in a way which totally contradicts the mas culine way of eating, that is, with restraint, in small mouthfuls, chewed gently, with the front of the mouth, on the tips of the teeth ( because of the bones) . The whole masculine identity-what is called virility-is in volved in these two ways of eating, nibbling and picking, as befits a

The

body for the job

woman, or with whole-hearted male gulps and mouthfuls , j ust as it is in volved in the two ( perfectly homologo us) ways of talking, with the front of the mouth or the whole mouth, especially the back of the mouth , the throat ( in accordance with the opposition , noted in an earlier 24 study, between the manners symbolized by la bouche and La gueuLe) . . This opposition can be found in each of .the uses of the body, espectally in the most insignifican t-looking ones, whICh, as such, are predIsposed to serve as 'memory joggers' charged with the group's deepest values, its most fundament al 'beliefs' . It would be easy to show, for example, that Kleenex tissues, which have to be used delicately, with a little sniff from the tip of the nose, are to the big cotton handkerch ief, which is blown into sharply and loudly, with the eyes close.d and he nose held t1h t l y as repressed laughter is to a belly laugh , WIth wnnkled nose, WIde-open
,

1 92 / The Economy of Practices

mouth and deep breathing ( 'doubled up with laugh ter' ) , as if to amplify to the utmost an experience which will not suffer containment, not least because it has to be shared, and therefore clearly manifested for the bene fit of others. And the practical philosophy of the male body as a sort of power, big and strong, with enormous, imperative, b rutal needs, which is asserted in every male posture, especially when eating, is also the principle of the di vision of foods between the sexes, a division which both sexes recognize in their practices and their language. It behooves a man to drink and eat more, and to eat and drink stronger things. Thus, men will have two rounds of aperitifs ( more on special occasions ) , big ones in big glasses ( the success of Ricard or Pernod is no doubt partly due to i ts being a drink both strong and copious-not a dainty ' thimbleful' ) , and they leave the tit-bits ( savoury biscuits, peanuts) to the children and the women, who have a small measure ( not enough to 'get tipsy') of home made aperitif ( for which they swap recipes ) . Similarly, among the hors d'oeuvres, the charcuterie is more for the men, and later the cheese, espe cially if it is strong, whereas the crudites ( raw vegetables) are more for the women, l ike the salad; and these affinities are marked by taking a second helping or sharing what is left over. Meat, the nourishing food par excel lence, strong and strong-making, giving vigour, blood, and health, is the dish for the men, who take a second helping, whereas the women are sat isfied with a small portion . It is not that they are stinting themselves; they really don't want what others might need, especially the men, the natural meat-eaters, and they derive a sort of authority from what they do not see as a privation. Besides, they don't have a taste fo r men's food, which is reputed to be harmful when eaten to excess ( for example, a sur fei t of meat can ' turn the blood', over-excite, bring you out in spots etc. ) and may even arouse a sort of disgust. Strictly biological differences are underlined and symbolically accen tuated by differences in bearing, differences in gesture, posture and beha viour which express a whole relationship to the social world. To these are added all the deliberate modifications of appearance, especially by use of the set of marks--<:osmetic ( hairstyle, make-up, beard, moustache, whisk ers etc. ) or vestimentary-which, because they depend on the economic and cultural means that can be invested in them, function as social mark ers deriving their meaning and value from their position in the system of distinctive signs which they constitute and which is itself homologous with the system of social positions; The sign-bearing, sign-wearing body is also a producer of signs which are physically marked by the relation ship to the body: thus the valorization of virility, expressed in a use of the mouth or a pitch of the voice, can determine the whole of working class pronunciation. The body, a social product which is the only tangi ble manifestation of the 'person', is commonly perceived as the most nat ural expression of innermost nature. There are no merely 'phys ical' facial

The Habitus and the Space of Life-StyLes / 1 93

signs; the colour and thickness of lipstick, or expressions, as well as the shape of the face or the mouth, are immediately read as indices of a 'moral' physiognomy, socially characterized, i.e., of a 'vulgar' or 'distin guished' mind, naturally 'natural' or naturally 'cultivated'. The signs constituting the perceived body, cultural products which differentiate groups by their degree of culture, that is, their distance from nature, seem grounded in nature. The legitimate use of the body is spon tane ously perceived as an index of moral uprightness, so that its opposite, a 'natural' body, is seen as an index of Laisser-aller ( ,letting oneself go' ) , a culpable surrender to facility. Thus one can begin to map out a universe of class bodies, which ( bio logical accidents apart) tends to reproduce in its specific logic the uni verse of the social structure. It is no accident that bodily properties are perceived through social systems of classification which are not indepen dent of the distribution of these properties among the social classes. The prevailing taxonomies tend to rank and contrast the properties most fre quen t among the dominant ( i.e., the rarest ones ) and those most fre quen t among the dominated.25 The social representation of his own body which each agent has to reckon with,26 fro m the very beginning, in order to build up his subjective image of his body and his bodily hex is, is thus obtained by applying a social system of classification based on the same principle as the social products to which i t is applied. Thus, bodies would have every likelihood of receiving a value sfrictly corresponding to the positions of their owners in the distribution of the other fundamental properties-but for the fact that the logic of social heredity sometimes endows those least endowed in all other respects with the rarest bodily properties, such as beauty ( sometimes 'fatally' attract ive, becuse it . threatens the o ther hierarchies ) , and, conversely, sometimes denies the 'high and mighty' the bodily attributes of their position, such as height or beauty. U N P R ETENTIOUS OR UNCOUTH ? It is clear that tastes in food cannot be considered in complete independence of the other dimensions of the rela tionship to the world, to others and to one's own body, through which the practical philosophy of each class is enacted. To demonstrate this, one would have to make a systematic comparison of the working-class and bourgeois ways of treating food, of serving, presenting and offering it, which are infinitely more revelatory than even the nature of the products involved ( especially since most surveys of consumption ignore differ ences in quality ) . The analysis is a difficult one, because each life-style can only really be constructed in relation to the other, which is its objective and subjective negation, so that the meaning of behaviour is totally re versed depending on which point of view is adopted and on whether the common words which have to be used to name the conduct ( e.g., 'man ners' ) are invested with popular or bourgeois connotations.

1 94 / The Economy of Practices

Considerable misunderstanding can resul t from ignorance o f this mecha nism in all surveys by questionnaire, which are always an exchange of words. The confusions are made even worse when the in terviewer tries to collect opinions about words or reactions to words ( as in the 'ethical test' in which the respondents were presented with the same lists of adjectives to describe an ideal friend, garment o r interior ) . The responses he records in this case have in fac t been defined in relation to stimuli which, beyond their nominal identi ty ( that of the words offered ) , vary in their perceived reali ty, and therefore their practical efficacy, in accordance with the very principles of variation ( and firstly, social class ) whose effects one is seeking to measure ( which can lead ro literally meaningless encounters between op posing classes ) . Groups invest themselves totally, with everything that op poses them to other groups, in the common words which express their social identity, i.e., their difference. Behind their apparent neutrality, words as ordinary as 'practical', 'sober', 'clean', 'functional', 'amusing', 'delicate', 'cosy', 'distinguished' are thus divided against themselves, because the differ ent classes either give them different meanings, o r give them the same meaning but attribute opposite values to the things named. Some examples: soigne ( neat, trim, careful, well-groomed, well-kep t ) , so strongly appro priated by those who use it to express their taste for a job well done, prop erly finished, or for the meticulous attention they devote to their personal appearance, that it no doubt evokes for those who reject it the narrow or 'up-tight' rigour they dislike in the petit-bourgeois style; or drofe ( amusing, funny, droll ) , whose social connotations, associated with a socially marked 7 pronunciation, bourgeois or snobbish, 2 clash with the values expressed, putting off those who would certainly respond to a popular equivalent of drofe, such as bidonnant, man'ant or rigofo; or, again, sobre, which, applied to a garment or an interior, can mean radically different things when express ing the prudent, defensive strategies of a small craftsman, the aesthetic as ceticism of a teacher or the austerity-in-luxury of the old-world grand bourgeois. I t can be seen that every attempt to produce an ethical organon common to all classes is condemned from the start, unless, like every 'uni versal' morality or religion, i t plays systematically on the fact thac language is both common to the different classes and capable of receiving different, even opposi te, meanings in the particular, and sometimes antagonistic, uses that are made of it.

The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles / 1 95

which generally apply to the women, wh will share o e portion be tween two, or eat the left-overs of the preVIOUS day; a gIrl s acceSSIOn to womanhood is marked by doing without. It is part of men's status to eat and to eat well ( and also to drink well ) ; it is particularly insisted that they should eat, on the grounds that 'it won' t keep', and there is som thing suspect abou t a refusal . On Sundays, wh ile the women are on th Ir feet, busily serving, clearing the table, washing up, the men remam seated, still eating and drinking. These strongly marked differences of so cial status ( associated with sex and age ) are accompanied by no practIcal differentiatio n ( such as the bourgeois division between the dining room and the kitchen, where the servants eat and sometimes the children ) , and strict sequencing of the meal tends to be ignored. Everything may be put on the table at m uch the same time ( which also saves walkmg ) , so that the women may have reached the dessert, and also the child en, who will take their plates and watch television, while the . men are s IiI ea mg the main dish and the 'lad', who has arrived late, IS swallowmg hIS soup. This freedom , which may be perceived as disorder or slovenliness, is adapted to i ts function. Firstly, it is labour-saving, which is seen as an ad van tage. Because men take no part in housework, not least because the women would not allow it-it would be a dishonour to see men step outside their role--every economy of effort is welcome. Thus, when the coffee is served, a single spoon may be passed around to stir it. But these short cuts are only permissible because one is and feels at home, among the family, where ceremony would be an affectation. For example, to save washing up, the dessert may be handed out on improvised plates torn from the cake-bo x ( with a joke about 'taking the liberty', to mark the transgression ) , and the neighbour invited in for a meal will also rceive his piece of cardboard ( offering a plate would exclude hIm ) a a sign of familiarity? Similarly, the plates are not changed between dIshes. The soup plat , wiped with bread, can be used right through the meal. The hostess will certainly offer to 'change the plates', pushmg back her chaIr with one hand and reaching with the other for the plate next to her, but everyone will protest (,It all gets mixed up inside you' ) and if she were to insist it would look as if she wanted to show off her crockery ( which she is allowed to if it is a new presen t ) or to treat her guests as strangers, as is sometimes deliberately done to intruders or 'scroungers' who never return the invi tation. These unwanted guests may be frozen out by changing their plates despite their protests, not laughing at their jokes, or scolding the children for their behaviour ( ,No, no, we don't mmd', say the guests; 'They ought to know better by now', the parents respond ) . The common root of all these 'liberties' is no doubt the sense that at least there will not be self-imposed controls, constraints and restrictions especially not in eating, a primary need and a compensation-and espe cially not in the heart of domestic life, the one realm of freedom, when everywhere else, and at all other times, necessity prevails.

Plain speaking, plain eating: the working-class meal is characterized by plenty ( which does not excl ude restrictions and limi ts ) and above all by freedom. 'Elastic' and 'abundant' dishes are brought to the table-soups or sauces, pasta or potatoes ( almost always included among the vegeta bles )-and served with a ladle or spoon, to avoid too much measuring and counting, in contrast to everything that has to be cut and divided, such as roasts 2R This impression of abundance, which is the norm on special occasions, and always applies, so far as is possible, for the men, whose plates are filled twice (a privilege which marks a boy's accession to man hood ) , is often balanced, on ordinary occasions, by restrictions

1 96

/ The Economy of Practices

e-Styles / The Habitus and the Space of Lif

1 97

I n opposi tion to the free-and-easy working-class meal, the bourgeoisie is concerned to eat with all due form. form is first of all a matter of rhythm, which i mplies expectations, pauses, restraints; waiting until the last person served has started to eat, taking modest helpings, not appear ing over-eager. A strict sequence is observed and all coexistence of dishes which the sequence separates, fish and meat, cheese and dessert, is ex cluded: for example, before the dessert is served, everything left on the table, even the sal t-cellar, is removed, and the c ru mbs are swept up. This extension of rigorous rules into everyday life ( the bourgeois male shaves and dresses first thing every morning, and not j ust to 'go out' ) , refusing the division between home and the exterior, the quotidian and the extra quotidian, is not explained solely by the presence of strangers-servants and guests-in the familiar fam ily world. It is the expression o(a habitus of order, restraint and propriety which may not be abdicated. The rela tion to food-the primary need and pleasure-is only one dimension of the bourgeois relation to the social world. The opposition between the im mediate and the deferred, the easy and the difficult, substance ( o r function ) and form, which is exposed i n a particularly striking fashion in bourgeois ways of eating, is the basis of all aestheticization of practice and every aesthetic. Through all the forms and formalisms imposed on the immediate appetite, what is demanded-an d inculcated-is not only a disposition to discipline food consumption by a conventional structur ing which is also a gentle, indirect, invisible censorship ( quite different from enforced privations ) and which is an element in an art of l iving ( correct eating, for example, is a way of paying homage to one's hosts and to the mistress of the house, a tribu te to her care and effort ) . It is also a whole relationship to animal nature, to p ri mary needs and the pop ulace who mdulge them without restraint; i t is a way of denying the meanmg and 'pn mary function of consumption , which are essen tially common, by making the meal a social ceremony, an affirmation of ethical tone and aesthetic refinement. The manner of presenting and consuming the food the organization of the meal and setting of the places, strictly : dlfferen tlated accordmg to the sequence of dishes and arranged to please the eye, the presentation of the dishes, considered as much in terms of shape and colour ( like works of art) as of their consumable substance, the etiquette governing pos tu re and gesture, ways of serving oneself and others, of using the different utensils, the seating p lan, strictly but dis c reetly hierarchical, the censorship of all bodily manifestatio ns of the act or pleasure of eating ( such as noise or haste ) , the very refinement of the th ings consumed, with quality more important than quantity-th is whole commitme nt to stylization tends to shift the emphasis from sub s tance and fu nction to form and manner, and so to deny the crudely ma tenal real tty of .the act of eating and of the things consu med, or, which amounts to the same thing, the basely material vulgarity of those who i n d u lg e in the i m mediate satisfac tions of food and drink 29

The main findings of an extremely detailed survey of the art of entertaining ( C.S. XLI I I ) are brought together in a synoptic table ( see table 1 9 ) which confirms and extends these arguments. It can be seen first that, in the working class, the world of reciprocal invitations, spontaneous or organized, is restricted to the family and the world of familiars who can be treated as 'one of the fam ily', peo le 'you feel at home with', whereas 'acquaintances', 'connections', in the sense of professional or business connections who are useful in one's work, appear in the middle classes but are essentially a fea ture of the dominant class. One sign of this informality is that working class invitations tend to be for coff dessert or an aperitif ( whereas, at the ee, other end of the social space, invitations are more often fo r tea, lunch or dinner, or to go out to a restaurant ) . If working-class people prefer to limit their spontaneous invitations to the offer of a drink or coffee, this is be cause there can be no 'half-measures' in giving a meal, no 'quick and easy solutions' ( as recommended by the women's weeklies ) to save time and ef fort, such as a buffet or a single course. 30 This refusal to skimp ( the main thing is to make sure that the guests have enough to eat and that the food 'goes down well', secondarily that they are not bored) is even more clearly seen when the composition of the meals is analysed. For manual workers, a real meal is a meal with nothing left out, from the aperitif through to the dessert ( whereas the other classes are often willing to 'simplify' by omitting the hors d'oeuvre, the salad or the dessert. 3 1 Because substance takes priority over form, i f anything has to be 'simplified' i t can only be in the order of form, etiquette, which is seen as inessential, purely symbolic. No matter that the tableware is ordinary, so long as the food is 'extra-ordinary': this is a commonplace underlined by many ritual remarks. No matter that the guests are not seated as etiquette dictates, nor dressed for the occasion. No matter that the children are pre sent at a meal which is in no way a ritual-so long as they do not chip into the conversation, which is adults' business. Since informality is the order of the day, there is no reason not to keep an eye on the television, to break into song at the end of the meal or even organize games; here too, since the function is clearly recogn i zed We re here to have fun'-fun will be had, using every available means ( drinks, games, funny st ories etc. ) . And the primacy of substance over form, the refusal of the denial implied in for mality, is again expressed in the content of the goods exchanged on arrival: flowers, which are seen as gratuitous, as art, art for art's sake ( there are jokes to the effect that 'you can' t eat them' ) are discarded in favour of earthly foods, wines or desserts, presents that 'always go down well' and which can be unpretentiously offered and accepted in the name of a realistic view of the costs of the meal and a willingness to share in them.

-'

'

Given the basic opposition between form and substance, one could re-generate each of the oppositions between the two antagonistic ap p roaches to the treatment of food and the ac t of eating. In one case, food is claimed as a material reali ty, a nourish ing substance which sustains the body and gives strength ( hence the emphasis on heavy, fatty, strong foods, of which the paradigm is pork-fatty and salty-the an ti thesis of

1 98 Table 1 9

/ The Economy of Practices

Variations i n entertaining, by class fraction

The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles /

( % ) , 1 978.'
Clerical, junior Executives, industrialists, professions

1 99

Table 1 9

( continued ) Clerical, junior Executives, industrial ists, professions

Variations in ways of entertaining Spontaneous i n v i tations reserved for: close family close friends children's friends colleagues/associates I n v i te in advance: close famil y colleagues/associates I n v i te fai rly or very often for: coff ee dessert d i n ner Make spontaneous invitations for: aperi tif a meal Most important thing in spontaneous Il1 VI tatIOns: successful cooking enough to eat guests not bored Prefer to offer guests: buffet or single dish a ful l meal When entertai n i ng, use ( reg and often ) : silverware crystal glasses china crockery ordinary glasses earthenware crockery Like their guests to dress: elegantly casually Seating-prefer: to i n d icate guest's place guests to choose places to separate couples not to separate couples Children welcome ( avg. m i n . age i n years) : at meal at end of evening i n conversation Guests bring: flowers dessert
WIl1C

Manual workers

execs.

Variations i n ways of entertaining When entertain i ng, like:

Manual workers

execs.

51.7

34.7
35.9

20.9 2.8 1 .9
41.2

32.5 33.2
8.3 4.2

background music t o keep an eye o n TV singing after meal organizing games Source: C.S. XLI I I ( 1978 ) . a. This table i s read as follows: workers and junior executives less than

48. 1
14.4 64.9 66.4

3.4 3.1 33.1 8.4 48.4

24. 7

56.6 4.7 55.3 59.7

5 7. 7

4.2 45.3 50.9

30.2
1 8. 9

2.6
49.2

ous invitations to their close family,

23.7 5 1 .3
52.8

38.2 15.1
70.2

5 1 .7 % o f man ual workers restrict their spontane 20.9% to close friends etc . ; 34.7 % of clerical restrict such i n v i tations to their close family, 35.9%

t o close friends etc. For each question t h e total of t h e percentages may b e greater or

67.8 46.3 3 1 .9

1 00,

since for each question the respondents could choose several answers

or none. Iralic figures i n dicate the strongest tendency in each row.

39.2
40.0

23.9

1 0. 1 33.6

33.4 1 9. 4
7 7. 2

5.9 28.4 46.6 25.3 7 1 .6

9.4 26.0
4 7. 9 26. 1

70.9

27.8 29.3 39.6

84.8 60. 6

40.7 49.7 46.3 56.5 5 5.9 1 5.9 70.9 31.3 63 . 1 35.0

38. 4

61.5 5 7. 3 60. 0

5 5.4 54.8
30. 6

1 0.8
79. 7

58.5
46.0

29.7
65. 7

46.8
50.6

22.8 26.0

26.0

6.5 1 0.9 1 2 .0 4 1 .8
24. 6 1 8. 6

7.5 1 1 .9 1 2.2 56.3 1 6.6 1 6.9

8.8 1 2. 9 12.1 68.3

9.8 14.0

fish-light, lean and bland ) ; in the other, the priority given to form ( the shape of the body, for example) and social form, formality, puts the pur suit of strength and substance in the background and identifies true free dom with the elective asceticism of a self-imposed rule; And it could be shown that two antagonistic world views, two worlds, two representa tions of h uman excellence are contained in this matrix . Substance--Dr matter-is what is substantial, not only 'filling' but also real, as opposed to all appearances, all the fine words and empty gestures that 'butter no parsnips' and are, as the phrase goes, purely symbolic; reality, as against sham, imitation, window-dressing; the l ittle eating-house with its mar ble-topped tables and paper napkins where you get an honest square meal and aren' t 'paying for the wallpaper' as in fancy restaurants; being, as against seeming, nature and the natural, simplicity (pot-luck, ' take it as it comes', 'no standing on ceremony' ) , as against embarrassment, mincing and posturing, airs and graces, which are always suspected of being a substitute for substance, i.e., for sincerity, for feel ing, for what is felt and proved in actions; it is the free-speech and l anguage of the heart which make the true 'nice guy', blunt, straightforward, unbending, honest, genuine, 'straight down the l ine' and 'straight as a die', as opposed to everything that is pure form, done only for form's sake; it is freedom and the refusal of complications, as opposed to respect for all the forms and formalities spontaneously perceived as instruments of distinction and power. On these moralities, these world views, there is no neutral view point; what for some is shameless and slovenly, for others is straightfor ward, unpreten tious; familiarity is for some the most absolute form of recognition, the abdication of all distance, a trusting openness, a relation of equal to equal; for others, who shun familiarity, it is an unseemly liberty.

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201

The popular realism which inclines working people to reduce practices to the reality of their function, to do what they do, and be what they are ( ,That's the way I am' ) , without 'kidding themselves' ( 'That's the v.: it is' ) , and the practical materialism which inclines them to censor the expression of feel ings or to divert emotion i nto violence or oaths, are the near-perfect anti thesis of the aesthetic disavowal which, by a sort of essen tial hypocrisy ( seen, for example, in the opposition between por nography and eroticism ) masks the in terest in function by the primacy given to form, so that what people do, they do as if they were not do1l1g it.
T H E V l S l BLE A N D TH E l N V l S l B L E But food-which the working classes place on the side of being and substance, whereas the bourgeoisie, refus. ing the distinction between inside and outside or 'at home' and 'for others', the quotidian and the extra-quo tidian, in troduces into it the cate gories of form and appearance-is i tself related to clothing as inside to outside, the domestic to the public, being to seeming. And the inversion of the places of food and clothing in the contrast between the spending patterns of the working classes, who give priority to being, and the mid dle classes, where the concern for 'seeming' arises, is the sign of a reversal of the whole world \'iew. The working classes make a realistic or, one might say, functionalist use of clothing. Looking fo r substance and fu nc tion rather than forn1, they seek 'value for money' and choose what will

'last'. Ignoring the bourgeois concern to introduce formality and formal dress into the domestic world, the place for freedom-an apron and slip pers ( for women ) , bare chest or a vest ( for men )-they scarcely mark the distinction between top clothes, visible, intended to be seen, and under clothes, invisible or hidden-unlike the middle classes, who have a de gree of anxiety about external appearances, both sartorial and cosmetic, at least outside and at work ( to which middle-class women more often have access ) . Thus, despite the limits of the data available, one finds in men's cloth ing ( which is much more socially marked, at the level of what can be grasped by statistics on purchases, than women's clothing) the equiva lent of the major oppositions found in food consumption. In the first di mension of the space, the division again runs between the office workers and the manual workers and is marked particularly by the opposition be tween grey or white overalls and blue dungarees or boiler-suits, between town shoes and the more relaxed moccasins, kickers or sneakers ( not to mention dressing-gowns, which clerical workers buy 3 . 5 times more often than manual workers ) . The increased quantity and quality of all purchases of men's clothing is summed up in the opposition between the suit, the prerogative of the senior executive, and the blue overall, the dis tinctive mark of the farmer and industrial worker ( i t is virtually un known in other groups, excep t craftsmen ) ; or between the overcoat, always much rarer among men than women, but much more frequent among senior executives than the other classes, and the fur-lined jacket or lumber jacket, mainly worn by agricultural and industrial workers. In between are the j unior executives, who now scarcely ever wear working clothes but fairly often buy suits. Among women, who, in all categories ( except farmers and farm la bourers ) , spend more than men ( especially in the j unior and senior exec utive, professional and other high-income categories ), the number of purchases increases as one moves up the social hierarchy; the difference is greatest for suits and costumes--expensive garments-and smaller for dresses and especially skirts and jackets. The top-coat, which is increas ingly frequent among women at h igher social levels, is opposed to the 'all-purpose' raincoat, in the same way as overcoat and lumber jacket are opposed for men. The use of the smock and the apron, which in the working classes is virtually the housewife's uniform, increases as one moves down the hierarchy ( i n contrast to the dressing-gown, which is virtually unknown among peasants and industrial workers ) .
Every year, on average, manual workers buy more handkerchiefs, vests and underpants, and about as many socks, sweat shirts, sweaters etc. as the other classes, but fewer pyjamas ( like dressing-gowns, a typically bourgeois gar ment) and shirts. Among women, the class differences in underwear pur chases, which are clearly marked as regards price, are less strong as regards number ( and are even inverted for slips, nightdresses, stockings, tights and

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/ The Economy of Practices

pace of Life-Styles / The Habitus and the S

co ...... '<::j- O\ rY) '<::j- r-..... \C) 1.r\ '<:;j-- f"-.- lr\ CO I"-. ...... v-\ v-\ -..Q v\ v-\ v-\ tr\ \Q

203

handkerchiefs) . By contrast, among both men and women, purchases of top clothes increase in number and value as one moves up the social hierarchy. The transverse oppositions are harder to determine because the survey on household living conditions, which would show variations by five catego ries, makes only very rough divisions by item. However, expenditure on clothing ( almost entirely devoted to top clothes) varies strongly between the fractions of the dominant class, rising steadily from teachers, who de vote least to this item in both absolute and relative terms ( 1 , 5 2 3 francs per annum, or 3 . 7 percent ) , through the industrial and commercial employers (4.5 percent ) , senior executives ( 5 . 7 percent ) and engineers ( 6 . 1 percent ) t o the members o f the professions (4,361 francs o r 7 .6 percent ) . These dif ferc;nces in the value placed on these means of self-presentation ( shoe con sumption varies like that of clothes) can be traced back to the generative formulae which retranslate the necessities and facilities characteristic of a position and a condition into a particular life-style, determining the value and importance accorded to social 'connections'-smallest, it seems, among teachers, who are close in this respect to the petite bourgeoisie, and greatest in the ptofessions or the bourgeoisie of big business, which is not isolated in the statistics-as an opportunity to accumulate social capital. But in order to characterize completely the specific form which the basic principles of each life-style take in this particular area, one would need to have close y descriptions of the qualit of the objects in question, cloth ( e.g., the English associate tweeds with the 'country gentleman') , colour, cut, en abling one to grasp the taxonomies used and the conscious or unconscious expressive intentions ( ,young' or 'classical', 'Sporty' or 'smart' etc. ) . There is, however, every reason to think that clothing and hairstyles become 'younger' as one moves away from the dominant pole, more and more 'seri ous' ( i.e., dark, severe, classical ) as one moves towards it.3 2 The younger one is socially, that is, younger in biological age, and the closer, within the space of the fractions, to the dominated pole or to the new sectors of occu pational space, the greater the affinities with all the new forms of dress ( unisex garments of 'junior fashion', jeans, sweat shirts and so forth) which are defined by a refusal of the constraints and conventions o f 'dressing up'.

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The interest the different classes have in self-presentation, the attention they devote to it, their awareness of the profits it gives and the invest ment of time, effort, sacrifice and care which they actually put into it are proportionate to the chances of material or symbolic profit they can rea sonably expect from it ( see table 20) . More precisely, they depend on the existence of a labour market in which physical appearance may be val orized in the performance of the j ob i tself or in professional relations; and on the differential chances of access to this market and the sectors of this market in which beauty and deportment most strongly contribute to occupational value. A first indication of this correspondence between the propensity to cosmetic investments and the chances of profit may be seen in the gap, for all forms of beauty care, between those who work and those who do not ( which must also vary according to the nature of the job and the work environmen t ) . It can be understood in terms of this

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rable 20

( co n t i n ued ) Posi tive responses Positive responses

(%)

(%)

by occupation of head of respondent's household Clerical, Executive, industrialist, p rofessions Does not work

by aeti vi ty of respondent

N a -k

'"
Works

\spect of body, eauty or beauty care

Farm worker Manual

j u n ior exec.

Xi auld rather look:

natural

raffinee

69. 6

1 2.0

69.8 1 5 .6

62.8 22.9

57.6
25.0

68.8

"hinks husband prefers loman ro be: natural

1 6.8

6 1 .6 22.3

.... .

;:, "

m 8

"\:I

;::>..

raffinee

65.2

6.5 52.2
39. 1

65.0 8.1 58.5 35.4 14.0

83.3

5 1 .4 15.1 5 9. 2 33.5
1 7. 5

50.8
1 6. 1 61.9

60. 6

"hinks it is better to be: beautiful rich beau t i ful l ucky

1 0.6 5 9. 5 32.7 1 5.7 80.2

54.1 1 2 .3 58.7 33.9 1 4.4 80.3

'hinks i t is better to be:

27.5
1 7.4

9.8
83. 7

76.8

'hinks i t is normal to

75.8

se make-up to look

Junger a lose weight, uses: diet sporr, exercise drugs nothing

53.3 2 3.9 4.3 2.2

69. 6

5 1 .9 1 9.8 8.3
4.6 71 . 7

62.3
28.8

67.8

52.1 23.9 1 0.6 3.8 68.3

63.6

23.3
1 6. 9

14.0 3.6 60.6

3.0 66. 1

23.1 1 l .8 3.6 66.4

Approves of plastic sur-

gery to look younger

5 0.0 9.8 1 2.0

48.9

5 0.0 1 6. 9 29.6 35.6 45.6 1 5.9 8. 1

56.4

52.0
43.2 54. 7

5 1 .3 23.2 30. 1 35.1 42. 1 2 1 .0 9.8

53.4
32.0 44.8

Bath or shower at least

once a day

36.6 45.0 2 1 .2
48.9

Puts on make-up every

day

Puts on make-up never

or rarely ' Spends more than half

1 7. 3 45.3
27.8 20.8

22.9
48.2

an hour on grooming

12.3 4.3 6.5

Uses make-up to feel

good

25.9 1 6.9

22. 1 1 3.5

'"

Hairdresser at least once

a forrnight ight: with soap with make-up remover ete. Source: C.S. XLIV

Cleanses face every

.. ;:,

1:::

"" .... . ....

34.8

35.4

2 0. 1 86.0

1 5.7
91.4

28. 1 67.5

25.7
78.8

47.8 ( 1976 ) .

59.4

S'"
..

a. I talic figu res indicate the strongest tendency or tendencies in each row.

c:..,
N a v,

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206

/ The Economy 0/ Practices

The Habitus and the Space 0/ Life-Styles /

207

logic why working-class women, who are less likely to have a job and m uch less likely to enter one of the occupations which most strictly de mand conformity to the dominant norms of beauty, are less aware than all others of the 'market' value of beauty and much less inclined to invest time and effort, sacrifices and money in cultivating their bodies. It is quite different with the women of the petite bourgeoisie, espe . Cially the new petit bourgeoisie, in the occupations involving presenta tion and representatIOn, which o ften impose a uniform ( tenue) intended, among other things, to abolish all traces of heterodox taste, and which always demand what is called tenue, in the sense of 'dignity of conduct and correctness of manners', implying, according to the dictionary, 'a re fusal to give way to vulgarity or facility'. ( In the specialized 'charm schools' which train hostesses, the working-class girls who select them selves on the basis of 'natural' beauty undergo a radical transformation in their way of walking, sitting, laughing, smiling, talking, dressing, mak109-Up etc. ) Women of the petite bourgeoisie who have sufficient in ter ests in the market ! n wh !ch physical properties can function as capital to recognIze the do 1Oan Image of the body unconditionally without pos sessmg, at least 10 telr own eyes ( and no doubt objectively ) enough . body capital to obtam the h ighest profits, are, here too, at the site of greatest tension. Th self-assurance given by the certain knowledge of one's own value, espeCially that of one's body or speech, is in fact very closely linked to the position occupied in social space ( and also, of course, to trajectory ) . . Th us, the proportlO o f women who consider themselves below average 10 beauty, or who thm they look older than they are, falls very rapidly as one moves up the oClal hierarchy. Similarly, the ratings . women give themselves for the different parts of their bodies tend to rise with social position, and this despite the fact that the implicit demands rise too. It is not surprising that peti t-bourgeois women-who are almost as dissatis fied with their bodies as working-class women ( they are the ones who most often wish they looked different and who are most discontented with various parts of their bodies ) , while being more aware of the use fulness of beauty and more often recognizing the dominant ideal of physical excellence--devote such great investments, of self-denial and especially of time, to improving their appearance and are such uncon ditional believers in all forms of cosmetic voluntarism ( e.g. , plastic surgery ) . As for the women of the dominant class, they derive a double assur ance from their bodies. Believing, like petit-bourgeois women, in the value of beauty and the value of the effort to be beautiful, and so associat ing aesthetic value and moral value, they feel superior both in the intrin SIC, natural beauty of their bodies and in the art of self-embellishment and everything they call tenue, a moral and aesthetic virtue which defines 'nature' negatively as sloppiness. Beauty can thus be simultaneously a gift \

of nature and a conquest of merit, as much opposed to the abdications of . vulgarity as to ugliness. Thus, the experience par excellence of the 'alienated body', embarrass meneE, and the opposite experience, ease, are clearly unequally probable for members of the petite bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie, who grant the same recognition to the same representation of the legitimate body and legitimate deportment, but are unequally able to achieve it. The chances of experiencing one's own body as a vessel of grace, a continuous miracle, are that much greater when bodily capacity is commensurate with recog nition; and, conversely, the probability of experiencing the body with unease, embarrassment, timidity grows with the disparity between the ideal body and the real body, the dream body and the 'looking-glass self' reflected in the reactions of others ( the same laws are also true of speech ) .
The mere fact that the most sought-after bodily properties ( slimness, beauty ( etc . ) a.re not randomly distributed among the classes ( or example, the pro portion of women whose waist measurem ent is greater than the modal waist rises sharply as one moves down the social hierarchy ) is sufficient to exclude the possibility of treating the relationshi p which agents have with the social representa tion of their own body as a generic alienation , constitu tive of the 'body for others'. The 'alienated body' described by Same is a generic body, as is the 'alienation ' which befalls each body when it is per ceived and named, and therefore objectified by the gaze and the discourse of others.33 The phenomen ologists' 'body-for-o thers' is doubly a social product: it derives its distinctive properties from its social conditions of production ; and the social gaze is not a universal, abstract, objectifyin g power, like the Sartrian gaze, but a social power, whose efficacy is always pardy due to the fact that the receiver recognizes the categories of perception and apprecia tion it applies to him or her.

Although it is not a petit-bourgeois monopoly, the petit-bourgeois ex perience of the world starts out fro m timidity, the embarrassment of someone who is uneasy in his body and his language and who, instead of being 'as one body with them', observes them from outside, through other people's eyes, watching, checking, correcting himself, and who, by his desperate attempts to reappropriate an alienated being-for-others, ex poses himself to appropriation, giving himself away as much by hyper correction as by clumsiness. The timidity which, despite itself, realizes the objectified body, which lets itself be trapped in the destiny proposed by collective perception and statement ( n icknames etc. ) , is betrayed by a body that is subject to the representation of others even in its passive, unconscious reactions ( one feels oneself bl ushing ) . By contrast, ease, a sort of indifference to the objectifying gaze of others which neu tralizes its powers, presupposes the self-assurance which comes from the certainty of

208

/ The Economy of Practices

The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles /

209

being able to objectify that objectification, appropriate that appropria tion, of being capable of imposing the norms of apperception of one's own body, in short, of commanding all the powers which, even when they reside in the body and apparently borrow its most specific weapons, such as 'presence' or charm, are essentially irreducible to it. This is the real meaning of the findings of the experiment by W. D. Dannenmaier and F. J. Thumin, in which the subjects, when asked to assess the height of familiar persons from memory, tended to overestimate most the height of those who had most authority or prestige in their eyes.3 \. t would seem that the logic whereby the 'great' are perceived as physically greater than they are applies very generally, and that authority of what ever sort contains a power of seduction which it would be naive to re duce to the effect of self-in terested servility. That is why political con testation has always made use of caricature, a distortion of the bodily image intended to break the charm and hold ,:!p to ridicule one of the _ principles of the effect of authority i mposition. '\ Charm and charisma in fact designate the power, which certain people have, to impose their own self-image as the objective and collective image of their body and being; to persuade others, as in love or faith, to abdicate their generic power of objectification and delegate it to the per son who should be its object, who thereby becomes an absolute subject, without an exterior ( being his own Other), fully j ustified in existing, le gitimated. The charismatic leader manages to be for the group what he is for himself, instead of being for himself, like those dominated in the sym bolic struggle, what he is for others. He 'makes' the opinion which makes him; he constitutes himself as an absolute by a manipulation of symbolic power which is constitutive of h is power since it enables him to produce and i mpose h is own objectification.

the distinctive features ( e.g., wearing a cap or playing the piano) in the two respects in which it is objectively defined, that is, on the one hand by reference to the set of features constituting the area in question ( e.g., the system of hairstyles ) , and on the other hand by reference to the set of features constituting a particular life-style ( e.g., the working-class life style ) , within which its social significance is determined. For example, the universe of sporting activities and entertainments presents itself to each new entrant as a set of ready-made choices, objec tively instituted possibles, traditions, rules, values, equipment, symbols, which receive their social significance fro m the system they constitute and which derive a proportion of their properties, at each moment, from history.
A sport such as rugby presents an initial ambiguity. In England, at least, it is still played in the elite 'public schools', whereas in France it has become the characteristic sport of the working and middle classes of the regions south of the Loire ( while preserving some 'academic' bastions such as the Racing Club or the Paris Universite Club ) This ambiguity can only be un derstood if one bears in mind the history of the process which, as in the 'elite schools' of nineteenth-century England, leads to the transmutation of popular games into elite sports, associated with an aristocratic ethic and world view ( ,fair play', 'will to win' etc . ) , entailing a radical change in meaning and function entirely analogous to what happens to popular dances when they enter the complex forms of 'serious' music; and the less well-known history of the p rocess of popularization, akin to the diffusion of classical or 'folk' music on LPs, which, in a second phase, transforms elite sport into mass sport, a spectacle as much as a practice.
.

Th us, the spaces defined by preferences in food, clothing or cosmetics are organized according to the same fundamental structure, that of the social space determined by volume and composition of capital. Fully to con struct the space of life-styles within which cultural practices are defined, one would first have to establish, for each class and class fraction, that is, for each of the configurations of capital, the generative formula of the habitus which retranslates the necessities and facilities characteristic of that class of ( relatively) homogeneous conditions of existence into a par ticular life-style. One would then have to determine how the dispositions of the habitus are specified, for each of the major areas of practice, by im plementing one of the stylistic possibles offered by each field ( the field of sport, or music, or food, decoration, politics, language etc. ) . By superim posing these homologous spaces one would obtain a rigorous representa tion of the space of life-styles, making it possible to characterize each of

The Universes of Stylistic Possibles

The distributional properties which are conferred on the different practices when they are evaluated by agents possessing a practical knowl edge of their distribu tion among agents who are themselves distributed into ranked classes, or, in other words, of the probability, for the different classes, of practising them, do indeed owe much to past patterns of dis tribution, because of the effects of hysteresis. The 'aristocratic' image of sportS like tennis, riding or golf can persist beyond a-relative-transfor mation of the material conditions of access, whereas pitanque (a form of bowls ) , doubly stigmatized by its popular and southern origins and con nections, has a distributional significance very similar to that of Ricard or other strong drinks and all the cheap, strong foods which are supposed to give strength. But distributional properties are not the only ones conferred on goods by the agents' perception of them . Because agents apprehend objects through the schemes of perception and appreciation of their habitus, it would be naive to suppose that all practitioners of the same sport ( or any other practice) confer the same meaning on thei r practice or even,

Strength and Silhouette

I Started, but all the same ]"'e put inches on my shoulders, } inches on my chesr and I VI inches on my ums, and all th)t in juSt three months. It's kyond my ....ildest hopes. My muscles ;Ire several inches biMer and my strength has doubled, ] feel like a new man. My parents and friends used to make fun of me, but no"" my father getS me ro take off my shin and sho.... visitors ....hu I've achieved. thanks ro you.' Prospectus xlliptllrr HII",,,illt

'] "'11$ no ,.,nkling (or my age ....hen

(Of

. speaking, Chat rhq> art pl1lc!ising rhe same practice. II can easily tIf... thaC the different cJ do not agree on rhe profits eXpted "flc n bC ft, be thq> spific physical profits, such as effects on the cxlernal elegance or visible muscl, and on the internal body, (roI'i e slimness, laxation; or elltrinsic profits, such as the social lation th or like spOrt may facilicale, or possible economic and social advantagc1. a j/I!pS hOugh there are CUC$ in which the dominant function of the prac t i nably clearly design ated, onc s pfllctically never emitled to e IS t" c that rhe different d Cllpect che same rhing from Ihc same For examp e, gymnastics may k asked-this is the popular de c isfi d by bodybuilding-to produce a strong body, fing the e l11an sa h 1l signs of its strengt , or a healthy body-this is the bourgeois de elf(d satisfied by 'keep-fit' ellercises Of 'slimnastics'--or. with (he 'new I11lfl tics', a 'likmed' body-this is the demand chll1lCleristic of Jf:fI mcn in the new ffllctions of the bourgeoisie and petite boufgcoisie," merhodical analysis of the variations in the function and meaning confrrred on the different sporting activities will enable one to escape ormal 'typologies' based <it is III<- law o( Ihe genre) on from absrnct, ( the researcher's personal upetience; and to COnStruct the umvnulizing t:lbk o( the sociologically pertinent f (1turrs in terms of which the agems (consciously or unconsciously) (hODS( their sports.

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sho n

'The President's rennis lesson, Puis. July 1978. Like a gro....ing number of prople in France, President V:lltry Giscatd d'Estaing is in terested in tennis, To improve his style. he now takes regular nrly morning lessons in a club on the otJt$kirrs of Paris, ....here OIlr ph0tographer surprised him.'
T If'J''\lllg,,i'"/Sfgma tII

. ""n 2C$thete o( to k sensitive to the his body:' Karl The Paris fuhion Insr thiny minutes " : trim. HIS bedroom, ;h"h rumed into a home gymnuium. contains all sorts o( .ppaNtU!; exercise bicycle. wall bars. ;I etc machine. a massage machine . Back from his holidays in onl' Tropez (where he did ' " ming), he u ,his C<juipment to keep t ; . the wa)' he ....a" ' '. . . , .' " ' free to ,hooK i : : Ltt ,\1,,'-- : ,: . ber 1971),

j : ; : : ; :

::;;i

:'-

sporting praClicc is linked to $0 many variables-how long 'go, and ho...., the sport was learnt, how orten it is pl.yed, the socially q"lifd. conditions (place, time, (acilities, [uipment), ho.... it is played {]>OIition in tnm, Style el(,)-that most of the .vailable sntisric.1 dan "'" ry difficult ro interpret. Thi, is especially (rue of highly dispersed pn<. '1Ift, luch as phlfl<jUC, ....hich may k played every w"",knd, on a prepa=l . ....tlh regular parmers, Of improvised on holiday to amust: rhe chil "C\'kly kttp-fil nerci$('$, gymn:lStia, ....hich may 'impk <b or ... ily 11 , ....ithour 5pCCi.1 [uipment, performed in 5pCCial gymnasium ''1uaJily' (and price) vary ...ith il5 [uipmcor.nd services (nor to ClJl "on 'thktic gymn:lSrics and all the forms of 'new gymn:lStics). aUI , place rn the same cl1Sll, given idemical fr[uencr, Ihose ....ho have OIl(: Or I I played tcnni, from nrly childhood .nd those ....ho Inrnt as adults, {hO$C ....ho ski in the Khool holidays and thost: who have the o ti>( SOc ski at Other limes and off the beaten track? [n (aCl, il is rare for 'ion, l homogeneilY of rhe practitioncrs to k $0 great th.! the popub. deti. by the samc activity do not function :IS fields in which the I"'a , .. n"lon of the IcgirimliC pnctice is at s,ake. ConAiCls o\"er the Iegir. . r ay of do.ng . it, or over the resources for doing it (budget .Jloca. . Ipnt, grounds etC.) almost alW1ltys retranslate soci.1 differences "'lit , " "Ioclltiu' logic of the field. Thus sportS which .re undergoing 'demay (aU$( 10 coexiSt (generally in sqnnre spaces or times) t 'Port III r 'ui>.popului0f)5 ....hkh correspond to differen, ages of the C2$C of tennis, til< memkrs of privaoe dubs. lons.sunding
Tht moning o( a

:::

!n

1ol,:"J]r di',t' h.:

In appeal 10 the 'Icchninl' definition. This. f1l from e$Caping Ihe /icld and its struggles. is most ofren the work of those ....ho. ealeducllion feachers, Ire re uired to ensure the imposition and inculcation of the schemes 0 perccption and action which, in ganize Ihe pnClices, Ind who arc inclined to present the produce IS grounded in rCl$(ln or nlture.

pn(lilionel'$ who are more Ihan ever a!llched to s!riC! $undards or ,'_ Lacostc shirl. whilc shons or skin. Spill shoes) Ind all thlt this Irc oppo$C'd in evcry pt to the new pr1C1ilioners in municipal holidly dubs who <kmonSU:lte thu ,he rilull of clothing is no :l.Sf'CC1 of the lcgilimuc pnClice. Tennis played in Bermuda shons shiff. in 1 Huk suit or even swimming trunks. Ind Adidas i$ indttd another tennis. both in the wly it is playW and in the lions il gives. And SO the necessary circle whereby the m" ,;, . . rice caSIS lighl on the cllss distribution of practices and Ihis CISIS light on the differential meaning of (he practice cannot be

212 I Tk Eronqmy o Pr(J(licts f

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... ____ hi<h combines Inc popular {n(urcs of thc ball-glnlt and I bailie

Ilich demand a high investment of energy, effort or even pain "ing) and ....hich sometimes endanger the body itself (e.g. (e8" ding. pllllChulC jumping, acrobuics, and, to some extem. all .-.tOr c, ') . 1l"" lt2C1 sportS 'cof

oi"phY\ speed

ciuion of the immediate or deferred profits they

In any case, o only needs 10 be a....are Ihat the cI:ass sporting anivi(ies art': due u mueh to varillions in to variations in the COSts. both C(:onomic and cuhural
u

oudines Ihe distribmion of Ihese Ictivities among the classes ( etions. Everylhing takes place rll ferent spons depended, within the limits defined by e<Gnomic i( the probability of taking

ort). in ordn 10 understand in (degree of risk and physical eff

[urlll ) capital and spare time, on perception and intrinsic and exuinsic profils of each Spoil in (erms which is one aspt of this.

the habitus, and more precisely. in terms of the telation

.oz"' ",. Cll violence and 11'1 immediate usc of 'nllunl' physinl (jualities etc.), hu affinities with [he most typicaJly popular disposi. (S!rcn ' cult of manliness and the taste for a fiSht, toughness In 'con(act' e tlO S' 'sranee to tilCdness .nd pain. and sense 0( solidarity ('the mates') ('the third half) and so forth. This docs nO! prevent members ractions of the dominant class (or some intellectuals, who nt f t domina "wllsly or uncon$Ciusly eptCU (heir values) f,?m making n acsthe . thical investment '" [he gJOlC and even someltmes playing II. The t u of lOughnC"SS and the cult of male values, rometimcs mingled with P" il tlticism of violence and man[o-man combll, bring the deep disposi. of fit3[-grcc priClilioncrs to {he level of discou["$C. 1be larrer. being 1I1t inclined to verbalize and rheotize, find themselves relegated by the mlnlrill discourse: (thll of fniners. [cam managers and some journalisu) of docile. submissive. brute force ('gende giam', elC.). 'OiOrking. !O tilt dU$ STrength in its approved form (sclfucrificc. 'team spirit' Ind SO f orth). the ariSllxraric reinrcrpretation which tradilionalJy hingcJ on the he But roic' vinues associated with Ihe three'luuter game encounters its limits in In.: lllity of modern rugby. which. undef the combined effeCis of modern >ltd Ilctics and enining. a change in (he social fC(ruitment of the players idet audience, gives priolifY to the 'forwlfd game'. ....hich is incteas '"81y discuiiSCd in mcrlphors of the meanest industrial labour ('lIlIcking In.:,oalface) or tn:nch ....arfare (the infantrymn ...ho 'du[ifully' runs . Iong in.o e!>emy fire).)(;

y.ujr/: 8 tile body itself and allowing 1--p1llially ICguJatC<l-exptnSion

; In Iry

:S :U '

::

rok

md a w

symbolized by

The tel2(ionship between lile diffen:nt Spot'fS and Ige is mon: II is only defincd-l"hrough the IOrenSifY of the physical effort fhe disposition tOW1llds (his dem:and. which is a dimension of dass in (he relationShip bet....een a sport and a clus. The most importint erly of the 'popular' sportS is thlt [hey afe tacitly associated ....ith . ... hich is spontaneously and impliCily credited ....ith a sort or cencc. upresscd. inter alia, in the expending of excess phySical energy-:tnd Ire abandoned very early (generally on enrry infO adult Ii

marriase). By contnst. the common fcature 0( the ' grois' sport. mainly pursued for their he:alth.ml;ntainlng funcrions their social profits. is thaI their 'retirement age' is much later,
more so the more prestigiolls rhey :Ire (e.g., golf).

,:,p.;"::':

instrumental relation [0 Iheir 0....1'1 bodies which the cia(S CXplTS$ in all praclices dirt':C1cd towards [he hody--dict or care. relation [0 illness or medical care-is also manifesred in

The

E.erything Sttms to indicate (hu lhe concern to cul!ivate [he body ipptars. in ils elementary form-Ihal is, as Ihe cutl of heahh--often as ....ith an ascetic exal!ltion of 50bricry and controlled diet, in (he classes (junior exC(:utivC'$, the medical .'lCrvices and especially heachers emin . and particularly among ....omen in these strongly f Ilt<j C tegories). These cluses. ....ho arc especially anxious about appear 11\( ' 'nd therefon: about Iheir bodyforothers. go in very inrcnsively for 1 tt tllt 5 Cs, the ascetic sport pu exceHence. since i( .mounlS 10 a $Ort of I li ( (h,t ....k"is) for tnining's sake. We kno.... from social psychology . f accep tlnce (the very definition of ease) rises .... ith unsclfcon the Clpuily (0 e$C'pe fascinadon with a self possesse<l by Ihe the: Ioo thers (olle thinks of the look of questioning anxiety, lurning

8Y

td 5(k

f 5(I()U o , of

Others on ilself .so fuenl no....adays among bourgeois l ... "'ho "''11I "f101 gto.... old); and so it is understandable-Ihat middle. t ofTlell all: disposed 10 sacrifice much time and cff" rt to achie [he O

off"

Regular sporting aCtivity varics sttongly by social dan. ranging from percenl for farm workers, 10.1 peKei'll for manual wOtkcrs and 10.6 ( r clcrical workcrs to 24 perccnt (or junior cxutivcs and o members of 'he professions. Similu vuillions are found in I cational kvd. whereas the difference bc.wn .he )eXCS incrcasn. ;is where. as one movcs down the social hierarchy.j, The varia.ions arc

of their public, which redoubln their commonness. but also the and virrun demanded, strength, endurance, violence, 'sacrifice' . and submission to collective d i!.Cipline-so conmry to bourgeoiS diStance'---and the exaltation of com peti tion.

sense: of meeting Ih social norms of sc:Jf p resenlation which i condition of forgening oneself and one's body-fof.others BI,II physiol (uhur, and all the strictly heahh.()ricn 'e<l': as walking and jogging arc 1150 linke<l in other ways 10 of thc (ultu r.aUy riche'St fl1lClions of the middle dlSSCS and class. Generally spe2king, they an: only meaningful in relation 10 I theoretical, ab$lrKt knowle<lge of the effects of an exercise gy mnastics, is indf raluce<l 10 a series of abstract movCTnencs, posed and organi=! by reference (0 a specific. erudite 80;11 (e.g. '; dominab'), cncirciy opposed to thc total, praninJly oricnl''' .' :; of everyday life; and thcy presuppose a r.ldonaJ faith in rhe d innngibk profits rhey offer (such as protection against ageing or ; ddeo!s linked to age, an absmcr, negative gain ). II is the re f re . u o or standable thac they shoul d find the conditions f their the :ucetic dispositions of upwardly mobile individuab , {O find satisfanion in etrof! itself and to take the deferred , their present s.acrifice at face value. But also. beause formed in solirude. ar rimes and in places beyond rhe of " " the beaten trick. and so exclude all COmpetilion (rhis is one of diff"erences between running and fogging). they have a nuur:al among the ethical and aesrheric choices which define the "i''';';' ceticism of the dominated fncdons of the dominant cllSS. Team sports. which only require eompetences ("physical' or "'1". that arc fairly equally distributed among the classes and are ,;0 equally accessible within the limits of the time and energy ,.,,, might be expected TO rise in frequency. like individual sports. as moves through the social hierarchy. However. in accordance with a observed in olher areas-phofogtaphy. for example-their ify and all that this entails, such as u ndcsinble contacts, them in the eyes of the dominant class. lind in, Ihe most popular sPOf!s. f ootlnll and rugby, or wfCSlling and boxing, their early days were the delight of ariSlocnrs. but Fnnce. in boming popular, have ceased to be whar they were, combine all f arufCS which repcl the dominant class: 1'101 only the social m,"" e

'

til''

:::::; : ':
; : "

;.

Thcic ol lo....W by the craftsmen and shopkttpc "Ilrcrs. f m schools. but they al$O reo .. bincd by the encouragement of port frth (p.he fan thaI (he declme sporting acti"i,y ""lIh age. whICh 2bruptly and relatively early '1'1 the ....o,king ciaw:s, ...he,e II &:s o<",rs "'lIh schoolleavmg or mamagc (,h'-quulers of the peasants """" ual ,,'o,kers ha"e abandoned sporr by ase 2'). is much s1o",e. in n Jod mJ nan ' dlS's. whOSC" sporr '$ eKplkl\ly in,cstw with health'Biving rhr o. n . f eumple. by th<c Imerest in children's physical o (as;s show funC;, :'cm). (This explains ...hy. in the synoptic rabie-table 2l-thc de'( oion "'ho rC8ululy pe,form any spomng ani..ilY at 3 .'liven moment r rWfO position in the social hierarchy, whereas thc proporrion st rongl)' ",ith fI used to 31 one time is fairly conSI...nt. and is e,'en ,,- r do so but d ho n v lon"" an shopkccpcrs.) hcst among craftsmcn sporring e"enlS (espc<iall)' the most popubr of them) at orkers. common among Cr:l(tsmen and shopkccpcrs. manual ... is 051 exC(ut;vt"$ and clerical,....orkers (who of[cn also rnd the sportS paper ( gb . . , .. , . ,,, /N): L'fJ{II' ,he same ;s true 0 ntefCSt tn Ie CVl:1C<1!pO" soccer. III r. ey d much less (bnS. horse.racing). By contrast, the ominam dass warch . rugby and sknng. (or IpOft. either li"e or on TV. eccpt

(pC 0

case of an individ n ked irhe.heerarch)' tS Inverred:uai[l sporr like tennis, whereas in rhe is most played among manual cr hi dtffcrenct"$ an. rs.

sI' ftO:.,. dam:

tn

hluendance (K

tennts.

JUSt as, in an age when sponing ut;vi,it"$ Vien. fCS(IVcd for a few. the cult of 'fair play'. [he code of play of ,hose who have the self-control not 10 gt so curied away by the game that they forge! thaI it is 'only a glmc. w s ... logical development of the distinctivc funCtion of sporr. so too. in an age whcn participation is not always a sufficicnt guarantcc of tflc mity of thc participants. those who seck to provc their excellence must affirm their disinte!CStedness by remaining aloof from pranicn de v.lluo:d by the: appnnncn of Sheep-like conformism which they acquire4 becoming more common. To distance lhemselvt"$ (rom common U5Cmcnts. (he privilegc-d once again nee<! only themselves be gUIded by the horro. of vulgar crowds which always leads thcm else "'here, higher. fu rther, 10 new experiences and virgin spaces. exeluslvely Or firstly theirs. and also by rhe sense of [he legitimacy of pnCtices. which f nction of thci. distributional value, of course, but also of the u gr to which they lend th m selvcs 10 acsthcticiza[ion, in pn(lice or d

k'

thc f turcs which appeal [0 (he dommant faSfe are combined in e:l uCh as solf, tcnnis, sailing. riding (or show.jumping). skiing ( . . ally tts most P"c . , . distinctiv forms. such :IS crosS-COUntry) or fencing. In exclusi"c placn (private clubs). al the lime one chooses. l
h

IJ
d

ISCOUTk.J

Ot.wth chosen pUlners (featufCS "'hich contrast with the colice, <It"'a obligatory rhythms and imposed cff ns of team spons). o ga Ifrrn " l ow physical cxenion that is in any case freely dei but a relatively high ;nvcstment---and ,he earlier i. is pur in.

'.'Pltne. rc]u;vc]y

.... ..: .. -.:;

"" ... ...

...

'" "' ''' ...

... _ ,0 "'; 0 0' ''';

... "' ''' .... .... "; 0' ''; ... "" ''': ,,,

'"

'" .... '" '" '"

rC profitable it is-of lime and learning (so rha! Ihey ue relatively 0 Itt , r1I dci'll of varildons in bodily capitll and irs dedin<: through a), ''<: ri to highly rilutized (ompttirions. governed, beyond lY gi by Ihe unwriuen laws of fair play. The spoldng (Xchange rakes (110' It r\I air of a highly cormolled weial exchange, excluding all physical otI lh al violence, all anomie use of Ihc body (shouting, wild gcstu ' , C forms of dim;l (onlact between thc opponcnl5 (who are nd all (il ) arios opening and dos ar.lled by th .spari:l.l.organizarion and v. f orman sportS, Ihey sub like lllng, sknng and all ,hc Callf o les). Or, ,fig e man'S solitary struggk with nature (or thc man-to-man banies of I 1(I U ar sports (not to mention competitions, which are incompatibk l pO\'h a lofty idta of (he pcrson) "I ' US it can be seen (hlt onomie barriers-howtvtr great they may of golf. skiing, sailing or even riding and tenniS-1m nO! In (he case: ffictCTl t to e"plain (he class distribution of these activities. There are hidden enlly rcquiremems, such as family trlIdi(ion and early train . lng, or the obligatory manner (of dress and behaviour) , and socializing . trchniques, which keep rhese sportS dosed to the working class and to up",ardly mobik individals from the middk or u ppcr classes and w ich . maintain Ihem (along w1th sman parlour games like chess and esplally btldgc) among the surest indicators ofbouris pcdigm:.

(S. or

N N

- . .

., .,

<:> _ ",

"': <:>; "":

...

0 0 '"

"':

0 belote (and, tvtn morc so, manilk), bridgt is a game pla)'cd [ higher levels of the $OCial hierarchy, mOSl frequently lImong memo ben of Ihe p,ofmions (IFOP. 1948). Similarly, among srudenlS of the " a ndes &oln, bridge, and espialJy inrerlSive playing, wilh lournamems. . Y'lnn ,'ery strongly by social origin Chm (or rhe claim [0 pIa)' it) Soe(ms bt hnktd ,han bridgo: to social tradirions and 10 ,he pursuit of ,he :Kcu mullllOn of social C1Ipilll. This would nplain why il increuc1 is one up ,he social hierJrchy, but Chiefly IO'wards the area or social space ncd by mong cultural capinl (C.S. VII),
more 1!

In conUiSt

:;O'n

ulu dcvottt$, or, at the same lime. 10 )SSume different meanings a n,f1r or tns, f the different groups. should warn us against the rempta r lIOn o ry g r ll'1 to eplain the class distribution of SpoTlS purely in terms of Ihe' a[u e' of the various activities. Even if the logic of distinction is suf licle r to aC ount [ f f the basic opposition Ixtwn popullf and bour C O tA>IS p orts, the fact remains thai the relationships bclwn Ihe different &rou I a and lhe different praclices cannor Ix fully undersrood unless one c a]! COU ?t of Ihe obitive potenrilities of the different institurion dl!<:O p ac ! ICC'S, fhar is, the social uses whICh [hese pncrices encounge. UI 0 ' exclude bolh by Iheir intrinsic logic and hy heir positional . di$f ullonal value. We can hypothesize is a gcneral law thai a SPOH

fact thlt, al allxir wirh change in mean :8 and function, the samedifferem times.hn able 10aallr:Kt ariSlocl"nic practices have

The simple

Ind

i$ more likely to be adopted by a social class if it does "o, class's rebtion to the body at its dpeSt and most ::: th body 5Chma, which is the depository of a whol world Yih, : whok philosophy of the pet10n and the body. Thus a sport is in a sense predisposed for bourgeois use when of the body it uires in no way offends the sense of the high the person, which rules out, for example, flinging the rough and tumbl of 'fo"md-me' rugby or the petitions of athktics. Ever concerned to impose the of his own authority, his dignity or his distinCtion, reats his body as an end, makes his body a sign of its own C:lSt. IS thus foregtounded, and the most typically bourgeois can be re<ognized by a cerrain breadth of gatute, posture and which manif ests by Ihe amount of physical space that is place: occupied in social space:; and above all by a mmined, self-assured rempo. This slow pace:, contruting with haste 01 petitbourgeois eagerness, also characterizes bourgeois whre it similarly asserts aWateness of the right to take one's ,;,,;. other peopks. The affinity betwccn the potendalities objectively inscribfil in and disposilions is seen most clearly of all in flying, and tary aviation, The individual xploits and chivalrous ethic 0 aristocrats and French nobles who joined the Air Force: from school (everything that La Grantk JIIusion evokes) ar implied in very activity of flying which, as all the metapholl of skimming and flying suggest, are associated (p" a,dua ad aUra) with elcvated and high-mindednas, 'a cenain sense: of altitude combining wilh of the spirit', as ProUSt says apropos of Stendhal.)9 The whok betwccn a bellicose, jingoistic bourgeoisie, which idemified bdrship with the gallant, risk.raking, stiff.uppe(-lipped man 0",,,,,, and a (reetrading, multinational bourg:>isie whiCh : ' ; from ilS dccisionmaking, organizational (in a word. , , ,I ties. is contained in the opposition between the horse-riding, boxing or flying aristocrats and bourpis of the Belle Epoque mockm skiing, sailing or gliding executive. And JUSt as a history of the sporring praCtices of the dominant . would no doubt shed light on the evolution of its ethical d;'pO'; the bourgeois conception of the human ideal and in panicuJar of re<onciliation between the bodily virtues lnd the feminine intellectual virtues, SO tOO an analysis of th , i given moment of sporting activities among the fractions of th I nant elm wQuld bring to light some of the most hidden opposilion between these f!':lnions, such as the dccp-rooted, conception of the relationship betwccn the sexual division th division of Ih work or domination. This is perhaps trUer

118

I "J'hI Ii(onomy o i'Famm J

: :

(iJ.... ,Ilat th

;,

t:'.:;.
;

gntl, invisible Nucation by eercise and diC! which is ap nw moralil)' of health is tending 10 take the place of lhe , e to the proPn t Ihiol pedagogy of the past in shaping bodies and minds. Be ((phCl . principles of division which struClur rh dominant r (he different ,",us( entirely indo/ndenr-such as {he oppositions betwccn arc nver clJ omically richest and the culrufllily rich5t. between inheritors On( , old and young (or seniors and juniors)-Ihe pr:lctices (lit (( ' nus J'1dffcrc:nt fractions !Cnd to be: dimibured.. from the dominant the i dominated fractions, in accordance: with a series of oppo {r)CIlOtU to th hich arc themselves partially reducibk to each other: the opposi l n ween the most epcnsive and smanest sportS (golf, sailing, S'1 0 lion or the mOSt expensive and smanest ways of doing them ridIng tcnnis) ; (r.ambJing, hiking. jogging, cy (pnVl , clubs) and the Cheapest spons ccring). or th Cheapest ways of doing the smarr spons ', dIng. mount1lin . . tennis on munICIpal courts or In h0"1day amps ) ; thC opposmon I.n the 'manly' sports. which rna)' demnd a high , energy input (hunnng. fishing. the 'contact' sportS, cJay.p(gn shooting), and he 'mtlO,-erted' sports. emphasizmg self-explorauon an? self.expresslon (yoga. dancing, 'physical expression'! Ot the 'cybernc:tc' sportS (flymg, uiling). mJuiring a high cultural Input and a relall"ely low nrgy

1 M navJ/uJ """ UK

Jj1'''' " )

""j'-"'J'''' I ,

JI1fd o

:';

Inpul

';;;;,:::..!

csslonals and Thus. the differences which separate the teachers, the prof t employers are, as it were, summed up in the three activities which, though relatively r.ltC-Ilbout 10 perccnt--tven in the fractions they dis unguish. appear as the diStinctiv feature of ellCh of them. because they I much more fuent there. at C<:Juivale:nt a, than in the others (C.S V and VII. secondary anal)'sis). The aristocratic asceticism of the thtrs finds an exemplary expression in mountaineering, which. even IIIOfc th rambling. n with its reserved paths (on thinks of Heidegger) Of cycletouring, with its Romanes'lue churches. offers for minimum eco. IIOmlC COSU the maximum distinction. distance. height, spirilUal eIVl' hon. through the sense of Simultaneously mastering on's own body and :';ture inaccessible: to the many.... The heahh-orintc:d hedonism of 0( tOil and modern executives who have the matrial and cultural means c to Ihe most prestigious Ktivities. far from vulgar crowds, is x In yaChting. open-sea swimming, cross.(oumry skiing or under frter (,shing: wheras the employers expect the S<lme gains in distinction g:; golf, with it aristOCr.ltic etiquet e. its English vocabulary and its , t ! exdush' spaces, together with extrinsic profits. such as th accU Ill Ulltlon of socill clpital .. s g'e as.: s obviously a "ry important variabk hre. it is not surpris i In t dlfences in social age. nor only bet"'ccn the biologically youn &t, t f n I be older III Identical social positions, but also. at identical biological IhC I n the dominant and Ih dominated fractions. or the new and 1 hShl fractions, are retranslated into th opposition bctwn th

TIN Habi/1I1 and lIN Spaa o Lif f t-StyilS / 221

traditional sportS and :.til Ihe neew forms of (he ci:wi( sportS

crs, photographers, modds. advenising agents. journalistS-who and market a new form of poor-man's elitism, close to thc: sion bur morc oSlcfll:.triously unconventional.

bourgeoisie. in particular by :.tll the prople working in f" hio

king, (rOSHountry skiinl!. and so on), or all [he new SporlS, ported from America by mcmbc:rs of Ihe new bouri$ie

Swedish lumberjack shins, farigue pants, U,S, work shoes, rangers , dian moccasins in supple leather, Irish work caps, caps, bush hus-not forgcuing rhe whistln, altimeters, guides, Nikons and orhel essential gadgetS w,thour I rhere can no narural return to nature, And how could one fail to recognize

' (rlippers jackets, English fishermen's pullovers,

offers Ihc serious trekker: parbs, plus-fours, alllhmlir Jacquard in r,al She!land wool, gmllillt pullovers in pllrt nalliral wool,

The true nature of this (ountcr.culture, which in fan rcacri vat aU lrol ditions of thc typically cultivated cults of thC' n3(ur:l.l - '' >:: authcmic. is more dearly revealed in Ihc equipment ." , one 0f new properly-rooms of thc advanced lifc-styk-thc FNAC Il'uil' shops), Boubourg, u NOIiIltI ObJtrvaItJl, holiday

;:::': ,oKh,,",';

I i

ogue of New (2t2lResources -;rCiOg

;tIlt
'til phySI

' IS , I I .II. ' I I ' $' %%I , ' I$ III $ I I I $ . 'TIm', whe:n 1 fed 1 have a body. . . , I Ihink thaI dancing can give mc harmony with myself. . . .' 'A sC1lrh for my:w:Jf, discovering myself physie:llly, . . .' 'Scnutions running Ihrough my body . . . a way of lalking, you un 52y a 101:' 'It's a selfaffirmalion. . . -' 'I fccl good when dancing. I become aWlre of myself. Once, 1 stopped for IWO yClr1; lhere ""lS somelhing mi$$ ing, . , . It's a need.'

.pccssion

StJC ng of I:Mehe, where she livd ",

U.s,

Army

l.anza del Vaslo hlS " 'He, art IS not IUSI ft of her' " ut" h ,,'s u has malured ,or a I e" d In her head an. hcart .., "me r our , m "e 10 if I bt!g he Ihar lh,s prcclOus arl, (1m,, u's 50 dan( 25 much as Insplml by Hmdu bJ' mcd'KYlI Chnsmn ,magery,
J

(of!cn ,car1'

tkq>ly ,mbued wilh lhe

bike trekking,

namics of the dream of social wdght1cssnes:5 as the basis of all sporting anivities-f ooHrekking, pony.rrekking, cycletrekking,

Ix losl.' should Ol e The apploxhes 10 Ihe inner lif

FDur girh, /wi) g"ll, a bird horJ(, a M(J1IdhanJ farl ami .. hi!t

Wheels

rhing of the same relation to Ihe luxury spons of the

ture is that rhey all demand a high investment of cuiturlll anivity itsclf. in preparing, maimaining and using Ihe espc<:ially, perhaps, in verbalizing the experiences, and

try skiing, sailing, hang.gliding, microlights etc.-whose common

boat.trekking, canoeing,

archery, windsurfing,

'"_

execurives as symbolic possesion 10 malerial possession s art spons. twO contrllsting relarions
1 0

priety and ritual and in unashame<! flaunting of on Ihe olher, symbolic subversion of Ihe i tentatious poverty, which makes a virtue forms and impatience with conSlrlinrs, which is

clearly as they arc in literll!,), or Ihearrical taStes. On the one respc<:t for f orms and for forms of respect, manifesre<! in concern

In Ihe opposilion between the classical sports and th

rhe social world are

dard al rributes of bourgeois riruals, classically sryle<! clothes, boulevard Iheatre and opera. And this opposition between IWO
10

campingcar. or folk and rock, in other ficlds-are challenges to

or (osmelics since casual clothes and long hair-like the

and ,.,.>" order

;:

m:tdc through Xllvilies Ihrough our ,ho: day's session, and are subS( qutnrl)' pursued in life; indeed, Ihe leireh f r Inner unuy ;s lhe cenrrll o lheme. Dance has Ihe placc of hon OUI, ir folk, religious o. creallve <bIKe Ir " 001 a pI In ilself, bur l iupporr for Ihe inner lift. Tech n"lue is worke<! on, ccrtainly, bUI ..... '(1 11 lhe exprn:w: of the rclul' lIOn r .. II esscn<lal for rhe har, h llIOr1y of rhe .self.

be

I muke<! in

organized, signposu:d, cuhivate<! nature,

Ihe social 'world is perf ecrly rdlccle<! in Ihe IWO relalions to ,h' " world. on rhe one hand Ihe {;lSte for natural, wild nature, on

_ " '- ':' .pc"eflr....1

omcn, Or dance is above all a way 'R<! Olm!ng '''re of '' lheir bodies, , In rh,s .sense, U is :I self.disco . ry A . ... reness of lhe: body IS some ""'" C " (ompafl1ed by awareness of lilt body "$ a pmi(ular mean! of ,<, . 10000,Ofl Women e.]>(ncncc <hI\( new langua Ihrough "hl( I ey can '"press Ihem. >tl.. fOlr around half of It..: 'flICtv> ", e -ecs. Ihis aCIlYuy " It 1 0. r e, ve waken :I primary crOI;' . n a primary aUI<H:. o,ici5m, cOflsciousncss Olf .he

IJ,,-qgh da(t

r'-., d llll1l," I /lDdi /T tf

We Slarre<! OUI (rom La Char;lesur loire in Ihe Nievre, wilh no preeisc deslinarion. In the course Olf a month we did 300 kilometres 10 Monraigul-cn,Combraille (Puy', DOme), along Ihe minor roads of lhe Bourbonnais, A\'erllgc speed 3 kilometres an hour (the hor:w: didn'l feel like going any f25er), Fi(leen or 20 kilometres a day. Be (1usc we wcre jusl ambling along we h:ad lime 10 do ill $OilS of IhinS' yOlU can'r do in (1r: black. berrying, cycling, ulking 10 Ihe Il)(als, c1imblllg up on rhe carr, bJlhing, mlk,ng love. . . . A(ler a few days, we'd complelely losl Ihe sens of lime (Ihe lime of lhe 1'lII rlC).

free flight

rnl i n e

MOfCQycr,

nt..,,_

A hang.glider ;s 1 uil $IIClche<! lx, IWeen Iummum lUbes, a big kite wi(houl a siring bUI wllh a bloke hlng,ng in 1 harness; you l1kc ;1 somewhere high, jump off, lnd FLY. You slarr w"h little hills, gras5y slopes, und'pilS, jusl a few ya(ds abo( .he glVund. Gcognphically spnkmg, you on do II anywhere:
(_
,..

"" _n_

. ..

" " .'

from the slag.helps and cliffs of the Nord to the Jura and the Alp', nOt forgwing thc Puy.<k-D6me. Walking

444/

I tK

1:..01111"') '" /'rar/lm

Airernative soccer is on Ihe up-and. up. Spontaneity is the word: no clubs, no championships, often no grounds. The traditional team coJ. ours give way 10 mulTi-(oloured Itt shirts, even Indian shirtS. Not many shom '0 Ix n, bUI lOIS of jea!l$, Heavy boors with studs and [acC$ all over them art rare in the Clrtme, d and when they do app"-r 1 cro... gathers 10 gawk al them befort the match. Sneakers and dcsc.-rl boolS art more like iI, The number of players is "ery variable and rartly reacho:1 ,he sym bolic ekven, The playel1 artn'l even aJway5 men and I can rtmember some marches in the winter mud of lhe Pltn:: de Scelulr in which each learn included Ihree or f our girls whO$C high heels made their mark on a few ankles and $hins, and nOI juS! rheir opponents'! Tl>ey were epic muggll."$, with IWO or Ihrec intervab, during which rhe le:ul OUI of brealh would have a quick joint or r'NO. A lypi('1[ Kore would be 2-29,

Groovy fOO(ball

WITHOUT ENTUING A SINGLE TOWN!

To think there art peopk who don't know that you only have to leave lhe clauSlrophobic world of Ihe Mitro 2t Potte de S3intOoud to find yourseJf 00 the rOUle of Na tional Trail No. I!!! Y indeed!!! Sounds like the blurred breakf:Ul. lime lCcoum of 1 dram! And yel it's true: al the end of the Avenue de Veruill, Ihert's the start of)6 kiJomel, no less. of footpaths,

Nuurally, the ruks art Ii inlerprtled. Besides, time thert'S no refertt. rule only applies in <'1SCS violation (for example, when a player hangs uound the l IhroughmJl the pm com.-s his w ay). Thert touchlines, so the "'ider than lhey'rt I taken. benulO: thcy'rt a The te:l.ms expand during as more pla)'ell arti.-e. Competili"encss isn't enlirely ruled OUI. bur we're a long from ,he fanaticism of 'pro' [n fa" the people who come to kick the ball aren't OUt ,h," . win It all COStS, given thaI thert no priC$. it's rarely the same the length of the match is tic, .nd th s<:oring is very mate (1'0 within" And when one t I , STronger. you balance it out by 'transferring' pJayel1 between lhe tv-'o teams. . , It's a far cry from the glm.-smanship they 'co.ch you most of the time 11 s<:hool Whar's ,he ans",,? Perhaps 'f comes from g)mes m:lSrel1 like one who gave each [ there would be no competitive (a !tue SlOty-the te:l.cher in t;on even got into trouble r"",, observing the usua.! rule). Ne1 ""cekend, if )'o , u of gangs of h,iry louts ( a bill. don't he:iituc, iust can join in. They won'l co.! you_

Age is prelly "uiabk, tOo cllcgoriC$ like kiddi.-s, junio' minors. IO:niors, velerans, "'n ' of eleven or twelve are mosquitOl."$ you ,,,"',
,.

'd;.::.:

ments rht of the s""ning Ktivirics nd entertain , rthc SYslem or the potentia" consumers 10 , .... 21 a ,iven momnt f , - a y cn'lSC ,. , oRcr t" fram is predisposed to exprtSs all Ihe d-'erenccs SOCIO oglC " the ppositions berwttn the sexcs, bc:tween C nt 1l thu moment' o . ' a\e to f0" ow IhC ' e L. nrrt,o aod "'" ween class (nChOnS. The agents on'- y "h f he nte?"on habilus io o.rder to tlk over, unwllllllg . t ,. r "JSSd of.thei k'ln'ogs 10 the eorm""ndlll, pncllccs, to find an .aCllvlly which IS en . , r (11t artu 0f jIljllan . it kindred <nirils. The same 's Irue III a ' wilh , . -r f {he supp,y them and. 0 nfCly sumel is confronled by a pUllcul.r stare e: Ch coo ds, serviccs. pauerns of l(' "" PrJ'", e ' .t. Ihat lS, w'th obw.qified ruibililics (goo . ,.. . . -- . , k a JI"'" of whICh IS one of (h sl cs III Ihe S!1,cs ) the appropriation etC use of thel f probable lSSO(lallon t SC$ , ile ,otl'((11 t c1iiS. and which, beca be1 '" ,. SSIl , . l:uses or class fnctions arc automatl.Ca" y C,a KU and C'u. urnln C ', .. t ' 0f Ihe d ISln _ ' . . .. d d and rank-ordering The _L ....",.;rve Slale . k.0rdere "",Iw '. l St(",ng. ran oods and pracliccs is thus uc n"" III Ihe meeting c. een _, . . f bunOll o'f '. by the differen t fields o 'cs . . lit: ..n1S1b I,I II offered al a ,iven moment . _ ' . ,. lly diff'ertnll a l"" d'sposltlOnS . , -- (pasl and plesent) 2nd the socia . P the capital (of detcrmllltc "0,ume and compoSI 1 '" ,d wilh ..h,c -a55OC , h . h trajectory, they are more or ,css com tlon I 0f which. den<'nding on. ( e ' rh Ihey 'nd Ihell means 0f " petey Ih' produCt and m whIC ' -'- ' , rllt IS. Ihe prope ' . e POSSIbt IIICS . rrahution-<kfine the interesl in thes IMO diS on) to convert them Sll)' to acquirt them and ( through lcquisili IIn(tive signs.

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E"nc" from c..1'*t., tin '. .nd

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Thul. a study of the toy mukCl undertaken along th.-se !in.-s would first ' hvt 10 cSllblish the spific struCturing principl.-s of . field of rodc"on ,n "'hlch n in other such fields, there coexist firms d,ffermg m age (from 1tn.1I .. kshop' producing wooden 10YS to [,rg<: modern co,:"poni.es), in 'o "<:Ilume (tumo"er, number of employees) and, perhaps .-speCIally, ,n Ihe x Itnt to which production is guided by psychologin[ as ",dl ,.s .tcchnologl: flo[ 'C$(trch, Secondly. on ,he basis of an analysis of ,he condmons m :",hlCh toy purchl$C'i are made, Ind in pmicu[ar of the degrtt (prob,?[y vuymg '''th eliS$) to whieh they IIC linked 10 traditional. seasonal. glf, echangn (Otl1stma Ne... Ye:l.r), one could Iry {Q determine the meaning and func tlOti " hich ,he different classes consciously or unconsciously confer on IOYS ' >tcording to their own schemes of perception and apprccinion and, more . ' SO:ly, accorcimg to cheir educational Slracegics. ( laller m urn h1\'e be $n In terms of their whole sysrem of reprodumOll StralCl?IC$: ,e 1 nslty 10 confer an edu<1l1ional function on tOr no doubt nses w'h dcgt to which the reproduction of social pos,uon depends eduSl\'dy tflonsrn'S$ion eighl o cultura[ capital , of cultural npinl, i.e.. with the ... ,he arosel IIrU(cure.) [t would also be nccesnry {Q eumlne he... the 10g1( of the compoelilion bet....ttn rms of different ryf'C$. having different acglhs and 'herefort inclined ro <kfend different products. is in a Sl:nSl: by the different C1tegoril."$ of clients. CnJ, firms may g<:1 a new ()n hfe when wooden toys enCOUMCf the lasle for natural materials

Sl dcd

U4

from fhe in!enslfJC<l competition for wuclflonal qualilic::ations and enl "se In wucmonal in"C"$fmtn!S. bu, ,Iso 'he Ing 8"'en fO produCls whi(h sull ,he" las'e by lhose ... prnf fht.r n o... hfe'5fyk :IS an cumple !O olhers ana ek,,;ne ,he inclinatIons of I o...n e,hos 1n!0 2 uni"eIYI ethIc. The producers of cullural (0)':$, ....h O Jc-.=sonaltlns' Iheir uJc-s by Cft'".lfing a COntinuou every Intercs' s for 'hcIr productS. un coun, on Ihe prosdytism of all IhOS(C who a 'llli (lined '0 beltne and persuade others '0 believe 11"1 Ihe (strictly unvcri educational ",Iue of 10y plat-psychologists. nu a ckfil\i. a slake fClchcrs. 'toy b1nk' organilcN. and c"cf)'one elsc tlon of childhood urable of p,oducing a market for goods at chIldren." of a legil_ 1bcre IS no ckarer IndICallon of !lie cXlstence. In all and a d("nition of legillmue pncu(e ,han the nrdess. bUI socially Or2IW. :usunnc(" with whICh 'he ne... lutc-makers mcasur(" all pracllces . agalns, lhe yatdstick of their o.. n I)SIe. rhe ",d test of modernity (as op. postd fO all thaI is archaic, rigid. old.fashionw). n.c naive,y of 5011"1<: 01 the comments emhroidcling .i>c' smisflCS on consumption [hey produce rw ,h.c pUfposcs of markellng "c::Jls, for exampk. fhat IlKcy classify "0111 "I h"Olblls In ,erms of 'heir d,Slance from the Ameriun ideal of :lnd _ mineral water, JU5t as for breakfast or a light lunch washed do...n o'hers adjudicate Wfm is 'in' in or 'he latest 'must' in phil<llOpftiql fashton terms of what is (or is no,) beinS done at Harvard. Princeton. Stanford

and sImple hapes among the i'l!elIeClual fncrions, wh " ' ; r :: O hy all forms of 10glc,1 games which arc suppostd 10 :i ,i>c' In,elilgence; and Ihe cuhunl<apiul"ntenslVe hrms : no, (.om

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and famIly rcsponslb,l. col ,lt1 10for cnmplc. on his 9ualificarions, age kd , ' '::::",- _ _ _ m . "=,-, C ;'C= .,' "b ) . _ _ '' 'o,! "' ' :: :,' "Itll the {

d"'.

ividual or job supplier can wilhtand !nd r te de cc '0 ...hich the...er (refusal of ,hc job, "OI srnke elC. ) nd . on hd ;...al of labour po cr po... is able I refu$( t i?b li )tl '"(
....

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'1 ...hich 'he possessor of labour

and

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psychNnalys,s. in wilh and SCrvices art'".ls. c

in

politi(s

wilh

eggs

!(uccd to his income) ana a product chanctcrized, cqually 1bSt

Itees.

umbJc. nd sometimn function s fields (without d to be del("rminro by thdr posilioo i n Ihe field the Ihat one (:In m.!!y ("$Cape from the absrnCiion of onomie I wluch on!)' recognize a consumer reduced ro purchasing po"'"Cf

number ofempiriol an It f o!!ows !lla{ il is only by increasing of the relations re!"OIti\"ely utonomous fields productiOll a particular class of products ana Ihe m"Ollkel of consumers WhiC

betwccn

the

of

which

of

soci"Oll

his

by a thnica! function presumed to be C<Jua! (or a!!; only in thts"" it possible !O tablish a genuine scientific theory of the economy

of

l11e abstracl notion of the 'Iabour market" rC<juircs a I would dcsctibc bo,h the invarian.s and the \"'<I"ions In the of the meanS of produClion_nd 'herefore of j I...n ,he the seller of labour po... er. according '0 ,he po"'cr relations ixt..."ttn ,Itt tWO !fl . These <kpend. o'her Ihlngs. on the nril)' of and Ii>c' ma,,"a] and symbolic advantages " g'ves and on ,he taruy labour IlO... supph.-d or of the 9uallfi.callons wfllch guanotCC it. ,n er

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among

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Tbe D;I)namics of tbe FiefJs

jC'llfio'tl.Ons (uncll ni:he 'n((lon. dlrence.

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dfs) or 11,lIomobiies, newspapers or holiday resorts, design or furn of hOllS( or garden, not to mention political progl':lmmes--providcs _ small number of dis!inn;v( features which. funnioning as a system III differenccs, dil1crerHiaJ deviations, allow ,he most funda mental social ell (renets to bc expressed almost as completely as thro ugh the most COlt\! plex and refined cprcS5ive systems available In [he legitimate arts; andit" on be sn ,hat the {oral field of {h fields offers well.n igh in(xh.... ible pOssibilities for the pursuit of dislinnion. If, among all these fi.c:Jds of ponibb, none is more obviously posed to express social differenccs than ,he world of luxury g ore. plticul arly: euhur.ll .goods.. this is beca se the rclationship / . . . . . nnenon IS objtCuvcly w lhm II, and IS rtlIClivated. mrent ' or not, in each Jet of consumption, through the instruments f _ nomic lnd cullUr.l1 appropriation which il l1':<juires. It is ; ter of Ihe affirmuions of difference which writers and anisls 2 morc insistently as the autonomy of the fidd of cultur l a: comr.; more pronounced.' bUI llso of the intemion immanent in objects. One could point 10 Ihe socially ehugtd ; i:f:.: guage and. (or example, the syslems o( ethical and ar.;lhetie ited, rCldy for quasiautomatic reactivation, in pairs of adjectivr.;; or the very logic of liter.lry language, whose whole in an karl, i.e., 1 distlnce from simple, common WlYS i in a lorical figures. as modificalions of ordinary usagt, are

, possIbles. E.3ch of these: worlds-dnnks (mlneraJ warers, Wines n apat d

Thee
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ue

thus as many fields of pfercncc

,here m: fields of s,ylilllf

Inscrlbcci l

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o

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of the social rcbtionship in which Ihey are produced lnd d it is futile to k, in the intrinsic nalure of the tropes cat 'ArtS of RhNoric', properur.; which, like all propertir.; of ed alogu . exisl only in and through the relationship. in and Ihrough istl I ' d A figurc of words or stye is aI wa)'s on1 y an a1terallon 0f usage, a distinctive mark which may conSist in the absence of ' n uentl) ,d (O hen the intention of distinguishing oneself from a wouldbe ' a anI' !1l hat is held to be 'excessi\'e' (the vulgarity of 'pretension') or , p(511nCtlon I IC r" 0" ( or 'outmoded' leads 10 Ihe double neglllons wh' h .. J "o pmpi, . .. .putious encounters bet....n (he 0PPOSlle exrremr.; of many . dcrl.e SO ' sp Cc Il lS well known thaI all dominant ar.;1heli S set a h' h vaue JOClal ) h V rlUr.; of sobriety, simplicity onomy of mClns, which arc.as Of' t e ---.....l to first-degree poverty and simplicity as to the pomposity muCh OPI"' , """u _ . affectanon of the 'haIf-" cat'"". . . . necessary to r.;tablLsh that the 9o'ork of art IS the objtCufi. arcdy h iS S<: . . . -" It -Iationship of dlSllnclion and thaI " IS I hercuy exp1"(II1y pre ( (1IlIon 0f, , . In [h most vaflcu comcxts. As soon . . _.J 10 bear such a relationship d "-as 1rl om- selfconscious. in the work of Alberti, for example, . . Gombrich demonStrales, it is defined by a negation, 2 feus21, a renunCl' 1I0n. whICh is the "eN buis of th rcfinemm in which a dlst2nce IS / ' ' marked from Ihe simple pleasur of the senses and the supernCil I sedue lions of gold 1nd ornamentS lhu ensnlrc the vulgu taste of the Philis1I1lCS: 'In Ihe suiCl hierlrchic sociely of the sixtccmh 2nd seventccnth renrulies the conlr.lSt betwccn the "vulg2r"' and the "noble" becomes one of Ihe princip21 preoccupations of the critics. . , . Their belief was Ihif (cmin forms or mods rc "really" vulgar. benuse the)' please Ihe low, while Others are inherently noble. be<:ause only a dveloped taste on 1ppl1xiate them.'l The aim of distinction. exprssing the specific interest of 'he artis,s, who are incfClSingly inclined to daim excJusiv control O\r f orm it the risk of dis2ppoinling their diems' 'bad laslc. is far from Incompallble with thc funClions rtlIlI)' confrd on works of art by th ose "ho commiuion Ihem or conse,,'e Ihm in (hif colltionJ: thesc 'cui IUtal C!"e1lllo ns which ....e usually rcgard puly aeslhric:lllly, as variants of 1 pall icular slyl, werc perceived by (hir contemporarir.;, as Norberl II:I$ reminds us. ref errlllg {o th sociely of rhe Grand Sit"d, as 'the '&hly dlfferen tialed expion of certain social qualities:) means {hal. like art as defined by Yeats ('An is a social act o f a lIary man'), every appropriation of a wOlk of art which is (he embedi t of a relation of diSlinction is itself a social Iation and, comr.lry 10 ,, lIu s on of cultunl communism. it is a relation of distinction. Those lIIore he of symbolicall)' appropriating cullurll goods a "It . . han ....d],ng (0 belicve Ihal ir is only Ihrough thelf economIC dl' . Ion Ihal works of art, and culrurll goods in genral, acquire nrily. !,t li ke to see symbolic approprialion-the onl)' legilimate SOrt. in VI"'_ a kind of mystical participalion in a common good of

un

'

Ig 1

Of

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IoIlhls

means

a very high de8ree of euphemiution.

proportionate ro the rarifY of the means to appropriate fhello and a profit in legitimacy, the profit which consistS in fact of f eeling justified in being whar i t is one is), be.' This is the dil'ference between the le gitimate r a product of dominition predisposed ro express or legitimate rion, and the cultute of lirrlc-dil'f renriated or undifferentiated . e in which access to {he means of appropriation of the cullut1l fairly equally distributed, so thar culture is f airly equally masterc<l mcmbers of the group and cannot fun";on as cultural capiral, !.C., instrument of domination, or only so within vcry narrow limitS and

which each pel'$()n has shue and which everyone h:u entirely, :as a doxinl appropri1don, excluding privilege 1nd monopoly, unlike rial lIppropriarion, which asserts rea.1 exclusivity and therefore ",, . 'Jr I contemplate a painting by Poussin or mid a Platonic dialog ue doesn'r imply rhat I am depriving anyone and that we ntt"d 10 pro d many POUlSins and Platos :u there are possible beholders or readers' losophy teacher, age W), 1ltc love of an is conceived as 1 secularized form of the 'intd l love of God', a love, according ro Spinou, that is 'the greater as men enjoy it: There is no doubt that the works of an inherited from dae past and deposited in museums and private collections ind, hem, all objcclifi(d cuhur:al npitlll, the prcx!uct of history accumul In the form f ks, allicles" documls, Instruments, which are dae lrace or muefrahuflon of thrones or critiques of these theories probJca. , . uics Of conceptul ystems, pnt themselves as n autonomous wodd . , , whICh, although It IS the product of hIStorical actIOn, h:u its own I.", transcending individual wills, and remains irreducible to what each as or even the whole population of agents Cln appropriate (i.e., [0 inrern., Jized cuhural capilal), JUSt as the languast objectified in dictionaries ... grllmmars remains irreducible to the languast really appropriated, that it; to what is internalized by each speaker or even the whole popular_ However, COntrary to theories of Ihe autonomy of rhe world of ideas . of'objcctive knowledge without a knowing subject' and 'subjectless pnh eesses' (in which Louis i\hhusser and Kir! Popper concur), it has to be pointed OUt {hat objectified cuhur.il npital only exists and subsists . and through the strugglC$ of which the fields of cultural production (the artistic field, the scientific field etc.) and, beyond them, the ficld of tile social classes, are the site, Struggles in which the agents wield streng*t and obtain profils proportionate ro their mastery of this objectified apt' ral, in other words, their internalized npitaJ.' Bec1use the appropriation of cultur;al products presupposes dispGlio tions and compcteQces which are nor distributed uni"ersally (alt they have the lppear;ance of innateness), these products are subject to elusive appropriation, material or symbolic, and, funCtioning as culf capital (objfified or internllized), they yield a profit in disuncnO"

228 / T /:'ranamy a Praclim t ht

IN T

bcfOIIIi

..

bolic profit arising from material or symbolic appropriation of . . .. ..c sy"' I" . (aft is measured by the distinctive value whIch the work denves r he disposi{in and cmpcrence wich i t emans and , I ",o h rariry of . w>!h rhelr sub .. eI, delermines ItS class d,slflbullon. Cultural oblCCtS, ,.-. . . . ,,I , "" dL 0f t he mUla rchy. '" predisposed to mark the Stages an ucgrees . Cfll 1)( hl culture, accord 109 ro VaIery gress which defines the enlerpnse of tOr)' Pd Ltkc 'auistian's progress towards the heavenly Jerusalem', it l'tba 'i. m the 'illitel1le' to the 'litet1te', via the 'non.litrale' and . Jr1.ds le,, or the 'common relder' (ltrUII)-leavlng astde the 'b,bll blet1 , 0 the truly cultivated reader (/iJtll). The mysteries of cuhure ph,)c -;:Ir catechumens, their initiates, theit hoi)' men, that 'discrete ha,'(' t lmlta from ordinary monaIs by I ble nuanc 0f maner . . lie' set apart . d d unIt'" by ''' Iuality, somethIng whICh lies 10 the man himself, whIch . . an 1m f hIS happiness, which may be IndI/('(r"y very use u, to h bUt . .. IS him a sou, any more rhan hIS courtesy, h courage ...hICh will never win " . ' - -, or hIS gouunC$$. . Hence the incessant revisions, reinterpretal10ns and rcdlscove:les rform on rhelr canoIC1 ...h,eh the learned of all religions of the book IS leXlS: SInce the levels of 'reading' designate hlet:lrchles .of raders, U necessary and sufficient to change the hiet:lrchy of readmgs In order to

Jj Dynamics I /1N Fit/ds I 229

o,'wurn the hierllrchy of readers. It follows from what has been Sllid thar a sImple upward displacement of the srructure of rhe clalS distribution of lin asset or practice (i.e., a vir tually identical increase in the proportion of possessors in each class) lIS the e!feCl of diminishing its raflty and distinCtive value and . threarenrng the dIStinction of the older possessors. Intellectuals and arllSlS are rhus dIvided between their interesr in cultural proselytism, that IS, winning a market by widening their audience, which inclines them t faour pu b"l1tion, and con(Crn for cultural distinction, the only obJCCl!ve bam of tiltrr ramy; and their relarionship to everything concerned with Ihe 'de mOCram.)tlon of culture' is marked by a deep ambivalence which may be manif csto:rl in a dual discOUBe on rhe relations bet""een the institutions of cultur al dIffusion and the public.

tt:;

htll ked a survcy how thq thought ""orks of lift in musc:umS might beltr marc lttd, and wherher r!S'bkprlrOViding thninl, tltt 'supply levd' ought 10 be mde m. by p historinl or a(Sthcdc expllnation
as

of tncb (he domonant cl2S$-2nd espially {he reachers and lift splairSt5fat. "ou. to nope from the contlldi(tion by dissociating ",ha( is dairablc Oth os trs from ",hat is <ksirabk: for themsc:1ves. II is because: {he musc:um f>I.: I IS (hll " IS their uclusive privilege; so;r is as it should be for pea. them, I.C., people made for II. But thcy cannot fail to be 5 llsltive ta t he fact that ( t.hoUld be done thcy, Iht habitues, ar being consulted first aboul what , becau$(' this recognizes (heir privdege of granting part of {O othcrs. In ",cepting educational improvements, i. ;s Ihti Un", th e onc (hat they alone can cnjoy, lIUSfcre, ascetic lind noble,

In

",I>""d(gt

230 / T conl)my 1) Pr(l(tias IN /

....hid, they gr:llciously n to Olho:rs. (An analysis of the dc/mC'$ w hiCl! eurred when cheap paperbacks came onto the market-:l i of I1rity for the author, a threar of vulgarization (or the I tho: S<lfT>C' ambivalence). IkC1UK the distinerive power of cuhur11 posKssions or c.ni" .... p artifaCT, a qualificuion, a film cuhurlends 10 dI"Cline in the absolute number of people able 10 appropriate diSlincrion would wither away if the ficid of produerion goods, itself governed by the dialI"Ctic of pretension and i nm endlessly supply new goods or new ways of using the

T D)'IIJmio 0 tIN Fitlth / 231 IN /

ollows from this, among ssible at any given moment,? It f , ""11 ,d) . pO Ihal the distinction recognized in all dominant classcs and s . " ;' r thm, , " " 109 on tile StalC 0, tile . properttes takes d. , erem ' orms dcpcnd .,t"( ,lI lhelr of 'class" thaI are effectively available. In (he caK of the I s n(Il,e Sl"n ,... JIll! . n of cultunl goods at least. the relaTIon ""Iween suppIy and L_ . lo raduc kes a particular form: the supply always eKens an effect of sym r l s,(lon. A cuitur11 product---ln avanl-garde picture, a polirical boitC m newspaper-is l constituted laSIC, a taSte which has been a rOa (he vague scmi-cxistence of half- ormula(ed or unfo'mulated . I _ n{C_ ImpliCIt or even unconscious deSlfe, to the full realllY of Ihe product, by a process of objecliflcalion which. in present cir MIS is almost always the work of profession'.!ls, It is conluently ( u mst ccs ,,'i h the legitimizing, reinforcing capacity which objectificallon a'gcu {h . posses, cspcc,allr when, as IS .the case no"', the ioglc o, Strucses . alI)1 . a preslglOUS gup D that It f ncl1ons as . ural homologies assigns It to . l 1n authority which uthOflZes and reinforces dIsposITIOns by glVtng them . . . 1 ' c or IC1l1on (olicnl,'ely recogniz u epresslon. 0 TasIC, , liS pnt, a cIass,, j1lCm conSUlUled by the conditionings associated wih a condilio situ . Itt<! ,n a dClermlnate position in the structure of dlfferem condlllons, at wilh Ihis world of gorerns the relationship wilh objectified capit. . . ranked and r1nking objeclS which help to define 11 by enabling II 10 $pCC l1 I and so realize itKlf. Thus the taSICS actually realiled depend on the Slale of the system of goods offered; every change in the system of goods induces a change In IUles. But con,erse:ly, e,'ery change in 1151es resulting from a transforma non of Ihe condilions of exi!lCnce and of the corresponding disposilions "I tend to induce, directly or indirectly, a tr1nsformation of the field of production, by fa"ouring the success, within the struggle constituting ,ho: f oeld, of the produeers best able to produce 'he needs corresponding to the new disposilions. There is therefore no nC(:d to resort to the hy polhesis of a Dvereign taste compclltng the adjustmem of producrion to or the opposire hypothesis, in which taSte is itself a produCt ofpro Y{lton, In order <1uasi-mir1culous correspondence 10 aceount (or the "1 Pt(\'alr Ing at every moment between the products offered by a ftcld of . ptoduc lion and _ the field of socially produc<;. lastes. The producers re u ltl! by tilt logIC of comperition ....ith other producers and by the speCIfic hnked 10 their position in the field of production (and Iherefore pr t habItus which Inve led them to that position) to produce disrinCl UC!s Which meet the different cultural interests which the consumers the" d con itions and position, thereby offering them a I . i 1 . f r , "Y ofbctng S<illsftcd. In short, If, as they say. 'There IS Dmerhmg O \ ade one" if each fnction of the dominam class has Its own artists I I0000helS, Itr ne,:",sp1pc and critic, JUSt it as its hairdrc;-scr, indc.:Or1lor 18: or tador, or If, as an arllSt PUI II. 'Everyone scl15 , meanIhal palfl lings of the most varied styles always eventually find a

Ihem.

In Ihe cuhural market---llnd no doubt elsewhefC'-the ; f ' ply and demand is ndther the simple eKeer of production : " i on consumption nor the eKccl of a conscious endl'1vour to scrve lumers' needs, but the resuh of the objective oreheslr:lltion of ,.., . tively independent logics. that of (he fields of produerion and that field of consumption. There is a fairly close homology betwcc:n '''''' cializcd kids of production in which products are developed and fields (the field of Ihe social dasscs or the fidd of the dominant I whiCh tastcs are determined. This means that the produers d'''lopoi the competitive struggles of which (:Ich of the ficlds of produCfion sile, and which are the Duree of tnc inccsnt changing of thCS( UCIS, meet, withoul having expressly to seck it, the demand shaped in the ob)t'Cfively or subjI"Clively antagonistic relations the different classes or class fr1ctions over malerial or goods or, more eactly. in the compelitive struggles between ,heK goods, which are the Duree of Ihe changing of tasteS, This rive orchcstr1tion of supply and demand is ihe reason why the O$I" icd l15tes find the condilions for their rl'1lizuion in the Unl''(11C possibles which each of rhe fields of production offers them, whik lalter find the conditions for their conStitution and functioning In different tastes which provide a (short- or long-term) market for different products.' . . . The field of produerion, which clearly could not funerton If I I not count on already eisting tastes, more or less sltong consume more or less clearly defined goods, enables tute 10 be off ring iI, at each moment, rhe universe: of cuhunl goods . . e stylistic possibles from which it can select the system of SlyhSIlC constiruling a life-slyle. I I is always forgollCn that the um,'erst u"s off red by each field of produCiion tends in fKI 10 limit the e of the forms of experience (acslhetic, Clhical, political Cle. ) Ihal

The Correspondence between Goods Production a and Tstt Prodllction

,jcrnan ; ::::n cxpe

: :

(esIS

J:

md newcomers, distinction and pretension, rearguard and order and movement etc.-are mutually homologous (which [here are numerous invariants) and also homologous to the which structure Ihe licld of (he social classes (be(wttn dominated) lind (he ficld of [he dominant class (betwctn [he fr.Ktion and [he dominate<! frolelion).12 The correspondence Ihereby objectively established be(WC'Cn the cl2.SSCS of productS classes of consumers is realized in acts of consumption only ,h''''gh mediation of (ha[ sense of (he homology between goods and which defines (astcs Choosing according (0 one's tastcs is a m,,,,, ; . identifying goods (hat are objeclively mune<! to one's posuion which 'go [other' because they are situated in roughly equivalent lions in their respt<:tive spaces, be (hey films or plays, cartoons clOIhes or furnilure; Ihis choice is assis[ed by institutions--shops, a[ra (left. or rightbank), critics, newspapers. mlguinn-whlch themselves defined by [heir position in a licld and "'hieh are chosen . the same principles. For (he dominant class, the relationship betwttn supply and dun .. lakes Ihe form of a pre-C5(:lblished harmony. The competition for lu.., goods. emblems of 'class', is one dimension of the s[rule (o impose . . dominant principle of domination, of which rhis dus IS rhe SlIe; :and , . strategics i t calls for. whose common (eature IS thar Ihey are onent s wards aximizig Ihe distinctive profi: of exlusi\'e possesions, . nccessanly use dIfferent wt:lpons to achlcve thIS common funcnon. Ihe supply side. [he field of production need only follow its own [hat of distincrion, which always leads it 10 be orgnized in ",,",.. . . with a s(ruClure analogous to Ihlt of Ihe symbolic systems wh' h I,I lC I duces by its funclioning and in ....hich t:Ich clement performs live funnion.

purehuer. [his is not [he raul[ of intentional dign but of 'h" ..... between IWO systems of di!Terenc_ The f unc(ional and slruelU!'a1 homology which gUl!'anltts oreheslr.l(ion be(wttn (he logic of (he field of production and of the field of consumption lrises from the fan [hal all [he ''''. '' ' fields (haute coulure or painting. (hellle or lite!'a(ure) lend 10 erne<! by Ihe same logic, i.e , according 10 (he volume of . (al (hl[ is possessed (and according (0 seniority ofren :lSSOCia(ed with volume), :md from the fact which tend to be cs[ablishe<! in eleh ose be("'C'Cn (he richer rich in Ihe specific capi(al-the cs(ablished and [he outsiders.

232 /

Tht ronlJm) 0 Praclim /

ashion result from histories. The endlCSii changes in f . UIOflOmOUS It'0'" ;..." u, n -h-[ration bel"'een, on Ihe one hand. the ,OglC. 0f Ihe e v' .. . . _ . , ob",d ln Icrnal to the fidd of produnion. whIch are organIzed III . I l . . ;lrVg!; ( Ihe opposilion old/new. u.sclf 110k ed, through the oppoSlflons [t!1" j(rda(i\"dy) chelp and classical/praclical (or rearguard/avant. . , SI'" . In IS "0: he opposilion old/young (very Importam ' th ' - d, as III ",pc-" ,01"")' an , on Iho: Olher hand, the logic of [he struggles internal to [he . l ' spo I ) h dominam class which, as we have seen, oppose the dommant t ld I\o: O minated (!'anions. or, more prisel, rhe establishe<! and (he 1fld I in Olher words-given lhe C<{ulva1cnee bct,,ttn power economic power) lind age, which means (hal, al iden {morc s , , unction of proximiry (0 the pole of ." 'ges social age is a f ' ' ,'"I bloogt . Ihat N"Kltlon--bclwttn Ihose who have (he SOCIa, d dU!'alion m . r- . n/) eran . r (lICS associaled ....,[h accomplIshed aduhhood and those ....h0 hae . The ptopC . I pronl'"rlics associated with the incompleteness of youlh rlhe SOCIa . ' . s a Ion on,y III , .. who occupy l domlllam poSitIon . the 'e'd 0f ' h (Ou t u ne. . . ,. ISCI'CIlon and unuo:r f d _ ha,e tO follow (hrough rhe negative strategIes 0 . . . 5Ialffl)CIlI (ha( are forced on them by Inc: aggressIve eompcnnon 0f Ihe he !O find (hemselves direcdy alluned to Ihe demands of (. old a boISCOisie who are oriented towards the same refusal of r:nphasls . nc bourgeosle; and. SImI' homologous relation to (he audacities of rhe larly. (he nC"'comers to (he field. roung co tuners or dcslgner.s edv.

" .-<

'-' "'''''''' J )

" ""

, ,,..... I .u

10d' f : (halk:n'ifiC2llY. challengers

onng to win accep[anee of (hel! subversIve Id. art Ihe oblIve allies' of (he new fracrions and Ihe younger ne!'allon of the domInant fra(lions of rhe bourgcoisie. for whom (he symbolic Kvolutions of which >'(Stnnemary and (QsrnClic outragn are (he par.tdigm, are the perfcc( vc- hick (or expressing the ambiguity of theil si(ualion as (he 'poor rela tions' of the temporal powers,

Jus,

------

tilt rndY'lo-wear 're"olulion' ara$( when the dispositions of a <k counered O(upying a pmicular position in Ihe field of fashion n. the modern', 'dynamic', 'casual' life.srylc of the new bourg((') slC wlch bn"gl the so tradition.l functions of representation mlo professIonal the ne... fashion based on Ihe 'aulhentic' and 'genuine' (real ChindC" '.." . G. , =1 Army surplus--parku. combal trQU':'rs. ' ht ra,co:lf$ et(., Ig n 'an trappers' jackets. J.panese: martial.art k,monos, safan fliCkets), . the mOSt 'in' bouriques sell at infl1tcd priees [0 a clienlele of 'beauII' , OPk'-models. photographers. advertising agents, journalisl$-Owcs ItS ' CSI 10 . the fael Ihal it mttlS ,he demands of the young counter , . ture "
as

Iofe,

Io'(h :r

THE LO(;IC OP HOMOlOGIF.5 Thus. the ca.sc of f ashion, which Sttffi to justif a model which loolcs Inc: mOlor of changing y styles in Ih imenlional pursuil of distinction (the trickle.down is an almo1 perfen example of Ihe meeting of tWO spaces and (WO

[I)!he logic of ,he f unctioning of Ihe fields of cultural.goods produclion. ([hc, with {he distinction st!'ategies which determine [heir dynamiCS, 'Io lhe produn$ of Iheir functioning. be Ihey f ashion designs or "tIs. to be predisposed 10 function differentially. as means of dis(inc

rion, first between (he class f ctions nd thcn between the cI n producers o.n be lou.lI)' involved and 1!>sorbed in Iheir SIf\J88k , mlltr producers. convinced rh:n only specific anisdc imCfeSrs lfC at . and thaI rh(')' are otherwise torally disinlcrtSre<l, Whil aw.trc: of the social f unctions they f ulfil, in the long run. audience, and wirhour (vcr cosing to respond to [he , particular class or class fnction. This is especially clear in [he ose of the theatre. where the ",.. -denct berwttn SC\'cr,tl rdativdy autonomous spaces---rhc space producers (playwrights and anors), the space of the critics (and rhem the spaC( of lhe daily and weekly press). and the spate of I cnees and mllkrships (i.e., the space of the dominant class). I;, .. 50 n=ry and yel 50 unforcsee:l.ble [hat every lctor o.n expcri encounter with the objeer of his preference as a mincle of .. lion In Ihe me way, il would e1$y to show how even ;n an age: of mnkel fdc:uch, to the risers and f r ml<krs. like polirical parries, o (0 muimiZ(C their clientele, at or (he: &Id of production, through themes. f ormulae: and even pournaliS{$, ....irhour I their which defines them and

: :
".<Oil F'bd;l
"

rhe eof!' nlue_

t Boulevard theatre, which offers tried and rested shows revivals of boulevard 'classic$' etc.), wrinen to Ii foreign plays, mulae: and perf rmed by con5C<:rated KtOrs, and which c,l.Iers to o dle.aged, 'bourgeois' audience that is disposed to pay high po,,,,, opposed in every respen to experimental thc,l.Ire, w.hich anracn a 'intellectual' audience to rclati,'c:ly inexpensi"e shows that Rour and 1C1thelic conventions. This suucture of the &Id of producllon ates borh in reality, through the mechanisms which produce tions tween the playwrightS or actors and their thearre, the their newspapers, and in people's minds, in the form of 1 gories shaping perception and appreciation which enable and evalualC playwrights. works. slyles and subjects. ThUs, pying opposed positions in the field of cultural produnion the plays in terms of the very ume opposilions which differences between them, but they will SCI the in opposite hierarchies. .0 Thus in 1973 Franoisc Dorin's play u Tourndnl (TIN ,., . new which dramatizes a boulevard playwright's anempl 10 sun a as an avant.garde p laywright, arouscd reaC!ions which vaned rn content according to the posilion of the publication in whICh peami. that is, according 10 how dislant the nille and his

{he 'bourgeois' pole and consequently from Dorin's play. They from m unconditional approval to disdainful silence, via a neutral .-c fro lf oCcupie<l by u AlolUu), as one moves from righl 10 left, from the "n ( ! pOln Bank 10 the Left Bank, through the field of newspapers and ",ttk ht Ih L'/illrtm: 10 U NOllm Obsm'tlI(lIr, and, Simultaneously. f om r of r(;ldership, ....hieh is itsclf organicd in Kcordance ]jc:S. h rhe fldd rOU rh ppOSi tionS corresponding fairly exacdy to those defining the fidd re. When confronted with an object so clearly organized in e thear of I of rhe basic opposition, the critics, who are themselves distributed of the press in ccordance with the srructure which shapes t field object and the cI:wification SySlCm they apply to it, re. h thc dusified rhe space of rhe judgemenlS whereby they d:tSSify both it U'e--In ind Ihe1Tlsdvcs--the space within which they re themsclves classified. (The ",hole: process constitutes a perfect cirele from which the only C1l):-) y ",pc: is to objrif it soclological . , , In the play asclf Fr.m<olse Dolin setS 'bourgCOIS drama (her own) , "'h;ch applies technical skill 10 produce giety, lightntss and wil, 'rypi ' s, : ",lIy Frtnch' <Jualitie in opposition to the 'prerentiousness' and bluff a.mouAagcd under 'ostentatious starkness' , the dull solemnity and drab &:.:or. "'hich chn1Cterizc 'intellccluaJ' drama. The series of contrasred properties which the righr.runk cri ties pick out-technic1 skill, JOIe dt ,'Int, clarity. (;ISC, lightness. optimism, 1$ opposed to redium, gloom. ob scumy, prttentiousncss, heaviness and pessimism-rcappears in the col umns of Ihe leftbank crilies, but here the positives are negatives and vice Yem, because the hiel;lrchy of qualities is reversed. As in a SCt of facing mirrors, each of the critics localCd at either ex. tme can uy eKactly ....hat the critic on the other side would 52)', but he doo so III conditions such that his words tke on an ironic value and "'gmauZl," by antiphrasiS the vtry things thar arc praised by his opposing COtlnterpart. Thus, the leftbank critic credits Mme. Dorin ....;th the on ....hich she pricks herself; but when k mentions them, to his read. IP, they automatically become derisory (so that htr 'techni<Ju e' ' tl ornl!1 'a bo of rricks', and common sense' is immediately understood nonym.ous with bourgeois stupidity). I n so doing. he turns against M e .-hen Dolin . the weapon she herself uses againsr avantgarde rh(;lrre lolung the slfuClu1 logic of the f ld, she turns gainst aVant ' . . g;J.rde lhe 'bot, tre the w(;Ipon II Iokes to use agam!r 'bourgeoIS ehatrcr and r I , SCOls' thcatrt which reproduces irs rruisms and clieh6 (e.g_, o f1p"ons of T Bald Prima Donnd or jacqlllJ as '3 $Orr of ht P3rO :tn<i dy . carIC "" ature of boulevard Ih(;ltre, boulevard th(;ltre ( lIing apart ",v lng mad' ). In c est the same dtvice is uscd: the eririe's relationShip of ethical :tnd t clle Co nllivance ....ith his readers supplies thc leverage to break COll "I ancc fir," of the puodied discourse with its o....n audience and to It Into a stries of ' misplacN' remarks ....hich are shocking and

..

..

'll

(Iual;.

tht

..:JO

I f)f

J t:.(OnI)my I) rrall/Ul

Sociological Test

emn , profound emprincss nd vertiginous nullity whieh chr CfCfize so many SO<:Illed :lvanr garde' thalria! productions, She ducs ro profne wilh ucrikgious Iugh rer Ihe nO!orious "incommuni cability" which is Ihe Iph:l nd omeg of the contemron,), Slg<'. And Ihis perve rtll(litmary. who fItte!5 (he lowcst ppc:tiles of (on sumer socie!y. foIr from cknowkdg. 109 lhe error of her w:ays nd

Moving from righl 10 lefl or from righr bnk !O left bnk, we snrl wid, L'A,mm: 'Cheeky Fr:In.;oise Dorin is goi ng 10 be In h(){ Wlel . D N-nlJJlti ,\Ia,xifl inldli wllh our IjJ 8en!5i (the IWO {hings go to gether) 111e ll!hor of Un ial, igoiilt sho,,", no rnpttt for the sol

bri ngs into ply the of rhe field of criticism 'ionship of immcdiale '",,, ....trh his radel'$hip based on ogy of posirion. From L'Allrot' we mOve to Fg."", In pl'rfe.::r humollY ....i!t. I rhe aUlhor of Lt T DII"'a/ll_rhe... ., mony of orcheS!n!ro habl!us""h e igl1T11 {ririe cannOI bUI e'periC'llct F absolute delighl 2r a play ...hiet. .. perfectly corresponds 10 hts c3r. flCS f percepllon and appre(,atioll. hiS V1C... of !he Ihalre nd his \'leW of the ... orld Ho...e 'er. lxing fOIIIII inro a high('r degftt of euphernia rion. he edudC! overdy poliri'll judgemenrs and limits h'msdf 10 .hI: langu3gc of aesr hetlcs and nbo tcs: 'How gntcful ... should e Mme. Dorin for

""' .:',.;" ;.;;

htl1rlily thar o I I /.IlIghIhink how angutshmg for I '0 ..,n ! for a ....riler ro ....onder if
10d him of i." Uao. Figa,.". 12 Jan. !ItS Gautier, U J'f'I L9m. '' one moves natu. lilt)' From Lt FigII'''
JIIll" nn
s

i,h il back inro .... K'n au!!hlcr. _ _ . Hurry along bl'n j!t1lrhY for youlvcs nd I'm sure
., W

,'Jr

,I n-" 11 in rune ....ilh the rimcs in , sII . ihC s '11$ she liv($. . . . In the ('nd .,h,d' ion ryonc asks himself sod on .

qUCS\v humour and inf'llrtI/JU opli.

Ixll Guilkminaud. L'Alirurt, 12 )nuI)' 19H). Silulltd ! the fringe of rhe inld lenul fJ('ld, ar 3 point ....here he I rt2dy h:os '0 spnk of" as 3n ou rsider ('our inreillgentsia). the L'Allrot't critic does nor mince his ... ords (he (ails a ractio011)' a reac ,ioory) and doo:s nor hide his sml e tSics_ The rherorial eff ct of pUlling words into rhe opponenr's mouth, in conditions in which his unCtioning irooiclJy, (lob. diseou. f jec.ivdy signilln the opposire of wht he means, prcsupposes and

....e;.ring her boulevard playwright's rcpulllion wi rh humiliry, has the impudence (0 prefer rhe jolliry of cha Guul)', or li:ydau's bedroom farccs, ro the darkness visible of Margueri!e Duras or Arrabal. This is a crime for ....hich sh(' ....iIl nOI easily orgiven, EspilIy since she be f commilS il wirh (I\rfulness nd giery. using all Ihe dreadful deviccs which make lasring succcsscs' (Gil.

o , mnic. ' ent withour comniy inlo in rhe Jllhd41 Wlly aurhor who ....ields sallre ganu, who :I! all ' ' ; ;' d' asrounding vi rluosilY_ . Dorin kno,,", "h m ! II boUI r arl. Ihe Jpringl . rhe /a lil1l JilliallOll ing (orc(' of rhe mOl juS!C whal skill in raking things apJ whal irony in her dcliberrt S' . I ,n rh' 5lcpping. what the she letS you s hcr srrinss! Lt of cnjoymenr
means
10

rUliragtouJIy

"

dt,4!tc of way succcss. . . . A w,uy to be a runa ,M 1/Ilusing play. A chanlCter. An Xlor made: for lhe parr: )e;.n f Pi.!r . . With an "" aitinl virlliOlil} don" with IINu ()Illy (l1Ji()llally tJIItt"

;:

;'

Oul evcr being . f (tlII """iH. .!

,ndulgence or

diculous imposture. Mme. Fnn(O '

; ::: will "Ii..,. a u.orIl.hl1lan(

:::

knee of Lt NDIIM O61tnt.ttllr: 'The simple, or simplistic. llgument is complicrcd by 1 very subde "r....o. liet" srnKlun:, as i( then: ....en: twO tIN ,f l tlJ {,,"nig, a ". tr ml1Jltry 4 plays overlapping. One by Fnn.;oise mrts 1/{IN {,,,J,, Franoise Dorin h., "'Iinen a pl3y on Ihe 'turning Dorin. a convenrional author, th(' points' in the Boulevard ....hich is. other invented by Philippe Roussel, ironICally, !he mos, rradirional of woo tries !O take "Ihe turning" to Boulevard plays. OnI, __ftdan" ....ards modem theatre. This concdl !milpro6t 1Mfar i"IO {IN ((JIII,asl !Jt. performs a circular movement. like 3 1_ I"", boomerang. Fl2n<oisc Dorin dcliber /JIJ f f) o {htl1l" and Iht {()II. 1..1 "'1,,_ I"", aJlU:tplillllJ o "",iliral :IIc1y f ('poso:s the &ulev3rd cliches " ."" Iht/W,.1t Itf btIJ;nd ;1. The ....hkh Philippe 1!t:.des and. Ihrough {r , w lam dialogue, full of w;1 ,l/ and tpi. his voice, delivers 3 violent denunci. is .of,en bilingly 51!(asdc Bur rion of rhe bourgroisic. On the . Ilnla'n I no r :I ari(1rure he is $ond Roor, she (OnlraslS rhis Ian J.,s. m..ptd Ihn )'Our run--of. guage ....ilh Ihlt of a young author r' m_il l .vn!g3/disl. . whom she ass3ils wilh equal Igour. Philippe h3s t pi"", rfift. because he is on his Finally, the rr::tjectory brings rhe "0 .round Wh1 rhe lu!hor o( ....npon bcl: onto rhe Boulevard c..,.; all lbi.lrt grnrly ....ants to ge. and ,he fu.ilitics of ,he me<h. sta 10.1 r is rh1 rhe lI; &ule3/d srage anism are unmilSkcd by Ihe deviccs p;ople pt:.k and behave 'as of Ihe Il2dirion1 {he3rre. ....hich are II;O!tJ 'fe , :lnd this is lru('. bUI it shown 10 have lost nothing of their a ni31 trulh. 3nd not jus. ""Jue. Philippe nn dcclue himself a " r l! 'S a c(us rrulh' (Robert "coul2g<'Ously light" playwright, in. ' t L'nl) I"!.. Lf.xprtss. n-2L )anu3ry venting "chanctcrs ....ho rlk like ral people"; he cln claim Ihn his lit t 'O! .. . approval, .... hich is slill i rr s "wi!hout frontiers" and lhen:. . " ns ro bc coloured ore f non.pol ;lica!. However. Ihe by sys.

". . h b31ances "". I I0 L'Exprm, wh,c rtI r c-nJorsemcnr and distance, Slincdy higher 1U1,ning a di. euphemlzmon: .Ir ollg1

I2kcn pejontivc1y. And we even find, surf.acing Ihrough il$ deni!, 1 hint of the orher tfUth ('Only mo rose pedants will probe too fIr . . .') or even of the plain lrulh. bur dou. bly neulralizro by ambiguiey and de. nial ('nd not JUSt because i l is a class Iruth')_ U MOIIIit oIfers a perfecl example of ostentatiOUsly ncutnl discourse. evcn.hndcdly dismissing both sides. both Ihe overtly politic:ll discou of L'Allrot't and the disei3infuJ si.

remaric use of f ormuluiOlls Ihal are 3mbiguous even as regards rh(' op posirions involvcd: "Ir ought to be 3 runW:ly succcss', 'sly cunning, perfec. milSlery of the lric\es of the mdt, 'Philippe h:os the ium rOle', all formule ....hich coul C<:jually Ix

} Vy""'Illo.J V

' ".

,.,..... I 4 .J I

r"'I. :

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demonsmtion is emirel disfOrtN In ambiguity by many by .he modd avant.garde author nuances lind academic chosen by Fr:anoisc Dorin. Vanko (,insofar is " .', 'on be viet is an epigone of Marguerite . '), the assertion thai DUr;ls. a vaguely miliranl, belated is 'an important work', ' 0... existentialis!. He is parodic in ,he nO[e<t u a documen." i1 ; the crisis of modern i: extreme, like rhe theatre tl'm is ,,Ie. i , , nounced herr ("A black (urn;n and they would no doubt say a[ a scaffold certainly help!" or the rirk Po. or Ihe play: "00 take a little angst This art of conciliation and ; promise achieves the ': " : in your coffee, Mr. Karso""). The audience sniggers 11 this derisive arl for art'S sake with the . Ihe Catholic piCture of modern dnma; rhe de nunciation of Ihe bourgeoisie is an laces his amusing provocation inasmuch as It with such rd>ouncls ontO an odious vinim and calions, underslalements finish him off. To the extent double negation, nuances, that It rdlcclS the state of bourgeois lions and self.(orrections thar theatre and veals its systems of de final Clmriliatio O ppo!ilorum, so fence, Lt T"rnllnl can be regarded Jesuitical 'in fo.m and ,"" . :IS an imporl"nl IWrk. Few plays let he would say, almost SC(ms to slip so much anxiety about an "ex without saying: 'Lt Icrnal" threat and fflU /'""1t it Wilh have said, SC(ms to me an work, in both form and so much UR((mJciclii fury' (!.ouis Dandrel, Lt M, n Jnuary This is nO! 10 SlIy it nO( many people's tccth on ed. I 1973), The ambiguilY which Robert 'pened to be silling next to an Kanter<; was already beginning 10 condilional supporter of the cultivale here reaches its peak. The avant.garde and th'OUghO"' argument is 'simple ()I' simplislic', ning I was aware of his : : take your pick; the phiy is splil in anger. However, ! by no : tWO, off ering tWO works fOt Ihe elude Ihat Franoise Dorin i readet's choice, II 'violent' bUI 'lUu >0 pc(Ory' crilique of Ihe bourgwisie often and a defence of non.political ,m contempoN.ry For anyone naive enough 10 lISk concludes-her whether the crilic is 'for Ot against', whelher he finds the play 'good or ,h, t bad', there are IWO answers: first, the thai is ; precisdy because ob$crvation by an 'objective infor master like mam' with II duty lowards Irulh i self u a guide at the that the avam.g:ardc author po. these tWO p"ths' (Jean tyed is 'parodic in the extreme' Croix, 21 January 1973). and ,hal 'the audience sniggers' (but withoul our knowing where Although Ihe silence of U Obltr'l'attu, no doubt signifi(S the critic stands in relation to Ihis Ihing in itself, we can for an audience, and Iherefore what the sniggering signifies), and then, afler approximate idea of what '" lion might have been by rc,;di" , a series of judgemems th.1 are held

::: :: : : :"::

:: : r ;: :
:

;:

""'e(le . ' 1" . t ... pl to these JOatry gal,,", (trot' ,0 /Jnd bUlinfflWfmlm in l 9{ [IIj of which a famous and d Kwr recites the la ,10<' ",uc o,-c I "'illY II of an equally fa horLOU' ' ) hor in the mIddle of an t , '"QUS au stg<: ser, even a revolvmg 111It ,1.>1>0 on d('(ouled wtlh F0l,. 's mea ,00 N0 ceremony ' humour . , SUrtd n "catharsis"' or " rC\'elation"' O C . srill kss improvisation JUSI a ,LI . .. btcful of bourols CU1SIfle for Ptornachs Ihat ha"e SC(n II all be r . . . The audience, like all bou e kVlld audiences in Paris, bursls out bughing, on cue. in the most ,'On formi>! plac(S, as and when Ihls spirit of easygoing N.lionalism in SP'fC$ Ihem, The connivance is per ftcl lnd the acrors are all in on it. Thi, pia), could ha,'c been wri!!en !(n, I"emy, or thirty years go' (M Pierrer, Lt NOlJnf Ob!ffl'aUU', Februlry 1%4. reviewing

f".,tf'l:,11 (Io<' (: to me (he wrong bld"tlRf: (,J,JfJ SC ms d:mmm I

en Marceau's pl:iy La . ,f Felici or (he rev"w 0f rC""" '11J/Jtre, hich Philippe T..-sson, w r 0( C1mbtJ" wrolC for U or _ V

"

h ""'r

11ughabie because they are nO! ullered in the appropriate place and before th( light audience, Instead, !hey become a 'mockery', a parody, es(ablish g "'"!lh their audience Ihe immediale complicily of laughter, because have pel1uaded Iheir audience to reject (if 11 had ever accepted) the uPPOSllJOns of the parodied discourse. th s exemplary case deady shows, i( is the logic of !he homologies, ! YOIC1 calculation, whtch causes works (0 be adjuSled to Ihe (xJXc tit'ons of their audience, The p2rtial objectifications in which imelle, tU:ls and anists indulge in the course of tbeir b3llies omit what is ntl.1 . . by descn Ing as the conSCIOus pUrsUIi 0 f success Wllh an au I' . b <0<, d . . ,. '"hat IS tn faC! Ihe result of rhe pre-eslabli t",o s shed humony be!Ween &toi 3 tetns of tn(erests (which may coincide in Ihe JXrson of (he 'bour ""liter) , or, more precisely, of rhe sllu([ural and functional ho IllOlog dU((iOY between a given writer's or artist's position in (he field of pron and the position of his audience 'n (he field of the classes and

. . . . , . . . , , ., .. " " " , . . , . . . . . . . . " ,.," ,.'

11

'FN.n,oise Dorin really knbWl /J Ihing Or IW(), She's a firstme ,ero i'"a{()I' and terribly wtllbrtti. Her To"",a'" is an excellent BQulev,,,d comedy, which runs mainly on bad faith and demagogy, The lady Wants 10 prove lhat avant.garde thealre is a dog's dinner. To do >0, she lakes a big btJ o Irick! and, needless to say. g f as soon as she pulls one out the au dima rolls in the aisles and (1lis for more. Our author, u',,", W/JJ jUif wail' illg for thai, does it again, She gives us a )'oung trendy leftist playwright called Vankowin-get it?--ind putS him ,n various ridiculous, uncom fortable and lath" shady Sirullions, to show thaI this young gemieman is no more disinterested, no less bourgeois, than you lind I What ((}mmrm WIif, Mme. Dorin, what lu ridi{), what holWI}.' You at leasl have ,he courage to stand by your opinions, and "ery healrhy, red whiteandblue ones they are tOO' (Philippe Tesson, Lt Can/Jrd En rh/Jini, 17 March 1973 [italics in all foregoing <juolations re mine) .

q uaM),

Felicicn Muceau's u. P'flJW par

no

: p

cause I would be assuming a cerrain number of i OUI tC:Iders don'l gi\" a damn abouI:" To och spond presuppositions, a dtJxa, and the homolog y or positions and their clients' is Ihe precondition f

diSS f raClions. By refusing to rt':cognize any other ,he producer and his public (han cynical nlculation r pu r e i ness, writers and If!islS give themselves a convtnicm dniec Ihcmsclves as disintc(ed. while cposing Ihdr adrsaries \"lite<! by ,hI' lust for success at any price, provocation and right bank argumC'm) or mercenary scrvilily (the 1cft.nk The lIed 'intdJeclUaJ lackeys' arc righl {O think and they. mic!ly speakmg, serve no one TI}(y scrve i J in all sincerity, they serve their own in l(mIS, SlXcific, i nuS!:, limaled and cuphcmized intcreslS. such as 'in u:resl' in a f orm or philosophy which is logically associated with a ceriain "",;,;,,.. a cemin field and which (except in crisis periods) has hood of concraling, ('\,en from its advocates, the political ;m,p k, it connins. Bclw!Xn pure disinlereslednrn and cynical servililY, lhele is Ihe relationships established, objectively, wilhoul lny conscious lion, between l produce, nd an audience, by vinue of which 1he: lices ;lnd a!1ifaCls produced in a specialized lnd reblively '.,o" of production are neeCSSlrily O\'CIlcrmined; lhc functions " fulfil in the intCrnll muggles are ineviubly coupled wilh , ' ," ''' lions, Ihose which they receive in lhe symbolic slruggles belwet!l frllCtions of the dominant class and, in lhc long lun, beltl.'een the 'Sinceri fy' (which is one of fhe pre<ondifions of symbolic, ect, immediale h only possible lmd tell-in the case of perf lween Ihe expeclalions inscribed in lhe posilion occupied (in a 1ess scerated area, one would say 'job description') and Ihe d;'."'C"'i';"O< occupant; it is the pl ivi1ege of those who, guided by i 'sense place,' have found their nalural sile in the field of ploduccion. I . dance with the law that one only preaches 10 the convened, a enl\( only 'influence' his telders insofar as they grant him this power lhey an: structurally ;lnuned to him in Iheir view of the sodal their laslCS and Iheir whole habilus. JeanJ;lcqucs Gautier, for a "". . lilCrary critic of u Figaro, gives a good descriplion of Ihis electtve ily betwttn the journalist, his paper and his telders: a good ' who has chosen himself and been chosen through lhe same chooses a Figaro literary crilic because 'he has the right tOne for Ii ro the readers of the paper', because, without making a garo' and is the 'he natural y speaks the language of u Fi reader'. 'If tOmorrow I stalted speaking the language Aladmln, for example, 01 Sahlin lltJ dis LmrtJ, people wo." longer tC:Id me or understand me, so they would nOI listen to

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. . . .' "

. .

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field

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vE AffiNITIES This limiting C2SC forccs one 10 <;jucslion Ihe 2p lcTtccs of the dim:t eKecl of demlnd on supply or of supply or de and ro consider in ;l new light all [he encounters belween the IfIJ( ' goods produClion n d the togic ?f taste. produCl on through of . klS, the universe of approprralC, appropnated rh'"gs-ob)ecn, people, "h,eh <l memories etc.-is consliluled. The limil of lhese coinci ge, kn09I'le of homologous 5truClures and sequcnc which bdng aboUt Ihe .kn' rdance belween a socially classified person and lhe socially classified cooe persons which 'suit' him is leplesenled by all acts of cooption l s or Ih low.feding, fliendship or love which lead to lasting n:lations, so or not The social sense is guided by r c sY$1cm of m. : lly S1nc{iond , J ally reinforcing nd ,"finitely redundnt signs of whICh each body IS be1.rer-<lothing, pronunciation, bearing, posture, manners--and "'hoeh. unconsciously registered, are the basi of 'antipathies' or 'sym' s p1Ih,es'; Ihe seemingly mOSt immedile -elect;vc affinirics' are always p1nly bascrl on thc unco:nscious iphcring of epive featufCS, h of ,,hich only takes on lIS meaning and value Within the system of liS cl2S.I variations (one only has to think of the ways of laughing or smiling noted by ordinary languge) . Taste is what brings together things and ptopk lhal go together.

IS

Ih is ,H c

r '" the theatre, 1trt1 3 c

undamental values are involvcd, more strongly required when f

pC'o;

Chap

:i:j i
O'

The m, indisputable evidence of this immediaIC sense of social compati bllllles and incomp:llibilities is provided by das.5 and even class-fraction en, dogamy, which ;1 ensurc<l almost as wictly by Ihe free play of sentiment as bt' delit,.,,,,rc family ifltrvention. It is known .hal Ihe srruc.un: of .he cir CIII( of matrimonial echangcs ICnds 10 .cproducc the StruClun: of the social !poee as <bcribcd here;'. it is probable Ihal .he homog-:ncity of eouples ;1 ll underestimaled 2fld thai bellCl knowledge of the 'iiCCondary' prope<tics thl: spouses and tbe'r families would further rrou" the apparcn. random for example, a survey In 1964 of the matrimonial strategies of siK (1948-19H) of ans graduarcs of the Ecole Normale showed that of "'ho 1Il1r a t...en: married by then (8 pe{{enl o( the totat). 9 percenl had eacher, and of these 8 percenl had married an agri " Among g", 1(lj tht "tors of the cenml administration, who occupy an intClmediate po. '''10 '" ' tw:n the civil servia and bU5iness, 22.6 percent of whose f athers ,v, . ' , scrvan!s 2nd 22 percenl bU5lnessmen, 16.6 percenl of Ihose who arc IIllrti(,d lve a civilservanl fathCl.in.law and n.2 pcrcem a businessman F:!1h.:r: aw, " mong Ihe alumni of tNSEAD (European tnstitute of . tor Adm,nlStration) , which train5 future top executives (or the privaIC 28 rCenl of whose fathers are indumial 0. commClcial employers 1tq,t)r,J executi\'d or engineers, 23.) percenl of Ihose who arc I'tog. ave an employCl for father.in.Jaw and 21 percent an exeeulive 0. , Very rarely are lhey the SOn5 (2 perc..nt) or sons,in,jaw () I"'r-

t. ,

III<] 191r 'ccm

!l..,1''

;S :I match.maker, il muriel colours and also people, ....ho make 1J5'( " he<! couples', ini,ially in regard (0 [asIC. ....11 {he 1(IS of co II . mhich underlie 'primary groups' art 1CtS of knowledge of orhen ,;on s of' of acts of knowlt<l or, in Jess imdlecluali ( ferms, sign bjC'CIS per.l!ions (p1ni ularly isjbl in first cn oufl{crs) through o habi(us confirms ItS affinlly w" h olher habItus. HcnCC': (he 15, rt,.J h8 "I"ing harmony of ordinary couples who, often matched iniliallr' pro11)111 ,,-ely march C'Kh Olher by a son of mutual accuitur:ation.' This [a(l(OUS decoding of one habitus by anothcr is {he Insis of Ihe imme affinities which oriem social encoumers, discour:ilging socially di n IJb nt rcbdonships, encour:ilging wellmarched relarionships, without QfXr:lfions ever having to be formulated orher than in the socially ,nnQ(ent language of likes and dislikes.l1 The erreme improbability of the panicubr encounter between particular people, which masks rhe .. probability of interchaneabk chance evems mduces cu 1es to eri. C1Ice their mutual e1e<fton as a happy acctdent, a comcukncc whtch mimics transcendent design ('made for each other') and intensifies the the miraculous. ThO$( whom we find to our taSte put into their practices a taste which does not differ from the taste we pUt into oper:ilfion in perceiving their l practices. Two people can give each other no bener proof of the aff flity the taSte they have for each other. JUSt as the art-lover their nstes than finds a raison d'etre in his discovery, which seems to have been waiting for all eternity for the discoverer's eye, so lovers fed ')ustific<l in existing', pUtS it, 'made each other', comtituted as the end and r:r.ison detrc of another eisten(e entirely dependent on theil own existence, and therefore accepted, m:ognized in their most contingent features, a "Iy ofbughing or spc:lking, in shon, legitimated in the a bitr:ilriness of a r :;to 0fbc:tng 2nd doing, a hiologkal and social destiny. Love is also a way OIIt ' Vrng one's own destiny in someone clSoC and so of f eeling loved in o....n destiny, [t is no doubt the supreme occasion of a sort of epe' tnd e of the mlll;/1IJ or; gmarillJ of which the ion of luxury goods \-h orks of a1l (made f their owner) is an approximate form and or mak the perceiving, naming subjcct (we know the role of g "'t rYtng III love relations), the cause and the end, in ShOll, the raison , of the perceived subt. ' lc: 1\ Maltre, par un ocil profond. a, sur ses pas, , t de I'&len l'inquii:re merveille ":: p nt Ie frisson final dans sa voi seuk (veilk OUr la Rose el Ie LS Ie mysti:re d'un om.1)

(!I'I) h:l nm'i (0 ,he re roductiOn of [he gramu bou'gttliJit has bet" <kmon,
, I

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, cJ

::C" C :" ' C C C' CY

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,aclicr.'Y lind rhe dt<:isivc contribution of ,he logic of mauimo J:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

q1,S:

SC1lie of of

.nrc

l or

4 I I /]( lXI/'ll/my I/ /'ra(/JrtJ J

Tlsr is rhe f orm par excellence of am'"j ali. r esentuions and pr:aCfices which are always mo adjusted e to Ix [0 [he objective conditions of which they ar the produ(f with brx Ihu '[he petit bourgeois cannOI tr:anscend rhe limi mind' (others would have Slid h limi[s o( his nd<"rslanding) . . thu hIs thought has the Slme IIm [ts as h,s condItion, [hat his in a sense doubly limits him, by [nc material limits whreh i[ set S pr:anice and the limits it sees [0 his (houghr and therefore his and which make him accept, and even love. Ihese limilsH We bener placed [0 under:mnd [he specific effen of [he 'raising ncss': making expJicil whal is given presupposcs and produces a sion of immediate aHachment [0 (he given so [hat the I probable rda[ionships may become dissociated from ali ali, hatred and amqr j can thus collapse into tJdi"m j

',l;,':":.:o:;:: :
"''''
social space thaI h.s Ixen pUI forward here is not only "fh model of by lhe n"Olture of Ihe dan used (and usable) , particularly by the . hll1l eat analysis structu ral f ures such ical impossibili ty of including in the pf1.' power which certain individuals or groups have over fhe econ as tht innumerable associated hidden profits. If mOSt o( those . omy. or even the ,-' ICII accept, Imp'' ' 'y or ex Cltrl)' our empirical research are 0ften C"U to "'110 whih reduces Ihe classes [0 simple nked bt non phody, a rheol)' . 10lc of tnct p.rK' . lntagontic Sirala, thIS IS above all ause Ie v1)' . [ice Itlds them 10 ignoft what IS obJectlvcly IIIscnlxd III every dlstrlbu rlOn. /I distribution, in the sratisrical but aho thc political.economy has been won in sense. is Ihe balancesheet, al a given moment, of whal pftvious battles alld can be invested in subsequent banles; it exprcs.ses a stare of the power rel"Oltion between the classes or. more precisely, of [he lUuggle for possession of rare goods and for Ihe specifically political power over the distribution or redistribution of profi[. Thus, [he opposition belwCt':n theories \\Ihich describe [he social world 11\ t languase of s\r.Itification and those which speak Ihe language of the class struggle coponds to IWO ways of Stting the social world WhICh, Ihough difficult to reconcile in practice, arc i n no way mutually eclU$ive as regards lheir principk. 'Empiricists' Sttm locked into [he for rnc,r. ltlving the laffer (or 'lheoriSIS', because descr iptive or explanatory SUrveys, which can only manifest cbr.ses or class fractions in [he form of a PUnctual SCI of distributions of properties among individuals, always ar nve after (OT bef ore) the baltic and nessanly pUI into parenlhacs thc

I:

S ymbolic Struggles
To ape from the su;enivist illusion, hich reduces social space to . conJunnural space o( mter.lC!ions, that 1$, 1 ,;;"'"';""'" 1blrat situltions/s it has been neccssary to cons[ruct social space obJecuve space, a strunure of objenive reluions which determines possible f orm of interactions and of thc representations rhe i can ha,c of them. However, one must move Ixyond [his jcnivism, which, in 'trearing social facts as things', I

,,,,;;';;;' :
whal il

aft defined once and for all in a single respect and delimited by dtllly drawn frol\lirs. For cxample, as has bttn shown in [he case of induwial employers nd a5 will subsequently be shown in thc exemplaly case of rllt aI nw mIddle-class fraoions, a particularly indetermina[c zone in tha! 5H' ,ela[ive indererminancy represented by thc pcri[e bourgeoisie, each of tllt . classes of positions which the ordinary classifications of statis[ics Ie<jUIIT '" ro (Onstruo can itself fun{fion 15 a ICla[ively autonomous field. One onlJ' has [0 substitute morc Strictly defined occupational positions for the rclJ. rively al)$!r1C1 categories imposed by rhe nCCffiHICS of statis[ical ;; : : rion 11\ order ro Set': rhc emerg.:ncc of tM nClwork of compcriti"e I rr which give rise. for cxample. '0 conRicl5 of compctcncc-<onRicts o"cr qualifications for legitim.te pnCIl(C of [he occuparion and rhe IcglllmaIT seope of rhe prac[icc-betwCt'n agenl1 possesinS diK ftnr qualifica[ionS. s c SIKh as doctors. anaesrM.ists. nurses, m,dwivC$, phY'iotherapists Ind

eire mUJl be taken to avoid ,he obiec[ivis[ ill(]mallon (whkh is exp_ and remforced in a sparial diaSram ) [0 muk QU[ rcgions of rhis space lhal

scribes. Thc social positions which present Ihcmselvcs 10 rhe ob";" places Juxtaposed in a static order of discre[c compartments. r isins a purely theorelical question of the Jimits betwCt':n Ihe , [hem. are also s[ralcgic emplacemenu, forrrcs.ses to tured in a field of slruggles.

: :;:': :% f:

rrugglc

:.: ;

:;.

of which Ihis distribution is (he proclUCl. When [he stati$licin l>rgers rhat atf the properties he handles, not only those he classifies and rnSures but also rhose he uses to classify and mcasure. arc weapons and
to

in rh r'from .e struggle belwCt':n the classes, he is inclined bstrac.t .each Its relations with !he others, not only from the opposItional . ns whsch give properties their distillClive value, but also (rom Ihe :tl> r

t ![?ns. of power and of Struggle for power which arc the very basis of

: lCs :e

d st ' nbulions. Like a photograph of a gamc of marbles or poker which the babncc sheet of assetS (marbles or chips) ar a given sra, the TVey flCS a moment in a siruggle in which Ihe anu PUI back inlo

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. ..
.

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"

, . . .. . ..
. . .

play, ar every momenr, rhe capiral rhey have aC<Juimi in rhe srruggle, which may imply a power over rhe struggle I;;;;;; fore over the capital hdd by olhers. The Strucrure of elm relations is what one obuins synchronic crosssection to fiK a (more or less steady ) "''' of" , Slruggles amons: the elmes. The relative wength which the ;0<1;;,; ; , can pUI 1010 lhls siruggle, or. in olher words. Ihe disuibuli n at moment of the diff ren l types of capi lal. defines Ihe Struclure of e bUI, e<Jually, lhe Strength which the individuals command the slue of the slruggle over the definition of Ihe srake of Ihe The definition of the legi timue means and sukes of struggle IS In one of the Slakes of Ihe slru le, and Ihe relative efficacy of rhe me conIrolling Ie ga.me (the diff rent som of capital) is itsel f al st:ikUlsfJI e therefore subjt ro variations in .the COUI"$C of the game. Thus, . conlantly been emphamed hete (If only by usc of quotalion marks) the notion of 'overall volume of capinl', which has to be conslructed ortk.r to account for cerlin UptCIS of practice, nonetheless rema ins a the orencal.artifact; as such, It could produce thoroughly dangerous effeclS r everythmg Ihat has 10 be sel ide order to construct il were forgottal, nOI leasl .Ihe fact Ihal the conveion rate rween one sort of capital" , another. IS f ugh t over al aJ! limes and IS therefore subct to endlal o fluctuallons.

;:'

in 10 r Jnr! ease ce; m provi o nOI obey an i tn, I lnr 're i o . detachment or s nre 5 cd e im l c l denuncialion of for ist n c o n of Ihe ' a s', (Io ' rer 0(1 'servile', 'ignorant' r 'pe an c' pcor 'Hashy'. 'artogam' ' ml d d . . rO..
, u

:
lit.

as

10

neat, (onlains a taeil reference uncleanness, words or den and ,he bourgeois elaim to t inlemperance or i nt di i re t n , need r n hrsaKh d i ti n in order to comain an p iency, (: ension always marked by excess or insuffici i nr ep o d ti or ne' . . . bourgeoiSie. IIIe th1 each 8":,uP tends t? recogmze I! SJJ:lfic values accident It is nO ich makes IlS value, lO ussu e s sense, that IS, lO Ihc lalesl r . hat wh which. is.also, vry ofte, the lalesr con.quest, in the muetural Xtcf1ce deVIation whICh speeJ!1caJly defines 11. Whereas Ihe worklOg d geocdc and to. 'essential' goods. and virtues, demand asscs. reduced middle elmes, n:lat vely {rttr from necesSI.cleannessfor a ty , look licaliry, Ihe t p aC ' comfortable Ot neal interior, Ot a fashionable and original ...arm, cosy', which Ihe privilege classes relegate 10 sec' g rment.'l These an: valueslong been Iheirs andd to go withou t say seem have d I1lnk because theyintentions $OCiJy recognized Ihetic, su.ch ng, having aminedo y and cmposI,tII"\, tey nnot Identify their diS Ihe pursuit of harm tinction with properties, pracllces or vmues which no longer haw to be their cblmed or which, because they have become comm onplace and lost dl$tin,uve value, no lonr rlln be claimed.
l as as .

Dispositions are ajsled nt only .1O a.class condition. presenting inel . as a set f.poss,bdlTles and ImposSlblliud, bUI also co a rciationaJ!y " fined posl.UO, a rank in the elm structure. They are therefore alwayt .. Jated: oh)ew.vdy at least, to Ihe disposilions associated with olhcr r:oslflons. ThiS means thaI. being 'adapted' 10 a particular class of condi Ilons of exIStence characlerized by a particular degrtt of distance from . Cessity, class 'm orali ties' and 'aestherics' are also necessarily situated WI. one anorher by the criterion of degree of banality or dlSl;ftOo rspect non, and thar aJ! the 'choices' Ihey produce are aUlomalicaJ!y associaUIII wilh a distiner posilion and theref ore endowed wilh a d ist ncti ,'e val_ This occurs even without any conscious intention of distinction or pliit pursuit of difference. The genuindy inten tional s tegies IhrOur whICh memrs of a group seek 10 distinguish rhemseh'es from . group Immedmciy below (or believed 10 be so), which they use as a JOl and to identify themselves with the group immedialely bove (or bt r" Ikved to be so), which they Ihus recognize U Ihe possesr of the k so mate life-style, only ensure full efficacy, by imentional reduplioflon, ' the aUlom2tic, unconscious effects of Ihe dialecric of the rarr nd common, the new and the daled, which is inscribed in the :';:y ferentiation of conditions and dispositions. Even when it is i-n nO spi red by the conscious concern 10 stan d aloof from work ing.class every petil bou rgrois profession of rigour. every eulogy of Ihe
co ne !rll l

"

ndi ting the dass the series o n n fig re 10 As m"lie inlerior s the adjectives ppl ed l"3Clion var al f sober, which proved he , (rxcept for '0 be am ig ou ), the proponion of choie" emphasizing overtly 1"lhet;c the e harmonious) gro""s as rdes is ' choices (cle1n, unc ion l \O(;al hiemchy, whereas Ihe p oporti pncllcal, inl in ) dlines. The neady diStortion of the is tog on f1 poi lS 10WJrds commcns l1l lc um:mes: I e small mopkt:epen le1d to rhe e mm r( employers, Ihe primary lachlrs fO the secondary te.chers and rhe 'c lt r l ar 1'111( producers. The pme log c i$ found The refupi of a j c i v klng d never r j c1 'de1n maimain' or 'prCIlClI'. n IC mi d flaclions (office o k rs. junior Id, le clas, lhe esublished "llnISlrnive sho keepers) reject imaginativc ulh more: ofl n to e new petite bourgeoisie 'classical', lepl (rafumen'). who fl1lCl o Ihe dominam class tf>c<:lal ly Ihe Ihe professions). rejecl d21siul' ':'c _ often Ihln 'im gin l v '
es an

of histograms i ca is sh w i u by a i 10 the ideal do i ion of thrtt of t m classical, ne1I-JDignt:-and b u s on moves up (studied, imaginative. t on of 'f t a r h ram easy to ma a h u b n Ihrtt relatively in indulHi.1 and o e ial u u a intermediaries' to the d e t es. in 1he i and lidy', 'easy to ee w rc d ee.::utives, cnfrsmen and p e thIn in contrast Ih tlt.e 'If!!Cachers and members ofmost i ns of , like a a i e. ; .lhU S obey a son of generalized Engel's law. At each level of the di SI.t lfUtlOn, what is rare and constitures an inaccessible luury or an al>. . n It\o a lu y (or those at earlier or lor level becomes b:inal and (om, nd is relegated to the order of thc tken(or.granlcd by Ihe ap;'ara a nce of new, rarer and more di Slincrive goods; and, oncc again, this

Figurt JO

Ideal horn'S

adrnin;""'i.o' o<O<\l,i...

"" -

gut rSaiflt-Tropez'----r -<> S

,..rht1$,
,echnici.n.

Prim..,.

JuniOl'

r>ri..

e.u,,>'a,

"""""'"

.<1 crof ....,."

cultul'>i in,...,....

Mii<:o! ...mea.

!(Vilies r.uesl a( a given momenl_ Those who are held 10 be distinguished ha"C the privilege of nOl wOlry;ng about their distinction; lhey can leave it to Ihe obiective mechanisms which provide lheil distincdve properties and to Ihe 'sense of diSlinCiion' which SIIS them away from evcryThing

;; \ a pl e ifltolerances--of noise, crowds etc.-in(ulcat byof bouigeois a all lh terrain or inging are generally sufficienl 10 provoke the chang<:s je 1 which. in work as in leisure, lead towards the objens. places or lC
,

Of or disgUSt for objects or pranices ,hal have become common. horr"

dhe like

trwt ilf- oded, o!I!1 ,' c r newer obje<:ts in an endless drive for novelty, and which oper ,nlO evcry area, spon and <ooking, holiday resoflS and f('Slaurams, is ,(6d d by coundess differem indices and indications. from explicit warn
.

nS wilhout any intentional pursuit of distinctive, distinguished rar '[he sense of good investment which dinates a withdrawal from or simply devalued, ohje<:ls. places or pranices and a move

(ng

Buffet de la gare de LyOfl, or anywhere 'has become impossible') to the bardy conscious imuilions, which, awareflts.S of populanzation or overcrowding, insidiously arouse

Ihe

len follow accidefll Ihal laSles in painling or music so of S ' . (h. revivals and rehabilitations apart. reploduce history in biogra. ) So The search for distincl;on has no nad to Sa': itself for what it is,
(

(II palhs

"

everylhing which is 'showy', 'flashy' and pretemiou5, and which devalues

ilSClfby The very intemion of distinction.

SO(( of ostentalious discredon, sobriely and understatement, a refusal of

traying his own msecurilY, bourgeoIS diSClclion signals its presence by a

'wmmon', Where

the petil bourgeois or nouveau riche 'overdoes iI', be

romm.rci>J .mplo,en

l.du",.. .nd I

"

I !
Prof .......

T ...:Ie" I (hilh<r .nd .. ,

, i , , ,

When asked how lhey would dress if 'inviled (0 dinner by their husb.nd's boss', >3 percent of (he wives of Junior executives or office worken (32 per (em of m.nual workers' wives, 29 per(Cnt of form workers' wives) say they "'ould 'we" lheir beSt clothes', as against only 19 percent of (he w,ves of '"dum!>1 and commercial employen. senior executives and professionils, of "'hom 81 per(em say they would change their clolh'S 'but withoU( pU(1ing On Sunday beSI', compared with 67 percent of the middle-class wives .nd (is p ercenl of ,he working.class wives (C.S. XLII),

'he"

f
,

, ,

! , , i "a g' i " , ! ,

2 "
,

i, ; , !

, , ,

! !

]
, .

c i n If
"

5 .. Q .- . 5.

of different itions differentiate themselves, wilh or (he intelion of dislinguishing Themlves, is itself only the bal 1n(e . li(;o ttl. al a gIven moment. of lhe symbolic sITuggles ovel lhe tmpo f the legilimate life.style. which are most fully devdoped in the Ilru oe t'S for the monopoly of lhe emblems of 'class-luxury goods. le-

es over the appropliation of e<:onomic si u itaneously, symbolic struggles to apptopriateor cultural goods are,the dis1!nctive signs in (rmpf c!a.ssifd, classifying goods or practices, conserve or subvert <J t n nClples of classification of these disnnctive ptoperties_ As i conse u ;nce, lhe space of life,slyles. i.e., the universe of Ihe properties whereby t h Sltuggi
or 10

"'ilhOccup..nts t

they offer no intrinsic interest (no palpable pleasure, for example), a(}(l so to introduce the '1uestion of the interest of diSinterestedness. The slruggle itself thus produces effects which tend (0 disguise the: very eXistence of the struggle_ If the n:hlionship of the different cla with culture can be described indifferenrly eirher in the language ( r.al voured by 1>'hurice Halbwachs) of distance from the centres of cultu u values or in the language of conAict, this is because Ihe symboliC s gles between the classes have no chance of beIng seen and otgan'z

of rhe effects of the game is to induce bellef lI'I the innaleness of Ihe de sire to play and the pleasure of playing. It is barbarism to ask what cui lUre is for; 10 allow the hypothesis that culture might be devoid of intrinsic interest, and that interest in culture is not a nalural properry unequally distributed, as if 10 sepaf2te rhe barbarians from Ihe elecr--bul a simple social artifaCt, a particular form of f etishism; (0 f2ise the ques tion of Ihe interest of activities which are called disll'lterested becauSC

gidmte cultural goods.--<>r the legitimte innner of ppropriati l them, The dynamic of the field in which these goods are produced a lg reproduced nd circulte while yielding profits of distinction lies in t strategies which give rise to their rarity and to belief in their value, a d n-to bring aboul these ob , i hich combine-:-in ,the, r very opsitio, n five effects_ 'O'StIl'lCflOn , or bettet, cllSS , the transfigured, mlsrecog able, legitimate form of social class, only exists through the struggles the exclusive appropriation of the distinctive signs which make ' natu distinction'. Culture is a Slake which, like all social srakes, simultaneously presup' poses and demands that one take prt LI'I the game and be taken in by it, , and LI'Iterest LI'I culture, wuhout which thete IS no race, no competition I produced by rhe very race and competition which iT produccs. The va of culture, Ihe supreme fetish, is generated in the iniflal investment im plied by the mer<: fact of entering the game, )oinll'lg in the collective be lief in the Hlue of thc game wh1(h makes Ihe game and endlt'S$ly n:makes the competirion for the stakes. The opposition bet""een the 'au thentic' and Ihc 'imitation', 'true' culture and 'popularization', which maintains the game by maintaining bellef in the absolule value of lilt stake, conceals a wllusion rhat is no less indispensable to the production and reproduction of the illuJio, the fundamental fC<ognition of the c'I. 1Uf21 game nd iTS STakes. Distinction and pretension. high culture and middlebrow culture-like, elsewhere, high fashion and f ashion, haute coiffure and coiffure, and so on-only exisl through each other, and it is the relation, or rarher, rhe objeCtive collaboration of their respecTive pro duction apparatuses and clients which produces Ihe value of cultun: and Ihe need ro posseS!; it. II is in these struggles between objecdvely com plicil opponents Ihal the value of culture is generated, or, which amounts to the S4lme Ihing, belief in Ihe value of ultun:, interesr in cui Iun: and the interest of culturewhlch are 1'101 sdf evident, although one

and an: bound to take the form of competiTive struggles helping ro uch, , raduce rhe gaps which n: the essence of the race. It is no accident t-apart {(Om P(Oudhon, who is inspired by his pellt-bourgeois horror t f the dissolute, slovenly lifestyle of artiSIS, and by what Marx calls his hominis probi', to dan: (0 expose the hidden, repressed face of the I tite bourgeoisie's ambivalent idea of artthen: is praclically no gues ning of art and cuhun: which leads to a genuine objectificadon of the l game, so Strongly an: the dominated classes and rheir spokesmen ( ultUr:l rnbued wirh a scnse of theit cultural unworthiness.

?r:ze

o of lhe an which some aniS!S go in f r,n or the (tivities groupe<! under Ihe term counteHullure. The lal1et merely conlesT one culture in the name of 1nother, counterposing a cultun: dommatcd wahm the n:htivdy aUlono mous field of cuitunl production lind distribution (which does not make it the culture of the dominaTed ) 10 a dominam cultute; in so doing Ih9 ful fil the traditional rok of i cultural avanr.garde which, by irs very existence, r.elps 10 keep the cultunl game functioning_ The dominated classes intervene in the symbolic struggles to appropri ale the distinctive properties which give the dIstinctive lifestyles their physiognomy and especially in the struggles 10 define rhe legitimate properties and the legitimate mode of appropriation, only as a passive ref. erence point, a foiL The natun: aginst which cultun: is hen: constructed is nothing other than what is 'populat', 'low', 'vulgar', 'common'. This mns thai anyone who wams TO 'succeed in life' must pay for his ac ceS!;ion 10 everyThing which defines lruly humane humans by a change of natun:, a 'social promotion' experienced as an ontological promotion, a pr<xess of 'civilization' (Hugo speaks somewhere of Ihe 'civilizing power of Art'), a leap from natun: !O culture, from the animal to the human; but having 'nternalize<! the class struggle, which is at the very heart of culture, he is condemned to shame, horror, even harred of the old Adam, h s language, his body and his tastes, and of everything he was bound to, hls roots, his family, his peers, sometimes even his mOlher tongue, from . whICh he is now separaled by a frontier mon: absolule rhan any taboo. The slruggles to win everything which, in rhe social world, is of the otder of beld, credit and discn:dil, perception and appreciation, knowl edge and recognition-name, renown, prestige, honour, glory, aUlhotiTY, everything which constitutes symbolic power as a n:cognized power-al. ays COncern the 'distinguished' possessOtS and he 'pretentious' chal I Pn:tcnsion, the recognition of distinction that IS affirmed in the e .ott to possess it, albeit in the illusory form of bluff or Imitation, in PI the acquisition. in itself vulgarizing, of the pn:viously most dis 've properties; it rhus hdps 10 maintain constant tension 11'1 Ihe 'nn s Yrnbolic goods market, forcing rhe posseSSOtS of distinctive properties

Norhing is further from such objectifiC:l1ion than Ihc aniSlic denunciarion

SS:

gers :

threa!(:nd wirh popuJariurion ro ngag in an ndless purs uit propt'rtio through which ro a5M:rt rheir rarily. Th deman d ."... nrated by Ihis dialeclic is by definilion inehauSfibk sinc r inated n hlch consilut il mus, nlessJy redcn . I trms of a d,snncuon whICh always defines llsel( ngauvly in thm. NitZ$ches 'nJishtnd elitism comes dO$<: to the S(:irlI;fic truth of mechanisms of Ihe produnion of belief In the value of culture; .You the WOn{ to say that no one would srrive for culture if he knw how un ably small the number of truly cultured men is and indeed can only be:-. )'Ct that even this small number of truly cultured men W:l$ nOt pouib .... less a great mus. <ktermincd, funmmentally, against Iheir nature by a scduCliv.: illusion, engaged in lhe pursuit of culture: {hat thtrefo nothing should be publicly divulged of the ridiculous disproportion lt b.: twetn the number of truly cuitiV1ted men and the Vas! appU1tus of (1,11. ture; thaI th peculiar secret of culture W:I$ this: that countless ?Wple -.J! for culture. apparently for them$<:ives, but ultimately only to make people poS$ible 'lO

and

a ..,

The symbolic snuggles over being and seeming, over the syrnbai: manifestations which the sense of appropriateness, as su;n :1$ lhe ... sumptuary laws. assigns to the diff"erent social conditions ('Who does ., think h isn, separating, f eumpk, natural 'gnce' from usurped '" or and gnces', are both based and f ()(:ussed on the degret of fretdom flOll one's 'starion' that is allowed by the specific logic of symbolic manl_ rions. Countless social arranmenrs arc dcsignd 10 regulat thoe ,. rions between being and seeming, from the law5 on the illegal won.,, " uniforms and decorations and all forms of usurpltion of titles, to lilt gntlesr forms of rcpn:ssion aimed at recalling to reality, to the 'seme" reality'. of limits, those who, by eKhibiring the eternal signs of a associated with a condition highr rhan their own. show that they 'd themselves' somethin8 beller Ihan thy are. the pretnrious pretendclf. who belny by their poses, their postures, their 'presentation' thaI rhet' hav a selfimage tOO (ar out of lin with the ima8e Olhers ha,e orr to which (hey ought to CUt down theif selfima8e ('climb down') . The relation to oroes on body which is exprtSSC'd in a crrain manntf .,110 bearing-tilt natural' scJ onfidcnce. ease and f<"els authorizccl. the awkwatdness or arrogance of someone who picion upon his legitimacy by his too patent need to asscrt t i most visibk mces of early and recurrent exposure {O archetypal i . which arc very unequally probable for the different social ciasS(s. It 15 of the mOSt powerful $O(ill and for this reason the forced or ceted e15( of the bluffer is I exposed to the <kmystifying i interlocutor who sccs i and refuses to be taken in'.
-

mon that the str.l!egies of pretension are 105t in. a. .s dod nOt 1"' Since th surest sign of le8itimacy i selfassurance, bluff"-lf II ,-J!Ice ways of (first by impfe55ing the blufl"er)-ls. one of the allve auron he limits of social condition .by pbymg on ,he rel. n t pt'rcelW: rcpn. oeaI', the symbolic (i.e., of the capaCIty to. make and . ott').os) ,n ordr to impose a selfrepresentation notm:.tIly USOC1Ued wlrh ecogniflon " doO er co..dition and to win for il the acceptance and r . , ) . , 11,18 1 ' ) make it a legitlm(, oble<:tlve reprntatlon. .WIhou subSCb. . 1 nreracrionist-and typICally pt'wbourg<:ols-ldeallsm whICh .,hl( the l . 10 . InS . the social world :1$ will and representation, Lt wouId nonerhe(CIVCS . (OIl te bsurd to exclud from social reality the represt:ntauon h h lesS t ,orm o( that reality. The reality of Ihe social world is in bet .partly ...., S . b ' - m"cd by the slfuggles betw<"en ants over the rcpresentauon 0r dtt \tiOn in the social world and, conurly. of that worl. te As shown by the inversion of the rdauonshlp between spt'ndmg on on substace and on 1ppcar. food and on clothing, and more g<:nerally, . le, the as one moves (rom the working class to the petlfe bourols ance. , te. . 10 the symbol Thelf .concern ,or appt'ar. mlddle ,l:wes are which may be experienced as unhappy conSCtousness, somlImes wee, . t., . . . . dIS! IKU .., arrogance. J is also a source .of Ihelr pretenSIon, a permanenl . . . . U ldcnlllY whteh con dillon towards th bluff" or USurpanon of socl.>1 . mtS in anticipating 'being' by 'sming" appropriating the ppcances W :IS to have {he realiry, the nominal so as to have the real, 10 trying to fying the rc modify the positions in the objective classifications by mi. =nt1l;on of the ranks in the classdicl!lon or of the prinCIples of classl fio.tion, Torn by all the contradictiOns between an objectively dominated condition and would.be participation in the dominant values, Ih pt'llt bourgeois is haunted by the appeafllnce he offers to othc:rs and the ludge r ment they mak of it. He constantly ov.:rshool5 the mark for f o.f Ing shorr. betnying his um:crtainly and aniely about belonglng In hIS anxiety to show or give the impn:ssion that he belongs. e . bound 1O IS . be s:ccn-both by the working c1:1$SCS, who do not have thiS concero wnh . lhCl! being.fo -others, and by the privileged classes. who, being sure of t ""ha( they are, do not care what they seem---:as the man of appearances. haunted by the look of others and endlessly ()(:cupied wilh being seen in I good light. Being 50 linked to appearance-the one he has to give. not only to do 'hat is. play his role, 10 'make belivc', to inspire confidence or Itspcct and prestnr his social character. his 'presentation', as a guarantee \}f the products or services he offers (:1$ is the case with salespeople, busi epresentatives, hostesses rc.), bUI also to assert is retensions all? t p ll1ands bo , to advanc his interests and upward asp,rations-the pellt Urgeois is inclined to a Berkeleian vision of Ih social world. reducing t\} a the atre in which being is never more than perceiv bei }, a men . rp I) t rescnlation of a rhotrical pt'rformance (rtpdSmlalllm). HIS am 'gIIOU$ posirion in the social snucture, sometimes compounded by the

sU /

be/
r

((mImi/lfd

fal.

h(5 job.

ambiguity inherem in all (he roles of intermed iary bttwten the manipulared manipulators, deived dcceivers. fren his very [ .-.--o which leads him to the positions of ondincommand, second lead, second fiddle, eminence: grise agtm , , depUty or Stand. ( prived of the symbolic profits associated with rhe recognittd stat ' offidal dckgarion which allow legitimate impo sture (and W ' " SUSp1 in true f oundalion ): everything pm:lisposes him 1 ; L 0 social world in terms of appearance and reali ty. and the more . h .sonally had to 'climb down', the more incli ned he is to observe man .... tions and impostures with the suspicious eyes '.. of resemmem.H BUI the site par excellence of symbolic strug gles is the domina n, dill; iuclf. The con/liers Ixlween mim and irlfc JlCCtuals over the dcfinit ion culture ue only one aspect of the interminable: stntggles among the: af ... { (rerlf fl1llCiions of the dominant class to impose: the definition of the: It. gitimue stakes lnd ....capons of SlXial strug gles; in orher ....ords, to dc:6at the lc:B.itimat princip!e of oomina!ion, be:1 ec:n c:("onomic, educati .... onll or SlXlal capllal, SlXlal powers ....hose: spt<: ific effio.cy mly be: c-. pounded by spedfically symbolic efficacy, that is, Ihe authorilY conftnei by be:ing rc:cogniw:l, mandatc:d by coliC:("live be:lief. The struggle be:thet& the dominant fr:lClions and the dominatc:d fraClions (themse:lves COIllQo luting flc:lds organic:d in a struClure hom ologous to (hat of the domi nam class as a whole) tends, in its ideologio .l relr:lnslation-and heft: tilt dominated fr:lcrions have the initiative and the upper hand-(O be: or.. nized by Opposilions thu arc almost superimp osable on those: whICh the dominant vision SCts up be:tween the dom inam class and Ihe domina. classes: on the one hand, freedom, disinterc:s tc:dncss, the 'punty' of" limated tastes, salvation in the hereafter ; on rhe Olher, necessiry, ICIf, interc:sr, base marerial suisfaClions, salvuion in rhis world. It follows rhIr all the SIr:llegies which intellectuals and anists produce againsl rhr 'bourgeois' inevitably tend, quite apart from any explicit intention, .ad: by virtue of 1m:: StruClure of rhe space in ....hich rhey are gener-ltc:d, to be dual-aclion devices, dirc:clc:d indifferently again sl all forms of subjc:c to malerial interesls, popular a!S much as bourgeois: 'I 0.11 bourgeoiS c:vc:r thinks b:asely', as F1aube:rr put il. This c:sscntial over-dererminapOll explains how Ihe 'bourpis' c:an 50 easily usc the an produced a them as a means of demonstr:lting their diSlin Clion, whenever they to show thar, compam:l to the dominuc:d, Ihey are on the s of 'disiIt' ide teresrc:dness" 'frttdom', 'purity' and the 'soul', Ihus ruming againSl die olher classes weapons designed for use agaim them t selves. J h is clearly no accidc:nr thai the dominant art and the dominant UI_ living agree on the ume fundamental distinctions. which are all . b:aseddIr the opition be:,....een the bruti$h n("(c:ss which pos iry forces Irself on vulgar, and luxury, as the manifestation of dislance from or celicism, as self.imposed constr:linr, tWO comrasling ways ture, nc:<:d, appetite, desire; between the unbr idlc:d only highlights the privations of ordinary exisle nce,

; r,; :

SOl"g g tional liaisons, for example, o r using r:ln:: words and tropes m klnbey

{lu rOP mmOn words and phrases, or in the frc:c:dom from lhe de C plJ C 0 " ( ,angu'Be o r silUation that is asserrc:d in the liberties taken by . rnands o ' K are known 10 kno.... be:ner. These opposmg su legles, wh' h :a tIleS( who above the ruks and proprieties imposed on ordmary speakers, place ooc: 'y mutually exclusive. The twO forms of conspicuous free. , In no "" ' unconvenlional constr:lint lnd dc:Hbe:r:.lte tr:losgrc:sslon, can COCXlst dm o " ISCOUrse-, ,eXI(3, "reo ar IITeft:n, momenn or different levels of {he same d" . _ ..I ' " laalloo" m,y, for example be: counteroa!anc"" by m([C"...1 renston III ' " 'y se<:n m condescenSlon " syntU Or d"" ,,"on, or the reverse (this is clear , . " " . I SIr:llegles, III Wh",h 'h' B'P thus mamtamc:d betwc:<:o (he ,eve's o( 'an

r1.tuitous epense or the austerity of elc:("rive restriction; be l f O[1u rc der to immc:diare, easy satisfactions and onomy of means, ( " s. r.. klng possasion of means commenSUr:lle wllh the means pos. ' . .:...1 E15C IS "" universally 'pprovc:d only because !t represents Ihe most . . . d" assertion of freedom from the constr:lmts whKh domlnate or. I. ,1Slbk I the most indisputable affirmauon of capital as the capaclly 0'1')' demands of biological nature or of the authority which ens I rO sau ne to ignore them, . . IIdes 0 ",,;, = m'y be: manifcslc:d ellhet m rhe tours de force of '" ......us Ingul " '" ood what is uiml by suiclly gr1.mmatlcal or pragmauc ru,

stV'" ;""' fy

:S'

do ,

'

leg to mnd on'. . nle: speaker who can 'take the liberty' of standlllg outSide Ies til only ' . for pedants or gr1.mmarians-who, nor surpri ingl ' are dlslllclm tO r . , "'rite these games with the rules inlO rheir odlficluons of the Imgu!sflc &1me-pUtS himself forw1ld as a maker orhlgher rules, !.e., a tute-maker, . 2n a.bil" titganlill", whose: tr1.nsgressions are nOI n:-ISlakes bt the n. nUf"lCialion of a new fashion a ne.... mode of expressIon or lCllon which "'ill ome a model, and thn modal, normal, the norm, :and will call (or new Ir:l.nsg rc:ssions by those: who refuse 10 be tankc:d in Ihe mode:, to be: lIIc1uded, -ilisorbc:d, in the elass defined by the Insl classifying, least III.1.rkcd, most common, leasr dislinClive, Inst distinguishing property. l'hus we: see that conlr:lry to all naively Darwinian conviClions, ,he (so ClOlo icrlly g well.' oundc:d) illusion of 'natura! diSlincion' is u!timatdy f n the pow(:r of the dominant to impose, by their very IStenCe, a nlll n of ecellcnce which, be:ing nothing other {h.an I. elr own .way h . . el$tlll g, is bound to appear simultaneously as d!SIlnCl!ve and differ l, and theref ore bo,h arbitr1.ry (since it is one among others) and per Ily n (c:ss ary, absolute and natur1.1. . Ease In the acility' is no more than ease III Ihe sense sense of nalur1.1 f

IStance ua cis rhe symbolic equivalenr of the double glme of asscrtmg d' ppcaring 10 negate it), Such strategies-which may .be pc:rf rly un c:("rive--are the ultimate nposre to " .. "' conSCI0' , ,nd thereby even more eff h 'd Ihe hyper.corrtion strategies of pretentious OlltSI ers, Wh0 are t rown , imo self-doubt about the rule and the right way 10 conform (0 II, jYoIta Iyzc:d by a reflexiveness which is {he 0pposlle of ease, and left 'without 1

being consists in their being perccived.H One has to PUt complete definition of ease what is destroyed by 121hng thai IHIStOrlC's virtue, uires a (errain ease (or, conversely, rhat .'m meM ari from embarrassment), that is, the effect of impo$ition those who only have to be in order to be cl(ceUem achieve by ., . "' existence. This perfect coincidence s the very definition of IVhich. . i recurn, bears witness to this coincidence of 'is' 2nd 'ought' 2nd 10 fit self.affitming power it contains. The value placed on casualness 2nd on aJi forms of diStance from .. stems from the fact thar, in opposition to the anxious tension 01 .. challengers, they manif est both the possession of a large capical (1in&4 ric or orher capiral) and a freedom with respect to that capital which .. .sc<ond-order affirmation of power over necessity. Verbal virruositiel . the gr:.ltuitous expense of time or money that is presupposed by mataI(I or symbolic appropriation of works of an, or even, at the sccond the sclf-imposcd constr:lints and restrictions which make up the ' cism of the privileged' (as Marx said of Seneca) and the refusal 01 * facile which is the basis of all 'pure' aesthetics, are so many repctitiontel ianr of the master-slave dialectic through which the po$SCSSOll llf. that vu firm their possession of theIr possessions. In so doing, they dis. themselves still funher from the dispossessed, who, not contcnt being slaves to necessity in all its forms, are suspected of being pOll by the desire for possession, and so potcntially possessed by the sions they do not, or do not yet, possess.')

of 'comfortable Sltu1ion ensuring an easy life': the p' "i'io. i" destructive, sinC(C (here would be no need to point II what it is, if it were really nOl something else, which is also ttuth. This is the error of objc:nivism, which forgets to J complete definition of the obje<:\ {hI' representation of has had 10 destroy in order 10 arrive 2t the 'objective' I f orgets to perform [he final reduction of it! reduction thar is able In order to grnp the objective {ruth of social bcts,

aho

i;;;;:

Crass Tastes ana Ljfe-Stles

Our pride is more oAtndcd by altacks on our tasces than on our opinions La Rochef oucauJd, M"rims

will;

In order rhat the dcKripcion oflifc.styles may consticute a valid wrifuatWn, we must go back to the survey and compare the brought to light by the method whkh 5ms best suited whole set of OOscrvations in simultaneity and to d!'llW OUT the i StruCtures without imposing any presupposi!ions-namely, the corrcspondenco-with the unities that be: nlJtrllutti on of the principles of division which objectively define the I homogeneous conditions and conditionings, and therefore practices_ Such an ope!'lliion reproduces. in reverse, the transform . which ordinary perception performs when it applies SO(ially coru/hOI llI" s schemes of perception and assesment to the p!'llctices and proits ef agcots, COllSliluling them distinctive lifNlyles through which If .. luits SO(iaJ conditions.
are , C1.Il as

"OIlthou8h is nowhere possible 10 we dn sJlC'oIk of a class fractioncan find noitone on either side who (!I:. fO cmarc"Olcion line such thaI we ,J all tnc properties most frequent on one side and none o( the (1"" ,, iCS truction and OOscrvallon able to ,sobte ofco.ntinuity, the mOSt frequent on the ot.her'.tSln this universe(rclattvcly) homo #f p1lrk O cons of individuals characterized by sen of properties that arc .. setS uCIIY and 'SO(io-logic"Ollly' interrdatcd, in other words, groups sepalUSt! I t.:d by systems 0f d.erences.

In tCStricting ourselves to the- survey data (as a linguist may limit himld' to the finite corpus of sentences produced in response to a finite set of t . gers), we deny ourselves the possibility of evoking the infinite tichness each life-style. This possibility is in fact purdy thcorcliol since. 10 avoid the positivist templ1tion, which Jorge luis Borges describes, of mak map as big as the coumry. one would havc to find the Style mO$t ca " evoking ,he fClttuf($ which (as a differcmial equation condenses a cu) condense a whole universe of practices. To avoid the monotony of refer. limited to the indicators used in the survey, il would h"Olve bn ble to substitute numetous C<juivalems for the works and compose" actually offered (for example, the GoIdbtrg V",i",irmJ or the Lilt/( NOllW jlJr A",,,,a M"giU/ma Barh (or ,he Wt/f.Tmrpwd Cia,-;,,-, or. among dIe $i..,. e", Reggiani, hrr,lt. Barba,." or Juliette Grcco for Brel and Douai. or MIl' <el Amont, Adamo or Mircille Mathieu for Alnavout). This procedurc. though rfectly consistent with the logic of taste. which constantly mabI such substitutions within cI:wes of C<juiulents vlguely.rccived on the baJis of ill cues, was rcittted on the 8rounds thlt the very nlturc of cI:wes of equivalents depends on the system of classifi(1tion put mto op:ta' tion: wherc one rson will only see interchangeable ekments of the cat< gory 'classical music'. lno,her will rcfuse the seemin81y mOSt justifie<l substitutions (same composer or period. similar form "OInd st)k). II observe rtdf As Arislotle said. it is because bodies have colour that we some are a different colour (rom others; different things diffcrcnu" themselves through wlm they have in common. Similuly, Ihe d' fractions of the dominlnt class distin8uish Incmselves precisely th r'ff' thai which makes them members of Ihe class "OIS a whole, namely the pCII of capital which is the source of thcit privilege lnd the different man of asserting their distinction which are linked to it. And JUSt to borrow an eXlmpk from Anatol Rapaport. wc s a cloud or a forest. althou8h in Cl[.ch case the density of the tfCC$ lets is a continuous funnion and the limit docs not cxisl as ; ,'''''''':
ences as. Of

T e Sense of DlstmctlOn

&

j,r-li

IfIC1!Ure IhI- 1CStheti( dispos"ion. all the 'luC'S"on on the preferred .,, I1Id,o progr:lmmes and books. on knowledg<= of film >ClOrs and and on personal photography, wh,ch all measure middlebrow cui J'reo:1011 lhe chOKes a regards domestic imerior, furnHure. cooking, clothes. iends. through which elhieal d,sposillons arc more directly tuf( of fr ,h'. and $0 on. In all these analyses. ,he first faCior opposes Ihe fl':llc (p che5 t ,n economic capital to the fracllons richest in culTural (ipital: l;co mercial cmployers and the higher-edue2lion tC1chel$ Or cultul1l1 pro th' (see figulC$ II, sHuated at Ihe IwO 0pposl!e etremcs of the le memhel$ of [he profC'S5ions, the nullves and the engineers dl < hile the tl). y intermediate positions. In the analysis based nn the indicators of In middlebrow cullure, Ihe commercial cmployel$ are opposed re t strongly '0 IhI- SC'(ondary lochers (I':IIther than the highe[-eduC1tion the mistic p,oducel$), in accordance ,,i[h a logic alrc:ady ob mO$hers IClCcd or In the primary lC1chers' preferences fo' .nge[s. In Ihe analsis based :mistic producel$. ...ho thereby 'the indoOtors of ethical disposilion. n5CIl [ilo:"or casualness ,nd indifference [0 convention. are opposed 10 the and occupy posi !(a(hers. thl:: cngin1$ and ,hi:: pubhc-!;C'(IOr exuti,es, " ons ,'cry dose to [hose: of the commercial employers (to whom they are in other respects. identified in this case: by Ihe sc:cond ''CrY 5trongl) opposed

- J

:;' arc : oC'k e c :

ahtoes

'

UIS

IhI::

class constitutCS a rcilr;vdy 11,1I0nOmOU$ spael: whose srru(rure is ddineI

by {he distribution of onomie and (uhu!';I[ Gpilal among irs members, each class fraction being char:l.C!eriz(d by a certain configuration of this ty of npiral among the f Clions is symmcuically and invcrsoely SIn l1l lured; and [hal, third. the di ff erent inherited assel struCtures, rogcdlCf ....ith sodal 1r:l.j!Ory. command [he habitus ,md the systematic choim_ produces m all arns of pr::l(ticc. of which [h( choices commonly as acsthetic lrc one dimension-then these sr[uClures should be foul'ld . the space of tifeslyles, in Ihc differcnl systcms of propcniC'S in which
C'Srabl ish

If it is {fUe, 15 I have c:ndeavoured fO establish. (hal, first, (he domillll'll

distribution 10 which there co[mponds a cerlain life-style. rhrOU8h rile mediuion of the habitus; {hat, second , [he diwibution of thot nI8

01 As 2 first stas<'. afler a methodical re:lding of rhe tables expressing t IC'" suhs of the: survey (see appendix 3), rhe ans,,'ers given by the memberS the dominant <1m (n ... 467) to various selS of questions (sec . lIonnaire, appendix \ ) were analyttd in order to determine srrUClurC'S 2nd explanatory facrors varied according to thc Th included: all the questions on knowledge or preferences in and music and On museum-going. which all meaure kgiuma[c all the questions on ,hi- likdihood of producing > Mutiful. me:mingleu or ugly phocograph from h of Ihe ,_nty-one sublCCrs.

this, rhe whole SCt of survey dlla was subjected to cor dence analysis.I

Ihc diffcrent sysrems of dispositions cxpress Ihcmsd\". ' To envour 10

I.C.,

rcgardlll

f)Ctar)H"inS thus identified the mOSl pe[linenl ,ndi(ilol$ 10 C1eh case, il WlI5 r.C'(csmy. in order to avoid the over.loading resulting from the abundance olonformallon gathered (see questionnaire, appendix I ) . to eliminate from the final analysir--only the results of which Ire presented hefC'-lhe ques flons ...hoch proved 10 he badly phrased (such a ,he questions on do[hing O[ on types of books) or leu classifying, in favour of 'lu(stions (such as ,hal on rook,ng) measuring much the fT>I: d,positions (the 'lutions on p/looographoc $ub;l$ Were also excluded. and analysed $Cpar:lldy). lfle d"l [elained (fo[ disjunclive codong) werc ,hus those wh,ch conccrned Ihe of on intnio[ (twdve adjeClives). the 'lualiries of a friend (twdve 1'X[".('5). [he stylc of mC1ls SC"l>'e<i to friends (six possihilities), furniture PU[chases (5'x possiboillies). preferred singel$ (twdve). preferred works of lm"al musIC (fifteen), visi,s to the Modern An Muse:um or [he Louvre. nO"'I<:<:lg of rumpose:rs (dassifll;d into four levels). opinions on aft (five). To g.v<: [he dcmons[ruion it full force, the cha!'llCleristi(s trelled 15 illus """e variables were age. f11her's occupation. 'lualifical1ons and income; fracllon, whKh constitutes the mos' powerful explan110ry f lo[. WlIS ac as such in Ihe analysis (Enctly the 5ame 'n werc applied _ .... 11ysmg the responses of [he m,ddlt and working cluses: see ehaptel$ 6 . _

qual",cs

sed

1,,'"" CSl!v I$ of the correspondences makes it possible to isolate, Ih tough n.1YS . c d IVls ons, diff of preferen s stemming from crelll coherent d,,,,n q
l SCts c c

- 7J .., - - ---------

operations

and distinctive systems of dispositions. defined as much by their Intc ('.1 11'l:1",onShip as by the relations hip between each of them and ils so . ondll ons of produnion_ The indicators measuring eultUI':ll! capiral ("'h ' (h Vary. of course. in approximately inverx I':IIlio to Ihe indic2l0rs of

".,

(t"o'6rstn [

10 rhe: consli\ulion of l) make rhe s{(ongt'Sf connibulion i( capita against esentS .8 percrnl of the 10111 inertia (lefor <which repr (he second and third be and },2 percent rcspC:Cli'dy for r and 1 2 rc those who, willl ,he: j.6 ll)\JS on ,he: 1.::(, side of figures 1 1 nce. who know the: brgcsI [OfS1 Incomtl, have: the: gf(':l,[CSt compete ), (6 percent) lnJ compo5C.rs (7:7. pcrccm who lo.. of musical work h 15 [he , aesthetic dIsposItiOn, suc \I ks demanding the 'pUfCSt ( e wor , Clat;tr (1.8 perccnt) or dlt lirl oj l'ugut (1.7 percent) ptc come:, tid rc most (apablc of applying this aesthctic dIsposition to less rior de<:ora or cinema or even cooking or intc 1 such :.IS :;ong painting, visil thc Modern lin ",'ho art intc:n!ilW in abslr.lCt ,110' anis!ic (2A percent). On the: [11)11. uJll 11\d expect their friends 10 be th lo .....est ho rctivt tht highest incomes nd hvt side are [hose:: ..... rs. like their kno.... f.... musiul works or com og leOCt, .... ho pC rastes run to 5C('ond scimious (I. percnt ) and whose: tls to be con lllt ks of bourois culture-L';trlhm (\&Iasse or classiul wor k (2.9 percem), La Traviata (2.1 pcrctnf), !Ccnt), Ihe l3iut DanJlbt pJOdy, Bufftt, Vlaminck, Ulriilo, Raphael (2.} per, ,lit /I,lIlgar/an Rha tnl) ----a nd (0 lighl opera-Guclary (1.8 perc mu). w,ua.u, lronlrdotn( ).' ulr' singers-tul Clark (2.2 perc .\!ln3no---<)r (ht most 'pop styles Ihat Ihese mdi(3lOrs of the different life It (3n be sc<;n intuilively s 10 (he Slfu(ture of the space of life [all mto 3 pattern ....hich cOllespond e (0 the $lfucture of posi, )/fks as it has been estlhlishcd, and therefor als, Ihe most dtar-cul opposition 110m. And indeed. in (tlms of individu 1 and. to a lesser ttent, (he induslTi 'I St:t up bet....een the commercial tic producers. who ttnployers, and Iht higher<ouc3(ion (eachers and artis levd of analysis. The dusters of lit vtnually indistinguishable at this tion are disllibutcd in POlOtS r tpnting the memben of the same f!'K (in t expected pauern ' ProjeCtion of the determinants of posilion con ome, (IUalificalions, social origin, ge) lS supplementary variables of tilt distribution 'rns that this struCture corresponds to the structure of the: types of a.piral: educnional capital is distributed along the fint lXlS, from ttro <jualiflCation to post.fiemet degrees, ""hilt incomes have an OPPOSIt (but less dispersed and nonlinear) distribution. (0 the extremity of "'dsllial and commercial employen clOSC$I thc, t a "eI cultural capital has lC2$t l$ arc (hose: in whose overall capinl an: hC'llds of businesses t, thOSe situated dose: 10 the professions hIn Ing t cultu ral goods (ant i(!ue-dea!cl'$. recorddea!crs, the hook trad t{ ) than the 3vtragc for their f ; 1 ing gTC'ltter cultural capital t ....ho sell cultural goods. the: ( (1tmt or granik ko/t). bcept for thrn;c ( ol ll erclal employen an: yery dose: (0 middlebrow cultun: in an Othe, T Tl . ( brought out by the third fetot) in their cultural prefet Cts DalIbt, Gctary: Pcta Clar) an aso in .the choices OSt IlrOngl or or (nend nvollng elhlCal dlsposmons ( m theIr IdC'll1 mteri . k 'luahuts ofttn chrn;cn by tilt working and mldd!c dusc:s, such

-d u rrtrNptrtd ",.1\0 MU:

thq.

;t t

as 'easy to maintain', pr.tClical', and 'conscientious', 111 " "" O''' h d'l. ' this respect tht'y are oppod 10 the industrial employers, who '" ," . over.tll to bourgeois taste ary w"h rhe: worklns cI:w.r:s IS much IC$$ mukoed. and situtn! hisher, in the: self-employed SfOr (e$pC<ially in the: omfTl(Crcial oc c tions) Ihan among wasc-o:arners, where at the: level of d r"'" ( 'cal . nS " 115. smaII empIoyers arc much dOSer workers. . lI'I Ihelr eallns hab" " 10 workins class in (for sport. music.hall CI ) die C their vaJcs than derinl workers. who are much more slrongly op the workll'lg class lI'I all these respC<1S but much their lID I(aI pa. sidons.

i n rrsit. O
o

torical spccmulars (Tht l..FftIgtst Day), ,aI Thus, given thaI the diKerences (0 rhe overall volume of ctpI 10 !III are panially neutralized (by the fact Ihal Ihe analysis is t members of same dass, who are roughly equal in Ihls individual"s position in Ihe space defined by the first tWO faclors i essentially on rhe sIruClure ofhis assets, ,hat is, on Ihe relative the economic opirat and cultural capital he possesses (axis 1 social tra;ccrory (axis 2), ....hich. Ihrough Ihe corresponding <juisition. governs his blionship 10 those: asseu.6 The gmllesl contriburions to Ihe sond f C lor are madl': by the a

. The members of the profs;ons occupy an intermed,ale position ... diVIde IntO twO sub.groups dlKering mainly in fC<lpect of cultural capi_ larger. group, situated near the pole by rhe ducers, mainly ll'lciudes P"risian architeclS, barrislers (al'O(als), doc. (and only a few dentists or pharmacistS); the SC(ond sub.set, closer 10 dII employers' pole, brgely consiSts of rebdvcJy old provineials, ckntislJ,. liciton (nolaim) erc The former choose:, for example, Ihe r:lresr woat.. i3ra'1ue, Kandinsky, Ctm/O IN ujt HaM, the mosr 'intelkcnlll' films (Exlmninaling Allgd, S4/valort Gill/illlfo), and very ofren know !III direclors of rhe films mentionW. whereas rhe llfter declare the mall bnll preferences of middle-brow taste. Vlaminck. Renoir, rhe 81111 Dt' uht, and sec 'wide audience' films (IA diman(htJ(u Vii" d'Away) or bit

0 FligUI, WIll Tnnptrld Clavi" ). 1

The higheruC:l(ion re:lchers, who have very high in less cons:rali. 21OS. such as cinema. occupy the Other etrerni rhe first UIS. Th"r preferences are balanced bet....ccn a :Hain audacilr . . and a rudl':m dasslc,sm;. they refuse Ihe facile pleasures of righ r-" . , tasiC ....lIhOul \'enturmg mto the Ullstic avam.gude. eplorins '. coveries' rather rhan 'discoverics', the raresl worh of the past r:lthcr dIM rhe contemporary anr-glrde (warm, studied. imaginarive inrtnof, . Bra<jue, PICasso. Breughel and sometimes Kandmsky, Firthird SlIilr, ....

c if appears their spch, Iheir USfes Po:: closer in poli( comf'(rcncc ;:' occupied wistic ,..

the Iation (0 1o:gilim1le culture and in the nuances of the 1 . i#'1(hv,"g, Ihey <M>ar:lte individuals who have much lhe same volume -r . ,rr ' t:l.Clor opposes { I capital. Wlrhm each fracllon. Ihe se<:ondof lhe bourgeoish 10 u ra ul l ie amilies have long been members fc . s whose f dl1 have the su.
In rlt<JSC
0 11'1

:lSSfXiltW with mo or less niority in rhe bourgeoisie; mlinly

.

. senioritr in privig, who acuI Ihell ultural caplral . and . daily comaC! wllh rare, 'd,sI1l'lgulshed thII'I, people. laccs Y , cl by".. s !O hose who owe their capila ro an aC<juIsltlve eKol{ d,recled by ." ' -1 IpLty 0( Ih aut..,.., "dact, or ui by the SC:Ien d" d cati onal sysle . ,. - e u relationshLp to II IS more senous, more severe, often more , 91hose jnd

PI
W 'iS

..

:vilcgc, ti
(secon

osc:

ha'IC m:ently emered it, the parvenus.: those :who

TIle

rhe

l or

) faClor naturally distrib ts {he franions aceordi.n 10 portion of their members who ongmlte from the bourgeoISie or l professions and Ihe hiShcrucuion . . he: pro ' manuther class' on one side the prtVlle-se<:tr eecuflves), and on Ihe .achcrs (lnd. to a lesser eXlent. lhe: secndary ers, the publicsenol e ecuuves the: orher the engine ( categories which represent the maIO roures . Ia acdcmlC sue, ers dlvlck fallly equally ) inlo {he dominanr class, while the: employ the tWO poles. The formel, gfOUped on the posilive side of the ly) acquired sond factor, ha'IC in common rhe fan that they (initial they p rnt signs amiliarization wirhin the faily. their opita by f .. of long.standing membership of the bourgeoISie such as lI'Ihemw furn . (2 4,Percem), a prcd" lure (3.1 percent) , purchases from Ilion for a comfortable interior and lradmonal cookmg (I. percent) , visits 10 Louvre and {he Modern Atl Museum (1.8 percent ) , and 2 taslC for the Ctm/O l Iht u Hand, which provcs to be: almt always ft orl.S5OCiated ....ith piano-playing. The others, who owe Ihe essenual pm of cultun:: to the o:ducarion1 system and Ihe n::lativcly late learning enc:OUt:l.gcd and entailed by a high scholastic culture, are opposed 10 Il1o:rn by the:ir pference (or friends who an:: 'derermined' (2.6 percc::n l) cult; and 'pt:l. mtic' (l6 percenl), nuher than. as at lhe: opposite g Oated 01 uristic. their taslC for clC2n and tidy (l2 percent), sober and

f(aChcrs,
:""1'1

an

the

ami<jue:d.e:llcrs

and

1110:"

dlSCtttt (1.6 percenl) interiors. nd works of mainstrC2m bourgeois cui,

the

linked

lure. as the S411fl Dana ( U pel(enr), UtrmO and Van Gogh Of, in aoo.ther order, Jac<jut'S Brei or Anavour, BuKer and Rhapsody in Blut, all

pole,

() r( rcla ivcly homogeneous choices. Nevr stooping to works suspected banality or Da7lllht, they vulgarity, such as L'ArliJ/t1l1lt or the v nturc into the slightly less 'canonical' work.s. such a 'E7If tI a7l1

dI(O!$ of upward mobility. They are char.tcrerized by prudent and rhere "

5uch

I
hit"

BlMt

indicators

O knion of the father'S occupation, the: responckOl's age, qualifica t ;n(ol"l'le etc. as illusl.nrrive variables sh0:w th1 the prtl(iplc of divi lion' $ Indcro soci,l Inr,ccrory. Tho: opposillon IS cslabhshed be:lwccn

pI(

I'gts. which are o(len chosen by the culrural lntermedlancs and

Producers.

at'

Fiprt JJ V,ri.n'$of,hedomin.nt ''-5't. An:aJ)1ilof(orrcspon<ionce$O limpl ifimpi n.

di:agnm of I" and }rd no of inert;:a.

.,3(J.2'l Io) lmpreionisu pragm:a,;' ].II COJnI><">KIl 711 musitt.l WQlks

"'-'00. d;,,;rttt

Van Gogh

lictoo:

R no l e

..ellbred

cultural copi" l .. Fou,. Sel1101tl economic copilal A." o Fugu, agreg. g. ecol. f
mUJical 'a'Olks

baccalaurh,

l6compo$<fI economic copi:

onseicntiow

11.

ltl.h(ldro

paiminp nict bn diffICult Guh::;-..

BEPC

RI hacl

ruhural co ilal p

P. a:uk Blue Da"ube lis Tr oWlll " Q.2coml><">KlI L.iW;

+'1(1.8%)

CEP. u.p no q.... '. . .

W II , T,mperd Citni".

11 ..

compose"
.

depanme", $,or.

Thl' mplir,O<I d ..
,...... .h.tn 1."

,hose members of the dominant dm who 3re bo,h older and drawn !foil the oldest or economiolly rkht:Sc f tions (professionals, induscriJl .... eommen::ial em ploye ), and those whose father deriol worlLa jun ir ex",:utive or manual worker, who are relath-ely less rich in ec0figure 13). The complex rel2tiomhip nomIC opllil and younger ( which emerges betwecn the positions of the fractions in social sr-ace, " niorilY in the bourgeoisil' and age (also linkc-d to che firsl tWO factOfS . and .whi.ch is very impomnt in understanding a number of elhiol or'". thettc differences between members of the dominlnt class-for eXimpir differenc in sports or doching-becomes dellr when one knowS thlt ,he proportion of parvenus rises as one moves from the dominant (0 thC doinated fractions (and, a fortiori, the proportion of those wh? n o thelt entry to the accumula,ion of schol:lStic capital-the dispe r '" the executives is no doubt partly due (he fUI ,hat ,he lower thei cial origin, ,he more likely (hey are to achieve these posicions al a lively advanced age).1 . majOn lJ" The third faccor which, al Ihe level of individual, setS the
rs rac see was I t:S ( 0 rsi

. The only illll.....i... .. i.bl. rop....nd " .d""ottOflol quoJir.coti""

.

"m only ifl(ludeo ...iabl .,h",h

make on .boolu.. .'fluiJ,.u.ion .quol to 01

("1Chers and espe(ially ,he artists-who are I'ven more inclined (han (tIC \ ( hers to mark ,heir refusal of bourgeois tascnd also the com ,, to (he most Iypically bourgeois (by ori (I!( \1 employers, in opposition l of residence and c-ducation) of the professionals, industrialists ...,e rt l P Sid Cxecuti es cends chiefly to characterize: the 'bourgeois tas,e' of 'hese the other fractions. opposing it to the JI' td dtltegoria bybettl'r equipped and tastes of III 'intellectual taste', more daring b,r ipa ly 'he PfltlClso. secondarily, 10 a taste definc-d neguively lnd combining features ' b middle.brow taste and popular ,aste (that of the commercial employ o 'Bourgeois' t te, a modal taste or taste 11. la modc--as is shown by e'Slfength of ,he preferencl' for the Impressionis, painters (4.2 per I of Van Gogh (2.l percent) or Renoir I) confirmc-d by the choice of 7 to I I 1 re percent, and 7 an 1 composers. 3.2 percent). It is f!'rks. rcenr)-'s based onto 1averagl' competence (knowlc-dgefundamen 3.3 t:lStC for tradition (wi'h a prc:ference for traditional French ml'als, idly a anli'lul' shops, 1.0 perc n foc :J percent, for furnitureafrom of temperate hedonisme(e.g., in'wellbred' favouritc fnends. 1.5 percent) and sorl IMenoC is comfortable but also sober and discfCCl, 1.8 percent, and cosy. the Firt even in audacitit:S 12 perant), maderace n B/ut, ilS. 3 percent, (with Ihe choice offor 'prag. Ihe preference or 1 btrri Suitt or Rhapsody i to ',rtiscic'). It is chieAy definc-d matic' friends, L7 percent-lS opposed by opposition 10 a set of indicators which characterize: a culture that is bo,h more 'schol:lS(1" (knowledge of 12 01 more composers, 3 percent. knowledge of 12 or more works, 1.9 percenc, preference for leonardo, 1.6 percent etc.) and-relatively-more daring (with Kandinsky, 1.4 per and Picasso, 1.3 percent), but also more ascetic (Goya or ,he If/tll TrnI aalJitr, furniture from the Fl Market etc.).
"e v to :lS .. " ccnr, ea

f Tht Modes o Appropriation ofthe Work o Art f

; ...

But hls statistical analysis would not rtally fulfil its purpose of verifica . ' If II did nOl help one '0 undersland the underlying logic of ,he dis IlIbu,ions i t t:Stablishes; if. having provc-d that volume and structure of ( I)Ual, synchronically and diachronically defined. consti tu te the princi c Of divisio n of practices and preferences, it were not possible to bring o lIghl lhe intelligihle. -socio.logical' relationship between, for eumple, asYlllmelri( :lSseC slrucmre bi3S(d towuds culcure 3nd a parliculr re . . hOll l0 ,hI' work 0f U', and to explalll, that IS. undetSland completeIy, y Ihe mOSt orm of thl' xsthetic disposicion and the cu ltu rall I ... I k . . 1scetic f ' ' ' glllmace and economically Cheapest pra.ccice5, e.g., museum . 80;:g, Ot, ' J>;l, n 10 occur (lpiIC larly sport, mount1in<limbing or walking, are likely fTC<ju.:ntly among tn.: fractions (relalively) r icht:St in cultura.l la and (celati,-cly) poorest in economic capit11.

rOlIO'. fr".n a cabine.maker.

br2C.
Ii

no, pr By s tnklmg knickknacks ("rhey're point ...i.h ') bur wi.h dozens of photos . \'(Iith ....icker ba5kets full of bric-i Wilh childrens mugs briltling ..."h pccncii.s. Wi,h novels. exhibi lion C11110gues, magnines on inte rior decorarion (she (u!s au' .he

By mi ngling colrs and fabri . y ",ith a '!!11 aud",u . . . .

ing planlS, books lnd an orchid only flower Ihl. lasts'), tWO (.,he lamps boughl for a $OtIg at I wi,h modern shades, ,"10 jcr! bedside tables recen"y ordered

the t1IJtmblt,

useful addresses and sricks .hem in 5(np-boob), 5('311erW all or rhe place. lind other ry personal de aimu tiles .ails, such as rhe paintC"d ! surrounding .he chimney.piece . . . [n short, by .do ting an original, p

. .. . .....

personal styk of decoration. So much SO .ha. designer Henri Sam uel, who actC"d as rechnical :adviser, and ,hal's a complimenr!'

repliC"d, when ! askC"d him fO define rhis bedroom: 'I,', pure d'Orn1no,

,SS'S" S,S" " " S" " " " " " " SS" " S,'

o de So.n,Sa.,."r, Lt Ft....M.t.",.. i

(M""'-' Fg."'). 7 Oclober. 1978. i

., know

barOifut ""JJlnpitu.

mll"P",t t htr aparllllml. .-1 lj

how i Wln

JiJln-",/aw, "'" matk "" fKdowm 1m

rion is 1 "oay of eprnsing ir:

IJt>btllt d'Oma1f(), 1m AI",i !ln'J 0 li'e.

A Cosy Samovar-Style Bedroom

Dora

five childfC'n and some.;m. since i. comm unicales wilh rhe recep.ion rooms, as I second salon for big din.

me.ics her husband IauochC"d 'hr.:.: y(":lrs ago ) . as a TV room f her or

Ihroughour her aparrment-:a rhap sody of colours. i mi r1fion green mamk and Vene.ian blindnd espe<:ially in her bedroom lin al mos. !imds and yet very up-ro da.e room. which also sef\' as [sa belle's s,udy when she is working (markedng ,he 'Sisky" r:mgt of cos

&orning f ashion and irs conven ns. she has applied r his principle rio

mous eighrn.h-cenrury (rysnl chandelier from .he La GnnJi works, bough. from a Madrid in' riquc-dealer. one or 1"10 linle la.e nine.ttnth-cen.ury English s.ands

upholsrered 'rub' asy-chairs and Se<"' ond EmpifC' fireside chairs. an enor

way up. . . . By org.niing move' ment in .he room around 1 cen'fe" p,ece: ,he bed. lind qui.e 1 bed it is! . . . 1l1belk d'Ornano likes 'mus cuhr' furniture and wanrC"d 'a bed which suggestS i gondoli: Her up holsrerer had his work cu, OUI (or ' ynr and a half! By f1ou.ing all the d:ossical rul and combining diff" :nt 5!yl of m u f rnirure-in (",r. every $lyle II Louis XVI inbid roll.op desk,

dull libnry. sumpruous and boring; she has .urnC"d i. inro sometlilng warm and 'cO$y', as me pUIS Ir. First. by having a circular balcon, builT around ,he walls almos! half

nn p1rri. Originally ir was a big

the ,eachers' t1.Ste for the usterilY of pure ..orks, Bach or Bue, Brecht or Mondrian, the same ascetic disposition that is expfCSSC"d in all ,hdr praniccs, and when il senscs in these: m ingly innocem choices Ihe symptom of a sim ilar, hUI merely bener hidden, re13tionship 10 sexuality or money: or when it divines the whole view of fhe world and of eisrence !hu is expressed in !he tlSte for Ihe delights of boulevard !he.a!re or ,he I mpionisl$, for Renoir's rosy women, Boudin's sunli. be:.achcs or Dufy's sta SCts.
which have to be used !o lake measurements are ,wo antagonistic rela tions to the work of arl or, more precisely, two modes of ae5!helic appro priauon exprosing tWO opposife assel suucruTCS. Thus., how is one ro v,e sec!Or,

,esting it-w hen 1t sees in

One's immediate inwirion should be followed-for fhe purpose of

lis is de.arly SlXn in Ihe.ane or painling (hUf rhe s.ame is lrue of !he orher arts). what emerge ,hrough the discontinuous or dispanu: indices

4.61. and ,he publiC sector, 4.77) 10 6.09 for puhlk'scc!or se 7.'8 for private-senor 9.19 for indusuialist$ whIch gives one !he ordinary hicnrchy of the fl'2<Tions dislfihuled by o!ume of economic capilal)flind how does one explain why rhe hienr (y of Ihe fractions is inverted if their ta.e of reprcsc:n!arion in fhe capes, Ihatrcs is considered? If the declive affinily berween fC'luivdy ncrions, or betwn ' xPCnsive avantgarde: !harf( and .he intdknual f , much more expensive boulevard ,hatre and lhe: dom inan t dUSts is fldcrstood superficiallr-i.e., as simply a difC("f eff t of Ihe relalionship ec tween economic COSl nd econom ic men!r--One is lible to fort that IhrOugh ,he price .hey all: willing to pay for access 10 a work of art. or.
nlor execu!ives., 7.00 for the professions, eXu'ives., 7.80 for commerdal employers and

explain why !he median price paid for a tht:l!re ricket riscs from 4.17 fr:l.ncs among te.achers (less than is paid by junior execufives in Ihe pri.

;:

more predsely, through the relationship ixlwecn {he na{erial C OS the expected 'cultural' benefit, each fr.ln;on '; ::; : i d f what spo:dfically makes the value ofrhe work 0 way of approprialing I!.
The
0

same logi( explains why ,he ck:sin:d priCe makes ,he SfrOtlge$( cOnlriburi<)n 1 the fil'$l faeror brought to ligh! by lnal S; of!he spondcnces of a $(1 of ,haraClO:r;S!;C! of a s.ample of risian theanC$ rheir audiences (C.S. XIV). Or aga,n, why the pnsity to iudgtc ,"," minion chug<' of I museum Ix;ng cllnp or ery chap ri very in relation the ordinary hieraKhy. as moves from the Ifao, i , rich in cuhunl capital to those rich in economic capital, being distinguish! only by a bi-modal disuibuuon
Y 1
10 ;IS 0fI(C

:
I

F,I""

,...:n ( In order of p",fcrcn):

I..cs

Indulltial and commerdal cmplo)'erl

Divorce Julian Styk The Trial dim. de V, d'Avroy

Roc,,,,,"' H' BrOllKts I

""""

For certified or apprentice intclknuals. anivides such as visi IS to e:hibitlons or 'art' cine:mas, performed wllh a fft<;juency ularity ....hich lake: a....ay any 'exrrao()rdinary' <juaIiIY. are: in a nst e:roed by Ihe: pursuit of muimum 'culrur.lll profit' for minimum nomic COSt. which implies renunciation of all oste:ntatious expense: .' '', all gr.lllificltions other (han Iho give:n by symbolic appropriadon of the work ('You go (0 rhe theatre: to sec rhe: play, not to show off your ....atd. robe,' as one of them said). 1bey exp1 rhe symbolic profit of their pranice: from the ....ork. ilstlf. from its r.IIriry and from {heir discount about it (afler Ihe: sho.. . over a drink. or in lheir lectures. their anides or their books), through ... hich they ....iII endeavour to appropriate parI of ils distinnive value. By eOfllr.llSt, for the dominant funions a 'nighr our' al Ihe theatf( is an occasion for conspicuous spending_ They 'dress up to go out' (which COSIS both lime and money), rhey buy the most epcn sive satS in the most epensive theatres jusl as in other areas they bur 'the best the:re is'; Ihey go to a rc:$laurafll afte:r Ihe show,9 Choosing a lhe ure: is like choosing rhe right Shop,'O malked with all rhe signs of'quai iry' and guaranting no 'unpltas3fl1 surprises' or 'Iapses of IIste': playwright ....ho knows his job, who commands 'the springs of comcd)l the pote:mial of a situation, lhe comic or biting force of rhe mot juste:, shorr. a goldsmith Of jeweller, a past masler in the 'an of conslfucnoft who has 'the tricks of the: dr.llmadsr's It!' al his fingertips;" actors known emy.four carat" role he: offe:rs them n for their ability to e:nlef tbe 't..... place the eager docility of a perfc:ct thespiln Ic:chnidan al Ihe 'servICe: the: po[ytc:chnidan play.....right;'1 and a play which 'givt'S every sorr of joyme:nl. wilhout a hinl of self.indulgence or vulguity'. which tS de signed to 'relieve a wcllbalancc:d audience by bringing it bak t{O balance: with healthy laughrer', heause it only asks <juC'Stions whIch cur eryone asks himself'. (rom which 'rhe only escape s 'humour and In i able optimism'.

eft'

('I"

rheare and on The Implications of rhe opposirinplbelween bourgeois4). 10 rcma,avaI. ored (sa chapter we may glanlfl wll the ga'dc Ihealre have already been C\al lhe hm,u o( Ihe dala prOVIded dlfccriy by ,hc survcy. 14), wcre t e 'Ste Of'pOS ([ons found in ,he field of Ihe cinema (5((; fIgure lment IS opposed o for 'mbil;ous' works Ihal demnd a large cultural ,nvt'S lhe 11'C for Ihe mOSt spncular feature films. o errl Ign I? enlcrt.,n (dIfferences hieh arc ofren ccomranied by differences In dm'SSlOn p'Kes r som .nd the grognphical loc1lion lhe cinemas). No doubt there u f e vu,o .n'f>\I'J'O'C films ....h,ch the un:lnimous .pproval o1.f1,he ered. 1'1" 1 off lIOns of lhe domln,nt class (1nd theit critics)-on T"", '1 SlfOflg. solemn work of ;ntelllual oungc nOi . be. mtucd. (Lt . MOIIdt. 21 Dc.:embe, 19(2). RDfflI ",M His B'!Ilhm, by. V'SCOntl. ",uh lam eret.1 Lon. ,nd D,...-u /t","",,, SlJu, with Masnol:lnfl1. n ,bonest ,comm film' for l ( 2 June \9(2) . comedy 'of uoonishmg cynICIsm. cruehy and .ud1Cuy' for Lt M(mM (22 May 19(2)- HO,,""('oet. h.ere are very muked d'vergences of (",emallC t1Ste between lilt I....o_e'rem" wllh ,Ilt profes. lOons. :IS usu.l. on the middle Thus ,he industrl.1 .nd commerCl.1 emkl. ers boos.: h,storic.1 films, like TIN UmgtJl 0<1}. a 'colossal rc<onmU{llOn of Ih.c ' (Lt Mondt. 12 OclO ' of World W'f IIexcelkn, example of lxr 12). most spccucular bmle 'blockbus,els' like o,,}J ",I P,k,ng.. 'an ately smppcd of In'elke . box Ofllcc movle.m,k,ng'. 'sumpluous spccl1Clt'S deliber
Ifl , Ifl ...

g.m

,Ilt
,

'0

55

'u1 comenr, ....hich show '0 p"ked udjencc:$ because- they know h0 appal (0 the publoc's c'paClty for won<krmcn!' (I ,II""dt. 17 M. .... to , mut, 3 'commerCIally succnsfur films like Vadim's Vu, ,,,,,,I V yC film of undeniable vmuosily' ....hkh 'makn a modentc d[Sill <If\. $rrunw available to all' (F,aJtrt$/J" , 2 March l%}). and comic films and actor , s Fernandd Dury Co..,1 '0(. By COntr:as 'he SC'COl1da.-v teachers . who can. ', '... 'rc'nolS and 1C101'$ of 'he films Ihey h.,.c most a'ways name rhe d' In. S<:tn. tcmatiolly exclude popular comedies and b,S commercial $UCcc' and . give rheir preference 10 'dassic' films (.Imos! all consra,cd '" h " , Ofles..l . VI 1hC CInema ) sue I 15 Ilunud.$ EXlmnm,,/mg Atlgtl. which rhe & M ' criric (4 hy 1%3) compn:s (0 S:ir(re's 111m GI1J, s,.u,al()l't GIII,lI.. , an , . cnthr:allmg and "cry bC"aunful film by Francesco Rosl ....hich rttraces a Ill.:. ,, <": ., me", I n J<CI Ian I e ....lIh the- ngour of an h,stomn and lhe- lyricism Qf a . arrlst. (& At01ldt. 6 March 1%3) and finally 7"/" 51111#, a comed by p, II EUlx. which Ihe cmk predicts ...ill 'one day take ItS placc in th ,a"ctre , dilion which runs (rom Mack Scnnef( tQ T311 Vl. Ma Linder, Chapln '" ' Kealon and a " others (u Ml)ntU, 16 February 1%,). II is sign lfican', e Iha : 11\ order 10 JS(ify ,he ljunCiions which aleH readtrs expect frOm '... ous newspapel"$ ( el5Cnll1l vlCwln,'. 'nOI 10 be mil5Cd' etc' ) . 'h " {an ,. ' "" used 11\ one place ('eerulI\ly nOI a harmlns cl\ltruinmel\l_l..t MOIIdr December 1%2_houl Tht Twd) whICh in another wouJd be' Ifrcvo<ablc cOnOcmrl111Ol1.

$()hII9(,'l. ::"'.

musem obligalory exaltation of tht auSlCre stverilY of the hlnd the glimpses of the true seI"' 'mcdiuI;on' iT encounges. there are sometimes task which lhe dcVOI<:t;S JrJ rC of Ihe visit_n always sorncwhlt laboriousdcterminltion. rewltded ,.Jlll mst1w:s and duly perform with mClhodical I I'" h by plnsurc of con lhe sense of I duty done :1$ by lhe immedialC silence. Empliness. In imprcssiOll or 15 rn I;on. 'The museum left me wilh ce. That hdps you concenlnlC on .he l[rnPb I pclhlPS because of .he silen iI, ii"s cry tc . 'oO;kS helPS Ihem sink into you. .....sn'. ,,?wc over by a self'lmposC<! . [t was ? l.oaking al everylhing systemallcally IS tmng Ihink [ got through dO h's conmaining and you get indigestion. ' dlSCl( ne tdl myself rd done Ihat mucum. ly bo:cause wan,ed to be able to . O II r another Th oughl. t, pUT. very mOnOtonous, one pitture f,c. ,. bu (eng" ttn lhe pll1\tlf\gs 10 break (( up a . . hoO, different in betw e remlf\l$C m 0f some' ge 39. Lille Mustum ). "These commenrs Ire ntCf Amiens. eum. who Stt$ linn Mus ,he- conservator of the New York Melfopo I of Ihe vIsilOr is .bk to dcvdop his eyc as 'a gymnasium in which hIS mU$Cum ,II muSCles.

; \

The middk<las;' viilO<1 and I"'; 'nchef$--<lnd secondarily ,he tngll\(O:D a Ihose mosl If\chncrl to I$SOClalC lhe museum wilh a library ("Wha' do like mosl? II ilbnry. It contams works of value and you ned .0 wanl 10 go th:. Engineer. Cambrai, age 44. Lille Museum). nle same groups arC k Oll 'ndlf\ed 10 combine conlCmplalion with aerl of recording (e g., 11 If\g no,es) and accumulation (e.g., buying rep,oductions) . One also lind! Ih1l lhe lCachers ue Ihose who most Ofltn refuse 10 dissociate di=t ep"" ence of ,he work from erudue knowledge (fhey a Ihe ono who mosl ,urC o(lCn refusc fhe judgc.mc:nl. 'J n'I need 10 know who paimed ,he p,( or how: ....hal coum! 's ....helher If 's plnsurable 10 look at") .

[n (ontraSI 10 'bourgrois' thnlre, Iht. opera or exh ibi tions (nOI 10 . . mtnnon premltfCS and gab nIghts), whICh arc the ocnsion or pretut f?r sO(al ctremonit tnabl!ng sekct .2udient to dtmonsrrte and txl fIne 't membc:rshlp ofh'gh soc,ety In obc:dlencc 10 the integrating .nd . dIstinguishing rhythms of Iht 'sociely' nJendar, ,he art museum admill anyone (who has ,he ntcessary cultural capital), al any moment, wi thout an cOnStr;un ls as regards dress, Ihus providing nont of the social grat 6. nnons as$OC"mcd ""lfh grC":lt 'sociCly" occasions. Morrovcr, unlike rtM: thc:trc and, pc-cially. muskhall and varitty shows. il always oll'"el"$ !l1t uflflcd ubllnaltd .p!c-asurcs dtmanded by the purt 1CSlhelic and, rather he the .[,brary .In IhlS resPC-Cl, it often <alls for an auStere, quasi.scholuliC dlsposmon, oflentcrl as much towards (he accumulalion of exptncnct and knowlcrlge, or Ihe plcasun: of rccognilion and deciphtring, u t wards simple ddigh"

r ont moves f om avanlgardt concerts or It is undtlStandabk (hal as smission ed and lo tourist apptal or pla)'S. muStums with a high ,ran txh,bmons. major concerts or lhe av:anl.garde txhibitions 10 spectacular tvard thealre and v2fitlY shows, 'classical' lhe:!rres, and finally (0 tht boul fractions d istributed in order of the I'll( of rcpresemation of Ihe difftrem omic capilal-i.e., IC":Ichers, decr("2Sing culeural capi,al and increuing econ als. industrial and com ldministr.ltivc txeculivts, engineers, profession continuously, so mercial employtrs-ttnds 10 change systematically and wtigh! in (ht pub. Iha! Ihe hitl'lrchy of the fractions distributed by Iheir commtrcial lic lends to be: invtrted." The fCachtrs and tht industrial or tht diagrams of employtrs occupy symmttrically opposilt posi tions in . onts of shows COrn:lation bclwetn the ralt;S of altendance al t... o caltg tr" and art exhibi p<C$Cnling opposite proptrtits: on the ont hnd conc IIOn on Ihe olhtr, variCfY sho....s and mldt exhibirions. In each usc: Iht an: in an ittrmt. n:embc:rs of Ihe professions and ,he sc:nior extcu(ivts dlalt posilion. The profc-ssions, undtr.reprtsented in uSt of hbnflts and n:ums, arc more rep=nted mong txhibition visilors thn museum '1$1101"$, and go 10 Iht theatre reldvcly frequently (to 'boulevard' plays Or mUSICals ralhCf Ihan classiC11 or avant.gardt the::llre). The museum, a wnse<:ratcd building presenting objtcn wilhheld from n p vate appropr iation and predisposed by tconomic Iltutraliulion 10 u {[ dergo Iht 'neulraliulion' dtfining Ihe 'pun:' gzt, is opposcrI 10 ,ht 10mmtrtiai art gallery ....hich. like o,her luxury tmporia ("bourl<Jut;S" an shops elC.) oll'"trs objects which may be: contemplated bUl also . ugl\(. JUSt as tht 'pure' atsthttic dispositions of Ihe dominated flac t'ons of the dominaf\! class, tspecially lC":Ichers, who are strongly ovtr "Prc.senlcd in museums, art opposed 10 (hose of tht 'happy few' in tht domlnanl fractions who ha lhe mC":lns of mUCfially appropriating "orks of art. The whole relalion 10 Ihe work of art ;s chanp when ,he

uc

'Uoique among irs kind'

5., I....yer aged 4', ;5 the son of 1 lawyer aod his family belongs 10 the . Parisiao 8ramu bourgtflilit. His ..ife, The daughter of ao engiottr, sludied al the Pans Polnical Sdeoce 10sli rUlc and ds nO! work. Their four childreo are al the 'bot' priVltC Calholic sc.:oodary schools io Pris, lh.,oy I,,'c io a very big aparuncOi (more Ihao OO S(luare mcO'es) io Ihe 161h arrondiw:mcnl: a vcry large enlraoce,hall, a sp;!cious living room, a dining.room, a sludy, aod thc bedrooms (his office is nOt in Ihc ap;!rlmcOl). In lhe liyingroom, modern furni. ture (big cushioos, a large (ouch, armehairs), aOliquilies, 'a G=k hcad io slooe. aUlhcnlic and ralher beautiful' (a ...cddiog pICSCO!}, ao objecl which Ihc head of Ihe house hold calls his 'persooal allll' ('a ralher 1I11'1C1ive relig'ous !hiog [ m:loagcd to grl off my p;!rems'-his F,uher (OlIec!S :1[[ SOrlS of ob!S d'm, and h2li bough!, .mong Other .hings. 'all SOrlS of Sluff. cn:lmel work. chalices. crosses . . . from :I SOrl of Ruuiao, a dc::akr'), '1 1(11'1coua thiog from the Taog dyo.51y, boughl from 10 anlique shop ;n Formosa where he weol ((ompa nled by teO spialisls, scyeral paiot iogs, a Pau[ xrusicr ('II is "Iher charming bUI, Ih,u said, I'd JUST 2S SOOO pUI a modern pi(lurc in ils piKe'), io lhe dioing-room a Durch slill life.
10

A Grand Bourgeois 'Unique among His Kind'

(Oums for him is beauly of the Ihiog, II sc.:ondly. nol whether IS bUI whelher iI's made in a manlike way': 'you cao -,'" agam, bUI )'OU can a[$O make of il. So II becomes uniqu e iTS kiod, bcc:au( you can'l same obj<cr, Ihe same . . . Wha. makes Ihe beaulY of I face, Ihe beau.y o( a sculp luft, . lhe smile, lhe look. You ca. do il twice. You can make copy bUI you can', do II agal Ihc same maleria[, Ihe mOleriai (OunlS m, anyway as much _ masJ . . . I'd loye IO "' .= bronte. There are b abso[utciy eInordinary.'

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He doc$ nor O(ICO i gil[kriC'S and docs 001 . cally' inspecT aOlique sOOps

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nouyeauriche apptOllda'

Wheo he buys oDiclS d'au, 'ii'S 00 way an ioves.mem.' Wh.1

of furniture . . .) or"l1"'. ,ue1 picce For his counrry hou in Burgundy, ff: him al Ihal mo ,c< J I a very big one ('a Ihousand square P ,I IS somewhal condescend rflCtfCS 10 furnish, a(ler all!'), almosr 1" '- t-Ie .....,,1 ----.nIe who 'waol 10 a 'miwess'. he boughl furniture . """ 1" ' got Ie !!me ' : " I o haven'l "" from '1 ,a,lt-aod.booc mao': '1 came ,61 a d ' ""I the "me 10 be _ en I "' across a chap, a junk dc::akr, who ha , CSIW. What (S(nhad solid wood furnilure. r(ll[ coun ,'[lltY I 'nle{ IS thern is nOl what Iry,slyk, and I bollgh.1 odr. bits l !lIlly ,o COl bUI whal has Yi[ue.' So aod pieces. Sluffed anmals , onclud Ih " lher aod 'pay III rr' club logt: ing Sluffed boars '....h,ch OU!r.I Olher IheY car They delegate ev(r)onc. except me . . . because ((tiles a rch:lSC for them. On l lhey arc funny, Plnsure is ""hal is on h,"d inYl:$lmenr, and r fun. I[ICOn" 0(\lCf. lOcal illComr:clcnce, [ 'I'm irriuted by people ....ho buy , k , piece of sh" 00 lhe Things just 10 show Ihem off, I? say ...u SlUe ,would be: all Ihe same fO Ihcy' gOl lhem or pul Im on 1 II. t as someone rells them p1flicu[ar place. The value Isn, ' -, .. lhem 'u 100' . mooey. '[1,al's what CQUOIS, it's ,he plcasulC II bo: shu is worth \ . _""ta _fiche 'pproKh. gives you. , . ' I, boughl the boars for I n_ u ' ,,", 10 show 0 Ihat you vc got .nn my personal enJOymenl, Of Simply ble . ' . or ,hat you' IOfIK'lhing bee!U( [ found il W2li funny, a of haviog $Omethins [I'S Ioe hOllog jokc, or bee.U( ;1 anooyed other gaung 1Il ,mellOr designer, dck prople: 1bc hou( is " 00 damp 10 somrone, s PUI a decem piano io il.' bUI he i 'going to gel 1 graod p,a"?' . . . A, 'You've looked for i l for a long the casino, rhcy arc Ihrowmg out and 11 lUI you've foun d iI' limo: old graod pianos . . . rha Ihq have 1 note or IWO mlsJlflg. "'fh< objc<:1 h:lS an ioward value. an emouonal Yalue. when you've ",.n.ro il. looked for iI, for a long 'Heirlooms? Doo't make me rimo: ThaI wu wh1 you wan,ed bugh' .1Id l! 1m, by a moke of luck )'<lor'\'( fouod il . n.c inherited objecTS with which he it's a ",vdahan . When iI'S for my ple2liurc:, ha furnished Ihe hou( arc of [illie r". doosn't COIm into il. it's like intefCSt 10 him. Wheo his wife f(> p hr orgto (. gadg miods him .h1 Ihere arc some. he el, iI's declronic ), "'ant 01 10d I h,Ye ;1 . ' . Ooce replies: 'Heir[ooms? Don'I make me 'ga'n, you normally kp within laugh. Ihere h"e btto Ihree bilS of meoos; I wou[dn'I buy urnilur" She enumcrales lhem: ( I "Wn ""e "''<:'" gerring ma"'ro. U h' ' ulhcdr,al ' (He would Iov"" 10 own . church and , Aunl x. popped off. I inheri.ed , . . '!\(Warc II ' . Whal [ nod " UItuo: (cmin ,mOUOI of silver: fim leg"y f l lloo . I e, Ihe shape of Ihe s'ones, Then Ihere was r.bdame c.: secood St is beauliful.' He kgKy. Then Mademoiselle I..: ,hird , from Catholic f.mily bu. legacy.' 'So we have a cerlaln 110 I oger fa.CliCCS; he makes fre amount of chioa. old bits and pies 'i I. "'I<: h,l -. 'ron,c rc:lig;ou refer. aod furniture. Furoirul'<: has never "") bttn much of a problem for uS

s (In (100 rooms. He buy

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causo: we inheriled a certain ,moum, Fourlh le8acy, my inlaws gO! rid or some of their properly. We got some UmChlil'$. . . .' If he does not like this furniturt, he 'chucks il our': 'nOI tOO much duner". 'You n('(d :I big enough apmmenl, rooms which allow you :I cemin inner silence, ul'Khmered, and then on til<: o(lI<:r h:lnd, you n('(d rooms comaming all III<: per. son:ll objIS which art never sou nirs-tMy can go into (he: duslbin-but obiecrs you like (0 h:lve around yOll.' He 'de(OIS It1vd souvenil'$' 2nd never brin&, Iny bICk ('ecepl the Ihmg I juSt nllO, lhe: Chinese ler!'Kon:l. . . . I've bough! li!tie knlckknlCks and trin ke!s rhlt wc've disuibufCd to all :lnd sundry, but we've never dUI' tertd ourselve'S up, . . . Looking around, you wouldn't know we'd tr:lvelled. The IOCII souvenir. bough, on 'he spor. has no inrero! wh:ltSO(CYcr'). /k$ido, when you're r!1vdlrn8, it's bener 10 keep:ln open mind. 'wllk around ....j'h your hands in your po<:kets 2nd look around you, bUI without hiving one eye glued to a viewfinder' (in ,he Fu $I, his ....ire ralls. 'we look photos'. but. she :ldds, 'we lookro :If them, showro them round once Or IWlce', Ind now they :lrt 'al Ihe bollom of the cupboard').

Hals, Rembrandt. It's I erent SOrl of painring, I Or:! ( mlKh thicker. . . . Thef(: are some Mati$$( and Coclcau dl1.... Ings.' P;r.in!ing 'doesn't have, 10 figu!111ve f r m 'o o l BUI II<: i$ 'lef ' ; , i. :; pr1(licaljoke . a ....hite (anvas that.' His wife ys doesn'l call Ihat sorl of r mg'. ....herns he is kss 'Well, no. it isn'l painling, a SOrt of 111. of epression.' 'Loving something mnns having il with you'

Ilaly.' He was 'very StrUck catro. by halian painting .' . n1fdo, Venettan and Sien' paintings. a1l the piClures in Villa Borghest, Botncelh.' also 'very 10 DutCh
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. ....hich is as necessary I l' os " Oking srove. . , , Every '1'.S sO,,'" o ne who nms noth. ( 1 .:o ' m . , . _ ("c s muSIC. t s a noxu, 'v 'l re<:ords: Vi Among his n J tll:15, 'kc ,. h. 101 of B,(h can t I d " ,ms Monleverdi.', Mod. ,)to ...... " \o( s"\ sn't mean much 10 crt' u <k!iberucJy re bcOu5oC' I nO llon of auun hIt'll, . , II ., , "uO ....1 '1 but 'Mahier,)o,Ivet, . ., r ...- s nrs to ",' "' . :1 ",n cope "'"h. bul ,111 d'S ,en I , K t Iy semI music, cIuon 10< of Ihings thu are some ",IC .:e bouu(ul. and Otrs r 10 me like pnc JIt '" 18ln sound . hreh a . the u thing IS 111 I

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po<:kct handkerchief or the flower in my buttonhole, or my tie, If peole . Wln{ 10 Stt me or invite me to d,n. ner, ,hey invite me 1$ I 1m. l . Olher ....ords, I have a high opln.on of mY:lelf: he explain!>. uking Ihe opponunl1y 10 indicate once 191n his distance bolh from bourgeoIS t:lSle and from the qucstions pt 10 him by the socioiogisl ( ....ho be . longs 10 his ...ifes hmily). He 'I Ihink that five hundred fnncs IS qUlle enough (or 1 suit, then:'S no point in spending a IhoU$lnd fnncs on 1 suil ....hen personll1y I don', give a damn:

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He hIS 1 paInting studIO m whIch he spends a 10< o( time ('He liko t....irling :l brush', hIS wife emphl' ollS sizes), bUI he considers his e 'of no Inrerest' and prt(el'$ nOl to 1:llk aboUI IlI<:m On'lhe Other band, he =tIily eonfa$C'S 10 baving spenl 'many hours In mU$Cums. (or rhe pka$Uf(: o( II. in Holllnd 2nd

foe the ple:uurc of iI, in Holllnd and hlly"

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you.' And he adds; PI('15.lnt are nonnecessary (hings, I ". to hoard things . . I li"e for , sake o( living. And, so ble:. [ try 10 I"'e for the pn:scflt ment, i, ,sn', al....ays easy.' 'As neuaey IS 3 ClXlking

For him. 'a pliming ;;,; :m'''h'.. ....hieh can be df(:lml of for . I lime and which is I ....ith the Slme ple.sure. pleasure vu;es depending on you are or wh3t your mood is' cmerion is whether I'd wanr 10 have it in my home. . . . !.ovin' something means having ;t WId!

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He could IIOt I"'e without system. bough! mort Ihan I 19o for about eight ('No one brand. it's a of $Cvel":ll. I was ,hu, 5<ome r asked around Ind {

He is a busy man and does nOI have much time in the middle of the fl'()rk, yoo ll"" y, know day; he 'almost ....ishes they'd in'ent to concerts all( is ? 1 pill so you didn'l have t ear In He I1Irely goes . the daYlime. . . . Cooking IS a stare one of those people who go nor tnd ,hin&, bau$C Ihey have 10 of mind.' To appreciate ii, you have to be 'rtlued': 'Sturgeons' eggs, k seen" he docs not ftlId the re . ' i Lt MlJlldt (his daily paper ), some Russiln cooking, is quire de!r bu, would mhe! trust rhe J udge ,ious. Cooking isn't juSt a mailer of mtnl and fommendation of a food, there's also ,he :letting. If , . ff>C:nd 'When Ihtre's something on you'rc going to eat smokro ed, II S (hl!'s In Imporrant work, you 11 more agreeable to eat II i the Am ....)1 how. You know bc-c:luse Slerdam fish mlrkel thIn ,n $Ome you'f(: In <OntlC! with loads of pe<> Ilcky resl:lur1nt . . . Real cooking, rk: 'hat's ....hy [ don'l bother 10 . the SOrt ....here il ukes t ... o days to rt>cI ,he ((ilies. If you read one. mIke a maOcira sauce, whe:rt you have, 10 mad all of them.' He kp thin&, simmering a....ay for . , "'tly ..-,nt 10 SCI! 0", At..,. Show I, Ihat's what I oil woklng, and ".liln Maoist alone on stig.:. II'S In 111. BUI wll<:n people lalk - left 11 .he inrC'fV:II beeau51: it tbout cooking nowadays. they ,USt lousy ' When he does go to lhe e mnn Ihro...ing a f .... thin&, 10:, 're. he, does nO{ nC'SUrily go gether, pulling lhem 0111 o( lhe ' f dmncr or 15 "'ell: 'You nn't freezer. Slicking lhem unOcr the I'IIPI things :II lhe same ,ilm ill-thtl'S fIOt cooking. Thert's no gr hIve 10 enjOy thin8$ to the pn:p2Ir:llion, il isn', an art lny !4Il!O'-'

'Cooking is 1 $l1le of mind'

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Itt bJ.vc high opinion of myself'

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'If 2ny sartorial 'Il:nemenl': fo,' t;" e Wan, 10 Stt me, it's nOI t $ ock$ l'm we:lfing, my

He like'S 'hunung Out resuunntf wilh Ihe aid of Ih Gui'" Muhtlj"

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or GallI! tl Millall and remembers ..incs drunk thrcc years ago, a bou 'l....r, a Pori, a ra{her spial Sainr Esrqme from 1 panicular year': 'I haw: vry clear m<'mories of bonlc:s from t923 to 1929 , " Bordeaux I still hav In boltlcs of wine from 1923 he. And four boltlcs of Ii 'lueur dated 1870: A good bonle 'isn't to be drunk with juS! anyone . . , II fr<Jui a certain lilurgy: a Ii,. urgy 10 get the lemperaru righI, and a lilurgy 10 drink il. II's 1 com munion', 10 be celebraled 'only wilh ruin people, who a pabk of enjoying it in lhe sam way , . , I'd ralher drink il on my own than with people who don't app=iare il.' 'A dinner with champagne is rather 'luaint . . . II wine is varied, diffenl; comparing champ:lgne wilh will<' ;, ralher like comparing a SOrt of lin le flute wilh an orchestra.'
'I

Among the books in his libm)" 'left by a grandmother' or 'bought in a sorr of shop in the rue de Pro vence', dlen: an: lealherboune l7lh<enluryish books, 'mon: for

prd'a pleuure'

IUry book considcn:d" in ils day, 'luilc i books he no.. keeps in 'SOrt of philosophical and a bit of poelry'; his ' so on' (about two are in his country house. has books on German IIlgerian war, . . Sc::l(ing leuherbound stuff, lhe: shelvcs', 'for me books an: I ""ork with, nOf books for of it.' He docs nOf b..-long cluhs. ('Some people lov t uniforms, belonging to thl! tum or club: I'm my own individualisl al all com.') longer hunlS 'becau( YOU" go a lon8 ....ay, it's rather iI's also ralher eKpcnsive ' lenn;s occasionally, on Ii goes skiing 'for pbsun:' going to Struggle with skis over my {here's a ski.tow beside me. coming down more h" 8"i" I pn:fcr pleasure.'
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the: beauty of Ihe cditi, mteTesf 0f the ICI '. R

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cigarellcs (Craven, IJ<nson and Hedges, Kenl, ROlh luury . ue ane Old England) , chaleaux, II rI' ) ' coulU (Diol Boull<J h,ure 'f(Sideoccs of {harane ", 'puks wilh lake', Champ:lgn, Bor ,'ICS jy brandy, cruixs, movi camens. II lavishly ,lIuSlralro an, cS '"':" U 1 g jUl ( aCllons al lhe H(>ld DrouOl or th hllis Galliera, beside f nlS for anll<Juc-dcakrs on lhe <Juai Volt:li and in .he MU' II m urnilure and OOfClS e'an', 'anli<Jue faIence H OnOri, offering 'f ' :0 "",''' ,. <Inl ' -" - "n " , 'paintings, stltu, furnllure and UUl'!tS d-art. . advertl(, u . ,rS '" . . ...... rccia'" - - h a, 1m, next 10 o e ,nd or rhe Galerie Ardllll, featunng "mron ypcrre , f offering 'ninelccmh-cenlury French and English furniture : t is', o(unoS\b Mu IIgos rfln.Cailie (Faubourg Saint,Honori) , presenting - e Dupom Cl8l'IIC' Gl!enc L - ' it "" .lmprtSSlOf\l$1 <>urn m I 914 ) , oppos . "'" .. ( " from Cognac 10 watches.. of adV(:rrisemen,s r:anging 1.11 lhe wly. pos. Oll of material and symbolic appropmllon confen on the In mb natl IIIe 1 luxUry goods a sond-order ramy and a iegitim:acy whICh make of excellence, First, Cognac 'Princcs de Cognac: 10 0. n:me symbol It ,he , you n 10 u( the ancienl words .of the language of Cognac. ,Ik 'u i ' c, Prmccs d Cognac has The quality of the body of a Cogna , 1 svelte (harnll whIch IS aI, muS(le. What <h,:rJIM bu' a rbamll with no fal, of the filii ,ba", is 10 a Rubens Flillr: Tht seem of Ihe flowtr I has fo"r, 1n eleganl, Cognac g .,n(:, lhe- arislocral of Co n",. Princ de c and breeding. FIi,j rollX: vry old, "ry civilized ftntr ..ilh elo<Jucn s de: . fhal have sown ,heir wild 01tS, shed thil ucos lannin Princc Cognx h:ls aged in fun rllIIX Hence its 11St,'. dry, dean, discrctlly wooded. ..Ji' that's wh:lt w<: call rh cdlu {ontalnmg rh oldest !CSCrvcs of

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piming, th statu, th OJinesc v or th piece o( ntiqu belongs (0 the world o( objects availabl (or appropriation, thus rr:ll, and which, even when nor personally possessed, belong ro {US anributcs of one's group, decorating the officcs on works In at salons on f!l:O:juntS,
In {he pagn of a journal like Cmmaanrt tks i

its plac in th serics of the luxury goods which on possesses W;thOlH ncedi ng to prove the ddighr they g ive and rhe rast

into which the dominant flUtions in$l:f! tht work of art: tht luxury objtCts, diStinguished and distinctive, selected and glc: issue (November L9B) we find advrtised: j , furs, pelS, tapestrics, antique f urniture, clocks, f1i<nce, silve"",a, ic-:Ithtr bound books, luxury elrs

Arll, w diseo,'er roc -

Otatd, Cognac. Plinccs de CognK was brought up in Ihe paradis of Maison " 'h Chileau de Cognac. Princes de Cognac is produced in limitro 'luanti. e tlCS-<lnly a f w Ihousand boltles a ycar_nd ;s only found in selected e 110m and rCSlaUranlS' (CQllllaiJJaIl(l tks Am, November L97}, p. (6), Burgundy IS rrCl.led lo lhe sam(: CliOteric 1tchlism: 'Oown in Burgundy, 1I'.iptMdt.gt lime The lUI tCOO of ,Ilt vimage h:ls :Karcciy died :lway, and "ftldy ,he Vllles a being anroded fO. Defrly wieleing lheir :K01Urs, Ikllbl {l1If'Smen snip off.he unwamed shoots and prepare 111<:: slocks to n: '''''t lhe rw:XI season's <lrosing; Ihis is ipo"dAgt, :I ddic11e opcr:ation, which much dexlerity and which Moillafd supervises on your behalf. Se, , o f , y conSIdered vIneyards, Moll I" I urg your pla5un: from rht mosl high l B undies art only en{fusted lo qualified diStributors' (ibid., p. 200), rough his ma5lcry of a verbal accompaniment, pferably I<:<hnical, I h I( and telic, which separates informro fasring from mtre passive !'<u mpllon, the , connoi=ur shows himself wOflhy of symbolically appro. . '''' rL' ' , ' ra"l1cs t. _ has lhe: malf1:1, means 0f ac'lumng: , " -' some con'' '' ' " .;; .. l1li) is only one: bttr in France Thot's flOf many_ BUI :I real ur IS hard ro pIca(. Exc1usivt. lind if some connoi=urs ....ill only &!1 n I tlf favour 10 1664, that's <Juire simply because 1664 gives :I uni<Jue IQ lind a pleasure Ihrct hundred years old . , , Somelimt'S iI'S good " o <4rt to5C v". lhe laSle of Ihe aUlhentic' (ibid., p, 187). 'Few prol'le would 4.8111<: Plaln ....hal makcs a good CognK Tht Baron of Ihe ChilC1u de as rha right. In l7<n Baron O. rd made Ihe Chireau de Cognac . ,

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his home . , . He also f ound, rhe vaults of the .h:te.... .L l " I 'C (0 muure , - '-'-'8"1(. And you raJic ,,15 c. Ihe importance of rh11 know rhlt ".grrar Cognac hu '0 "St (or many long yC'a ef rr . ) V.S,O.P. S'nce 1795, nO!hmg 111$ chlnged 11 the Chiteau de "me VlIult$, the saint ageing. rhe nme un: drvol<d to rhi$ grat (ibld , p. m). TIle osu:nratiou5, gr:ilfuirous npense impliw in the purch<lSt fa !CSS' obtn"1 is the OSI indi$purabk 'N y of showi ng Ihe PIle( o p:artd '? I on thmgs thaI have no flnec, an absolute Icslimony . of of love to money which only monty 'WL . . 1uxury.' Rcfinemen!; a nmlry ,or those who can afford it, and"at IS a rhost who. whn they Stt iI, frain their eye, their IUIC, and the simpiesr ob!t, a scarf. a skirt, pair of shoes, a gatment. i ful. B uI cxpens!V<:? Haute 'Otu,: i$ absolwc riSOl lr and the . , no I;ll e (Marc Bohan, d,re<tor of the Christian Dio. IClVlew) , 'You have 10 be Perrle':J0llel and own lhe: finesl Vinq of Cramant to afford Ihls f otly and to offer il 10 Olhers: a from the most eKPffisive grapes in Ihe world. But Ihe 78 18th cWtu,), bonk ha," no pricc f " a lo er of Champagnc ? irs uke. EspeCIally when II S an euepflonal v'"ta' (Cmt1l .. ina1lft vc,?ber 1973, p. 14), 'To highlighr you. peoonaliry, wee create dehnre watches . . . made only In limire<! editions. Each of Oil. brrngs oul the personalily of the discriminating purchaser , You ' come rhe owner of an exduslve, dmepie<e' (ibid_. . 8\).

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(which is to the. distnguished. tasting of nalure as Om ), prescnt n Am is 10 the dlSt'"gUlshed tast'"g of CUltllll: /J of appropna ogramme of the legitimate objects and modes r stl,-e rating 'namre'-birds, flowers. lanscapes-prcsup a i : (.!I,u Own'"g a (jOII "rPhe privilege of those who ha>'e anOall tOOts. 1 ",llurt' manor house or gran is not only a ,!uestion of money; one ,!1-itelU' 1 ppropriate iI, appropriate the cdlar and learn the an of bol Ihe wine' which toU!t also as 'an a(l of deep communion with oncc', ac,!ui ll: trophies. o tllMg , .er' should have perf rmed :at least . competenccs whICh arc both ,,-et'i of fishing, the skills of garden'"g, (hC5C<rt'f! slowly learned. Iikc cooking or knowledge of wines, appro( eMt llnd _ r the an 0f l -vm, of the artSfocrat. or coun try genl1email, v ' tC _ . w rd, rn pnl,' and toOted It'I things which last. I to rhe p:tSSage of time , ndr ert'M , '" ,I easIer than pIC '"g gller ,"so my mother c,alms. nS '! nolhin, '1hCrt' as iong as you sweat (hem '" you pick them by a new mOOIl, g them pot after rubbin ult for IWally-four hours in a stonewall: u doth the only sort that is tough alough. As long as yo ,a ",t" " ,-,nen ' bend them 10 pac, them m .dd drrcd but not bone dry tarragon and Ie ber \973). A pot of (Omnai..nct '" la

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" htly . . , etc: to grandma s reclpe' and brought .t he ' rne-made gherkins', 'made . when exhrbltmg ""ith the apptopriate verbal accompanrmenl-2S

Campag,

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sive possemr of the object and of the authentic taste for (hat which is thereby converted into the reified negation of all Ih un,worthy of posing il. for lack of the material or symbolic m'" sess d,omg so, or s mpl y for lack of a desire to posse!$ il strong enough nfice everything for ir', 'nle consumption of works of art, an almOSI tOO obvious i ' Ihis a .'gument, is only one, among others, of these:: Consrder the new CII1I of n ature which the fashion for ond rhe ll:flls.al of pt:lilboll,gt'Ois rourism have broughl into . hl( has deep affiniry wilh the 'irillt Fr..net' life style of CICnt fractton among tOe dominant fractions, Animals, flowers, ga.srron-omy. environment, riding, gardening, fiShing. 'OtllOlogy', bhng, the ll:gllrar topics of lhe Parisian journal CQnnaiJs#

propnatlOn of symbolic obtectS with a material existe nce such as ings, raises the distinClive force of to the nd I redllces purely symbolic approp.iuion to the suhslitute. To appropriate a work of an is to assert onese a lf s " '"

One might be ll:ding Marx, who writes: 'Man is . 1nitilly posited prV1te propeny owner, i.e,. an exclusive owner whos e exclusive permits him both to prC$Crve his personality an 10 d ' h msclf from other men, as well as relate to them . . . man's, rsonal, disringuishing and hence nrial i ,

twle y French mastn' spotted 2t the tilt 'Iitde piClull: by an eighteenth-cenrur or the 'ex'l"isitc little pie<e of fumitull:' unearthed in a Inlr(lue-deaicr's, lunk !hop--symbolizes 2 S<Juandering of lime and a competence which ran only be 1C<luired by long frequentation of old, cultivated people and things, Ihat is. membership of an ancient group. the $Ole guarantee of s possrsion of all the properties which are endowed with the h ighest dis

,;

back

lin(live value because they can only be accumulaled over timt'. What is at srake is indcc<;l 'personality', i.e., the '! ality of Ihe person, whICh is affirmed in the capacilY to lpptopriue an object of quality.17 The objens endowed with the gl'ClltCSt distinctive powcr are thoSt' which o fI\ost clnrly atttsl the quali ty of the appropriation, and tht'ft'f re the 'lu,hty of their owner, hecause their possesion recruim time and apaci. s tm whkh. ft'<:Juiring a long investment of time. like pictorial or mllsical C\lhurc. cannot be acquired in haste or by proxy. and which tht'rt'fore ap ' as the surest indications of the quality of the person, This t'KpJains . I , rmpo rtance which dIe pursuit of distinction 11laches 10 all Ihose tlvlies which, like atlistic consumption, demand pure, pointless ex' especially of the rarest and most precious thing of ill-particu I :ry for those whose market vallie gives them least of it {O le n -- lmely, rime, rime devoted to consumption or lime devoted {O t cultUral ac,!uisition which dequate consumplion presupposes.

':

dlturc,

-- -- -- -- -l Prlh 'o -- --be:.r in mind, firstly, thaI time, despi.e ..... possibility of appron thc. 80 people's time o. of savin8 .ime: by llIlionalizuion and by ex'

ploi!ing rh( frdm 10 ivoid the eff fs of overcro""d ing by US;n , nmes nd plcC$. IS one of the most rigorous an!luopolo gical lim If!, SttondJ.r. thaI ,he market VlIlue of ,imt-mO or 1m dircnly dq:>cndm8 on the mode of munc:r: l!ion {consuhari on {to or profiu)-incl'OSCS as one rises in rhe $()(ial hierarchy, ' in sund [II' "Iue of Ill<: potlatch of rime. This tClm (In be pnnkes i.wolvins (he 'Sr;tnring' Of 'giving' of lime I 11n{ dimension of whar is Ol'fem:l ll ecrnriOllr-and. cou. 10 . -,. . . . IICS '" II sure IIY h0$( symhoi vaIue 1IWlIys lies p:irdy in the Ie Clp:1cjty . , dominate nrnc and money thaI affirmed In 'lakin g one's time' . IQ ' I,e, q. pending such valuabk lime [0 no purpose. Of all the conversion rhniqucs designed to create and ac ymbolic (api al. the purcha f works of an, objectified cv p:nal tUte . IS the one ""hl h IS cJOse 1 (0 [h most irrepr ac . o hable 1lmrtable form of a<eumula{lon, thar IS, the Inrernalization of . live signs and symbols of power in rhe form of natural 'distinct" sonal 'authority' or 'culrure', The exclusive appropriation of wors is not without a a gy to Ihe ostl:OUlious d("Srrunion Of l. the Irreproachable: exhlbmon of ""'C"alth whic h it permilS is, si oc:ously, a challe:ngc: thrown down to all those: who cannot d rhdr 'being' from their 'having' and urain disin rettStedness t he: ,u_ r ' aiiirmauo 0f pe oal excdlenu ' nd as is shown, f example, bJ . or . : primacy gtven to luerary and amSIlC culture over sdentific or ted.... culrure, the xclusive possors of a 'V St cultu re' behave no dilfc: . when they flmg mto the potlatch of SOCial enco unrers the lime they .... spenr without thought f immediate profit or in exerdses as pr("Sugiolll . they are useless. The dominant fractions do 1'101 have: a mono poly of the usa of. work of 3fr that are obcrivdy-"lOd sometimes wbjectivdy-oDclll towards the exclusive approprialion which alto, s ,he owner's 'personaliry', But in Ihe absence of ,he conditions of material Ihe pursuit of exclusiveness has 10 be Conren{ with i . mode of appropriacion. Liking the ume Ihing differ i s ently, ent things, less obviously marked OUt for admi ration-{h= ' K< " Ihe strategi("S for outflanking, ovemking and displa cing ,i taining a pcrmanent revolution in laSlO. enable the ominated. d wealthy f ractions. whose appropriations must, in the main, : symbolic, to secure exclusive possessions at every moment. Ir and artists have a special predileCtion for the most risky bur profitable strategies of distinCtion, those which consist In power, which is pcculiarly theirs. '0 constitute insigniliont works of art or, more sub!!)" to give aesthetic rc:delinition !O ready defined as all. bUI in another mode, by other cbsses or rions (e.g., kilseh). In this case, il is the manne of consuming r Crel'es the object of consumption, and a sr:<:ond-degree delighr

' tslcrn:"li,e .
fbe

arrifaclS abandoned to common consumption. s the 'yulgar' o r1nf frn strip cartoons, family snapshots, graffiri. into distinguished works of culture, drS!l> ""

IS

'"

; :

;:;

::;

. the tC":lchers and intdln:luals cultural practices f1'It :l5'etl< colouring of karl, when they are replaced in (m: sYSlem to which they be. . ds out C JM and ....hen it becomes necessary to I th 'luesuo.n 0f the ,e \oIlS' ing of culture and symlic appropmllon-the sublimated subu . . ruItS of the elt{h which " II material app<opnauons and all the f ( "",S for l . . tUI . . . or domination Icaves f thI' poor reiauons. .... dlY!Slon of the labour of . 109 to thc oppoSing IifNlyles correspond ''' ..... 1ntagOO!, m tween the . " H of lhe field of the dominant class is ckar-<ut, tolal, and the 0PPOSI' S rok' bet""'t:Cn the {eachers and the emplo)crs (pardcuiarJy between Ihe . . tOfI I , I camparahie to tIe gap d middle ranks of the IWO o.tegones) 1o... ln . I d 'cullUttS in the anlhropoIoglo.. sensc. 0n one Sl e, read. "Cffl two !ltt... . l work LA "Ont , and 1 s, ' - ' L """'If)', philosophlo.J and politICa . . ' tn. and reading rL. Othe huntliler.try or arnstlC magazlno; on ' tbe (gtnerally leftish) . , . betting. and, when rhere is reading, read109 Frm/ft-,JUlr or 1 8 or . I " , 'd l'.MIOoftlirna/ or <111m pollr 10lll, On one SI e. cIa1C or avant'jl:ar"" or tllnl" (wllh. for example, Roger Planchon's producllon of . otx/ WtddinK or Turgency s A AI.mlh In 1M CoIl1/l7 )' /..I mrlfJt, I.oro's lli mums, classical music. FranceMusi'lue, lhe Flea 1>hrket, campmg, moumamt:Cring or walking: on the Olher, busmess lrips and cpr:nse K{Oum lunches boulevard thellle (Robert Lamoureu, Marcel "chard, Fl1In(oi Dorin) and music-hall. vlriely shows on TV. commercil1 ehi blllOnS. the aunion room and <bouliques', luury o.rs and 1 boat, three $I" hotels and spas (C.S. V). And the Style: itself of the dif erent cultuf:l.l f acUCts, the: pr social philosophies and world vIews they Imply, are Ken much more c1C":1rly if 01\(0 bears in mind the universes of pr.tCtlces to "h"h they belong; if 01\(0 knows, for example. thaI ayanl.gardc thntre, Of Ing poc'ry or philosophy. is opposed 10 bour,2C:OI thntre or the muslChall. 10 the reading of historical or adventure novds or glossy ag :t.z,. as lhe tnchers' wllking. o.mping. mountain or country holidays 1 OPPOsed both to rhe SCI of luury activities and goods which charac ttfl the old bourgeoisie-Merccdes or Voh'o, pchts, hotd holidays in Ipa 'O.... ns--,tnd 10 the constellation of the most expensive lnd prcsti. Rlous cuh ural and matcri::!1 possions and praClices-)rr noah, mO"ie tpc TC<orders, motorboats, skiing, golf, riding or water'ng-whlch distinguish the liberal professions . cic;aresl indication Ihat aesthetic choices belong to the set of cthi r I ....hich constitules a life.sIY1c is the opposition which emerges, aesthetic area ilself. belween IWO categories as close to each other ".Ilt-. ' rtsf>\Xt 10 cultural capllal as the memrs of the prof essions In,j the

f Variants O the Dominant Taste

IS

,:, I .

Tllflll!ft

nlirtWr,

ns, I

t (CS

Luxury
RfII,,1

ANIMALS

O"dkn< du Poo,Nn.f o..dknt Y,lmonn

T """1iI Nbtt. Boub <t Cit ,, 8o:n"""", H.,n."",

".,. POIel e, Choblor "..

TRAVEL c", H",

fiREWORKS R ugg.."

Murdoch

"" SNCF-DCP

e.."... I",""ion.1 s.. S<rvi

s. S<...,.,.,., 'MJ M";,,,,,", u ,.-' Jtt I.", ("''' . IblJand. '

fLORI5n
Boullct UcNU"",

19m

CHAT!;AUX (HIRE)
a...

l'fefff,u", d'lnd, (,0,,,,

Lamben

ANTIQUES

p'= ""

...., "'" Dom,n"!",,

1' ..",,,, " IIonnO(l\on Th,......

CHILDREN

V<y'><

.\I<><nox

FURS
Rfv,l1""

,,>' Lo,rond Lo"", Ih< ...

Enr.n"I!>gt'

""m< G.m'"..,.", M,n,m6mn

""," f .......

J.,'ybu, bllit de I'onb" M.n1 T.illtm..

Pt."n

T",

1..0: N"n Sk..

''''. Ca.... pn-I.ou.. 0..><1 C.N," COU,rt,.. 0'0'

Aknd",

HAIRDRESSERS

HAUTE COIffURE D.oI"".,"

ARTISTS (lIIRE)
M."",.n, T.vel ASTROLOGERS

CLINICS
VII",F] Ih", CI;ni'lu. d.. D. N...n" Clin u ir."n." d< H6p".1 Prig" 0,,,"1"" du B<lvMo;",

01>"""" ",n, ,.,

lJto<n"'it ......n.. ..

C""

I'I<lIi""

M"""". S>bato
Au D.o," do 0""" )u,( IX1ep,....

IXly.

M."on,-AI(olt Fondmon Windsor

H"mrs

a..mbcnn..d
Coo>

.,," ,.,.....

p<" "!,,,'h 1.F ,

..

..

..

1.)OOF 1.)OOF

1.2()OF

lopidu. R,b,nne

S>imlourcn'
Ung"o

C,rdrno, >(ro.d '"g '0 ,"s,on

.. ..

I.IOOF l.000F
I.OOOf .,,,

He bribed a suile overlooking I prdcn 11 [he Belve<kn: Oini, in Boulogne-sur.&inc, where ;1 was only forbidden to plug in film projn:lion equipment so as 10 avoid endangering {he dectrical sySlcm but this restri(lion could bt lifled by special permis.sion of {he manage ment.
oj"i,.
IkI.eJc", oi"i.

M"" "pen,ive:

INTERIOR
Cadhi,n J,nlt"

BATHROOM

Ch..".,
00" HeM "".

DOCTORS
1Io" ,n

DECORATORS

IXm.chy

BEAun' PARLOURS
Cam. G""rt,," IbnO(t Hublnrd Ayot

D,,,,"

Bozobt'h Ardon

JEWELLERY ao",hcro"

u""
",m,

Lalloch<

1.<,00'0(,

Nxll'
Velby

M,uOOu..,n

V.n o.d &

Ln.um<,

e",,,,,

Germ".... Mon,..1 Helen. Rub,,,,,.."

DOMESTIC STAFF
lion. s..,...... IIolbrd "'". ""'"'pn.... s..n!ky

LEATHER COODS

A'pel.

tl(l boes (or life u the Cornedie Fr'naiiIC and disdained, 'lfh,evousJy no daubl, {he price . ItUOn u(\eCI$ for cvcning-d,cs P<rfO'manC('$.

He I'<:g,cw:d (hat there we,e

Con""mcn'

Sm,1l room o""t\ooking .""ny.rd Sm.n r oom overlooking "'" p M.d,um room (Wertooki", p"" Lo.gt' room overlooking p"'" s."". ov<tIooI<ingll'rdcn

including: m...mjly .....d. '....""ent. mc>lI.nd u.u.1 ..di.i..... .

.,,,
,
"'"

,..,

l.000f

fler"'" Morobno

."

No. ,neluded: s.,.-... .nd ...... 'fC'Ci.1 mr;din...... " d""ks, I.und,),. 'eIcphonc etc

L.1Wf

Rogt'. V.....

DRY CLEANING

CARPEn
Ca..n

Ben"!

C<'>te de Fronc< [)om!n"l.... God,y, HCd,.rd

.... F, hon

PROVISIONS

CATERERS
D.o.,<nd.., Cu,m..
"""'"

EMSAI.MING .:" Ma",u.

,,",,,,

11"1"'''' de P""ln

Pt,.".."n M.."", de b T"'tI'<

.'se

Lt,.., "" In

5S'SSSiCS

1'1'.

187-199

5 i j 5 '

(r:I.S, lape l"l:Cord(rs. foreign cars, skiing. playing lennis and golf. hunting and wat(r.skiing.

(biers, galkries and concerthalls, holidaying in spa. towns, pianos. illustr";lrOO art books, an rique fumiruf(, works of art. m,.." a

amass th( (cultur";llly or onomically) mosr expensiv( and gious activities, ("(ading (xpcnsive glossy magazines, visiting

mubtion of symbolic opital. The a$ tic arisrOCr";ltism of th( (and public.stor (xutives), who are syst(matically or kntOO th( least (Xp<:nsiv( and m05t aust(r( icisure aClivities and ." w, .. and (v(n som(what scvere cultural pr";lclic(S-visiting mUSCum s, ampk, especially in th( provinces (r:.uh(r Ihan major i ' leries and foreign muscums, like th( m(mbers of rh( I opposed to the luxury tastes of rhe m(mbers of th( professions.

."' the d m .. ;: ' "' '" "' '' ;.", ;'" most'[ ' ; ' I b : cumulation towards furthc:r such S th( j : f :;{ ; i i mOl"( : since rheir low onomic opital doc$ nOI lhem ro (Xpttl temativ( pklSures and profits. By COntl"2St, Ih<: members of the sions hav( th( mans to rc:aJizc rh( dispositions towards luxury whkh are associared with a bourgeois origin and cour";lg<:d by the requirem(nts of occupations presupposing a

On on( consid(rs, in addition ro rh diffl"(nces f($Pt rhose d<:riving from rr";lienory, and in paHic ular that the proportion of individuals who owe th(ir place in the class to rhe accumulnion of <:duotional capilal riS(S lS On( m"''''' the dominant fr";lClions to ers and, sondarily, (nginttrs and (xecurives al"( th dil"l:Cr th( :lS("(tic disposilions by and

composition,

t(1ch(tS. '9 l.IasW On rh( opposition b<:twn ethical ! I sponding to diff(r(nr tr";lj<:ctories, ir is ("(inforcd and brough r . by V(ry diff"(n{ (conomic condirions

in

;::i'

n neither the compctnce Jllbc:fS of the professions, posscssi C rtldiS ..n<O itions ncd to r(invest eff (lvdy In the. cconomy .rh( and bemg Ihe f . l' v profirs they deriv( from th("lr cultural caplul, pO .h eConOrll ,JlC:Clual valu' by <:ducation and life.styk (thO!)' provid(" a . J Mr ' . 10 Int . 'on of the ama!("ur wnters),10 find III smart sportS and jll o OfIl p 8h r receptions. cocktails and other SOCIety gathenn not on y .ln. . ' . :KlionS and <:dillntion bUI al$o th( scl("(t SOCI(ty tn whIch S)IlSf their 'connections' ,nd accumulate th( capi. .... I k( ,nd k ... n rtI' -, r 'lons. Th' IS 1110" c:a rabiliry they n in or<kr 10 nrry on theil prol($.$ ou C25("$ in which luxury, 'a con"emional degr of prodi

[1I<S. (\SI' ,n

"hC"

,sonlr,one t.bnr obsc, 'a business nCC($.$ity' and '("n\(rs into ,,Jlt)" beC n of representation' as 'an (xhibition of waith and con ll _",I s cpc ,
forms depending on tlK profession, '( tendencies take ' , "Jbt5' tfOC , ,nd rhc plac( of l'($i<icnce. Thus. doctors, who hv a savings ho: " , specl:l If t of d,spo ](" In h blgher Ihan the national. ,verag\" (30 percCn . nlr rnuc ' ' gainst l percent) but wuh an Incomparably hgbcr Incom, high percentage o their V(ry hIgh in,com(, particularly ?n hoi s . Very (10 percent of disposabk Income): atrs and consumr durable rds of them do), they often own oflrn o ning their own homes (two-th woods and l and 1t"f000d hom(5. inv<:$lmcnt propcrty. agncuhural (Iu,dly c"c' industrial companies) and :IS? shares. Propcrty puhscs arc tnO$l fl""luen! :lmong rut"1.1 gen(t"1.1 pUClllloners, whefCas financl:Il IOV<:$I mrnll. which generan, inere:!s<: with age, arc more fr<:qun! among sur !fOOl md $:>i1 i l l$. ' One m:ly aS5ume Ihat surgeons and othet JflfCi:lIiSlp i1I1y in P1fiCVOlC a parricularly hIgh proporrion of ,lor. . to luxury epcnditurc, pmicularly Ih( purchasc of works of
_ _ cul " source 0( Cr . t." If'IuCrllI, as a as

t,J o( hon

(the

up

'

I .

d..11

= ,.ry
w
'"

'

diff("rem

propcrty.

. b

I<'(ome

I\s in OUr survey. !ht rhird faCIO' brought 01,11 by 1nalys; of I co.. :; k < ne in Ihc SOFRES survt)' scpmues all OIhcr fncdons from II><' of lhe prof (Uions. The bllt 1 particularly inclined ro luxury and Kriviries. as ;$ soo....n by simply listing (in order of imporTance) !III ....hich make the highnr ,bsoluI( (oO!r;bulion 10 ,his $uriplion$ 10 glossy monthly magazines, possosion of a movie eamtllo wlu:r.skiing. possesiOn of a I'pt" ror<kr, an books, PlaYing s holidays, bridg.:, huming, skiing, riding, businC$S cock" ils tIC. kno"'s Iht! magazines like Qmlfllm.,"{t tkJ ATIJ or U M4i "", a p.opon;on of p,o(($$,onll$ among rh<i. readers (I .'j p<'rf" 18.'1 percent) Oil( may, in addi.ion, on the b:l5is of rhe 1970 CESP (=jutnr amo"S amiburc 10 [his f lion prOf>(nies n( of these journals, such U po$$($.on of antique f $ urni",..., and v;s;,s 10 aUClion rooms 2nd g1!1ri". On also knows from the $Ull:' , that the m.;mbc" of the profions give 1

bl:n es
high

chlr:lncristics

po.nicubrly

! :'; :
I

';':17

8y Contrast, C"2ch of Ih( l(1(h(rs' (thor prcf(f(nc(" for a har monlOus. sob<:r, diKl"l:Ct int(rior, for exampk, 01 for simple but ",dl Plnrnl<:d m(1lls) nn be und(rslood as :l way of making a virtu( of nes .ltl)" by Ihe profit thO!)' atn draw from thdr cultural capital :Ind t'r .spare (whil(" minimizing Iheir tinaneial ouday) . If rh( prolOnais to malCh their mans, th( not always hav( th(
tastes,

'

maimizin8 time do tastes tr:Ichtrs hardly eV(1 hav(" th( me:Jns to malch (hdr and this dispar. II)" . " Cuhut"1.l lnd economic opilal cond(mn! th(m to an a.sce.nc lCIs . m (a more aus\(re variant of th( 'anisr' lif(-5IY1c) whICh Ihe mOSI' of what it has, $ubslilUting 'ruslic' for anlKJue, Roma (a'lltl h
'

choices

s for Pcrsian carpc:ts, 3 conv(IIOO barn for an anc(5tr";ll manor l hog raphs (or reproducrions) for paintings--unavow<:d substi . to!f:$ Ic, u hlC "'1Ir " . like rc:ally poor people's lath(refle or 'splrkling whit(' . ..1 _ ""tt, a'e the tnbutes uo:;priv3tion pays 10 p05SCSS,on.IlTh Ispanty VC' c ior, ono. mic capitll and cultur l capilal. or, more precisely, !he edu a 3 capI tal which is its certified fo m. undoubtw.!y on of th(

r is

A 'Truly Classiol' University Teacher

Jnn
L, aged

Prderring 'sobricty' :lnd 'discretion" Jean dislikcs 'fat cushions and hc:I.vy curtains', and 'apartments donc up is 'quite by intellor dcsigners: scnsifive 10 the overall harmony of an in !erior : 'If you' re lucky cnough to come across :I really finc piece of furnilure, you put that one piecc in :I corner. That's :III you need for a whok room.' 'At homc. until rt' ccnlly. ....c had cheap f urni.ure th1t 'Nf! bough. whcn we marti"'!. A <juicily modern s.ylc thaI wasn'I un attnctive. Venec."'! leak, quite ch(':lp. but now the chai rs arc giving up thc ghost . . . Now wc have one or tWO old bits of furniture that 'Nf!'ve picked up, '01 antiques . " :I Louis Xlll conVC'lll lable Ihat s0me sporr...! for us in lilt Flea Mar kel, a Louis XIII chest that isn't bad'. found in an antique shop in 'Of course, we won't be gerring any Louis XIll chairs-for on thing they're terribly epensive. and anyway, if ,hcy're genuinc. solid. So we'lI ge' they're nO{ some made fur us in ,hc pmc style

'A loui XIII convent lablc s from Ihe Fie;!. Market'

Eeolc Normale Suptricure. has thc galion in physio. He is now a agri mailrfollUillanl (scnior Iccturer or 1S' sistan! profe-ssor) in one of The ris uni"ersi,ies and lives in 'hc nonh ....cstern suburbs. His ( atlltT (an I1grigi in gnmmar) a Iyctt tnclltr and his gnndfarher a pri, c mary '(':Icr. HIs ....if . a pharma cist's daughter. is a ckntist. She tcaches at the ris Dental &hool and also runs hel own pnClice.

:lAS, an alumnus of tilt

WllS

'

Hc

cenfUry and thec or r

menfS :;: ;: ; :, : i; some ;

back.'

but wilhout pretcnding to li<jue' ooon,ing and ing of 'he hou!;C :IrC mainl y his wifc who of imporlance 10 them. . expel! at that. I'm 00,,, ,", , regards prices . . . I enjoy when all's pid and dOI\t on my own I don't think" " much fime to [ haven'T Bot much of a 11Sle for it, bUI In certainly has and in the end preclate II, all the s.ame.' vcry fond of old f ai"l(t: willing to accompany her i Pys, "Come along, let's go at some porcelain. [ know cnjoy it, I know she's much sensitive to it han 1 1m . . . one thing I'd really like to haven't done so yel, bu I limn look: ifs old $(icnlific

The

if.

:ng hIm'
t.l

ber Irkc that. . . . 1 remem for five minute$; l llich "'. l",n gcc Jbk 1'm gl. 1 s.a.... -.u I l onslnd of jun ,.""s

t nfh,nngs kSfhk . l c
ofI'-(1\IS. re

used rC'llding .,.II !f Y I. /lfoHd' l sor<I on .... ',1 I

"

l '" ..;.

t.'

J (>>In"Il1llllr. ial view /.J ;0."" . 'lr glvd :I supelfic

tbcs 10 Tribunr Srxiafim t-1: sub>Cd'-and ()(casonaly reads

Ihough some of the i nrcl' 109 u'"'" All my read' d to 1 ased on Lt MOIl"'. use ."" .... nut now I don't egularly. rCI"C il r , 109 IS cry day. Hls read" ""d " ,.. e, no de,ectlve ...hat auSler or novelS: 'Solzhcnitsyn's Cirt/(. all the pme. because my

to

be

good

HIS

w,fe takes

'7.:,;

br Illich ('It made a great imprcs '). c;,.,nft and NrcflJiry Il0<l 00 11\(

FtrII .,k Id I ough to read it.' Hc has abo m:ently read Dntl-'ing 'kxitry (Monoo ). :lnd Konnd lorenz s 011 AUft.lSl<)II. He owns a UNESCO

rcs :'

one

Amien!. e

even

At home, he does a bi, o(,m. carpentry. 'ou, of dUly'. ' ,he one who uys Ihis or dOing. and I do iI, laking ' necessary uouble over it. 1 it (luicker if [ did it less but [ enjoy designing ing them out and then them.' He don nOl have a TV c home bur manages ,o . fime 10 rime. 'The i I, , Ihings hcy're d(':lling sels diluted. On any given mo I'd nther read something cen,ra,ed. Slill, thcre I things for which ifs i haY<: 10 admil, 1 wenl 10 my mother's to $ce ,he firs m.,oll

more roncemnlcd'

'I'd ralher read somethinJ

history of world cuitures in sevcn or <1gh' volume$: 'Its marvellous, i Mt. nam"ive. certainly nO! a nar' 1t"'1'; if lhere are ch:llKfen and so ..... rh1l docsn', In,cleS' me, Af(h.." oIosY, no." hat inrcrcsrs me a lot. . Somelhrng I bro in a good deal f the O/(fHn/ary o Ar'

'

g,. '

: ;! :

'Truly ciaSJ;(':I1 tain.,.j Ihings' . .... Vet1l><>:r IS somethmg 1 un gaze 1t for I.I'IS"O hours and I feci lly ' """fC':I! that {a book of dr:. I>ot t,s by "''' .
'a guy called Esche. ) :1'.11 ' , ' appreC1:ucs a h'lI of t an In the series edited by as'el. 'The ext is oumand ing Ir<J " Iten' t many reproductions. the, ' tL . Y Ie no brilliant though . 'e ttla m'ely originI, bu, " ftc < 80Qd becausc t""y analyse
rea

IS

thc painters' ideas, nm jusl :lnecdoti, cally but tilt way They connect with lhe economic and social Stru(lurcs of lhe period: He 'docsn'l "do" mu, !;Cums exhauslivdy.' bu. i, WIlling 10 go': 'I'm quitc prepared 10 go along if a fr end say, "Look, there'$ $ mcthing [ want to go and .sec". or if I've secn or rcad some' thing. . . l"m always will ng TO go, and I spend a (crtain amount of time lhere.' He has to Tuscany !;Cvenl times: 'I love erylhing $cen tlltre . . I cnioy there is to the painters of the period situating in relalion to one anmhel: I say to myself. AnSc1ico was still painting like this while w cone else was doing that.' He particululy likes <the Quallf()(ento. Botlicelli, Piero della Francesea and also Vermr :lnd Wuteau.' '1 don'I <juite know how (0 put if. whether iI" the sub ject, or ,he techni<jue. . . , [ like (he surfaces. and Ihat SOrt of gracc, (hum. melancholy ' He realizes Ihat painters (annot dispense with Slylis' tic devices, but he dislikcs those of RouUC"/;u: 'There's something un, nalural. ov".&:liberate. oY<:t'sophis, ticared aoou' his technique.' 'Matisse. no..... Huly d:usical. rt' Slninw things. tOO9: I do like. I like :I 101 of Pic:tS$O's work. and ViI, lon, Ihe little [ know of il. To be honot. I'm not well up on modern painting. . . Thef('s one thing which 10 me is no/ pind ng. and thar's the whole of Surrealism. In my view il's a purely inteliectu1 ex ercise. D:ali and company af( some thing I detCSI.'

'alWllYs

been

be

: ":" :;;:"

F'I;:(
ti:'

much

on Ihe organ'

.( prefer TN Arl of FlIglI

He has no hifi ('I'd <[uiTe like to have one, but for me it's not e$scn, tial"). but he does hl" 'a record player that isn', bad' ("mono. I bough' il for 600 francs f our or fie

<hestnal version. it InUy is pure music, it's nO! a question of timbrc.' He dislikes 'Romantic music, iI's too emphatic. tOO gnandiloquenf. For example, I like Ikr!iol, but lhe ymphtnrJ is 100 rheloriul.' P""/lIJ/ic S Although he h:l$ 'aU $OIlS of minor activilies', he is 'busy four evenings a w""k with m.ings, choir rehears ab' with a chonal sociely he joined ( fen yrs Ig0): 'ind nO'Olf:ldays, with a group of operalovers, you do a bit ",," of ope.... a bit of Ii , i kcs up a 101 of lime in I.... rnd.' 'Fo, m.., ,.... summit of music is Moun . , . CDJi I"" lllllt , . [ adore ill of Poulenc, [ like Dclalan(/(, . ' . [ rnlly enjoyed .t DZUI' wh('1l Boule conducted it IJI it .he Plllis Ope.... II was .he fSI time I'd he1rd it.' He gOC'S '0 eon. our or ve times a yeu. 'Ear. cefls ( lie. this w""k 1 Went '0 hc:Il Fi$C.:Di bu; for me he's .he god of sln8lng. He scarcely ever liSlens to light music or non-classical sing ers, and has never boughl any of Iheir m:mds ('I like Brassens, but 1 don't listen 10 him'). i He s '!lOt rnlly 1 connoisseur of films'; he often 'just gOC'S ro the local cinema in D. to sec dIe Cur trnt releuc$ if they're !lOt foo bad.' co:ive 'Elf
UK of limircd

)'Ors ago'), 'In my view, music is something you ought '0 go and sec done by the people who make it. Thu's the best way. Otherwise, al home, you jusl ntto:! soffitlhing In. $Onabk 10 play the m:ords on Ind some good performances. . . . I'm not enormously sensilive 10 the per ormance:, bUI sliIl, I do appreciate f it.' His '.sense of the eronQmy of mns', his t:l$te of 'sobriefY' and 'abo his s<:ientinc Hain;ng' incline him 10 appm:iue 'pure music', 'Tk , I 11., " FMC/it for eumple, I prefer (hal on the organ ruher than an or.

He likes Trufl"au. but '"', to ttJ,c, Amerin ans' ( of Ametic.n films a c<:pt Woody Allen'). watch mlny histotical I 'Obviously Abel Gance's that was "ht missed, or 7 or IIkxaNIH Ntl'd).' ' gic to anyfhing that i overdone. I like someone to me something he (""Is Veho .. " ' makIn e. ' euseO(Jimltc C;tlv d He tS neIther a 'gastrono ' 'onolsseur', but he is 'faitly live to rhe food he is olfefl:d ' '....n frirnds invite me fo, a ," [{ $ a pls rt r t2ke noti<c of, J prW21e II. He 'trles (0 keep a prcsemable wines in the hou . {'I've ( ound a liftle dnler ing in Be-aujolais. 1 like some 01 things he has to offer, Ind hu'l how I stock my ceJlat').

' Z:.

ttfII#

. .hich docs nOt of thcir propensity to contest a social order . t'()Ils 1"nda l ples of (las e thdr mcr;1S beouse if (:ogniles other princi i\ reeogntl classified Ihem. ti e educational sysrcm which has (Jlr dIan those of l ll ratic) revoir is inrens; Jlli't Oflitocralic (and thercfore, in a sense, aristoc . ies, rcfusats ind impossibilities, ",tS it .s combined .. ith the loyalt j\l f saIs of Ihe impossible, which are linked to a pelitbourgeois or mic con ".. Itug.class origin and which. togcrhcr with purely ewno r n .'O kl prtnt full membership in the bourgeoisie. Slftn . t t

11

== ''':;oo , ==:: r ---CIy ,,,,= b' ' == ,p= room 'h =='''::: -,", -CC ,CC==w,y Cr ::::=:-;= , ,o = - . "b, ,;.C=p "C=. o= =;og =::-:==o d ()!IC 0 from t.... bel that cuhuf11 capllal is a dominated principle of pltln in participation as a udrc in the organiulions claiming 10 don',na ion lies of the dominated classes. Thus the disrribu .nd Mfend the iRlerem aspire ns "rrr (he memrs of the differcRl dominaRl-claSIS (f1C1io who ItOIl success) 10 posilions as political representatives uual chanccs of d by analysing I.... social char1Crcris.ics of parliamcn. ( 'lCh ClIn gauge corresponds fairly SIIiClly 10 the dimibution of their rc (. candIdates) the fIeld of Ihe dominant class. II follows from Ihis fr.actions of ,.... lren:l$ of I.... Struggle to impose the .lul poitllnl struggks arc one iple of domtnation. kgt"ml(e (I.e_, <Iomin)nt) princ

'i"C

means'

He 'would like 10 be able (0 chess' and $Omclimes play. 5C " He docs 1 bit of photogf1ph) " end up using two rolls of Ihl pictures a year, mainly on hoi""" One thing I typically do when ,.. on holiday in he mouRliln, is. toke picfl1rn of lahdscapcs . I spend hours poring over a working OUt what can be SC'tR ' holid.y ., rush Oul "'alk'"g and then, like an idiot, [ do fony metres a. !Op sped on the firsc ' .. ind then my (""t arc s...ollen for I . ortnight. W....n I go walkIng ( rtY" it Iioirly inrcns;,'ely, bu unfo nafely ,herc arc long periods don'l do any. For the l25t I' had a dog. and she has Ihlt aken for 'OIf:Ilks. I ous pace. . . . I I1ke urd.ys and We cover ren i
_

ing' 'I rush OUt walk

rulcur.al services to a clientele, the accumultion of economic capilil merges ...ith the accumulation of symbolic ,apitl, Ihat is, with the c qUlsition of a repumion for competence and in imige of fCSptability and honou...bililY (hat are easily converted into political posirions as a Ioc:al or national notabl,. It is Iherefore understandabk {hat they should Identify ...ith Ihe cstablished (mor-d) order 10 which they make daily (ontributions, of which their political positions and anions, o r the decla tal101lS of the national mC<lical as$Ociirion. are only Ihe moSt visible """. 10 SOFRES doc nasional sample o( /:: made kf the firstsurvey of alhe 1974 plcsidential(WO hundredpereltion. )9 round of ro. 'd they would VOtc for Giseard, 16 percent for Miner...nd, 9 percent a .n

)' B CORlt1st, for those ...ho, like Ihe professionals, live on the sale o f

((Ording

o.l G,

b; Dclmas (the GaulhSI candidare) and I I percenl for anmhcr nn dtdat , and ) pe rcent were undecided. Asked who they thought "':1$ mOOt hkd c o t WIn, 1i .. petcent said Giscard. 16 percent Miller. nd, 9 percent ,";ptlmas and I percent anOlher nndidate, and I } percent would nOf One can get an i(/(, of what the doctors were voting for in . b "" "'idtrY .o:-adtng the interview with him in the same issue of u Qllolidim '" thO! rq>OrtS the survey. in which he declarn himself in (avour of hlghl . It(,, re(rui'mcnt, the main.en.nce of the 'li...1 profession', ( l<n ' f \ ""t'", Y PrOCtllloner and the QCxisten(e of public and private hospital ItlI!, o romi5l"S to dim;nase 'W1Stage' in t.... Social Sccunty sys(em ind for any ref orm of fhe Ordre des mCdecins.

conslelluions of choices, / "it m fint lind '" i m fil d t m lOSr:< , "" """ U, ..d d"k 'ho'8h", bo,'""d ,h," ,.d '"'." 8" 'Sj the social oplimism o( people wilhou[ problems lnd [he lI _ nti pessimism of people "'ilh problems-the opposilion be t",ctn In and menIal comfot{, wilh imimate, discreel imeriors and nadi ' French cooking. lind 1CSlhcric and imeileelulil invention, with thef1IIIt1A (or exotic dishes or (by inversion) pot.luck. 'studied' interior s, or ( version ) those Ihlt are c:lSy to mllintain, furniture from the Flt"lI MIIIIt , and avantglrdc ShowS l'

tween twO world yieW$, two philosophies o( life, pic, by Rcnoir lind Coya (or (l.hurois and

tween the prefer'(:nce for contempol'::lry works (her'(:, within Ihe lim offered. Picasso, Kandinsky, Boulez) lind the taStc more COn5e(l':red works (the Impressionists and especially :l Ic:lU, the Hungdri"" Rha s , the Nllr 4S(jm, Ein' Kkinf p ody ' between the taSfe (or solid values, in paiming lind music, as in and rhc:l[re, ,nd the commitment 10 novelty. I I is also an I

So the COntrllSI Ihllt is usulilly dl'::lwn betwn ' I tllste and 'bourgeois' or right.bank lasre is nor only an

::; ; :

I (aVlnl-su<le) Ihearre feslival, 83 perccnt al the Royan contem r,(lOM , fcstival' and that nle of ,((endanCe vuics in thc same way , "- , muSI ' lntCS 10 at La R0. per person an ave.-age of 3, showsC S X X [X al XX X , 1""'''' (rOm ' N { a:' 7 CCCCd RO "___ _ ,___ __' CC ' '" C _ C , _ C _, loCH'

::---":

__

__ __

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

r the cen :;: :;-.

..,":

lua]' public, one only has to oIcrve ,hat the proportion crs and art;s" is H percenl al Ihe intcs anClenl music I' al Ihe La Rochelle cGnlempo.-a,y "" f perccn' at ,hc cs"val, 66

The oppositions I>o:tween systems of purdy aCSthelic prderenccs [hal Ire symbo!ied by Ie antitC'Sis Kand!nsky/ enoir can 1>0: replaced R Ln Ihnn.. , of chOICes conswullng hfe.styles Simply by conSidering Ihe chal'::lcfenstJCI an audience such U Ihal of (AmMi!Jan" titJ ;i'll, Th;s reia,ively npensi.., luxu,y cultural jou,nal, which is al Ihe ume time .n advertising rm<!IU& for Ihe luury goods Inde, especially in obiets d'art, no doubt g'v('$ 1 1(CU,3(e plctu,e of Ihe S'oups who are united by 'boufscois tastc' and . are brousht togelher by Ihc mOSI $l:lect and also mOSI e_pens;,'c cuhllill cvcnls-smm cxhibilions, gla performanccs al fhe P,ris Opel'::l, prem major concens ctC, The common {ealures of Ihc pri,'a'c-$l:C'Or necu,,"" r and profcssionalS-IInd the many kWCf, and the,efore srrongly o,-n'!(kx I leachers and induslnal employers-who make up Ihis ,eadership are a f npens;-'e, prC'SItSlOus activtltcs (goJf. riding) and for (ultul'::ll pta( or orienled al leul as much lowards ma[erial approprialion as 'o,,'a'ds IftCIIIII symbolic appropriation, frequentins Iheattcs and g:.lkrics (predomHlarldr rigt,bank!, aU, mon rooms: an"<jue shops and luxury bouti<ju('$_ 'The gems taSle ""hoch (harxtefllCS (hem .s opposed nOI onl)' 10 'H1,dlenJ taste but also (cucnlllily by possession of ""orks of I goinS) 10 the 'mlddlmg' laSlc of the great majority I especially Ihe commercial cmployen. sreat rders of Ib /(1-jmml.J, proprl" e only II\osc rare goods 10 which money gi"cs direcl ,cc, luxury cars (CS, VI) To measure Ihe d'slance 1>0:(1"1'1 Ihe 'bourscois' public and Ihc

l'::lctions expect I'::lther from the artist a sym s the 'inteJlcclUlIl' f C , 8 of socill realily and of the orthodox rcprescntltion o( it ,.t cCha'" .8;. , \X'!> " ' ' tis' art, .he 'bourgeois' fracdons expect .herr aI1StS, t,he'T wnl' 11<'" , I 'bOIl allies, like their couturiers, jc'll.'eJk or Interior dcslgf'ICrs, to ir emblems of distinction which are at the SlIme time mc:lns of. (IS. art are only Inc mOSI VISI' prO SOCIII realily, Luxury goods and works of I I of this decoT enveloping bourgeois e)(isrence, or al Ic:lSt, [he " g e, pari of a fundamentally dUlil lif spuriously unified in tole t domC'StiC a spurious division lIinst illf. disinterestedness lIglinsl " l'rou8h , It,I flO' agllinsl money, the St!ulli agamsl the emporal. In((rtSI, art . , ,w'P'p'rs discreetly pollllClttd or ostental1ously depolmclttd, '" 1110(1 . -d lift books, BIue GUI es nd tr.t.veI det'on[ive Journals lind coff -!abk , novels lind blogr.t.phlC$ of grc:lt men are so mllny screens _ sro, .. "8ionlll , " ' , represen u hide 5(x'IlIl ! lIlity 'Bourgeois' thetrc, a scarce, y uo:: - rc:I C : tton of one of the forms of bourgeois existence, with its bellutiful stllse !CIS, prelty women, facile lIdvenrures, ,frivolous convel'Sltcion lIn,d lIssu , .ng philosophy (ny other combmlIon of the nouns nd adJCCI'ves IS , ualJy v1id), is no doubt the form par excellence o( the art the ?our. . grois' re<:osnizC'S because: he recognizes h imself in II, The boureolsle ex pe<tS from 1If( (nO! 10 mention what it calls lilcrature or philosophy)

I=

Ivanl'gardc, cven in the most hiShly neutl'::llized arts, such as music. o\nd for every enlightened amateur who has undeTSlOod rhlll it costs IIOIhinS to 1>0:, like Proust's Mme, de Camb,cmer, 'in lIrt, 1I1ways on the

a reinforcement of its self-assutan ce, and, as much OUI of sufficicncy 1.1 Inuffi(iency, il can never really recognize the audacities of [he

kft', there arc many prescnt.day lIdmirers of Fbubert or Mahler who haV1: tnc same impatience with disorder, even symbolic, and the same horror of 'moveme nt', even lIrtislically sublimllted, as their counterparTS In the PU I of Intellectual s Of artists in general (althoush antHnteleeluahs IS a oltttt ln , bou fIl lnt chal'::l(telislic of some fr.t.(lions of lhe bourgeolSlc and pcme .
:IS

gw,$IC) by the artiSls and intcllecluals it chooses {rom Ill( nnge of lhe field o( p,oduction, Thus Ihe anli-intcllee,tualism of,Ihe domi_ ant rac"on of "'tt1 til( dominant class may be expressed tnc chOice o(
In tlw: luals ..ho are inclined to anti_intellectualism by their 0"'1'1 posilion ' t , In:;tllcelual field, The (Ultnct one mov('$ f,om thc 'purest' pres, PoI'tl ( mOSt completely purified of all refercnce to the social world and (\ first musk, then poelry, philosophy and painting), ,he wider ,nc
II'!

cb o. I - , 1class frxlion is defined nol--- its over.t.ll jud ss --- so much --

-------

sal? be!wn 1m, prodc"r$ recognized by rhe domtnarl! {ncrion, -!>Jay.. ""flghlS and rhe:t!re critiCS or phil_her5 and political =yJ$ I5--.f.:I t . - -, rerog"'z br IhC Prod\Ice" rhe selv". Furrhermr,. ., one -S , " . . I e f1on If arouses amon, tho: declinin, r bour,-- h : PlrIICU,2f ..verylhing in it which Chl!i(ngts tho: ordina Sl,(" $/aI\ls) and symboli, 2(uibu(: sue :Is '... shIps b(,IWttn a (or ing. or behaviour, such as S(CxuaJ or poJiriol conduCi. '"" '1m! a v .. . ,_ _ UOluncrlnon of roo<;: pr:ICllCIJ f>O$lub'e$ which are the Ins"s 0r bour-., '-lik-slrk. Like III' old 'I'Omrn in AU$Ir.llian myths ...ho vcr, '0.... _ _ . " '" . I>I:lw SlructUIl: 0, re,anons L. n the gcncr:lfions by Sa,, } a . youlhful skin. and inodJruals (l ke smOOl:h, " , u5mg a N"" e . age when ohel'$ rquenung young revolutionaries al e pn pUl'$yt somelimes rail in .<jueshon 0IIe honours and cuhivae he powerful) [he social of -[he most dttply buried . pmOlas ...... - /flill"", [he d-5po:$mon 0, those who have selfrespect and kel en[uitd 10 1 command rcspet".

_ In

rv"r;r

wlS, l e

socI,1

or

Irrim

ran found1lions of

l h magicali (onscrvmg , i an to order s

1-

funClions as ar type of 2SSO:t structure in which time . CS 1 particul But y ime[changcablc wilh economic capital p,ooppO dent fac[or. pard by renouncing what it could ;lI' ill and he disposiion to defend ii, ) c"Olpial n to mak.e rn, presup tJ:oth the (inherit . y ansIOCtaUc-dISPOSI' ssb ma[erially po lc and the-hlghl \lC 'on UnC1JII rcn renoun.

o (I
u

bur (kitseh, p by [h,s d'stance from all oher life.s[yks and [heir temporal

wich are mml"diatc:ly devalued by their new vard usal of bourp's tllte, I.e., [he typically righl.bank luxury [ . h me u:compl c among the miSts; and, finally, refusal of rhe ;s ers pedantIC llte. whICh {hough op [0 bourg\"Ois [ll[e ets of the arllm. merely a variant of if. disdained for its hcavy. glng, passive. stni!c didaClicism, its 'spirit of seriousness'. and for liS prudence and backwardness. And so [hI" logic of doubk tS can la the anises back, as if in defiance. to some of the prdl"renc acterl$tl( of popular [ll[e. For example, they concur with cbsses and the lower ftaClions of :, middk classes from which " . r in every other way. in choosing an interior Iha['is 'praclical and I 'easy [0 maima in. the amithcsis 'bourgeois com(Of{'; i [hey may rehabilitale, a[ [he 5ood degree. [he mOSf of po ul r Ill[e pop an). 11H: 'artist' IifC'S[yle which i

One ll to [ ke a inro aC(ount [he whole logic of thl" field of . . producuon and 11$ rdaflonshi [ the fidd of the dominanc class .. <krsland why avantgank anlS[IC produclion is OO""d [0 d- 1JlPaill " IS " bourls e>cpectaUoflS--unl"qually, and always in thl" shorr termNo I no acct<knc thl! Ihe tll[e fo [he artisric avantgarde appears in tnc- . . SIS only a[ the end of a sen(S of opnntitions' [n - . , very[h - g -,_ . :Z ' . PIace as I . although It embodlCS arllStlC legitimacy, thl" anistic prod. 'f tlltl" for thl" avant.gardl" defined i[self in a <juasi.negative way "015 [ncof refusals of al1 socially recognitcd [ascs: rdusal of m i ddl . rad t .llte of the big shopkrs and parvenu indus[rialim, [he 'groaJJ pillorled by Flaubcrr and others II one incarnation of Ihe 'bourgroiJ. .. . (SpeClaI.ly, perhaps, at prcscnr, [he pe[ite bourgeoisie, led by [heir pretenSion [0 the products of middle-brow culure or Ihe most an 1, products of legitima[1" culture (such II light opeta or thl" C1 Sicst

f." ,

In

the

[he

c-otci:
culNIIIII

a: '!"

I W __ __ re ry sion of the ordina. world view . f: almasl compkle inver __ __b an t helr earned through awvlllcs nsider Yc k and [0 lead [he 'artlSI s life means of buying lime [0 wor l specific 2Clivity.lS Thus 2rtiss (and inte in egnl pm of Ihe c .'hl \ they could otherwi exchange money, which ob)ec[s which itCI02 counling 10 produce hilS 10 hi" spent no markelS, "OInd to 'discover' objects and thl" 5horl [erm) res oflCfl Ihey help to produce, anti<jucs, backsree hosc rariy and c pI,ccs appropriae collti" shows eIC.; and lhey <juui-cxclusively tI utal broals). Vanllions in . strViccs (mu$Cus. galleies. cult unequal propcnsny o mne arc. logcher lirr>e and in [he relulon urc very factors which make pallems pf expendil ::Sume, among lhe h class. gu;dcs 10 he resouKCS of

"rll' q"crH

money (oflc.n their ,(,1ft)hi :n r I Wilhoul hich havc ,,"" ('n "211,11" r>O:W

-- -- -, -- -- -- -, -- -, -- -- -, -, -, -, -- -- ---

excn1

earn, for time,

;::
1lC<I:ll

Wllh

The Mark o Time f

Ih(1tre).

;-:::

the

fhe

IIonll.

of

chal opposition between the young and old. the In no othc[ class is senior sition -ll ses kngt'1"S and the possol"S-nd also Ihe oppo be suo G! always members of Ihe class and the newcomers. which cann mOSt senior are perimposed upon it (sinCI". in some sectors at leas[, the dominant ilIO IJH, mOSI procious)-more delerminam [han in Ihe class. which can ensure ilS own perpetuation only if il U capable of over . coming [he crises Iha[ are liable to arise from the competitioo bet... cen the: fl"2{lions 10 impose the dominam principle of dominalion and from lhe: SUCCession suugglts within h ftaCiion. The differences belween the: gcne tSe wilh ta[ions (and the potencial for geneta[ion conAiCls) inclt the: magni s of tude of Ihe changes hat have occurred in Ihe definition of acccss to positions or in the institutionalized mcans I. . ion of Ihe inlvidals 2ppointd to modes :f..t.I9 e . netar sIty of [OUles !fItO a ' . ConSl"quently, the differences due ro the diver populations which 2 Job at. given moment (particularly viible in l the I"xecurives and engineers) lre [Ou ;gh Y ?ISpersed in (his [cspec[, like in the differences resulting from [he variations over time tbr descn lion and in the conditions of access to the job, in pmicu' . the Itt a Villons in [he rel"Ollive importance of [he different routes I" educational sySlem and its relation IQ ill a ., ked o changes in (he dUSlry

the

between the

CUp:ui % on21 the giv 2 Wlt "l-ti(h

of

The opposition bctwn the oldest, who valorile the most ascetic disposidons, and the youngC'St, who identify with the valuC'S most the modern eecutive. is pmicularly marked among the executives ginn ( nd sondarily among the tchet'$ and professionals) , For pie, in the dominant ciw a whole, U percent of the 'conKic:ntious' friend, 1$ against 24.} percent of the under-<ls, 39 of whom ,h 'dynamic" against 19.) percent of the over45s: the executiv($ and engirn:ct'$. 42.} percent of the under4s and 8 the over-<l}s ch 'dynamic', while I percent of the under4,s percent of the 0"e'''''5 ch 'conscientious'. (Simibr variafions, ah,.,,, more marked among exn:utives and enginn. are ""ed for '<kter. mined'. which VOIriC$ like dynamic. or ellbred. which vari($ like COf!. SoCientious'.) similar evolution (no doubt linked to a gcrn:nl incl"t"1Sr II culll,.nl capllal) is found in tuu:s in legitimate culture: thus, the younJlll' executives and engirn:cn more often choose ill Blut (52 percent. againsl \7.' percent) or the Four (47 percent and 24 percent). Je. oftcn L'Arlh;m1lt (IB percent and 28 percent), HUlfgnian RhapVJdy (U percent and '8,' pcrcent), BlUI Oa"IIIN (I} percent and ., percent). These historical variations are particululy significant in the C1St ofdt fnctions mOst direerly linked to the economy. the engineers and ti\'($, but they have, in a more insidious way. affected the whole of tie dominant class. They arc likely to pass unnoticed because they aJ.",. manifest themselves in combination with age, that they can e:lSil, be taken for an dft of biological or even social age nther than gener:uiol, and bc<auS( they arc translated into trajectories, i.c.. ind,vidual hisuxitl which are many responses [0 a given s[atc of the chances objectrrdr offered [0 a whole generation by colleerive history. The 'libenl prof($sions' (doctot'$, a[ least) have succeeded in m... taining rhe tnditional definition of their job and the competen" requires by defending. among other things, the most Malfhusin (_ dons of access, thus in a S(nS( CS(aping from history and the div between the generations. By cOntnst, categories such as those of the_ ecutivn and enginrs bring together individuals separared both In jectory and in generation, in the sense of the SCt of products of a mock ofgcner.nion associued with a similar pallern of objecti"e C.han: In fact, because of the duality of the modes of a("cess, by <jua lifio(lOn .hich PfC'o'COted n by promOtion, and the corrc:sponding divisions .. nized defence of the modes of access and of the corresponding PI1VI.;.J. these: categories have been much more di=rly affected by cduca __ expansion. which, by incring Ihe number of formally <jual&d hu transformed the de heto relationship be;""" dales entitled [0 job$, tirlcs and jobs and the form of the competition for jobs berwrcn fo <jualified Ind nonualified candidates.)O . Furthermore, changes in [he economy have becn reflected lA merical and hierarchical relationships belween the different and exccu[ive funerions. Ihereby tnnsforming the system of
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ts of different types or engmrcnn u[odidact to the producn engtheers from the minof (rain.mgg schools, n opelcS romo[io ine ole ni<j d,daCrs :r:! Ihe SoCienific grandes ecol (Polytcc.hnceue, r.uesdes dcs scie poh!l or nc: clI11"id etC. ) , graoduatcs of the various Instllu[sembered thast the different ,... st, .0 " .. '0 the new situ . "'C etc. (1t muYaTlOf couour_always be rem ations arlsmg from 0,I no; " 0f [heca beUS gred back the differences .m SOC.Ial ad educa' ctSpOn chngcs , me dlffere nOmiC or g ; h have always determined important at a glces positions . ; , 1,,,,,11 n In:vi;u occupying formally identical e and markeungv tcc t. ) For exampi', thc strengthening of financ fm he .mcreased ... . ' , l departments, resulungal1ona auon of 10' lalive to .tcchnica the growing intern hz !fIO(1lCfI [S m r' dl(banks over dUS[ry ' ' r therr pat h I"' . " " p"" a1. their manaDt'ment. and ns Icad"mgents.,th'" "' to dustnaIa groups. "thelr f 1 ,"alinea[ions and inlIlUlio J revaIual10n 0 ><; " . (1UIt" . . or HE the one hand, Polytechm<jue ns. SClenccs Po' ENA'hool, C onthe other hand, and. s;multa I(lo ther engmccnng "'" on . -' 1' . t ,od he rcul' Stnbut..... . ,hances available to rhe fncllons 0f the bour' J , . otOUSIy, h0 u these mstllun'ons. Th",, :as a resuI t 0f hangcs " th, w gtais,e fI:lCturcs" and : IeIt through its uSC of the Paris InsmutS QC> h' J onomie St, ues SIlUt'"" ar ,Yh, bonom of the specifically aca.demic hi ' ct pol((ttl d! bou r', Ihe Parisian granr, the rgtl:JtJlt hndmg of erarchy :l [he hools mopowe ple[ely Ih eve comma h pi re pp.n atl.ed, pe ano and comcivil service (provoking collective and l the ndrr;ofC of whom atC y :::i:l iI:y ; tCChnique gradu S 'more l T ba rc a n u: n l ti::g.e: e: a : 7t 10 I promise profits at least e'!ulValeo[ s. butose hout off .n gel wit and Slrictly predictable carccr rarsubvCf( the sYler:n 0Ilc::I::: inrttS of SlXurity, is tending rowhen both .te'r nss ad t I fi of profll, /+.[ leut in the phase: eal 1?tS In : :1 [h . " i" tions situated at enn'iaI ollgm hiSrproVIOI:d :rem gft'.lft' thc:sc new "" . , ive fun: arc: mos[ a!trlct-- to those wh.ose SOC ents. I he . conneclions With an indination towards nsky mvcstm alion n Id .In order 10 orm ttctdcd m order to make them and the inf SUcceed in them. ;; Within 1 utegory $u(h u that 0r 1,,<; eng'ntrs' .il is .... lc to di r ,ib ' t ' al t'nUl.!lh families of tute corresponding fO sub-sctS of Ind,.vidu- .s ncdtn gu ln wuh ,oruy w1lh bofh rcsptlt ro cultunl and educational capital and toisS(n of the the boUrgco.Sle. At elf(:me is found ,he pttir.bo,urgco [Ule older cnglnters. originating from the middle or work"' c1:wes and er ex "'otl:<! from the nnks or !rained in serondrank schools, at rhc oth trtfllt. the bourgeois IIS[e of [he young enginrs who have rcc<:tly duat from the grandc:s oks and arc at IC'OSI sc:<:ondgcncnuon mem of lhoc bourgeoisie. Tho, Umc divisions rppca' a fortiori in ,he catchall (alcgory f the
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11

A Young Executive Who 'Knows How to Lve'

Michel R., an advertising exe<:utive ...orking in a Paris agency. the son of the managing dire<:tor of the Ftench ubsidiary of I leading mul tinational corpor.uion. studkd in a private Catholic secondary school in the 17th arrondiucment and then at the l';lris Political &nce Institute; his ...ife, 1S2b(lIe. the daughter of a provincial indumialist, abo went to Sciences Po and ...orks for a ... etkly ne...smagnine. He is }O. she is 28; thcy have t...o children. They live in Paris, in a modern IivNoomed apartmcnr in the I )th arrondisse ment. They like things to b( 'snug and cosy 1bcy have no interest in ', 'home.impromen!' and haV(C kq>l: their apartment as they (ound it. '1bc: dc.::or:ltion is all 'he ...ork of our predecessor. I didn't much like the green in the dining.room, If ...as r:lther gloomy. hut ...e gOI used to If, and I get bored ...orking on the place I live in: 'I hale thu beading on the doors, /'d like to get rid of it. 1lM: pKudo l6rh or 181h<enlury venring or ...h3ft'VCr it is all over this modem apartment is ghaslly; I put up ...ith it bUI it getS on my nerves,' says Michel. ...ho has re moved some of it but 'couldn't face the rest.'

Michel. who the tSIS In nard, and Monet or lhoc: ...ho does a lot of l andsca Pim.ro', docs nor like dto:m UIIf Nor docs he like still lif es r 'problem pictures', 'Fernand 'U and Sluff like Ih>!, is hO!ribl, , III thC' and havy, " 1"'0 or ! thrtt ' Br:lques can b( InteltSting to 100Ir It, hut ....hen you S ''''0 hu of rhem. all done dto: S2me ..... . It getS I bit rq>Ctiti, a hir nigh;: . marish. . . . I tcod 10 go for land. scapes . . . My grandmother's gor Bonn"d in her apanmenl, the really valuable piclUfe she O"'ns .. won't inheril it because there a , lotS of relatives. But ;1 would be "'onderful to o....n it. I go (Of th-. that IK outside f ashion, SOt! of timeless: 1S2b(11e docsn't enlirely agrtt ...ith her husband: 'There att some rhinss I like a lot in modern an, bu, 'hat's bc<;ause like ,h ,olOlllt . . For eumpJe, Vieira cia Silva (she hc$ilatcs over the name), B0. din, who i$ b(hind you, I like I Iot.' They bolh oc( asionally vis" gtl lcrics, and exhibrrions ....0 or ,hlft times a year. They ..nt '0 thot Br:lque exhibition Ind expeel ,0_ rhe ImprWionists It DUr:lndRud

II

expensive It would : thinS very ...,.:(OSt ,...icc as much on Pans. toJd ,:en I lot of medioc stuff dtCiJed ,,",e didn', like II. 1m "" n" he furniture ...as no pf"Clh. ! ...,.- " t It's c.empc from C\,lSIom Jrf": You jusl have fO pay VAT ' '"'"ts added lax].' In the living - a u," I and ,hey have some mouern m kcase from urnirure, a boo ,-o<) old f .IJoboi s, sofa from a shop in . .... .,1I2 su,sse s or is 'only In old !>(;cher PeUgeot 404'. ...hereas his bosses '1\1"' goc Jaguars. the dif((lor of IK' ancy has an AlfaRomC(l, a ncia'. 'From lime 10 ime: tcy, y "So you aren'l tr:ldong " on?' y'd Ix relieved if I got a ne... car. They're afraid I'll visit diems ,n my or.'

"J, r 1

sure of himsdf, he ...antS to make In impression.' For :I ....hile, ,he agency had 'a nnlnee manlger from I very modes, background; ....hen he arrived he was so badly drnscd thll il ...as bad for busincs:l . . . he was drnscd like a junior clerk.' 'War ing a 5uit ...ilh narro.... lapclJ. nar ro'" bonoms, a bit short. in "01 loud colour wilh a shirt that docsn', milCh and I narro... tic. for example, by our Sfamlards. that's grony:

'Wc'd sccn a loc of

mediocre stuff'

1lM:ir flu 'is parlly lhe ...orld of my gr:lndparcnrs. my great.gr.mdparcnts, ...ho were g,,1IIh IK;IIgtI'; picrute$ J'; by Michd\ gr:lnd(ather. 'who spent hs ...hole life paiming and never d,d a day's ....ork; othe. pictute$ ... hich lhey have be.:n given_ . Boudin, a BiS$II!". and I Folon. But

'The wodd of my gnndparcnu'

The diningroom tables 2nd cha'''' mahogan y. 18th<enrury Enghsh style. ...ere bought in london 1$ t soon as 'her wcre mmied. '1 don" kno... if ....e'd do the same ,hln,l ,000ay . . . [ can't rememlxr why bought ,hem. but from a bo"r point of vic... Ihey muSI Ix a g ... . Invcstment.' Afrer vlsiling many 'ique shops, ,hey 'nnaUy ,h05(

'On the other hand. b(ing 100 fash ionable is not much b(ucr.' adds Isabelle, who dresses their children 'in (airly daic sryle. paying panic ullf attenlion t the colours. '1 like o a preny smocked dress from time fO "The right 50ft of cloche! for time, and English oercoa,s. Of coutS( it's dono: ...ith an eye 10 fash people in advenising' ion, but not in the silly way some Though at ...etkends, It home, he secretaries t L'Exprns do iI, dress '0'(11/1 ':I filthy pair of trousers', for ing their children in the new kiddy. II'Ork he dte$scs with g!CI' clre and bouliques, Mini.this and Minilh"Ol!. drgance. He buys his suits al with things that (OSt a f ortune and Barnes, the advertising man's nilor, arc a minia,ure copy of the parents' ,n lilt rue ViClor Hugo in Paris. 'nIq're the flgh. sort of clothes for clothes: These ser:retuies 'IK all ptQpk ...1\0 make il in advcrrisins well drnscd, by my Slandards. they ha perfecl colour 5cn", TheK Engl'sh cloth, p. ince of Wales ...eK some girls ...ho arrived, ...ho (ks ...ith a touch of luxury. Not drnscd ...ith terrible tasre, il ...as the SOf( of thing civil servall!s could vulgar, che"Olp, tacky. juS! awful . , . "'C'O" Ind bank managers couldn', and ,hn, afler (our yutS. 'hey Ii t aW2y ...ilh it either. In banking you nml a plain shirl; banking isn'l nally gol il right: lsab(lle has a (riend who is 'always equisitcly ..,y, ...hereas in advertising, pco drnscd . . . ,he effe<:1 is II...ays stun pUI every pcnny Ihey ea.n infO (" t ning, I mean. it's chic. it's gol !CII ' ilts " . ,n my busoncss "'eK cOt!slIntly d:ns <lass ' She pays allention 10 e'"Cry .. ifyl., , " ...,., Ie . there I't ...... , link <ktail.' Michel's father is also --.'2 classes. Casles and it's I . . fIllt'tr of IilIong I product to the 'very "'ell.Jrcs.scd, nothing is ever ,,ght C'UIC. . over-<ione, his colours are al ....ys When someone new ( to the agency, we size them perfe<:1 Retinemelll wilhout lhe u al I glance. shghtnl osten<1lion. He has a tailor . . A guy with a vel Ytt UII and big lapels is compensat in London.' Michel's mother is 'ng or somelhing, he's nO! ry 'equally rcstr:lined. AI....y$ a beauIi .
. . .

some $CCTCIlties do it'

'Noc the w"Oly

PI.

A Young Executive Who 'Knows How to Live'

Michd R" an adv<rrising u"uiv< working in a Paris agency, the son of Ihe managing dirC(lor of lhe French subsidiary of a leading mul. linarional corporarion, studied in a privare Catholic secondary school in the 17th arrondissement and thn at 'he Paris Poli'ical Science Institute: his wife, habdle, ,he daughtr of a provincial industrialisl, also weill to Sciences Po and works for a w('(kly nwsmagnine. He is 30, sh is 28: they have tWO children. lbcy liv< in Paris, in a modem five-roomed apmmem in th Urh arrondisse ment. 1ky like thin8$ to '5I1ug and cosf. 1ky have no interest in 'homeimprovemen,' and have kept their apartment 25 they found it, 'The <ior:llion is all ,he work of our pred('(cssor. [ didn't much like the g=n in the dining.room, if "'.s rather 8100my, but we gOt used to it, and I get bored work,ng on the place I live in.' I hare that ading on the doors, I'd like 10 get rid of it. Tho:: pseudo 16th or 18th<entury VCf\C(rlllg o. whuever il is all over this modern apartment is ghutly: I put up with it bUI it gen my nerves: says Michd. who has moved some of it bur 'couldn't face 'We'd a I()( of the I(5t.' mediocre Stuff' 'The world of my grandparcnu' 11lc- dining.room rabks and chaill. mahogany, 18th.cenlury English Their Aal 'is pardy the world of my 'lyle, were bought in London ' gr:lndparents, my greal.gr:lndparents, soon as Ihey were mlfriro. '[ doli t who were grandJ bourgtoiJ': pictures know if wc'd do the Slme <lunll", by Michel's gr:lndfather, 'who spent lodly . . . I can't remmbcr !:.... his whole life palllfing and never bought them, but from a boU 2 8"'; did a d.y's work': other pi(lurc:s poinl of view ,hey muSI bemJll 1 whi<"h they have been given-J "frer vi,iting Boudin, a Bi$ljiere, and a Foloro. BUI ;nVesrmenl: rhey 'finally choSC' ti'luc shops,
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Mi<"hel, who 'adOI(5 rhe im in gener:ll and ai;:i nard, and MOr>e1 or w.ho a 101 of landse1. Pissaro , does nOl lik r Nor does he like slilltk.fTt lif 'problem iClul(5': 'Feman': and Sluff I,k Ihat, is horrible thick and heavy . . two Or Ih 11\ Bra'lues can interestin o IoaIr at, bUI when you sec 1"'0ghtu of them, all done the same , .Y " gets. a bit repetitive, a bit n,&" maflsh. . . . I lend to go fOI 111"\4. sopes . . . My grandmothe" SOI l Bonnard her apartment, 'tho: .. mally valuable piClure sllc- 0",,",- ., inherit it b.xau5C ' loIS of relatives. But it wOllld i: wondctful 10 own iI, I go (Of t Iat are outside hion, son 0( IImeleu.' balIe doesn't endrcly agTtt wilh her husband: 'There arc Ihing$ r lik a 101 in modern bur that's because r like !h colounl . . . For example, Vieir:l da Silva (she hesirares over Ihe n.me). It din, who i$ hind you, I likr. 1e&: They borh occ::asionally vi,;, gal. leries, and exhibirions IWO r. rimes a year. They weill 10 lhe Br:I'lue xh;bition 2nd CXf>C'I to _ rhe Impressionists 2' Durand.RIICl
won', III SOIIIf Uf. 01 Ken

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expensive. h would Sure of himself, he wanls 10 make For a in ",fII",,n8r...ice .s muchiocreParis. f an impression.'finance while, thefrom manager agency h:ad 'a 5! , 101 of med Sluf ",'" ) a very modest background: when he we didn't like iI, 1m arrived he was SO badly dressed that ,'d sc: doc" c mpt from (USloms ob il b:ad for business . . . he was ,rod"'n Ih#fumilure 'wilS no pr pO [I s e just have 10 pay V"T dressed like 2 junior clerk: 'Wear You k'" ing a suil with narrow lapels, nar dUI !ax].' [1'1 Ih living. 1 heY have som<: modern and row bolloms, a bil mon, in a loud [.-1 Ihat doan't joo'" lid furniture, a bookcase flom colour with a shirt march and a narrow lie, for ",,n( sobois a sof:a from a shop in .' example, by our standards, RoCtie- SUIsse. , . . IIJ or is 'only an old thtt's grOlly.' Lc hcrs ,' T 4()of, whereas his bosses 'Not: the way Ihe "" i't'Ugco l ,, 'h;I"C'),guars. "lfadirIor ,of some secretaries do iI' . e, I ", Y has )n . e 10Romrohy 11>1" um lim 'On Ihe other hand, ing 100 fJsh. " u""'.'. 'From aren'I tr:ldtng " , 'So yOU ionabk is nO! much ner.' adds if" 'd relieved if I visit a news lsallc, who dresses lheir children They're afraid I'll client 'in fairly classic slyk', paying panic. ubr attention 10 rhe colours, 'I like on my car. a pretty smocked drt'$$ from lime to 1"hc .ighl son of ci()(hc$ for lime, and Engli5h overCNIS, Of propIt in advenising' COUI'S( ii's done wilh an eye 10 fash Though .1 wkends, 11 hom<:, he ion, but nor in the Silly way some iI, . fihhy p"ir of {fousers', for sccrcrarics It L'Exprm donewdress the kiddy. wolk he dresses with grcal care and ing their children in and Mini'lhar, cs, Mini,his bouli'lu deg.n,c. He buy, his JuilS ar with Things th1l COlt a fortune ,nd 6Im0:5, the advertising man's tailor, arc a miniature copy of the parents' tn the rue ViCtor Hugo in Paris. 'Tloo:y"re lhe righl son of dOIOO for clolhes.' lbcsc: secretaries 'are all poopIc who mak" it in advenising ,,"'.:II dreuocd, by my Jranduds, lhey have ptrf1 colour xnx. , " There Enghsh cloth, Prine" of Wales ,,-ere some girls wno arrived. who eJo..cks ..-ith a louch of luxury. No! lho: SOfI of Ihing civil xrvantS cOIIId dressed wilh le!riblr: taste, il was r,.nd Nnk managers (ouldn't vulgar, cheap, lacky, iusl wful . . . &tl ......y wilh il eilher, In banking and then, ,fter fOllr yean, lhey fi right: [salIe has a banking isn'I :"nd . plainin :advertiSing, pro n211y gOt it is 'always eKquisilcly y, whercu shirr: It pUt every penny they earn infO friend who Ihe eff1 is .Iways Slun dl(5$cd . . . IoI . In my business we're ning, I mC1n, it's (hie, iI's 801 mal ( n"'lly daifying prople, Ihere dass . She p.ys mntion every . SOX .I claS5C'S caSles, and it's . lillie del.il ' Michel's farher is also . ' fIIalle of fi!ling a produCi to the 'very wdl-<lressed, nOlhing is ever nth over-<lone, his colours are alw:lys When someone r>ew .". e to the agency. we size them perfect. Refinemenl Wilhoul the up a slightCSI OSlcnralion. He has , l1ilor 'tr t glance. . . . " guy with a v<1 'II " and big lapels is (ompensal' in London.' Michel's mmher is Or SOmelhing, he's nor ""ry 'C<ju.lIy teSrr:lincd. AIw:lYs a beauli
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I c?OklOg, 15 in clorhlng and fur, nlshlOg, rhcy manifesr rile nm r, (usal o( prerensioo, of 'cxcns', rile nme sense of 'diSlinCiion', W;lhoul being ':a wir>e-buff ....ho an Iell ooe year from anOlher', Michel is 'somc, thIng of an expcn'. His ( lherin. a la..... ....ho has a huge (ellar, has 510:",ly initiated Ihem. When they . . YISII hIm, Ihey drink 'Margaux 1926, amazing Ihings Ihal Ihey don'l siock in rraurantS any more . : . Wilh (Olleagu, for example, [ m Ihe one ....ho chooses ,he ....ine. They an sec [ kno.... ....hal I'm doing. [ don'! go for some miser able Cahon,f example. I know i, ol 'I 115le Ihe ume as a Sain,. EsfCphe Of a Saint,Emilion. Hardly anyone kno,"", how '0

'A vcry light meal. 1 vcgnbl dish and some chtesc'

:nx ptfill boJlrgtoi 1>3'-C no IISIC, J u"s 3 plinK we of n usc, ,hough e l wc're well aw:are i(s neis!.' (Michel and lnbdlc (OnSllnriy indica!c in this way ,heir 'disunce' from the ways of the older gencnuion of the grallM &1l1rg>iJit-pefhl especially when speaking 10 1 sociologiSf, al beit 1 friend's siSler.) [ubdle's par enlS, provincial indumiaiisis. arc more scvell: or less tolerant: 'Aboul phcnomcnon-pr() vlnCl11 ckrlu who fill the;, pldenl wilh gnome!. windmills and similar rubbish, Mummy u5e<l 10 y, " [('S outr:l.geous; making things like ,hn oughT ,10 ?c Innned " II was terribly aUlhomamn, ':lily fa$CiSI, ""hera! we spoke up for everyone's right 10 have their own 1150:S '

'Provincil ekrlts who fill their gardens with gnOnle$'

fully (UI fur (O!. She, 100, often buys her clolho in London.
,

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choose wine, so as SOOn as kno.... a lillie bi, aboul 11 like someone who , [iYe.' AI home, Ihey have fc., a magnums of Veuve Oicquo . ... . which Ihey boughl: 'good air" fhings; we drink some I 1I1T1CS a mooth and Ihen 'he httt ' file ChriSfm1l5 presents . . . I II . Whisky, we drink Chivas, "'e'ft J "!.Iher demanding ' They buy 1"--' clarer direct from the p""uccr. ' 'l( n fleen or etghlttn fr:ancs a be. Ide, < forry francs in Ihe sho.... a vcry -, , good w' e.. In Ihe evening, m "'hen Illey arc alone. rhey O! 'a very I. . meal, a vegerable dish and SIJ " chcc$c.' Thq like ro tn"ilc f

knows' i: IQ

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bUT Ihq have kcpl up ,h(crr "..tIP" pla)'S bc,ship, Michel no longer hi nlS: 'l i's very stressful . . . you to keep movlllg all t .ime, ",,,, ning up '0 Ihe nel. I. gi>'C5 "'"

Miehd and [sahelle are members cI a golf club: 'it's man'cllous, bUI die: people an'l. They're mosrly gap. [n France ii's always a cerlaln ,ypt' of people. ....hereas in Japan 30 pt'" 10 J cent of Ihe populadon belong liOll golf club: Their initial subscrlp no COS! them 10,000 francs: rhey lCfto longer 80, benuse of the (hild

'HClIlhy xctcise'

d,shes, h:alian Of Olinesc cooking'.

G,,"II tI Mill,," guide, o(len blJ$i. nen lunches ('I only paid for len III them'). He also lik mdi,ional rench food ('pllin home cooki"" ,n oThel words') bUT is nOr kn link local IC$nur:anlS or 'fore'p

cooked in the cmls, and " _ He has earen in W of the 100 bat resraur:anl$ in Paris lis'ed in rhe

curry, ulmon [hal we: buy occuao. :ally. Michel is pa.niculady parrg[

for 'tJla/tI/Xl Ii '" (rtwu, Willi 4t ""

Golf is less hud on che . ' . of fashion, ev, . ,. J<l '"Ics.' 'Viclims . Ih year, IS '01Ix>UI " 's ralking ,II' s.coumry going 10 go cros 1heY have :also boughl sec' I"" racing bicycles and .Iasl wen. for long "des: . , Of'" ___r Ihey " ,"''' ,.., .....llhy exerclSC. . '[IS , L ,,, as a s,,,<.><:nt, M1(, , When he .. jt<l 0 go 10 Ih<c TNP (Theil.e " Aube",il al Populai) in Nl" browiu or Brcchl, 10 5 Gom 11(I have re\e no longer goc:s: Ihey bul Ihc Carlou,hcrie de ily been 10 a ris Opera: Ihey ccnncs and Ihe airly ofiCn. They tf! 10 the cinema f

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n . sk' d

"

c ' c . . , c . , " >c , c , c

have a hifi syslem and a lape' .eco.der; Ihey IiSlen fO Ihe cI:wiul record ftviews on Francc-Musique. Midlcl pmicularly lik Mauri (Tht Mlmi<l81 " Fi / l"nI), Schubo::rt QuarteTs, B:I(h. and lhe Bcclhoven QuarrelS. 'I haven', learnl 10 appre ciale purely modern Sluf, Webern f .' Michel docs nO rad and so on many novels bUI intends 10 rad Tony Duverl (he likes boob Ihu lire 'a bil slimulliling'; he read RobbeGrillds LA Gummn but 'couldn'l gel into il'). He mainly r(2.ds 'anylhing in social sludies'onomics.

psychology, ec

1011 Ik {<lIl<lrJ/rau ""X r"'sNt/

'

{rmfil

on where one encounters "J,rj (exeo::uliv), a sort of juncti ( cultural upiral (usually :!Cicnlilic), who -ed nctfS, endo... w'lh a Imlilional former engi.
....

liv.;s ho ve aUlho exercise a (delega.ed) managerial publicrily; administr:llilal cxecuinalion) by eum se(lor. by intefl (in Ihe

ha"" achieved promolion l1y (evening c\lISSC:S eIC.) Ihat is din' of a grc;\1 effort 10 cuch up scholaslica al' titln); young gndu' mely sanctioned by diplomas (execpl purely 'inlern for Ihe publiC in IICS of the granclcs ecoln (Polytcchnique and ENA), In ed ns in Ihe private If(lor but dlined, in many cases, 10 movc 10 high posilio lly in markedng or man' If(lor: and, ftnally, exCCutiv of a new Iypc, genen from Ihe .gement. derivmg Iheir educuionai upiul (when ,hey have any) e'slyle bU511\ru schools or polilical :!Cienee inSlilul, and inclined to a lif whICh differs (rom Ihal o( Ihe 'old bourBWisie' from ....hich m:any of lhem

E"Crylhlog secms 10 indicale Ihu lhe diffr(nr modes of :acCC$S (rom lhe .."ks o. by 'lualifulioo) kad 10 very differenl arttrs. The possessors of hfica,lon$ movc much furrher and fl$le., espccilly in lhe SC(Qlld half of t Carttrs (all observers .grte Ihu aulodidaCls have lhei. best chance in (rom elllry 10 mld.cIm:I. i.e.. 10 about age n-40). BUI occupa.' sesso lfe'Cyd also depend on firms: Ihe posrs of qualifications have af!; .t.\ with tile larSCSI firms, Ihe only on which on provide earttr, (U(!urcs f Ihe bureaucr:uic type. And il is among Ihe execulivn of large ":s In ,he priv1!e seCtor Ihal all Ihe fcatures of rhe new bourgeoiS I;f n _ yk arc mOSt strongly developed.

OIlg'OI"

'he" nod :1Oo

,,'OIIICS

r::

A . ' hhQUgh eX(i;Ullves and engineers have !he monopoly o( (hc me:I!lS of ' $YrnboIte appropri ario n o( the culiura\ capital objeclified in Ihe fOlm of 'OSIIIJ rnents, machines and so fonh ....hich arc csscnlial lO lhe eerci.sc of et ofeconomic eapilal over Ihis equipmenl, and derive from ,heir 'fIo - yv l y a real manageri.1 powel and rclarive privileges ....ilhin lhe

I !::..

Model Executives
rapid analysis of ,he 'ex\"Culiw: opponuniries' 2dveni in u MUtUk in [he course of a single ...o:ck ( in July 197 is $uffil;i(m 10 i<knlify (he 5(1 of cha"ctc';st" fa.. [urn of [he new brttd of market ing.oricmro managers uin:d by [Ixe new forms of bU$i organiu

II

InSlilut Supericur des Affa i ) \If (ISA), generally lislro rOgt"r btt ptrhaps roun<kd off by a ' . sllIdy in an American uni' "

gT.dUtlit h O1Ir h lIN ntw h." ,- f f K hoDJ HEC, INSEIID Ec " Supericure: tk Commere (
tI

personnd, pies service and

jIJ!

helhc:r 'produCl manager', 'pin cngmttt' [these fW() terms arc in English in [he original f(xI], 'ckp. uly utes director', 'usislan! financial manager' or 'genenl ules manager', he mus! above all be a 'ncgoliuor' and a 'communicator', and be

[ion;

sJ:illtd in '11JjJ-Jtwt ("I,,(/J'; able fO

tions, highly arriculne';

ael ....i,h 'diplomacy': adaprablc (0 'contaCI1 al all levcls': 'accustomed (0 conllelS ....i[h $enial civil sel vants. excellent negotiator': 'upacity for high-level contac[s'; 'Iop-lcvel contans and negotiation'; 'negoti.< .ion ....id, banks'; 'ukc charge of 111ions with Governmem tkpartmenrs, represem the firm on nrional negotiring bodies'; 't:l5re (or contacts and morivtion'; 'r:l5re for problem,solving and human rela,

and adapale . he must Ix ptt pared (0 tom a tt:l.m'; 'to dirccl'" mIIlivalt a staff of t....enty:
_

""ing tt '11lJ1r f Itttm-wo.k' .. vr (tt tnlJ IIW 'ttnimttling' blM, (tire pt subsrirure ( r authorilJ): 'dynamic o

( English absolutely indisl'Ols.ablr': Engl'sh voubulary; 'mark g' etin 'merehandising' [last r....o_ English ] (1(., and gl op. porluni(c' etc.):

lrkJ Implird m working for -v" In:'!tU 0: J/Tfnlgl} U Tin/l _ P OTI-O

"''Y'. u.lh lIN aplillltkJ tnrJ ':"

;:'

An.krsen or Price Waler rr1" ")unior" will pick up or" 110.000 to 80.000, a "seni ndaf antU}JI s!ill 11. 0. The fina 20 00 f !O I ,, ]e7.S t 60,000. The di.trlIW o (J-s tI<>pm ",1 h:15 come up . " OOO to 70,000 1:151 year, gl sr Y 80,000 this ye:ll. In tho: to nb there: are even some " )0,. ,r<J_1}0.000. flJ/Nmwk,1 [shop110. center) _nagm have been _0' r .,ng up tn tho: pme ""ay. ThIS !flO five chJlengt/$ have broken

]IfJ" :u,

i Ihe ma.k.tling audlIW and the pllbiic. rt'ttli01lJ ttlldil(ff. '

An icrsms,

jirr(1#r. _anag" (wilhin tho: mar English] plan. ho: enoov wing [Enghsh} e h,s product's Olln ro improv 10 the ne"" disl/ibulion eir po:sition cuirs, the bsic merchandiser [Enghsh] goes round the hypermar kl't shelvcs trying to gel tho: maxi mum display "footage" for his
..

"", ' the 'l. "ttt , lho: "':r. rlK fIN,'/fI" "dfJlngtr{.'" hold /IU'f{

JOung

....hich mans, (or a had of pies mana ment: 'an on'going co-or<iinuion function ber....:en pies division and general managemrnr': for a chief buyer, 'this position entails full con lro! of liaison between a marketing [English in original] departmem and a production unit'; for a Pin engineer, 'the negotiarions ho: ....iIl have to eonduCf ""ill require: an un tknilanding a!!irutk and the (tiv. ily ....hich his competence justifies'; 'co-ordinuor bet....:en clienu, sales

tiM m mltnltU "WJlitllitmJ,

mobi: he musr npect ro trawl qurntiy, parrleularly 10 11K USA.

mali", and d ynttmir (like the tin'll If,. self. ....hich is 'rapidly expandinJ ,ntO the export field'): 'lead. an mate, form a team'; 'dynamism, drie. opacity for symhesis and tamwork ;
('young nccudve' );

company's produCts), the bllJjnw 1M/hods ""tU)l1 (he nalySl:S rhe com pany's sysrtm lind standuds: like au dLlOlS. his starting salary depends to a IarSC eXtent on rhe praCtices he has been trainro in), and lhe planl _gt" (lilt Anglo-American O{i g'" of this position mc:ans thar the ICinI cnd,dlle is one who has expe' r!tnCt In a chan(r accounring [lir] firm)_ An<.l what of the future? Two - rare b"ds are on lho: horiwn:

frmw,Jplml1li"g will IMYS S

mand for inlrmtU al"ljlQT1, if possible from Pear

ra 70,000-80,000 { ncs year: a ml {01IIF1Ji'" t bc!wttn 60, ttgmt and 90,000. The's sHong <It

A similar profik emerges f..- typical report in L'ExpttfJj 64 (June 1973), p. 139)--tnll1kd 'The New Rare Birds', on utive positions' that re ..,eli ..I for IKk of appllentS':

a n ., ." - -

'A JjrtntI f-"

'ne"" ;:'

profits :Kcruing from {ncir cultunl capilal are al leasl partially by those: who have pow<:r oer ,hi capital, i.e_, rhoS!! who s the onomic capital ncroed ro ensure the conccnrntion and util on of cuhura l capilal. II follows from rhis thaI (heir posirion in ,he class is an ambiguous onc which leads lhem to a highly ambiv 1lcn heren both ,0 {he firm and 10 the 'social orocr'. When making dcrn:nds r I sm to rn . I g in prolC$!, rhey are actuated :.IS much by lheir concero a ta t '!l m the legilimarc distance, C$tablished by academic verdiers, be themselvC$ and ordinary workers, or by meritocr:aric indignation at In; !reu ed like them, as by rhe S!!n!i(: of a real solidarity of condition; '

;opl12{ed ( r
'%ru

fi

,,.,,,,,

" ,." ,,.!!,,.!,.,-!!!,.,..

The polllair of the modern man ager. as dr:awn in 1973, seems to havc changro recently, no doubl be (luse the ression is cting condi, ,ions more favourable ro rhe old sryle of mllnagemcnr (there is again a demand for Ihe 'lca.der of men' someone who, as an inf ormant 1"" it, 'can y no wirilOUl explaining'2nd an increased demand for pro duCtion specialists and Ics manag inro 'on Ihe ground' ) and e/$ tr:a al$O hause Ihe engineering schools he reaClro to rhe riS!! of the man agement schools (for example, the crealian of tho: inslitute for ,he Sci ences of A(lion al Polyrcchnique in 1977). According to a survey pub lishro in u Nbuvtl E,01IiN1Iim (No yemb.:r 8. 1976), which 'Iueslionro the personnel dirccto/$ of 5,000 companies, firms sdil iook for 'open, mmdedncss" 'dynamism', 'capaciry !O adapt and relate". <abihty !O syn thesie' and 'S!!lfmOliva!ion'. but they also insis[ on 'loyalty' (at intGobain) and 'ream spirit' (BSN and Oreal ) . Some 49 po::rcenr said (hey a!tache<! importance to undidales' vicws on politics an<l tratk unions, 33 percent uid they did nOI (18 percen. did not reply).

and, conversely. their anxious $eifeh for intc:gndon inlo the ,,,'' class. either for rhemso:lve$ or for [heir chiJdn, always includes greater or lesser exttnt, depending on rhe (urrent Slart of their ;, an elemen( of ambivalent resentment towards prizes rhey can completely possess nor completely ignore and n:fus<:_ All these dispositions char:l.(!cristic of the 'cadre' category as a are perhaps most intensely developed among those. who, for J cational capital, or of rhe Iucational capital most valuable at moment or of [ social npirl. n 10 io,-esr it profitably, . galtd to rhe position of IKbnma/IJ, I.e., excc" w hO ' '':;,; ': " : '" :; : ' poliTical Of culfUnl power. Bringing illlO the !( : : lmn! dus Ihe perirbouri5 dispositions which brought lila. in almost all rs to the YOung .. rh positions. they arc op Uf!VCS from the gr:andes k"ob and often from bourgeois families, CIID. ... occupy a large proportion of the new positions crnted in the privHe ..,. lor.31 . The dispersion of Ihis fracdon. a simple category of bute:l.ucratk .... IICS, bUI al a.movemem .of corale defence whkh is affirmed in die repmcmaH:,n It has and glv of ItSeir. expfC$SCS the objective ambi.., of the posmon of the 'cadres , who are condemned to oscillate be"... ; collaboration and distance and therefore to be the objcct of annex,: strategies which enable them to use their solidarity as a balgai", . counter; It also stems from the fan that the term cadre is one of rile '*' which, as rewards attached to the occupation of a position, are importllli weapons and prizes in the games which arc played in and on the gap . tWeen the nominal and the real.

..:.'"

,;::::: :

Although the opposition between the new positiOns, with the correspond ing life,tyle, and the C!t:lblished positions does nOt eactly coincide with the opposition between the private sectot and rhe public sector, it is mJinIJ among Ihe private-s!Or exC(utivcs Ihat one finds the life-sryle charactenl' lic of lhe 'new bourgroisie,.ll And, ahhough Our survey only imrfecrIp Cltures of the new bourgroisie.H it does regisfCf' C:lplures the distinctive f 5(t of slight but systematic oppositions belween the public.sector execu tives-more often originating from the working and lo...r classes. and clOi\er 10 the engineend tnc- privaIC5C(tor executives-younger, P. erally of higher social origin, often graduatcs of HEC Ot Scicn,,"' Po and closer 10 the profmions. Private-sec:tor executi,'es buy slightly mon:: ofteII from antique dealeiS; ehoose Dali and Kandinsky Tluher Ihan Vlamlflck. Renoir and Van Gogh, who are preferred by the pr ivale-seclor cxCC\.Lu.cs; choose the AI FliIglilt and the Ummltlj ,''' Lt l Hand ralher 111 j j lll' L'Armimllt, La Tav;arll, lhe Tuilighl tl jl'" GII<h, Em Kltint NadJ n and XINhwIlZadt; Aznavour, FTlInoise Hardy and Bra.sscns TlI ,lIer rlla , Ixoud, Piaf and Jacqucs Brei; pllilOlOphiol essays and f"Xlry : , : tTllvd. lIislOry :lnd lhe classics. They dcsclibc Ihe ideal friend as . the I 5!ylish Tluher Ihan conscientious, bon vivant and teriOf 15 studied. imaginative and warm, TlIther tllan

:'

short. differing liule wilh rcspe<:1 10 SIIict cultural competence d>jl:ge of composers), private and public.sector exC(utive$ ate clearly in all tile areas which depend on elhos. difl"erenccs would be evcn more marked did nOI nch of Ilie IWO d (onuin a proportion of individuals ....hose cl\araClerislics are (1[tgoO'I in :lnl in the opposing (;Itegory: gr:tda,cs J The grandes ecoles. geois origm, puslng through hIgh posmons m lhe pubhc sector and to f#,ltlh"irim engineers and the prof6sions; private'5C(tor exC( he wOlking or middle classes, ....i,h low qualificuions, who are ,-cr'( ' from , '0 (he publicsector executives and ordinary engineers. . u, ; the" ne... bourgcoii is mai.nly cha.racteriw:i. Y its opposition 10 Id business bourgeoISIe. HaVing achlcved posmons of power al an len belonging ro bigger, (lit as<, more often being graduates. more of ! 1 rc modern firms. tnc private-sector executives are distinguished from (1 Industrial an (ommeial empltS, a .tr:aitioal bourgeoisie with and It 'SOCiety obllallons, by a .more lt iD holidays, Its ter"OnS .modernist', 'younger' hfe-style, certainly one thaI IS more conSiStent ...ilh the new dominant definition of rhe dynamic manager (ahhough . IhI: same opposition is found among the ownermployers) Thus, they much more oflen rnd the finanCIal daily Us Eti]Cs (pcne (ration index 126. industrial employers 91) and economic weeklies (224, Indusllial employers 190); they seem kss Inclined to invest their capital In property; they much more oflen indulge in the sports lhat are al once smm. active and oftcn 'cybernetic', such as sailing, skiing, walCrskiing and lennis, followed by riding and golf; they moce often play parlour games Ihal are both 'intellectual' and smart, such as bridge and especially (hess. Above all, Ihey identify more fully wah Ihe role of Ihe modern rxC(utive who is oriented lowards Ihe oUlside world (along with the public,sector exc.:utives and the engineers, they have the highcsl rate of f oreign lravel) and is open to modern ideas (as shown by Iheir very uent allendance al professional conferences or seminars) . 1\ final, f app3o:ntly minor but very significant index of Ihis opposilion may be In lhe {acl Ihal private-sector execulives far more often keep "hly In the house ....hems the induslrial nd commercial employers most allached to Champagne, Ihe drink of tradilion par excel . , combinalion of 'luxurious" and 'intellec!Ual' properties, which Incompatible because they a ordinarily associated with diamelri (lit o posilions in Ihe dominant class. opposes the ne.... business Isle both 10 the teachers and to rhe traditional industrialists, ,, )los, . comfo llab]e catS, hotel holidays, pchrs and golf evoke (thical dis ons now regarded as ralher ,;tllX I/ ('old hat'). BUI il s also op i 10 the professions. and Iheir somewhat diffe:nt combination of lu_u a.nd culture, by a Strong integration into economic life, seen in the I"", dIng of economic and financial publications (Us EtiNJJ, L'Expall, E"lrtpriSt) and by an occupational activity which implies a modern

ofbOL' ;

( ':'" of'!:'

In

IOSC
::

boJ

'S

b;aL1.

Business Tourism
'Reward so:minal'$' and 'prestige so:m, inan', 15 thc:y :Ire c:llkd in Ihe na tive l:angua, uc pan of lhe range of hid<kn profits which modern firms offcr their execurives. 'Resi<kn' lial km;nan' (those which bSI longer than onc day :lnd takt piau
away from company pr<:miscs) pro

rors' to orsallItt

Meridicn, M(Kur<: and MOldleri(); lhe agencies (such is &minotd) which promOI( a xt of hotds 5p(:' e cillizing in xminal'$ and con( r<:ncd in exchange fOf 4 percelll of turn ovcr, consulflnc), rms (such ;is CEGOS 01 SEMA) and Ihcir social psychologiStS, who offer ii b nrte ($CC In.: CEGOS 'catalogue' with its 294 'formatS' If ralCS ranging from 200 to 600 francs p<'r day) 'crcativ.
ity seminan' logether

voi-'c Ihe hOld chains ...hich special, ize in 'busincss lourism' (such 15
NovOld, Frallld,

vide busillC$S for Or\( of lhe mosl Rourishi s indumies. (It esli Ihat n,ooo such 'km inars' mated WCtc organized in 1973.) lbq i

is

II 'dad' :and aUlumn. Th( economic "' ......, in which this inf rmalion o . i fourK.I exp lans thaI 'spllng and lID 11'( Idcal limes for executiv e rt\edica. tion' (L'Expa"Jilm, IXcemkr 1973),11>( Willl(r 10... 5e2Son IS
,

rhe invcntion of 11\ tur ed the IIC of Lcs rcs into a 54::tni flar (ntrc 50 15 to keep running ..., ing Ihe six months of sp j r

who h15 n A resort

:S!

works IxIU:r ,n congen ,al surround ings, ....h(rc they can 1Hy rd1. forgic mc for pr(1ch lng but IS dICK :lnylhing btll" than the Club?
,

L '_, ..... 63.

M.y

197}

Seminars fbree.snr
!$: '.c ote f' h OQ _ , Trois Arcs d
H6!

ere.

served (or 'updalingreward

Sofitd, P. L-M.,

high K'15On rtteivcs Ihe prtsll seminal'$ of 'lop manam(IlI' and big cli(nts. Gillxn Trigano [ptai. denl of Oub Medilemn}, ..ho nn Ix r<:garded 15 in author an ily
ing

for succcssful sales teams', wh; drr

S('minaa

")

eachc(le ( Op elm) H6td e II elm) Golf Hotd du

)0 percelll pscudo-conferencell and )0 perUnl rnl holidays.' Thoe who inquir<: into rhe nu of i....
(.mong Olher hid<kn foclors) of Ihe f:acl Ihar businessmen, w;lh Ih(ir 'business rourism', rheir 'C_

th($(" m1flel'$, uys thit 'in tWCftIJ yem' time, rhe Oub will be prori&.

(top Jlli/t barhroo.m All roomJ hav( tit and W.e.. Iclcphon( (aulom:ltc dulling withi n rn.: !'(SOrt) , ndlo
Seminars Where You Can Breathe
hins mou ntain 10rKnl. 11>( val Icy enjoys IonS hours o unhghl Our bedrooms and semlnaf rooms alike offcr a magnificent vic.... of
rus
,

obi<)

I de 11 Cascade I Pierr<: Blanche

(luxury)

(very com,Ort

Twdvc I'($Uuranls at Ale Pi(rr<: Blanche and on the peak. Two 1'($. taurants It Arc Chanld,

( very comforr

lion would do well to uh ,((OUIII

with 'fuilin

are good busillC$S for businessrMa

pany gi fts' .nd their company (I",

Nlture has laid on ery lhing 11 Lcs Am 11.( !'(5OI"1 overlooks th( V"lIlky of the [ser<:, which is hcre JUSt a

Mont Blanc.

A SeminariSf Conf esses

CS$CS,

w h and then W( duced 10 the programme 1I\d ,he

lake-off (did I lell you we werc goinS to Tunisia?)-1t h15 10 Ix said, thc journey W15 m, asrce able, and so was our wdcomc at the village. 'Djc-rba ]a Doucc' is a rnl lillk paradik. TIIC groups from lyons and Bruls arrivtd soon afrer, on special chartcr flghts, likc us. There was jusl lim( to sli p into
something morc suited 10 the cu er, wcre intro
j

TIIC angelic smiles of ,he dub host,

a smOOlh checkin, punctual

( 1 Oember 197)--30 November 1976) Pr,ces po:r day, pcr p,Jrficipam (fl1lncs).

Prices, 1975-1976

600 <thltt-s"r' hOfei roofTls.

- d ; "g or - ;' C r ," - Cl r -C- ," - '- c - r - "";.; roI, CC C-C O -C d C-C k____ -"' :-c --of-' -- C-"om-,ll--d -C C o , it is imporranl to re<aU ,hal, ac the new bourgeoisie In o -: rS n tkfining IFOP survey. 20 per(ent of the readers of Elllrtprin be 1913 a
' g to employing more rhan 1,000 people; (ha( 2Q pcrc:enr of [hem Co'd", firms enginttting or elcctronics Ihe chemin!. ronautical, automobile. } )oIlrt . us 'ricS, although the corresponding firms numerically ll:prcscnt only 2,6 ,I percenl of th(m work in conmu, I of French firms, and thaI only 6 public worlu firms, whereas 13.5 percem of French firms are in Ihis coOl' 1)'; rhal Ihere is a relalively high ptOpollion o( sub$crikrs in financial t " $hmenrs, services and distribution. in conrraSf to commercial firms, esl Is. cafes and fCStauranrs (which rcpn:scnr a very high propoflion of ch rms); thaI, within their firms. 4.6 percenr or the readers arc com,hal n percenr ?f ,hem 'll: sales ex-:culi;es, .12 po:rny hods or dircc(ors; . percenl Involved III produwon.s II 's abo I .dm,n;slr.lfors2nd only 10 , lhe rea<krs of Elliuprig of L'Exp;tIlJitm (who W()Uld rle1r (C.5. VI) ,hat ed. charac(eriuics) nd or prtSent similar. bUI no doubr s(ill more l((enual . readers or Olher publICanons In that they enJOy htn /..tJ & differ from (he iness [nps tllkin,!; Wau' onomics and business, rhey make fuen' bus (hey use credit cuds, ,hey r(":ld foreign-language ...[thin France and abroad, journals and they have conremporary furni(urc--1 very equivocal indicalor, llthou,!;h one docs observe elsewhere a systemltic link bc,wCC'n the new boUlgo:Otsic and new urban areas, modern buildings and modern fumi,ure. Further (eatures of Ihis new bourgeoisie all: indicated by (he charaCleris[;" of lhe: alumlll of INSEAD: drawn ( 0 1 large extent from the tradidonal /NI IrrMtl/ (owr-employer clus), lhey have acquired in this Ililanlic-oncn[ed

Nlyk, with its frc:<luenr foreign business rips (by (OSlT'opolillm Iif . . ,stie . buincss lunches and cock(l!ls. ,rs conferenccs and seminars. ,ir)' ".

c:

] H2ve Mer H2PPY Semio2risrs

If you're looking for rhe po:rfccr venue (or a succ(Ss(ul conference or semi."r, rhe place you wuu is Monr d'Arbois ne:lf Mcgtve (Hau[e $.i. voie), 'n [he hearr of [he Mom Blanc M.ni' There I me[ seminanstS and con. fcrencc,I!:OC"rs who were ran ned, re laxed and happy [0 be [here. They were lhere 10 work, of COUf5C, bur in a selling Ihu helped rhem un. wind and relax al Ihe same lime. On Ihe work side. Ihe Monr s d'Arboi Horel ITlttrs [he parricubr uircmenlS of each firm. Il"s fully C<:)uippcd wilh conference and com miffCC' rooms for roups from 2Q 10 f, 200, audio-visual 1ciliri(S, simulra ar Ihe Mom d'lIrbois Ho[el (,eI neous mnslalion boolhs. . , . The ar. )0/ 21 25 03) will k glad to su,.., I1Ingemenl is alway1 'made 10 derails 10 help you eompare mC'2Sure.' : ,I hu b\"c"n One final There is easy accCM by ail (Mom lbe proved thaI , d'lIrbois is 90 minu((S (rom Paris memal faculti(S. Mom by Air Alpes), by l1IiJ (nighl mins c 1,300 melfCS . . so everyone ,II from FlIris) and by rwd ( . choke orm. in lop f of rou ICS). On the enlenainment side. il"s Paradise. Dependin!! on Ihe time o( F..,..,.,,,, }I M'f 1974

year, you can ski in ,he heart of die fan(aSllc Mon( Blanc Massif or enjoy oe of the most beautiful ,.. COUI"$C$ In Fl1IllCC. Olher f2cilitics dude tennis (OUrlS. an Indoor 511'1. ming pool wi,h a sauna and a gym. For the kss crgclic_ ,here m: delightful WlIlb in oUlSlanding coun[ Sidc and (he chuming vi bgc 07Megc-ve with i,s many ilics. In lhe hotel ;'sclf, gab evenings ue org.nied on rC<Juesr, with dcco,,"'ions. band and C\lCft visi.ing s,us. At meal umcs, cnjoJ ,he impcable cuisine and .rrenri!C service offercd by this tOfKl15S hOlel, And how much docs i( COSII The prices arc a(lually very com 'in ... _ (Specially in Scp(embcr and ber. Mr. Thommen or Mr. Zicgkt

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,rutuullon (the '(":Iching is largcly given in English by an inlernat,onal trnhing staff often Hained in rhe USA) the capaciti(S nceded (0 achieve 1 lUI:casful re<onvcrsion tOw::l.rds execulive posi'ions (especially in salcs and 'S'mion) in multinational comp,Jnics, many of ,hem U.5.-bascd. 'dynamic young execu(ivcs' read L'EXfJ<JnJilm (63.) percenr), L' ( H po:TCCnl) and IIlrtprill (33 perccnr), followed by U NDIIVtI ot.W.'<JIt", (22., pe:cn(); ,hey ski (71.) percen(). play rennis ()8 po:r t g uiling (37 percen,) and riding (23. perunt). Their wives of o len t Ln the new occup.,ions (10 po::ent of those who work are journal 'ilt 6 percent interpreters, 12 percenr doctors or psychologisrs), they shall: ufIlc cosmopoliln disposirions (84 po:ll:enl speak 11 1c2s1 01\(: f oreign lin but ll:main mOll: ,,,ached to Ihe tradilional f orms of culture (28 tnt go 10 a muscum or exhibition ar leu! once a month). _

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dassifica(ion slTuggle which is waged ini(ially within firms, a e for SUpremacy bclwCC'n production and publicity, be(wttn eng; fl!:e!f8 n and ' nmkering, in which each OlCgory of managers sks (0 ad. l.tJ lis Occupa(ional ;nlCresls by imposing a scale of values which se[S 1t th C 'OJ:> of (he hiel1lrchy [he funClions for which i( feels itsclf best

, geoisie of the vendors of symbolic goods and services, ;h; uccu.ives of firms in lOurism and journalism, publishing and tht

ascetic ethic of produclion and accumulation, based on abstinence, JtIIi' O""' ety, saving and calculation. in f ayour of a he<!oniSfic morality f sumption, based on credit, spending and enjoyment. This : demands a social world which judges people by their capacifY sumption. their 's.andard of living', their lifNtylc. as much as by neW capaci[y for production. It finds arden! spokesmen in

t<Juippcd, and all {he similar slruggles which all: mugh! OUt dominant fraerion of rhe dominant class, ue insepuble from values which involve ,he participants' whole world views __ mg.Jl LnuS/: {hey oppose nOf only differenr SlXtional in(crtsls " c enl scholuic and occupational careers and, through them, . SOCIal recrullmem areas and therefore ultimate differences In Thus, for uamplc, [he financial managers of the largcsr firms. almost all Sciences Po or HEC gradu2lcs. who possess a large ral (family (onncnioos, their respective 'old.boy networks') of"", long I? dubs, m: almost all in WiwI's W and vel)' offcn in' i r f1W1Idan ((he Who's w of the French 1riSfocracy), are no doubr pose<! 10 (vel')' aspect of life-style to the 'reselrch and dcveloprn cnt' .. agers, who are generally cnginttring-schooJ gr:aduau:s are 1'11 0- , '" " 0 Iat .ol!. ' . work' lng or ml e-<:,ass ongln and have pas!imcs very similar ro . 'dd' hate ""II: rh teachrs (mountaineering, walking etc. ) . This means .hu changes in posrs (and their occupanlS) are i ","" '' acompalll by a. whole effort :I.. symbolic resrructuring aimed ar . mng recognllJon III representations and lhrefore by a permanen glc betwccn rhose who seek ro impose rhe new system of classi;:. aod thO$( who defend the old system. Tasle is at the hean of Ihcse bolic $!ruggles, which go on at all times between the f ractions of lilt dominant class and which w?uld absolut, less tOlal, if rhey .... . nol on the nmary behe( whICh blllds each agenl to his life matenallst reducuon of preferences 10 their economic and social rj?s of produnio.n and ro the social funCiions of th seemingly d,slllt ereste<! practices must not obscure the faCi thn, in muters of . ture, 1IlV(Slments are not only economic but also psychological. Con8icli ovr art or the art of living, in which what is really at stake is {he il1lf* Slllon of the dominant pr inciple of domination within the dominlll cl2.'i$-Or, to put it anOfher way, the securing of the best conversioo _ for the type of cpital with which each group is beSt provide<!-wollI not be so damallC (as they are, for eumplc, in debnes over Ihe scbOoI crriculum if they did not involve the ultimate values of th pe' h Ighly subhmucd form of interestS. . "b The new bourgeoisie is the initiator of [he e[hiol retooling by rh economy from which i[ draws its power and profits. funCflonmg depends as much on [he produnion of needs and consu. dIf as on the producrion of goods, The new logic of thc economy rejcCts

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vertisin, decoration and propeny devclomclll. and ad. . fashion Imperat,,'e adVICe and [he example of t helr cn. (lila. h their slyly , ,-lI,-ollg 'model' life.style, [he new t:aste-makers propose mot1lIIlY whICh ng. nHoug io, n ji'iOll:Wn to an an of consuing, spendi. g and enioyi. . . s bOils masquerading as adVICe or warntngs, they mamtam. cspeCially on and objects, the fear of IUcu omen. the privileged consumr subjects e g g.W up [0 Inc ionumeabl dUlics entaile<! by tnc 'liberate<!' lif ""[ hYI'd awareness of nOI posSCS5ing Inc dispositions ncede<! [0 fulfil an the unworthiness. nW form of thc sense of moral t!>d"" of members of [he dominant franions who have recon riation, the new bout 0 adapt [0 Ihe new mode of profit approp .trr. . \ ation of clhiol dispositions s in the vanguard of the tt1lnsform views occurring wi{hin the bourgeoisie :as a whole, which (as gco : l :rld e guad of a nral transformation of 22 shows) is itself in .nc ya . is pardcularly manifest 10 the diVISion of labour betwttn " IItS'rle which ' raCllon IS ' ' _ the methuu 0f imposlllg domtnauon. Th" IS Ihe f hf sees and I hk impollS (from the USA) the new mode of domination, based on h , in chu or in industry: and ?n Ihe -elvet glove' methods, at school : srarts by euphemlztng all the manlfestallOns of '[tluc:d' life,slYIc which s[Udiously rejecting the SOCial distancc (especially sartorial oncs) and by al aostOCta[i, s[iffn(SS that tends 10 create distance. After so much historic ..-ork on the symbolism of power, il would be naive not 10 see that fash ions III dOlhing and cosmetics are a basic clemen! in the mode of domi nmon. And the whole opposition betwccn Ihe 'itu)(jtu and [he lI()lIlJtaU }til, between the old'style authoritarian industrialisr and the modern manage-r, tuned in to Ihe lalCSI [:hni9ucs of business administration, publi< relations and group dynamics, can be read in the opposilion be [Wttn the pot-bellied, pompous palr(J1l and the slim, suntanned cadre, ...ho IS:as 'casual' in his dress as in his maoner, as 'rebed' at cocktail par [Iei:as in his reluions with .hose he calls his 'social parmers'. Bourgcois dis[inClion is still defined, borh in speech and bearing, by bnion in tension. case within res{t1lin[, a rare and highly improbable tOnlbina[ion of alllagonistic propertics. Everything rakcs place as if what al stake in the struggle between the old bourgeoisie and the new was . Prtmacy given 10 one or the other of the contraries which disdnction to 'oncile. Whereas the juniors of Ihe dominant class and the new .rga:.isie denounce the 'up-right', 'SlUffed-shin' rigour of [he old bour se and preach 'relaxation' and a 'laidback' lifc-styl, the old bour condemns .he 'sloppy' lifes[yle of the new bourgeoisie and calls for I'I'IOte i'tStain t in language and morals.

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life-style of the new ethinl avant-garde very directly expresses asset strunure which is rhe basis of its power and its (Ondirions of tence, Executives in major narional firms, public or privare (a somewNl arrifici1 distinnion, at this kVel), or heads of large, modern, oft(1\ """ tinalional companies, they are not a ached ro a place like the propricCal' of sm111 lo<al firms, Io<al norabltJ whose prestige is insepal'llbk froIII a world of real intel'llnions and personal represen tadon, The new eXCC8' tives look to a 'centre', their headquarters, for directives and promolj()ll;' large part of their prestige and power derives from academic qual_ {ions which are themselves national or international; Ihey arc muc dependent on 10<21 privilege and prestige, which are in(feasingly - ued the economic and symbolic markets are unified, tting lhem the nauonal or inte ational hiel'llrchy, Convinced rhat they owe position solely to their qualifications and to the technical and 'h", competence ('dynamism', 'competitive spIrit') which they are he' pO" guar:l.ntee, im bued with the economIc-political cul ture taught In IctO' li tical science institures or business schools and with Ihe modernIStiC dICJ' nomic and 50<ial world view which is bound up with il and wl!icll help to produce their conferences, commissions and .., 'cadres dynamiques have abandoned the champagne of the Will, ,,,, , a industrialists (and the whole view of Ihe world, md of france
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horn-rimmed specncJes, Jaw degree, a graduate of rhe Puis &:01<: de Commerce, son of an inclumialisr, rells uS he loves his work but play golf and .ennis ':lnd read (he occasional m()(krn novel ' time slim, =e<ling hairline, smiling J-eA, 55, law degree. son of. Paris market finander, iS:15 much at ease Wifh his pec when "t'i';;; minisrcl'$ . . . He has not played poker for SC'veral yors, bur in , of leisure! he liked to"brC1the" on " golf course or play the the idul or ideal-typical properly developer originates from " bourgeoisie, has atrcnded a major Puis Iyn't followed by i loves or elmic.1 music and goes in for at least one of often skiing, golf or tennis. but also riding, underwater fishing. . hunting or flying indicated by his '.{h!edc look$'. his and negariveJy, by his 'slimness', As for his u of clothing. i as hve shown In nother slUdy.'9 is bound up with this reldon to the and the ethical dispositions it express, [ need only quote an article in Figaro (I Decembe r 19n) which, after telling us that Antoine Riboud, managing director of BSN, lik relaxed, sporty dothes and that Gilbert Trigano (Club Mediterr:lnee) rarely wcars a tie, confirms that dOthing. 1It language or any other prop'my. enters the quasi wnsciou$ S tr:ilegics of ... nlpulation: 'A young French businessman told us; "I have thm: stylC$, When I go to Regional Development Council meetings, where I mm bankers and civil rvants, I have to dress very corre.:rly. For normal ness, my dothes are fairly 'way-out', be<:au I work in fu ishings, which close to decoration, To visit f tories, 1 dod in in a kalher jacket and a polo-neck'" (italics mine).
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world, which went with ir) for the whisky of American f(.ln the cult of 'literature' (delegated 10 their wives) and eco Being nfeWs whIch they read in fEnghsh.they areboth the negalion and the often the hei , and from old-style palrom, o whom the flurcl!ey are only $CpUllled, in the end, by time, and therefore often by l ". h oif",hich can make it seem like a quesllon of gener:.mon in Ihe oldi ge- nse-they are the ones who transcend, the Ixller to con$Crve_ a na only the internal StrUClure of the dominant fr:l.ctions, but also the o rc of Ihe relations hetwetn the dominant and the dominated frllc lruCI end to be profou ndly changed when a glowing proportion of the 11<;g fl'llcrion derives, if nOI its powel, at least the legi timacy of its l from educational opital acquired in formally pure and pelfecl an er than new ";( competilion, ratherers of directly from economic capital. Thetheir the economy, a r:l.llon1lization of the new mast ':ure of which tends to Ix ever more widely accepled as 'management orld view i n'"heis developed within Ihe discipline of economics, provides them sense. of ssessing an autority of imellenua .right over the :,th t ofsocrety_ Thus the opposltlon between the -d,Sinterested' cui conduct lure of the intellectual and lhe 'philisrinism' of the bourgeois, preo<cu pred with the mundane imerests of his pranice, gives way, and nO! only among the new bourgeoisie, to the opposition between the gr:l.luitous, unreal. unrealistic culture of the intellectual and the economic or poly it$Clf a(l1on technical culture of 'modern managers', which ortCnred but irreducible 10 the ((Ivtality of mere 'praCtice', If old-style inlellectuals continue to preserve an apparent monopoly over legl timare cuhur:l.l pranices, or at least over the definition of these p,;rnices, this is perhaps due to the i nert ia of Ihe institutions of cuhur:l.l producllon and diffusion (in particular, Ihe educalional system) and rhe hY\leresis o( habitus, which are contimlously reinforced by the (an that IlItr:.rry and artistic culture remains the form par excellence of disin terested culture, and conSC<Juently the most legitimate of the marks of d slin ion from other class; and also, no doubt, to the division of la bour between t he sexes, which confines women to the privilege o( iudg n8 tasle and the tasks of maintaining cullur.ll capital In its tradilional Ot"", serv Ing the new culture, turned towards aCllon, business and POwer, for men, This only confirms the tendency of rhe ruling fr:l.ctlons t onceiv oC e the opPOS'tion belwe<:n the 'man of anion' and Ihe 'intelleclual' as a valiant of the opposill on between male and female.
,he 'nagers, a 1)'1(1" pOifll(
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_

Ttmporal and S piritual Powers

C1pirll, Ihe possession of which defines class mem "'I ' and the dis([ibulion of which determines position in the power 81f;st1ons constituting the fIeld of power and also derermines the srrareavallblc f u in these slruggle ortune' lnd 'ulent' in a b h , 'f or
forms of
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"cry lerms used against them by Ihe inteliCCluals and artistS. cannot be entirely satisfied wilh the solution offered by 'thcir' i tuals and 'Iheir' anist$ (i e , Ihe intellectuals and artistS who wIt/un the field of cuhu",,1 producrion a temporallY-<lnd domll1ant position, homologous to Iheir own position in the . e clus); the very relationship 10 lemporal po... r and to the liS whICh defincs the 'bourgeoiS' intellecw)1 or artisl 'dl$lnletcSlroncss' which. e,'en in Ihc eyes of the dominant Clficall,' dcfinc:s ,"leliCCluals and arllSIS.

past asc now e<:onomic cpital and educational capital_Ie : nrously IfIsmlmems of powr and slakes in the struggle for are unCClually powerful in real terms and une-qually I mne principles of aUlhorlly or signs of distinction. and. of course:, by Ihe different fractions. 1be ddinition of ractions. or, which amounts to lhe $;lme betwn Ihe f flon of the legitimate hierarchijng principles, i.e., the menlS and srak('S of Struggle. is itself a slake in II ractions. f !kcausc those who take part in a game agree on Ihe srak('S. al fiCiendy to fighr for them, one may chooS(: to emphasize eilhe t plicilies which unite them in hostility or the hostiJifies Whic " them in complicity. One only needs to consider, for exampk: .,_ ' ambivalent relalions bctwn artists and Ihe patrons of art, "':h in the nintnth cemury. are often also palron; of business. r('Spond with a SOtt of paternalislic patronage to the symbolic . flons of the arnsts. in Ihe name of a not'50-UnrealiSti( : . producers of cullural goods really lte, thaI is, dc:viant bourgeoIsie or 'poor reluions' force<! inw alternative t trons may even find a pretext for their cploitnion all SIS l conspiCuOus concern 10 prole<:t them from the conSjuence of alism' and Iheir lack of 'practical' sense.OJ For their pan, intellcctuall ('Specially artists may find in the structural homology between lhe tionship of the dominated classes to the dominant class and ractions to the dominant fractions Ihe b.,o . ship of the dominate<! f felt and sometim('S rnl solidarity with Ihe dominate<! classes. At the' time they are able to play on Ihe symbolic licence which the art IfI a sense oblij;:e<! to grant them, if only bco.use they are recognllC the supreme affirmation of Iheir spiritual point of the negallon of popular marenalism Implied in lhe atllsric 'bourgeoiS' matC'fialism. Those "'ho occupy rhe ICmporally dominam position wilhin lhe: __ flant class are In fact place<! in a contradictory situation, which ,nCJiIII them to maintain an ambivalent r elationship With cultural Ihose who produce Ihem. Casligated by Ihe intellCCluals and armd til' philistine matenailsm and antiintellectual machismo, when Ihey '" .. themsdvcs in relation to the dominated classes Ihey have !O i

: :

ri.e

in social space that they have a st {Ulls and arti. .s arc so situated . . e t )lcC Ihal are Un!' ! lar inletcSt in dlsmletedncss and In all the values . tfllCI,! d universally recogn!ZC<i as hlghes.1 (Ihe more so the closer Ihey p d fiel. of (ultI. produclion)' 1!"'e ideo -(fS' , 1 e dominaled pole of dit lhe 2CI1VItlCS of Ihe opposing frac ies Ihey use ro dISCre sltateg Jo!;" he space of Ihe dominant clm (of which the leftbank crilio' l a fair i) owe their quasi, fill" . abour righl.bank theatre gi,: ccrion 10 rhe facr thai. gIVen the chl2Sl1( SlructUrc of the rem' a ie pcrf l, whereby the first in one order iOn of rhe differcnl sortS of capita lu t u a virtue of diS be the last in another, they only have !O make Ik ly to ponding (0 Ire order to discredit as arbitrary the 'virtucs' corres SSl y in al of the tcmporal (lC(c nccessiti('S. The hope of an apocalyptic revers Clner alous dis, which arises from Ihe live<! epericnce of the scand h((rafchies Ihe hierarchy of Ween the hierarchy of 'temporal" greltness and nt bet practical self-evidence on cultural !" ull' gmmcss impresses itself as 1 al produc especially Ihose whose position in the field of cultur to Ihe position of cultural producer.; as a whole in ion is homologous Beause they are opposc-rI lO those pro field of Ihe dominam elm. dy adjusre<! to the dominant tasle and du1S who offer producrs direc mOSt recogniZe.!. jusl as the whole group of ...Ito an: Iherefore lemporally nant fractions, those writers cultural producer.; is opposed to the domi rarily--iominatcd, bcouse and artists who arc temporaJlY-<lnd tempo pledestincd bear (licit plOducts mUSt produce their own markets, arc the , IIlsofar as Ihey SUPPOfl their f rn o Ihe eschalOlogical hopes which 'inner,worldly asceticism' and their sense of 'mission'. arc Ihe true opium of intdlectuals. The analogy with religion IS not artificial: in t::lch case: the most indubiuble transcendence wilh respect to strictly temporal

JIC ,,':: l ; s : :hc

;:;ucers.

Intett$t springs from the immanencc of Struggles of intcrest.

the

goods '

Cu(tu ra J Goodwi((

'ogni( Ion 0r .8(lmne w rk$ or pranices al....ays assem ifSdf in ./Ie ... . . 11 lC1\Sf In I relationshI ...,,1> dle imcO/it""., who, benusc of ,he d". p symmclry of ,!he SUf'/(Cy 511...,1100 and his social position is invoted .." h II , . . auroomy whICh (0<0"-.,_ IhC '_ w ,mposmon 0f lcgmmacy. II may " kt u-_ . ' f, of a slm k profcuion of failh-'J Ol lih il'-o dttlaralion of good ,It' fcn uons-:-'[ ""sh [ knew If'-()( a w feu n ion of indifference-'I'rn nOI .... {tn'Slcd In Il>al'-9o'hi(h in fXI mribule5 ,he Ik of i nlcrot 10 (he spetl1ll {hcr Ihan The object, Picasso, or even 1 'lhI: Picasso', a ncr;c ferm (O Ing '11 f , orms of mO<k.n m. npially ....h,1 is 1(1yally known of il. I ." " . CCna,n s.yle of ..c..oraflon, . . Incurs rhe only ephcil denundafions-2S 'f . . 'mpos"ble refuul of the domi nan t {uhul"<: could only be conkssed in ,he' 80.015<: of an obj.ion lim ired '0 ....hal is Sttn as irs ",,kcsl poinr. 'JltC ,II\'"

The memrs of {he diffcreot social cI:tS5C'S diffcr not so mu eh in dl( ct en{ 10 whIch {he acknowkdgc cultun: as in the e X ltm [0 whi r ch , now 11. Declu:anons of indiffe rence arc exceptional, and hos , tile non even nre -Iu !eas( In (he legitimacyimposing situation set u bra ul ul1l! qucs(lonrUlrc rei ni5Ccm of an examination. One of (he , ndlmons of [he rccognlllon of !egitim:tcy is the tendency of t lid . cpnvcd respondents (0 d,sgw,s<: their ignOl':lncc or indiff rence and .. e y homa8C' to the cu]wul legitima cy which the imervicwcr poSSCSSCS . . , CIt eyes, by selccung from their (uliur;l1 baggage the items which _ 10 thc closest to the kgitimate ddin idon for example works of.,. oiled IIghl m sj , Viennac wall lO, Ravel's '&10, or greal n-. more or IC'SS nm,dly pronounce d.'

':ulal

soc

",cfU ...hich correspond to no 1'l:11 praCtice. Thus. !II one survey on the n(IP e 74 ptrcent of Ihe respondents with only pnmuy schooling en goln Illf" a y. (1'Ilde judgements such IS 'Theatre elevates the mind', lnd sp"k [<: ticl!1y of thl: positive. 'cdueational' and 'intellectual' vinues of ",llIuS"!0=. :IS opl to IhI: cinema. I men: paslimc. flcile. faclitious ana h . ,lit I ar Ho...ever utificlal. these dc<:brations hl,'e a kernel \ t>O :i\Ccldcnt thlt it is thl: culturally mOSt deprived, thl: oldest. and It lIheSt (tOm Paris. in short those least likely really 10 go to the the I "'1\0 mOSt often "knowledge that ',hi: theatn: tlnlaftJ Ihe mind', It ,tI'\J be e<jullly mlstlken either 10 tlke lhes<' ,,'ortcd credos II face, value 1I.meaning cullural evangelists hive done) or 10 ignore ,..oU mlny las so 11'q gwe In idc;a of lhe po_r 10 Impose whkh cultural capital 1M I ural ,nsl1tu{lOf\S ean nef!. hr bo:yond Ihe specifically cultural sphere. eample, thar lilerary inslituuons In: most rognitt<i by l s. i n d for 110 are therefon: least likely really 10 con from them, those ... furtht$t to the st:lnduas they impose and gUlrantee (sec tabk B). While the propensity and capacity to form opinions on book prizes vary .'Il rtldlng and with kno...ledge of the prizes. 1 good number of those h .no do not rc.Id books (espccral1y nOI prizewinning books), and who have no knowledge of litera ry prizes, nonetheless Ime In opinion aboul them. ,od on the ...hole a f avourable one (e.g.. for question , 4 pr:rcent of those qucslloned and 67 pr:rCCnt of thos<: inswering) . This ackno....ledgement ","hoUI knowledge is incfC1siogly frequent as one moves do...n Ihe SOCill hlmtchy (as is shown by Ihe widening gap belween the proporrion who buy ndther prize books nor any books and the proportion who expll:ss no opinion on prizes or iuries). Similarly. the proportion of oprnions explicitly tffirmrng the legitimacy of the priZ<'$ incteascs s one moves down the hi,, ItChy by occupation and educllion (columns 4b and b). variations which "MOl be 1IIrrbuted 10 a direcl imposition of legitimacy by ,he quesdon it e srlf (sInce qU($tlOn 4, which off rs a negative vie"'. varies in the same way ,nd only 'r:<:crves f ....ers thin question . no doubt bc<:luSC it mote e'Nn ans lnrly If''PC'r$ 15 appc:aling to compr:lencc and presupposing spc<ific knowl ' gt of t ll1erary world).

,,'(1'1 'u ( m "f'

IIID"IlC may. 15 ma"y cuhural surveys have done, product dechrarions of

( kgiurnllcy in Ihe course of Ihe survey is such thaI. if one is not

of reality,

Knowled and Recognition ge

hole rdationship of the pclite bourgeoisie to cuhun: can in a sccnsc: uccd (tom the considerable gap bo:rwttn knowledge and rerogn;. 110 the SOIHCe of the cuhur.al goodwill which takes different forms de ng on the degrtt of familiarity ....ith legitimlte culture, rhat is, on !()ci ; O t'C ' ngln lnd the associated mode of cultural acquisition. The rising l1 e bourgeoisie invests its good intentions in the minor forms o( lhe legt te cultural goods Ina practices-monuments and ChitC1UX (as II, hI to musccums and art collcctions). journals of popularitt<! science StOry, photography, film or jazz culture-just :.IS it deploys prodi.

_ _

rsY and ingenuity in 'living beyond itS means'. In {he home: this ( ( c:r.oising 'nooks' and 'corru:rs' (the 'ki{(hc:nomc:tS', 'dining S y is dO b(droom<ornc:rs' NC. recommended by Ihc: women's magazines) pS dtd to multiply the: roomS. or the 'space-savmg ideas' designed 10 J . {hem, 'storage areas', 'moveable partitions', 'bcdsettees' (1( , not (I'Ilar gt don all the: forms of 'imiruion' and all tnc things Ihal can, Ix to rflefl 'look like' something thcy arc: nOI, so many ways in which thc urgcoiS makes his home and himself 'look' bigger than they are. tl! pe goodwill is cxprc:, inter alia, in a particularly frt<juc:nt Cul!ur1] of Inc most unconditional tcstimonies of cultur.al docility (Ihe of 'well-bred' friends, a taSTe (or 'educational' or 'instructiv,' en cIIO mc:nrs), often combined with a sense of unworthiness ('paintings I r difficult') commensurate with the respeCt that is accorded. ( ice b,u petit bourglis is filled with rftln"nlU for culture: one thinks of charaCter, Felix.1 who. as Joseph Frank points out, shares D l II' Bl,rr1CS'S ern .. i h 1ffipold Bloom. that othr Wandering Jew of od . literatu 'a wiving for integr:nion mto a culture to whICh he IS o:sscnmlly

intrn

\ rI1=

..:Iill
"

(: \ r

For Tocby's Career Woman, Entertaining Means Planning

SS

ssssssss,_ssc'sc,ssc,sccs,CCCC'Ci
Sive the impression of being a piKe shce JUSt passo through, but look Like a comf o,nbk, ...,nne.:! fCUCllr, as l ively :as her own personality. She considers herxlf rhe flm SUCSI in her home. And as she h:lSn't much lime to giY<: 10 iI, she ..... il al ntS ways 10 be rndy 10 m::dY<: peoplce, even when she'$ OUI all d,y Ion m goes off on long journeys. Rcsu t: a wsy. ....'m. congenial .partmcnl . which Icstifies 10 ha prcsrocce and her pref erenccs. If she h:lS a f avourile colour, ,he decor makcs il no secrel. If she trav els a 101. every home.:oming brings some improvement. If she loves painting or " ding. Ihe walls and shelvcs proclaim her 1:lSles. Thlough 11<:. home, a ""omin whose job ofren rcquirc:s he. 10 adapl 10 othe people's opinions. rediscovers the eminine plesure of saying, very f Wh1 I like is . . . How docs she en'enain That. of courx, depends on lhe laYOUI of her

8o

.1

Bmtu\C, for her. enterraining mCllns gt1ung horM just in lime to u I1mgt" Ihc Aow<;rs, check ,he table {{ing or sltp inlO somc lIew (IoI before: the fim ring of Ihe doo.bc,U. Selling :aside alL thoughts of hc:, working life, the busy (llttr' "I)mn lurns back into , smiling' !!cntive hl=. I) bnng 01 off-a ..-.:koming lplnmaH full of Ao,.,cers scrvicce 'p" . "ale 10 Ihe slyle of the 0((1. cheer with nothing lefl q, m the first (iga""lte 10 ,he J glasthe ....om.n who sher lik .w" from home _ ""USI . make up for her ,blCncce by l'ng Ihe nlcenl$ of a domcs tic leotn

T . . n.... OO<J 7
...

Onsuhant.

.U, her home muSI nol

'

'

home, whclher she has a dining room or a fixtd o. /old'dway dining. TI:'a" plus her domes,ic polen. . "al, wIll da:ldc Whelher she'!J gi"e . d lnnel pmies in !he ltadi!ional s[yk or offer an deganl, humorous 're:adY'Io-serve' or 'sel(.service' buf fer. As (0. Ihe cooking, ,Ile work is oflen remOlCo("onlrolkd, nOlebook in hand, wllh e"(''r,hmg planned in advancc. She knows all the II.",. Jat''''g advanlagcs of modem I('(h, ni<jues; she has a well.rehearsed n:P' enolre of dlsnes .hal Cln be prepared Ille nl8h[ befon:; she's e pen at uSing rhe services of a Cl' rerer wirhou! depersonalIZing her menus. 11m's how raday"s carr:(r.woman , a s,r::..egis! o( hospifali[y. combines charm wi[h effICIency !O givc fhe il. lusion of being 100 percenf devOled fa her home!

r.

pcl IS . Ihe natural silk '" of. bcquer suppa!!. and " chaill by N{J, !he [able per1 dininsrom piC(e o while jiit-tlutill. In Ihe m "" room lhe comfo!! is dominaled b)" IhC' big (Orner VcI"('I C":IllSkin. In fronl of, . a lmple green lacquer '0"".' Wllh sI<"<'1 rrimmings.

<. ";;,;;;:

. tJ,=

An Upto-the.Minute Welcome
Here, Ihe working woman has worked (or herself. . . . The crearor of Ihe decor is none olher fhan Fran<;oise 5, designer and imerior <ionIOf. She lives in a Ihr<"<'.room aparrmenf overlooking lhe Seine, and enfenalnS in a bIg livlng.room divided imo IWO pans: Ihe 'J"/' J4bp,' and Ille 'UJ/.Jin/llg'_'. II slmpk arnngemtm bUI withou, st "enry, and il shows Ihal pccuha.ly f eminillO: glfl of dnwlnS aucnuon 10 a 1211 wllhoUI insisnns, . . . A lacquer pa"'''on C1In bc dnwn across 10 $ep2nfC lhe fC(qx,on llC1 from lhe dinIng are:a. On eilhC"r silk, Ihe WlIlls are upholslered with lighl musfardydlow fabric; lhe car.

Susan Tnin, a foumaiisl ....jlh and a grc:1f mvdlel, has made home on Ihe Lefl Bank. in a quiet Ihrccroom aparrmenl in a rnodaw block. Her experience of bc3uty gIves her da:orallon a virtuosity .. 'he play of colours and materiab, " succcssful con!nSIS of slyle. II's" done wilh subtlety and . ci2SSian, eleganl laste. . . Allhough Susan enrcrrains in a relaxed way, shC"'" SCI aside a linle dining.room, to avoid the discomfon of bufl'ns Of' coffeetable picnics. So, even ....,Ib no onc to help wilh the SC"" "Io " can shut lhe door on il af{C"r the meat and forgel Ihe mess. Duri... Ihe mC":lI. she U$CS a ....icker Mskef 10 stack the diffY pla,es and CUIIcq 1bc firs! COUfS(" is sen.'ed in and Ihe fCSl of the mNI is , 011 li a trollry wilh dishwarmers. Simp fied bUI relined menus. for, bet'" IImerican and . globenoflel. C eloCJ coll('(l$ IICious lC'Cipcs and

Hostess in Paris

ded. dou and pcli, OOurgwis, and thercfore doubly C'xclu in case, 10 everylhing which ,I;C: ' ious to be included, he oo....s. jusl n :lIes the ariSlocnlic 1M J ls if i[ might be cuhure and uncrilically "C'ner This pure bUI empty goodwill which. for lack of nS of [he paSI. docs nOl know ....hkh way rrldll'dclines or principles needed 10 apply il. I II!C !!U ep05CS Ihe peli[ bourgeois 10 culwnl allodoxi., Ihal is, all Ihe r nilions which belray Ihe gap r<l u n idenlifications and faJse recog AJlodoxia, Ihe heterodoxy II"S!' owkdgemcnr and knowledge. een aekn e by Ihis undiff n:n if it were orthodoxy [hat is engendered icnced lIS bC"''' combines wilh anxiCly, IClIds Ihe pelil rtVren(C, in whkh avidity i fll for 'senous musk', popubriulion fot sc ois [0 take light open bOurgc this at oncC' ion' for th genuine article, and [0 find in an 'imit1[ recognition Ihe SOurce of a SlItisfaClion t cnc ;icd and over:!SSured . some,hing 10 the sense of dislinClion . . (h s,ilI o....es 10 culture ((lIlfllrt wwymnt) owes some of 'IS charm, ow ThIs middle.br . 10 !he refer' middk clllSSCS who are 'IS main consumen lit C)'es of ,Il( if conrains and which encourage and juslify 10 kgitimarc cultun: nts or 2((cssibl versions of avant.garde experime confusion of [he tW0-for avanr.gardc experiments, film 'adapla. ,,;(S5ible works which pus Jilenwre, 'popular arrangemnrs' of classical liOllS' of classic drama and popular tunes, vocal inrerprelalions of music or 'orchC"Slral versions' of I choruSC"S or angelic choirs, in shon, dmics in a s!yle C'vocativC' of SCOU wcekliC"S and '9uality' shows, tvery,hing Ihat goes 10 make up '<Jualily' ssion of btlnging kgili. ...hieh are entirely organized to giv 'he impre normally xclu mile cullure wilhin Ihe reach of all, by combining IWO of ,ive chanCleristics, immediarc acccssibilLly and the outward signs

jOOS.l

" j )c....ish

rl :::

false

n(es

pro Unlike legitimatC', i.C'., scholaSlic. popularizalion. which overtly ore unashamedly reveal Ihe claims il$ pedagogic obja:tives and nn Iheref means i[ uses 10 lower Ihe transmission level, ordinary populanu!ion nnnol, by dc:finition, admil 10 being ....hal it is, and Ihe imposture il on Ihe complicilY f'rc5upposes ....ould necessarily fail if il could nOI n:ly nf II\c Consumers, This complicity is guaranleed in adv1nce since, in cuI 1Urt :IS else....here. Ihe consump,ion of 'imitations' is a kind of uncon ( in!eltS[ in $ uS bluff which chiefly deceives Ihe bluffC'r, who has mOSI ', 'ng lhe copy (or Ihe original, like !he purchasers of 'SC'Conds', 'rejcCls I'P" , , ce or second.hand n ........i s, who ocr:d 10 convince lhemselves Iha[

cuhural legilimacy.

k
lfI

Ideas ....hercvet she goes.

erenr points in rhe space of ,Il( ugh they an: silUated al very diff idd classes. the prodUCCIl and consumers of middlebro.... cuhure !har he e t_d same fundamental relalionship [0 legilima'e culture and !O ils .US!"e rs, so Ihal Iheir inleltSlS are afluned 10 ClIch other as if pr -c rhe c mbhShed harmony. Faced wilh the double competition of !'tOo ducers, 4M{/QrtJ, and rhe Iegilimate reproduccrs. /tclffftS, against whom I ""ould have no chance if Ihey did not have !he specilic power given

6""" "1\] $ cheaper and cre:I.lCS IhC' same cffc,:;t'.\

M. B., ....hose p,Jm\tS had small (um in ,he depmmerl! of lhe lot, is 48. She has ....orked at the Saint Louis H pital for aimOSI t....enty yea. She 'uS(d to love school' and ....ould have liked 10 be come 1 leacher. but had 10 leave 1 year a(ter her beeauK her p,Jr. enlS 'couldn't lfford 10 kttp her'. Divorced at 28, wnh IWO children, she had to uke a iob in I ho5pinl. While ....orking, she studied to be come a nurse. Her son, aged 26, is married; her daughter, aged 20, a bi ology Student, lives ....ith her. Mme. B., ....hQ 'Ioves children', is 'horri/i(d by luge families' ('a 101 of ....orry).

A 'Very Modest' Nurse

os

in Paris

CEP

wllh dllty f . II'S cct d,s8UJt. ing. Why don't Ihey go to t public blths?'
mg 'h's very modest'

po Ind del? ] SIX tienl5 ,_ o

III

say "Good ' , and $IIi in ...ithout so mUch 1$ 1 your.lelve. And ....hy' haps you'l( not to thei, I don't like being riors.' (She 'ICSptS belo.... hcr.) She also ...ho are dirty': 'I think you"e not rich. It least YOu C1ll

can't stand people who

how to behave . . . ;,: ;::;

souvenirs she h:lS been . ',IS 'nd bo ' , x. I n"Y . III a . ' nu' a... ay '. a room. (Iuller Ih ,." f,-(11up , 101 of thing1i 10 be tidy . ' I like u . urse. if you've SO! I gl of (In rur knick knacks tn ' out of the ....ay and ,.I; ' etS" ,t. hey rc . , t dus'y, do" ' "

!::': be

tCSI.'

She very much regrelS 'not hIving 2 higher level' (of educadon) : 'I make do ....ith ....hat I've g<lt but I ....ish I kne.... morc . . . It's very important to be eduClted.' Educalion SlUtS with kno... ing lhe tules of grammar and spelling. 'Tho: girl$ ....ho ....ork 9o'ith me don', speak properly. thcy mike ....ords feminitlC ...hen thcy're mlsculine and vice ve!'$a, which proves they've no notion of gnm mar. It JUSt sho....s you how primi tive thq are.' 'I'm alwlys shocked when I SIX a mistake. Yesterday someone had written tum,.,! "mm" with tr . . . I'd be really lshlmed if I made mistakes itS obv,ous 11$ thaI. . . . Personally 1 ....ould ha"e written "Pf'OTliI. but It a pinch . . . I'd s.ay <1mnltr" I child. but "Pf'OT'tr" a

....hen I sec 1 mi sclke'

I'm always shocked

Her flat is 'very modest'. two plus kitchen. she li ,'O III Olle roGIIIo her daughter in the other. 'Illne . nO dinmg room. 'h's very modest There's no wuhing machine. b: cauS( [ don't like ....:lShing mach,... I do my washing by hand. I ha_'c gOI many clothes to wash anY"'I,. and then [ w:lSh d'ings in the boiler. I find lhar gen ,hem very clean . . . Anyway. you can't die sa temperature in a "':lShIllS l1li r chine . . I'''e gOI my f idge, my cooklllg stove wilh o"en. I pocI cuh for them. I'm not kccn on hiIC purehase (installment buying). biS thing1i, yes, a dining.room SUlIC or a bedroom, then I might get Ihem on credi,. but (o r " [illle , stove. or " W1lShing machine or I , (ridge, [ don', thtnk it's nec(SSl.r)"

f?'

shows and especially singers. [n faC! she 'hun't really gOt time': '['d ral her have hours of sleep. for exam pie, than eat a 101' (mtIY she eats grilled meal. salads. frull). , fid thll it's bener for my COn$II(UIIon. [ need my eighl hours' sleep.' She has no' been 10 the cinema for IWO or three years: 'The last time [ SI.... a film' [ don'l remember the names, II 'c c1oCh, little suiu, 'ClasS' WIS " SIOry about doctors.' dresses' litde cottOll She 'liSlen! to the ndio. mainly of clothes, the same chotce Fran,,]nlC!. for lhe mlllic'. she In totr . the same concern fu, pro likes FrtdCric Fnn<;ois: .[ find thlt osob';!n.crc isn', 1 vur amount of '' his sonss . . . ,he ....ords are very pntt . 10 throw around . . . You meaningful, some of them . . . able to budget prop' v Enrico Macias 's 'luite good, he's '" st l e to be , counts ' She cannot modern, ! find his songs 1fe very er, y 'hat's wha , " erself ',flolling "tound III [",ns nOSlalgic. I like Hugues Aufray. his (con . J-rin, thll more suitable for s'oo:: $Ongs are terrific. he's gOt an amn . . . S K lKr daughter). UI ,,:,ears 'CbS ing philosophy . . . Whal I ltke III clodv:s. little SUIIS. little conon song1i is ....ords thu mean $Ome. dKUC$.' 'RiSht now, 1 have a navy. IhinS, mainly 1 Josten 10 ,he ....ords. hi...: skllt from Gt:rard Paso:juier, a Fo' her summer hol iday she rents Inlle shop in the subulbs which a small Aat or villa II ,he $C1Side doo:s SO flmou names, Cacharcl (Hendaye. Arcachon, Lcs Sables .nd so on. I really fed comfornble d'Olonne-on Ihe Atlantic coast). in i,. morc than with ,hose flared She tests. gocs to the beach 'a little skins ,hey make.' She goes to !he bil', plays 'a bi1 of mi ia lurc golf'. . . hairdraKr's every .....:eke 'It's 1 relu don '2 li ttle bu of knutlng hut not "100. cenainly. I love havins my a VUI amount ....hen iI's hot', hair dork. A S(t takes no lime It 'doc$n't do much: aU. Thc:rc's a nice calm atmosphere, [ rnd a '!uie. mlgainc, IhinSS on fashion: (An ,n'.fV;o.. ..."h ."",he. nu.... you"S'" S docs not buy masazincs, be. .nd be"r qu.lifocd. i. n'I I"<I ,n {au 'they arc full of advertise ," (h,I"' A <omp''')on of ,he ''''0 ...ill

(I

She l ikes 'simple, unpreten tious pe0ple': '1 hll( prel(ntious people, [

'1 hue pretentious people'

he me finc, it's very modes,.' On 'tor t amily phofOS. wlIs al( a f .... f e

[n her room. 'a ....ardrobe bought e from the mari l1ine d store for 700 fl1lnc, " table small local shop. a small b<:C uilS '['m very com(ortable here, ,t

.[ like

,hing' to be tidy'

cp.anm nt I (ro

menls. they'l( expensive and there's fIOl much in Ihem.' The .eI.....ision IS 'n he, daugh'er's room; she doc$ !lOt often "'1Iteh, uC I CP' " 0 pass the Illne' or ' to rdax'. wilh variety

.ho in , '<fJ' <on,,,,, ay ,hll ,he opf<O .",on. be'....,n 'g<-,roups ...hi<h d,.ide numbtt of occup.>'''''' in fx, ,onnpond
.. . ..

"y".)

1 ' s , - - - e I ' ' e ' " e - ' . -- - e

to d,IIt",,,,.. ,n schobs'" ",.."...,ion and . SCIC"I ,ni'ory .,... fOI'IK<I....tly ,n h

COnlrol over the mass media, (he new cultural intermediaries ({he 0$( typical of whom arc the producers of cultural programmes on TV anJ Il.dio or the nilia of ''lualilf' newspapers and magazines and all the "hl"i ournaJi$'S and journalis.w ri(ers) have invented a whole $Cries o(

genres hlf.wy betwe<;n legitimate culture and mm proouction ters', 'essays', 'eyewitness accounrs') . Assigning Themselves rhe ble, and therefore unmailable, role of divulging legitima ' l which they resemble the legitimate popularizers-without specific comp:tence of rhe legitimate simplifiers, they to themselves. as Kam pUIS it, 'the afX$ of genius" and seek a SUbstit the chaismar!c allaO/'il,? of the all(/O/' and the lofty fm in . " asserrs ItSelr. m an 'arly offhandWness (seen for example in the facility of theiT Style) and in a conspicuous refusal of the havy d l. cism and grey, impersonal. tedious pedantry which are the cOunterpa j external sign of institutional competence-and all this must be while living in the unease of the inherently contr:ldicrory role of l' r senter" devoid of intrinsic value. The pardaJ revolutions in the hier:lre t ",:,hich rhe in.termlaries' low r>sition in .the field of intelleCTual 1?n and rhelr ambivalent rela(lon ro rhe intellecTual or scientific autho.. ltIes encou.r:lge them to crry out. . such as canonil:ltion of . 1I00.yel.legltlmate arts or of mmor, marginal f orms of legitimate art, combine wirh Ihe effCCIS of Inc allodoxia resulting from their diitanct from Inc centre of cultural values to produce, through rhe mixrure Gf 'genres'. 'stylcs' and 'levels'. those obitified images of petitbourgt'Oll culture, juxtaposing 'easy' or 'oldfashionW' (i.e., de"alued) legitim_ produCTs with the most ambitious produCTS of the fll':ld of maSii produc tioll-llnthologies of 'poetic' songs, wide-circularion 'intelleCTual' week lies bringing Together wouldbe authorirarive popularizers anti self.popularizing authorities, television programmes uniTing jazz and symphonic exrraCTS, musichall and chamber music, STring ,!uarrers anti gypsy orchestr:ls, violinisrs and fiddlers, bel nnw and camara. pnml donnas and songsrers. rhe 'P:is de deux' from Su'"" {oAkt and Rossini's 'eat Duer". Nothing could be leu subversive than these controlled Iraiii' gressions which are inspired by a concern 10 rehabilitare and ennoble when file)' are nOI simply the expression of a misplacw te<ogniliOl1 J the hierarchies, as anarchic as it is ager. The petitbourgeois SptCtllOft know they have no IlCC"d to be alumcd: they nn recognize Ihe 'guaran rtt$ of (luality' offered by their modn:uely revolurionary Illtemaktd. who surround Themselves wilh all the instiTution31 signs of culTural III" Ihority-Academici3n con(libutors to painless history mag21inCS, Sor bonnc professors dcbating on TV, Mcnuhins gracing 'quality' vantfJ" shows." Middlebrow culture is resolutely against vulgariTY Uncertain of their claSSifications. dividcd htrwe<;n the tastes !lley cline to and The Tasrcs Ihey aspire to. the potril bourgeois J!"e con,krfl to disparate choices (which the new peli!e bourgeoisie, wirh ils to rehabilitare f olklore and exolic music, actively pursucs); an seen as much in rhcir preferences in music or painting as in Ihelr . uJi& day choices.' In r:ldio programmes, rhey comhine a taste for IIghr .ro with an in!eresr in cultur:ll programmes, IWO el:rncs of goods

i
w .;;,:
: Prod:

((

I eclusivcly lisren to culTurally h.eterodox programm, and Ihe l nanl.dass fr:lctions closest to the 1Illcllectual polllLor exccu prf Jo"" and memhtrs of the professions-r:lnk their preferenccs in accord (l'eS ""ith the establishC<l hierarchy of legirimacy (if one takes account of ,Met nequally devaluing effCCt of bTOlldeasling). The p:lit bourgeois also (hC guish Incmsc:lvcs from the OlncT categories by the importance they diSCI orms of legitimale culture, like light opera, or to the 10 rhe minor f l g ( i(utCS for legitimate practices, such as radio plays, science pro su rflmCS OT poetry readings. This is, of course, the category which con gr.l s mosr of (he keen photogr:lphers, jazz and cinema specialistS, and its tl'" lrc (relatively) much bellCT informed abour film di reCtors than merflbers r Similarly, in the most legitimate arts, their preferences go s parricular frequency to 'accessible' .(mqym) or 'ded' w rks uf. : or Vbminck, Sththn'lJlam, Rh4pJiy '" 8/lIt, La Trail/ala, L /f,lmrnnt fer

",0 cnds of the social space, are mUTually exclusive: manual workers

( r;:".

. . . or rhe SIIbrf Danet . is not difficult to lind III Ihese works lhe properties whICh. at a given lr tnOmenl, predispose them to Ihe Treatment they receive from the new (uJrural intermediaries and rheir petil.bourgrois audience, when lhey are ("lOt specially produced for this usc:. But il would be a mistake to locare in (he: worb which enter into middlebrow culrure at a given moment the orm of consumption. As is properries conferred on them by a parTicubr f shown by the fan rhaT rhe same object which is today typically middle brow-'average' (mqym)-may yesteTday have figured in the most 'reo fined' constellations of tastes and my be pur back there at any moment by one of those tastemaker'S coups which are capable of rehabilitating (he most discreditw objc.:t, the norion of an 'average' culture ((III/11ft OWJf'Inf) is as fictitious as that obn 'aver:lge', universally acceptable Ian gU1ge. What makes middlebrow culture is ,he middJc.class rebrion to culture-miSTaken identity, misplaced belief, allodoxia. Equally, one mUSt avoid treating this objectively and $ubjccti,'cly 'unhappy' relation subsunlialist fashion. although il always belrays itsclf, in Tnc eyes of the dominallI. by rhc mOSI inconrcsrable and objective indices of a man r and mode of acquisition (such as. nowadays. thc typically 'record r.hop' air of certain syStemS of musical preferences) . What makes the tl{bourgeois rdation ro culture and ils capacity [0 make 'middlebrow' "'ha!er I[ ull, is touches. JUSt as rhe legitimale gnc 'saves' wharever it lights nor its 'nature' but the very position of the petit bourgeois in 'al Space, The socia! nature of the petit bourgeois, which is conSlantly mrr on the petit bourgeois himself. determining his relation TO Ie g cuirure and his avid but anxious, naive but serious way of U hing at iT. It is, quite simply, rhe faC! Ihar legitimate culture is not rr, fOr him (and is often made againsl him), so that he is not made for and rhaT it ccues 10 be whal it s as soon as he appropriate! it-as i uld h3pPen tomorrow TO the melodies of Faure or Duparc if the &evel

In

(;{Irnal I ta

opm of suburban and provincial Conservuoircs caused th sung, wdl or badly, in pelil-bourgeois Jiving rooms.
Education and the Autodidact
Tht

tlTl fl)

rtla.li.on to cullurt Chara<terislic of IhOS( fra<lions of Ih . .. bourgeoISIe whose position is bast<! on ........ion of a small cUIIUf1I . l'"io '12I accumuIaled at least partly through---autodidac{icism can only L tip. derstood in tilt comexl of the effects produced by the mert e'tS uo: -. n eduari<:lIlal, syslm offi:r: ing. (vtry unt-qually) {he POSSibiJi{y tf accordance with standardiled I 109 by IOstltuCLonahttcl stages syllabuses. The corrtspondence between the hierarchy of knoWltd ... te hierarchy f cenifica s tlIn , for eumple, that poss.es on tilt . hlglw:st edunuonal <jua? IS assumed, by Implication, is10 ... lil'KaCLons t !on of all the nowledge uaramecd by all the lower <j::: llons. Similarly, twO individuals dOlllg the same job and endowN ' hc same useful competences ( Le., thoS( dirtCtly necessary for <loins": e l), but olding diff rtnt <jualifications, art likdy to be stparattd ",. dlcrtnce n StatuS (and also, of course:, in pay), the juStificatiOn for ... lIlg the Idea tbt only the competence certified by th higher qualib tlons nn guaramee possession of the 'basic' knowledge which undnlie all practical knowhow. So it presens no arado to the autodidact's relation to cuJraR, and the autodtdact himself, as protium D/ lk tdU(Ali()7la! rylltWl, the " agency empowered to trlnsmit the hierarchical body of aptitudes ... knowledge which constitules legitimate cuhure, and to consecrart uritII 21 a given level of iniliation. by means of examinations and ceni/ict!o.' cause he has not .acquired his cullure in Ihe legitimate ordc-r IIhed by Ih.e educational system, the autodidact constantly belf'lys, ., hiS very anXiety about the right classification, the arbitrariness of his_ sifications and thertfore of his knowled collection of unstrUIW pearls, accumulated in Ihe course of an unchaned explol'lllion.. till chec.ked by the institudonalid, standardized stages and obstacles cutrlcula 2nd progressions which make scholastic culture a ranked ... ranking set of imerckptndc:m levels Jnd forms of knowle<lge.9 Tht . sences, bcunac and arbitrary classifications of the autodidaCl's cu/f1III only exist in relation 10 scholastic cultUrt which has the powtt" duce misrtCognition of il$ arbitr:lriness and rtCognilion of a nct""" w.hich incl.udes in lacunae. The apparent heterogeneily of his pre d ' t hJ confUSion ofgenres and rlnks. opereu'l 2nd operl, popuJariza .,llIt , SCICnCe, the unpredictability of his ignorance and knowle<lges, I other connections ,han the 5Cquence of biographical accident from ,he particulariries of a heretical mode of acquisition. For h. thai sense of cultural inves.mem which only needs external Sjgn.' . "'., name of the publisher. the diltttor or the venue to pick out a uctS iry' cullural offering, JUSt as it reads Ihe quality of other prod
' III set _ l to

bour "gu,rantecs' implied in certain trao:kmarks or shops, the petilofTY ,s. ,1W'lYswhOS( 10 know tOO much ormakeslink, like the heroes 'cultl' 1Jt . p mes liable misplaced erudition 100 them ridiculous in '1mass dispar:lte, oflen devalued in ' q" ' eyes, is condemned endlessly which itionltction, is 10 legitimate knowledge as his stamp collection is to l a miniature culture. 1'1 (011"' co of the effectS viClim by JlI; aboyt all, the aUlodidaCl, aof the rightdc:fauh ignorant that ofe<lu is con 10 be is . "o t al entitlement, of ignorant and it would no doubt be futile 10 r by certificates knowledge. k elsewhere than in ,he manner in which it is affirmed tilt differtnce of in .weeo the forcedand accidenlal encounters, and the declive ecleCficism t "ided reading eclecticism of this culture, picked up the course: and the subversion of hil'rat mixing of thetes who uS( thl'ro manifestgenresall.powerful atSthl'tic disposi their ity hid as an opportun brc-viary think of the Camus :ioO. One only hasy having no other unity of Tk RtM, that mdanchoof ly than Ihl' goistic edifying philosoph wins a Tl'putation al adolescence which btfits an intellectuMalraux of Thtand infallibly which envelops VD;US D/Siltl/(t, for bnuty of soul; Of the cultural patchwork wilh Sptngkrian metaphysicals,bric:i,brlc, imper gs illluilion hasty tUIDably associating the most contradiCtoryI'xaltl'd platitudes,borrowinin purtly (rom Schlosser or Wornnger, rhetorically are nlled brilliant cantarory litanies of proper names and insights which say so, since thost .I bmUst rhey are nOt evtrl lilse O In &cl-but who will who (ould will not, if they ven still know it, because so much of them $l';lves is al Slake, and those who would havl' an inll'rl'St in saying so don't know it?-nothing truly stparltes thai Olhl'r marerialittcl image of petit bourpis culture, Postman Cheval's Ideal Palact-a ramshackle liiryland smlght OUI of the I'ngravings of La Vtill" t:kJ Chaum;n.tJ,I' with its laby. "nths and galleries, gfOnOts and waterfalls, [nitt and Velleda (he Druidess, the Saracen 10mb and Ihe mediaeval castle, the Virgin Mary's g'OIlO and rhe Hindu temple, the Swiss chalet. Ihe White House and the O\lgltrs mosque-from rhe tawdry pathos of Malrau when he marshals n smgle selllence the 'innumerlble laughter of the waves', and the rscme f the Parthenon, Rubens's Ktmltsit and Khmer sculplure, 'AIl palllllng 2nd the Dance of Siva, the Romanue tympanum and ntlgone'S immorral cry', all in lilt name of communion with tilt cos .Il NOthing, exccpl Ihe loftiness of the refertnces and, above 'Ill, Ihe an(, the 08 complacency, he insolence, in t (e.tainty of having which is grounded in a word, the sdf'assur:lnce, the $ h, ifby an immemorial gift, and which isceminty of having al t.! opposit of t'If 'vety, innocence, humiliy, seriousness whichthe exactillegitimacy. betray t , re 1:..: more slubborn than let him SCI to work'; 'To a valiant . ' flOthlng is impossible'; 'On the field of toil I awit my better': t i }.[all1. vo; als of pure love of work for work's sake art of course nOI by "e fl:, no doubt, one touches on the principle of the opposition
f) '
10 t 10 :I :I "a

as

I,

..

stc:p to[S by responding with the indiff rence of those who are not cotrt' e peting or fhe serene detachment of [hose who fed entitled 10 confesS evcn Haunt [he:ir lacunae. Identifying r that the cultivated man is one who possesses an immense edge and refuse to believe him when he professes_ in one of IhO$ jestS allowed to a Cardinal, who can fake libertics with [he

between II rising cI:.ISses, the bourgeoisie in an earlier po:riod pefi f bourglisie, and Ihe cs ablish l,asses, the arislocrac . geolsle. On the one hand. thnft, cquISluon. accumulatio n, an ( r possession inSCJ>l.rotbk ( om permanen an ielY about propert mlly abo1 women, the ob,ect of a (yr:anOlcal peal usy wh , ich is f ' of msecunly; on the: OIher. not only (he (I$(emanon, big pt - s nd ng generosity which are some of (he: conditions for fhe rc:prodUCliol ... ial cpital, ut also the sd( mur:ance whic is mani csted, in p . l m anstOCl1ltlc gallanuy and dcgant lIbera lIsm, forbIddi ng the which treats the loved object as a possession"-as If " the essen (i I-" '" lege conferred on the possessors of inherited wealth were freedom the insecurity which haunts self-made men, Harpagon as much II . as noIphc. who are perhaps 100 aware that 'property IS theft' not t0 L. __ [he Iheft of their property. The stockpiling avidilY which is the root of every great accumula tioa of cultu is too visible in I e perversion of the iaz-freak or cinenu-b.( . . who carncs 10 [he: exucme, I.e., to absurdity, whn IS Implied in the. mate definitio of cultival comempltion. ami repaccs consu mptioa . ?f the work WIth onsumptlon of the clrcumStanllal mf ormation (ClDI. . . liS, nan composll1on of Ihe band, recordIng duo eIC): or in the aclJllll' iti ve all colletors of iellhaustibk knowledge on socllllp . mllluseuk subjCcts. In hIS symbohc clm struggle with the c(Tfi6eil holders of {ultur:.ll comperence, rhe 'pretentious' challenger-nune against doctor, [edlllidan against engineer, promoted executive againa business-school gr:.ld uate-is likely to set his knowledge and techniques devalued :.IS too narrowly subOldinated to pr:.lc tical goalS_ tOO 'seH intercs[ed'_ [00 marked, in their Style, by the haste of their acquis o ill iti n. avour of more 'fundamen tal' and also more 'gr:.ltuitous' knowledge In I f whole hO$t of mar ers, from [he major state examinations to ediwtill bolrds, from job interviews [0 garden puties. the cultur:.ll produCllonul the petit,bourglis habitus are subtly discredited because rhey rc:caJ1 11d acquisillon in matters in which, more [han anywhere dsc:, the impomM thing is to know without ever having learnt, and benusc: the seriouSId with which they are offered reveals rhe e{hical dispoSitions from whd they How, which are Ihe antithcsis of the legitima[e relation 10 cultulCTIle petit bourgeois do not know how to play the game of (ulture:!IS ' game. They take culture tOO seriously to go in for bluff or impostUre: 01 even for [he distance and casualness which show IrUe familiartty; ' sc:riously fO escape permanent fear of ignor:.lnce or blunders, or (0 $I

y ::

a "

etIart

':::

that, brought own to irs siplot and 'odell 10 Ihe parish pridt, " to culrure ( Culture IS I . ( SUbl'me expression' i[ amounts to a rdalun/ IIlg cuIture a , orgotten everylhlllg, ). 16 Mak (IIoS remacns when you've f . f;!lat and dealh, truth and falsehood, rhey cannot suspeo::t the .11r of life . , _ off handedness and even rhe hId )(10: 'bl (11nOns' e self-assur:ance, fhe insolent . . <! essay n by the meresl page 0f an IIlSptre presu >f" !< oishootSry nnot have th amtl. men, [h y ca Jd'y, art or liter:.llurc. So:lf-ma . hberllCS and audaclfld of " re:lallon to culture which authOrizes thc iar ho ale linked to il by bmh, rhat IS, by nature and essence, thoS' W

pit'

pposed

intensifY ?f

csled in the relation to culture, such u the con, " ISpo,1[ions manif ft>e d' . . ,or r nformity which induccs an anxIOus quO[ authOrlflCS and : conduct and leads to a choie of sure and certified produls winners). 01 III the relatlon to language, wllh (sUCh as classics and prize: overshoots the mark nt" which . M -dency " hy r-corr tion, I viligan{e . . . fear of f2l1ing ShOff and pounc($ 0". IIIlguISllC. mcorrmess, III onefoI wllh mOr:.ll IIlcorrtness). arc tho: ItIf and 0,"'" (:as it dOd dsewhere I ". . (1)' same 0,, w hi,h are manifested in reIallon 10 e{h 1($, 90'11 h an a.most 0f It, to e insa[iable thitsl for rulcs of conduct wich su jecrs rhe whole . tful conform, i rigorous dscipline, or in relation to pohllCS, WIth the respeo:: . ete revolutlon ism or pruden! reformism which ale {he dcspa'r of ac5lh. uies The llue nature of the cui [ur:.Il accumulation str:.ltegles of upwardly m ile po:11t bourgeoiS, or thcir educational slr:.ltgies, i mOSt clearly seen in rho: context of their whole set of str:.lteglCS, whteh dearly ex plCSS<:S rhe necessity underlying the characteris[ic dispositions f the . pnll-boulgeois habilus-asceticism, rig?ur, I ahsm, th propenSlly to y ccumulation in all its forms. Thus [hell ferllill sll1ueglts are Ih()SC of a pr:ople who can only achieve their initial a<xumulation of economic and I"Ilhural capiul by restricting their consumpllon, so as 10 conc ntrate all thea resources on a small number of descendams, wh()SC role IS fO (on,

Slope and Thrust

ob

Cloue che: group's upward tr:.ljCCtory.

lIS ioW"51 point

culture with k;d ' :, ,,. , ; '

ous

f ercility is high among low-income glOUps, falls 10 in the middle-income groups, ami rl$C5 191tn aong hlgh , (Ome groups. If [his is so, it is becausc the ,:dative C051 of ( lld-rear1l'lg . 1'11(1'1 IS small for bo.h low_income and hlgh-1I'I{ome groups, stnce the for m.r cannOt sec a future for [heir children [hat is different from their pres tnt, and theref ore resuict the:,r inVe5[menU, while rhe: lauer have incomes to lTla ',h llleir commitments-is highest for Ihose with middle incomes, I,c,., rhe middle cla $SCS whose social ambitions lead ,hem to make high <:du lOr1al inve slmenls r b [i ve to [heir resources_ This rela[ive COS! is dtfined 'ho: ra.io be,ween [he family's resources and the mone.ary or. non-mono:' l I a 'flv"!unenrs il has co make in o.-.ie. ro n:-produce, 'hrough "5 off-

h IS wdl known {h11

I.;.'

T blt ..

am (nc.ion

24 Chans o( cntc.ing the domin.n, do", and rc"ili,y

,ion, 1970-7l.

""ts.

Office wo,kcrs Commcn::i.1 employ= Sm.ll shopkrs Jnior utivts

Urukillnl Fllmers Smu.pilkd Skilled Foremen C"'('5mcn

flfm workers

Ch,nco of seem 10 dom,n,n. elU$'

"
" "

by CIlSI ""

by (..he.', occupltion. b, ve",g u.mbc of chidt,n per cpletC 'mily: from G, Calm and J c. . ,lIe, Nup"'lnc C' iondtt, scIon Ie m,lteu $O('<xu!twd" Er_" tI 511111<1.,.,. fI (Octobe. 1971), 28. c, Calm .nd o.,vil1e give . (,rtili.y rote of 1 .92 rOf c",('smen ,nd shopkeepel'l .... !O'het 8u' i, CUI be sho...n 'hit ,he {cftilily of c"'("men i. con,idc,.bly hip ,hon ,h., of ,hopkrs. An.lysis of the 1968 <enlul (which confifms ,II< di...... .ion (ound here) shows thot the ,,,,{umen are m uch cloK. to m.nu.1 wo.kers .... .rc the IDopkeepe ,II< a""",8" numoo 0( ehildrm under 16 per housch.old il l " (01 m.n..,1 "'OI1<e... 1.01 (0' c"'('5mm, 0.88 rOf office and shop wo.kers d o,n for shopkpers.
v

Thnietans Pt,mory 'ochers IMulI",J employers Big commercial =p F.IIgiMm Scn'OI Cu"vn Son<Ury ,nd highe.-cd. tochers Pro(mion,

19.2 '" n.) '"

12.0 1M

IIl9
10.6

" ,6

"

-;;;;
...,.
l.,)
24! ,

--'" 'n

.oJ6'C .' I"'r: bt< Y

f manual workcrs. is 2.0<1 as .gainst only 1,83 for privlte-5CClor r on o :'O.kers. who 3fe ,lmO$I .1I nonm.nual). In ,he middle (,nd much more hances of mobility Ire incomparably gtcr at iimum (oscillating l i,y rat($ rem,in han theil irn::omcs), feni . . c in the dom.tn.n! class, t f rftl"y rate nsc:s 1.67 :and . in. shOWing .hlt b,oIoS,ol reprodUCIIO docs not fulfil .he. ott 1 aga .he system of rcproducuon stra,egleS of ,hese Uteg<lflCS, sI, nedon in h,ve 10 IIJIImlam .heir position.
I

2.10 ,
". ".

, ,

lr . ,110 SJ,nCon

I.I);

classes.. dIS'

},.O

1 71 161

}'.6

'"

a. f'{)ffl C.S. I I (1970) Pt::rcen.. probability, for men, ofenming dominl_

'"

42.0 '27

'"

, ..

o : 'pSychological' boost 10 Ih force of their econmic ad cultural . . I Having succttdcd In esc.pt ng from the prolcta!tat, thetf past. nd "'P;;; 10 en ter the bourgeosie,. thei. futurc. in order to ach ieve the n n:. up mulation ncccsury for IhlS fiSC they muSt wmewhere find thc KC , 10 makc up for the abscnce of capital. This addition.1 force ltaje(lory which is the pre so;hruSt inscribed in Ihe slope of Inc past of the futun: implied in that lr2jcctOry, can ndition for achievement . ro t t i ng power, tha, LtS eerted neg.tively, as a limiting and rcs. r(li only as can only be mC2SurW in thc form of neg:mvc magntludes . Kant would have put ii, whether 'savings'-refuscd ependiture-Qr birth COntrol. If rising petit bourgeoiS can an as if Ihey had better chanccs Ihan they have (or,.t least, beller than they would be if .hey did not believe them 10 be better) and so ac!llally improve them, Ihis is be

"

I! 's

p:ir:odoxic1 charac.erislic of the pellt bourgeois tht .heir prac . ted 10 objeclivc chanccs which Ihey would not have if they IS adjUS on of having them and if they did nOI Ihereby I have Ihe pretensi
.

':ccs

dfcclS
Clsc

thir dispositions lend 10 reproduce not the position of which (hey .rr; (lie product. but the slope of their individual or collective soci)1 Ira jlt'Cto!),. tr2nsformed into In inclin)tion whrtby this upward lr2jcctOry

.ends to be continued 3nd com ple ted. A sort o f "hlll ptrst'!'t'TaMI, as Leib ntl pu. i" in which past tf1ljcctory is conserved in the form of 3 striving tOWltrds the {utun: which prolongs it, it delimits 'reasonable' ambitions

spring, its--<lyn.mic.lIy ddined-position in ,he soci.l struCture, ,hat IS, 10 achieve thc future it expec.s, by giving i,s children ,he mans of fulfillJl!l thc effective .mbi,ions it has ror them, This epl.ins ,he form of t!>t rea.. 'on' tionship obsc:rvro 'wn ,he f ({ility of ,he different cI.sses or fr:tc!. C .nd ,he ch.nccs of upward mobili.y objectively .vailable to ,heir mem (S uble 24). The working classes. whO$(" ch.nccs of entering the d()/ll" n.n t d.S$ wilhin tWO genef1l,ions are virtu.lIy nil, h.ve very h igh /C'hq .. ratCS. which sligh tly line as .he chanccs of in ter.gtneradonal mob,h crase, As soon as ,he ch.n(cs of accns to the domin.nt class . ...h ' amount' 10 the same thing, 10 ,he in"rumen" which can as .he higher<ducation syslem) InCh cenain thresOOld. and office workers, f ertility (nility ratCS fall markedly (the f Utegorize.! u p"blic,or 'office workcrs', .mong wOOm ,here i

'1

and Ihctdore ,he price 10 be poid '0 ralizc this ralislic .mbition. 1bc tts",s peti,e bourgeoisie endlessly remakes ,he hiStOry of the origins of c'l'u.lism; and to do so, like the Purit.ns, il can only count on itS :LS((ti (1$111. In soci.1 exch.nges. where o(her people can give r()1 guarantees, Illoncy, cultun: or connections, il can only offer moral guaranlCCS; (rela. Itly) y poor in cconomic, cultunll .nd social capital, il can only 'justif pretensions', and get the chance 10 rl!:llize them, by p.ying in sacri pnvuions, renunciations, goodw il l. recognition. in shorl. vinue, si the f!':letions richesl in economic capital, i.e., sm.lI and medium a l f t shopkttpcB, craf smen or sm.lI landowners, concemratc their cf S (r at least, did so until f .irly recently) o n saving, wherC2S lhe: frac t lrl.ns flChcs, in eu l tural capita] (junior cxecutives .nd clerical worke,,) nl m t Y .ke usc of .he educ"ional system. in both cases they invest in t C(on omic .nd educational s,ratcgics the ascctic dispositions which

He has changed firms several limes: '/ would spc-nd rwo ynrs in a firm 10 Inm all rh<cre wu ro be learnr and rhen I'd move on. TIm's ho';" I've worked my way up.' In rhe JaSI Ih= )'I'"\Irs, he hu $pCdalitcd in building design. In 1966 he staned ro f ollow courses a! rhe CNAM (Centre Nadonal dc:s ArTS C! Uri rs)_'11 (OiJeague gave me rhe Ideo.. lis he had alWllys wanted to do inlCrior decoration (his father had n againsr it when h<c "'U rOungt"f) , he decided 'to rry and gt"1 IntO architecture' and 'began to take courses in archilCClural dc$ign': 'Thu's ho... , moved into Ih<c build. ing mde . . .' His sister, who is studYIng to be an archlleClural Sttrc. lary, told him aboul 'loIS of archi. ICCIS' offices and Ih<c armosphcrc in them.' So he has studied archilec. turc, the lIisrory of architrurc, consrructioo ('thanks 10 ...hieh I gol a p12cc in an enginring con. suluncy') .nd has 'anorher five )'I'"\Irs to go' I( lhe CNIIM.

'An<xher five year, (0 go at Ihl'" CNAM'

)acques C, aged 29, is a draughls, . man In an cnginttring eonsulranc1. AI Sttoodary school he slUdied in rhe rhnica! $!ream and lerr school al 17 afler obuining Ihe equivalenr of lhe probuionary industrial rfllin. ing diploma ('II isn'l an eamina. lion'). He slmed as a junior dfllughrsman, ar -4)Q francs a monrh, in Ih<c firm wh<crc his farher was a senior rhnician. He was nor raken back afrer his military service, and h<c joined anodlCf firm, $fill U I draughlSman.

A Technici:m Who 'Tries to Get on'

They live in an apartment In tht wcslCrn suburbs of Paris; they do rIOt ofren enremin ('apart from .. . fam,ly . . . ...e haven't gO! many friendi'). He likt"$ his home ro br 'comforrable, Ihafs the maIO tmar: 'cosy', 'homey' ('I like a nice __ (osy atmosphere'). He would like . have 'I bit more room all rhoe O same'. but 'Ih<crc 1lC li:"'lfs r wbIr we Cln afford.' Their f urnuure (a big divan 'from Rochc-l30bois. 7,(#J francs in lhe 5111'"$'. a sideboard bought from an interior decoratOr who reduced the price for them. 3,000 francs) "'as boughl on hire pUKhuc (insl1l1ment plan) ovet' the course of two years. He likes 'modern things' and would h:aYl'" liked ...hile f urniturc' but doeS nOI like the English Style his w,(c fa vours (she would like to ow "' ' ) dresser ....ilh :I collection of pbtd As t!Cg,mh painting, he 'h:lS_ .. prcconccplions . . . it just has somerhing rhar pleases me' 'very fond or Mooigliani. his vd'f

'Comfortable, COSy, homey'

His wife (whose falhcr is 1 man and her moth<cr a store sales assisl1nl) is lasl five years she has bttn . ruy wllh Renault. She got nJaur6u (rechnical and ,, oplions), followed by a man ment secretary's diploma ). . lhen started work u a 'secrel a . (,Shalt we say ir"s a long .... y ... _ what we were promised. ' . The . bosse, don't know how ro of r qualficalions and tralnl " n. WI'" ve stud,ed la.... You don'l t 5 at sehool until you're 21 wirhou IJ Jn ning a rhing Ot r,.,o, and t we rl'" tak en on as shorthand typ iSIS.')

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hty Intlngs were reptodu(!ion rn l'e seen :.c, or mlybe I"ve bern some jo)f to pJ' , p:!ris . . . Ilttm eh;bil;on at the of n mber of. I remembet, one d laIS. , . painting, I didn't
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modem ....nolher painter 1 really \r ' \in Gogh. his pictures are can feci somerhrng Ing you (His ...ife :also rcffI u in them.' h rs. She went to bo' n e lmplCSsioni ' - hkes t ' PiC:a5S0 ehlb11100 and -,ovro ole of the Blue 1i1 pari. lhoe wh

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10 The courses he is liking, 10 'rry , ab get 011. ro achie-vl'" somerhing' sorb much of the litde spIte lime he has He lCllvt"$ for work ar eight

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In 1M morning and gt"tS back at It"I'1l rn the evening. T....o or three ncnings :I ....eek, Ind Saturday momings. h<c S!udies (u well u his CNAM COUfSCS, he is laking privlle malh lessons It home). So he 'n'l have much rime for read Inti, <:SpIIJly rnding for plosure'; ...h.t ho: dO(S rnd 'Icnds to be tech nlcal Or scientifIC. and so on. ro I.:rm $Omcrhing.' He likt"$ 'books ....th lots of acuon' and hu reo.<! :.dvtntu re sroric-s' ('CouSlCllU, . 0. 1 kno... If you un ull rhll w:l.r stories' ('books I rho: Second World Wlr :air ba ks".l He 'used to enjoy hilOry bu t 'hlsn't gol many hislor ieJrl . Ia. I...ove stories don'l inte, <:11 ar all, 1 couldn't say why.' s'n 'h:ts lost enrolled al rhe CNAM. he r rho: tUI( for rI'"lIding': "you .... """, ': Ot'"-r thlOgs, you nn't ...du. , . h" e lth SOmething <liffelCnt. you n t gol rhe rime.' (His wife,

who likes books Ihat 'have $OffiC"o Ihing to do with medicine' or 'raise morll <juc-srions', has recently bttn rI'"lIding Boris Viano Sh<c found L'tt1l_ iks jqlm 'very funny' bur wl$ less kttn on La,...Mhr-rotur; h<cr husblnd 'didn't like ir at Ill.') 'Whl! with Ih<c nighr<luscs and Ihe eums', Ihey 'h1rdly nt OUI 11 all la 1 wmter'; a bit more, recently. 5 O<cuiooally lhey go to Ihe cinema because 'il's osy, you nn go to the pi(rurcs ...henever you fed l ike it, Ind il isn'l tOO epc-nsive, jusl ICn francs. We rry 10 choose: good films, all lhe same. "" don't just tum up like rhat, we read up a bil before we go.' He 'likes Westerns, adventure films. films wilh an exciling plot' but 'doesn'r have any rI'"lIl prefer. ence, so long u it's a good film, ell made, ""II directed.' He reo ... cemly saw '1n lillian lilm thlt wu totally absurd. a nun on a roof try ing to fly into the lir, an industri, alisl selling oR" everything h<c owned

c ::"I1c'), r::!o

Perhaps it's a psychological im1gt", but il only means sometlling 10 a (ert:lin typc- of penon.' Besides, 'Ihe economics STudentS and math" mlricians, Ind propk like rha!' wilh whom he saw Ihe film 'didn't un dersnnd any mot!C Ihan I did . . . I don'l really s whq c:ln undef$tand lilms like thaI.' They hive seen TIN 51;"'t: 'Whal we liked lbout ir w:I.S the :Kling, lhe characters," his wi(c M explains; she 11so enjoyed Tht G ' f alhto-, 'especially Mulon Brando's pc-rformancc.' In some ways he is 'conservative', ....ilh a !aSIC for 'classicil things': yer h<c 'hu an anri<onform'SI Slmk, lOll': 'When you're young, you don'r give I damn, you'" Inti..::on formiS! . . . yout!C always a little bit, I wouldn't say re\'()lurionary, but you wouldn't mind seeing a thing or twO changed: He relds lJ un

a.d Enchainl becausc he 'likes rhe revclarions abour people in govern_ men!, ,he scandals and so on, in polirics and Ihe properry marker and high nnance. u NOII"'/ ObltrTlaltll' 'parriwluly for foreign neW$', bUI he docs nOr regularly read , daily paper. They'd cenainly pur some work in' Un!il this year. rhey had season rickers a! lhe Thiirt( de la Ville: 'lr's nor epensive. Ihar's impolfanr; Ihe Open, all rhe rhcatrc:s in flCt, are OUI of our prkenngt: ('I ....an!ed to go and sec Nurcycv and I found il ''''is more rhan 90 fnnes f r !....o. We had second IhoughlS o and didn't go', his ....ife adds. Befort she rook Ihe bac she u ed to go to the ThCilre Narional Populaire, lind sa.... HamIll, TiN Mad WO/llAn o f ChaillOl, 1 xt(II{iOllW'S Song. . . . ) M They enjoy ballel (c:spccially 'cia$S;' cal dance'): 'The Moisscyev Baliel, no...., we really liked Ihar. They'd cerninly PUt some ....ork in: They have also been to bailers at the ThCitre de la Musique (ncar Ihe . CNAM: 'It ... I$nt classical dan", ht bUI it was very good: 'It ....as T Firtbird,' his ....i eplains, adding 'You fel! rhey'd ....orked al it, Ihe work lly uood out' (she also likc:s 'Frrnch provincial f olklore , " in fan. folk dances from every coun rry'). AI lhe llicalt(, he likes plays rO be well:Io(led', He ....ould like 10 go and sec the Gnnd Magic CiUIIS; he hl$ secn extnCls on TV. Almosr ",cry year lhey rake rheir holidays in in ('It's cheap'; his falhcr is Spanish and hl$ a seaside

rea

" " " ." " " ." " " " " " " , "I

give a damn!'

aplfment ( On holiday qUlle II lor and, his wife I him, 'goes 10 nighldubs " n ight: He has tried w r a cr s (his wife docs it a 101) '8 "'I - Ul III good ar it, I haven t gOI en my legs_ You n "" wenglh keep nt aU ycar to do it. [ do.J. 1. 1 arrive on holiday compleld ....hacked. If I had a shone ....eek I'd have more leisure I and then I uSC rhe time [' get beller at my job . . . YouSOt .. 10 be cnly ro ca.ry on 'he do:. 'Ril?ht nov.: I lly feel I to Itve hke a mIllionare I'm i . the dally rou"ne. even sick of hal. days of the sorr ".-c have. [ wan . I .,' _ . . a ml 10na1(e. wirh a vasr or-. "" v.: f ornI, a s. ir:nming pool, a big sporrs faClhILes, lennis: His ..iii: 'would like !O go on a cruiS(": 'We'd ?O som fishing, have I ..... ....,th frrends. he around in rhe .... dance, read.' She particularly en.... their Club M&lirerran holiday ill Rum ni . They chose Ihe 'motd format': 'It's comfortable bUI II " same time you (ecl pan o( Ihi. you make friends easily, i.'s or ... a hOlcl ....here you can'l gr to propJc . . . Everything is ....ithin ., reach: While they we thCfC. rbef did I bit of tourism, becausc 'wid you're in a forrign (oun'ry. you have ro look around'. he adds. He didn'r II all like 'Ihe organilCfS ... rude': 'Mosr ",enings, there _ . show pUI on by rhe "Friendly Organizers", who arc gtnerallY sru<knts ...ho arc rhc on hoi, day. Well, rhey didn'l pUI any cveII effOrt into it 11 all, it W1$n'r improvisJlion. Ihey JUSt didn't

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the idelll clientele of the bank o. the school: cultural good them fI" ' d finncial prudence, seriousness and hard work. These are guann to these inslitutions while pUlling till h Ihc petit bourgeois offers J hic re6 entirely jlr their mercy (as opposed to the owner of taJ e<:onomic of deriving !(IISCltural capilal) since !hey represent his only hope fundamenrally negative 1SSCtS. Prerension could be wrincn IS from to continue along thc upwud inclinalion has nsion': the thrust Jit and in all the 'mall.minded. side in t economiing menfa the pem.oourge01s V"tues. If pre-tensIon forces the rt' , iated wllh 10 enler !he competition of amagonistic prrlensions and boUrgeois his means, at the (t f permanenl him 10 live always beyond . . ....hat S is always hable: to explode mto agg!"CSIVtty, It tS also that every gh !he necessary $Irtngth 10 extract from himself, throu -cs him and t.hlthusianism), ular. asceticism of sclfxploi!ation (in >rtic and cuhunl means he nC'C'ds in order to rise. he economic of sociability and thc corponding satisfactions that It LS in !he arca ces. bourgtois makes thc grcatcsr, if nor the most obvious. sacrifi rhe pc!it that he owc:s his position soldy 10 his own merit, and He is convinced has himself to rely on: 'Every man for him o thaI f r his salvation he only concenrr:l.lc his effortS and reduce !tlf, 'A man's homc is his castle.' To which hinder his in hIS COSIS, he will break the tics. even the family lies, help 10 chain the (rrla. dlvidual ascension. The bonds of solidarity which (Y an erernal nvely) lel$t deprived 10 the mosl deprived can make povef VICious circle. 'Taking off' always presupposes a break, and the disowning ormcr compnions in misfortune is only one aspect of this. Thc soli off 111)' renegade has to reverse his whole lable of values, convert his whole or mirude. Thus, $ubs(iruring a small bmily or a single child f the large ftmily (which the negative cuSC$, such s inadequate masrery of the lechmques of birth control do not entirely cxplain) means renouncing rlJr populu conception of f amily relations and thc functions of the do mesric unit. abandoning not only the s(isberions of the eXlended family es- 1IId a ....hole tnditional mode or sociability, with its e(hangcs, ilS r rIVI", its ,conAiers, but also the guarantccs ....hich it offers, rhe one ai t Infalhble prorcclion, especially for mothers, against !he uncertain of o!d age, in a world haunted by domcstic instability and soci)1 and . ml 1I C lSCCUriIY. For !hc pctit bourgeois, kinship and friendship can 110 ger be an insur:lncc against misfortunc and di l$ter, a net....ork of S and protection ....hich will al....ays provide a helping hand. a l03n Or bUI !hey are not yet 'conncctions', i.c. the social capital that is make the mosr of econom ic and cultural capital. They are IIItrtIy Indnnc es. ....hich ha"e to be removed ....halever rhe COS!, because (lie ra . udc, the murual aid, !he solidarity and the marerial and sym ht bot h ac Iilrbl . sf tions they give, in rhe short or long lerm, arr among the , d....n luxuri . . r llLtt rr ng his family, often to an only son, on ....hom all hopes and

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p roli fici[y of [he proleta ia [he pelit bour , 'chooses' I"C$tric[ed, lective reproduCtion, of(Cn limiled a ingk U t, conceived and shaped for the rigo rouly selective expectallOns of:: importing class. He encloses him self in a lightly knit b I narroW U . somewhat oppressive nudar family. It is no accident [hat [he ad,ecuc ",tit (small) or one of ils synonyms can bo: applied [0 e"eryth in bourgeois sa s, thin ks, docs, has or is, even [0 his moral;[)', ahho gh is his Slrong poinf: tric t and rigorou s, its formalism and scruples makt' i t some....hat (Cnse, scepfib e and rigid. With his "y OE' peny ntt-Os, rhe petit bourgeois is in a bourgeois ""fIt small . "" his bodily hexis, which cxpresses f"'I his ....hole objeCtive re:la[ion to [he cial world, is th.a[ a man who has 10 make himself mall l0 . th ro h [ht' S[r:ll! ga(C ....hl(h lad s (Q Ihe and sobC't discrttf and seve , in W his specch, his gCS[urt'S and bo:aring, he always lacks somethi ng in Stalure:, bread[h

cks on Proudhon ) : II relalCS rhe pro pcnics of the habllus, _ most of I len picked on by dau racism, such ::IS 'pretension' Or 'narr O"'ncss' 10 [he objective conditions of ....hic h [hey ue [he produ , Those ....ho c.:. aff ord less surly virtues and p resent a mor prepos e 5Cssing face forger rhal Ihe ltails Ihey condemn ue the inev itable counterparl of [he me chanisms ploviding for individual mob ili[y, i.e" [he seleclive nmcrio n of app[opriur individuals, and they speak as if the 'vice$' and 'virtues' of [he rem bour grois ( ....hich-need one repeu?-<lle only definffl as such in relalion 10 !he dominant ethic) ....ere, in [his case , [0 bo: impU[ffl lO rhe individu als aDd nOt 10 [he Ilrucrurcs, on Ihe gro unds Iha[ [he structures have lef, [hem fre e 10 'choose' [heir alien uion.
'

lilt [i[ urgrois $ ma in rnli[y an no , ioJogl.JX;s mmd, IlItn iI[ ISsclnlrl bourlpsuld be lost bydabantdjuS! In lhe Sl ha wo cqll 'pt'lit bourgeoIS' in [he nam lhe .. e of an objt'clivisl definition oning I' -. of obi '"!ere clsewhe, naTive eo CJl.ls conce H:I.[ e . num Clologl(ally pt'rll nr prop:tllcs In a p (ubrly[he maximumm, ber .. l evocative for ,"?rc, an objt'c[ifying re:uct!Of1, howec Further, r brutal, has nothing in cOmlllOn """h dIU contempt, ....hl(h IS lIagranr so much writing on [he pcli bourgeoisie, the dillO al ....hlpping boys of acs[he[icizing prophe cy ancI [I!(- favourite tuget for pol i tical anathemas (one onl y has [0 think of Marx s at[a
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drons arc concentr:lted, the pt'tit bourgeois is simply obe ying the of on !r:lin s impl ied in hi ambiti on. If he cannot incrca his he must lim i t his eXpt'nditure, the number of mo ths he has to in so doing, he additionally confor ms to [he dommant legitimate f iliry, thar is, prO ert Crt'2.tion subordinated [0 [ social rcproducrion, Binh cOntro l is one f m (no doub o [he menury form) of n me r s cla usus. The pt'lit bo rgeo is i 2 who makes himself small [0 bcc omt' bourgeois.

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,h level of snlistical ggregation , one can "' " On .. SUlllCICnt y hI . . s g'Y bourglls C[hos 0'oase' a confiden relallon 10 Ihe wor'd ,od 'fl1 [ a , ,.,.s ' IZC ced as necessary Ihat is as a malemr d which a , ,r:, hU :' [he 11 d v"h , w h ich 1. " ,,,ncc 0 1$ an . r_ r Iel 'f orms of ""Iillldo $Ill' casualness, grace, ; '"tty, eO'rtC, ot malll est f
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t t S s sup""r: and ;u[horizcs all . .In a WO l , natu raln ' with a pem""urgwtS eIhoscle, ['Itt of d r , dom, . 0, the lied bUI . _ "', [he vol un taristic ngour r ICtIon Ihrough prclenslon, s[t emuuuy onc day what ' wno base [hcir prctCnSlon ,.of )'C[ 'ch Imanenl invocation of ough['. HOI, soon as : 'I)1Ighl lO . , . , n rha[ this sys[t'm of d[5pOSlIIons takes oo n Iy51S IS rc 111 =, I[ IS . . . ?I pa ng [ l ss i'IC' , y modali ties as. [hen: an: ways of a aini ng SI::Iylng , ",an . . . ,, h 1 mluu e position In [he social Structure, and Ihal [hiS poslIIon . . o Ihr ug
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Vtlritmts of Petit-Bourgeois Taste

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data coIIec[ffl for heImiddle classes (n .. '83 individuals) ....ere ing rhe same se<juence of op:r ions and Inll)1C<l for co rrC$'()I1de,, sJvc yariables as for [ he dominant class ung ,hc same lCIIYc an or (sec chplel ). Th r,IISI /:lC has a grc;lter rduive weighl thin in [he Inllysis of Ihe domll1an[ Iass 7 recm as a lin!r .4 percen[ fo. [he sec ()rld factol and ' perccn[ I e d) This s no doubt because the (om pos on of [hIS factol mc1udcs nI" oniY [he Structure of Ihe capi[al posses . of hich nOI com sed bUI also I\e:t ra\vO ffi;ue:dt:I:; i:Ce/fccl latiness ofisdefIning [he arbil pk'dy Mu[ra Iz y r e I e 'd limit! of Ihe class, both on Ihe S1 t f 'hC c ultural pole whtre Iht cultural lose 10 [he second ry [caehers, mig'hr have bo:cn ex. v y c . . I' , h eluded, and on [he Side of thc cconoml PO ....hele il is ncver easy, 1",I.bl" informarion, 10 dnw rhe lIIl" IWCC 'b'g' and 'small lihClp' ; keepers 0< (..flsmen. (lkcausc of [hili, the p,ane a m-figurcs 1) and . . ' k as I[ :lppe:trs 16---prcscnlS itself IS a sys eml c S eWIIlg of [he SOCIal . ....hich volume and strUClure In lhe Iheo.(IIul Khema-fig res an of capltll mrres nd 10 '....0 dIfferent d,men slons, ....hert'2.S here: the first f:!c. . , . IOf Cor"
Tht survey

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I

,t

and works (2.7 per<:tm), (he choice of ""orks c1p:;1bk of pC ( 1 9 Cr(eie<l 1s itSirim1tC Ihrough all allodoxia cffl. such as fhe B/lI' p I>C"M8bt (2.8 pcrttnr) or L'/Jrlisltf"'r (I., percenlj, singtr$ 2wxiared wilk IJ.'nope"" uch itS GU"!3!Y (1.6 percent). and Ihe most 'common' prefer. bg/l' (SUCh itS for :I 'ck:m and lidy', to mirlla'n' inlenor). (A re (daTive CQnlribu!iom, we find ,hac fhe adje<rivcs chosen for the ,he F! I In(erlor arc re strongly cpI1 by firs! r:.CIr {he , . . ' in particular. 'h3!mOmous . ,studued 3nd lma8m1 I"e . 11fcd , . 01 r (wo: (ullul":I.l pole. nd 'dnn and tidy. 'C'tiy to maIntam :lSSO( 1 ted h (he o:<onomic pole, ThtS also applies to the clloice of fninters like ...:l Kandinsky.) II.no" a eprojtion of Ihe ill.ustt:live vlrilles. shows tha,t. as wllh the domtnant . . al<: d,strlbuled m hnnr f1.lh,on along the eduational IS ; terms of individuals, Ihe t IS (whIch is 1'101 the (ase with il'lcoma). filSt f:actOf opposes the cl":I.frsmen lnd small hopkeepers to Tile members of t e new petite boUTgcoisie rlcllest ,n cultul":I.l capilal (cultul":I.l internl< h dmlCS, medical and social services) lnd. secondarily. to the primary tnch elS, ",ith 11K technicians nd junior execuriyO occupying Inlcrmcdille
,J!"-(C

r(cm), 'r1lStic' fri'md (2.0 percenr) and 'sludiro', 'imag" Is' (Z,4 pc jChOO . inu:rior. On 1m, Ofher side, low (0 10 6) knowle<lgt of comf>OM:r$

(C(nI)

<;J:

'e2$y

:.::II I\1e
I

fan by .

quahllcallons

In

' ,c,

,! 1 " ,' -} '1 , .- _ ' , r

plSillonS "The sond fl"or systematically chll":1.cterizo the mOSt tl":l.dirional or (on Sf",ative ethical or latheti' disposiliol'ls: 1111(hmem to Ihe old. consecl":l.led " Iucs;n fninting. with Raphael (2.6 percenl). Leonardo (2. peteem), or Wattnu (1.6 percent), lS in classical music, ",itll LA Tr(l-;(lI(I (2,4 percent) Of song, w"h Mlriano. and also in life--sryle. with the t1Ste for tl":l.ditional french cooking (2. peKei'll ) . a 'neat' (2,} percen!) and 'harmonious' (1.6 petcrnt) does so by opposing thcm to disposiTions which =m 10 have nothing in common exccpt ignol":l.nce or refusal of Ihe cslablished percent-Alnlvour-3. per values (wirh preferences for percent-for a 'warm' inrerior-l,6 percent_nd 'lmUS' Ing' fnends-2.9 percent). (Amol'lg the indicators more Sirongly explained by 1110: sond (lctor. one finds the: opposition: on Ol'le the 'COI'I' Kl(rlliou,' or pl":l.gmltic' friend. on ,he o,lI(r Iht 'determined' friend, de :11,".s,ore f umiture, fl":l.ncolsc Hardy. or the: judge-mel'll. 'Pail'ltil'lgs n 1 Interest me.") WIleI'l the 'objeclive' ehlllClCrisdcs lre proiu:d as iJiusll":I.live yariables, Illey show IlIal, as in the case of the dominanl tlSIC, the second facror ex an OPPOS;I;On by ageol<lcsl are at Ihe tOP of the =ond axis lowards Ihe economic pole. Ihe yOUngesl al the bol1om of Ihis axis lnd ( 07Ir .rhe cul,ut:l.l pole) and. inscp.at:l.bk from Ihis.. 11'1 opposition by so. 'l oflg!n: Ihe children of big or mall employers. scnior executives or pro arc siluJled on tilt posilive,vllue side, Ihe children of manual r olh elS. clerinl workers or junior exut;vt$ on ,he negarivevllue side. In r ....ords. within each { (1ion, the second flC10r COnll":l.StS those who are ( 1":I. 10 de'cline and those ....ho are rending 10 lise: ,he ovtl":l.lI disrribu lioo 0 Ihe Iff renl Cllegolics corresponds ro Ihe proporrions of (he twO 8 qlt _ Inltr 0'!CS wlrhm each of lhem, ....ith Ihe oppos;,;on belWttn rhe tn(:d"flCS or tht junior administrative ,"cculivcs, who indine lo....ards

interior. It

Ctnl-Bufb-2.3

Hll1yday-".4 5anl<

silk

;1'1

{the

:1:lls
Inf

culrul":I.l

Ihe positive side, lind the commercial employees or the ret3ries' "h, '. dille lO....aros the negitiV( sid.:. Finally, :u in !I>e case of the dominlnt cI:w ....tu:n: it oppost'd the . sionals, in whom 'bour geoi IUIC' is fully dcveloptd, to the IW() fla " Or.:. s f OII;s ....hich nt d'J(C cxtrrmes of the dominant cultunl space (tc 'li inldkCluab on ont hand, industrial and commc:rcial employers on th iIIId ocher), the third (<>etor opposn th<c fractions which most, and m05t c pklcly. I modal chutcri5'ic5 of til( ....hole <lass, the ones . best Ontrut II wah the other classes, sho.t, the most typically ' ml . . nngc ones, to the (nC!lons w,\h leas! cuhural capital, j,e., the <rafUmC'l! and shopkttpers. and to those who have mOSt, i.e., the cuhul1lJ inter diaries and primary teachers (see figure 17). The indices of avenge c competcn:. such as avenge knowledge (7 to I I ) of musical works (40'" pc.wu) and avtrage knowlwge 0 ro 6) of composers (2.9 po:rcent) , !he !IS!e for !he most Iypically middlbrow cultur:l.l goods, uch :IS (2.9 po:rcenr), Bullet (\.7 po:rcenr), Van Gogh (1.9 po:rcem j, Leonardo (4 pef(em). ;111 K irint NlMhlmIlJ; (1.9 po:f(enrj, arc opposed. on rhe one: hand. !O the indices of high knowlwge (12 or more) of works (2.2 pet. (ent) and comp<crs (4.0 percenl) Ind a IUIC (or more Icgilimare "'orles hk( the Arr FlIglit (2.2 po:rcem), and on !he olher hand ro the f indic" 01 10'" kno",lwge (0 to 2) of work (3., pereen!) and composers 0., pet. cem) and a !2$te for lhe II legitimau: works and singer.;, such as Guttuy (Vi rcent) or Hallyday (1.9 percent). (Thc indiu!or.; strongly explaoned . by Ihls th"d factor are all among those which make high absolute com,.. tions and so have alre:.dy been mentioned.) Pro tion of the illustrative variables brings our. as one might eXpI. opf'O$llIon belwcen the holder.; of medium qualifications (BEPC or ba,," !.u.cat) and thOSoe wi,h lower (CEP or C,",P) r higher qualificarions; this O 1$ com binw with an opposition between rhOSoe origin.ring prwominanll, from the middle d:m and those from the working or upper duscs_ 'Aver age culture' is thus mOSt characteristic of the primary thers, tc<:hniclllll, people in the mediul and social services, and lunior adminislr:l.tive eu' lives.

Vartan" of p",it.J:>ou'grois
II,

fit<! plnc d,ag",m of

''; '' 'Utc. Analysi. of co'''l'nden{c'l[; .impl; ,I axes of in..,i. .nd

Buff t c

tR

Br

c...

,.11 compol"n

i", Kk,;', NiMhr"",/;;.

Van Gogh

,.11 mwicaJ ..orb

'6 rornpol""
BEPC

baalurht

Blel

;{.o

' i cultu",l " ptal + nomi< ",pilal -

[)ouai

Modern A'I Museum

Brcughtl

L'A.rlIMlllIe

p cultural ca ital -

cronOmM: npital

+'L(7,O%)

lmp,essionim

BI,,' v.""bt ptactinl

no qualif".tion. CEP. CAP 0.2 compooe's

A.,/ of F"g'" ,p F,p_T,,,,,.J o,..,i"

started higher ed.

Halliday
0-2

Gutlary

12. compose!!

mwinl ..orles

Ii<cll<e nd abo""
_

Thu mplifoed di.,.. only ;Mioc",,? . ,jabl";, which ake an m

10

_ "onal quaJlfnuon. Tho on.,. iU""mi.. _i.!>Ie Indo>ded " MUU

.u,e contribulion ofU ct

crhical dispositions roughly definable as 'consetv:at;v(' or and social origin and age, which are themselves rclared in a

I to those which distinguish [h( indumi1 and commercial (rom Ihe IOChers and arlistic producer.;. The problem brought [0 by Ihe second faClor, thu of the link belwttn the 5(IS of acslhel1C

g(ner:ally las legitimate objectS), the choices of the member.; of lhe pe lile bourisie arc organid in a SIIUC!UI'( similar 10 the one which ol' gani:tCs the tastes of the member.; of the dominanr class, with the cr:af!smen and small shopkeepers, whose posilion is based on poSSC$$iOI' of a eerlain economic opilal, being opposed 10 Ihe primary leaehers '"
cultur:l.l intermediarks in accordance with principles en!irely analOJO'"

sySlematie form ClnnOI be adequardy Cltplained simply by obscrvdlf that, although ph(nomcnally V(ry dilf'ereOl (since they are Ipplied 10

Th( whole set of futS which correspondence analysis brings to hghl .

ed by pc:nirion in ,he horizontal dim(nsion of space, can only be tickl t""een syslcmatiolly examining Ihe rei2!ionship which is CSlablishcd also SltUaied positions (or jobs) situated in social spacNune and agents In Ihis sp2.ce. . If what goes on in Ihis cenrral area of social space is gcner:ally 50 Illdc undelltood. th is is because, al best, in order 10 undellland and mcasuT( thy USing, (01 example, codes which are, by definition. d(finile), one has . . to frttl( the mov(menlS in the same direction or m oppoSite d,rt(ltons "'hi(h Il1Inspon bolh the positions and the agents. turning Ihe middle e lon of 'g social space, a site o( relative uncertainty and indelerminanc . r b C"'n the two poles of !he social classes, into a sct of mob,le crossmg pa'nIS, or r:l.ther, I 5(1 of shifling crossing'pointS where 1gents meet for a e{taln t ime as lhey are carried along by sim ilal or opposite, rising or . altng 'r.l l jcclores. We are still closer 10 rnliry if we chU'2<lerizc the i 'ltlddk POS ilions as mobi le crossing-points which movin a rei2,ively

imkl<:rmin1[(: region of a social spacNime which 1$ [he !rrUClun: of {h ordc:rro bur puriaUy disor<kring . pardy 21 leas, because: thc people who mtcl ,her( for a shoner , , o rime, '"hoS( pr:ac{tces and fr2tfOnes are paHially dClcrm' d " ' Inc . rcrmlnanons anache<l to these places. help to make them ?wn movc.mcnts or, more prcdsely, by ,he rr:ansformarions In rhe realuy or Ihe representation of rhe ,- -jlions wh' h [hey ....... Ie . ' nd wh' h In mc C they orry off in {heir move-memo This Is b as n In wlh ,he 8en[s are 'wming up' in social space , . Ing rhelr po5JUons 25 10 C25eS in which [hey '" going dowll, l'll . . d " ' down' [hClf posltlons WI[h them in Iheir dedine ([he process of 'IRBi.., . "0Il1'). It can be seen, inCidentally, ,hal ,he mechanical mc[apho one . "" ' ., 1$ 1: _ ; to use In ordcr 10 re, [0 a ["lilY which is no! easily Ilamed t ' er l e habit_ obscure Ihe facr (ha( rhe Jgenr's repn(a(ion of his or hcrow n , non, Ill'h'Ch "'" I r-nds nor only on (he objective furure of rhe posUI "" Oq L.. ' a1$0 on (he rr:pn(auon orher a-nt have of it. hdp' '0 de(erm .,- S llle" j<:((tve fulure 0f (har po5irion. " In faer. an ad...., ,,,,e u<:x ' ' 00' "_ npuOll - of . sueh a unlversr would presuppose a Cluesrioning, at every moment 01'. ' . . ' . . ' (he d' ISposluons. tncltnauons or pro....nsiries towards ,UbSlantla1lSI ' . r.. 'SOl Ihat are mxrtbed b(lIh in ordinary modes of though, and 0 , , , language and In 'he ord,?ary ,expectations of social 5Cien, w . Ie.::! to demand siner la.ssdicat,on$, groups with Strie{ fronuers. ( define.::! regards Ietr name-a perir bourgeOis has (Q be called peril borg'5--1Ind Ihelr number (prr:<ise numbe rs look so much more 'Jet. enltfic : rhus ne karns on good authorilY Ihal 'there arc at Ihe very IIIiIIII pellt bourgeois in France') '" (This is said here: to Invitt die reader s mdu,lgence for all IhC'--pCrhaps provisionally inevitablC'-tel.., In o ,he realIst mode of Ihoughr which are bound 10 appe:t.r m Ihe rCSItf Ih,s lexl,) Thus Ie middle positions in Ihe social field may be defined syneh aHy as s rualCd m an m lermediate region--<hal'aClerized by in rd.riC , IndetermInacy (the first, I.e., vertical, dimension of social 5pace)-ofoat or Ihe Iher of lhe sub-fields (Ihe second. i.e., horizontal. dimen$.lOd economIC or eul(und, of the field of the social d :tSSCS bUI also dIschlOll' call, 2S having a hislory (which may be Ihe collec(iv history of tile __ CS5've occupaOls f (hal posilion) relalively indepeoden t of Ihal of tilt . l. . md,vlduals occupytng rhal posilion al a giveo momenl. in orher ...ord pasr aod fUlure rl'ajecrory, a paSI and a fUlure:. This fUlure, rhal is. tilt coUcclive f Ulure: which Ihe posilion has in store for liS occupants. vou lauvdy prr:<klCrmined, in which case it may be more or less f I.e., may plomise with l-dalive certaimy a more or less marke.::! rise O " , or a slagnation; or il may be almOSI indelerminate. open
_

"PAl.

ott...; 'Iij

4,311,?O?

",IybI:

Of

Among ,he p',orerries common .0 all the occupan" o( Ihese ' I neu'ral posu,ons, ,he mos, charaClerislic are no doubl Ihose

poles Equidis(anr ftom lhe ,wo extreme . slnlcloral indelerminacy. forces of al' he I po1Ol .... le lhe . ld of lhe social dl$SO. 11 a neulral rem bourgco.s are con Ihe balanced: . /. 1J>t n art<! repulsion are evenly . {he to {'( or po.lltlCal d,lemmas fOrclOg . ,"",,0 f.oc,.d ...ilh crhical. aes{ rl) ex,s,lence 10 Ihe level of con$ClOO " . 'I)", the mOOI ordin)'" o""",IIons of ' " ' ' asplra , to surv,ve In the worId 0f Ihcor n" nd s,rategic choice In order nd 10 be conSlanrly , ond their mcans' a are condemned 10 'live bey ptSI ' S lhey ' " 1ve, 10 t L., SI 'gh tesl s.gns 0f IhC rccep"on ,, ' , IjOO . ,nd sensilive hyprcrscnS1I osed 10 snubs and refusals self.rcprnt'{ion. Consnnrly exp "tcI'''''': heir always on Iheir gUlrd. ready 'PUI, them in Ii placc', Ihq are VII ,n docil i lY ,010 IggreS5' Y (!) tOrn in .::! positions, one can Ihus disl Ihe Iat!v.dy prederermine mong shopkeep h lS rhose of craflsmen or small declining posmons, suc a sh n reduerion i. numbc. linked to . h2ve suffered .l considel'able . ....hich h .as , {lsmg posl110ns, suc and SOCIal dechne, and s(able or d ecOf'tomic ' commerCial or adminiSlI'l.Iive executives or. f office workers, Iuni _ L 0'" 0 1_ ease 10 numu<:fS, ' _. e undergone a mvu<rale mcr I yees which hav emp e.::! economic and social ad, pan:ed by few changes in Ihe associat e.ermmale wne 0f an '10de tcCO ' '9 10 rhe othr side.. " Ihe mOSI 10d onn'lgCS. On Ihe mIddle y .ous (he cul,rural pole: of e region. ,hI" IS. mainl Ic.minal ards both ,Ihe rha( are slill Lll.dclermmed as reg , finds positions elw re vcry open, I:e., Ihe very uncertain, .and therefo pctSCnl lhey offer and rhe pre.::!!CI re Ihey promIse (as opposed 10 bolh risky and scattered. futu rmine.::! posilions) :ro Some abk bUI dosed future of Ihe slrongly predere result from Ihe recenr chaoges in Ihe of Ihesc new or novalCd posirions role of rhe symbolic work of pro fConomy (in particular, the increasing ds-Jcsign, packaging, sales ducing ns, even in Ihe producrion of goo ad"errising ele. ). O.hers have po-omolion, publiC re:lalions.. marke.ing, occupan,s, who. in order bttn 10 a sense 'invented' and imposed by Iheir produce 10 be able to sell the symbolic products Ihey had 10 offer, had 10 on { usuall Ihe need for Ihem in porenlial consumers by a symbolic aeri . , faCllllall ?n rtferrcd 10 by euphemisms such as 'social work', 'cultural of Irfe elc.) tending 10 impose norms and needs, particularly in Ihe areas ilyk- and marerial or cultural consumption. erties of Everylhing lakes place as if the synchronic and diachronic prop the t'OSUlons were: linked by a sufficiently close SlatiSlical relalion 10 iynchronic and diachronic properties of the individuals, Ihal is, 10 rhe c'pital position at a give,n volume and composition which govern their mornenl and 10 Ihe evolurion of Ihese: IWO properties which define rheor possible (as has. been and polCn(ial lrajeclories, for il to be equally s in (erms of Ihe propcmes of I.( he) {O char.Kletie Inc posilion I be " OCCup1lnrs or IhCS( properties in lerms of rhe posilions. This can ( i ptoperties: capital constantly has been) shown for Ie sYflchron . onc may, rne and composilion arc so clearly hnke.::! to poSlllon Iharoccupanls 'n <1Id rne lo cases, fail 10 queslion Ihe re:lationship between Ihe Ihe POSition and the mechanisms Ihrough which it occurs, But Ihe

';:;

--;'

r;:;d

other 50(;21 cI21

' tion berwttn thc broad clasSI'$ of pos itions ddi in ter ms diachronic proptrties and individu al proper/ies which arc lin ked 10 ti me:, like age, which cxprcs scs 'hc n:larionship to t hc p pUt of the economic system, at the eco nomic pole, the p:ut of hc:lit 1 3 system , 21 the cultural pole) and to Ihc fUlun:, or l ike sex ;2 an (imperfect) indicator of Ihc evolution of npi!)l volume and rion and also of a whole relationship (0 past and to !he classc:s.
ing poinl o f the analysis, namely. Ihc n:larionship esublished

middle clas offer a p:anicuJarly f avourable opportunity fa sho rhc same is HUC of diachronic propertie s.

We thus !urn fO t ,"

donal

1 fUfUre 2S well 2S

""I"'

':i

iS lin bt,lwn thc f Ulure and Cial ascent ,or Ixlweo: n Ihc pas! and S? de.:h n c mongly cmphaSlwl m Inc domman t world vicw (an ual or a pasnian is s.aid 10 'hve a f Il:', vid UIU meanins tl\(, promise of so(i UCCn510n, i_c.. cmbourgroisemcnl). It is bU ! on nd conSlantly ranf by all Ihc social mhanisms of compet i tion (Ihc mOSl cempl 1ry of "'hida is, of course:, fashion), in which II\(, d,ff nct$ belWttn Ihc das cll: sa atl! tr:Insblw inlo lime.lags in a nce a;m;ns 11 lhe s1mc objttlivc_ It funcI_ in Ihc polilical or c"cn xicnril\c unconxious Ihroush ,hc normaflyt uses or lhe nol ulionary xhcmc whi ch Ihc 'people' ...ilh Ihe SII' persedw past or which, morc subtly, revCr5al of Ihe dominallf view which Sivcs Ihc f lure to Ihe 'peo k', lO p Ihe form par ecellcncl! o( archais m. (This xheme of Ihought IS pmiculadJ polent in universes which, like Ihe inlellecwal f K:ld. are b sed on !he oppo lilion betwcen ,he new and ,he old.)

IS

lOci

Irknflfies turnS Ihc rCVOllllionllY world VICW, ' U In

111

example,

The posilions whose numerical dcc:l il\C expresses rhcir economic dbnr 1re occupied by individuals whose objecr,,'c properties. pncticn and opin ion be seen 15 linked 1 a pasl 19C, S,tU1ted al Ihc exlrI!m e pc:xaI or Ihc fir5t axis. rl!lalively elderly on rhe wholc and undcrndowed Wid! educational capilal (at mOSI Ihey have the CEP or CAP), Ihe (fa(lsl'fICII and small shopkeeper5 manifest in all Iheir prl!ferl!nces rl!gressive d,spOSl" lions which are no doubt Ihe source of Iheir repressive inclinations, P' dcularly visible in their rcanions to ev ery si!Gn of dep,lf(ure from the 0 order, nOI leaSI, o( course, ,he beha viour o( young people. Thus, rea" againsl all indinations [0....1Ids mod ernism or comfort, which they c . only see 1S moral decadence, on every <jues lion concerned with I e e. tr day art of living Ihey make chokn which can be call ed regressive tilt' much as Ihey are vcry dose ro Ihose of Ihc manual workers, ,..,1 fot havins ba:n forced on Ihem 10 Ihe sam elfle-nt by n({C"SSily. { hey that thc-y prefer a 'ckan and fldy', 'easy 10 m am m. 01 P la

The Declining Petite Bour geoiJie

O. and her husband run a . JCIJ b sinC"SS In Grcnoblc. She kC she I parents by Ihe lime '" )e and was sem 10 an or _, . . ,Ole , ..... .g . She ,..enl 10 xhoo) unn) " ouc _ but did not lake Ihe , , !l" It' Her husband firSI worked 11 (EP. . , dai '" . Then he was em ., . 'hI In baker f or e ghl year5. r ) ,-0 ,,0 he sel up his own ( r.. VI! bakery businC"SS. lbey hlve one mar ,;cd dlughltr, aged 22, who works III ' ph.,m:KY_ They own a small blkc')' (employing one orher pel' I0Il), ..hieh (hey will soon be sell ' '" so as to aci1uire anolhel small mop, bu. this ' lime a buSllless Ih . \a$ c manding, 'less of, bllld . k They h.ve recently bought a house: subums of Grenoble; \I has a In living.room, dining'Ioom, sever:ll bedrooms. kilchen .nd bathroom Ind 1\ surrounded by a large, wcll kept garo:kn.

,., ve(S fl ight

'k er'S
v
,

Wife Who It 'JUSt About

. . . .' . . ' .Z ? e e e - Z Z . . . . . ' '

:!.

"...c

n ,5

hou se:. Nor Iha< I'm bo:l.5linS If il had been a litll e bil smaller, [ ...ould still h.ve raken il. Thc fac( is, if's JUSI aboul righ l. NOI supe' ; lu u'o no, but 001 juSI run-o( 'hc--mill cither: 'We werc brouSht up 10 be very onominl. , , . W?'k. . ing the way we worked, we dldn I h.ve time 10 spend money. " , We don'l have "me to go so w ll: e' len almost forced 10 save money. Of I say "There are folks Ihal have mony and the lime to spend il; I've SOt ,he money bUI I haven'l SOl Ihe time." h's a ud facl but ii's trut. '

OUI,

II

the

s can

'1 do like Ihings 10 be clean'

[1IMdc. (v"')'lhinS is brigh!ly pol. ..t.ed. 'l oon', w,n. '0 boas" but do hke 'hings 10 be clclln, so [ like my hou$C nice and lidy, <lo.ng lhe dusnng nd sweeping, P.'hps '00 much, because if [ was hen: II 'he time, Ihal'$ all I'd be The concern to be 'Ie.son >hie" be 'jUSt abou, .ight", never is lIpparcnr in evel)' lhe says. She nys o( thcir Iha, 'in a wly it's ....ha' wc've . . . a son 0f reward ' . 'It, . nl(e but of course: ,hcll: are n ecel house s. L.ct'$ uy ii's nor an ordinny linle

Ing

'\o,ng: to

Choosi ng lheir f urniture---en -cv IUllly bouShl from lhe chlinstore liv;lan-....as 'a real hodache'. 'I w(m round no end of shops . . . so as not [Q make a mislake. . . , [ wamro somelhing that was right for my age benuse I can'l really s a o-year-old wilh ultramodern (ur nilull:_ . . . [ was looking for some thins inte-Imcdiatc belween old lnd ""ry modern ' When buyinS ,he house, she: prcferrro 10 'Ilke her time' f:uhcr Ihln 'rush imo i(. 'Some folks ger a house s'("3.ight u,ay, bu. wc wouldn'l have brtn able 10 enjoy if, il woul<ln'( have been any use: '0 us. We wailed <juile a few years .nd Ih.1 wy I gol something morc comforrablc.' 'Nor thc most ordinary, bUl nor Ihe mOil beautiful tilhcr'

'Something inttrmedillc between old and very modcrn'

"<ltlr Of h l

(nspIC UOU5, . - . JUSI

mosl ordinary (urnilull: in the ...orld but i, isn'l lhe most beau,i ful ci,'her-I went fof somelhing classic.' As for the big SIl:Y selltt ...,th ,h.1 sh.rk, you on sit on ii',

In the liv,ng room-'il's nOt Ihe

'you'n: no! a slve fO i,' (for fear of marking if) 'and at t same lime ;t'5 quite comforuble.' She had to choose all these filings on her own; her husband had no time and no in clination 10 accomp3-ny her. 'He couldn't have cam:! kM. he jusl said "Get ....hatcvcr you like:" She, looked for $OmcrhinS '!lUI would go with the sryk of the rooms. I don't claim 10 be very comtcnt bur you do "ave 10 PI 2 (em;n style in [he rooms.'
now they're cleaned up'

On tho: wall there is a infing given 10 her by her brother.in.la.... and one she bought from a 'piOUfC lrtisr'. 'I would like 10 have more paintings bUI I can', afford it' She thinks she might also like to listen 10 roxords but has never bougl\! any and cannot imagine herself doing $0. Her scn of oxonomr. the 1'1: (u$2.1 10 ""ute anything, has led her 10 'I'CS(UC' knickknacks for her house. "I've gor 101$ o( !rinkers nd odds and ends rhu I (ound in aunrs' and uncla' rric$. They _re rerribly tarnished and ruSIY bur r polished rhem up. .... rhose rhings are wOrlh a bit now rhy're cleant<! up. . . . Whn I rcxued rhem, nobody ...ould havt" bochered to pick rhm up, rhey wer so dirry.'

'Those thing$

arc wonh a bir

even wear. You likt<! the I them in the shop and then00k 0( how. overnighr. )'Ou dc.:itk SOfYlc, don', like rhem any morc. TY"" , shoes; rhcy only havc to pin " ric bir, you wear rhem oneo:- h lit. hour or r-..o and then YOu thO ,, "N0, they huri roo mUch I "L wear them", and then the 5 "'or! 1 !" the box. I'm sure I'm no! the Y person thar happros fa.' SIle I'ml ;c-wdluy', 'gold jeWdk ry d not wear what she owns_ " JbuI don .r I,ke show,ng off, PUrrin g my lewclluy on; JXOpk would all :'Look at er. d up n aU ' . l /ClJery.' I don t hke Raunting my weahh, if that's thc word (or 'f.'

).

"

r k:" :

11

Het hOfll( ITIC"lIns a lor 10 her. When she has money to spare. she would rather 'spend ir on furniture or somerhing (or rhe house', buy (urrains or a carpet thar she can 'keep for a long tim', rather than a dras rhar will OUt of (ashion next year or jewellery !har she will hardly ever wear. 'Some people are (OnSlanrly buying new clotha. r don't fed rhe ned. Sometima )'Ou end up buying rhingli you never

'I don't like showing off'

"JUst a Ilim to tidy mylelf lip' She 'never splurges' on clothes: '1'111 nor one 10 spend a lot on my ...aN robe.' Anyway, 'fashion is consrandJ changing . . . whatC'o'u )'Ou do, JOII can never keep up with it.' Insrad, she goes more for 'dassic' clorhe$. She is not sure wherher to acccpl I wedding inviration: 'I'm nor kcm bc<:ause it means buying I lor of ex pensive new things and then you only wcar thcm on(C' She OCIUJOft' Illy goes to rhe hairdresser's Ind It prds it as a 'chore': 'just a !tim 10 tidy myself up.' In the coumry, where she spem her childhood, 'yoIl didn'r sit (or hours in front o( a mirror pUlling make-up on.' Not mally, Madame D. docs not do much ml cooking 'jUSt for rhe of us'; bur when they have guests. she 'enys cooking traditional things'--<Juiche 10mline. r41rll d i ph1Wis, Il sons of roms, srutk maroes.

'dealing wilh den! seI( , Bting 'quite onom'ClI ...,." t being, shalI we: say, mean' rthO "" . : really don't like to waslC ! e rbu Y. ) she thinks she could nor :irh 'people who throw ",O)IIC ... t on rnonq aWly.' She ca.nnOI un' rllt'r d people ...ho 'haven'l t...o ! "'!$ ro rub together and yet :IS n'" IS they get any money they " I IOO"'J ir. . . . [t's not alwaY$ the holspC'1 Ie who srint rhemsdves il's middlc-cla:lS people Of Ir-as tcn deny themselva ny ,,'ho'won't .., -n... ,hong. ' 1 go and buy (aney ca.ka . . boule of good wIne w,,<never kel like il. and when. lhe . 'y tum out they pur ,t on rhe,r ". ISj({ounr.' She etcnds the ume d ro"al to those ...ho don't know ... to manlge their budget' and ..ho ask for credit towards the end of tl;( month-meaning. no doubr, Ilthough she is nor nplicit, ...ork

s/>C likes

:'

way " used 10 be.' Shc refuses all formal experimentation and special di'"ect$, and has oot liked Averty's re(Crit exrimen!al productions: 'I don't hke those CUtup thing1i ar all, where you Stt a hod, Ihen a nose, 'hen 2 kg. 11 jusr seems plain silly to me: I must oldfashioned Firsl you Stt 1 singer all drawn out, rhlee merres tilil. Ihen he's gor arms IWO melres long. Do you find thai funny Oh. I just don', like iI, 'r's st",pid; r don't see the poinr of dis rorring !hings.' Bur she docs hke !O ""arch a 'tradirional' singr:r, 'a singer ...ho JUSt sing1i, who sing1i I'IOrmally. ...-ho's normal size and nor all dis rorted.'
'My husband doesn't

'People who Ihrow e y mon y awa '

their

She B"'IS on >,ery well wjl who have 'the same rastes as

Every year, lhey go on holiday in their caravan (or tWO or three weeks. Two or three times rhey have been to caravao camp sire on '''g<I:I$$ people. the Riviera and lasl year rhey srayed beside a lake in the Grenoble re 'Chtcriul programmes you don', gion. Unril rhey gol rh caravan, have to think about' they did nOI go on hohdiY: her hus' band 'doesn't like hotds at all, or She has not been to the cinema 'for restaunnrs.' On holiday, her hln Ir least ten years', and says she band plays bowls and cards and docsn'l have time to read either a 'makes a 101 of friends." She doesn't daily paper Or weekly maguioes. like doing nothing, so she re!cs Ioxc PdT; Mdtrh or J j OIffl rk frUIn. and knits or makes tapeslry: If s a --h"h CUstomers somelima leave ni(C hobby, the rime goes quicker.' beh,nd ;n the shop: '1 lot of pages --l1h not much on thcm and a lor They snd a bit o( lime, on the of adverrisements.' She warcha tde beach and drink pastl! wuh (ncnds. '>1100 a liule Apart (rom the summer .holidays, , but 'not 100 m",ch'. rn..nly on Sundays, bUI never after lheir ...ork is so demand,ng ,hat r. ar nighr. She is not 'a1V fa, they have no lime to go OUI. Her nalle' b",! likes 'cheerful pro husband, who srarts work al nine gr:ornmes' rhar 'you don't have to every Sunday evening, carcha up on think aboul', apo:ciaJ1y ligh enrer. his sleep Sunday afrcmoon. Ar t 'a'nment so long mOSt. they go OUf 'once a year, on as the producer n't '"y 10 dever': 'Nowadays Easter Monday or Whir Monday. nd the 're always uying to Because ir wu a public holiday, we Y II cv.:, ...."h thei, variery proused to shur up shop for tWO days, 8rlmlTle$; it was much uer the Sunday lnd Monday '

like hotels'

"

. . . . .. .. , . , . . . .. . ... .'

preciate (he values of work, order, rigoul, cate, It is disliner frorP( dIt taste for the 'sober', frequent among manual workers or merPbers 0 promoted petite bourgeoisie who are guided by lhe concern to noticed ,(nd also" but ",:,th a quite different meanin, among e bourgeo,s,e): bUl ({ IS chlefiy opposed to Ihe 'hbernted taSle of t

(,artistic', 'amusing" 'stylish', 'refined') and all the <modernist' tsttS larrer so readily exhibit (they 'IItvtr choose either Picasso, w,ho ,s one the whipping.boys of petit-bourgeois resentment agonst artistS; 01 . exemplary representativC'S of the new young life.style, FnnOISC, .. and Johnny Hallyday) Their aesthetic of lhe 'wellfinlshed' (JoigJ) 10 one dimension of an ethos of'conscientiousness' which leads (hem tilt

bxity in maners of money (use of credit), child-rearing or sex, are no ksI signtficant, Rejecting the most ch2fllCleristie elements of the life-style fa. voured by manual workers (e,g., the quality 'bon VIvant'), they syslemal ically exclude all lh virtues cultivated by rhe members of the profcssiollS

01' interior)_ Similrly, in music nd song, they systematiully Op t the declasse' works of bourgeois cul{Ure (such as L'Ar/ itmu Or iJ th Damlbot ) and particularly for the mOSI old-fashioned and !faditio . na I ers (Gucmy, Mariano), By a logic which is also valid for the other positions, it is in the utegory whose dIachronic properties of age and trajectory are rn harmony with the diachronic properties of the position, that is, wh mOSt directly in line with Ihe collective history, and therefore m le/, os posed to express its objective truth and announce its future, that e' ISo th erences characteristic of the fractIon as a whole are expressed Wilh highest degree of density and intensity_ Thus the group (situate da Ihe second axis) of small cr.lftsmen and small shopkeepers , rnou 0( whose fathers were also small cr.lftsmen or smaU shopkeepers , and ....ho, for lack of the economic and especially the cuitur.ll capital they would need in order to attempt a reconversion, ue condemned to carry On af all costS at the head of p..rticularly threatened small businesses (food shops. small tr.ldirional crafts erc.) which will nOt outlive them (rhey are t'Itn older than the others), is dIstinguished by systematically retrogtarlr: choices from the rest of the fraenon, which contains a fair proportiO n 0( modern craftsmen (elecrricians, mechanics etc.), posscssing rhe BEPC Of even the baccalaurbt, who, especially when young and Parisian, a YUJ dose to Ihe technicians in their ethical and acsthetic. and no doubt alto their political, ehoices,1' Convinced that they owe their position, albeit dimimshed, to a 'sim ple', 'scnous', 'honest' life, the declining petit bourgeois express in III areas dIe most austere and lraditional values (a 'neat' [sqignt], 'classical' Interior, a 'conscienlious', 'Ievelheaded' friend, !fadirional French cool mg, lhe most unoniul painters, Raphael, Leonardo, Walleau, and Ihc longest.consecrated singers, Piaf, Mariano, Guetary), Their refusals. CJ' pressing resentment against the new morality, its showy pretension, lIS

, bourgeoisie and lhe eye-otehing 'fantasiC'S' it procures for itself ,, t,te ' ( . ' I vant.garde bounques and untSCx haord ressers, ,-J.lly situated in tW S of capit compoSition, the members of he (!fltr present on theIr h,ghst degree all the tralrs, eCutant nt'tite bour<><"ols,e ' 10 ( ,za which make rhem the most compIetc relI . ned at the outset - nl(flUO " rt and ' f rhe petite bourgeOIsIe, sucb as the cult 0f aut",,1danic e"o I,on eature is thaI (hey chiefll for all the activities whose common f the tte and cultural goodwill (makong colleCtions, for example)_ 1 dtmlfld rime . , ' , d GIven an intermediate populatton such, as thls, ({ IS one an the same . racttons and how lIS '0 show how it differs from the neIghbounng f th,ng lac rom the bers an:: distributed, in respect 0r d hron,c propemes, f and especially those of bourgeois or petit.bourgeois ortin, who the most regressiv fnet,ion of the dedmmg pellte bour Jrt ,'cry close to geoisie in their ethical and aesthettc chOIces, to th yungest, who, espe' ciall)' when posscssong high <jualifictions, are , Slm,lar to the m,oblle . kments of the new petite bourgeo,sle. Every thong takes place as If the raction as a whole were syste si' disposilion which characterizes the f . and SOCIal Oflon: f om an opo, lliolly transformed as a function of age : young to a pessImIStIC, regresSIve misti( progressivism among the rising conservatism among the oldcst,

geoisie rhe Executant Petite Bour

'

d:c

r:

it is among the youngest members of the oc(uptions off enng the mOSt secu f uture, such as the junior executives and office workers, and morc especially among those who originte from the working class and have only moderat <jualifications (BEPC or baccalautiat) that one finds the most develolXd form of the asceric disposirions and devonon to cui tUre aSSOCiated wilh the ambition to pursue by further ccumulation of {ultunl np'tal a rise made possible by an initial small accumulation, Set O a progressive trajectory by their schooling, they are nturaJly inclined n to a progressivist world view based on faith in enlightenment and a tem !'trale ref ormism lIiming 10 give to e;lch according to his scholastic Illerits, As well as owing all they have to education and expecting from it all hey aspire to have, they often Sland in a rdation of (XUllqn 10 (qn. (tpIIO'l vis.-vis the senior executives, whose instructions they follow, "'hosc plans (hey implement and whose manuls they use, so tht lhey tcnd to identify hierarchies wilh differences in competence Of, more sim , 'n form1 qualifiotions_ 111is is all rhe mo so sin e, very flen, who hve risen by promotton come up agamst ItmllS (e.g., Ign<.>!)n(t of algebf1l) which the scholastic hurdles they have not crossed arbi a tl"lo . t ,' PIace before them, reg1td1css 0f ny techmcaI neceswy reaIIy 3'led by the job. So it is understndab,le ,thaI they distinguish the s rOm the e f f t t;j declining petite bourgeo,sle In that they eombone certam Ures of the popular ethos-such as the tasre for 'pol.luck' entertain

Y,

ment and 'bon vivant' or 'lmusing' friends-wilh f nlures which cally chr:lcter he. These include marks of amchmcnt ro VlIluC$-- conSClCnnous or 'wellbred' friends, 'sober and clothes-nd numerous indices of a cultu!'al goodwill as intensecllt --a ct Innocenr. Assigned to t;lSh ....... uiring precision rigour, serio " 1.\ II is usnl"s!; . , . " ' . , shorr, goodwill and devotion, and richer m cuhural goodwill tha . ' III fural c iral, they direct their 'pre(erenc ' towards typically mid ': c \II. f worh, such as the S4Mt DRnet or Ulnllo, buy their f urniture ro., putmenr stores, prefer 'clnn and tidy', 't;lSy to maintain' in e de. Of$, choose AlIllvour. Pelura Clark or Johnny Hallyday and are Very 1ft. teled in photogr:lphy and 1M- cinema.1.1 This pure a cmpry culru,:,l goodwill, entirely defined by the . ui.. ments of mobility, has ItS equivalent in mOr:lJity_ The ""'rrssive . . ,,"'l af 'OF . 19our the dec'" ractlons, which 15 based on resentment at social Imng , regression seems to have no other purpose than to provide those who onl h past with the Sltisfaction of condemning th who have a futu e rhe young. y contrast the ascetic rigur of the rising fraCli on, o . . . Iared With a pru ent forml m m politics.. gives . rise to a sdf:. . . dlsclplme and famJly d sclpllne whICh 1$ entirely subordinat ed to social . . mobility. Proof of thIS IS seen In the fact that the rising petit bourgeois" who a usually much siricter than the other cl1$ses (parri cular] evrythlng concerned with their children's upbringing_ their o . s,omg our alone, rndmg-matter, se:tuality etc.) can, witho ut (onrradic lion, show thmselves much less strict than the dominant mOr1.!t ty and the clm framons most attached to it (who make it a 'mauer of prifld.. , . pl , whenever Ihe practices In question, 1$ abortion or the avaiJ. ablhy of conlr:lceptives 10 young people, ean be applied in the interesl of , m lhty. An 1 1 can he nderslood in the Slme terms why rhe risinJ f'(m bourgeoIS tend ro slIp from optiminic austerity to reprasive pdIIi . mlsm as they grow older and as the f uture which made sense of their sac. rifices lurns sour.

; :

: .

son' ntt up his proem. Because he i$ committed ro stDtegies ex r his fo ding over seve!'al genemions, he is the man of the deferred plnsure, n deferred presen( Iha( will be taken larer, 'when Ihere is lime', 'when t ., paid off the morlgage', 'when the children are older' or 'when ' ,, e ' II ',"( retired', in OIher words, very 0,(en when " IS too ,are, when, havo to collen his 'due' and must has no time "t: given eredit on his life, he his clOIh.' There is no comf'(nsalion for a lost coat according to cur his cation with the nt, especially when (with the bfCllk-up of identifi for e:tlmple) the disproportion between rhe Slcriliecs and (he , , rng nonsense 0 a pasr " cl1ve y rnak" 'sfactiOns becomes appuent, retrospe ,he fulure. In the end these altruistic irely defined by lension on the aller ego they had hoped 'sers who have squandered everything fill in person, by rising in the social hiemchy, or through a to bt:, eitM-r whom 'they have dotw: bs!itute shaped in rheir own image, the son for g but re erythrng" who 'owes them everything', are left with nOlhin in ,he f orm of ntment-{he resentment thai has always haun(ed rhem which asks so much of e fear of being !lken for a ride by a social world

h'ldren, ;

:ns

ttt:

towards

such

The whole exiStence of rhe rising pelit bourgeois is the anticipatio a uture which he will, in most ca.ses, only know by proxy, throug children, on whom he projects his ambitions. future he 'drCllm'

Thus, amollg junior exe.::utives and clerical workers, lhell: all: greater d,1kt eces between rhe ge grouf'$ Ihan in olher f 'llctions whenever the quesl 1I0llS asked offe, an ourlel for rhe repressive dispositions. For example, rhe . . proportion o( thiS cuegoty who refe<:r the idc::r thu te;lchers are nor enough declines from }6.2 f'(r enl among the under-3s. to 29 rcent pe among the 3 to W-year-oJds, and 26 f'(rcent among the ovet-Ws: the po polliGn who think thll teachers are 'too poli tical" rises from 44.6 percenl to 41.6 percem and 60.4 f'(reenr for Ihe same age groups (lfOP lurvey. Marcil 1 970, $C(ondn> analy a sis).

them. moment of self As they Struggle 10 the peak of lheir career and (he of their tOb e assessmenr, f eling their values and even their conception hear throtcned by Ihe arrival of new. more highly qualified gcner:ltions s ing a new ethos, the oldest of rhe junior execu{lves and office worker are ioclined to conservative dispositions in aesthetics, ethics and polirics, as is shown by the analysis of the corpondenecs, which situates them close ro the small Shopkeepers and tr1.ditional Cr:lfrsmen. To have Iheir re avourite ter!'ain, lhar ytnSC'. they only have to place themselves on tM-ir f of mOTOllity, 10 make a viflue of IlNi, neeasily, elevate their into a universal morality. Thes( RlOuPS not only have the mOr1.I ity o( their interests, as everyone docs; rhey have an inte<CSt in mOr:llity. for those scourges of privilege, morality is the only ririe which gives a righr to every privilege. Their resentment often leads to fundamentally politic31 poSitions in which verbal fidelity to past convictions s 3 mask for present disenchanlment, when it does nOI simply serve 10 lunlfy mOr:ll indignllion: and the somewhal lachrymose. humanistic an archism whkh may outlive adolescence in some elderly, long-h3ired bo i2ns can nsily veer with age into a f ascistic nihilism endlasly rumi01tlng on scandals 3nd plols.

mOl'lllity

parricular

mb'guous

-- ---' - ==
-

The

n c!

n,'s nption of one possible form of the eolution of political disposi whrcby clerical workers and junior eeclJriv move, ;l<; they g.ow alld t. closet to Ihe atlitude$ of the declining fl'llctions (sm1l shopkeepers () pe.::ilily small cra( smen) than to those of younser members of thr:it r dlll, is intended to counter the typically con:scrvotiv Indcncy 10 es ci 'v. a,fIloshislork.1 rclalion belwttn biolosical aseing (implici.ly :wo lted ...."h I in ....isdom and reuen) and increased consefV>lism. In

:;:5. ,.

g.owth

.." I ,"

' ''",j """

. As rhis CISC clearly shows, age d I ercnccs--tncrcastngIy so as one . . towards the culwral pole-mark differences in rhe scholastiC

The New Petite Bourgeoisie

Si,uated on the opposite silk from the previ ous group as reguds . and traje'nory, rhe mOSI educated mcmbers of the youn( generarron 0( junior executives, tech nicians and especiall y primary (':I.chcrs are d fO (he new pefirc bourgeoisie/' espe cially to rheir competcnce and prclft.. cnces in legitimate culrure (they C<Jually offen choose the AI o FliP'> f the Fou Slalom, Eint Kltint Na(hlmUsik and the WtllTtmptrn/ Cia';", bu t more offen the Sabrt Da,u" rhe HungariaT l Rhapsody and Rhapwdy " Blut, nd less o fen L'Enf anl tl ItJ JorriN gtJ) . They remain part from them, however, and all the more so, the less they have been exposed fO the new mode of scholasfic generation. in every thing more directly con- cerned wirh the daily art of living. Thus, rheir ideal friend, who f r rhc o , new perite bourgeoisic is 'dynamic', 'refine d', 'sfylish' and 'al1inc, IS more ofren 'bon vivant', 'consciemious" and 'sociable', and if rhey rndude 'lrfistic' this is no doubf bec,USC it is the one dimension of bour . values which rhe asceric petif bourgeois can find acceptable by Vl ffut , the value he places on legilimate (ulture. The occupa!lon of pn""" teacher to some cxtent shares the characte risrics of rhe new occup2liOf1So owing fO Ihe changes in aatdemi( and social m:rui nd tmenl a in r Th changes, lhe most visible of which is f . emifllUIIOn no : linked to a r i n social origin, have led 10 the c<x isc isten(e rn fhe rtC" posifion of agents who ditrer in social IrajC(;I Ory and in all the o sponding propenies (for example, upwudly mobil men. and 91 e . who belong 10 the upper dasses by rheir origin or by marnage-).

{ct, chnges in political po$irion and dispositions a pparenrly relat d agc only rhrough the mediation of changl:$ in socia ( l position whkh e to ovcr time; and rhere arc as many forms of cvolurion of 0 political apini (I o there a forms of social age;ng, i.c.. social trajtotiC'$ . The conse"".u,, _" ology which gards rhe Iatlonship berween a move towards conse,," e a and gtowing old as an anlhropological law, a d ll which uses this relario'lIIfI ro juStify ItS pes!imi!tic, disabused counr of volu riollary idcolog . lC$ i<kologu.:s, has every aptX'1r.1llce 011 liS Side. Give n that, 011 thl: Olle hut<! the coulltless forms of SOCial ageillg available 10 bourgeois o. prclit-bo u. adolcsccnts (rhoc only onn considered by the ideo logy) for rh e saki simplICity, be d,vl(led rnlO two das. roughly 0( ses cw rrspondmg to $O(:,al $\1(. cess and f ailure, and on rhoc other hand th1 th to dmes of .ra;a:tOoe$ bo.h lead. by ddkrrm I'()IJtn, '0 (onserv-:lI1vc dlsposlllonS (which ddfet g.-(':lIly, of course, in rhelr modali.y), it can be seen that one only has 10 II" nore rhe vatleues of ideology, and the $O(ial princ iples of variation of I rebtionshlp between Ideological ageing and socia l agemg, to turn a socioJo. gically intelligible statistical Iationship into a natural law.

'-' ' '')'" )

Nurse Who . , . .. " with Passion '(,Iv...,

....

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,

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. Ih F is n. She obtained the Ell ...,th philO$Ophy) Ind then to nUl$ing college. For four .'C1I she has 910tked as a nurse at ,e'r5Cri Universillire ( International the a dt:t Roidcnce) in Paris. Her f .. u 5t: r ...u a civil scrvanr and her the is a Post Offio;:e clerk. She ..her a OIlC-room ap211ment It,d 1lone rn l. I t (on ..h small entrancehal . s no (urnlfurc-no fabl<, no no shelves. Everylhin8-mal' . rccord.playcr, bookS--l $ on the On the walls she has a Dario Fo poster about Chile, which she bought ar a recilal of poems .and . . lOngs about Chile af the CIIC Unl' .mifarre, a poster (or a Yeats play ('vc.y bcauti(ul'), a still from the lilm IIphrodill Child ('vcry mov iog'), 1 photo of her young nephew, an o....ngc m irror ('very .. functional') and a big crimson board with a whole SCt of nC(k1acC$, made: of shellJ, pearls, enamelware, !.nns elC., some of which she made I.c-rsclf Shc docs nOl ef>CCt to buy fUfnnure: It's nOl that I don't likc II, I lUSt don't happen 10 have '"Y-II docs.n't seem to be vcry o iCTtual I admll ii's nOI very conY(' OlCftt fot people whe I invi n te them . . dInner, but I roily don'r rhrnk II s 'mpo ,unt ' She bought her G. Irotn 2eV seeond.haoo, from her 1l>O,h(,r ('$he lei me hHe il (P'); she bought hel phonog....ph .. I " h., nf.{a-la:1I yeal at the Iycec, "'tlh tlt.: firsl money I eatned work. 1"& I n tl " sanatorium in my spare tnc Ir '5n' t roily 'suita le' for b Il n r rords are , ( r u . "

:1S, 100;

She ;5 eager '0 eprcss her pcrson.l. i ily and scizes every opportUn. ty to 'create' somerhing person.l: '1 love .. d....wing . . everyone in the f.mily does drawing: my sister d....ws. my .. f.ther used to draw.' Mainly. though only episodicaly, she docs blxkandwhitc portratfS of people she li ko '1 enjoy colour bUI for me ' it's not !he imporlanl rhing in a d....wing; rhe most important fh;n&, .. are 'the CUtvCS and then, well. the eprcs.sion, atplurin8 someone's ex prcs.sion , , . the pleasure comes . ""hen I'm doing the drawltlg, later it's of no significance.' She leafOt how to make enamelw.re: first from books, which her aunt gave her fa gerher with . kiln when she w.s I); later she made enamelware wifh her sisrer and friends .t fhe municipal youth club,
'People who never look oulside themselves'

'I love being creativc'

The firsr quali ty she looks for in hel friends 'is joy. I like healthy le, e who are glad to be alive.' '1 hk people who are 11 ease wirh them selves, pcrh.p5 because I'm not II ways or ease wth myself. I thrnk .h" what mako people carry on liv. ing ;s always being .ble 10 h for . son>Cth ing, nevcr :Kccpnng thln as lhey are. . . . n.c people I don I like, I un't :Kcept becausc they seem to mC . . . empty. 1 mean

foundation cream; her h.1I IS

Het only makeup is an ivisible

thinned and cu. mtdiumlen8.h.

:;':: :

they're dull, they have no rae ' no . . paion. Perhap5 "no palOn IS tOO strong; I mnn rhey don't UIaJII any' thin8, .hey don't seem to l any. .hing rhey never look ou,sldc .hem;"lv. They don't =lIy lilll.

I me'

She ""ohips 'nature', 'everything that is n1lur:1I in people, in the 51rttl', and loves 'nature in woods and Aowers.' For a whole Ye:I. she prac ised 'physical np sion' wirh group: 'Doing somet ing wilh my body . . . pe forming movements, gotu=. rhll an:n', nasarily rhe auical, that np'css my body-r u's something r cn;or.' On oliday, she shuns campsites ( 'they're 100 orga niw:l nowadays, almost hocels'): she unnol sp<!nd more than a ....ttk at the seaside 'doing nothing': 'Going {O beach, SUI'I./)2Ihil'lg, the acca. sionll swim . . . after twO days of Ih3f, I'm bored: She hitchhikes to Grm::e, Italy or the Balea.ic Islands: '/ love If:lvelling fha,l way partly be, cause it's $0 different from what / do the rCSt of Ihe year, a different lifNtyle . . . bUI 11$0 in orde. 10 live with a bil or insecurity-that's ex. citing_nd to mttl different pe0ple, be able to communK1lte.' Last )'C:I.' she look part in the rcstof:lfion of an abbq in the ouergue reg ion, and in he. spilfe lime she h1$ worked wilh an archaeological ream cxcanting a site in Eure-<:tl.oire Every mher Wtdncsday (she works one Wtdncsday OUt of Iwo j she al rends a course at rhe Ecole Pf:lli'lue des HaulCS ElUdes 'IO' 1 bi, of

'Doing hing ""ilb my bod)"

1lt(y'n: imprisoned by 1 whole en vironment. They 'In', get our of if and don'. even rulizo: they Jll/d our of it. There arc '1uirc a lor of them among my p1ritnl$ and rile people I work wilh. Ie ....ho are perhaps 100 dependcnl on material satisfactions, on the material things society can offer them . . , J can't say I do 't like them, but I'm not in Icresu:d in them. Thccy don't inler

gel

th((lry' ('il helps ro have $Om rions of hislory and archaCOlo

'We uxd
1 0

nlk about it and then crer : a

the

P:tris,

t the Momreuil (hnln: h r h h

neaf 11"5 They PUt on quite a few eaba . she...., based on potfry. 'We d I on Boris Vian's wo.k so 1$ ro OIl!: " ir Ixuet known.' The, h. a, so ' "'.lUen [ncl! own sho 'We used L_ .. 10 choose a theme, lalk about it and fhen creale . . . bUI rhe people rhc-rt were 100 young and ir broke do Everyone Went off I eir own waa-n. aflel the btU nd we neve! SOl , the agaIn. OccaSIonally with I gIrl.frIend she still does a bit of an ing, 'jUst linlc skelChes ,hat ""C work on tO her' ('I wouldn'l ... W3n td ro mak a livi g our of it ' it's just a hobby' j.

: Fo. Ihree years she al$O belon a amateur drama group Whh d St fflends al Bo'S d'Mcy,

choose 1 Ihem

10

the

There arc periods when she goes regularly 10 the I ealre. III Iii( lilt alre in lhe- Citt Uni versitam: " recently $ttn Ali Bah'J c..... 'by I from the Theatre Obliq. 1 thin ; it w1$n'r bad'. Dario Fa " the Salk mier, 'ir was vel)" r1d cal, but t was i the form of stariat IOld 10 people and it was excelletlt.' She goes 10 sec s ows tIm arc nor epensive: 'I don't go just bealillt ii's cheaper, bu t Ihe fa(l iI, at tM t"" Gtt Ihere are very good shoWS , II aren'l expensive. . . . Of course isn't very comfortable, bUl you t good evening 01,11 and ir dOCSJ1 COSt 100 much aboul rcn flan' IIfrerwards, normally come we and er 01 visi ano,hcr friend ", discuu rhe pl.y if we feel li ke _ She went 10 t e Comidit-Fr

it's cheaper'

'I don't go just bcause

him. 'perhaps bt<:ause of my up bringing' (he-r family haled him), she think$ Iha' Johnny Hal1yday 'does havc somer ing' She lik..-s Pink floyd_nd has one of their rccords-bu t 'only superficially'. She reads u Momk w e she has time (bul Ihat is nOI often), Ihe 1<:. views in U Noull ObI",-'tJuur, and fairly .-.:-gulady u c..ntJrJ E",h/Jini. She used to read more when she wn at schooL She .eads novels (re ccn ly, ') book on Nepal by H.n Suyin'), all Ff:lnolse Sag,an's novcls, 'Boris Vian and Ims of Ihings about him.' She Jik..-s to 'discover an au thor', 'immerse hersel in book .nd tell herself she's reiding some thing fneinaling.' She lik..-s Van gs 'Soris Vin and lou of Ihin Gogh (she wenl 10 ,he exhibi tion him' e lboul aI lhe- Petil bis), Goy. uff t, 'everylhing that's all done in lines' She 1oC5 classical music, cspiaJly and Impressionism: 'Jr's a vision Ibch .nd Beerhoven; she o(ICn lis Ihat's much <kcp(r Ihan a ,rns 10 Felix Leder<, Uo !'trre, . . . you really feel you're Jacques Brei-her 'great love' when the impress on of s meone given she WI$ 1 ) ('Ihe only singer I've fl!pro who has SC(:n $Omelhing for ycars' )_nd Ijkt<:l all the nme duccd il.' She rcn lly '[ don'r like Gt-orgcs Museum, which is 'f.n'1$ti(': 5hcib at all_i r's not music, it's love his wOIk, it's wonderful.' 'J SOrt of Ihing commerce, opium,

1 hale.' IIllhoug she docs nor like

hn

objecl

m.reri.1

Brusen!,

'"r

"ss'ssssss" " sss',sssss,ss'sss,s" sss" ,'

lhe

Rodin jusl

o Ind visited the

n h

h e

grncration and therefore differencC$ betw((Cn g ncradons defined in and by their relationship to thc eductional syslem. The best 'Iualified of the younger generauon of junior or clerical worken (mainly ongi. of nl ing from Ihc working and middle cla$5eS) share wilh Ihe members the Bew occ upations-lln d especially with Ihrn;e of Ihem who do nOI Onglnale from Inc bou rgeoisit-\\ reillion ro ,ulturc and, partially al .nd :1, 10 Ihe socia! world which StemS from an intcrrupted rlI"Ort ro extend or tr-C$tlblish ir. Thus. Ihe ncw occup:irions arc tnc tul"al refuge: of all rhose who have nOI obrained from Ihc educ.donal m rhe qualifications rhat would have enabled rhem !O clai m Ihe ts- tah hed l social position promised them; and also of O$ posilions thcir origini ell t w o have nor obrained from Ihe!r qu.lific.tions all they f en I" q ]" to e thc relationship berw((Cn 10 2n earlier re a lficu pcct by ference ions and jobs.

executivC$

lrajectory

Sll" of

habilitafion stralegies, illustrated by thc use of noble 'doublcts', less overtly euphemistic, such as 'personal assistant' ,for secretary of

pose Ihe unC<juivooJ image of an occupation definM in its prt1: future, rhe new or renovated occupations allow or encourage: symbo It' til

Hcrc tOO, thc complctc dcscript ion of the positions contains a pliddy normativc) dcscriplion of th05C who ate and slKceed in them, Ihu is, more reci5Cly, 1 descripti o n of tions through which dispositions linkM to trajectories 1I'e Ihesc positions-in short, everything Ihal is normally " hiddcn wod 'vocuion', II can, im,mwiuelr be seen tal, precisely by Vtn tJie , t thet r aCtual and potentIal Indelcrmlnacy, positions which offer n u !lf 0 su ant ,but, in return, ask, for no guarantees, which impose no condlflon of entry, especially regards certificales, bUI hold promise of the highest profits for non<crtifted cultural capltaIO guarantee no particular carttr prosPCCIS (of the type offered by Ih c Il'Il established occupadons) but exclude none, not even t mOSI ambI 11th. a adjusted in aV2nce to the dispositio s typical of individuals I chne endowM With a strong culrural opnal impe rfenly convened l educu!onal cap!tal, or ,risin individuals who ha,'( not obtained alr : Mucallonal capllal whICh, In the absence o f socia l capilal, is needed 10 escape the most limited o f Ihe middle positions, , In the first placc, the willingness or opa dty to acccpl the (ave nsk resulting from Ihc indeterminacy of thc posit ions no doubt v ) other things being cqual, with inherited capilal, pard y by an effccr of ': dispositions themselves, which arc more self-assure d whcn there is mOlt securit, and pudy because of the real dist n cc, from necessity given " , possessIon of the economiC means of persisting In provisionally unprolil , a1e positi:>flS '" Whcrs, th personal risk en lailed by the riskiest post . lions dech ncs, both sub eCtively and obJectively l . as Inherited upial Increases. the chances of profil grow as opital in crease s in all its forms, nOI only the economic capital which gives the mean s of waiting for the fUlure of 'coming' occupations. or the cultural capita l which hdp$ 10 make that futurc by Ihe symbolic violence ncedM to creale and sell new products, bUI perhaps cspecially the social npita l which, in these inf'or. mally organittd sectors in which recruitment is effectM by CO-Oplioll. enables one to enter the race and Stay in ir, Furthermore. these: posilions. which are ultimalely less risky and, II Ic;aSl in the long run, more profitable, the more capilal onc bnnE;$ InlO them, present a further advantage for people seeking an honounbk,& uge 10 avoid social declinc, perhaps Ihe most important advantage In die short term and in Ihe pncliol shaping of a 'vocation'. One only has 10 consider the opposition between the youlh lcackr or cultural or and the primary tc;acr, between the joutnaJiSI 01 TV producer and die secondary tc;acr. between t technician in a public opinion or rescarch institute and Ihe bank clerk or posl office clerk. to sec that. like rhe esublished positions which are situated in a hierarchy and "tA

predisposed to 11

, for psychiatric nurse But this cffecl is most visible h era"'u ric' nurse: !I )o lusted ,"]I t,b0sc cases in which the agents endeavour to produce ' bs ad' bmons to III a rcady CISt' ' " IP a r amhitions r:llher than adjust their am Ie, , l " prodct by aCl,lVltlCS w I,C 10 produce thc need for their own, Ig inltiallY voluntary. like a number of SOCial ,occupations, bUI aim fl'I,r pOsed as 'public serviccs' officially recognized and morc or less I be ce wilh a classic process of profes " ,ct Iy Slate.financM. in accordan ' 0 " (creation of a s,.,....i aliz lraining sanCtioned by diplomas, a ed -(OIl"P an . r , ailz c , sIf1Il of cthics and an occupational ldeolol?Y Ctc,)_ . . . code ,ncw ""tite oour<N"Oisie comes lfllO ItS own lfl all 'thc occupallons 0-fhC: r " " .-.-nrC g PrCSCntation and r SCntalion (sa cs, markcling, adveruStng, "oIvm , '" ' ,, ' ' c and ,n a tn_ lflS11lU,a ,'0.', fashion ' decor:ltion and so ' l " . orth) . pUblic re ' viding symbolic goods and servlCCS. These: mclude the ",nous l ns plO , { o In medical and social assistance (marriage guidance, sex therapy, advice etc.) and in cultural .... dt(tCIICS, v......." io'" guidance' paediatric tlon and organization (youth Inders, play Indc:rs, tUIOrs and .....l -dio and TV producers and prcsente['5, magazine joumalim), " - monitors, , . m recent YC:lrs; bUI also some cs ""hlCh have epanded conSiderably en or urses, Thus, th art tablishca occupations, such as art craftsm , obmet{ t,lIsm ,. ',n tile old sensc-upholslerers, wrought-Iron workers " , " makers, picture-framers, goldsmiths, "wdlers, gilders or engravers, lIainca in tcchnical schools and very close to small ct;lftsmen and their rs \'llues-have been joined in the last fifteen years or so by, make, of ""tllery, printed fabrics, ccramics or,h,and-wovcn clothes. ,wlI a hlghet level of general cduction, often PariSian an o,f borge:ols otlgm. who an: doser in life.style to Ihe cultural intcrmed'1nes, Slmllrly: among the sr(rct1ries and nurses, some. originating from the lower or middle <lasses, In: very close to the junior administrative ecutivcs, while others, youn ntures of the !CI, often Parisian and of bourgeois origin. present all the f fItw occupnions, In gcner:ll, ,he indelerminacy of the new or renoat , OCcupations means thai the hetcrogeneilY of Ihe agents' tt;lJCClones IS pallicubrly markM, One can almost always dislinguis twO grou scpa f1led by social origin and all Ihe associalM disposiuons, who dIsagree more or leu overtly over the defimtion of the job and the eompetcnccs or , 'lfIu I\C(CSry SlI in order to fill it

(0 I

to

b' b

jobS

matIt:CJ

mQIC

::

!;I ptcfcnces and rdusals. Unlike the decllmng pelltC bourgtolsle. whICh II:lttu the whok SCI of values di1lly opposed to its own. i,e, the very , ursued by the ne'" pedte bourgroisie (amusing, refiM, stylisll, . H hul servICes make con Itl(, Imaginalive) , II\(: members of tl\(: socl( n( e I :1 ' tor cholc whkh Sttms 10 exp the antagonisms betwn thc C y II: \lots of lheir original milieu and Ihc values of .helr present mlheu: some i(:(, the qualities which mOSt of thc others put in rop place (fintd, Sty).l musing) while Others re;ee' the <jua)i tics moSt prilnl by the es111>-

opposItions which this dualiTy of origins gies tise 10 within 1he f\(W ;It bourgeoisie are expressed very clc;arly n lhe Itionship t..;t:"'CCIl th'
-

::;:uts

lished perire bourgeoisie (level-headed, dassical) . These uncenaintie1; Or eve incoherences no doubt exist in 2ch of the ,:,embers. of the new pr o. esslons, who have to Invent .. new 10k-style, pa cul ly In dome1;tic lif f and to rede ne their social crdinares. If the ineterminacy of a POSit i . favours blu ng or euphem ng str:ategles, rhere tS a pnce to be paid in terms of the occupant'S uncertainty as to his social identity, 1S we fro the testimony of an industrialist's daughter, aged 35, p p etor of 1 'bou dque' in P:lfis selling 'design cenrre' products, 'COnlempor:lry goods' and gifts; she mended a decorative arts school but has no diploma, and con. duCts her al1 busin as if il were an art: 'When people ask me what r do and I say "I'm a shopk r", r always feel it's som one else answering ' fr o me because really r don't sec myself as a shopkeeper. But I suppose In t end, when it comes down to it, r must be, r don't know . . , All the \.arne I feel very remote from the preoccupations of my butcher and [ fed much doser to som ne who works in an advertising agency or to an interior dec orator, It's all very complicated, Personal ly I sec myself as rath r Out on a limb, between twO stools, J don't know. Fm me shopkeeping is li ke a game; it's always a bit of a gamble, buying and selling.'

films n (in order of prefercnee): I I

i Junor commemaJ

fi ffi

ru u

exc<:s.

Style

ro n

Th. Longest Day

Divol(e Italian Style

and sre,i
V d'Avray His Broth.

Office "",rken Rocco and His BrothClS

Small shopkecpen and craftsmen

l.es dim. de

rs

ess

eepe

Rocco and Hi! BrorhClS 01 la balance [ balance un "Q)'ou

Seven

ro

to reconvert into the new occupations such as cultural intermediary o r art craftsman have had fewer years of schooling rhan the average for their class of origm b u t more than rhe average for rhe middle classes; {hey
had est rhe highest competence capital of 'connections'. They manif amiJiariry and a socw rherefore pDSSC5s a very great cultural capital of f

Thosc members of rhe new petite bourgeoisie who originate from lhe upper classes and who, for lack (most often) of educational capital, have

i et Voya e i Bia"it. g I.e boucanier des l[e! The Leopard Exterminadng Angel 2t Peking ri I Venus

l.es dim. de

V.

'harmonious', 'discreet', 'stu ied

ft / that of the bou geoisie: the Art 0 Fugut, the Concerto lor {he LI Hand, rh e Firtbird Suitt, rhe Four SeaJom, Goy, Braque, Breughel, Jacques Oouai, the Modern Art Museum, antique shops and the Flea Marker, a

the m iddle classes and indine towards a system of choices very simiJa to

within t
sh'

p<>fId.n". Tho<c in the !.ill. .... ....r. off.r.d .no,h.r Ii" fillll$ ,hos<n by lh. p..ili.n ... fillll$lh.n sho",ing); Ih.i, ,00"..... o a i..d in .,,<>rd.n .."h .n .nalogous """,tu'e

The Leopard tetminating

rn.

Angel

rg n

friends, 'intellectual' films.

lent relationship wirh the educarional system, inducing a sensc of com plici y wtth every form of symbolic defiance, inclines them to welcome JUz, jeans, rock or rhe avant.grde underground, which is their monop olY-lls a challenge to legitimate (ulture; but they ofren bring intO thest gions disdained by the educational establishment all erudite, even 'a(2' demic' dispos ition which is inspired by a clear intention of rehabilira On: all the forms of culture which arc, p rov isionally at least, on the (lo. r) boundaries of legiltmate culture-Jzz, cinema, strip cartoons, soen

IN Safall)rt Ciuliano, Ex{erminaling Angtl, T Their ambiva Tial, or, among the comedies, Tht SuillW (see figure 18),

'

interior, 'refined',' 'artistic',

'styli

ashions and models finion-llnd to Haunt (for example) American f

erence for T secretaries, who are mall1ly interes,ed in actors. " Their pref ht Trial, a 'prodigious , harrowing' film, or or Us dimal1chtJ "f V d'Auray by Serge Bourguignon (who uses 'sometlmes quesllonable but never vul g.,' means to renaCe wi,h 'unfai[ing ddiocy' the 'very pure an roc"c ItOry of a mttl1ng and a friendShip bcrween a twdveyear.o[d girl and .. thlflyyear.old man'-LI Mondt, 24 November 19(2) no d br reels ,heir u:lSi'professiona! inte st in all psychologica[ eXpIO .llons; bU! II IS also a s'gn, among many othen, of the higb cultural amblllons (al reRected ,n te f uency with which they y. ,hey' read. w?rks phIlosophy) of these . I!an i(ional, mediating categol'les, Idenllfied In Inre([on and aspl at on 'he dominant classes whom rhey serve, often In spallai proxImIty (ser retary and dir tor, nurse and doctor), yet separated from them by an il1\;lsl' ble barrier.

":

re

r:l

tc s <J wuh

0:

so

ec

re

the cul tu l equi valent of the rcstor:ition strate ies which defille thetr oc (upationa! project.

r:i

Thus. the members of the socio-medka[ servic s name more film d,re<ro e -rhan acto, ,hereby distancing themselves from the clerical workers or t

Tbe fact thar a large proportion of rhest ne positions are occuied by . . wOmen no doubt contributes 10 rhe rcahunon of lhetr porennallttes, whICh express themselves precisely in this recruitment. It would clearly naiv to look t o the x-rat io ofrhe category, which is one of the prop trties of the category, for the explanation of (his or thar other property of h at egor y. The socially inculcated disposirions (in a i u[ar, rhe inch . allon towards the things of ta le) which lead espeCIally the omen of ,,:, . fractions towards the ad)Cctlves they see as most dlsllngmshed

se

r ec

hCSo:

p nc

. Cstylish>. <refined' erc.) are also the basis of the ""hleh [hem (0 Ih.e new occup:nions and of rhe emirel !hey .apply In (hem. NOI {he Jrur of Ih- . ,re [nc' XSIh . ' .... .In {he production or salt ...goods"a ._,1,11 "" bo[h of Ces lf:pfIIa.li?n ....hich is often essemiaJ condili: 70rvL 31ld r bo ImpoSlnon. he The k.cy to. he whole system of preferences of thes<: declasse ' . bollrgeols aspiring [0 recover their lost class is fo d In the frequPtdt wllh '."hieh rhey choose adjecrivcs which unam u uSJy a{{c Jn fOr th, most naively ;lr;$locr:atic qualili ( ,IShde'art Sly . ' d gUtSh = . 're,nl"<l'' 'recherdli') Th' Iension t di rion. this quui.mClhodical eo((rn : ;::r7 Ihe lasl ... m values m1 darly :u.sociated wilh rhe eslabJishcd t borgro,slt .. the orkmg ct.assn. which give [0 all their praCf :n Ir of ten,... . cn n n::laaflon, constraim in the pur$uit of a 'Iiberated llfest" , J ' . . - {enatton Simplicity, are ind- rhe most slgndinm mal'll.,esl1110ns . cru (J/ .IS" ew variam of Ihe pelil.bourgeois Ih elhos. . b . ThIs wdl2rmed pn'lension. blSC<! 0" a , " aml . . . . h hIgh social origin s q . I dStl C In, larlt, wllh cu,ilure COlt . . In.... WII O I ;;s means and ls iry from Ihe a,.,jous ptensin ( h; romot petile bourgrolSlt. h funnions u a SOt! of social 'lIa, II; . s owner .to . sleer thtou&fl ' difficult Situarions when rhe sa a;s. mlSSlOg. Thus, ... though the members of rhe new pc:lite bourgCOISle are no more Incll" than the others to concede (espeCially In praCtice) thaI photograph, '" transfigure ob,eets such as a pregnanl woman, raf>"yard, a butcher'll stall or a nr crash, they are more skilful at I.de ntlfYlnthe 'soppy' oblC'Ctl of popular taste or peti,.bourgcois aesth . . I e n t :: t:.girl playing wilh a cn, th;t;;ane (:I ; h : , " say wou'd make 2 bea tl I Pholograph). In St"all. . U the cultural bluff' which relies on Ih IS al. -measured by the g2p bo tween the tendene, It Ih, raresl palmers composers or Worb ( CE.I :(/i!lj, the Firrhird SUi/f. Kandin;ky. Oali. Bra<lue) ani the f e :;J : ts 10 msc:um, esr:ecially the Modern I\rl Nitn : um-varies with ;: proportion of mhemors and parvenus in each .... . . 'go" . " IS pamcu,. ar' y f ._,uem among the cultural imermediar.es .rtYI comm," " , eunves, very ,are among the promoted ....!il bout8"'!...I r .. . .. (as II IS among 'h, publicsector exunves and secondary teachcrs). ..... . . . go .IS duced to a,., cmp'Y ntCnflon 0f dlsnnCflon in the tisinl> fracu.Oll _I . 0 . (,Iruatcd on the negallvevalue sick of the -, 'hc new occupa{lons . a",s) .
an Cfle > ? III
. . .

10

atl
._

. .. Of thc members of tl e new pellte bourgcolSIe who originale from the u least of the works of ITIU 39. percem r (I'k percent of!.2r the know att least1212 of the com"""": " go (Ilem un name ,:''creas on r H. 11", dIspanr ... _- nol occur wlfh members of thIS , "' rJt, ''_ same wOr uuo
I S
.

-. -

wo or middle cl2.S$CS: I ' pc r( nt of them O originate from (he rksrkingI) p'occm name at least 12 composers. ...h a( least 12 wo and much more oflen (8 pernt) than I>' knoW ,;or't c re logiC, the for mer dcbof quality int rests me.' e ?l' t SJmc per: = AII music 111 "'ler ( 8C:cent): '::' = '- ::C = = '- - - t' ::: = = '::' '::' ''' '-' = = - - to' l' ;: silions of which the new petite bouisie is ,he bearer find "(he dispo ns for thetr full developmenl only Pans ( table 2').'" ondilio which it ttIC 'unl pretension-together with education, of to appropreinforces Ihe riation of the l iS ,.,0 doubl one of {he factors conducive al values t_ es associated with proimilY 10 the cenl of culturbelonging, tag ,.I,.art mo intense supply of cultural goods, the sense of h u a entives given by conl:Kt wirh groups who a also culturally inc lhe thed.JI Consequenlly then: is no orher olcgory in which rked:sys!emr diffe b,"{)urc es between Parisians and provin(ials a more ma renc tic diffe intensity of the legilimue practices (museum visils etc.) and :nccs in the competence (in music, for eampk); differences in !he rela of lhe range of being an ou er to Ihe Icgilimale cultu, with the seng poinl', 'I don'! tsid much tionship 10 know Stro"' ofpaiming or music (,not my d among provinciaJs, other things -o .. dd ng :&bout it') always beices,mo markein lhe ability !O !ecognif,cn above f bcing equal; difen mmarr all, inions. the Parisiafl$ always being op 1 9<'1hout knowing Ihc of compelence, to opt for Ihe mOSI legitimate more mdined. 21 all ieveb quality interestS me') soon as they a for ludgcmems (,All music of cials mo oflen concur with the judgemenrs mulated, wheas the provin itimacy combined with confession of ig epressing a recognition of kg about it') or incompetenCe ('It's compli. norance ('J don1 know much s of cultural pretcnsion. wilh. for wed'); diffen(es in the indice ' or 'srudied' interior, clolhes Ihat ive example, the choke of an 'imaginatexprnsions typical of {he new art of 'chic' llnd 'stylish' (fad), tWO Jation wome,.,'s magazines, and liVing promulgated by the mass<ircu of above all the declared prdence for the r:lrtSt works (insmusic, Ihe Fir,. tead of the pro bltJ SlIit, the A,I o Fugut, the W,IITtmptrtd C1aiff f new petite bouroisie . : t). 'nClals Rh"spJotiy in Blu(he through which the rgeoisie much mo de IStlnguishe itlf from promoted pelite bou provin and diff nces in all (he indices of Vdy in I1s(yl. . Paris than in thec1olhes,ces; lUtes inecooking or elhical pfe! in the choi(e of cs, In which the provincials a always mo prudent, less ud:Kiously ' ucnled' {he provin. the Par {I iOgcthr wilh thc opposirion between cultural isians and e) belween ked in S,OCthe opposirion (Strongly marns who originrcompetenc dominant t ss Cupants of the new positio e from the (la and und tho who originate from the other classesays a erlines the con-. ditIQns ofsuccess 0f { h soc,a' b" u whICh a'wlyS p, part . the de, niho of lhe n w occupations. Having acquired only the most visible . end .l St presngOus aspectS o( the new llfe-slyle. the upwardly mobile in
III see u 11 ire III C III

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itions way of io margiM.[, less strictly ddiow pos .,tOl,lals who k d the promises impli in Ihcir scho lng destinies incompllibk w;ln r lur.ll (Opclcnccs, lilt elhical , he s ,rtt { rs, wilhoul possesing I, cul se from i SOCIal capilli ana ,"vestment so:n d"spOSil10flS and. above all, Ihc nt cla$S CXp1 a rovcry ividuals originadng from Ihc domina 'hleh ind ry likelihood of being cpc:l\t<l from oI ,hcir former posicion, have eve 1110f n led by educationally induced ;{ion S !O which they have bee nly through Ihcir itions arc: pglUSivcly rcvalud (pa , Ll. as h pos of [hc sok kgmmau: occupaflfs. dimlfl:l.non ) by thc :KnvlIY ' .. 0 0

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10 occupy ositions predispose individuals can stt how inhcr;u:d disp one d mer y orienl {hem. With Ihes( 'nee pOSitions lowards which the ,he O lways sell themselves symbolic goods nd services wh (h11'11$', sellers of their produ(1$, lnd whO sell as guarantors of the value of :IS modds and , the symbolic authority of tht)' bc:lieve in whlt they sell SO wdl bc:ClUse i is taka tht form of an imposition tha honest, trustwOrthy v(ndor rht deceives the cus. mor( gtntk, since the vendor both more violent and y 'sold' on the deceives himself and is sincerd tomtl only insofar as he ustry, which e the new 'substitution' ind alue of wht he sells. &caus s o to those who cannot aff rd rhe thin 5(IIs fine words instt:ld of things new pt. rds, finds its idt:ll c1iemck in the but l willing to setde for wo l con dispostd to collaborate with tora tite bourisie, this group is prt t handtcl down by the new bourgeoisie, icrion in imposing the lift-s yle ry and the leal goal of its aspir;)' the prohablt destinarion of irs mjccto ll e of consumers. which mt:lns to lIons. In shorl, this po::tite bourgeoisi rhe 11Tibutes of the legitimue Kquirt on crtdit. i.e .. bc:foTt' its due time, es and holiday flals at Mer hfc:'slyle-'f(Si<knces' with 'olde-worlde' nam cctly holidays-is ptrf lin-Plagt, mock luxury cars and mock luxury sump for con lapled to a(1 as a tr:lnsmission bc:11 and pull into the race itself. In rom whom il mt:lns 10 diStinguish lion and compttition those f sense of legitimacy fact. one of its distinguishing fntures is precisely its ch nOl rn Inching Others the Icgilimle life.style by a symbolic action whi only produces the need for its own product, and IheTt'fo. in Ihe long n, legitimes itself and those who exercise it. but abo legitimates the t or, If esryk PUt forward as a model. that is, that of the dominant class. .gude. mOl"( preCisely, of the fr;)ctions which constitute its elhical avam their :KtiYI1Y is, of cou, held by ry diflCrrnt image of lhemselves and I ics of cultun.! produc ho, in indus'ry 01 in the gra, burnucn.c nintions. the major dally or weekly ...-;a I"Ie -.d,O, tdevision, rciC2.TCh orga a s '(uhun! ,he occupations of 'socia! work' nd f ac pand especially in to ,hem by I lo , rm Ihe lasks of gende mallipulal10n assigned I: Ial , :', perfo tion wirhill Ihe hi IItw dIvision of bOOur. Occupying a dominated posi

Duty 10 the Fun Ethic

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cmehy. of the ;ns.fif(jons of cul.fural produnion and circuladon and e. pc,u:nc,"! a '1U:!5J .hcnaflon ",hl(h SQmetimes provides rhe bcasis Or an .1\. ,dkcllul solid..;!y with the dominated claues, the ne.... cul'un] imcrmed,arie$ an: indir>e'd 10 sympa(hl with discoul'SO aimed 1( h ing til<: (ullu",! or r and rhe hierarchies ....hlCh tho( {u][un] 'hn aJ.. h alms 10 maintain. and 10 I"Cturn to the the"," of all ho:resics-.:kll Y of rhe (Ihnocnl!ic) pretension 10 the monopoly of competence nclallGrl 10 hicnr(hics and "rhc' hic.ar<:hy. Ihe ideology of univcrul crli' O$ul"1 I n facI {hex occup.rions condemn their occupants (0 the essCfl!ial' m \' !If resul!!ng f,om the discrepancy between III< (symboliully) sub . !\to dispositions linked to thei. posilion in rhe diVIsion of labour and r e mao nipulativ, Of conservative (un(lions atlached ro lhe ""sirion ber Wn rhl: sub- - )e(!lve Image 0( the occupational projO:<:t and rhe ob,'e(!ive f ""' _ c t' occupation. The very f><'rf rmanc of the fUnction may presuppos 'e . e rh1$ , d!scl"(pancy. a pnnClpk of dliStmulanon and mlsrecognition, as in rhc ease of some Vetetan revo)utionuies of May 1968 who have Ixcome ind . UStrtal c., psc"v oglsrs: to accept t"elf ambIguous position and to accept them c I dOIng so. they 11"( forero to invent t ski.lfully Imbiguous discou practices Ihat "'erc. so 10 spt:lk. . ., nltlOr! . Inscnbed 10 advance in 1M verw L_ o.( I' Itn. " Ob'- to ,Ive out the comradiClion bclw<'(n their "'"" '" '5 u . stame :lSp tatlons and the realily of their pr::t(ticc. to cultivate unccrtItnt,. ' - L c. to h - SOfn, I""nnty 10 or""r to L abk to accept it, and thcl"(fol"( con. ",lr ox <kmned to a queslioning of rhe world which masks an anxious sclf. questionin, th 'inrdk.:ruaJ ackeys' at( predisposed to eXf><'riencc with parneu!ar tntenSlty Ihe n,slcnn l mood of a wolc inldk.:tual genCratiOfl, hch, weary of csf><'r::ttcly hopIng for a collc.:flve hof><', sccks in a narci$> Slstle self.absorptlon rhe substitule for the hof><' of changing the social ....orld or even of undcrstanding iI,

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Thus, in the slfuggJe it wages, within the dominant ftactions of IIw dominant clm, to I"(placc oldstyle cOl1scrvuism based on an overtly I\t" thorilarian image of Ihe hier.lrchical relations betwttl1 the: cl=. P er::tiol1s or scxcs. wilh a reconverted cOl1scrvatism correspondil1g 10 die el1hghlened scJf.lnterest of rhose: for ....hom a nlional usc: of the cduta' tiol1al system has provided the mellns of reconverting themselves m It> cordance wilh the new logic of Ihe C(:onomy, the new or n:110vlred bourgeoisie finds a natur::tl ally, bolh eeonomically and politically, in IIw l1ew f><'tite bourgeoisie, The Jatler recognizes in Ihe new bourgeoisie ,lit embodiment of ils human idelll (the 'dynmic' eecu1ive) and, havln abandoned the somewhat morose ascedcism of the rising f><'tite boll!' geoisie, collabor.Hes enthusiastically in imposil1g the new ethical nornt' (cspcci.ally regards consumption) and the corresponding I1ccd.s.. of Seeking ItS occupational and personal salvation in the impOSlflOn . new doctrincs o( ethical salvadon, Ihe new petite bourgeoisie is 10 play a vaoguard role in the struggles over everything cn(e .dt' ":" th the UI of living, in particubr, domestic life and consump"oo. faIft" (10ns bctwecl1 the sexcs and the generations. rhe ttcproducrion of the

s. It is opposed on aimosi. every poinr. I? the repive nd its valuc iIY a,lhty of the dedining pctite bourgeoISIe whose rehglous or political r . lsoruo;; , - mon' d- _.r, and "" scl""a,-,m o(tel1 centfCS on mora IndIgna{lon at I . ,Oil . of seual morcs-as witness ,he theme 0( por IaIIY ,he disorder whole current of ' al1d ,he: anti.feminism which run through a rac ht, from Prodhon .10 ,..oe t Ilandy petit-bourgeois right-wing tug . pretenSIon of liS ..A. ( il is Nlually op...... by the ariStocratIC . -, r' ''' , _ ""'relo. BII r # .( C . and by its subvenive rcpresentattol1 0 Irre re allOnS ,Undamcntal chokes . _ uv ro Ihe ascelicism of Ihe promotcu petIte L_urgeolSle. n the scxcs bCt,.. us but nOI witho.ut a sort of heroism. is . . ",hoSt" a llstef(' op;imism. tigoro . ,. ' L_ the repressive pessimism of thc dedllHng f><'lIte vvur,?lsle. sed 10 of duty, .based on t,he oppomlon be or us. whereas Ihe old morality , and good, il1fluces a generalized .SuspKlon of the chum...ern pleasure I . " L D\)Uy ure and a re,afton ro trre L_.' rna"- up ear :t .ng and allr:Ctive', a f of pleas. -atcs every sam(aCllon 0( e'. 'modesly' and . 'restn.lnt', and assoo . . of'.... lses wllh gUilt. the new ethical avanr.gudc urges a TO I { rbidden impu c al OClrlne rnakCSIf a , -,ure. a (rrmat lly mora,- o( plenure U a duty." This d - c 1 . lans '-ke 10 sar Wltrr a ,III,e fun',!>Ii or, as .Pllns' 10 scl(.estttm, 1101 10 'have l1or only rmllled bUI deudder of audaciry, ]Ou;,;)' plcasu IS. ell grounds. The f r of 1'101 J. man<KU. on ethical a.s much :IS on sctCnlllic a enOIl to oercome wn enough plellsurc, the, logica! outcome of the for self.(xptCSSlo ad the fr of pleasure. is combined with .thc. search, others (,relatlng l 'bodily expression' and for Commur"lca"?n with a group but s irhangt), even immersion in ?ters (.consldered nO! as . search of Ihelr Identity); and the old rsonal ethIC IS !ub)et:livities in py. AI thus rejcned for l cult of personal hcallh and psychologICal. then Ihe opposite pole from the 'politicilltion' which depersonahcs f><'nal . cxpcnenccs by presen ting them as particular cases.of $enenc epelenecs common to l clm, 'mor::tliution' and 'psychologlzallon' perwnahzc ex petiences. and are Ihus perfcctly cOl1sistem with the mon:: or less sc:culu Iltd forms of rhe: search for religious salvalion w As is shOwn by Ihe usc 11 make'< of psychoanalyic jargon, Ihe mrnist morality is a pschologi. . vulltc which monlizes ul1der ,he gUlsc of analySIS; and lS IS shown by Ihe emphasis it placcs On Erikson's 'utopia of full otgumic reciproc. . 11(, 11 lr:lnSmUtCS a spuriously positive definition of Ihe 'normal' Into an imperalive of normality lnd bases the orgsm.duIY of its theorerical moralily on the findings of a bogus science of mores i 1a Kinsey. Ihus , IOlloducing (he deadly, rational accountancy of eflulva1cnces !nto the area of sexual exchanges. which for most societies is oe of the lUI re. Ug of collective misreeognition."" Invoking the presttge of a false SCI' n(C of scxual behaviour to naturalize a conception and an eXf><'rience of .Io:uallly-a very re<em hiSlorical invCfllion which depends on social (OndlllOns of possibtllfY Ihat an: ry unequally diSlributed"-ir con gns to $t. the: palhology of 'scxual poverty', i.e.. 10 Ihe allemions of lhe J>sYchoanllys! or the: scologisl. sole lrbilers of iegirim){e scu11 compe
,

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rencr. all those wnom the old mo....tlity would h3Ye eons;81l to ", { erno of 'nalUral' sexuality. These 'barbarians' who " ve not , ':lIh the 'sexual revolution' are once again the victims of a flon of the de/inifion of compcu:nee not accompanitti by a lion of the conditions of l(qu;sition. . Closer In this respect fO religious prophecy than to SCience . . . "__ I !rUInS ne aways pamlI and provIsional this wouJd.L SClt'ntlfic; , M...... ...... IJC ' . . . ""," provl<IO a SySI(mlflC answer [0 the problems of daily _tlS tCnc( 1 '- ... --, d . . t c P05e$, ror example. a concepllon of bodily exerdse and a reprrll of childhood and child-rearing which are H1 """rf ' r C<:1 harmonv With 'IS ... . . sIan 0f sexuality. QUI goes [he asceticism of traditio a I which measures rhe value of an exercise by its COSt o an cve ) SIIfin eff ' t kring Cil fauf souffrir pour em belJe'), which L Pnyslcal cfL._ "Uf1 ,d ' " Clla rllClcr b1,11 mg. and may cven find a form of ple:lsure m thc e ' . . cnce 0f tenStOn; In liS place comes the 'new gymnast' ,S' , a :;df l!fIeti. I ' , '5"' . anll'gymnaSrlCS , . . L a system of -ua1iy imn.orll tive and euClV " 1 ..... Wllu F , . _ SlIe re<qJ.rs Imm to subsfirute .relurion for !cnSton, plC'Uu for : Ort, creauvny and freedom, for dlsclpllne, communiUf;on f solilu 0: or . 1 \ IrealS Ihe body as fhe psychoanalysr nears 'he soul, L. d .... ucn mg us<:ar 1D . _ .,tSlen , to a L )' ... UUU htch has 10 be 'unkr\OlIed', ljberlll- or, more SI--.L. 10<1 . ,<; scovered and accepted ('f 1. " celing al home') - This p'yCnoI0gIUIJOII 0( " ' .. .. 1"1. . , _ _ Ihe reiarion to Ihe body tS mseparllble from an enliarion of The 5(lf b ' . self which lIuly fulfils itself ('growth', 'awarenos', 'm;ponSlvencss:) "' r N ",:.hen 'reIanng, 10 others (,sharing expericnces') through the inretfl'leo ' diary of the body trealcd as a sign and nOI as an Insnumenl (which opc:!II . . fhe door 10 a whol pohttes o f the 'alienated body'). Such arc Ihe Inrea . . IJons whteh lie behmd exercises of 'bodily expression', a SOli of ama p delivery of one's own body."l e same opposilions are found in the area of child.re:lllng, l1Ic Pl,lfto . . , 'mCllI Vtew of the ch'l d s nature as a sire o f dangerous, powerful (essat" . lIally aurrorlC) d('SJr('S leads upbringing 10 be s<:-en as a 'IrlIin'"8', ' . s''ghlemg, ad agog as a 5(t of Icchniqu('S for comrolling dlt . child ,,:,hlle talng hIS b,ad mSllnns: il gives adulls fhe power to dcfiIIe needs, I:e., Icglllmale d('SIm;, 10 dislinguish, for example, between k,lln mal CrlS (O! hunger or pain) and illegifimate ones, or between 'g004 and bad habl!S. By COnrrllSI, rhe therllpeu(JC elhic. wilh jls psychobfbbk of 'hberalionist' commonplac('S ('falher figure', 'Pcler Pan complt'll' ele.), cits Ihe child wifh a good nature which mUSt be acccpled such, wllh liS legllimatc pleasure needs (for affemion, affection, mal(lfllll care). Child.rearing, -:vhich is also a source of le/olillmale pleasures I'" tl12t procreallon. whICh produces this consumer objecl bringing ta'/. youth nd umon 10 bCllh parems, is also, psycholherllpeutic duty). IrCSCI the chrld :is a $01( of applemice who mUSI discover his body and !fI' world through explOr::ltion; and. blurring Ihe boundaries belween and play, duty and pleasure, i t defin('S play as muscular and menial I
o

Srnnastiq,

objec re, subjectively agable and hercfore 2 necessary pleasu enrs nd g pleasure a dUly for children and par ' r nS, iOdL'.....nsabk. rhus makin ' .,ly " Sli<Jue of Ihe age of scienct. is L pikt.tC ho nalysis. the rlIlionalizing. mY . . a ", L' L ' LSCOUrx W,,"CII gIVes tile apg d' " r<:led 10 supply Ihe kgmmalln l l nte the arbitrlry (bul socially neces f y' f a rlIlional founduion {O rlIpy !1n' . And r hc Iie from elhLCS to th . upposilions of an elh l"' re IS no ) ,st of whtch LI LS lhe ptodUCl; the P \J!}''uees lhe need for the thcrlIp " ll recourse 10 spc for p,ychologlCal heaI Ih rhroug , Ihe search " p l" a ' L L lleraplStS. JA bl . of souls (psychoanalysts. psyCnm ""U S In lhe rlIlional cure "Jh STands in a dialeclical relalion idancc counsellors and so on ) . ing Inc r age osi of prof onals capable of produc n f('I3,he de opment of a body " 0) _A and SCrvlCes tney ,or dUCl, i.e., a markel ( the gvvus for their own pro . ' . rq<'lIprcd 10 supply. Ut' ute to IhlS smgk factor all the doubt be a miSTake to atlllb !l wouId no aCi f a ich resuII from the combmed Imp in dom('Stic ethics wh " ,h,n d Ing ("e appear cpendem causa, senes, tIlC,u ber of (relarively) ind . . chology orics (psychoanalysis. generic. psy of new p,ychologital Ihc lnce e 00urgeotSle emcnng reased numbet 0f glt,S frm I" . . (te): Ihe vastly inc Ihc assoCIated Itfc.Style; Ihc transfo eduClllion and adapling 10 h her , schol:iSTIC reproduction, which means .rha tion of the mode of social tety. pre n mOrlll errors, wilh aeadem" anx rrotS tend 10 counl more Iha anxielY, which used 10 af 'iously more a male concern, replacing ethical the labor market; and the access 10 . e f n mainly girb; women's increased . r g Itself. whIch, havm. o plac eve changes in economic producllon of of needs and The amf"lal (lClllon. gJ"Uier emphasis on Ihe produCiion 10 encourllge a consmer mOrlllry. K1IIrcilles, helps in many indirecT ways r::lPCUIIC moraltty tS unquesl1on The fa" remains fhal Ihe tise of Thc Iht professionals (psychoana. :ably hnked to Ihe conslilution of a corps of ro 101,1rnalim.ad so Iysts, scxologisu, counsellors. psychologiI. spc-ciaJiz n of leg'llmlle Ollh) claiming a monopoly of the leglllmale defi"' f conSillUlion of a field of ptdagogic or scxual compc((nce; and thai Ihe by rhe dispuily belwccn Ihe produClion of goods and services called for ' ncc cannOT compt Tence now demande<l in such mailers and real compete l str:ltegi be: understood independently of Ihe whole set of conversi?n pm!!5thrOugh which agenls. whose domestic or educallonal Hallllllg e been able 10 find I'OSI:d them to play the role of an elhical vanguatd, hav the substitute for Ihe prestigious positions the labour market refused Ihem, in the inlCfSlic('S beTween the IClching profession and thc medical prOion. Thus rhe exemplary hiSTOry of all those who !alled by pro SI r l\g faiTh and ended up making ir a profession. espc-cilIy of all Ihose ural :uso.ciations which, in the areas of social work, adult educalion. cult moved, in the Olganilafion or advice on child.rearing )nd sexuality, hlvc y :r.ce of a generlltion from the enlhusiaSTic uncertainties of voluntar unfolds in time to,.angeiism ((I the scc'uriTY of quasi-<,vilscrvanl SI1TUS,
,

"m

and. abo\"e all, of scholasric cfassificarions. hierarchies of kno....lc<:Igc. rile" uals JJC' ?rerical absrr:anions or I"hnical compelences, th new intellect . fi.c.rioflS lII ellllll 8; an art of living which proyiclcs them with the grati of the .Intdl"tual u Icast COSI: in Ihe name of the,tht against and rhe li'luidarion of 'complexes' they adopt the {IIOfI and. easily aspects of e. inteJle.:rual Ji( sartorial oUlrage-s. emancipted nor',cr postres. and systemarically apply disposition 10 e . Jcgmmate culture (cinema. suip C':I.rtoons. thc underground), 10

(he mbiguou$ nafure all [hose professions which are ( orms of '(xtmpluy prophecy' and which involve off ring (or e IIi onc's own 1rt of Jiving as 111 example [0 others. Ihcc ([hie:!.l prostlYlism of Ih (thical prnnhers of bu reaucl';) -" . . [II; '" . CI(:U sys cmul(IIy revCfSC'S Ihe ascetic mOrllity of the establi Sh . , . "'" bourplslC", rhlS'S because, like Ihe choice. by which Ihey,re cfin...... r ".O( rna 'In [h ' proresslon ralher Ihln (mering ready.made pro , hfe sryk lnd ([hi(21 and political are b" O :I. re..... On.o... their - . "->C\l li. ' of evcry!h Ing In [hernstIves thaI is finite" definite final. 'n a war " OII d . " !'nit ' bourgeoIS. Ihat IS. a refusal" [0 be pinned down in a panicuIar sHCl1 l .. . CiaI space. a pncunI UIOpmllSm whIch was until then 'hc pnvl lc:" J . . ... _ _ JnIC"('([uaIs and wh' f OUlspo5CS them fO welcome ery leh P' orm of q_ . ., -.:: _ " . pIa. CIassll",. U use. aspmng 10 a higher class. Ihey see themse " . 1ves II unciaSSIfiable, 'excluded' . drnn .--l our" 'mar,inal', any,h' lng I":3Ither ...... u - -,.r.. ... . ' categorized, assIgned to a class. determinate place in social space lind . yet II rh (1,1 I I spo rin . s k .... ciaSSlfical1on-but In the mode of denial, as one sees from a fe from the Index ofa 'resource',uide toadolescent(Oun,er-<:uIIU: . 'Id0, aglt-prop. alternallve press. anrhroposophy. anti'8Ym,lSI1CS. ann" . . nucIear. allll'I"Ych In"'. alllHad luion anri'scienri,m, '" 1-Va(Clna,ica, ' . '' . ' . lSlrology, b kef.maklng. blodynam,.,:s. bloxnergy. biological f.mni... . body. Charlie Hebdo. childhood. (Ommunes. creativity. dance. din d ugs. e.:ology. encounrers, extra.terrestrial. fom. fnIt Ilg t. gays. GeSla! t therap, gli ing. go, green. hallucinogma. . h k n$' grass. h meopathy, Imagination, ImmigF.lll ts. in ependent cin . ema. Inen{)on. Ju o lif e. madnest, n:agnellsm. nomads. nonverbal communication. non-yiolencc. ont nigh! stans. ogolng eduation. orienral medICine. par:alld. parapsvcl\ol og panlClen"fic uJlIntlon. pysiorher:apy. plants, pomry. pri$OllS. t psl.phenomena. reglonallsm. repressIon, scIence snuggles, telcpt . hy. Iher:apy, II-ailers. tr:nscendenral medilation, tr:aYd. trekking. YegcrJl' . lanlsm. ",eaYIll8, yoga. an . ....n Inyentory of thinly disguised expreulOllt graYifY 01 of dream of social flying, a desperate e/forr to de y soc al field concern to (to Guided by anri,insfiturional temperament and cape e"erything dolelll competitions, hierarchies and dassifican

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_elf pr-:l(I1es.

tur:a,

r educational, xu2L : of h :'P folk. d macrobiotics,

ll

futurlStlCs,

d d , kendo, kyudo. Lanac,

esorerica,

finion.

a sorr of the i

their

of

f the the

uality. cosmetics, childre'lr 1 art). the person"Oll sphere (sex life (str h). The JaY sure) and the existential (the relation t? nature. I?ve,.deat Ici f'OP" ,n$' audience (or a new inrell"lU"OI1 populannuon whICh IS also a 'relate' to the f llC<lUal life-slyle, rhey spontancously f'" tiOn of the inre IJn spOnnneis ideology (ulled from Freud and Freinet, Rogers and nc<a,! to point out te Fourier and Bakunin." It is $Cacdy ReI . thIS romanl1C flIght from the SOCIal lastic aspects vated'' eyen scho " "I(t mettmes sees I seIf I L_.y and . which. because exalts the vvu , tmate culture, the ..-0rid. Ihe 'wild' and the 'narur-:ll : like legu c:tUrn to t is understandable leaves ils principles implicit (which JS "OI ter-<ulture (Oun of an ethos) and so is still able to is rooted in. the disposilions ., b . n" It . ,. ' le 10 ",mf)l f yeryon th ons of dlStlllctlOO by ma illS ayal a funCli lfil InneT es and other external Signs .... riyC nn<t'!< . the disrinCfivc gam . -,. - -' dls"' lies previously ertising-which s between the routine rhemes of adv 'j The convergence f1{ cal language of desire nd the mOSI typi long been versed III popularization. the parallels between the iC of high conser:e, inant clas.s which conced th beter o ? 'social poliCY' of dom n-whIch g-spectfically bourgeots I". liS diffUSIo and the new child.rcarin n would be suffi"e. to show thal the for liberalism and indulgence, . ISIe and peltte bour used by thc vanguard of the bourgeo new erhie espo . of enlightened conservatism is perfecdy compatible with a fonn gtOisic n is not in the process of It may even be wondered if Ihe ethic of liberatio er whom "onomic the the economy with the perf"t consum cing him 10 consume of)' hlS al....ays dreamed of, and not only by mdu of thing. The most important contribution and to consume the ed (de consumers who arc isolu n.... cthic may well be thaI it produces pings) and o:; spite all their as.soiuions, which are purely statistical grou r thc $Cpar:lte trdorc free: forced) to confront in eXlcnded orde the new c<onomic markets (juniors'. 'teenageB', 'senior citizens' etc.) ordet and untrammdled by the constr:lints and br.lkes imposed by collce oral struc tive memories expecruions-in ShOll, freed from the temp tures imposed by domestic units. with their own Hfe-<ycie, their gener:lrions. and Iheir longterm planning'. sometimes o\"er . tive def ences against the immcdiare impact of the muke!

ttC"' h.

it

of

n.ature,

.t

(U

S
optS

reserved for mlellccruals. the philosophical a

of

supplying

latest

the

(or

of

and

scyer.ll

col

y and pres" the 'taboos' e.xternal most borrowed the hber.lted manners. cosmetic or th cultiyated

p05d

The Choice of the Necessar

The fundm(nraJ propa.Iil;on {hat I habitus is a virrue: ma<k of n& sity is never mon: clearly iflustr:ated than in [he case of the workina classes, since necessity includes for them atl ihal is usually meant by rht .... ord, {hat is, an inpabJC' ckpriv2tion of necessary goods. Necessity imposes a l:tStc for necessity which impliC'S a form of adapl2tion 10 and conSC'<jucndy acccPlance of (he necessary. a resignation [0 [he inevitable. 2 detp-se:l.led disposition which is in no way incompatible: wilh a ll:vol... lionary intention, although il confers on it a mo<blity which is nOI "lIt of inrcJJt(lual or aniSI;' rcvohs. Social class is nor definw sokly by a flO' sition in (he reb/ions of production, but by the class habitus which is 'normally' (i,e., with a high smistical probability) associau:d with thll position,' n.e nQTii of all rimes and all bnds, by idenlifying wlm Iheir object 10 the point of eonrusing !heir relarion 10 lhe working-d.. condition wi!h Ihe working_class relarion to !hat condirion, by spo!alUIIJ and wriring as i( it were sufficient 10 occupy lhe worker's posirion In rebtions of production (or a brief while, as observer or even as partK pan!, in order to understand rhe worker's eKpo!rience of rhat posirion. present an account of !he working<Jass condidon rhar is st1tisricalJ! Im probable, since il is no! rhe produci of the relarion to thar cond," which is ordinuily associated with the condition. precisely because orr condirionings which i! exerrs. of . I [ is nOi a question or rhe !rurh or f alsifY or rhe insuppomble ,mage . . llin rhe wOfkmg<lass world Ihat lhe 'l"I,ellecrual produc whel"l, pu rktJ. . . . himself 'n rhe place or a worker without haVing rhe habitus or a 910 he apprehends the workingclass condition (hrough schemes of rc

....

_ .....

lion wi thou! having the habilUS thaI is Ihe produC! of the 'normally' imposed on those: who are condemne d to Ihis ! ulism is never anything other rhan an inverted ethnocentrism scripfions of the indUStrial working class and the asarlUy alo . . . S , ." ViC! atl' e.twttn mIser:!bI Ism and ml" en2nan (nlnlion, this Ial.... IS h...... .-,. they leave OUI the relarion to class (ondition which is parr of a iIIIIIt ddinirion of thaI condition, and because it is Jess easy [0 Stale rdalion !O the condition one is descr ibing (without nccessa riJ able [0 fttl if) Ihan [0 PUI one's own n:b tion 1 i{ into Ihe 0 lion-if only bcouse this spurious idc:mificu ion and Ihe indign... lI inspires have all Ihe appearances of It' gitim2cy 10 support them / On It -

.....

11!Ieat

.....

specific eff ct of thc: tasle (or nec: c ity, which nvr c:ISeS to [hough unse-c:n-bnusc: its aClion com bines wilh thl! of nec:(SS, . . mOSI cIrly se-c:n when II IS, In a sense, oper:l.ling OUI of ph, ha survivd Ie diS ppc1nc of Ih condilio ns which producd i[. On xamples m Ih behaVIour of som sma ll Cl1lflsmn or businCS.'Smn _bo , as [hy [hemselvs say. 'don'[ know how [0 spend Ihe mony [hey'we arnc?', or of junior clerical workrs . slill allached [0 their rasant or workmgcbss rOOtS, who get as much satis faClion from calculating how much [hey have 'saved' by doing with out a commodity or servi (or 'doing i t themselves') as thy would have gOt from the [hing itself, bul who, qually, canno[ ever puhasc it widl OUI a painful scnse of wasli... mony. Having a million does nor in itsclf mak on able [0 liv h. millionain:; and pal"'lnus genel1llly lake a long [im to learn Ihal what they se-c: as culpable prodigality is, In Iheir new condilion. expendi(U oC basic nec:ity.) h [cnds [0 be f rgo en that [0 appria[ the o 'tru value' of the pum, symbolic services which in many aTC25 (ho[d s, hairdressing etc.) Ih essential ditTerenc between luxury estab lishmnts and ordinary blIP" nes$CS, on has to feel onesd f Ih legitiml! ripinl of (his bureauaac ically personalizc,:l care and anention and 10 display visivis rh whO are iid 10 otTer Ih mi(ure of disrance (including 'genrous" grllnP' lies) and freedom which (he bourgeois have IOwards fheir servanTS. AD one who doubu fhal 'knowing how 10 be serve d' is on componenl Ih bourgeois art of living. n.eed only think of [h "'orke olsmall c TS who. entering a smaTl restaurant for 5Om grand occasion. Immcdl' slTik u p a conversation wi(h [he waiters-w ho realize al once ...hoI" [hey arc dling with'-as if (0 deslroy symbolically the servantmuleT luionship and [he unease i, crealC$ for [hm. Th worker who sel'S walCh on sale for rwo million (old) f"mcs. or who heiTS rhat a sur has spenr rhn:<: million fl1lncs on his son's engagmen party. d()Clo t

The Taste for Necessity and the Princi of C01lformily ple J

b
......

,he W,{ch o r the p'''y bu[ (he tWO million, being . unable 10 con ... _ V)' f th system of needs in which he would have nOlhmg ""lIer to d0 (f' (ti' . .. t""O illion fl1lncs than spend il on a warch. When thre are 'so ,,1(1 ' ' e. In things that come first', as rhey say, ,you'd h ave m "" crazy to.1h k [Il,of . himself n a (wo.million.fl1lnc watch. BUI no one ever really pUIS fb l ,CC ' of those on the OIher side of [he social world. One man's '10 I P cc ily-and not only because the is another man's prime nec ga ttt..,.J , ". , ''' e of those twO million francs varics wilh the number of . ((laf,In' ' .. e ...... - .1 I .... _. Many of the eXnl'ndilur s rhal arc caII. conspICUOUS .... cu Uions t"' . . ' ""ell a.s bemg obi. Igamry Iements 10 ,onO w'y <nuandcrin, nd. as" , . . ,re ' , of lift. .they n: w::ry oflen-lik tngagemenl partlcs-an ex. ceTlam slyIe t soctal cap l. cellcn[ invCStmen to

. .. .

...... a

lla

v;::

""{ricubr [he physical and soci,l Sl1lat:llion of (he - . 0f , '''''5-in , . e. K I 0f rft--Ihcsc u " rienccs (of [he "",uch and I': cngasemenr ol_e"," _ although both anualIy hal'i""" ' ' In '"[, as piny)_arc very tM,..6Iblc L _ with some brutalilY: 'Wha[ .and how much he can dc J bf UlI><TV> . 'ITS l lTS ...nds no[ 0"1, on the existin, statt of aff In the "'orId, a sutt.0f a . .. . . , . "' by 00 mt:!.. <felted by him, bur also on. h s pursc and on Ihe posmon . o lik ...hich falls to his lot owing 10 the dIVISIon 0f bb ur, wh"h h,aps u.s _ery mu h ,way from him. although he may have very acqulslllve 'd t)'t:! :!lId t:!1l." In general the working d 'have nO .l e1 0f whal rhe SySltm of netds of rhe privikged classes mIght be. Their knowledge of, upper.dass resources is equally absllaCI 1.nd unreal. (Thus, when asked [he !Vtrag<: price of a Sood mlal around ,he Champs Elysecf. l' percelll of [he manu,l workell said Ihey did nOI know, 3 percent pUl lI a[ ber",ecn l and 24 francs, 22 percelll betw en n and 29, 13 percelll between 30 and e ,llld 13 perCelll over Xl fl1lncs, a.s against 2 percenl, I I .percen!, 20 pc. Ctnl, 33 perrelli and 14 pcrcelll respeclively for the executlves, InuslTlalls{s .nd profcuionals; the junior exulivcs gave inrcrmed,,[e (valuatIons,) hasl "" Nr a

..... -

sec

to

il

S::;

. 'spend more', or differenlly, thai is, to rise to the system of needs Iph . . I 1 higher n level of resoure:es, is the best illustration of the Impossl?llilY of ucing (lhrorctic:aJly) the pronsity 10 consume o Ihe C?pacilY ro or of reducing the habitus 10 rhe onomle: nd ll on pre .aliing al a given moment (as n:pteSCmcd, fo exampl . by grvn of InCOm e). If everything encoul1lges a belief tn te xls[enct of a d , [tbllonship bc,wttTl income and consump[ion, {h,S IS use IlISle IS 1. 1l'I0$[ 1lways Ihe produe:1 of economic conditions 'dcm 1 to rhQ5C: In . "hlch f une:tions, 50 Iht income {ends 10 be CredIted Wllh 1 causal effi Cilcy whk h il in fact only exertS in associ,tion with [he habilus il hllS PrOr\ ( , d tall'le inco The specific efficacy of the habitus is clelrly se-c:n when . [he me: is as.socialed wilh very diff rent patterns of COnSUmp{lOn, e

What s[a[istics fl:(ords in Ihe form of systems of needs is nothing arlltr than the e:oherence of the choices of a habilus, And the inaiIiIY to

appriale

co

Ut

i{

s d n:cl

pies have intervened.,

which can only be: undeJSlOod by assuming that other selection " PI1I\t i.
,

)/U

I "'..... ' .'1I "

,m"

""}" ,,,)',,,

Thus f oremen, whose: average house-hold income is much greater rhan r -- skilled workef5 ()4,81 francs as against 2',716 francs) devote a v of similar proportion of their income to food O.4 percent, as against percent for skilled workers and 30 percent (or junior ex('(udves) , $0 Ih' their actual spending on food is equal to rh1! of senior exOXUI;VI'S ( I 2 ' francs as apinst 12,91)4 francs), Everylhing indica!1'S thl! they remain ' lt. l1C\lrd to Ihe popular values of 'cating well' and espc:<:ially to the I'OPUI interprc:nrion of these values, Fif${, spending on the products mOSt t of popular fOO1l starchy foods, pork, potaton, poultry-incrcases: 5ecOIIdI, spending on the expensivc prodlKIS, which ! "a ual workers lIae to testlll . :' ahhougll for tllem fhey symbohn: 'good catmg ---(MWlitrlt, wme, coi'feE and espially sugar (wllicll d('(lines sharply in tile upper d=C:S)-incftllel considerolbly, togetllcr with butler (444 frolncs as against 36 francs, whaa. leu oil is bought). Thirdly. spendmg on products which are expc-nsivt but chara(feristic of the: bourgeois life.style increases much less or not at all This is true of vcal, lamb, murron, fish, shellfish, cirrus fruit etc.: f resll llCJ' etabks incrc:a5C much more than fresh fruit. and both incrc:a5C less thin

Another eumple: as one moves from the 30,OOI)-W.OOO frolncs incOlTlf bracket into the higher br:ackcI, the food purc:hascs of senior ex('(ulives do nOt change in al all Ihe same way as Ihose: of manual workers, Thougll ez. penditure on food increases in borh cases (relatively more so among 1M 0.' ('(utivcs), the ilems which expand arc:, by order of imporunce, (or senIor exurivC'S (illeluding rcachers .Ild engineers): aptritifs. rC'Stlurant meal., nonalcoholic drinks, lamb, cakes and p;:I$trie5, beef, fresh fruil, fish and shellfish, chctsc:; ami for manual workers: pork, aperirifs, rabbil, fresh f,,"" dried vegetables, bread, fre5h vegetable5,6

{MTfllltr;" '

e The principle of the most impom.n( diff rcncn in the ord r of lire. , style nd, even more, of the 'styliu(ion of life' lies in the vamnons In objective and subjecdve distance from the world, with irs mtenal , strlincs and tempoflll urgenein. Lke the n!hetic disposi i?n wh one dimension of it, the distnt, detached or casual dispos'tion to

called the world or other people. a disposition which can scarcely nlleel in subjective since it is objeclively internali!Cd, can only be: consn .... conditions of exiSlence Ihat are relatively ( reed from urgency, The pc.

IICf" mission to n('(cssity which inclinn working-class people to a form functionalist 'anchetic', ref using the gflltuity nd fu!ilit o the e f a1 c;ses and of every form of art for an's sake, is also the pnnclpl 0 'fie"" SpeCl choicn of d;ly existence and of an rt ofHving which rejects

nlhctic intentions as aberrations,' sses dill la _ olhr C, f Thus manual workers say more often than all the "" Ihey like interiors thar are cln.n and tidy and t'aSy 10 malnta

pfll

o'

mo from ,he ....,Ves of f arm workers ro malluaI workers. to craftsmen shopkeepers, 10 t unlor executives and to senior executives). 11Iq resenl Ihe lero degrtt of make'up, of ....hich the complexi.y {!opsllck dac lipstick plus foundation. plus eyeshadow, plus eyebrow penCIl elc.) an sal cost in money, and especially in time. increase as one moves up I.... soc: cleft' :IS bef 11 least up to the level of t.... ore), hierarchy (in r.... sarno: order cal workers and junior execurives.

(risins stronSly wilh a. and much more fre<juent among housewivcs) " mosl pronouncw among the wives of farm workers. craflsmen or shopkeep. ers. and mallull workers (Ihe last twO C1tegOnes arc (hose who most oftm uy rhey are chiefly concerned 10 'pkasc ,heir husbands'). The choice of I 'cl2ssic' gument (nther thn 'rcfinw'. 'unconventional' or 'sporty'), which, like 'dIe mosl pracrical and economical', rises strongly wilh age and varies in inverse nllio 10 the rc:lding of Ell_II index of invcstment in the acs- ,helies of dress-is mongest among tM ....ives of farm .... orkers (67 pw:ml) and manual workers (9 percent ), whereu tke womell of rhe bourgeolSJI:. who least ofren express Ihis choice (39 percent), arc the ones who most ofren choose 'sporry' or 'rcfinw' clothes (CS. XLII). Funhr evidence: oil low illvestmnt in clothing and low propensilY o Invest in =,....t;( re finement in such muters is sec:n in rke bcr Ihn a relulvely high propor. tion of working-class women buy Iheir clolhes in the m..ket, by pas' or 11\ 'popular" departmenl SlOres, whereas bourgeoiS women tend 10 l imit {....,t purcha to boutiques nd 'up'markel' dcp2llment Stores (CS. XLV). TlIt logic is tke same in Ihe arca of cosmetics; Ihe numerous marker surveys (III the subject ill show that working-class women reduce their epend"ure (III ..... make.up and bcauty care 10 the minimum (this item rises strongly as onE

'tend nOt to take acCOUnt of fuh . ion'--1llways higher among women who do nOt work ouidt: rhe home (19 percent as againSt 47 percent) and rhose who never read women's maga. lines-is distinctly greater in the catesories of the craftsmen or small shop. keepers. farm workers and manual workers (62 pef(ent. 61 percent and pef(ent ) ,han among the tunior and senior executives, the profC$SIollals and Ihe employers (4} percent ) . Similuly, rhe (Oll(ern to 'keep up with fash. iOIl' is markwly SlIonger among the wives of tunior exutives or clerical worken. whemu Ihe choice of 'whalever is most p,inl Or economical'
11><: proporrion of WOnl(n who uy rhey

'valut (or monq' doth" which onomic nessiry a.ssgns ro tnr: i my case. The doubly prudtnt choice of 3 garmtnt thu is both 'si 'III lt ( 'vtrsatik" 'all'purpose'j, i.e., as link marked and as u nrisky as POS$P ' b ('no-nonsense', 'ptinl'j, and 'good value for monq'. i.e., chccap long.lasring, no doubt presents irsel( as the mOSt ro:-asorubk SUa lid givtn, on tht ont hand, rht onomic and cuirUr:l1 capinl (nor ro te3J. tion time) thaI can be inV"led in buying clothes and, on the othtr tht symbolic profits Ihat can bc tJtptcled from such an investmen, ( It least at work-unlike cltrical worktrs, (or example).

h,"::

: It

ortC")', timt and effort Ihat would in any case: bc of low profitabil ity, stem fro a choit o( the nec<:ssary ('That's not for us'). Ixnh in tht "Sf: of wh at IS teChnICally necessary, 'p!"acllol' (or,:.lS others would say, in order to 'get by', 10 do 'the proptr thing and , .. IICtiona1) i.t., neo:ded fllO((', and of what is impost<! by an onomic and social necessiry "tkmning 'simpk. 'modest' people to 'simple', 'modest' IaSI". Tht iu>lmet to tht ob!ecrit chances which is inscribc in the dispositi?ns ons,irullng tht habllus .s the sourct of all the reahslIc chOlccs whICh. on Ihe renunciarion of symbolic profirs Ihu arc in any case: inac, cessible, reduce practices or obje<:ts ro their technical funCtion, a 'short !xIck.and.sidcs' or 'quick trim.up' at the barber's, 'a simple linle dress', 'Id' furnilUre tIC. Thus nothing is more alien 10 working-class women than rhe typically bourgeois idel of making tach objl in the home rht occasion for an aesthetic choice, of extending tht i nten tion of harmony or beauty even infO rhe balhroom or kitchen, places slficrly defined by theIr fUll(tion, or of involving sptcifinlty aesthetic crileria in tho: choict of a saucepan or cupbo1fd. Festive meals and 'Sunday besl' clothes arc opposed 10 everyday meals and clorhes by lht arbit!"ariness of a cOllven rional dlvision-'doing things propo:rly'-just :IS rht rooms socially des Ignated (or 'dcco!"arion', rhe: siltins room. the d ining room or living room, are opposed ro tveryday places, thai is, by an alldthesis which is morc or less that of the 'do:co!"ative' and the 'practical'. and thty arc do:co mw in accordance wirh established conventions. with knickknacks on th mantclpie, a foresr scene OVcf the sideboard, How(1"$ on the twit, e wirhout any o( Ihese obltga!Ory choices implytng decisiom or search for

O.

dfccr.

, hUS':' d

Thus, although working.class pr:lctices may SC("m ro be '111 a saV1 directly (rom thtir economic (onditions, since they ensure

nils conventionalism, which is Iso thaI of populr photogl1l.phy. con cerned 10 fix conventional poses in the conventional compositions,9 is the opposite of bourgrois formalism and of all the forms of art (or art's sake rommtnded by rnanuals of gcful living and women's mga W"lCS. the art of entertaining, lhe art of Ihe table, the art o( mothtrhood. [n addition to providing a form of basic security in a world in which tho: can be hardly any assu!"ance, the choice of 'doing the proper thing' Ihe dor'le thing' (the vtndol"$ of domeslic goods undt:rstand the po...." of 'II'S tht done rhing' OVcf working-cla.ss insecurily j has natu 1111 p ace In l . an o economy of practices based on the search f r the 'pracrical' ad Ihe refusal of '(rills' and '( ncy nonsense'.'Q a en the choices which. from rhe standpoint of the dominant norms. pi ar as the most 'irl":lIiollal" ate groundtd in lhe !:.lSrt of ne<essity s o( course, the entirely negarive dro:ct of rhe absence of inf mation or an , fot Sf>lfic competence which results (rom rhe lack of cuiru!"al capital. nample, the laSte for the rrinkers and knick-knacks which adorn lTta l lTti Clpit:(e and hallways is inspirtd by an intention unknown to e<OIIO s a d ordinary lTt n acsrhelcs. Ihal of obtaining maxirnum 'drt' ( " [t'lI :e a terrific eff t o o:ct') at minImum COSI. a f r mu la which for bourgeois IS the very defin ition o( vulgarity (one of lhe intentions of distinc

Or

And if il still ntt<kd {Q be proved that resignalion 10 nC:(it [ e basis of Ihe lasle o! necessity, one only has 10 consider the wasl tIme and energy resulung from the refuSliI to sub jeCl the daily mana8f ment of domestic life to the constr:lints of r:ldonal calculation and e f ormal lif .principles ('a place for everyfhing', 'everything in its IUnt' etc.), which only apparently contradicu the refuSlI to devole time and care 10 hC2.hh ('molJy<oddling yourseJr) or beauty ('getllng dolled act up'). I n f , in these two features of their lifestyle, working<IUl women, doubly dominated, show that they do not set sufficient value on the;r trouble and [heir time, the only things they can spend (and give) withoul counting, to be concer about sparing and SlIVUIJ Ihem, Ot, to put it another way, that they do not value themselves sufi.

suwsr with the { ewesr '(K eCiS' possible: (he gl'C:ilres pendirure of lime, money and ingenuity). What is Iht 'gaudy' an ;.h 'tawdry', if nor rhar which (relltes 2 big (freer for a small prke, rhe , t lies' that 2rc only permissible so long as you can say 10 yourself , almost given away' Stlttt hawkers and saJes-promolion SPtti were ' know that Ihey must reinse rhe: brak(S and censonhips which fOmid , I$Q. rl'2vagances' by prtseming the forbidden goods u 'bugainf_the . u ashionable sett which. if you em forgel the colour and juSt rhink ,," f the price, is exactly rhe one you had always wantcd 'ro go in front r TV', or rhe unwt:u:abk nylon dress you cnded up buying bc-cause { i re<luced in rhe sale, though you had 'sworn you would never again .. nylon.'

(;00 being

[ 0

; 'l'I. :

of
:

, , . f r dle' o The OI11s to order ('Who does she Ihlnk she Isr 'Thai s not likcs of us') which reaffirm Ihe principle of conformity-Ihe onl e" . norm of popular l15tc--and aim to encour:lge the 'reasonable

10,1 percent and 7.6 percen t, say they look old for their age: alld work elm worru:n limost always award tllemsdves lower marks (except for \, ::e IlOSC and hands) Ihan women in Other duses. They set less store by bcJ personal c and systematically <kvOtC less time, money and interest to all (sec Table 20 in chapter 3). __

1\ whok $('t of convergent indices tends 10 show Ihat workins<b.$S women set less valuc on and have less interest in their bodies than women in odICI' cJa$SC$, For enmple, 40.2 pe=nt of agricultu al workers' wives and 360 per<ent of manual workers' ""ives consider tllemscJvcs below avenge In beauty as ISlinst 24.2 percenl of upperdass wolTl(Cn and 33.2 pQ'cenl of SI middle<lm women; 13.0 perecnt and 14.0 percent resprively. 15 aS2'

ciently (and they do mdeed have a low value on the market, un like bourgC'Ois women with their skilled labour.powct and (uhivaml bodie$) [0 gr:Jnt themselve$ a care and aHcntion which always Imply a certain indulgence and to devOlc to Iheir bodie$ the incessant OIre, COlt' cern and attention that al'(: nccded to aehicve and maintain health, shm lI ness and beauty,

labour

JI at"( in any case imposed by Ihe obje<tiv conditions also contain a r fung againSI Ihe ambition to distinguish oneself by i<knlifying with ""r her groups, thaI is, they are a reminder of the need for daSii solidarity. gapS between the cultural pr:lCfices and preferences of the diKerent d ar: to a large extent ue to the facl thaI the c ances of finding !n . , . t)flt's Ilulteu the 'market 10 wh ICh cultur:J! experrenccs and the d,s< urse5 10 which they give rise can m:::eive a value vary in much Ihe SlIme ,y as the chances of having such experiences, and no doubl play a part determining these chances. The low inlerest w hich working<IaSii peo n show in the worb of kgitimate culture to which they could have ac css-O'pecially through television--is nOt solely Ihe eKect of a lack of mpctence and familiarity: JUSt as supposedly vulgar subjects, such as television, arc bantshed from boutgC'Ols conversanon (C.S. VI). so the f,,-outite subjects of bourgeois convetSltion, ehibitions. thenre. con tiS or even cinema, at"( e"dudcd, de faCiO and de jure, from working. cbss conversation, in which they could only exptC$$ the pretension to distinguish oneself. Perhaps Ihe most ruthless call to order, which in 11 self no doubt eplains Ihe eXlraordinary rraiism of the working dllS5C'S, stemS from the closure eKect of the homogeneity of the dim:tly experi. cnrw social world. There is no other possiblc language, no olher life. Style. no other form of kinship relation : the universe of possibles is dosed. Other people's epcctations are SO many reinforcemenrs of dispo SItions impooed by the objectivc conditions.

The ritualization of practiccs and urrerances, which can go as far as Slereo tYp'ng, is to some etent an eKeel of the very risorous application of the pIIl'IClple of conformity. A fuJlsrown man who visils anOther household is txptrrrd to havc a d rink; a middleased woman who d,esscs 'tOO young for

,ag... is severely, even cruelly, sanctioned (jibes, remarks behind her back tIc.). Whe'eas s,eat class differences may pass unnoticed and are in any ClI very well toleraled {'He's I real (hanCter' 'He's nOt like us) beO :iC U r Ire Sttn as based on differencC'S of nnure (the doctor's wife wtll be de5I.i!:>ed as 'made for fine clothes' ), 1'101 Ihe slightcst deviadon is permirred r .those who belong to the same class (or originate from i!j, benu$(' In CiSoe difference could only ari$(' from Ihe desire 10 disdnsuish oneself, , at IS, fr.., m refusal or repudiatiOn of tile sroup (rhus the son of a wl>o b ak$ with his family is favourably resar<led, wM,reas I worker's who does 1M, same IhinS is condemned). What is obfccdonable is 1'101 dlff. tn:nce bUI the conspicuous intelllion of aloofness. The 'nalural' tTl c 'l( e which defines the bourgeoiS is the more nsily accepted au$(' hi l t; f> oclly' proves it ;s nOt the product of 1 ntgalive sui,,;ns for distinc< DIfference is pe ceived and denounced as such only by people whosc l"a .. n:11ess has been sharpened by political or trad(>union 2ctivity. those of () o.'hers say, 'Ifj 1M 1a ptJIiti'lut', i mplying 'a IfoubJem,ker, 'a '% ait 1.\1 ?, r d,amon '. It is delr what advlntlg.-5 the condescensi..,n slratesies of 't:!l o ms of paternalism can der;....: from Ihese dcfC-rent;al dispo:sillons ('2 -.......!.tleman et,.) n

'h'l :

diKer

oo...r

in the OpPOSite w.y." bJ" eS e It is also known that the whole set of socially cORSliluled di ff renC .,.d twn .he .sexes lends to weaken as one movt'! up the social hierarchy especially to....ards Ihe do minued f..crions of rhe dominant cI:w. ....hefC h women lend to shore Ihe most Iypically male prerogati ves such IS t enoc do ing of 'serious' newspapers and inleres' in poli.i cs, ...hile the men

dnnk (ext(unv('$ 27 pc:rcent. mlnual workers } pc:rcent, farm ....orkers 0 percent). But the ....orking diW is chiefly distinguiShed by the inclusion ol salty subslantial. dearly masculine f oods such as soup (ealen 21mosl udlt' lively by form workers), meat (46 percet of the filrm workers, 17 fCrn1 of Ihe manual workers, 6 percenl of the senior e x\"(utives say they al occas,onally car meal for breakfast) and chce$t whereas Ihe senior ex1t' tives 2nd professionals take first place for sw; foods such as jam or honCJ (40 percent say Ihey ear them every day, 15 a9,mt 29 percent of the fann workers and II fCrcent of the manual ....orkers), which are also darly muked IS femini ne (only }8 pc:rcent of men eaf them occasionally, 6} pa cenl of ....omen; C.S. XLVIII).The same opJ>O$irion emerges from an older . fur survey, 'n whICh the proportion ....ho eal something savoury for break (ew, ham. sauuges, pile 0. che se) dcclin('$ as one moves from the {arIII e ....orkers to Ihe manual workers to the clerical workers and senior e.x:ariC' r l) .ives, whi le the proponion who ell s....t f oods (jam, honey or f u.
, ,

lr is nor onl in thoughts that the OpPOsit on betwn rhe working d and til( dommant c1iW (especially irs domi nared ftion) is organizal analogy with the opposition betwn the mate and the female, that I$. throuh the categories of the StrOng and the we<lk, the far (and coa) " the thin (or fine) and so forth, Thus, as regards f ood, the working cJUICI (and no doubt the men mher than the women) ue opf'O$Cd to the Other cluses as men are oppo:sed to ....omen. It is kno n for example, that I . higher proponion of senior exuti than of any other class (exc",", ran. ....orkers) drink milk for brc:akfast ever day ()9 pc:rcent, manual ....orken 4' y pc:rcenr); the !.ame is true of chocolale (exurives 12 percent, manual o .... rkers ) e percem, filrm workers ) pc:rcenr. with no di ff rcrn:e belWttR lbe . sees In thiS c.asc) and lea, in France a Iypically bourgeois and feminine

le mem, particularly as regards clothing or cosmeTics, is reserved fr by a representation, more srrict thn in any oTher class, of rhe "" vision of labour and sexual morality; 1 1 or because iT more or I sr: IU.I .. associated wiTh dispositions and manners seen as char:;,cteris tIe of ... bourgeolsle ( 'aIrs and gr:;,ces', 'Ia...lda' eTc.) or 0f those who " ' " . a rt "dl_ _ to submIT to bourgO!'OIS demands SO as to ' ' acceptance, of "'h h th-, 'toadi('$', 'Iickspiub' and 'pansies' of everyday invecrive rep e c n as . ! tilt limit. It is also because a surrender to demands po!'rceived SI",.. I" . !emmme and bourgeols appo!'ars as ,he index of a dual neousIy ' r tion of virility, a twofold submission which ordinary Iangua.". tpud... " ",-, natll.... . . concelvmg aII domlOllion m the logic and texicon of sexual dom ' Inar-.. --' . ' : U IS P" ISPOsed to express.

cial ly re forbidden every SOrt of 'pretension' in rnatt__ , , Ianguage or CIorh 109, ThIs IS nor only because ao:sthe cu I rure, '
Men

J82

('$po!'

I Uan "

t>J1tS

and LJjt':)yltJ

win

is

s,SS'" S'SSSSSSS,'," SSSS'," ,,"

pion calf1 .s b < n .. 1 Y 5 I)ruar, a ""neJ " q u0 I'K01 1:iS nighl defended his 'Ft<l on, 1 . , ,,,,,, hean.carin,l: c hampion 0f .. ...rof . "M lnu ' ' 27 kilos ,n 1 ) m. tt'$). _ ft<ln(e ' uvlrame r t> . . ouI challen r Henr" d W . ' h,y litle rom h1m. ..ttSl

Chomper

rro

StcOflds OUI
1lte

as:;

referee I>a....ls their names lll(y . . . they're ' "'en tll(lf napkins and I '"g off' They gCl Sluek into sleam on. pblcfuls of k,d....y beans and bac on' JUSt .mch 'em go do.... n. A spo onful fot o ful f r mummy, a spo Mly
,

Jaws

'The champ goes imo the lead. A

R2ymond

Hiccup'

!:>nos. Btlo}!; on more plales! The SptCtalors yell for anolher helping, mcoulllging lheir favourile, III( ""gnln Freneh champion." g

'This is no vicarage tea pnty. They're puffing and blowing all the ..-ay 1$ lhey plough Ihrough Ihe

Poulidor of III( spoon unbeatable against Ihe and fork. dock, lurning to glance at his rivals every oo ,l:rams. a real glullon for punishmenL Two jaws and a Hercu lean belly. Limbering up Irke a ....res Iler bC".....n tWO platefuls, (0 int;midale the opposilion. And a Ihird helping! The champ chomp' 00,
,

S j SSSS" SS a i " 'S ' S S" " S" " , S" " , SSSS "

htsllal to npress Inlerests nd dispositions, in mailers of USIC, for exam pit, ",tllch dsewhere would be regarded 2S 'eff mlnllC. The gfC2ltr lolcr t allc of <kv11t1ons from lhe norm of Ihe sexual diVision of labour no doubt f'/.'II, explarns why the proportion of homosexuals known and acknowl, I'<.!ged as such rises $Itongly wilh osition in the social hrcrarchy (as also p "lilt Ihe , of lhe lown of residence) . The proportion of respondents ....ho h y T ey 'know homosexuals among Iheil :K"uaint)ncn' fiStS from 10 fC" ' (tOI -mo nR farm workers 10 16 fCrcent among m)nual ....orkers 22 percenl small shopkttpcrs and craflsmen 2) percenl mong junior nccu and cltfl cal wo.kers, and ,7 percen! among Industria! nd commercial t ycrs senlO. nccmives .nd Ihe professions; il rises ftom 10 percent in , o I . (I.:.S of less ,han 2,000 lnhabi .anrs to }8 percenl In .he Pans conurblllon LVI I).
,

'i8 ;::

beutiful' str:Jtegy) or to the creation of new, positively evaluated prope ties. Thus the dominareG have only twO oprions: lo}'alty ro self and t group (always liable: to relapse into shame), or the II'1dividual etfot assimilate the dominant ideal which is the antithesiS of {he very arnbll of colltCtively regaining control over Woeial identity (of the typc: tit I when it advocarrs eminists by the colleeli revoIr of the American f 'nuur:J1 look').

the dominam definition of the body and irs uses. This having bcc:n !.Jill in this area as in so many other and equl11y important areas which :aft not politically constituteG, there is no realistic chancc of any coliectlYC rc-sistan(e ro rhe effcct of imposidon tht would kad either 10 the vllo"" II zarion of properties stigmarized by the dominant raxonomy (the 'blick

BefOK speaking of cultural inertia or 'cultural lag', with an irn I' evolurionism which enables the dominant to perceive rhelr Way of !Cit lit or of doing things as rhe Kalittd ideal, one nwls to ask onc:stlf if popular valorization of physiC1lI stKngth as a fundamellfal aspeCt O f VIrjJ. ity and of everything Ihat produces and supportS ir ('mong' fOO d drink, hC'ltvy work and exercise) " is nOt illfdligibly relared to Ih t rhal both the peasant class and the industrial wOlking class dtnd I labour power which the laws of cultural reproduction and of rhe la market reduce, mott rhan for any orher class, to sheer muscle: PO""ct:I and it should nOt forgonen rhat a class which, like rhe working d ' is only rich in Its labour power can only oppose to rhe: Other da apart from rhe withdrawal of its labour-in fighting strength, which de pends on the physical strength and courage: of irs members, and also thtj r number, i.e., their consciousness and solid1riry or, to PUt it another WI " their consciousness of their solidarity. Thus it would be a misrake to ignore the specifically political elfeCl of mOr:Jliution (or 'de.mor:Jliution') which is exerted through Ihe vehic:1es of the: new ther:Jpeuric morality (women's magazines, the glossy wed. lits, r:Jdio progr:Jmmts elC. ). As is shown hy the limiting case of tilt pea. anrry-who, through the imposirion of the dominallf life-style and lhr legitimatc image: of the body, have suffered a blow to their spc:eific con ditions of reproduction (with the celibacy of peasant farmers) and to rheir very existence as a class capablc: of de:fining the principles of Irs own identity-it is perhaps one of rhe laSt rduges of the auronomy of the dominared classes. of their capacity to produce their own representalion of rhe accomplished man and the Woeial world, thar is being threatened by all the chaJlengc-s 10 working-class idenrific2tion with rhe values of virility, which are one of rhe mOSI autonomous f orms of their self affirmation as a class. The mOSI fundamental principles of class IdelllilJ and uniry, those: which lie in the unconscious. would be alftCted If. on the decisive poillf of relation ro the body, the dominated class (':1m( to sec itself only through the e)'C-S of the dominant class. that is, in rerms of

::: ::::"

purS

Adapting (0 a dominated position im Ii f, f i narion. The ff('CfS of polirkaJ mobili balance the effects of the inevitabk de n<kn . OCcupational sratus and income: signs o ]WCI;lI vaJ lie previously pt . mated by the ,anoions of the ucation a kct. It would b e enumerate the fea[u of the lif e.$ryk o ( e omm;lu:d classes . ' through the sense lncompt.'tencc, f ailure or ellltllr:!! unWotth. _ . . Imp,y a form of Il:(ognilion of tile domman! valuC'S. It was 1 11 - 11 GflImsci who Slid somewhere [hat Ih o ke . :n s 10 bring hIS e : ( : C . s much as by rhe: tam dispositions with him imo every r I senc of Ju)tury goods, whisk or Pain(i ngs. Champagne or c , crUI5<'S or art exhibitions cavia or anfl<jud' the worki,ng,dass lifNlyk chancrcriZ<'d by the p nce of nume us ehcap sulr.;;mulcs (. htse,. ' 6"",,5, .spark"Ing whire wine' for o Pagne' 'mtatlon leather f r I!:II leathe , reproductions for paimings' indIces 0, a dIspossession at the scc. power, v.:h' h accepts the definirion of the g lc s ,wouhy ofbei.a poSSC'SSCd, With 'mass market' cuh ral produCfs-:-:musIC whose: simpir. repetitive structures invite a iv absen t partiCipation, pref'abriQlItd " emeruinments which the n-- engmccr 0, cultural mass produCllon " s . . Sign or television viewers and cspeClaIIy Sporting evems which CSlabi. ' a recognized division b!:1"':CC he spe<tator and the professioMls, vi".. ,sup osos of an esoteric techni<Ju en 0. exceptional ability-d.. :; possession of the very imen( n erm lnln one's own ends is . , combined with a more insidios f m. ogltlon dlspo5SeUlOft. The critique mass rodutlon, 0 whICh T W. Adorno Ion&: , ago provided the f ormula b es bl shm a dIrect, naive analogy bttwtCII : form and uses of POP,u ar m us.e and the world of aliena,cd !athe . " ' bour, whieh like a eertalO critique 0, sport no doubt owes much UI lIS ' . . ' eredI bili,y to the faC! thar i t enabl Ie nostala an revul$lon of an amateur to be ex wilh poPuhs! Impeccabtluy, has in faCt m1Sbd , whal is essential, .. t IS not nl , 10 u IC or spo r that ordinary 1"'.... in . are reduced to the roIe an the 'f ', Ihe m ilitant 'supporter' locked . d SpUriOUS partlClp.ar. ' . passionate, even eh2UVIOISUC' but passive , which is merel! an 'IIu$Ory compenSlillon for di I sion by exptnJWhat lhe reIaton to 'mass', (and, a f euhural products ortiori, 'elite') . .... .J. Produres, re:actlvales and remforces IS nOt the monotony of rhe pruu ... tion line or office but rhe social relation whieh umkrlies worktng<" hiS .. IS expenence 0, the world whereby h labour the product . " I>r Nwllim present rhemse' ves ro Ihe worker as Mil "I",,""" PIlJ r00 , r r S , ,.ur. O ' , aoo a lenaled e tcitlY , Ion IS never more totally misrccognizro, and therefor _ __ Dispossess' d v v ',h Ihe progress 0' utomtin, ecnomlC ....... recognl;tC'(l,. than when, WI , vi.... ion which pro J possessIon IS eomb'flCd WI!h the cullur-al di '

The E ffocts o Domina/ion f

ed

of

, ,, " 7r 2((ep;,:, : ( f
: : ;.'

o;,

;:: ..

ond

cham

ro

. ,

or I

very

;r ; ofeultur-al t ,
/

ood

re;:

of

, '

rcssed

m s'

an

sposses

...

and

of

ur,

..

spossoess

on, l.3cking the for cconomic dispossesi apparent justification Jl(St ndition fot correct appro r-al opita! whieh is the pre-co euhu hur-al opital r l ,htcd ate definition) of lhe (u cording 10 the legitim 1I{ f O (ac n are dominued by the I,n ficd In lechnical objects. ordinary pC ti use, and by Ihose ich IOcy $trve r-atOcr than and ins(fumems wh " Ob IOes dominating Ihem. l, meanS legiumate, i.e theoretio in rfI:tC pOssess the es respect for useless, dis !he sehoal, which teach as "'Ohe f1(lOry rhe 'naluatonships invested v.:ilh owledge. and establishes rd ko ong Simultaneously \ ted d pedagogIC reason am 1 , ority of selemlfie an ui uth ets encounler legitimate c duals and activities, .....ork indivi its pr-ac. )tf'Irchltcd r,I 1 need to demonstr-ate of ordet which dOC$ 1'10 h !C 's ' principle cuhurally e e riences which the order to be justiflCd, Th . uuhty In re (or even of many rks of legmmate cultu d may have of wo siness') is only most deplive ts offered by 'show bu abricate<!. enteminmen Iha! of f the p te ordinary experience, fund,memal ,od mO l. sys m of a more oc for il knhow and theorelica n pr-aniol, partial. lac diVision betwee duced even which tends to be repro l cit knowltdg( (a division d practice, 'con lmatiC, exp techniques, theory an between science and ror' (who gives his in polilics), telleclual' or the 'erea and 'execulion', the 'in plion' claims ownership) and 'personal' ""ork and SO me ro an 'original', an him o n na an imention gre:ater rh er (Ihe mere servant of ," lhe'manual' work a of his own pr-actice) m dispossessed of Ihe ide 5t1f. an exccuta ich is ;Iself an utionalized classifier wh ation,l system, an instit The educ chies of Ihe on reproducing the hierar d system of classificati objectifie by 'level' correspond orm, with its cleavages which Cill o ld in a cialities and disciplines and its divisions inro spe Ing to social strata tween Ihe ch as the opposi,ion be ial divisions ad infinitum, su rtfIc-cl so s social execulion, tunsform Dry ,nd pracrice, conceplion and of neulr-aliIY, wilh every appear-ance llOOS 1010 aodemic classifications, {cchnical, I experience<! :IS purely shes hieurehies which are nO and estabh in al hier-arehies, grounded and lhercfore partial and one-sided, but as IOt l' v ue, identified wilh 'persona nature, so that social value comes 10 ' which an edu,, lture hobsdc dignities wilh human dignity, The 'cu the 10 guaramee is honal 'lualifiCllion is presumed so thai the accompliShed man, in Ihe dominant definilion of inishing a person's intrinsic handicap, dim pnvalon is perceived as in all official sil i nlltY and human dignity, eondemniog him {O silence ok ers, present himself before mh ninons, when h:lS to 'appear in publie', "'Ith his body, his manners and his language." career nts of the edueational srccognition of the social detetmina a lt es the helps to determine-giv Ih.ercfore the social tr-a)eClOry i t the nalur:\1 tight and uCillonal cer ificate Ihe value a t the the maintenance es nal system of the fundamental agenci !ure Ihat the area of educarion and cul Lal order, II is no doubt in of discovering {heir sl dominated e1:asscs have lea ""ben of

: I ref o hC i
...

worker.;

in

of

sa

wr

Ir-ansformed f

dassifrca
al

be

Il<:nls

one of

basic compo

an

t;

he

of t one the

of tht

of chance

makes

educa of

'..

-,..... J

"" 0 - ,", ,,, - "' - -

...:
<:< <>; o N

<

.q i!. a':

obio:cr;v( interC'St and of producing and imposing lhe pfoble at1( consistent ....ith their interests. Awareness of the econo mi, an terminams of cultural dispossession in (aC! varies in al SO( mn ln iill _t . " to culluraJ d lspos on (as tables 26 and 27 cbrly show). The ,rs.:, . of charisma, whICh ImpulC'S 10 the person. 10 his natur:l If l S or " I ITl(rirs, emin: responsibility for his social destiny, (XCTlS its C eelS far be. yond lhe: cc:iucational system; every hitrarchical relatio nship d raw s p;&rt O the kgirimKY Ihn Ihe dominued rhcmS(lvC'S gnm it from f . . . a COn f. _ _ .. - perception IhU II IS b-..:.cu on the opposilion ktwt ..... tn 'cd 1,1(1(100' . Ignorance. .... _ . ...

1osJ

ratio

foreman Who ,tI:lS Always Wo f Other People or

tr

L.

sss'SS" " " ,-s" ,,'S ss s's'sssss'

onu yoursc:lr jobs at kISt once a wk). Their solidarity with the ..

unskille<l labourefS, through {he sc:miskiJJe<l and skille<! workers, {O lilt f oremen, Various indicators of an ascetic disposition often linked 10 tilt of ambition of upward mobility, sud! as f ertility Me or ,he prawce sportS Such as gymnastics and swimming, vary in ,he same way, and to do indices of cultural good in,emions such as visits to chateau x and . monuments, thcanes and conccns. or possession of records or uSC' 0r public library. This docs not mean, howcver, that the 'aristocracy of / bour' merges with the lower sITa,a of lhc tite bourgeoisie, They dl J h I from the ti, bourgeois i n number of wys, not least in the faC! t o f rhey behavc as manual workers cven in their spire time (3.9 'r foremen and XI.S rcent of skille<! workers snd some time on

tty.

ence or as cer,ificates of 'morality', that is, of conformi,)' and even dOClI The proportion of individuals who have no e<lucadonal qualifiollO'l at all (or whose father had none) declincs sharply as one mo"cs from tilt

The mOSt visible principles of the official difl"ef(nccs (i.e" those oil cial y orded in statuses and wa ound within the working dw 1ft' ) f senlOrrty and e<!ucatton (technical or gt'neral); it may be wondered whelher th are value<!, especially in foremen, as guarantees of co.

coUecttve awarenes,s,
!

Awu(ncss of the effecls of $O(ial background is pmic ularly weak amI) cn.ftsmen and small sllopkeq>er5, farm workers and manu al_ rkers "II wo ..1 _ Among the S(nior (xe<:luivC'S. recogni ion of .hO(C effecrs . """" not ncJ ..t... , " ,,, . " ' ....., =IIer In t, Ylnues r IntdJrgence (5 tables 26 and 27). Every'h ' indicate that In order for the working 0 classes to rccogniz, 'helr $etftII . u ,onaI ' at leut have to be involved In the educ ational sYSt . t$CoYerlng $C. ... Ing as a conservarl\'e , .. olce' pr su"""""'" 50 expo:rlt:'IICf e FF . " ","n orce ' 1.l or Kh00IIng as a I '= g " us " IS students from the mIdd ' le and . working cluses who af( tnOsi sensltlYe to the problematic of '-m",nitta "" . ,, I hough tlrq r ,e accept the charismatic yalues which domln ue dll: educational syStem, But It IS above all the expo:ricnce of relegation to lhe mOSl devalu courses and 5tions. as well as the di$(ov ery of ,he deval"t lion o qualifications already held, that is likely 10 induc e the beginnIngs of

tme .1 \ ,

Iton t

' .

on the French Railw:ays reo'"ce ar p II<: age of fourteen :lnd a half. I! a skilled ...orker and is e H beCame :I foreman. He 'deals wi,h piS' 00' , e, roliins-stOC , HIS WI, alS jCngrr cr worked. She com h 2 iS nv and would t SC'(onda<)' school P, ," to find a ;00. Thy hav had . L. l children; the eIue>t IS a com fou D0putC1 programmer, the sond a , the third used to be mInIOn monk :I pmonal assistant but StQPPCd work ...hen she married, :rrid the youngtsl is sludyig for his. 1Cca. I>uri:tt lltcy hve tn a mUniCIpal. style Hat in Grenoble.

aged 61. started work as an

ked

tell us tl\(:y're f(al, and is (or ,he prica . '

' I knew how
se u

of ii'

{O

make good

)k ed

'You hlve 10 know whal you're doing' Mt, L has done , lot of work on rhe 'panmen" 'You C1n 5 if you look; 'here used to be a room ,here .nd :I room here. Ik<:IUse there ....ere many of us it ....as really cramped. I took the w:all do n, which .... ' IIl<ans __ vc gOt more space, _ Cln 'C mterr.in mOre people, cspi:rlly ""h the whole family. . . . We nced :I Lot of room, cspially when my has his friends round. all sing. Ing and dancing.' Most of their fur nlture W:lS bought in Tunisia, whet-.: they lived for a number of years. ond'hand dealers and antique ""'-kf'l 'are all twistcrs . . , conmen', his "'ik adds: 'You nced 10 n?"" what you're doing . . bur "e ve no ida what 'hings like rhu :I' ""orrh; that's ....hy my husband I> they're all Iwistus, 01,11 to chc:tt . lltcy can sell us faka and

pe'

kll<l

Their home is 'no museum'; the or naments and V1$CS are 'not iu" dust rraps ' The various objo:cts adorning the apartment are mos,ly pre.senrs from thc childf(n or friends. or have betn 'rcscud', and they all have their 'uSC". Madame L. will no, buy anything until she 'has alt-.:ady found :I place for it.' 'That va$( now. I nttded a vase, I wamed :I v;lS( becau$( [ wanled Rowers, :rnd when I was asked what I wanted, I said "a V;lS(" and they bought it for me because [ kn("1V how to make good USC' of it.' His childlen 'know perfectly _II thcre's no point in buying things {hat I won't use or rhat I'll put away in a sideboard. Everything hu 10 have a place for it . otherwi$(, [ don't like to have things JUSt '0 put lhem away.' They make most of thei, purchases in suo permarkcrs (urrcfour, Record) or dcp.arrment Stores (NouYella Ga kries): 'I don't like windowshop ping, I go straighl to a big supermlrkcr ,nd )'Ou rind every thing Ihef(; you c:ln choose without g<!ing round 1 don shops,' Mr. L nplains. On holiday he always stam by 'c\lking Out the mlfkcr': 'I'm intefCSrcd in the price I pay )nd the qualiry of what [ gCl. If you buy with your eyes dosed. thy'll fob you off wi,h anything.' 'Now, I'll be glad
10

work'

Recently they became ,he owners of a little house in the mountains out side Grenobk. 'Some friend-ne ....as an engincer'-invired them rake ;t over sever11 ynrs ag<!. In lhe

10

IUt three ynrs. ,hey have done a lot of work on i,: 'herything was 'Of, ten. I wn walking around upstairs and I fell through the floor Then: "'rr no tiles left on the roof, the r,IIn nme m on all sidr$. Mr. L has done all the rtpai, work himself: 'You know. I naned U an appten nee on the 1'1llways, and an apprrn tice had !O Inrn everything. You SO' a th reemon th course on sani ta tion. three months on elenro-weld ing and so on. And you always rrmember your tnlde, (0 some ex tem.' They intend to make this house their mam home. No...., I'll be glad to ....ork. no.... that it's my house: I'm nOI working fo, other people I'm fed up with ... orkmg and bemg uplolted.'

'Alw.ys something to keep me busy'

In Itfe thu you don't hke to stat;f. rt wllh. but you JUSt have ro like them,'" '1 buy rable ....in-c, at G four: iI's cheaper rhere, It's eleven proof and il COSts one franc f orty by the botde, it's lWO francs th ir;Y, five, I think '

,.tat' ....ife 'looks up a menu in he, ' r I)" 'Pt books ' '1 don't altogether .g ...."h my children when they ; "You should cook SOmethlll g hke I say. "You often do thin

....ants to give someon ea

"

: !

<he World Cup W:lS on, t....o )ors back, I used 10 get up [If fh('('C or tWO in the morning TO ,I on the matches: OtherwiS<' he ,, l t ' C n01 wlrch much: '1 do itke a Wesrcrn. Ot a swuhbuckling , But if il's a phy or some, tUf(C .' g like That. I jusl drop off His
/ t>t n x

";' thl e,,;oys warching plaY' (H1 ' who ; adds th.t slle also likes 'cir' gam(S-(he Guy Lux procu

'

'Learning to ski u 42'

He is 'very fond of cold ,,eather. sno..... but not skiing' : 'I'm af..id of hurting myself I go tobogganing wllh my grandchildren. You see, I had .'1 accidem in my brotherin Iaw's car in Tun;s;a . . . and I in jured my ....rist, You only h.,e to

He sometlmcs docs the cooking: 'Whcn my wifc's .way or w"h hcr SlStcrs and I'm here (H1 my 0...'1. I'd 1'1the. do my own cooking than Ff> and eat at my mother's Or one of my s,sters" nlaw's." When slle

'You just have to like them'

look at i, to sec the state it's in. That's why I prder tobogganmg. I un Stt up and there's no danger of f alltng.' (His .....fe 'staned Inrntng '0 ski .t 42, beauS<' of the chil, drrn, . , We used to go OUt ....tlh them. ....e didn't wam to spend the whole d.y sitting in 1 caf': or ( eel r mg In tile car.") Wilen he ....u young, he 'did a lot of sporr, espe d.lly football.'

'

1ncy go campmg for their holiO ys. 'At Ille seas.de. we go sWIm. mmg . , I hke looking for shell. fish . . , In tile mounrins, I go looking for mushrooms. or snlils, lbcre's al'lr.lys something to kp me busy.' And h,s wife das that I.st summer 'he was a bit dIsap pointed bcuuS<' thre ws nothing to go looking for " He doesn't lih being idle, he always h 00 find something to do. In fact rf",', why we go camping He couldn', mlly !ott himself sluing around tn hotels and restur:lnts. whereas when ... e go ampmg, he can keep hlmsclf busy with the shopping. and a 1>11 of swimming. of course. ana all tilt thtn th.t ha"e to be done And then we generally have a look round When we: rhe surroundIng arCli. 0"(1 rhe plr dId Italy, we "'ent II lookmg 2t all th old sitcs. all rhe arch.eologieal things. M)' hUlbl"d doesn't enjoy that as much as I Personally. I lleiong to an adult u' calion group and so th.t sort of thmg '"t(rtStS me."

..

me-<juiues , . : He doesn't go gf.football ma{chcs, bause he is " . 'MfVOUS ,n crowdS . bUI he 'readI in the papers.' He .he sports results docS not buy a newspaper bUI some, md pide.! up rhO$( lefl by the pas' . " sengers. n.c prev.ous day, he ig""'. L'AunJf't, 'brought home u F Lt (6,,41' &rrbtti i ami u Nouwl n r,' 'The Of\( he mOSt reads QMtn-alfJI , . es L'Auron',' sayl his ... ife. (O.d a((1' <lmts. fights, Ihing! like thll. ...h<!ms Lt Mf!1Idt is full of polilio: He rods 'dcuC!ive Ilotics. Mauticc l.rolanc. Michel Zcvaco ' , . hislori cal adventurcs. Whe" they tu,n up, I read them, OtherwiS<', frankly. I don't JY.'Y much allention. I go to 001 .nd pick up newspaper straight .way so as to go to slttp.' HIS wife. who borrows books from the Iocal lib1'1ry, has recently rrad Sobhroiyn's c."cw W",d. Michel de Sa,ntPierrr, PierHen" S.mon and tile letters of Frano:;oiS<' ?:ar lurie, She buys books when she 'Ih,nks tt.cm worthwhile."

'

music. rnlly catchy, Beethoven is good bau i{'s soothing. , . , Don't uk mc for the names of das $ic1 composers. apan from Beetho 'n. Chop;n, Ibch. prople like fht I can't remember the others.' lnty have a fe.... tC'Cords. maI nly datl(e music, His f.t,vourite singer is Sheila. 'There are I.. I can't snnd, .., Sylvie Varian and thar Guy lXa".' (His wife's f.t,vourites arc Marie !.a, fortI, Lcs Compasnons de ]a Chan son and MouStaki, )

of classical composefl'

'Don't ask m e for the Mme$

ll On ecicvls'(H1, he ... L _ 'footba atCn'" rI malCho, ey<clmg. all SOrtS of spJ

'Circusn, games. qui zzcs'

When he was young. he 'played the ciarine bit. rhen I took up foot ball and there wasn't time for both , , . I\'e always encouraged my
chlldren's intertSt in mullC bee.usc I nJlOy i !. ' 'Vivaldi is nice, Lovely " "" "ssss s s , c

They rarely go to the cinema: 'Why bothel. wilen you've gOt TV!' When flley visited Paris. Illey n.... Tix Whiu Htmt and Tilt GDMm FINa 1{ lhe Thotre du (hitelel and Vito!"" WdilZl'J at Ihe Thotre du Mogador. Since {hey were married they ha\'e not bn 10 the Of'Cn: when he was young. he s.w .nd en joyed T01((< and La Tra"lala, On thei r first trip to Paris, they 'did all the muS(ums': 'even the Mils&: Greyin. lhe Louvre, Veruillcs. the Pantheon; we've been to them all once. 'I l ike art bue I don't know artists' namCS, , . , I've hnrd of Gop, and Pi1'1ndello, a"d Michelan gelo. people like {hal: H.s wtfe is somewhu embarrassed by hIS admis Ston of lack of Ime!'CS' and remends him: Ah. but MlChel.ngelo no,..', you liked him. You d,d hkc t Sis, tine Chapel.' Then he dds: '1 hked IhO$( pictures b.use you Cn sec what they represent, But when you sec half a dOlen squiggles and pe0o ple spending a f rtune on It. well. f$Onally, I'd throw that sort of pe thing in lhe dustbin if I found il. " , Anyway, I'd be af1'1id of being s....indled.'

'You ClIn sec what they "'present'

'

ss.ccs,sscc " " " cc

dllss. lifc.s!yl. is mnifsle<! . in (V(.ry uea, in !h(ir consumption. fClIdmg. Ihelr h obblcs lI.nd, m.ar!1culllr. in (v('Jrhlg conCrntd . !ht symbollu!1on of.o;oclal poslllon, such as dothlng. In which Ih011&11 , liuk kss tconomy.minde<! rhan miskille<! and unskille<! wo;kt do not manifesl I concern for apparantt which chanCI(riza I 'be, manual occllpalions. starring wilh Ih( derical workc. [n shor no... Ihi8 SU15 lhal " n:n 111<: skillc-d work(rs and fOrcm(n. : I! main subjCCl 10 Ih( prmopk of conformilY. and the office worke ho, al lasl in thought. lire lIlrady in the nc(. Ihe is a re;al fronlier t III [ifNlyl( and in po[itical posilions. I
..

'!lle former uc much less conccrned Ilran the lauer m mark th(i. dIstancf. r.om rhe most tj'pICally popular amuscmenls and pasrimes such . r r or spoiling evcn.ls: 60.4 percent of them (and 8.2 percent of the SCm,. skilled and unskilled) say lhey have been 10 a funfair at II onc( 'n Ihf prevIOus lcal. compared 10 49. percenl of lhe ekroeal work(rs and 49.6 cenr of the Junior etcut;'n. Manual workers I n nenl l1l1hcr more opcr. "'al(h span and circu on 1\1. whems Junior eulives and ekneal ",'OrkclS much more ofren ""arch sclcnulic, h,slorlca[ or literary program lIIeS (CS. VII). Our of very similar Incorms, rhe manual ....orkers spend mon: on food and less on (veryrhin!! concerned wllh personal apporance and care ( clothing, hygien(. hairdressing. pharma<:eulleal producrs ) (CS, III) rhf men's spending on clothing is 8,6 pe'Cfnt. and the omens 83.7 pt";. cenl. of lhe corresponding amountS among clerical workers, They buy lhe: ume clod es more cheaply (for campk, they spend only 83 J>erc(nt of rhe: amounl spent by cleronl workers on overCOaTS. 68. 7 percen. on jackers. 8}.1 pe.cent on shoa--a difference whkh 15 much more marked among women) and. abo"e all. dlfferen. clothes; on rhe one hand. learhe. or Imlli' IIonieuher laekcr and lumber ilckets (for cold, early-morning m,d by scooler). boikrsuit. dungalttS and overalls. on lhe Olbel hand. OVCfCo;IlS ('j'mbols of petil-bou 8C'OIS ICSf><"Cubiliry). blouses. ap'on. rtS JlCkers and blars. The skilled workers. In.: only CltCgory lared on Ihc a,r,ulabk $lall5I1CS. diff r from rhe ckrieal workers. although rhey ha"c sIm,lu In e comes. almOSI much manual workers on ncnl (cxccpr on one f'O'nl. epcndllu,e on Ims and ords) ,

$(S

1m

ions of existence and a defencc against them;'O {here: is Ihe cffr . Ond;t vivacilY of spn:ch ...hich. freed from Ihe censorship and con le (.I(I.tY nd quasi.wrillen and therefore de-contextualizC"d spn:ch. bases iTS st of CUIS and me.lphon on common {<:fen:ce 10 sham:! sita. :s. shon e!"r;.-( pCriences and t.ndmons. The IS also everythlg con.cerne<! ""Ih I ;.:s. with Ih( {ndillon of Indc-unron slruggles, h,ch mlghl proVIde hl po genuine principle of counter-cuhure. bUI he, in faC!. the ef he 0nC cullunl dominaeion n(ver CellSe 0p<:nl(. Those who believ( in t of feelS nOlion which exisTenC( of a 'popular culture'. a pandoxicalmuSI expecl 10;mposet. find-if n of culture, the ilY.nillY,co godominant definilio sean(red fragments of an old (rudile and look-only the IhY ""(1( and in!(rpreee<! in lerms of (such as ' t (bmental folk medicine), selected principles of th( class habitus and integr:ilte<! inco Ihe t fun call ila1)' world vi(w it (ng(nders, and nOI {he counler-cuirurc they co nised in opposition co rhe domrnnt cuhuee and ; r. a culture !ruly sciously claime<! a symbol of Slatus or a dccbnllon of separate e.l$
( II a

co

""

....

rc

nC(. If
"

....

'

lIS

lIS

.w

!'C'(

rhere is no popular arl in The sense of an art of The orban orking class, Ihe purely IS prn.aps brorse this class knows other hrarchics Ihan I'ICgali"e ones ....h,eh are rnnsum! by diSlance .from Ihe absolute povefly rily of the sub-proletanal. and remamS fundamcnllly defined by IIld in bourgeoisie. the relarion of dispo$scsscd 10 possessor ....hieh links il 10 rhe . in (ullure as in other arcas." Whal is generally m(';lnt by popular art. i t., lhe of Ihe peasanl cla of capinlisl and pre<apitalisl socfies, is Ihe product of stylizing intenlion ....hich is associated with the eisrence of a hier:an:hy: locally based, relatively autonomous mili(ux also havc Ihd. hl(r:ar(hies of luxury and no:(essity. which Ihe symbolic marks. clothing, fut an marks differences nllUre, fc:wellery, express and reinforce. Here "'hlCh it prcs;uJ>POSC$. It IS no a iden that rhe only uea of ....orking-elass pr:acric( in ....hich STyle in iTsclf achiC\'es styli rion ;s that of langu3ge, ...ilh 'Igot. lhe langua of leaders. godfathers'. ....hieh implicitly affirms a OOunterlegiTimacy with, for eumplc, !he intenrion of deriding and dcsacn IUIn .he 'values' of the dominanl mor:aliry and Ihelic. g
... u an i (( . u 100.

:.IS

I! is nOf, however. in the of cuiru dlat one should look fOI ' dislance, or a sdf.dislandng. from Ihe dominant cIss and liS vall,let. other than a purely ncgative one, by ddaull. There is, of course. ever,/" fhing which b<:longs to Ihe of living. a wisdom tught by ncctsSllJ suffering and humilia!ion and deposit(d in an inh(rllcd language. denlt (;Vcn in ils Sf(teOtypcs. 2 sense of revelry and festivity. of self-eprcss and pt;l(!inl solidarily with othcrs voked by Ihe adicct"'e 'bon VI"";' ....ilh wh.ch Ihc ""orking classes idenufy). in shorr. e\"crythrng tat ISbU' gendered by 111<: r(';lJisric (bul nOI I'ClIlgncd) hedonism and sccpllo.lon 10 ( nOi cyn;cal) materialism which conST;rUI( both a form of adaprau
lIf

lIr(;ll

It tends {O be forgollen Ihal Ihe specific logic of cuhur:ill domination ll1C1nS Ihal ehe fullesl recognilion of eultunl legilimacy can and often coexist ""ilh the mOSI radical chlIenging of political legitimacy. P"rrhWnore, Ih( awakening of political consciousness is often bound up ""th a whole process of rehabilitating and rebuilding self-CSln:m, which, ausr: it involves a reaffirmirion of cullur:ill dignity Ihat is ep<:rience<! ('l.nd indeed always is) Iob<:ratory. implies a submission 10 Ih( domi an b t v.alues and some of the principles on which Ihe dominant class o:I! Its dominlltion. such recogniTion of the hi(t;lT(hies Ijnke<! 10 3f)"(al'on21 qualifiOlfions or to thc eapa<:ilies they a supposed 10 guar
10

,.

:.IS

' lft CGT) among skilltd wokers, f:alling back (0 . and rechnlClans, the {dauonshlp Ixtween (dilution,] level and nrc f 0 unioniution Ixing weakened by the fao Ihal dIe foremen, while m edu. c1rro, arc also Icss unionized.l1 h is also clear th11, like educational e knowkd 0( Iegitima!c {uiture rises Wilh position in the occupauon : !Ct. . oremen, olck. and having had 1 sligh I a.chy. The skIlled workers and f Ionr schooling dIan the semi skilkd and ullSkilkd workcrs, slighdy gmncr culuH'II1 competcncc: only 17.' perccn! know (by nam ) c"''Cr than twO of thc work:!! of music, as against 48, perUnt of the e m f skilkd and unskilled, of whom a very high proponion dlinc to an !hc quc:srions on pai,nt ng nd music. Skilled workcrs and fotcmen mo i often CHe !he nnon!cal artistS, leonardo (}8 percent as against 20 per<: I) , Wa!u, Raphael, ....hereas thc semi,ski lled and unskilled pick our vag Y famlhar names morc or less at random, Pica$$O, Braue, Rousseau (no ' doubt confusing !he 'douanicr' with jeanjac'lues). And, above all. a hereas the semi,skilled ad unskil rcadily . dmit that paimings do nm illed workers, '"leftS! thcm Ot thai dassJ(al muSIC '5 'compho!ed', the sk more under the sway of cultural legitimacy, mor<: often identify wuh a token of rttOgnition combined with a confession of ignorance ('I love cI.. sical musIC bUI [ don' , koow much about it' or 'PJimings arc nicc but d.f.

, 1\ ,5p!OC survey would be- nffi:ltd fO eSfab!ih yond dispute the Il:J , . !t0f\. 5111p wnl'lm Ihe working da$$ rWl!Cn posmon In rhe lation5 of pr lO( .ion, political ConSCiOU5rleSS and rd31ion to {uhull:. Bu! ;1 is know I . 11 Ill<: nle of unioniudon rises {rom 13 ptr<:en among unskilled wor CIS 10 29 IX'rccnl among rhe semi-skilled and }O po:r<enl (of which 24 r<;

k 18 percent among f re':, o en

manifcs:

Culture and Porities

e l t

::

ficult'}. "

Thus, cvcrything leads one to believe that thc most politically C()l\o scious fracrion of the working class remains profoundly subject, in eul ture and langua, to the dominant norms and values, and thcrel'o deeply scmitive to thc cfl'CCtS of authority imposition which cvery holder of cultural authority can exert, even in politics, on those in whom tM cduotional systcm-this is onc of the social cfl'ects of primary cduc.. tion--has inculcated a recogn ition withour knowledgc.

Perhaps the mosl radical approach to thc problem of politics is to ask of it the '1uC$tion that Marx and Enb raise in relation to art. Having ana lysed the concentration of the capacity for artistiC production in the hands of a few individuals and the correlative (or evcn consequent) dis po$session of the masses, thcy imagine a (communist) socicty in which 'there are no p:iinters but 1t mOSt people who engage in painting among ' other things', and in which, thanks 10 thc development of the pro ing du"i", forces, the gencral u"ion of work time (through an over all da:reuc and an equal distribution) allows 'cvcryone sufficicnr frtt lime 10 take pm in the general affairs of socicry-lbtrmtkal lll writ III lUtiraJ,' 'There arc no politicians but at mOSI people who cngage in pol. ' lies among OIhct activities': here as elsewhere, a utopia is scicmifically (ind. no doubt. politically ) iustific:d by the way il demolishes selfidem apptarances and forces one to bring to light the presuppositions of thc uual ordcr. Indeed, although irs apparent gencrosity makes it thc d,ametric opposite of thc tlitist denunciations of univcrsal suffrage which tilt intellectuals and artists of anorhcr age went in f or, thc indulgrnt u.lism which credits the common people with innate knowledge equally helps to disguise and so consecrate (hc 'concemration in a .... Individuals' of rhc capacity to produce discourse about the social ....orld, and, through rhis, the capacity for consciously changing that ....orld. The utopian paradox breaks the doxa: by im agining a social world 'n :,,ic h 'anyonc in whom thcn: is a potential Raphael' of p:iinling or POI"'es could develop without hindrance, it forces one to sec that the concen tration of thc cmbodied or objectified insrrum cnts of production

Il[(s

of

hood, by a spontaneous and immediate inner f eeling, is a unlve enl aptitude of universal application (like the f aculty of aesthetic judgem t according to K2nt)ven if it had to be conceded, espccilIy from til nincteenth century on, that univerul cducation is indispensable in o to give this j1pdlude ils full dc:velopment and to secure a mil basis for r

is snrcdy I in polidcs than in art, nd prevents. one forgening all t tat potenual Raphacb whom the mechnlsms responsible for this ITlOn o keep excluded much more eff ctively than any 'idrologinl Stte a flol, e !'Pall. !Uses'. Even if one only credits the idealized 'people' with a wholly ta(: . P ttqJ knowled of the social world as such, or at lcut of its position and I r . estS in that world, one sliU has to enmine whether, and how, this ili' cal sensc nn be expressed in a discourse corresponding to the tru h tt contains in pr.lctical form, and thus become the motor of a con ' S and, through the mobilizing power of explicit statement. truly colJ e 1I :lction.1 Staying closer to reality, i t has to be asked whether this politic scnsc is really the infaJlible Aair it is somelimes claimed 10 be, 'Nh ch could at least identify the mosl appropriate products on t f1UIr u of discourses produced and supplied by the owrs of the means of l lJ prod (. tion of legitimate problems and opinions.j Political science long ago beg.lI'1 10 register the fact that a Jarg e pro porlion of the persons surveyed 'abStained' from answering questions . on politics and that these 'n)I'1-responses' va ied significantly by sex, aAt, cduca(lonal level, occupauon, place of resld.:nce and politinl tendt:ncy BUI no conclusions have drawn, and the p$Cphologim mertly cit plore this culpable 'absrention'. As soon as one sees that t inert 'don't know' ntegory IS lugdy m:ruitcd from whu others call 't m:assc:s' or 'the people', one begins to suspect the function it performs in the ope... tion of 'liberal clcmocr.lcy' and the contribution it makes to maintainin3 the established order. IIbstentionism is perhaps 1'10{ so much a hiccup in the system as one of the conditions of its f unctioning as a misrccog nized-and therefore recognized-restriction on political participalion. What neab to be questioned is the very nOlion of 'personal opinion', 1be opinion poll, by urging all its respondc:nrs, without distinction, 10 produce: a 'personal opinion'-an intention underlined by all the 'accord ing-Io-yous', 'in-your-views' and 'what-do-you.personally-thinks' in IIv: questionnaircs--or to choose, by their own means, unaided, betWeen SC'I" ormulated opinions, implicitly accepts a poUtinl philosophy er.lJ pre-f which makes political choice a specificlIy polidcal judgement, pplyin3 politinl principles to lInswer a problem that is presented as political nd which credits everyone with not only the right but also the power to pt& ducc such judgemem. II social history of the notion of 'personal opIn ion' would no doubt show that this eightttmh<enlury invention IS TOOled in the rationlilist belief that t hcully of 'judging ....ell'. :IS a eaT!es called it, that is, of discerning good from bad, truth from. f

; :

r:;

. ',.e,-sal judgement expressed in universal suffrage The idea of 'personal \lO ,on' perhaps owes part of its sclf-<cvidcnt chat1lcter to the faCt that OPL g constructed against the Church's claim to a monpoly f the leg iti be'c production of judments, the means of producllon of ludgements the produccrs of judgements, and being inseparable (rom the idea of )crance. that is. the challenging of all authority in the name of the . nviction that 11'1 such matters all opl1'1l0nS, whoever thelf ptoducer, are co ally valid-it expressed from the very beginning the intcrests of the U . c<J J lc<tuals, small, sclfemployed opinion producers ....hose tole devel parallel to the constitution of a spec;liled field of production and a rket for cultural productS, then of sub-flCld specializing in the pro ction of political opinions ( .... ith the press. the panies and all ihe repre:

m:; :

ta{lve bodies). . . . The lei of producing a response: to a questionnaIre on polLucs, like ,'ollng or, at another level of participation. reading a party newspaper (pllrnal d'opinion) or joining a party. is a particular case of a s.upply meeting a demand, On one side is the field of ideological production. II rdallvely autonomous universe in ....hich amidst competition lind con aiel. the instruments for thinking ,he social wodd are created and whe, through this process, the field of the Iiinlly thikable, or, 10 pUt It . another w:ay, rhe legitimte problemallc, IS defined. On the other Side are $OCial agllIs, occupying different positions in the field of class rela tions and defined by a greater or Icssct specific political compctencC'-l g:ater or lesser capacity to re.cognize a Utical <Juesdon as poli:ical and to treat it as such by respondmg to II poll!!nlly, I.e., on the baSIS of spe cifically political principles ( t1Ither than ethical ones. for example) . This eeling of being (om/", capacity is inseplr:ible from jI more or less strong f Iml, in the full sense of the word. thai is, socially recognized :IS entitled to deal with political .!fain, to express an opinion lIbout trn:m or even modify thelf course. In faCl. there is reason to suppose that competence In the sen5C of thnical capacilY (political cuhure) is correlated with Wmpetence in thc scnsc of jI socially recognized caplCity, ascribed by and ascribing stalus---the opposite of which is both impotence and objective --and subjectiv exclusion ('Th3t is none of my business': 'Tht dQe5n't in terCSt me'),'
_

SelUliw Democracy

I\s $OQn as one lakes scrlously the 'don't knows' and their variations, hich arc the most importnt information supplied by opinion polls, it II cl(1r that the probability of having a particular opinion thar is asso Claled with , given otegory (which is indicated by the frequency with hkh members of that otegory choose one or another of the alterna tles off red) is only a ((mdili{lllal proln.bility-the probabililY that an e terltualilY will occur on condition that anothr evenlualily occurs. in

percent), the right (93 percent) or Ihe extreme right (92 percent), when asked whether Fr.lnce should help poor countries'. But when asked whether France shou ld favour countries with a 'democratic Il:gime', they reply Significantly less often (n percent) than those idenrifying with dlC extreme left (76 percent), the Jeft (61 percent), the centre (n pereerll), the right (70 percent), or the etfCme right (74 percenl) (SOFRES.

this OS/: rhe producdon of an opinion rather than rhe sheer absc:n of rcspon$!:, The opinions recorded, that is, expliddy stared, cannot be ' lerpreled adualcl y unless it is borne in mind that they depend fOr t t existence and their significance on the (absolute) probability of prO d ing an opinion. which varies (at leut as signifiantly as the COndili probability of producing a panicular opinin) according t? the p l"Optr. lies of the respondents and also the propertles of the queslLon, or, rn precisely. according to the relnionships bclwttn these two selS of p or ties, This prolbility is greater for men than f women, greater for rhc is): and risu yung [han. the 01d: greater in luge lowns (espially P:lf . . . wllh educallonal apm1 (meuured by quallficallons) and economic capi. ilion. The variations linkt la1 (measured by income) and wilh social pos d are thai much mOil: marked when the questions art 10 these riables more remolC from experience. mOil: abstract and detached from ordinary realities in their content and phrasing (and also, bUI 5CCondarily. when they ha only recently appeared in [he field of ideological production) and when they !'Juire more insistently a response produced on the buis of spifically political principles (a demand that LS perceived in the very syntax and vocabulary of the question). Everything lakes place as if the most 'legitimate' agents, {hat is" Ihose most competent in both se:nscs, well: and felt that much mort legili. mated-i.e" inclined and called upon [0 expll:ss an opinion-the mort 'legitimate' the problem pose:d, Thus, one finds that those who canllOf reply to the question of their political allegiance or pll:ference (indin!. ing Ihe party to which they feel dosest) are those who are also most in clined 10 leave the other questions unansweredspccially when dlC 9uestion posed is dearly localed in the register of professioMI politiCS. The intetvtewec5 who fall into the non.aligned 'grey area' in the SOfRES survey do nOt Il:ply mueh less oftcn (81 percent) than those who i<kntify with the extreme left (91 percent), thc left (90 percent), the centre (86

ro;::.

1911 ).

For a mmpklc ""Ii<iation of these propositions. which ue based on se<:ond _ ns ary analysis of the diStribution of nonresponses and responses 10 quesno asked by ral opinion r(SC2.rch instilulcs twttn 1960 and 1976. onc would have to carry out a survey in whi<:h the subject and f rm of thl': o ucstions _I<: varied sy$lcmalinlly. They might range. for cXlmple, fro . ol<:ign policy 'luestions, which ate both foreign to con(l<:te expenence Sttn as OUl$i<k the scOflC of any conccivable polirical 'CIIOn. rO the mOS'

.":.t

" aJso vanes or lime. 1 F tlhermore, the absence of a reply is OOt alW:lYs the product of a nega cklermination and, alongsick the non'=ponses for lack of competence >If; K: . which lrt" analysed here, onc also has 10 count tl e Iectlve nonresponses, a genuine abstention expressing the effect of a discordance with the kgiti. mate reply, which is censored because: it dare nOt expressed_n ethiul pollli<::l1 conflict wirh no outcome bul silence. In :l particularly clnr case 01 censorship, a consider.lbk proportion of the farmers and small employel$ (17_1 percent and l .8 per<Cnt, as against 4. perCrnt f the offICe wokers , and junior execu liVes, ). I percent of the semor execullves and plOfO:S:51onaJs, c 8 per ent of the manual workers) refrain, from answering a 'luest;on on tlx . . evasion (IFQP, February 1969). In a typICal case of conA", accompanIed by censol$hip, senior executives abstain I<:lativcly frcquently (22 percent-like manual workers--compall:d with 19 percent for deri<al workers and junior executives, 27 percent for the employers and 41 percent for Ihe farmers) from answering a question on the role of the unions ([FOP. Apri} 1<)69): and ,he ambiguity of the peasants' relation to the workel$ and their org.ni. mion! can surely read in ,hei. high rare of abstenfion, which cannot be: imputed solely to incompetence since, in ,he same survey, [hey reply more ofren (72 percent compared to W perCent) to a question on the s.udent movements, which Ihey know no ((er. A similar unease may <:xpress itself in the typic.1 distribution of the m.cm1$ of a group into thrtt f.irly C"jual c1asscs: those who esc.pe by ab sten,ion, those who approve and those who disapprove. When .sked by IfQP in 1968 aboul ClCCho-Sovitt relations ('Do you think th.t the Mos cow agrttments signed on August 26 art" satisfl{!Ory or unsatisfaCiory for .he ClCChs?'). 31 percent of the Communist Party (PCF) supporters did I>(lt answer, 19 percent said they w.:rc satisfaclOry and 44 percent said they o OOt. Tt,o,e who would vote f r the orher !ef, or righ,.wing pmies 'nS"'ercd mort" often: only 18 per cot of the PSU voters were don'tknows', c 22 ptl(C1\t of the Cent.im. 26 pel(ent of the Soci.l im and Radicals, 27 per ( nt of t the Gaullisrs (UDR), }2 percent of [he Giscardians {RI), .nd they much mOK often said the agrttmcnts _re unsatisf ctory (80 percent of a 'he: V(){ers, 73 percent of thl': Centrists. 10 percent of the Socialisrs .nd 'dl(als, 69 percent of the GaulliSlS, 64 percent of the Giscordians). SimI' 1,ly, asked whether they .pproved or disapproved of the introduction of W: education inlO the school curriculum' (IFOP, 19(6), 19 percenl of thl': agricultural wo.kers gave nO .nSwer (as ag.inst I I percent of rhe employ

the ct responses y proble . rerydaproblemsms. calling for rootedhiulpolitiul or of ordinary existence, or union expetience, like mosl directly in he" I thing concerned with wages. labour I<:lations, or the unions; and from (.c roost :lbStr1Ct fo.mulations of 'political sciencc' to. conCI<:[e 'luestions t ch are somelimes the pra({inl C"juivaknt of these In practice, the bat i t could done to rcpliute this ideal 'luestiOnnlil<: was to JUXtlpose: [ ..:stionS borrowed from diffi;rent organi11l1ons. Howevn, .he rue of on institute to 'I knows' varies from mseto find (,;weranother (other things ing than ll'OP) and, inckpc:nd.:ntly llways Stt al. SOFRES one survey anoth i_c. according to [he inter jhe 'l\tCStion, fromand rheir inctonation er follow Ihem. For a given sub.rs' inSHuCtions li

'

10

Of

"ell:

grant workers find accommodation' (8 peron l in each cast), 'to g_ rhem training' (70 percent as against 7 percent). 'to make them .;; come' (80 percent 2S against 83 percent). 'ro give them decent woa a' (77 percent as agaiosl 83 percent). all of which 'R: problems that can be considered ethiCilly and ,h2l. eording to the traditional moralu1. c women iR: competent ro deal wllh . rhey 'R: much less inelined to reply than men when confronted with a specifiCilly political problem. Only n percent of them, compared with 92 percerll of the men. answer a <[un don on 'continuing the pdiry of co-oper.lfion with Algeria', a problem, as

It is non[hd possible to get a fairly prist idea of Ih<-: spttific d'ftt of the rdallonshrp between the rtspondcnt's compelence and tbe sub' I 1 nd form of the (jucsrion by .:xamining how the gaps between the JC( raI of nonresponse-.g., for men and women-vary in a single surv -c Q SOFRES survey of February 1971 on Fr.lnce, Algeria and [he ;:;i . . World). that IS, In a cast where .U other things may be considerc l C<jual (5 "ble 28). One first finds Ihat though women reply almost :as of as men when asked if 'France is or is nOI doing enough to help im

crs. 9 percen! of the m.nu.] workers. ckric.] workers .nd lunior CXe( . tt c:ssionals) , 33 percent .nd 7 percen! of the senior executivc:s .nd prof o ,hem diupproved ."d 48 p<:rcen ' approYed (whl:rns 7. p<:rttn, of lhe nior exC(u,ives .nd profi:sslon.ls, 72 p<:rccnt of Ihe m.nu .1 workers cI sr. t 'NOrkers .nd junior executiYc:s and 60 fX'rcetl' of Ihe employers wc"; f "(aI avou. abk).

" -;;:',n

' f b/ C'C: :c:=o :::C:::: ' ' c "CC' ' ' '8 "' k"0. """ ,-c C: " " :o" Cc:C ' ' ' : .. C:..-Do"::=-c : : pol;';" ,o,;:" " ' C l ,-,C' C
[)o.,',

_ .. The", ..... .. pnr , 1..,11<' number of ;mm'/(f1.nr ....rke.. in::- ce Frm ll>q often do unplnsanr 9<Ofk. Do you ,h,nk ,h.. Ff1.nce Ii or IS no, do,n! enough 10;
So<

M Women m.kc ,hem ..ekome? M," c. Women

d. giye them decen' w.g..?
1.

mod.,ion? b. 1f1.;n ,hem!

htlp ,htm fin.d xcom

kno9<

w_

" " " '" " " " "

",""" '" "

,.

Noc rnoogh
..

" " " " " "

" " "

..

Quc$"on

As

ft.ll\Ce ontin

....g.rds

'\( Fr'i'''o-Mr;.n rtl..ion., do you think " dQ;t.lbk AI&"ri,? e policy of cOOf""t.I,ion

M," Women
So<

"

M W_"

Don', kno..
"
,

wi,h

,h.,

Yo

No
" "

Question 3. Among ,he di",nl groups of u"""r-deyeloped

mould Ff1.nce I1ke 3 I"'"i(ul.. inlCteS' in, M," W_" M,"

So<

/'1'''' counnies}'). women reply as often as men (88 percent each). Bur when Ihe survey returns 10 specifically politic.l or political.scienlllic qucstinning"'""""'"llnd an abstnct vocabubry which mc:ans diffen::nt Ihings to . different groups--by asking if France should be interested in 'countnCS which have a dtmOC'fali( tgimt', the proportion of women who reply again falls sharply, 10 9 percent compared wilh 74 percent of Ihe men ul We see hl:re paradigmatic exampk of IhI: effecl$ of Ihe di"iion of I.bo bo:lwn,'n lhe :;exc:s. Men feel .11 IhI: more slrongly required-nOI simply au' thorized-to formulale an opinion. 10 tht eXlem Ihal ....omen fed d,spo:nst<l s (rom doing 50 and freel 10 cklegatc Ihis lask and 10 choose by proxy. n" is an illu$Intion of ,he oblig:llion-somtlimc:s .n umenable one. in lhe silu3lions of. survey on euiture--fulened on men in tht

the heart and feelings ('Among the different groups of under.dcveJoped counnies. in your vicw should France take a particular interest in 1M

Algeri.n relations, do you think il desirable thaI France should continlK a pdiry of c(KIper-lIion wilh Algerian. As soon as the abstract (jucslion of co-operatiQn is pUI back into rhe realm of ethics, or even the chanty which the lradition.l division of labour assigns 10 ... omen. specialists of

the question itself indicates, of pure politics. f oreign policy being mol'!!' remote from concrel( experience than internal polilks. cspecially whCl'l approached. as here. wilhout any elhkal reference ('As regards Fr.lnc()o

b. us fOffner
,

. 'he p0Ol", (oun

Oon', know
" " " " " " " "

counwe., in your
Y. H ..

" "

"OC'"

No
" " " " " '" "

.. Sou"e: SOFfES. U "" "',.

<IS

itw of the stual division of labour. which is incresingly recognized and . Ont moyes down fhe hicr:archics of economic and pecially cui ,nd,ns
fur:al npiul
..

I'A/fir" " k TUn i\I-,", Ft:bru.'J 1971 n... d,,,,;bu,,ons by e<luo'ional """'I 'J(C not ,il.ble

'hI! of France' d. ""'n[fie! ,h.. ha..., I

eign policy i, d
0 '

(oun'.... w....... f",,

colon...? dernocf1.'ic ft'girroe'

"...1

"

Men W_ Men W_"

w_

'" "
..

" "

of

otabh

as is

lhu othet ,irie of polifinl competence. roucational 'lualiflC'illlion (ICC I>bIe 29). Thu s. when asked ho..... Iht}' ....ould "Ole In the: evtnt of parli. IrIenlary eleclions, ....omen oyerall reply Jess of"n Ih.n men, but the gap be

Th( effc<! of lexual StalUS m.y Ix rtinforced or counter:acrc:d hy the (ffeel

""n ,he sues len<u to ....ickn :as one moyc:s down the soci.1 hicnr<hy: tht of 'don'l knoW$' is 21 perCCflI for women .nd 18 per<enl (or 'mong scnior execuilyo. 22 percenl and 17 percent among junior ex : . u""". n percen! .nd 17 per<en' amons clerinl worken" 32 percen, and

IIIOII

Tabu 29

'Oon', kno...
(%). 1970.'

r...ponses to qu... tion. on tuhing, by roucarion 1

' Do "CCC 'C " ""<: '< "O cC ' ' 'o", : C C 'C-,::b'C::
P ,ima,), 10.
11.2
n

Teuhers !hould be admired for doing thei, job in pr=n.-day condi.ions Many teuhers don', do ei. job con"ien' tiously Tt:lchers aren. firm enough ...i.h young

Tcuhing i. a good iob

::'-

Soconda,),
" 0'

; 1;:;
11.4 17,7
" 19.2
lH
0, .,

.h

French

'.ren'.

judge poli.;'!. ...hich """ depends on se.,

SoUf(e: IFOP, March 1970. realm of ordon.!),.,.. 1. The ,es of non response are generally highe' 'han in perience, '0 whkh .he first 'lues.ion still belong" Thi. i. understand.ble since tbe .u"""y de.l, with 'he education.1 syem. an institution which .ppe:m less con,rol. lable the Jess qualified i,. In ,hi, intermed;." lone bct"'een .he domes.ic and the political, the 'don't knows' in"",se ., the ques ions mOve from mo,.,.lity (em. ph.,i,ro by .uch ethically loaded ...ords as: 'should be admired', firm enough') w....f(h pol;.;es_ Comparison of the distributions fo. the 1m ,wo questions (<"Specially in view of the f" ha, 'he 'don't know' ...es for men d women are further apa... for the penultimate question-I8.% .s .g.inl! H%_.h.n fot the I." one-32_)% as agai st 42%) .how. that .he p,opensi.y to reply Or '0 abs()in-social competenc..-ca be based on twO principles, which moy or m.y nOt ombine 'hei' drC'CfI: ,he "" us.assig ro compe.ence '0 judge the tdu' "'tional system conferred by qualification, and 'he ,tatus....igntd competen e '0

p"p" ,eochers' olidays are '00 long T",chcrs aren't paid enough Tt:lchers a ,00 in.olved in poIi,ics Tt:lchers aren', mined properly to do their ""

26.7
"

re

21.6 12,0 464

323

16.9
2'_9

17.6

47_9

24.'

12

(he

one

'cons<ien.iou,ly',

n n

among manual workers and 38 percent

m, <

24 perce t among craftsmen and shopkeepers, 28 percent and 18 percent

and 26 percent among f3rm work

In faCt, analysis by f!1lC(ions would probably show thal, in politics as in aesthetics, differences between the sex tend to diminish both when one mov from the dominated classes to the dominmt classes and when, within the dominant class and no doubt also ,he peti,e bourgeoisie, on mov from the economiC'ltlly dominant fraction to the dominated f(:lctt()1t$. tha t the refusal of sexual StatuS, in political or other matters, tends to inCte1se with educational level. Thus when the sex hl i similar secondary or higher education, more women than men consider tha membeISh p in a family planning movement is a poli,ical act or that se he educatio 's a political problem (the reIalionship be,ween the se on t :::c:;:, ::<' lo::: f " " '.<,: __ __ __ "m, q",,< o: ; " ,'<: .< :: l'"< o : o:__ __ __ _ : :: " , , ::d w ' < " l ::: " ) , : ___ :

,he

Everything SU88ts n i

ality (lc.-the s alkr becomes the gap between men and women or %u jl .een the least educated and the most educated, and sometimes it dis completely_ For example, to a qUCSlion on irls' upbringing, tP rt1en reply scarcely less often than men (Xrcent and 96 (Xrcent) educated slightly more often than the more educated (94, the less (XICent of those with of those with only primlry r(ent r' her education). Questioned on cooking, women reply m"t "ftm than htll pe cent, for example, as against 94 percent, to a qu stion on fa me dishes)xcept for <jueslions on wines, knowledge of which is 1 vOurite a (tr bute, or a <jucstion in which culinary problems are uni rsal Ie C\'(Iould you say that, gmffal, th French cat tOO much, about the (Xrcent, women 96 percent; right amount, or nOt enough?'--men IV), SOFRES, December 197\: C.S, XXX logic explains why manual workers, who normally have a The s;lme Jrdcularly h i h rate of nonresponse, ar the mOSl eager to answer ques on the rok in industrial disputes (the level of non .nponse runs from 13 (Xrcent among manual workers to 18 percent among the e xecuti es and professions, 19 percent amon clerical workers and junior executivcs, 25 (Xrcent among cra tsmen and shopkeepers and 31 percent among farmers and farm workers)9 or on the parties and unions which best defend the interests of wagearners (manual wo ke s 36..4 percent, mploy rs 37,6 (Xrcent, clerical workers and junior execu percent, senior excuti s and the profssions 40_1 (Xrcent, (Xrcent)_ ,0 By contrast, the more spec fically political or poli t farmers Kalscienrific the question, i.e" the more it is constituted as such in both subject and langua8<' without direct ref erence to (he ex(Xrienc or inter estS of the group concerned, lhe greater the gap between men nd women or between the least and mOStucated, Thus, in an extreme case, in an IFQP qucstion on the connection between the 1%7 Middle ElSt 'confl ct and the Vietnam 'war'," the level of 'don't knows' rose to 40 percent for women, 21_8 (Xrcent for men, 40,6 (Xrcent for thOse with primary educarion, 8. percent for those with higher education, In an ot er question, previously referred to, on Czecho-Soviet relations the corresponding (Xrcent and I I are 44,6 (Xrcent, 21,1 percent, percent " In a sort of e x(Xrim ntal reproduction of electoral democracy, the survey Shows that the antinomy between democratic , grants everyone the right and duty to have an opinion, regardless sex and class, and technocratic uistocracy, which rcsuicts opinion to C f'(:ns' elected for their 'tntelligence' and 'com(Xtence', finds a practical litton in the mechanisms which induce the 'free' selfxclusion of os.: whom technocr:ltic selection would exclude in any case.

j!eIS
"' J In

(93.9

schoohng, 92,8

::d

n (9$ r i

in

e 98 e

ve

ions

g government's v

tiv 38.9 49

r r

ve

i '

figlltes

39,4

'] et( da' : , More gc.nerally the more th qucsti ons deal w th . inSo IStence, pnvate hfe or domcstlC morahty--houStng, food, ch!ld-ro

i problems ?f

Stqtkj

h "'f (Ch ?

spontaneism,

IIS

and Competence

the probab lity of reply ng de(Xnds In each case on the relationShip t "'e.:n a <juestion (or, more generally, a si tllation) and an 1gent (or

This hyporho:$is is fhe only Oil(: which e.plains Ihe ( . commonl acl :" Kclf-cvidenl. [hal. like lhe propensilY fO rq>1Y. [he rllarro inre . . IIlC! s g,:-,rer amo, ng ".'en rhan women and IISCS wllh educalional b d . pol. ' p<lSmon In rh $O(lal hIerarchy. age. and size of lown, According ro an e, II'OP survey (501tdagn. nos. 1-2. 19(9). rhe proporrion who sa, [h . P. . . . ry ' 'e [_ . po,""S ' "" In rlSCS ( ".' 2 percen[ among [hose wuh prIm ro 11} rouCIIIOll 10 H peranr for [hose wllh secondary rolK'lllion and 3 perCCflI . .. J ' ' ", Ihose wu h h'8 ,,,r O!(,ucallon. ...."o'ulng ro Deulsch. Lindon and or , Weill rhe orrponding figur are (\ percnr, 14 percent and 32r.:rcenr {[m: ' POr(I for mtn IS 1 . rcem and (or women , percnr). ' SimIlarly. pe darro Inlnnl In pollllol <kbal on TV (.g.. 'hee :i (ace'). or in program on polilieal, economic and SOCIal problms. IS grealer among men Ihan among women. in f'1.ris [han in Ihe small lowns. among lho: hIghly roucaled Ihan am?ng [he less educared (C.S. VII. vol. It. pp 28-29). By lhe sam logIC. mm mor ofln [han womn are very in. Ireslro' in rhe, resul,s of opinion polls (26 f'C'r<enl and 22 percenl), lho: younger mor ofren Ihan Ihe older (under 49. 26 percem: ag 0-64. 23

elm o( agn!S) defined by a givn comrxfnc, cpacily who Ich depends on Ill.: probabilifY o( xrcising Ihf opacify, 'lnfrt'Sf' or ( rcnc lowards polirics would Ix Ixl!t undfSlood if il wre 'l prorensilY to use, a polili(1 f:'Owr (Ih powr 10 VOle, or ' . . ' II(S or ge[ Involved In polItics ) IS commnSUl1ll wilh [h real' Ify powr. or. in Ofr words, Ihat indilf rcnc is only a i 1J pornc.

'

dt:

(Cenl; M nd over, 19 pereenl). senior exulivcs 2nd prof essionals 132 more Ihan junior exulivcs and clerical workers (28 peKem). pC"enl ) fsmen and shopkttpcrs (27 percenl). manual workers (23 percem) or , farm worker.; ( 1 7 percem) (SOFRES. November 1 9n J_ The rmelS and or exa:ulive and professional calegori. :Kcording to a SOI'RI'.5 survey , confain lhe highI p.oporrion of indIVIduals who Soar [hey are ( L976. Iso 10 discu" a parly's programme among [ho:mselyes, [0 fake pari in ,kmOOsTr1lions. join 1 parry or donale money 10 2 party '10 ho:lp Iir idc-:os "iumph . 11>cSC regularilies hav 10 be comparro wilh lhose found in Ih reerui, fTICI" and promolion of polilical personll(:i. Every indio[ion SUggeslS Ihal one has incompar.tbly grealer chances of faking an a(livc pan in poIifics pa"y if one is a man and highly edu and having an imporlam role in a , Women mak up only 1.8 perccnl of Ihe Chamber of Depulies and (11ed 2 ' percenl of, Senarc. In all pa"i [here are relafivdy fwer women in rhe CCf1lnl decision-making bodies Ihan among Ihe local delegales " In 1917. wlten )0 percm ofr:;remial SociaiiSI vorers were women. only 30 pcrcenT of rhe members 0 Ihe local seclions in f'1.ris were womn, and only I.' percenl of th ddegales :II Ihe pmy'S congress in Nantcs. In Ihe f'1.ris Federalion of lhe CommuniSI f'1.rty. women consli(Ulcd 31 percn[ of [he "'f;yiSIS prcscn[ a[ local conferences, 29 percem of I delegates wilh p:!rty rnponsibililics and 26 percenl of 11K cdl secrlaries. SImilarly. manual workers. who reprcscnted 3 1 percenl of Ihe UDR dec fOrate and 1 6 percenl oflho: UDR members ( 1 7_6 percen[ in [he Gi londc:)

f ::,

If I Was Betcer Informed

" " " " " " " " SS ' S " " " " "' " S

Whu 1 mean 10 uy is. I'd ceminly undcrsrand some [hings more if I was bcolfer informed 1111('S all. If I was beller informed. [hings would be very differen[. Because I don'[ go 10 enough mttllngs . _ . There are m1Kr ways of findins our. newspa pers. TV. dbIcs like ...... urnes cgIo". you know. Bur you have to kr-ep following il. it's Iways [h<; ume. you have '0 havc [h lime. ' That's Ihe main problem. I haven l Am [h lime, Now. if I had lime. I'd rcally like 10 find OUf aboUI all [haf. know whu's going on and so

fhings wirh people_ When you don'l kno..- much. you'r a bir left ou [." Chanwman

on. Bu< I rally havn>1 SOl much rime, Now, if ! had mOle lime. ..-dl. I"d do somIhing abou[ II, I'd fry and inform myself. kcq> moK If! louch Whal I mean is. jf you're more in(o<ml, you on discuSS

d e rse, anyone can gt'l involv 'Of cou lll .,0In poIllics. ihat's frut BUl sl ,n need a cenain cducalion 10 p,o coHegt" , f polilks, Need fO go rO or s. S of Ihlng don'l you. and Inrn lOI

'" .,'." " ,." '." " ." " .,.,, S

Aillftir dn! pal i

,.

provided only 2 percent of the officials and only 1 percffil of the Dq>u[ies dt.::red in 1968. A!though. :lccording [0 VOIing in[tnlions, lhey rq>rcscmed )6 percent of Ihe Sociaiisl eltorarc for Ihe whole of fiance (40 percen[ of Ihe whole working populalion) and 21.9 percen[ of [h members in [ho: GIIO<1dc: (a dcp:!rrmen[ wirh 34.2 percem manual workers), lho:y were ai mos[ _nl from lite Paris branches (1.7 percent) and provided only ' f'C'r. cen[ of [h dclega[ at ,he Nanl congress and 0 pc"cm of [he Sociaiisl Dcruri dled in 1968. Manual workers were more represen[cd in Ihe membership of lite Communisl Pmy Ihan in Ih working population (in ,he, Girondc. 13.8 percent as ag>inSI 34.2 rxrcenl). bUI slighdy less rcp<e' 5Cnlro among [he offic.holding dckg:'lfes or cdl secrelaries (17 per<m. in f'lIlIS, who:rc lho:y consliluled 26 ptrcnl of Ihc working popub[,on) or Communisr Depu[ics (37 percent of Ihose cleered in 19(8) as 1sainSI 40 por<:enl In [he nuion-wide working populalion. finds :l s.rong OY"-rq>.esmmion of gradual among poIi[icians (al I gh xfivism oIfrs :lnorho:r w:ly in for lhose wi.h link educuion)_ In 1?68, 67.' percent o( Ihe Depu[i had higher educuion, 14 per<enl second. "ry educa[ion. ....1 [he Socialis[ Parry Congress in Grenobk in 197, ,4,6 rcenl of Ihe delcg:l[cs h:ld som higher education, 23.3 pcrce", secondary 1ICIlon; ad everylhins sus.scs's ,h:ll possesion of high educuiO<1al capi s I 1 1.1 InCfCaSlngly Ix<:omin a ncss:ory conJilion for sd.ion as a Socialis. l;"Y ddeguc, TWD-Ih"ds of rhe Depuri who joined Ih pa"y Ixtwttn 71 and 1973 had hIgher eduellion. bUI only 34.6 percent of rhose who lied before 1968. For SocialiSI Drpurics. access [0 official pos ilions in lho: N'''Clrtal AS$Cmbly grOtlp (commitlcc membership c.(,) dcpc:nds e',her 0<1

!'d p"

!SSSssS" sse',s'sse" " " " " ,'e,ss s,

Class Consciousness
I

from Brimny, Stt, I cerninly fell Ihere were problems and, well, I f el! .I iI, bUI I couldn'l deflnc Ihem married a CommuniSl, wilhoul real ixing it. AI 6rsl, you know, whcn I had jusl arrived i n Ihe hoo, when I pw L'Hu1IUJllili Dnullrht, I 90':15 (urious. You Itt, I didn't know Ihc p'f'C'r, for months and years I didn't kno.. aboul il. And Ihen, link by liltie. you 5, I was led to I'og niu, you Stt, that maybe ils aui tudes were a liHIe bit hard. but the f:act was, Ihey were righl. My hus band 90':15 a traQc.union man, so 1 W2S dealing wilh a lrade unionist, and Ihen J had OBC, twO, Ihrtt chil dren, Ihen, you $, I went through Ihc difficulties of life like everyone,

'To Slaft ..ilh, when [ gol marred, i had no ddiniu: opinions, I was

linle by linle. 1ncr( were SOITlc e ba paKhcs, b:au [ had 10 look,.,. afler my rnQIher :15 well 1.$ eVery. Ihing else. And my husband's a wo rker, righI, so I knew about th.c workers' problems. And then I really made up my mind at the ti me of the Algerian Wif, you sec, I leal. ized that monstrous things were being done Ihal we bd always been vinS!. We'd always thoughl that ' Ihal "'2( 90'1.$ wrong md Ihal W1.$ rcally when I understood whit lhe: Party slood for. Especially when ther( wu the m;1SS;lCfe al Charonll( remember? Well, thai completely vol!ed me, bc<::ausc you sec, I' d made my husband sl2y 1t home that evening, otherwise he mighl have bn thcre.'

'"

Ih :I degrct: above Ihe lirmft ditinguishtxlat leaSI nine groups (1 r(Ofm,nce rarely :achieed by Ihose wilh the CEP or CAP and never by pee unqualified). 1nc abiliTY 10 make refined cJ:assifiCllions. the readiness TO th men! on (hem and, especially, 10 give names or <juallficrs to Thc C':ITCSO' cOf1Ian(S eyen more srrongly by social posiTion, wunrional capital and "a ' . ',g, " I
II!
os( ""

C-IIIllllisl

SI"mJ/rtjJ, I,,","'J wi t 4gt 42, l,

!" " ,s" seeeeee" ,s" " s" s" s" sss,s

thc volume o( educational C:lpm,1 (64 f'C'rcem of such 'office holders' have highcr education. }\ f'C'r<ent of the rest), or, in pmiC$ in which te great major of Depulies have higher educalion, on Ihc lyf'C' of eduC':ll1on1.1 c:lf>' ity ilal (bw and the humanitIes are o,er.rcprcsemed).

l lional npilal and the propensily w answer Ihe mOSt sificaUy poltna pe" <juestions as a simple and direct effect of the une<:Jual dtsmbunon of s. ton cific polaical comp<lence. dc6ntd, in the restricttd nse, by possess tliC l of the theoretical and praoinl knowltdgt ncedtd to produce por ' , :ac' I'll' . lions and judgements and f'C'rh2p5 cspeclllly by cornmand 0( po . . onaI cal Ianguage, capKIfICS wh h. one may :l5$ume. vary wilh eduCa{l IC

ea So il v_ould be naive to sec the very dost relationship betwct:n ed

';o. the respondenu were invited ro classify a SCt of movemeMS, gr.o SOl" ing$ or political parties a$ they saw /it. in general rhe higher rhe,r they silion or Ihe grearer their eduC':ltional capilal. the more c!lsst'S mll'!tIu!tl produced. Mosl of those edUC':Iled below the baccalaun'ar made a <juarter of o( (our groups. wh(reas lhe better <juali6cd made 6ve or more. A
When

capital.

Such a reading-overemphasizing the une'lual distribution of politi. I capinl-which would be supported by all the appearances, would no more Ihan record tWO contr.tSting and complementary rep=nta tOnS of the division of political labour: Ihe lechnocraTic rep=ntalion, hkh makes tcchniol competenCe ( definw by !echnocrats) Ihe pr(o condition for acCO!> to 'polilical rcsponsibilitiC$' or 'responsible' polilical choices, and Ihe complemenury rep=ntation, based on the sense of in compelence and impotence, which condemns Ihe economically and cui rurally deprived 10 re:liance on 'eKf'C'rts' or a belief in 'cryptocracy', another way of overestimating (he Olher classcs. Like eery recording of 'dall' al face value, this endorsement of appearances would have the ef fcct of preventing in<juiry inlO the objective bases of Ihese represent2' lions. and, more precisely. would prevent one from looking into Ihe reality of the division of political labour for the trulh comaintd in lhese representalions of Ihe division of labour. In faCl, here as cJscwhere, Ihe relationship belwC(n rcality and represen mions is eslablished through thc dispositions which are the intemalized form of rhe plObabilities associated with a given position in Ihe division of labour. 'Techninl' competence depends fundamentally on oc>ciai com f'C'lencc and on the corresponding scnsc of being entitled and rcquirc<l by SlaluS to cxercisc this specific capacity. and Iherefore 10 possess i t. In other words, 10 undersland lhe relalionship belwccn e<lucational capilal md the propensilY 10 answer political <jucstions, il is not sufficient to consider Ihe capacilY 10 undc:T$land, reproducc, and even produce polili. nl discoursc, wh ich is gUlf1lntced by educational <juali!ications; one also has to consider Ihe (socially authorized and encouraged) scnsc of bcin ent!tled 10 bc concerned wilh politics. authorized 10 lalk politiCS. by ap plYIng a specific political cuhuTt, i.e., xplicidy political principles of ciassi!icarion and analysis, inste::r.d of replying ad hoc on Ihe basis of "hi nl principles." lbc dfec( of educational <jualifications is not so different it seems torn the cfl' cT e of scxual Slatus. In each case. what is l! sllk is 1.$ much a talus.lt nke<l righl 10 politics a simple political culture:, the prercqui. u 10 the exercisc o( this righl which thosc who (cd cntitle<1 10 exercise ovide ( themsclves. Technical competence is to social competence or al Ihe capacity to sf'C'ak is 10 the right to speak, simultaneously a pre (Olldl. lt n and an effcci. The marking produce<l by Ihe imposition of p ? rhC$ such 1.$ e<lucnional $lalUS or scxual Identity impresses itsclf

.,,, ,,,,::.:cC I :,C :: o ..

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

both on 1m: marked individual, who is oiled upon to 'Jive up' 10 h is r her social definition, and on othel'$, who expect him or her to :u:tuarO t his or her csscnce, (The psychological translation or Ihis relationShip IS pardcubrly visible in the rebtions within couples. ) TIm is why corn tence in the sense of specific culture is to competence in the sense or tuS property as existence is to csscn(C: only those who ought to have on rally acquire it and only Ihose who are authorim::l 10 have if called upon to acquire it.

c beginin8$ of a proof ?f this argum.em art n in the faet that, mhc:t

things being e<:Jual (to parucular, educational upttal), women differ from much in sniet technical competence as in their manner of af. men not firming it. Thus, at e<:Jual edunrional levels. women define almost the saJnc: number o( categories within the universe of political movements and r. ties, and almost as often give them names. It is true that, partly becau$C and they invest mort in it, the men know more politics is their polilician$' names, more often know which pany they belong to, (tn often give rhe name and pany of their local Deputy. BUI lhe di/fcrt'nCl: is grrares1 when it is a matter of socially :lMI:rring Ihis competen<c. At tquaI , educational levels, more women say they do not know wherher the variOU$ problems memioncd to them arc politinl or not;' they more often confess they do not know who 'Philippon' is (sec nOte 16), whereas Ihe men tIC more often inclined 10 disguise this ignorance; they arc mort often COntOIl to indinlC a nef1ll lOne in rhe political scale whereas the men tend to sit uate themselves precisely. Above all. they are more oflCn prepartd to a(. knowl.:dge Ihal polilics is a m'lIer for specialists. Fin.lly. Ihey Ofe much more inclin.:d to confess thaI al election rimes they cannOt dide whom 1(1 VOle fot. Nm only do they tend more to dclegl" their capacity (or poIllical choice 10 0lhers (in mosl ascs, no doubt. 10 thci, hu5bands), bur they secm 10 havc a more 10Clt1, and morc moral .nd emorional, view of polincs. Thus, at all levels, !"I.ther mOre of them ny (hal help (or the handiupped it a political problem; and lather fewer of them say this of vOling in Frlia. mentary or local elections or of:l collection for Vietnam.

so

business

i 'flit' propensty to speak polirically, even in thoc mOSt rudimentary way, producing a 'yes' or a 'no'. or pUlling a beside prefabri. that is. by is strictly proportionate to the $Cnse of having Ihe righl to cared answer, k. Nothing shows this more clearly Ihan the composition of the so lied " spontaneous sample of people who responded 10 a 'national con. eduOlional system, organim::l, with the ad of the press, i sliltuion' on '9 afler the events of 1968. In so doing they 2SSerted Ihemsdves as parties to the debate, entitled 10 express an authorized, authoritative opinion, to ormative utterance of a legitimate pressure group.XI The voice the perf opinion mobilim::l-u if by a petition-about eduorion closely coin. cides with the popubdon of usen of higher eduotion. The probabilily thaI an isolated ant. in the absence of any delegalion, will f orm an ex. plicit. whelCnt opinion on the educational syStem depends on the extent production and is objectively and 10 which he depends on it for his subjectively inlmsrM in its funCfion ing.

bi f

Right to SJNak

cross

thoc

re

As if lhe propensity 10 inAuence Ihe destiny of the inSlitulion rose wilh

cpitl

Thus. vuilions in the rate of non-responses by sex, or social cIss, tht is, roughly according to the robbility of : l111 scssing power in any field whatsoever, show that political competen son the sense of a socially recognim::l capacity is one of the aptitude's a per iOfll has insoru as he has a right or duty to have Ihem. And Ihe vanlf sa ound, other things being ((j sl, ccording 10 Ihe which also f ormity 10 the norms of lion of Ihe question with indices of conf shof die' cized political dis:cou= sy isti net!ity, euphemisms elc): . . lion o conmbullon whtch 'polmoJ SCIentISts make 10 Ihe Impost .,. e; ill limits of competence when. by bestowing the appearances of $Cl o orce the sense of unworth' Iheir inquiry and its analysis, they reinf

the

eciucarioall

are

; depOIi

the 'incompelent'.

the sense of legit. Im:o<:y In speaking aboul " and wIth the ,mmc:dlacy o( self-interest in ils unctioning." Thus the probabilily of responding, which is much grrater f for men Ihan fot women (Ihe latter tending to wrile in as 'punts' ralher Ihan as :luthQrizcd spokesper.;ons of group or the ncral in((resl) and for Parisians Ihan for provincials, is, for a given socia! class. very close to ils ob. Ijve chances of gelling lIS children into one of the grandes ecoles (i.e., "<ry close 10 nil for pcas.:anlS and manual workcf lhe order of 0.09 and om in 10..7 per 10.000 for craftsmen and shopIc:ccpcrs, 0.9 fOI ckri. n.1 _rkers. } for iunior ,"cculives. 19 (01 primuy reachers, ) for indumial and commercial employers. I I for senio, exccutives. 22 for enginrs, 26 for essions. 110 for second.1)' and higher.roUCltiOn (each. members of the prof ers-Ihcsoe "gures are obnin.:d by comparing Ihe male populalion of each of tespon?<nts with the corresponding fraction of lhe working popula IOn), For pupils Ind srudcm , ...too respond more or"n when al higher , s of Siudy and when enroll.:d in molT presligious cslablishmenlt (a rather Ihan a comprchensive or .technical school, a .g!"l.nde ecole !"I.ther t . a facullY) or when liVing In PartS than In the provinCes. the p,obabil. f o parlicipation is closely link.:d 10 social origin. (It is IWO 10 thl'tt g.t':IIter for (he son of an indutrialisl, a senior .eKec fivc or 1 prores. . . 111 lhe case: of stu<kms. and SIX limes grrater tn the C1se of pupils.) E t ,atly fhe same .cndencies Ire secn in the responses to various queslions gt OPinion l'qCarch institutes have lsked aboul the educ1fional system. In ncr:t l, Ihere art more 'don't knows' :lmong women Ihan men (ror eum :1 survey on the Government's plans for univcrsily reform [IFOP. t bel 29.7 percenr of ....omen and 2.7 percen! of men; in 1 sur. "qo <trtlon kJecllOfl for university enlran [IFOP, Septembel 1968]. 16.9 per. and 1 1 2 pernt; bur. on the ' uestion or Latin in $C<;ondary schools I

OM'S i,:"porlancc within iI, the !"I..te of respons.:; .rises with

t r :: s.:::1

I:us

IJ,

','S'SS" " " ,SSSS'S" ,'S.SSSSS.S"

'II would k danrous, in Ihls area, to allow thl: notion of f{"anlJll to preall ovecr that of quality. A ccr Jlt T,a(hn, ma'ginal lll

Quantity and Quality

'SSSSSS'S

10 IfEERS '"",_,,/ (OIIJIJI/''''io,,' 'flJltS11o.nr.",

4

ptlnla ,5 rfijuirc-d, II lain ((JIII 10 me, to maict an obtiee JUd s fll . fIlcnt of thc <lucstion,'

represcnted, this is becausc ,hey ire in,eeres,ed and leeguimalcd on "(f1. rf. COUniS. In fact, thl: hiel1llrchy of chanccs of parriciparion shows 'ht the e (eel of legitimacy predominates over ,hee eff e, of intetCSI duee 10 s,mpl . e n membership l1tc rcprc$Cnt1flOO of ,he diffeerenr "'tegorics of tcache , c reases IS one moves up lhe hieel1llrchy of ,nstltutlons (L9 pe! 10,000 0: mary Inchers. }4 f CET ,cachers, 60 f CEG tcachers." 199 for I or h or IOChers, 224 for higher.nluca.ion tnchers) and also by I1IInk wilh,n (1<

[[FOP, s.:pteemkr 1%8). 26 percent of each sex); thetl; aree moree 'don't knows' among the less educated than among (he more highly cdUC1,cd 02 percent, 19 pcrcent and , percent in f($ponsc to ,hesc Ihr qucstions In the case of those wi,h only primuy education, I) percen" 6 percent and LO perceent f($pecliely in the C1S<: of gl1llduatcs). thl:rr nee morr 'don't kno...,. among proHlCla1s than PariSians, and st<:cadlly more as one mo\'es down the social hiel1llrchy_ Thus the sel fsek<ting, spontanrous samplee m thc 'national . consultatloo' is the /illlil lowards which the popublion of respondents In I rcptdCntativec survey teends; or, 10 PUt i, anOlher way. the 1ns....eers olmined from a n:prescntative sample constitute a spomanrous sample which, II. ,hough it is not pcrcdved as such, is produced by laW1 which in: f nda. u meentally thl: same as those described hcree. Wi,hin (he spontaneous sample, !he le$$ a C1,eegory is reproented, the le$$ its 'reptdCntatives' are t)'pical of the C1lCgory as a whole, ind the plitt, cipk of (he bias is almOSt always their relationship (0 the cducatinnal sf$" ,em, (Thus, 90.7 percen( nf ,he mdustrial and commeercial employers h1 at Ins! the baccalauliat, compared with only 11.3 po:rcen t ;n the {1tegory 'orking populalinn. and, for thee Cr,lftsmen and shopke<:pers, 28.7 in 'M- .. po:rceent compa.red wllh only 2.8 percent.) Similarly. 1M- more rcmole a frac tion is from tM- educational SYSlCm. the more lhose who rcspond belong 10 thlt pa.rt of (he fl1llCtion most intef($,ed m the educational system. e . those who are of an ag<: '0 have children m secondary o. higher edu{1lion Thus 49.7 pelCeent of ,he ,nchus in thee spon,anrous sampk rc aged }). (}8.9 percen, rn 'he workIng popul tlon ) , 697 percen, of the prof essIon' als (H.) percent in the working population). 77.1 per(Cni of Ihe emplo (XU po:rccn, in ,he working popula,ion). l r f lows from ,his overselection that the differences ktwecn ,he d ol and the f ctions (who, wilhin the middle and dominanl claS$CS. arc rtptt' l1ll m. scnled in accordance with theeir cultural capital) arc reduced 10 a m,",m , $0 that the degree of agre<:menl ovcr Ihe r.roblems menlioned is no do" grealer than in Ihe popularion as a whok.1l If teachers are so strongly l\f(f'

'tUlion ( rising from )8 for 'supply' or $ubstilu,ee ,nchers 10 17) for (Cr teachers and }82 for Ag.igls, and from 164 for AlJiJ/al1IJ (junior leetur rl ns"ucrors) to 2()4 for ",,,il.tI"lJi,l,,nIJ {senior k<turcrs. usisnnt pro erS. 'rs 1 and }20 f or "",;,rtf tk roII!irmrn [.,-nders. a.ssocite profC'SSOrs} essors). A rep rn secondary Khools. and espeCIally ,hose who g ull prof f ,he 'classic' subjccl$ (la,in, Grttk. French. history, grogl1llpby) thus trJ'h d mote readily than any orher cuegory_ This is no doubt because. being mote legitima" than. for exampk, primary t(":lchl:rs, who aree kss linked to ,he system. ,hey arc more ,,"IKixJ to the sysTem ,ha" arc nO Incheers, who cln place ,lI<:ir investments ou,sidc the institution. n "enity " only in tdCarch (ecept for those in ,hee mOSI French. Latin. Gre<:k, Of hislOry. who uee much more inclined to rc' nd Ihan those in other disciplines and other faculllcs), II is po:rhap$ also c elt ,hemselvcs personally b/'(1u5C. more ,han all othcr caregories. agr g6 f . railed into question by he. crisis, , . . s of Ihe disclplrnes preVIously domrnant rn ,hee educatlon:!1 sys If teacheer tem-Utl", Gre<:k. French, hlstory-werc pirricularly prone to reply ( they ",'(01( many books and articles aflCr f-f2y L968), this is also b-ause the !c. definition of thee legitimalC curriculum and legilima,ee pedagogy, cspecially ,n ondary schools. Ihreuencd thdr very cxistence as producers (or repnr ison d'ttre Ihan sec ducers) of produclS which had no OIher markel or n or ondary educuion :lnd the compo:lilions f r<:Cruilmeenl {O ie. I

J no' ',ncs.

mdu;onal diKi

orm. by mobilizing the group which contains il in poten tial ( The authorize-d speh of sl1tus-gc:nera,ro compe,eencee, a po9.'erf ul h which hdps to crnte what il says, is answered by the silence of an t't!ually slatus-linked incompetence, which is eexpo:rieenced a$ ,e.:;hniol in qpa i,y c and leavcs no choice but ddeegation misr<:Cogni2cd dispoSo

In power mob le nd a pr orheer words. because il necessarily contains a not onl10 by itsiliin fension '0 exist. political opinion is defined, y OttOa it the social 21 fottiveaCOnteen! butisalso bycal opinionforce whcrebyto exisktes as a politi. ce, l though i, politi ma that social which helps fIlent.
C

rlefllonstr:l.tcd demonS'I1II'ion being one way of giving streng,h to opinions by <kmonsrraring the: group which they mobilize-. Political optnion is not a purely inf ormalive iudgc:meent which 'caIChes on' by the: Inrrinsic force of its trulh, but an idlr/ ()r(t, containing a prelCnsion to ome rnlity ; and Ihe more numerous and powerful the group it m btllZC'S by ils symbolic efficacy, rhe greater its power of potential enact

prexist ,he questions, and which otherwise would nOt have been ex pressed; or which, if rhey had Ix1:n otherwise expressed, i.ee., through au lhotized spokmen, would have Ix1:n quitee diff rent; opinions which. in e any ClSC. had Hrrlee chancc of being f ormulucd spomancousl y, of being

BUI the =ntial lcsson of this analysis is that in forcing on everyone. ormly, problems which only arise for a fcw, by a p rocedu re as ifre unIf proachablc as ,he administration of a qucstionnai re wirh pre,formed an swers to a representadve sample, there is every likel ihood of neadng a pure artifact Out of thin air. Opinions are made (0 eexist wbich did nOf

Otce eexist

session of the less compellnl by the more compcllnt. of wOmell b Y of ,he less NUClIIt<! by tho: more eduClted. of those who 'do nOt k

lCu division of poli[ical 'powrs' belwt<:n (he: classtS and lhe: .sc:x in
lions. pracliccs and discous, and .so hdp 10 reproduce: [ht divis ivn II ' . . stIf" And so . 1$ Ihal, by one: 0f th paradoxical revlSals thaI . 11 Itl' . . _ common In such mane:lS. cuucanon . which thl' n ine:tt<:n th-cen[u suffrage by producing citizl'ns capable of voting ('W must c:duca[e 0 mas[ers ) now lends to fun([ion as a pnnciplc of .sc:lection, the: more

vuies in inverse ratio {O [hI' educational capilal possessed, us th o: e Nu(uional qualifKltion (and 'he c ulture it is presumed to gua l radrly rt"811rded-by ;IS holckrs bUI also by othcrs--as a ic:girirn,ucfi et) i$ 1 1 the c:o;crcise of authority. On !he one side, there arc those who ad [' 1(0 0 h ormal rights for lac " / ar polit;cs is nOI for [hem and abdicate their f h mans of cx(ris.ing them; on 'he odu:r" those wh? ,(eel entided lO c t . l i a personal opmlon , or even the authontatlv( op'nIon which 1$ the rno. 11'1 nopoJy of the compelenr. These twO oppo5N bUI complcrncnrary scmalions of [he: division of poli[kal labour reproduce: [he: ob'

$f>C"Ik' by those who 'spnk wdr. Thee propensity 10 ddc8le r 110" to on as [e<:hnic!ly ;; Slb;J. ily for political maner.; to others recognized

m(l<:ren,

of history (Gmhi(hlShiid), in the elitist philosophy of history . at? I ich pcrml'2tcs the lcachi ng of tha[ discipline, are prolnbly milSing lhe: ndal iI." n fact, Ie ucational institution as a hlt, fro irs . ictly indlVlduahst orgamuuon of work 10 the taxonoml("s II appllcs In

sIr

i yi ng optrations, which always favour Ihe original over the com lS cbss f t on. not co mention the contenlS il te:aches and [he way they are l2ught, JIlllds [0 rcinforcl' rhl' propensity to ind ividualism or egoism which thl' t ildren of ft!( pclile bourgeoisie and gran<k bourgeoisie bring into rhe
'

al)' flCld and in thl' wucational system. are cbrly central to [his cull of [Ilt self. in which philosophy, oftl'n rNuccd 10 a lofly assenion of the

in which, as Gide said in his jOlJrnai, 'only thl' per ystCn"I literature, nal has any value', and the: cdebration which surrounds it in the liter
'

thinkcr"s distinction, also has a pall to ply. And Ihl're is every reason to predict thai psychoanalysis, which, although il describes grnetic mha
ormalive: l'xpcrienccs nisms, encourages immersion in the uniqueness of f (unlike .sociology, which would not bt so resisted if il did not rNuce the

forml'f1 expcxlc:d abovl' all 10 l'nsure Ihe: proper functioning of unlvtru!

ry

f t<:[ive: for not being officially or evn lacilly imposed. which supportS and lcgitimalcs unc-qual participation in electoral democracy and. len.

<kmi,.Uy, Ihl' wholl' division of polilical labour.

n .

emist variant of this c ult.

'jlCrsonal' 10 the grlll'ric, the common), will have a plaCl' in the mod To explain the: petitbourgeois prl'tension to 'pr:nonal opinion', one has to considc-r nOl only the reinforee:me:nt by Ihe educalional syStem and

the media bUI also the sptcific social conditions which produce: Ihe 'opiniOnated: habilus. It (2n be Setn tha[ [he: daim 10 Ihe righl to per. sonal opinion' and distrust of all forms of <kltgltion. espcxially in poli. lics, have their logical place in Ih disposition system of individuals

Personal O pinion
Nicl:tSChe somewhl're derides the an<kmic cull of Ihe 'pcnonal tum of phra.sc:'. and i t would be no small umklUking to d/:s(:ribe lhe: whok ran of instilutional mechanisms. espcxially Ihe inlellectu21 and c:duca liona! oncs. which help 10 encourage: lhe cult and culture of lhc 'person', [hal stl of personal properties, exclusive:, unique 2nd original, which in clucks 'personal ide-as'. 'personal Style' and. above: all. 'pcnonal OpIl"lIGn. It could be shown [hat lhe opposition be[Wern the rare, tt!( dlSIID guishc:d. lhe chostn . lhe uni<jue, Ihe exclusive:, lhe different, lhe: irreplace able, th original. and the common. the vulgar, th banal, the indifferent,
u [he: f ndamemal oppositions (Ihl' othe-r bc:ing organi =! around Ih 0p position betwern e:ast and [X>verI ) in th language- of bourgeoiS erhlCS Y and ae-sthelics. Th05l: who aim 10 identify the comribution the c-duca lional sysle:m may make 10 Ihe- inculcation of a vie:w of Ihl' social world .; and who, as in so many studies of the content of hislOry manuals. too r for i { in the- most dim:1 and most visible idrological imrvenfions. o even, like [he work of the- Frankfurt School on [he- basic elemenfS of (lit lh ordinary, the average. Ihe usual. the: tfivial, with all the: associarc:4 illi:l.flt and rhe dull, the- fine- and [hl' coarse. opposi lions bc:twc:en the br lhe refinc:d and It!( c rude:. rhe- high (or he-ightencd) and the- low is oot" of

whost whole past and whole plOitcred futurc arc Oril'Oled towards indio vidual salvalion. baSl'd on personal 'gifts' and 'merits', on thl' break.up of

oppfClSive solidarities and e,'l'n the: rc:fusa.l of onl'rous obligations. on the

A Very

.i,SSSSSSS-SSSSS!SSS"

haven'l gOI In exacl tkfinilion of SO(talism. It, .n overuse<! word n.o....adays. which can mean anythin g and nOlhing So I can't tdl you . how to 10 it or how constrUCt il. seeing Ihlt I don'l kn.ow wh" it is IllymO'. Its tOO h2("kyro'

I don't Want to VOle for I pany. I or VOle f :l candidate. A candid:ue wilhout :I party label would be txt
'"

Personal Opinion

'PoIllinl partin don't intercs[ me.

.]

construct

nOt

" " " 'SSSSS'SSSSS" " " " " " S" " Si

'Personally I don'[ think I ould enrol i n a p2fly. I"d be inopabk of hIving [he same [25ln sllaight:lway. Bo:ause of my Jansenis[ origins and my bookseller grandfather. I'm open to everything and ! can't get excited What I mean aboul a gcnetlll [ appri2le II>( good poinls of is. several partin. Given Ihat it's one's very personal opinion [hal counts, I don'[ think it's possible 10 And a party that can combine cerlain cle ments of stvl'ral doctrinn thn pet SOfl:llly I don't find incompa[ible."

SSS'

idea.

ArrOli1l1all1

An Unc12ssi6able Professor

.ww , 's . '

'Look, thaf's ano,her question I'm incapable of ans...ering. I eould tell you I VOlt<! fot rhis or tht group, ar rhis or rhu f'C'riod.' O!ht-r w,y?'

'Could you situte yourso:l{ on the political spewum?'

'Could you define )'Ourso:lf in some

Jr's , question I have to a$k you There are G'ullim who 5;ly they ire left.wing, and oth,,, who 5;11 they are right.wing. One of Ihem 5;lld it once (laughs). ThaI was brave of him, If I look at the way I've VOtro since I firsl smtro, I've VOtt<! for "kndk France, I've fairly ofl(n vOled for de Gaulle. So you can place me where you like. If someone put a knife 10 my throat and told me to choose a political party, firs, of all I wouldn't choose, I'd choose something else so as nOl 10 fake any of them. No, I don't know. I find

'In terms of rhose mo"('ments? Look, where do you pur GaulJism?

.. lh principk of polilical parties Un. 5a1l5fa(lory. If you like, I thInk iI'S 1 mxesury evil like a 101 of other things. But I don't f d f'C'l'$()nalJ e Y conceme<i. I can eliminate a c" ,aln ve . num " r 0f thlllgs. If you like, BY ' . . e,Imlnallon, " m not Communist' There are ceftainl)' leftist, or f-kndCsiSI. or left.wing GaulJist which are ulrimatdy the rnc thing, th1l an: nO! foreign to me nd. at the 5;lme time. f"'radOKlcal ly, I m III f;.vour of a cemin orner. I consider that in disor<.kr nOthing nn be done, In normal circum. stanc of coUtSe. On the other hand. I'm nOt a man of the Unlre, When I cosider it is necessary to choose. r w,)1 choose. You see, if's ddTKult to anS""'er your question So. fight now, you might say I'm sltghtly G,ulJis, iI 11 1940, 1S I usal to be. [t isn', a polilical party. That in the Gau!!ist doesn't prove , mOVemefl!. there are a 10' of things [ don', approve of. as well. ThOf's why [ shall never be enrolled in any political P;II(Y.'

"

is a fight, And in a 'J think politics

to be a lot of you. 6 ht there h;u .

, You n=> a mass, (h4f'W()"UI", (Ammu"iJl "

' sc s C ' " . ss C . C " s C .

'When they really go on Jtrik. it's broiust: ,hey really need to, People don't go on mike JUSt for the fun of il.'

C. " i S CS C . . . S SS , S , . , S C , SSS.S C

a..

for politinl executive are ,he category .... 5:,1I10rlion. they srely on daily f"'f'C'rs ho mOSI often Sly thatand 24 f'C'"emin, of (27 percent of them.
.

ckrinl workers, as agai nst 14 f'C'"ent of the brm percent of craftsmen and shopk!,) efS, II peKent of manull ....orke". 8 r (19 f'C'tcem of th(m. as against 7 percell! of IUIliO or on kly mlines ". f'C'rcent of pc-rcent of manual ....otke (JC(uuva and ckflul workers, 6 nt of farmers), This may be seen lIS a c",ftsmen and shopkccpcrs and 4 f'C'"e (which rises with rouutionll lcvcl) to 'form manitdl1tion of the concern instr. resorting t t( m1 spifK: and mt kgiti,mare an opinion' by , one s h can be chQS(Cn III rebnon to , men'. the 'journal of op,nIon . whIC erlllg hovii??r radio-:-:'mass mroia' o/f . own opinion. ;u opposed to (le ), nd one IS ClS (SOFRES, TliJ,l1Ilm tl ptUtII'I'It, May 1976 A monized produ i in the fact tha, to pursue po mptro to see a similarly WuClured opsi tion le , rsonal represtntauons ro a their dtmands, senior necu(lves beheve !II f'C' rely on mikes more often c public service, where;u manual and offi e workers c" and junior cxcctives pre than Olher utegories, while aflis;rns., shopkccp , whKh does not prco('XtSI or OUI' fer a demonwation, 1 sudden mobLhza\lon ent. live the ev fOlln1

the' junior eKecutiv('$ and

guishcd thoughts 2nd opinions,

'('goisric' d ispositions of the [>(Iit bourpis hav nothing in COmmOIl wi th the subtle egorism of thosc who ha"e the mnn! ro affirm the uniquenns of their [>(fSOn in all th('ir pr:l.Cliccs, starling with their p (ession. a 'ibtr' lcriviry. frttly choscn and freely (OnduClC<l by a [>(rson ality', irreducible 10 the anonymous, im[>(rsonl. interchangnblc roles ) III with Which the [>(Iit bourpis must srill identify ("rules are rules' order ro (Kist or. at Inst. in order to ha' their soci1 existence recog' luSt nized. es[>(ciaJly in their conAiCls with the bourpis! ' And rhe diSt 111 (ul prudence which shuns delegation and enlistm('n t has nothing l1 common with the conviClion of being the best spokesman for dis"

choice of systematically privileging the private and intimal(, both at work and 'at home'. in leisure and in thought. as againsr [he public. rhe , collective, Ihe common. Ih(' indi/f erem, the borrowr-d,16 But the nljvdy

s.s" ,'s,,'s." ,SS" ,.SS.ssss.s.s

mor, PariJ trJity pro! Ulli

'

of status-linked incompetence. or lOul delegation, an unte$erv('d remis !.ion o( self. tacit confidence which chooses its speech in choosing ilS spokamen.

But even a rapid reAcction on the social conditiOns of the creation of demand for a '[>(rson11 opinion' and of the achievement of this ambiti? n is suffic ient 10 show thu. contrllfY to the naive belief in formal C<Jualtty before politics. the working-class vicw is relIlistic in seeing no choice. for the mos! deprived. other than simple abdication, a resigned recognition

In he! nOI all answers are opinion. ana rhe probabili ty !hat a given group's roponses arc only disgui nonresponses, pol i lC concessions {O

he T

f f Modes o Production o Opinion

the imposed problematic or elhiul d iscourses naively received as per sonal opinions'. no doubt vari<'S in the same way as the probahili!y o( non.r('$ponse which chan.crcrizcs thaI group The propensity and abili ty , to raisc interots and experiences ro rhe order of political discourse, to sk coherence i n opinions and to inregrarc one's whole set of anitudcs arOund ep licit poli tical principl<'S, in f ! dc:p<:nds very closely on educ"aC

e<]uC1tional training which can give the instruments of symbolic masrcry of pranicc, i.c., of vcrbaliation and conceptualization of poli tical .,-per! ence. The populist inclination to cm::lit the working dsscs with a 'pOli . lis' (u. c1.'lCwhefC, an 'aesthetic'), sponlancously and nalUrally endo..ed wuh the propenies included in the dominant definition of politics, [g' no the F,r" that rhe puctical mutery exprcsscd in evcrydy choi (which may or may not be C1plbk of being conSfiluted u political 11' terms of the dominafll definilion) is bUC<! not on the explicir princip]c5

. lional capital and. se.:ondanly, on ovcr:.Il1 capital comhOsirion , Incr' F, ' WI!h ! h<: re"anv, weigh! 0 , cul(ur:I.] capital as against ('(onomie Cap. '.,. Ital II is nor sufficient [0 rognitt the inuali[ies in 5[1[U5 co p tcnct ;n :which forcC' mention (0 the 50CiaJ condilion5 of possibility o ca1 Judgement. 1k OSI fundamental political rlcm. t questior: ';' he modes of produclton of {h(> answer 10 a polmnl qu<:sl1on, is co pI ' rn tlely muked when Ont: accepts the inldll."(ruaJisl premise: thaI eve'" answ , ., er " ' ' ". a po'mea' <jutSllon IS (he' produn of an a(1 of ""jilin] , ud.,..m Cn! >0) 0 In ' ,.. . fact, m ans"'cr [0 a question whICh, by {he dominant ddinirio 0r poll. ries, would bc:: classified as political (e.g. a <1uesrion on aborti " Or o ' Stu. . n L denl dCmonSlr:lIlOns) can }C produced by thrl."( very different od L_ of prootlC"Iion. The principle of production may be, first. claSSth, , . generative formula not consfI!Uled as such which enables obi',Cllve,y C()o " . ' e With the prawnl premises of hent responses, compallbl a praClical reIUlon to the world, !O be generated for all the problems of everyday ' __ uc """ nlStence. 0 ond"y. II may "- a systemuic political 'slanr' (parti) a ,em of explicit specifilly political principles. amenable to 10gil c: : trol and rdicxl"e scnmny, In shorl, a SOrl of political 'axiomt' c' r In ordinary bnguage. a 'line' or 'programme') which enables the innttyo, . . " ' po"IlIea acrs and JUdgemenrs Implted 10 the algor O ilhm, and no olhers, to c generalcu or [orescen. Th' dIy, II may be a Iwo-srage choice i e the _ _" uc ' identificalion, in the mode of knowledge, of the answers consis;et ''Ih Ihe ' Iie' of a po!itjcl, JYoIrry, this lime in the sense of an orpnimin . , pro v dmg a polillcal hne on a set of problems which it constitutes u . po1iucal. The adhertnce implied in this tacit or explicit ddetion may . , Itself be based on pucueal rtcognlllon by the erhos or on an explicit choice enrailed by a 'siant', J<> e There is every diff rtnce betwn the intentional cohcrencc of the practices ad ?iscourses generated from an explicit 'political' principle . an? t ob,cc{!ve systematlCity of ,he pracricl'$ produced from an implicit prinCIple below the level of 'political' discoulX, that is. from objeClivdy : srstemauc schemes of thought and aClion, acquim::l by simple familiarila . . . "o. wllho t explICII Icutcauon, and applied in the pre-reflexh'e modr Without being mcxhanlCally arrached to class condition, thcsc tWO forms o politica dispositin are closely linked to il. chiefly through rhe mate f . nal eond[{!ons of eXIStence, whose vital dcmands are of unC<Jual urgency and therefore unequally euy fO 'neutralizc' symbolically, and Ihroagh Ihe

the way I ) politiCS fromkid-know 'I JIP;;'when I wu a

.

" " ,s,s,ss,'

",ifc I meon?' .'hat ko- , t i (l),wmllllisl

competent consciousness, but on the im (Vcr vigilant, universally of 1 of a class habitus, in other words schemes of thoughr and ction l ulae: of political discussion-on a class must uSC the simplistic form r [f ciousness, scious ulher than 1 class cons

" "' .. . .::,.;; ..... ... .

un(On

;npJ

'" .. . . ... , ,... , . , . .

If

such u scx confronted with 1 (Iucstion of domesTic morality - hen made a political qucstio through ,scholastic tiOO. hich tends to .be : . oncs except {he semor euI1Ycs. and tuliooaliution, all socnl "teg ,nsti rned by d:l.S$ ethos .nd largely tndcpcn. (asionals produce responscs gove Farmers, for eumple, are the group of declared politic.1 opinions. one su1d nOI ulk about sex to children, or ..h..:h mos' ofTCfI say ,hat ld be glvCfI before the age of firtn: whcreas th1t I>O .'iCX education shou ulivcs are once again led by their cultuul cleriol orkers and junior ex 11ed ;n the good inlentions to fC(ognize the dom!nant nom (which is l10n should be gIven before quation itso:lf) and most oftcn say thiS educa cal tendency are liule 19<: ric:vo:o: for each "tegory, the varllrions by politi responscs of the so:nior m"ked. By COntrast. (vcrything suggestS that the a da ethos (which r,utiv(S and profcssionals express a combination of it political princi. ioclines them to a (ertain pe(bgogic laxity) with cxplic think so:x eduo pies. Eighty percCnt of those who say rhey al'( on the left who say they [ion should be given before age eleven, )0 percent of thoso: lhe right. If (;In . 1n: (nllist, .nd H percent of those ...ho soy they arc on ,lic disposilion, which b.: !ttn Ih.t. u has been shown for the 'pure' acsfrn m. '1' acstheflc choice the manifcst1lion of an ao:5trn,IK sbnt'. the ples. i.e. propmsity 10 make cv.:ryday choices on the basis of political princi intUition. is itsclf ..uhin the logic of the political 'slant' rather Ihan ethical language, J dIJncnsion of an ethos which i, also exprcs.'lC<l in the relalion to the bOOy, to Others and 10 the world in gcr1I.

In f C!. the second and third modes of opinion production differ (rom the first mode in that. in them. the expliCitly polidcal principles of Ihe P'?duC!ion of political judgement lre made explicit and (ormulIed as PneIPIes. This may be done either by the institution that is enrrUSted I!h the produClion and management of fhcsc principles or by the iso aled politi cal agenr, who posses his own means of production of polit l aJ scs ( <]uestions and answers and can provide systematic political !CSpOn :0 Problems 1$ different in appearance u a faefory occupation, .'lCX educa IOn or pollution. In eilhcr case, the relationship belwttn social class and

is no lo ger emblihed directly, solely d a on ass unconscious. To understand politicrhrouh the al 0 qualdy and [0 explain them fully, one h as [0 bri ng in tllIO'll political (actor, either [he poli [ical 'line Or 'prog ramme' of parr invested w.ith the n:onopoly of puctio o( the prin iIes . . duellon o( pollueal opinIons, or the political axlo m atics who IC political opinion to be produced on every probl em, politically or no(.)1 The farr remains that, for problems that have not bern personal or parry 'line, agents are thrown back on their broug.ht Into , Cthos. he social c nditions o production of that ethos upress themsd' ich IS [rue nOt only o( ordinary agenu but also of professonal 'Ibis i prod: en tlkcl\lals, ioogiSl$, journlists or politicians. In The . Prod dISCOUrse (sCienufic or otherwIse) on the social world, :.Ind u .. IOrI of Tion of a line of political action on the world, iT is class in [ erhos alled upon to make up for the lacunae in aiomati or method . (or I InUClen{ m:lS(ry of th means of Thought and ac{ion) The 'wott. enso: of volu uonry parfles no doubt anscs .fm :.In. intUition into rht . dUlhTY of the pnnClples of production of pollucal opmions and ac!" ' and from a justiflCd scepticism as to the possibilit y of answering all : practical questions and Challenges of ordinary existence solely on tilt basis of {he principles of a political aiomatics. At all events, there is every diffe nce in [he world between The ius, <luisi.forced sslematiity of a poliTical 'line' and the systematiricy Innselr of [he praCfIC(S and ludgements engen deted by [he unconscioul pri nciples of the e thos; or even between the m in imal and yet fundlltnClt [al con iousness which is nCCCSSlry to delega [e [he producrion of the principles of politicalopinion production to a party and the sys[nTlatic consciousness which every si tuuion as political and can bring 10 it a political solUTion generated from political princip les. If poli[ical (Oft sciousness withoul [he appropriue dipositions is unreal and uncC1UlRo dispositions without consciousness are sdf-opaque and always exposed 10 seduction by false recognitions.
political opinion i ci of the cl
e o re .

::::
COft.

re

sc

can sec

"

memben of lhe imelltual occul-dons (tocher$. rescarcher$. ar[isa) a [en [han aU orn.:r 0f'P0$Cd to io a l r . I\by n n manual 'Io'()fkcr$ thu 'strike pickers an: jutilic<l', that ',he Popular Fron[ was a sood thing', Ihu Ihey prekl 'sociali m' [0 'liberalism' nd that '[hinSS would be bel er if [he Sme owned all the majol industrie s' fl<Jt fIf [heil ansW('fS oflen be[y an ethos at variance with their discourse: more oflcn than manual workefS thar their 'confxknce in [hc tr.de u has declined si nce May 1968 o. that an indi,dual"s mOSI important c
Tho:
l s

. hi personality (manual ....orkers mo e ften ci[e dass ) 0' Iha[ . lC I (lIll rogress has bencfited the maiori[y' (worhrs mOre oflen dllnk II cfOno""'efiled a minorit ) . 11 It may be th.t the tendenc 10 poli tical nlY h o , . . _ ., ,.{O erence w hich leads intellectuals to Ileal every problem as politiCllI . hl1"10 seek perfect coherence in all atflludes In all .re:lS 0, ,I e 1$ Iml ,:" -:-' ,nd by [he fundamental discn:p.ncy belween Ihir clhos .d [he,r dIS [i>(".. cs...... ially when they o iginate from the domInated f(IIon$ of Ihe (Ill (O"NC. 1 ' -. . . l (ius. rod ,. , _,n1n dO" , 1Il1ns are c y re which underlic the p ucnon 0 Spositio '['he di . ex ressing them. that IS, preclscly In all thc t lg h<: m.nner l vi [ b lost in the ordinary recolding ,o(.I)c<I u.!>Ces which nlfic:ln[ n5C$ ( which is geneJly simplified lo [he UI?St for [he sake of . of . . . lnd.rdizcd sutveying). ll\(, fCSult I thu opllllO hlCh . ' , e" 'I fxe val...:' ut which express very d,fferen[ caI , llk . . K --l .. y ...... " . """ tv .,r ve., d,i'krc [ IX even -"" -lIlg acllonS, all: lum ..... 10ge[ ,er III 11: .. b'- , I , Iml"'""__ ra 00 0 pos[urc 1m Ordlllary imuilio , i icn of the di er t a ncr [he ,conscrvll1ve , 01 beIng right...i g or ' eft wlllg . , .-3)1 nd,1e of evetv double entendre nd polilical ambiguity. reminds us . d pn , e J '" . , d Inerent Op,n,onS, w ems . . 1 Ihlt t".. same habitus can csnnusc .apparem . L . . " ) , I. Cln be expressed In supemu. " . ( . C . , . g.. ettn, " hilUS ln . 1ty e op'nionS which nonetheless iff r III Ihelr modll . concludes rhat. III student popu non [he .IS n,us, when !ipsel . : ' correlatiOn ixtween [he ale [ ' occupanon lnd Ihe chlldrcn s pohUCll lion, and mri u[es all [he differences he finds 10 fac rs SUCh " type o . . univ rsit lnd isc ipli e he not only forget: that ddfcr:nccs III u lverslty . . cr posilion a[ a given moment arc [he hoias[lc retransianon of dlff ces 1Il ial origin. cven al [he levcl a5P.'r:lIIOnS, Wlce the chOIce of a Isclphne expresses the lvailable to IIldlVlduals of a gIven oc,,1 ongln WIth o Also, and espec 'ally, he f gcrs that, hv. I gf'en ! v l of l d mic e ca . ing failed to use ad quate questioning 10 obtllll indICatOrs of [he modahty ofpoli[ical practice and judgements he as been foc to lump logether poiitical slancn which even if idennc l III thell po"tlcal comcnI may . eX]>I"CS$ opposi ich as [he subscqu m.poht.,cal rc g dispositions, and wh ahgnmcnts show, arc Ins usc:ful redictors of practice. especIall . III the .Iong lun, than the appl e rl insigni.ficanl Ilils of bearing lnd dICnon wh'.'h . e Ind'Clt the of 'commllments, OOt 10 menn n [he eloquent Sl. . knees ....hich m uprns approval. Kep[icism. hos[ili[y, cOnlemp[, fCS'gna

r o

. n whICh U'SoCS Ihe n :.: n . nuanccs of argume1 n? hexis.. as n or . revolullonary n l a y . e ectora y Slmllr y d . no ! . r p ns to b n n. e y d n. . . of . s ambitions r e success. e e . . a , e . n y p n y o modlh[y ly

'''.

rcsr:

ns

of p are almosl ine a ly b

n v: re lden,, d,sposlllons and

dl ll: rhemseln, of ClItegorin. 'suppotters of fC'IO" IUlionary aclion', authorinrianism' and in Dvour Of'lllIcrIU" [ n l class so i<:la i[y' Tho:y more often think that the crisis of 1968 was be eficial to the scneral i [ernt of the population, and say as of (1"l " l

tlOfl e[c.I<

'

and production by h by the advocates of the es[ablished order '"IItn, in the: CIlS( of a strike, for example, they contr.lSl thl: 'democratic' glC of a Ole or an opinion poll wi lh the 'cenrrali. t" logi' o( xpression s . Y a trade union. in order 10 try to bre:lk [he org:1Il1C relationshIp of dele8<I[lOn and to reducc [he individual to his own resources by scndi ng him llolle to the polling booth. The opinion poll does [he Slm e thing whcn It

proxy is w al is alwl)'1 invoked

The

opposition

betwcc:n

firsl.person production

Sets up a mode of opinion produCtion which f orces [he least compelel\1

political dicntdes compbdy ckvorw (0 one or the other, thO$( of mm panies dunion is invoked when. by reference hand. and, on the Olh,r, those of small panies or 'vanguard'

(C'Spondel lf$ (0 produce opinions opposed (0 (hose proffered ooo h ,, ,,, half by their accredited spokC'Smen. thus casting doubt on the " , the <kkgarion.)) The same opposilion Ixtwe.:n these tWO
10 0 11

pO' P of'
p

p3fiular, Ihe ideology of imperfccl rcprC5Cnt3lion, to Ihe effCCI that 'the . . pohtlnl dne docs not respond to the demands of ttS social base' or 'c . 3!eS the polilinl dcmad whih keeps it in po... er'-ignorcs Ihe quite dir. . f erent forms whtch thiS relal10nshtp may rake. depending on the party These variations in the relationship betwccn delegalcs and Iheir man. dators depend. inter alia, on the modes o( rruitmenl. training and pr0motion of pUty officers (with, on one side, (or nample, the Communist and on the ntegorics of clientele within a single party.

the m are confl1ll$red. One of [demands a high dcgrtt tion ro (he ccnlr.r.1 leadership, ncrally in the name of 'rt:l.lism'. ' olher otis for the 'sclf.managcmcn, of poliriol opinion. i univuu]izing Ih(' relation 10 politics char:llCfcrisric of small owl'lC'r1 their own m"ns of opinion production who have no relSOll 10 Ikle: [0 olllen [he power [0 produce opinions for Ihem. The usual ima

malty all of whose anivists arc able to approlCh polirics in cllplicil 'linc', tWO conct"prions of {he reluionship betwttn the

::::

lhe relationship belwccn the pUlr appu;uuS(S and their diente':"

of opinion lJs providC$ some indications on I e cond na1ysis . (Xlmple, Ihe prlnclple by (social characu::nsl1cs of Ihe b:.lS(:). FO.r . . "I . munis! Party votel"$ produce their opinions VUles lccordlng h Com .... practically or o ... ((frain. i.e., according t. whether they .kno . . . IS the case wnh 10 riCllly, by e:tperiencc or pohtLc1 apprentlcC$h,p (as tteD(C of economie rcblions of I hing Ihat concerns slruggle in the field . ns ( "ion), or ... helhr Ihey ha nohing 10 go on but Ihe dipositio as lhe guahans of an tl ir "hos, in ....hich C:.lS(: thq mCVllably appell! C SlalC ofbourgcois moraliry. So il is child's play 10 demonSlrat cUI dictions or diS5f)nancC$ belween the answers produced by a(liv. tltt contra the 1'10'0 principles (firsl'penon nd (Ven leaders, in accordance with !l 1 and especially bclwcen lhe revolu uCliOfl alld production by pro:<y),

Ih

::r
:;

rnodcd

you think ,i.b of 18 should be allowt:d to sec the films Ihey wanl 10/ (IFOP, March 1971)

Do

which amounu ro (he same thing, rhe modes of organiurion of the groups in which Ihis discourse is construcred and cirrulatC$.17

nishe<l with a general lfaining and occupying an cstablishe<l posilion ebe where); on the socia! characteriSlics of the 'base' (in particular, its levd of general e<lunlion "OInd the modes of politicll Ihought il (ends to apply); and on (he modcs of conSlfuClion of poli!ical discourse, or,

conscf\lat;ye parties which nn simply incorporate no/ableJ almldy fu...

Party, which has in a scnsc to ({eate its politicians from scratch, by a fOnl training almOSt entirely provided by Ihe pmy,j<, and, on the other. rhe

" " " " " C'C,'CC" $" " " " " S' S

'I've always Y()Ie<l Communisl be cauS(" I think ii's the: clnnest pany. You' (ltver $(Cn Communists in volved in financial Kandals or any thins like thaI. 11>cre've bttn some ",ho didn't "'ant to 80 110n8 ","h it after a fe'" yo" .nd slid over 10

Morality and Politics

'CCSSSSCCCCSCC',SS'

left 01 lhe O'Iher side J bil, and lhey their own Kcord or thq """ere ItJI kicked out. but I reckon it's lhe I one dOllcst party .nd lhe only defends the working d.'

Carpmlu

a programme, a sort of explicit contraCt of delegation) and an agent who, f ollowing his internal programme-or the specific imereSlS ass0ciated with his position in the field of idwlogical production-:-mott than his declared programme, expresses as yet unformulated, imphc't or potential opinions which he thereby brings into exisrence. He may . usc the monopoly of speech implied in his spokesman StUUS to credt hIS mandators, by an unvefifible usurpation, with expectations, intenu and demnds which they do not acknowledge (and which, dependtng c l) the case, are those of a vnguard or a rear.guard of the group as a who In shot!, rhe fact tht the delegate is the guarantor of the programtne ia'!IS peratum but also as a mtxlus operand;, no doubt exp tof only as an opus o ael why, to adapt a phrase of Durkheim's, nor everything in the cantt

tionry dispumions they mani/6t in politics and the conset\<ti . sidons they betray in the order of 'ethio'-which may le:td, in c; !"tal utions. to rruly conS(rvdve poJilical pr:lctices. By Contlb n -. t, voters,'s dr:lwn ro a large extent from the 'intellectual' occu f'at .1OtIt. manifest by the high degree of coherence in their responS(s their lttll4t and to provide a syst .of explicitly o see everything politically . ' lble answers, more dearly Iflregr:lted 1tound xplJCII political Pti thn those of Communist ele<:tors (see figure 19). All polirical judgements, including the wouldbe most enligh Tthtd ones, inevitably contaLn an element of implicit fairh, due to the logic of political choice, which is a choice of spokesmen and tqlltstn va, a choice ofi eas, projets, prgrammes, Ians, embodied ives and personahues and dependlflg for thelf reahty and credibility on the er !ty and .credibility of rhese 'personalities.'. Unc. ainty even as to the 0b IS Iflnbed in the lOgic Ject of Judgement, a person or S(t of ld as, 0( . . pohucs, whICh, hatever the feglme, en alls entruSllng to individuals the . . t:.lSk of f ormularlflg and Imposll'lg poh!lc1 problems or SOlutions. 1lJQt individuals may always be chosen either for their (obje.:;tified) pr0. gramme, 11'1 the S(nse of a c1talogue of already formulated judgemenlS and predetermined, publicly announced measures (a manifesto), or for their 'personality', I.e., their habitus, an internalized 'program' (in rhc computing sense) or algorithm, the generative principle of a set of jud8C'" ments and actions (,political me:.lSures') which are not explicitly fonng.. lalCd at [he moment of 'choice' by either [he candidate or the elector and which have to be intuited through the subtle indices of dispositions It vealed only in bodily hexis, diction, bearing, manners. Every political 'chotee' takes into account, simulraneously, the guarantor's personaliry and wht he guarantees. The delegate is both representative who e. presses the already expressed opinions of his mandarors (he is 'bound' by

11Ipo,

.PSt.J

i .E (l
J

.a. l

f;

all the party. Then, nor his , 'F'rs, of ' .:sty, but the way he fightS Per on 1l1Y [ prefer a guy who's a bit ::gh. even if maybe [he results ire one bit less good than with some j like a guy who doesn't 1 tler. nce his wotds. Like. right now. s thin es h I'd rat er have Jacqu Dudo (.corgcs Marchais. Because I reckon o rhat ",hen Duclos has something t

, .",ha

r'

" D<puty.

SSSSSSSS' say, he doesn', beat about the bush. Nor does Marchais. but he's i bit less direct, tends to pussyfoor a bit.' t do you consider in choosing

ye for Character

now. but ServanSchreiber is trying to modernize them, anyway they al ....ys used to be a party of old fogies, with a lot of Fre<:masons I think, and nOt re.lly any cle.r ideas. Its nOt a "ery fnnk party, I find." Stffttary

be. I don't know what they're like

'The Radicals are. well they used

to

have confidence in them, I've al .....ys had confidence. they've always done what they said, that's why !'ve al...ays VOte<! (or them.' 'On the whole. [ alwiyS do every thing ...i!lingly, especiall)' for the Po.rry. So there you arc. I've always done Whit I"m told. There arc some things [ didn't like, and I've s.id: I don't like it. But in the end. on rhe "'hole. there's no problem. 1 always 'gf with whit they do." and I follow " of myforemosIt rake nOtethe id party. and I 'lSt
"

'j

MJlnir;pal dtrk. Communi st

'/I. lor of people go and VOte be cause you ha"e to. But not me. Per son.lly l"m not like that at all I go .nd vote because I know what I'm voting for. I belong to a party and I vote for my own ideas.'

T pist, (Ammuni!1 y
'I'd say that personally I have confi dence in the Central Committe<:, and when they diKuss whether so andso should be i nndidate, they know things I don't. It may be that so-andso seems very good to me. perhaps even berrer to my mtnd than the official cindidare. but maybe there's some detail I don't know but they know at the top. So if they've chosen this one rather than that. there must be a good rca son.'

Ch..rwoman, CommuniJl

political delegallon is contraCtuaL . '<)115 The advocates of chnge are forced to spell out their heretical opln dlt nce 0 in broad daylight, in defiance of the doxa, the ordinary accepta n usual order which goes wirhout saying and therefore usually g(l6 u

said

c.'pm'tr, Communi Jt '"

up voting according to their di . ",Cttves."

SiSCSSSSSSI

They re dillS more Cutely eXposN ro the contrdi(lion 11Y 1tIt progr1mmc S1311 by the spokesman 20d lhe implicit prograrn lT\t mycd by his habitus, especially since, by virtue of rhe hidden CO nq " . of access {O political competence (in paniculu, e<luc21ion), dIe h of Ihe monopoly of 'he production or even ehe reproduction of t Cl plicil progl";lmmc are the produn of social conditions of prod UCtlGll (perceptible in , visible signs of lheir habitus) which are likely 10 be diKert'lll (rom those of their mandators. By COOfMI, Iho who ha Olher imcnlion rhan to conserve Ihe established order can Spare selves Ihis (Kon of making their ptincipb explicit and (OnCCl'llra presenting the: gU2norteS of 1n imcrnaJiw::! programme of (onservaf on in fhe form of flleir own pen, wilh ils ilin(fion, itS elegance, irs . . lure and also liS propcrucs (mlcs of nOOIl"y, educalional q uaifi f l on IC.). They ha sponlan>usly fhe bodily htlli. dinion and pronu lion to suit lheir words; thre is a n immediale. perfCCI, mlural h al'lTlony between th spch and th spokesman.

Opinions on fOr<:ign policy .nd poli'ie>l prc:fer<:n<e.

. Are you salisfied or diwuisfied ....ilh Ihe (Keign Gornmen" s performan<e in f policy' (lFQP. 1?(6)

:::

'::

" *

.. 5C'n.

Dispossmion and MiJllppropriafion

This csstmial ambiguit of political cice is only one of the rc:.!sons why no agent, nOI even a VII!UO$O of po],ocal consc1Ousness, can in pra(!ja avoid having recourse 10 differem modes of produCtion_nd the moa: so, th less rhe Silllliion to which he has to respond is polirically conSli !Uted. Other things being equal, the more clearly the problem post:d II recognized as polilical, the mor frequent is the use of rhe tWO spili cally polidcal modes of produCtion. proxy and autonomous production. They ar also mor frequem. in respect of explicitly political problems, when polilical consciousness is higher. In othr words, ,hey depend Oft (he set of factors (sex, education, social clas.s etc::. ) which govrn the pro 0 peosity to answer Ih most specifically political questions (as opposed 1 the propensity to abstain). Our survey shows that the propo"ion ....ho m:ognize all Of virtually aU the problems mentionc.:l l$ political is very low among the educalionaly un . qualified, gro...s steadily with level of education and rises to ,....(Hh,rds . among It.ose with the haccalaurC-a1 or a /ictNu. (No doubllxcausc " "Iucslion of 'problems". lhe variations by education are grealer here ,han (he aptilude 10 sec various 1_ 1$ polilical.) As mighl be upo!C,.,.d, ,lit, varialions by educuional capilal are grealr in relalion 10 Ih< 'probkrPS ....hich hl aPflC2-rc:d relatively m:ently in political ddmes, such as . . 01 women's liber-uion. lhe ptO"IeClion o( lhe environment or $l:X .,.duca,on It.ose ....hich are r:lrely posed OUlside lhe fi.-ld of ideological production. . such as ,he dc.:line of Lalin in secondary educalion. BUI rhere arc: also SIll nificam variarions in ,he eapacily 10 sec polilical p roblems in unemploy' ment, workers' p,"i(ipallon. .....ge niscs or rhe prite of meal. _

This means thaI lhe relationship tween social dass and political opinions vuies by social clas.s, i.., according to the mode of opinion pro d Clion mOSI f requent in thaI dass. The probability of producing a polil' U 'nl response 10 a politically consotuled question riSC$ as one moves up rhe: social hier:lrchy (and 1m: hierarchy of incomCli and qualifications). ")bus, apropos of a Iypically political problem, such as foreign policy, on "'hich there can only Ix: polilical opinions, Ihre is a very strong correll I,on ....ith social elm (and also. of course, with sex and educalion) in dl( capacilY to have an opinion, indicated by the rales of nonrespon51: (namely. (aflTlCrs 37.7 perCIlI. manual workrs }8.6 percllI, small m ployers 30.9 pcrcnl, office workers and junior xcculiycs 15.0 perCCIll,

Sm'or executives and professions 16.\ percent). There is a very dose cor lallon with declared polilical alkgianu in the specifically political con Itnt of the opinions xprcsscd (proponion of opinions approving the o rnrnnr"s f g oreign policy: CommuniSI Pany {PCF) 48.7 percelll, So ,.al'sIS 47.7 pcrcnt. Radicals 4\.2 percent. Centrists H.3 percllI, Gisc21' [Rq .8 percem. Gaullisls {UDRl 76.3 perccnt-I P 1966).'" . II ap(lelIrs vt:ry ek:lrly in figure 20, in ....hich. :U happens ....uh most for 18n POlicy <jucslions, th differem classes and class fraCtions are disllib-

I?

tion of respondenls, in accordance with eleetor.al logic. has the uncelling OUt, or at least wakening, the relationship wilh social dasa. degree of politici zation. Furthermore, the gap between the capacity (0 produce a minimal It

ekctions, and o( caleui3 ting frequencies

u[(:d along rhe axis of nonresponse, whereas pany preferences are d;" <i! uted along the nis of risf action. (t un be setn thar, in . the , as usually happens in the o( ignoring 'don't knows'
solely

in rc]ation to the

f.-bll 30 The imposirion e!fccl: JCSP(>Il5CS 10 qU<Stion on 'he bUline world .lId politics, by ,1111 frac.ion ( "' ), !9n QllC'tion: In cvcry country, the bu.it>(lS world exm rcruin influence on poliric.1 bou, righ. 01 100 Im.lI? bl< In your view. In Fn.rw:c I, rhl" nAuC1Ke '00 gmt o.ss ff2Clion
-

The greater the proportion of ach category ....hich eliminatcs itSClf, lbe less typical the 'survivors' are of Ihe Otegory, precisely in respect of their sponse, a 'ycs' or 'no', and the capaci lY to produce the corrcspond in, qucstion or, al leasr, to grasp the specificalJy politiul significance lhe

f,.",c1S

SiWf>k.cpcB, c..f,,mcst" !iCfVlntS

m

\ nu.1 "'-o<kers. do. h

Too 11m.
"

llboo . "lIht " "

Too ,m.1I
..

,.

Don'I know
" II

<jucstion has (or Ihose who produce it and ask it (i.e., in the field of pr0duction of specifically polidcal probkmatics) leads 10 the imposition or.

J"nlOr e'CCUIles,

19

" " "

,
..

,.

problematic, as a result of which Ihe me:ming of the answer given is mif. appropriated. The respondems are dispossessed of the mCllning of lheir response whenever they choose one of Ihe answers ofl"ered to a question which Ihey do not have the mans of asking, and so allow an opinion which is totally alien 10 them (evcn if il happens to 'express' Ihem) {o be treated

cleri,,1 .nd (ammerelll employ,," So<nio< exccutiv<s.

.. II

professions, indu,-

SouKC'

"i.1 Ind commet ci.1 cmploycn

SOFRES, t. I"tI'flil II r.,,,..1, November

,
!971

"

tion uked, but to the On<: they themselycs haye had 1 produce 10 fry to 0 Ihe initial question. (This work of re-appropriation, which is appropriate

U fheir own opinion; or whenever lhey respond, not to the: qUCl'

that 'rationalization of budgetary options' becomcs 'not wasting moocy', for example, is almost lnvariably ignored by political scientists, either 11 almost always manif CSlCd by a rc:tr.anslation imo anOlher langulgt:,

10

One example (set (able O) will suffice 10 show the imposition efl" t-and the allodoxia which mullS. This is a queslion on tAt political inAucnce 01 'Ihe business wotld' (In aff"irn), in which we incidentally see the use of twO >'(Cry common rhetorical deviccs: (he imposition of pn::supposit;on here:, 'in ev<cry country'. n ulOdyl1oCC phrase which insinulres lhe whole (Oft' servarive philosophy of history ('llw')'1 1nd ev<crywhere (he same')-:lnd (he fal5C symmetry which Jlows a highly improbable, almos( absurd ansWCl' (0 niSI, under Ihe guise of giving C<jual chances to all replies. To thIS should no doubT be added ,he efl"1 of neuln,liution and euphemiulion, lending to discoungc any 'indent' expression of indignation or reolt, Thc <[uCSlion ilsdf was only devised in o(der to icgilimatc (by anmher (a' the symmetry) the asking of another <[u(s(ion, this time definitely dominant problemuic: 'And in your vic"" is the influence of Ihe trade unions (00 great, liboul righI, or 100 small? II can be seen thaI the propot' lion who considct the inAuellCe of '(he business world' tOO greal riso:1 as "" one moves up {he social hlCl1Iltehy (and, we may usume, although rhe!C no data on this. the hicntehy or edu(ational leels), rhal is, in prlsely iJI" >'(Cr$C nl;O to the proportion who fail to reply. And we see only }4 pd" cenl of manu.1 workers 'judging' the inAuence of big business excessIve

the level of observation or at the time of coding. )

while 52 percent retreat inlO abslention O( neumlity. with . <onsidcnble f"oportion aClually 'fudging' (hat inAuence 100 small. The rttransblion "'hi,h rhe Ic;t$t compelent respondents have 10 perform in orckr (0 begin to .pplOpri.1C a long and complex queslion on a 'political.scientific' issue, orten resulting in misunderstandings, is seen in anoth" ca5C (table l), where the lellst C<juippcd have no choice bUI 10 ab tain or to an,wer i s n rheir image of Minerrand. Here 100, neu rraliution etrccl is terms of IChicvcd Ihrough styliuic elfects as subtle as the 'Mr.' before Mincrrand, or theuse of an academic verb such as prk(;ni_ (advoca!e) ; the expression 'so. mhsm of the possible' itself belongs to the register of high politic$. It seems 10 be proY! Ihal, in (he survey situalion, lhe Inst compercm lnts arc: alm&'11 enfin:ly at rhe mttey of imposilion efl" ts which all rc

part of

crted into political snncct (prim r:k/'OJifi()fl) definc:<:l in thcir COnICnt by e site from which they emanalC, among Ihe positions held and de

suI!, i n the lasl analysis, from {hc fact thl( rhey have to choose befween lIIswcrs which only take on their maning in rebtion 10 a political prob mll.c. However, Ihis problematic is nothing Olher than 'he idcologiul Id l15Clf i.e., the universe of objtCliye rc:ladons, liutomalically con .

; IlySOc al wodd and of legilimlilC anion upon this world The only way (0 appropriate this problematic is to participate in ils produnion, to
t
.

nded in this field by the agentS and institutions competing for ,he mOo Iy of produClion and imposition of the legitimate rc:pn:xnlation of

cUPf a position which counts, Ihat is, ....hich olhers have 10 take ae0Uni of. 1 position ....hose mere existence modifies all lhe olher posi. 1 ns, IO forcing their occupan(s to rc:lhink Ihei t own 'posilions' (Onc onl
_

7"bI J I

Mr, Miuer",nd advonrc:s a new form of _i.lism, rh. '!<)c' J ' i possible'_in orher wo.ds, ro'ms which ..kc Kcounr of in,.rnor;on., 'lfl

Tt.. iml>Olillon elf " I't$pon .o G uc:s.ion on ( dOls f. i <>n .n.J party ( ) . 1 97 1 . ,he Common M arket. Do pu t ,ntO p"""'. (WI

Quotion'

_,,/rsm can

.nd ,he mu."on of Fnnce ,n

"PfiIir4bJ.)1

you ,h'nk thIS

Sex, ellIS fr1(tlO<l an<! pUfy Mffl Wo....:n for....:n;

: af .... o.., ron.; .....

ng the Labels
c:ldj
,\\!Ic:Il
. /

, ' , " , s " S" s . . , g .. s , " , s

111

Yo
" " " " " " " ., .. " " " ,. "

N.

" ,. " '" " " " "

n

"

" ..

,here's an clection and they r on TV docn you un find lIy kn... ,he party and . ou' l _ L.... liuc 0[",,""11(, ,, . Cwttn t. th l n g. r-"C" j Well. ,here are some of

,II '
,..

,hem slk rc:ally wdl and you can work it out, But s[ill, when he sr1flS ....i[h ....hat party he is and ill (ha!, you pay more a([emion.
a..
'

" Si" " ,SSSSiS" " SSSSSSS" " S

C1mcal

M.nu.1 ....,.k.n; . Cnfu....:n. lhopkr:tpcn; ,unlOr uu".c:s

Profc:ss,ons. KnlOr uu"....

Commun,s, I':o"y Non,Commun'st lefr
G.ullom

.n<! com....:",;,] employcn.

eKlr.t-Qrdinary, sub(crranean or ovc:rt, individual or collee , oru,n.N Of ., .

lugiC

"

st d ' [,,"(C, spOnl1ncous or org.iIlizcd) i whic he can uate a Onc:nl cal producuon ,,:,hlC repro h'mself prKtically and [he field of .drologl. duCtS [he s(rucrure of lhe polirical field '" accordance with liS own M'Slppropriation almost inevit1bly occu.rs whencver thc ques,on ,". . . vilcs ,wo diff rent readings. when Ihe umnlIIared cannot answcr II w1{h e ou, bringing jc down from thc specifically political plan, whcre ic is . SitUl1ed by thc professionals who produce II and who WIll analyse or (ommelll on the results, to (he pbne of ordinary experience, 10 which the unconscious schcmcs of thc c(hos can be directly applied. Thus thc politically 'incompe,clll' Il2ve evcry likdihood of placing thcmselves in ,nc camp of the champions of the: moral order and the: soci11 order, and even of appearing more conserv1tive in this 1rc:a Ihan the conscious e. f enders of chc social order, whenevcr thcy are led 10 1pply ,he C"OIICgOlles of ,heir class ethos to problems a!rc:ady consti[u[cd politically a! rhe level of thc f ield of ideologic11 producrion, 11 is known [hat. so long as onc rtcmains III (he order o( domescic mora1ilY, ,he propensily [0 libcr.tlism or ,oicrancc 'ends to incll:ase as one moves up the social hier.trchy (which 5Cl:ms co jusrify thc wellknown [heses 1bout working<lass 'authoril1ri In,sm'). and it no doubt docs .so through the mediation of educ1tional level BUI this relationship lends 10 be inverted as soon as Ihe social ()fIb, aod not .soldy ,he mor.tl order. is in question. (,sociodicy') of merican dcm()(y on ' "m,lar obscrv:l(ion. 'ubenl l0d leftist' in economic mailers, Ihe work,ng (,Us lrtc mo.c 'lu,hori,arian' 'when 'ibenlism is dcfir>c:<l in nononomic t.r OVer (,vii rrgh,s) 10d. incapable of r ising ro the 'disin'efCS'cd whICh dc,fines every genuillC culture. in politiCS 11 ;0 other m1lters .... 1"10 signs of ,he 'Iiber.tlism on ....hich lhe dctermmedly nonrepress,ve bourgeoiS;'; (en1fl:s ils lik-s[yle." Being authoritarian by nature. the , the," .ng classes Can consciously esPOU5/: authoritarian ideologies; because ,ntolcr.tnce inclines ,hem to a SimplistiC, Manichat1n vic,", of politic"
. .

C.n' <lemoct,ue (L.nue.) c.nt rOM (Duh....:/ )

G;CI,d,.ns Uncommi"e<!, .bs,.nlion Sourc.: SOFR!:S,
Lt # 11 ' "" a /JOJJihit, . 11 ll

" " ., "

"

.. ..

'"

..

June 1971.

h1S to consider [hc slluClural dfcCls rcsulting from thc cmcrn oJ ultr.llcffism as an iditJorft in thc fidd.) Political 'problcms' (like aD those in philosophy, religion Ctc.) always CKist in and through rhe " tionship betwr:en tWO or more antagonistic groups. This mcans tha siders, being uMblc [0 takc an activc pall in ,he political game .hid! de faero reserved (or fulltime professionals (politicians, perma C . . cials of che party ra'lIm--(he right word, for oncc--poh"c:al n.liSIS, professional ideologucs), would only havc soe challCe ol . . ing out thc opinions which 'suiI' them, from wlIhm [he un'venc rc:ady-made opinions, if the prodUClS on offer always bore a ,Ddt:. .. [he label which is both a mukcr and a guar.tIllt:'C. By clrly . the posirion in lhe field of ideological production whICh '5 In It ..... pressed in every aUlhorizcd S[alement of posirion. the label whtC tee " an opinion to an authorily (a pap31 encyclical, a Cent,?1 Co . cision, a canonical author ctc.) cnables Ihe layman (0 gel hts 'of! dill ega" Oi' ill 10 find ,he 'righ(' seance: (0 lake, eilher on rhe basis of Ihe dd iri he eplicitly or tacitly grants ro rhc occupams of a pafllcubr po! 01 " (he ti.cld of ideological producrion, or through his pr.tcllcal gNSP cI:us sr homologies berwt:'Cn rhe poli[ical fic:ld (i.e.. [he /icld of

a n

L.pse, hiS eprimis,;c account

f kg.,

doing enough to give decent wages' to immigrant worke, as agains( 43 rcent of the manual workers and 'I rcent of the ollice workers and . junior executives; 48 rcent consider that 'France should reduce or stop .IS aid to under-develod countries' as against 31 rcenl of manual worke .tJl(l, and 3 rcenl of ollice workers and j unior executivcs (SOFRES, La Fr I'i'll g&it tI It TimMon.k, February 197 I ) .

tarianism and of the d:lSse5 which are its beare. It should scarcely be necessary 10 point OUt that if Ihe membe of Ihe dominant c1aS$ are more 'innovallng' in domestic monlity bUI more 'con. servacive' in rhe ar more idcly regarded as 'po itical', i,e., in everything l . concerned with rhe economIC and polmcal order and with class relations (:IS shown by their answers on strikes, unions etc.), this is bause their ptonsily to adopt 'innovadng' or 'revolutionary' positions varIes in in. verse ratio with the degree 10 which the changes in question affect the hu;, of their ptivilege. Thus, to take just one exampk, senior exudves may ap pear more 'liberal' in their view of immigrant workers than manual work ers, who are more directly concerned by their eomtition: these executives much more often say that 'Fnnce is not doing enough to help f oreign workers find accommodation' (67 rcent comp.red with 48 rccnt), '10 give them training' (2 rcent and }6 rcent) or 'make them wclcome' (4 rcent and H rcent) . But their liberalism is less marked when mea sures whieh might have consequences for themselves,are mentioned: 4] per' cent of the $tnior executives and prof sionals consider that 'Fnnce is not es

they excr ,an imptovemen in the,ir condiions to c m only through ? sud. den, dnmallC changes. The evoluflonrst mllknananlsm which is the nat . U ral c lmination of this political theology makes the raising of living standards and the education of the working CbSse5 the motor of a universal movement towards American democncy, Ihat is, the aool ition of authori.

" ,SSSSSS'" " S'" " " " "

nism and achieve socialism, ou've got to $tize power, Right now, we're too democntic, giving way on tOO many things, There isn't the violence there W:lS a f w y ago e Violence, I don't mean sm:lShing

'So if you wn1 to develop commu

'SSS-S '

'S'"

S" S,,'SSSSSIS','S,

everyrhing, but they're too SOft when they go on strike the do ' t tae a decision. And I tell , thmk [( s bause the working (I isn't miserable enough:

Capen/"', "g( 67, Comm"lIiu

you,

Il .Assumed Style
en' ccntlem

.. ....,,,.,.,..... .,.,..... .... . ... .. ,.,.. ,.. . . ,., ,.,. ., . . . . . , . ,. . . . . . " ... . .. . . . . .... .... .. .,
orm of contaCt is an ']"he prt"Sen( f . novHion whkh IS adantageous all, every etTon should be made ly pursued. irit should be "igorous for theory to give way sp It is time visual methods to technology, audio optimized, induStrial ex hould be ence is desil<lble, and also politi. fi , d to a IS ci"rion so long as II are e sta sufficiently broad overvI w fot decisively prioritized. bilit)' to be ",dulr education and updting are now ((ucial ly indismable; basic
o t

..

rdc,'dop the Imer, and tcam

training is no longer adequate at this poin( in time; continuous as sessment and knowhow should maximize social advanccmenl. Setting aside all sectarian inter eSlS, the goal is progress, a major reo tooling of vocational guidance is called for, education is not synony' mous with intdhnce, a worthy captain of industry may be f ound very young, leadership potential is eaSily spotted . . n"i" pub/hINd in Iht prtJJ

", " , S S S i C S C S C j I " " '" S S S j iSSI " i SSSC, , i

T ptJm"., eXlraN from " Imt!' 10 ) lIN tlEERS in rt!pmJt /0 lIN '1UtJIi01l'

lae, indivisible lInits of prefabricated thought nd speech, whICh gi,'e a

discourse its colour of conceptu1 universal!ty but also its air of having bttn learnt by heart, and the unreality so characteristic of dissertations (a

railwayman talks about the 'underprivileged strata' as a schoolboy might

by abrupt breaks in tone, are the most concrete references to immediate experience, uni<Jue and s(ific, which give a d iscourse ItS reality, its pkni lude, its authentictty, whik at the same time tending to prevent universalization, the prc.condition of mobilization.')

salariale') ," (hat the speaker is able 10 stand u p to a "luasischolastic tcst and def end both the status aTtribute of a man and the honour of a class, in shorr, that he is not to be 'softsoaped', that he has 'got what it takes' to 'deal wllh those smarttalking pol iticians.' On the other side, sepal"'3ted

write an essay on 'Contemporary youth'), the most academic terms of po. litical vocabulary ( ,ma ndators', 'revaluation of wages') . which serve 10 show, at the risk of malapropisms ('c'est contraire ;. I'interet de la masse

The duality of the principles of discourse production is constanr veakd, in the very discourse of activists or the most politicized wo ven e Ihrough the changes of lOne and styk from one aTe:.! to nother, and be t il' through the permanent tension, ....ithin the same discourse, bt:rween fortTI t o modes of expTeS$ion. On one side, Ihere are the readymade ....

Moral Order and Political Order

:r;

J1' effects, evident in spoken language re even more marked in written n

.
,

guage, TI,uS, among the manual workers who r esponded 10 the AEERS Ut'onnaire and who arc strongl y overselected (the), ditTer from their (lass in ... whole series of ways: they are better educated, their children are ()r Often in Iy(<<s, Church schools Or higher education, they more often IVt In P'ns Or rcod Puis newspars), one fInds a mhanic who expatiates 'n tht first person plural on 'the mission of Fl"1\nce in Ihe world', a miner ..h 0 exdaims, 'Poor France' No one gIves a damn for her', a typesetter who

expounds hiJ vision of an educational system capable of 'enhancing til eral ....dlbeing' in a Style- ....hieh is a modd of the effort to reproduce &radil?CIucnce of po!irical diKOrse. B apart rom rhos.e aucmpts a , ct:lilullon whIch Ind1(UC a cenam f amlharlty wlfh u':l.oXunion and discu$$ion of 'he educational system, most 0(1<:11 reduced 10 kcy.wOt 'tICal slog1ns (udo.rcform. '(nlld' 'reabsorplion of urn::mploymcnt' ; worker; 'inu:gr:uing 1m, dynamic clements of the nation', 'o,Hldc"'riv " T I C SlI1IIt:l.--m w:lyman). the rnponsc:s arc c.tmdy panicularized. It is . U If Inc, respondents seized this opportunity to f ormulatc a penal grit:va Of immo:diatd rclCv::I.nt to the <jucsrions "ked Often, tOO, the subm lOll IS :I. way of 'k1!ln pk 11 Ihc, lOp know what is going on', p:lt i( t ulari , about !he lhcr5 lack of conSClcnnousnns. A farmer writ exaCily tt. e same sentence in reply to each question, 'The teachel'$ don't do their -oil ' properly, all they think about is their holidays': another res""ndent r,, , urn,, In eaeh 0f h IS COmmenlS, (0 the Waste 0f working rime: and another ' (' shorrhand-typlst. married to a c(Uchbuilderj leav half the -, "Ution, unan .. sen:d and repl r to each of the Others: 'They've gOt no sense of profes $lonll duty, all they talk about is kisuf\':
"

: IItrI. :

ng or saluies of tcachers, sex education .1I1d politis in schools,. tu tr1ioi monst rations etc., and finally 10 quesuons conSllluled as polrrrcal ,jcI1 de e tradition of tndc-union or political Struggle, on industrial rela br t, thc role of unions md $0 fonh. The miS<lppropriation of opinion is t t.on: situa r when, in ambiguous political situations such as all (fisis which challenge established guidelines and 5Chcmcs of thought (in tlO" in point, JUSt after May 1968), thc politically mOSt deprived t arc al$O, to a largc extent, {he oxonominlly and culturally mOSt de.. them are still ill-<idined, '" ' N--apprchend political problems which for sl!:l!ion s, through thi r for example, posed by studcnt dcm?n . . . ryday schemes of petception and apprcoanon (In thIS case, thclr th( , aversion 10 'Iong.haired students' and thc spoilt children of the idle the ch). They thus m to prove thcir 'authonrarianism' and reinforce M(ural defenders of thc cstablished order.

S.rea : " ;

No doubt prdy because it is constantly confronted with th inlerftr, ence effoxrs ..md with the tendency to self-c:xc1usion which flows from dis possesion and the sense of impotence, the educational effon of the s political or trade-union organizations to inculcate the will {o have an opinion nd ro provide rhe means of producing ir musr itself conmndy oscillate between the f ormalism of genenl principles on the economic and social world and direct ref cf\'ncc 10 immedite experience. For all tis. it cannm ever perform rhe analysis which would truly f\'laIC the par uclar ase to its ultimate fondarions in polirical economy, an o frauon f whICh (s no doubr (mpoSJtble for the teacher as for the pupil. WhIle attention ro the concrete siruuion is indispensable in order 10 win cre dence, it is no less ($Knlial ro go beyond i$Oluing {he panicubr case In order to achieve collective mobilization around common problems. nils dialenie of the genenl and (he particular is at the heart of all politiCs. but (Specially of the process of poliricization, with rhe need, for some, whose inter(Sts are bound up with {he (Snblished order, to universalize thell parrkular interests, and, for others, to gr.lsp the universality of the.. pU tkular condItions. In political practice, of which opinion surveys indicate the diversiry by the variety of areas of existence they deal with. there is an imperceptible gradation from particular, privlre questions, Including those which con cern domC$tic mOr.l1ity (Child-rearing, sexuality, parental authoriry, rhe r sexual division of labour etc.), which may already be political stakes (o $Orne vanguard groups, to questions which, though they still conCclJ'I upbringing or sexuality, are siruared at a more general and abstract l('""d sincc they invO)"e educational instilurions, but al$O a level more remo{(' from pr.l(fical experience, such as tcaching methods, (he recrultmcnl.

Questions on 5Chool d isorders and student dcmonsmtions or on politics in educarion are predisposed to function as traps. usc they only .'ae on i tOOl foil mco.ning in their real context, t >c domInant problema"c, I:C_, the fundamctml qoesllon of the mam,, SCI of questions er;lIed from the tun of the cstablished order. As is shown by the ,"ventory of the qua uons posed by opinion research inslitu{<:s (sec tablc H), .his prlem1lic marshals (he questions which present themselves 10 .hose, excluslvcly, who have to uke acCOUnt of Ihe distribution of opinions about their policy in *ttrmining their policy. h only re.:osnics {he qu<:Stions whkh the domi n.nt class ask themselv abou! (he sroups which arc problems for them, md ignores (he qUCSIions tht;S( sroups :lsk ( and the problems .hcy have). The most depriycd do not, strictly sf>C:I.king, know whu qU(Stion {hey arc :lnswering, and do nor posSCS$ the intercsn and dispositions {hat would enable them to reactivate the qucstion by sing ir as a particular form of the 'lucstion of the conSCf\luion or subversion of the cstablished order. They therefore respond nor to the question thar is actually asked, bUt to a qUC$fion rhcy produce from their own resources, i.c., from the practical principles of their cl:w ethos. When the qoestions posed are in the intermediate area betwccn monlity and politiCS, the contamination of politics by morality and thc slippage from mOr.ll indignation to politi cal rcacrion is most clclr1y sn--especially in those whose position in ial space predisposes .hem 10 a mOr.ll perception of the social world, SUch as the petite I>ourgeoisic and especially its declining fractions or in d v'duals. .' Resentmcnt is dearly the basis of rhc relctionary or con:SCf\la t(ereolutionry stnccs of the declining petit bourgeois who are a?loos {o maint)in order on all fronts. in domcstic morality and in so Cl(ty, )n d who invcst their revolt against tnc worsening of their soci)1 I'Osllion in moral indign)tion ag)inst the worsening of monls. But it of(en )Iso itocr;ltic revolt of rnc upef\l3dc:s the Jacobin rigour and mcr

Tsblt J] Views on po!i.i,,! order .nd

S..,..,..en.s on po!i.i,,!
Polili,," ",tkr

o,der .nd mo..l orde'

Fumers, fum workers

C..frsmen. sm.ll shopl<eepers'

Posi tive rcspons.es, by d .,. f""ion" Mmua! workers

IUIllor

elm ("" ion

) 199-1972'

(con.inued)

tS on poli.i,"1 J tt""' ",0",1 (>Ider ....

S"ikC'S do workers more

h.rm ,h.n good (SOFRES, 1970) When .he", is Strike in lirm, .hose who Wlnt '0 amy on working ought ,0 be oble '0 do SO
(SOFRES, 1970)
"

:,Jtr ,flU

uld .. totell chil o; por h. do .nd """" wcok. ' ""' Zl(lFOP,
" .

Formers, form workers

C"ftsmen, smoll shopkeepers'

Po,i.ive responses, by M.nu.1 workers

dm

fr'Clion" Senior executives, professions'

Clericol, Juntor exc.:utivt'S

Employers and workers h..e .he same inte' csrs; they should wo,k ,0gNh., in .he in.ercst of.ll F.vour SOme rcs"inion of .he right ,0 mike in .he public s.enOr
(SOFRES, 1970)

"

..

"

c --:f ligule' indinte the Strongcst tendency in e1(h row. .. ... genc"lIy kwer 'don', knows' in .ll dasses on .11 the quC'Stions concerned with m.,. brep' ,hose on the sole of ,hc pIli '0 minon .nd sex educ1!ion in s<;hools--th)n fOI thos.e

R ES

'

1I ;'

_ _ _

'_ '9 : l6 - --, -::- ;::- 3 ' -::- : -: _ : _ _ , _ ;::-::- -::- _ --,_ -::- ' _ _:..- _ --,, _

with politics. IFOP gfOUPS ,he indu!!!;.1 .nd commerci.1 employen wi,h tho c!1frsmen .nd shopkeepers; groups ,hem wi.h .he s.enio. c_c.:uftvC'S )nd members of the pfOfcs.sions. (cndan' pe{i{ bourgeois, who arc convinced of their righr (0 sctde scorcs with a SOCiC1Y which has no{ suffiClcndy rewarded their mcrits. This sim ple <cversal of pretension, thc disposition of groups wndemned TO oc cupy subjcctively a position which is not objec{ively {heirs, is chlrac{cris{ic of all {hose who condemn {hc established order only be caU$/: il recogmzes {hem less lhan rhey n:cognize it, in their very revoll, and cannOt recognize in them the values it recognizes offiCially. This is why et'llightened conservatism, which is always ready to aecept or even initiate changes in every area which docs (Ouch the foundations of the weial ofder," finds, on both right and left, the foils it nttds in order to pn. itself as a vanguord.

"

" ,. " , " " JJ "

Labour unions .re too powerful 1! present (lFOP, 1971) Dinppro"e of P'''' pl.yed by labou! unionl (IFOP, 1%9)

(SOFRES, 1970)

M",,,I ""'"

Girls unde, 18 should no< be .llowed ,0 go Out .Ione (lfOP, Girls of IS should not b(, allo,,'ed '0 Itt .ny films .hey w.m '0
(IFOP, 1971) M,ed s.:hool, a", 19'9)

" '"

88.> 38,'

8U

...

b.d .hing for girls' up bringing (IFOP,

1971 )

Would b(, .g.ins. s.e_ edueo.ion in s.:hools (IFOP, 19(6) The pill should only be sold !O unm.rried minors with p.",n,,1 cons.ent (lFOP,
1967 )

JJ

"

"

"

"

"

Here as el$/:where, it would be a mistake (0 seck lhe explanatory princi pl of the responses in one faclor or in a $/:t of factors combined by ad d,tion, The habitus Integra.es inlO the biogr:aphically synthesizing unity of a gener:ative prinCiple the ser of effects of the determinations imposed by the material conditions of existence (whose efficacy is mon: or less SUbordinated to {he effectS of {hc (r:aintng previously undergone as one advanccs in time). It is embodied class (including biological properties hat are SOCially Shaped, such as se:x or age) and, in all = of inler or In'fa-gener:ational mobil!ty, il is distinguished (in as effeCts) from class 1.$ Objectified ac a given moment (in rhe form of property, titles elC.), in. asmuch as it perperuates a differem state of the materia] conditions of ex tStence-those: which produc.:d it and which in Ihis case diffel to some eXtent from the condilions of its operation. The determinations which

Class Habitu$ and Political O pinions

agents un.drgo rh,roughou[ their exiStence constitute system in a predominant wClgh! belongs factors such the capilal ovcr:a1J volume and also lIS composition) and rhe corrtbliV(': I the rdations of produnion (identilit<! through occupation, i aIl lL._ 2SSOC12tcu dtSp05lUons, sueh the in'ucnu of working conditio '-= ' ''Is occupational milieu). This mo rh11 the: intrinsic efficacy of a factor takcn in iSOlation C1 ll('C: rnJly be n:'C'aSur<'<i by_the: (Orrebrion bctwn Ihis fanol and IC op,nIon or prxncc ' qutslton. The $1m( faCloI may be associated with dif ferent etrrs, depending on [he system of factors in which it is inserted Thus [he baccalaun'ar qualification may Ix a prinripk of !"C"olt when ' scsscd. by the: $On of a junior executive or skilled worker who has (allc back Int'? the r:anks of rhe semi-skilled (rhe regular increase in Ihe of btMhdlnl among .unsilled worke,rs is probably nOI un(onne(led numbct wilh growlh of ultralefmm m Ihe workIng clu$). or a source of in,egN.lion Ibt when possessed by a junior eec:ulive whose fa'her wa.s a (:KIOry "'orktt or pea$Jnt $alholder: II could be sho"'n in ,he l way rhal ,he value 0( an educallonal quaification and the associlled relarion 10 ,he social ,"'l u .,. Vlf)' $Iu;::nbIy :Kcolding 10 rhe baret"$ age (inumuch u Inc, chancl'S 01 ,ng II a.reve ual for. ,he different g<:.ncnfions), social o"gln (lnuuch mhemed SOCIal capItal-name, (amlly connec:lions tIC-gov. erns 115. enl profilblllt)') and also, no doubt, 8lgraphical origin (throUgh embodIed propcflll'S such u accen, and also through Ihe char1(teri5!iC$ of Ihe labour marktt) and sex.
(0 as as $J u

it is underslandable tha'. through the me<!iadon of the habillll, which defines ,he rdaion to 'he. ition synChronically occupied 2nd consequently ,he pncflcal or exphcJl 'posi,ions" taken vis-lvis rhe social world, the dislribution of polilical opinions belWttn righl and Iefc should correspond fairly closcly to ,he disrribudon of the classes and elm fractions in the sp<Ice whose first dimension is defined by ovenll volume 0.(capilal and the :;econd by Ihe composition of this capiul: Ihe propcn my to vote on ,he righ' incre1Se$ wilh the ovenll volume of ,he aptul and I wLth the rda{ive weight of economic capital io dlt capItal composll10n, and (he propensity vote on the left incrcastS In te opposi[ direc.tion in both C1SCS. The homology belween ,he oppoN IIOn$ established these two respect5--the fundamental opposition be tween rhe dominant and rhe dominated, and the secondary opposi,iOll belwecn the dominant fuctions and the dominate<! fractions of ,he dom' inam cI:tS5--tends (avour encounters and alliances between the 0'(\1 pams of homologous posirions in the differem spaces. The mosl visibk of these pandoical coincidences occurs between 'he dominate<! fraClioRli o( lhe dominam class, intellectuals, ards,s or tca<hers. and Ihe dominarcd clUSC$, who each eprcss their (objcclivcly very ditferem) reladon ,0 the $Jme domina", fr:aClions in a particular propcnsilY [0 ,"ote on the left
III 10 10

So

-;;,.lhe basi$ of ,he dislfibution$ ofvOling intntions by $O(io-occupa,ional cstablished '"gory ized by rhe by G. iichcl.:II .andbelween the percenl.gc5fraclion is M. Simon," each clm algebraIC de",.llon of left ",ncter and the perecnrages of righi-wing vOtCS (leaving uide the 'don't .ing vOtCS ' '. which vary rda,ively lillie), it be Iha, rything ,akes ;/IO...s . plaCe if ,he effecrs of volume and ,he effectS of wmpos"1Oll compounded h oli>cr. The political SJnce ,hus appears a sys,emaric skt...ing of lhe ""i,1 space, ...ith primary leacbers (--43) found nexl to lhe miners (-....). ,ertiary rcuhers (-21) net lhe ondary ,nd (-I) dose [0 the unskilled to ,he skilled'...,orkers (he artists workers (-I ) and lhe (-19), the .semi-skilled workers (-10); the other clerical workers (-9) alongside i$ occupied by the indus,rial employers the politic.l space. (KtremilY of by ,he professIons (+47), ,he senior adminisrnlive execu (+61), followed tives (+34) and, vcry dose '0 them, thc commercial employers (+32); the Icchnidans (+2) and lhe foremen (+1) are s;tUlled on the frontier be Iecn righ' and left. Everything $uggestS thu a secondary opposition is IIblished betwccn franions of ...hich a larg<: proponion of the members towards ,he mos, clmifying choices of their n':$ptivc regions of lhe poIi,ical spa<: lhe indus,rialists d proessinals, on one: si, who ive a 10 the liberal nght . and the unskIlled, .semI' high propomon of skilled and skilled worktrs, on the oti>cr side. ...1>0 give a high proporlion of vores to the Communist Party, thus seem to be opposed to lhe (rKdons "'hich combine a high proportion of abstentions and rebtivcly less<lassify. ing choices (non.Communisl left or Gaullisl), i.e., the artisl$, tcuhers and foremen, who perhaps epfC5s in this way the contr.ldiClions and ,mbigui til'S of their social positions. The classifications used by Michelat and Simon bOlh (or ,he $O(io occupalional categories and for political opinions (reduced to very broad o.lC8Oril'S, with no indiCllion of modality) do no, make ir possible '0 es lablish a clear opposition bel...ecn Ihe es,ablished petite bourgeoisie. more Imclled to the traditional politic,1 organiZltlon$ (although here too. eKecrs of downward mobility have induced ne-w (orms of demands and slruggk). In.! .he ne:w petite bourgeois, ...hieh fl"Cognizcs ils image in all lhe new political forms-from uIHaleftism. rhlO\lgh the PSU and lhe renden cia in lhe Socialis. P::Irry, ecology_nd in all ,he p:uriciplllionisl and 5df.rrun'g<:mcn[ Cltchwords likely $Jtisfy li>c upir:alions to autonomy and pcrsonal sovereignty of peli, bourgwis ...ilh intelleclu,,1 pre'ensions. HowC"'Ver. il may be no,ed Ihar among all rhe utegoties $itu:lled in the Cl:n' o( ,he political space, the medical and $O(ial servicl'S (+28) are silu aled. to"'21ds the pole marked by the indusrrialists, ,.,hems Ihe rechnid.ns Inhne more towuds the miners' pole (+2); Ihe junior adminisll':llive exec U.IVI'S (+14) Jnd commercial employCC$ (+16) occupy an inrermediale pa IlIlon, with ,he cn(,smen (+13). Ihe enginecrs (+19) and th farmers
:IS can u so:cn cs mo ve ()( V I'S 10 10 new

(+20).

Political practices or opinions, like other pr;lClicc:s, eannOl, of course. k fully accounted for if ooe leaves our cverylhing that is apprehenrlcd Ihrough the ordinary indinton of social ongin. Here il 1$ na.sary to

B:efore c)(ping surprise II thc intensity of tho: corrduion be .0US pncr,(C and poliriuf opinion, one hu to consider "'hc:lh;:: 81 "" largdy due [0 tho: fact thar th= are simpl, two different m'" .,,[ (Stanons . r - [he sm d-spol u? n. Th- IS not only because, borh in ilS <oment ' ' and in' ., s " , 1m: d I hn of meukallon, rchglous Il1Iining is a disguised form . , of pohr cal ' se l,zallon; bu, also bo:aiuse Ihc imr i,ion of a po" and O, o" u ...... ICc a dc. eI red "'" IC' Imp , 1 L!, , a "0 :usJSnmCnt 10 a elm' and Illerdo" 'h" .!lrl utlon -b - of . 50(:111 Ia<:nf (y WhICh, whatever Ihc (On,ent of Ihe corrop o"d,', in{uca_ I .. l I ' (0n, IS d-" - rcIaCionaIIy by liS 0pposllion to ,he comp"rn,n,ary I Clln"" " c USof .non",-", Icve . and IS ,hus chafgd '1with all Ille propcrtir$ ecluded from t ' 11ter.at l SI momt;nl ($U'Ch u Ihe Conservllli polilical dispos . piled n opposition 10 Ille 'reds'), FiddilY '0 Ihis idenrity and 10 w shue " {'I am a Chris,ian') confcrs a l aUlonomy on the prof md e . .g!'C1 . ( lIlh Wllh respect 10 Ihe pf($C I eondIItOnS of eislence, ....5 for thc . specific I of Ille COnt enl of lhe religious m, il may be mumed Ihat il relnl'(:' t propenSity ro cooceivc Ihe 5O(:i al ","orld in ,crms of Ihc 'pa. sonahS( . loSt( of 'l"=:rsonal salvation', 10 sec poelly or oppression as per. sonal mlsfor,unr$, hke dines! or death, (By COn((UI, ,he polil;cal mooe of ,hough.' lends '0 dude from poillics ecry,hing that personaiisl Ihinking _ and rcIIS'o conmlUle Ihics, in pallicular cvery1hins concerned wilh lhe domesnc anomy; II 's Iherefore ill'prcpaml 10 politicize domcs,;c mal. . ICrs, such as consumpnon or the condilion of worn,' Th, d-'CUIIY ls ag I . '" gl1lvaled by .' , C1 thaI Ihe vanguard In politiCizing the domesde is of en he , . made up f mdllduals Or movemen ts of Ouiman origin, and il is nOI =y 10 de,erme.,":,Iledl(r .Iley are poliricizing Ihe domcs,ic or domcslicaung and dcpoIllIClz.ns lhe polilical.)

di!!iguish, ;'II last, Ihc: dfecr of {he fr:tjC({Ory leading from thc orj . . smon to {he: pn( position, the dfecl of [he (ondi[ionin i 11tliI po . In ;'l particular $O(Jonomic condition and---es....ciaJJ' ,mpo rtant .... ... .. ,.. . . . .. one IS trylllg [0 undcrstand polJ(lcal 'positions' as explicit ' "'" pos {IO ' l f taken on the SOCial world-the effect of incukadon, si" pol, ,, Iflea) ..... l& - e I" _ cauon, 1[ ' re [810\1S cuucll(ion (which is a disguised f m o, It) or - ISalw , ' . . 1)'1 paftIy r ," " ,rom the family, (rom thc t:lrlint days of tife. e JVcu O-

""'boI

n" the fan tha, a ne spaper (for rhose ....ho anually re:ad onc) is a ask spaper' (journal d'opinion) for only a minority. iew
....

an ethnOCenlric filh in the mYlh of 'personal opin toelr backers. Only to keep informed, can an opinion 'formed' by a permanent effort

'

[,.

,= ''::

l;'" al newspapers such as FraflU-Soir and Lt Pari :O;us. ,he readers of nadon are disrribuions 10,000 and 360,000 respecliely in 1977) L,Hrt (Clrcul ly belwttn flgh, and left: 4 1 to 36 percem for Ihe ted fairly e"lual even more surprisingly, or c 11IIn (and, r, 33 perce' 10 H rccnt. f ,h . Ily flghtwtnS (OnlCnt, 27 percent of lhe reader.; of tVCf' ils more d,sltrK and 64 per <kclare I hemselves ,0 be lefl.wing vOlers), 60 percent of the firsl IWO papets "y ,hey would nOI {Cnl of the respective readerships papers (ook politinl posilions contrary 10 Iheir SlOP reading them ,f Ihe c to pronounce on ,heir objIivi,y or o,,'n, and a high proportion <kclin aign, Bu, above all, only a small plOJ>Ol' lhell SUIKCS in the ekClion camp nt for 1..t Par;!;m LJbbi and 29 pc-r<ent for non of ,heir readers (24 perce nt for L'i'lurort) I'ran-Soir-as against n percenl for Lt Figaro and 42 perce ssed by IhCS<' opinions expre say they are in complete agrttmenl with the percent and ).O percCnt respeclively) pc:n, wherc:u large prDpOrrion (40

f'A/lnm

percem

Supply and Dmumd

To en our to spccify ,he relationShip belwttn the $OCial classes and . , the political oplnon $OClally conSlituted 2r a given momem, one may be u::mpred to examme, on ,he buis of Ihe stalistics availabk ho.... the dif krent I and class f r:aClIOnS distributc their choiees am ng the differ ent p?"ucally mukccl ne....spapers and magazines. Ho....en, the inhe!'Cfl1 lblC5 of suc a f:ro<::cclure cannOI be avoided unless one slarrs by con sidcrtng :--hat readlllg a ne....spaper' means fOI the differem calcgories of . raders, sIllce I I may have nothing III common ....irh .he funClions com' monly allribured to II or ....i,h th mlgnccl to il by the producer.; or

selves con!ider Ih(,m more rightwtng ,han them is nOI mc:uuml by rhe poli,ical ori > cifcally politi"l effccl of a newspaper ield of ated in Ihe f (malion of ils specifically polilical d;scou as evalu of {olumninches dirccdy Idrological production, slill less by lhe number s have 10 Ihc paper, dcvOled 10 politics, bUI by rh(, relationship Ihe reader e mosl imporrant poli,;. ...hose poli,;cal messa ,hey may ignOlc and whos (5. cal acrion may he 10 give no imporrance 10 poli,i the readers arc si tulled in ,fie 5O(:ial hierar, Ii would seem that ,he lower is of ,he opinion explic. chy, the more in<kpcndent ,heir political opinion '" ubiri or Illy professed by ,heir ncwspaper. Buytng a paper like Lt Paml Fran(t-Soir (or even L'AU'ON) is, for manual workers or clerical workers the major who vo'e Socialist or Communis, (and who no doubt make up IIf of (he Communisl or Socialisl vorcrs among ,hose papc-rs' readerships, 9 , I e , 10 percem and 20 pelcenl of ,he readership of ,hc former 2nd percen , 2hhough ;t is lnd 19 percenr of ,he reatkrship of the lallet), an act which dng 'depohticiza. OOtcC1ively polilical, presuing and no doubl produ Lt PariJim Ubiri, which Ilon', implies no affiliation, no political delegilion. dcotes 16.} 1","('01 of i,s space 10 sport (as against 2.6 petcen ! in Lt readers MOl/d.), 2nd to lhe mos, popular $pOrts, is regarded by many of liS ano:.:do'21 as a sparrs paper which, unlike L'E'I"ipt, provides general and news as ....cll for the same plice. The relalive independencc of the rtlders' political opinions from lheir newsp:ipers' polirical ,cndcncy thus srems from the {an Ihat, unlike a Ii'ical party, 2 newspaper offers information Ihat is nOi eKc1usivcly p0. litical (in Ihe narro.... sense normally given 10 lhis ....ord). II is a mulli purpose product, offering, in ery vatiable proportions, inlCrnliionaJ and national politics, miscellaneous ncws and sport, $0 Ihu it can be Ihc ob-

[I un be secn thai lhe spc

prescnl<by SociaiiSI l>:llly) and some major publica,ions, a rational man agement of competition within rhe production unil, which Ihen fuoC' lions as a field, nn be Ihe mnns of supplying the differem fractions of rnders or dn:lors (f example. in Ihe C:tSI: of u Mantk. lhe dilfc-( or fractions of the dominant class) with diversified products adjustc-d 10 Iheir differem or even opposing .:-xpectarions, wilhoul any consciouS III" . . tention of doing so. "" BUI in addition, manual and clerical workerS-CXCePI Ihe mOSI poll Ciled o( them. who rnd L 'H"ma,,;ri or mOl her fn.ldt pper-prac{l(aI'"

;eel of an inl({ relatively independent of specifically politic I CStS.41 Furthermore:, con.sdously en<kavouring to mnimiz( 'hci " lion as a dircn source of revenue through I cow:r price. but 3.1s o _ . . indirect aSKI through irs value in the q'cs of adv(rrisers,'s whal ay called 'omnibus' publications (which include most loca! paf'\"rs he systcmaticaliy eschew everything which might offend any section rn ft actual or potential reackrship, in particular. specifically PO!l!ic llar t nouncements (jusl as they arc excluded, for Ihe same reasons, frOm Pto. as convcmt;on between strangers, in favoul of safe topics, such c ual wcalher), cxcC1? for th? which an pcrcciv d as leaS! POli[ica ' I . . official decbrauons (thiS IS whal gIves ommbus ncwspars [hei ' "' .... . r ' alr al ' , ' ' " _ oemg seml-()fficIa or govcrnmenta" organs). TIHS imr;l!ive , ..h . . becomes lror as Ihe ctlnlcte epands, nec ,]y . sumers wnh increasingly dlfferem laslCS and op,n,ons, is suflicien ro cplain the invariam f atures of all omnibus cultural goods-'fam.I ' diente' f ,lure filmS, bes.t.llers, Ihe carefully dcpolilicized polilica ea sages of catchaU, polillcal pames, Ihe homogenized anr:anions of Hollywood srars or the professionals of bureaucratic charm, rhc rfecd, . potlte and I,shed profile of the model managers who, in the nu of . moblllly, have smooth away all their social 'rough edges'. The pwad . , . Idnl wlt:k.audlenc produCl IS rhus tfeClly non-<Imifying, 'inSIp ', id bu. by Ylrrue of thIS. accepuble ro all tastes (this Jaw also applies to mt tenal products: one only has 10 think of the new mild' cheeses. such II or baby f oods). There is thus every difference between Ihe major omnibus daily and weekly papers, whkh maximize their clientele by neutralizing Iheir prod UCIS. and the vanguud grouple!s or avantgarde reVIews, which testify to Ih.:-ir fidetity '0 rheir inilial programm.:- either by rapid diS2.ppeal':lnc.:- Of by living a prenrious exis,ence (dependent on subscriptions. cxuaordt nary effons by their oflidals, the devOlion o( their :tCtivisls and so on). Their alternative (OUf$( is 10 overcome or manage th.:- conflkn arisin, bolh in the produClion unit and in Iheir audien(e from Ihe pursUit of .. wider cliemele. the pre-condition (or aess 10 power, by making (On(Io sions. compromises or auenuations which (Onrradi(f the initial pro gramme and weak.:-n their links with the oldcst and most 'significn(' fraCtion of their audience. Thus, for some major parties (such as lhe

/ ,;:,;

)"

bringing in e:

: !:

8onbtl,

as Ihat son of political guide or r regrd the daily newspaper either of n<: I nd (ultural mentor which il perhaps rnlly is only for section readers of u Figaro, or as Ihe inst.rument of in(orm.tion, dumenta. I of Scocn," Po nd analysis which il no doubt IS only for the pupIls I N"'" for senior civil servants and some tc;lchers, in other words, lhe " Mcmdt. !"s welt as the wccken spo, results and ,rgcf ,udience of u . . expec:ted to provIde new s , I.e., InfOfma fl"lenlaties, the newspaper IS cOfl"l . the whot.:- range of eventS wLth which one fccls concerned be{Ion on ' ' = .t ( the '-- hs, marriages, lCCLdents or se they concern aC<Juainrances a . whose olastiC successes rq:>Oned in local papers) or people like oneself S . ( sforrunes are eperienced vioriously (e.g., Ihe Otastfophe in a popular which the :;0psile in Spain in 1978). The inrerest in such news', 'serious' papers disdain uJly rdegat 10 the back page, is perhaps : ent in nature from fhe Imerest wh ICh those members of Ihe doml differ of potitiol dn:ision.making have in :;0n l class dosest to Ihe (emres Ihe appointment of civil servants to ministeri1 : Icd 'neral news'. l ns 10 the ....cadl'mle cabinetS or of technocrats to 'thinktanks', electio struggles within franaisc or receptions at the Elysee Palace, the powcr a newsper lhe poliliol parties or the wars of Su(c.cssion within ajor of admiSSIons or firm. nOl to mention the diuy of SOCIal events or the ILsl of elLiSlCnce, around 10 the grandes oles. Only in bourgtois conditions . bourgeois dinner lables, do proper names o( general Iflterest-Ihe name of fhe Minisler of Finance or his chief adviser, the director of Schlum amiliar indio berger or the chairman of a prize jury and so orlh-:refer to f . g, lIke neIghbours and cousms viduals, known and frc<Jucnted, belongm in 'he space of a village, to the world of mutual an]uainrance (which goes a long way to explain why reading u Alantk is a sine qua non for ("try 10 the beau mondc:). One forgels thaI lhe dominanl class is defined prlscly by Ih( faCt Ihal il has a particular imeresl in affairs 'of general Inlerest' buause Ihe parri(ular interesls of its members arc particularly

m k<I ;

bound up wilh Ihose affairs. . . . But Ihis is only one of the many rca50ns for quesnonmg the semI scienlific opposition belwccn news' and 'views", or belwccn the so-called sensltional newspaper and the 'journal of reAeerion' . Behind Ihe rnding of these IWO calegories of papers lie in fact twO quite differem relations to politics. Rnding a national newspaper, and espec:ially one of the mator, legilimate papers, such as u Figaro or l.t Mcmdt, is one way among olhers (like writing the papers, or It) the pipers, signing peri. liOns or answering qucslionnaires published by rhem) of showing one's ul 5o:nse of belonging to Ih.:- 'legal nation'. of being 1 f l dtizen. entitled and duty.bound to participate in potiti(S and eKercise a cirizen's rights.

in

clally tht;

It is nOI surprising to find ,hal Ille rnding of national n(wspapc:rs, espe. 100$1 legilimate of Ihem, is (Iosely l ink d 10 cdUUlional levt'l. by e

virtue of an effect of assignment by U US. Edu S slronSly conrribuu" 10 rhe sen of full Imem carional qu.lifi<:arion.! bership m tho: univcl'$C of I(' im.lc pol;rics and cuhu"", which indu.xs ,he s.:ns.: of the right fa read 1 iegirimlU: ncwsf>"per (5 (abln 33. 34. and 3'). While rhe probability of l(ling a nl(ional ne....spaper ri= Strongly "' Nun/ional capitll (with rhe probability of reading 1 re8,onal n(....'!'aPt.irh varying in rhe opposite .....y). rhe v1tial n io s uc pUlicularly markC<i HI rhe (ax of u MiJNk and u Fi(, II he mdtrs of which are 10 a v.:ry luge, e.,. len! dl'Jw" from among graduarn of high er-iuo.rion institutions Through Ihe link with Iundonal capital, rhe probabIlity of reading tional newspaper is linked to social clas 1 "1' s ( though less closely): if is Very low in rhe worki ng c1a5S('S, in wh ich reading is 11I'l'10$1 eclusi vdy limittd 10 !he $J>OrIS p3pers and omnibus papers (Fra JItI uMi), and incr su:adify :IS one mo,'CS JKt.Soir and Lt Pari I up (h.c- 5O(ial hienrehy. . Theft III every reason to Ihink thaI, olher things being equal, women are 5O(ia lly more inclined than men to he ime rested in rhe 'non.poli!ical' conrenr newspapers (local 'news'. anoxdo!al items, the diary of 5O(ial eVents of ete. ). In polilics. unlike cultunl pnctices, rhe dfr of assignln("nt by SlalUS exerred by so;holl$ti( apital cannot make iudf fdt in fuJI umil rhe df ts of rOc tnditional division of bbour herween lIKe sexes are wnk or nulli fied is tile case in rile dominated fnClions of Ihe dominant elm: thus we find, as rhat, except in rhe dominant class, rhe nle of readership of a narional news. paper is higher among men than w omen ( the tdarionship is reversed for readership of local !lO:Wspapers). Wh.c-K'1$ .1Ke probabiliry of reading at leut one daily papcr rises s ndily wirh age , the prohabiliry of reading a n I ational paper is virruaJiy independent of asc-Irhough slighrly higher for the n-49 age group than for older groups , as if ageing were accompanied hy a w"kcning of the sense of ntt<ling '0 knop up to dale wilh poli,i(5. (Thi. rendency docs nOt appear in the case of L'lfllrurt and Lt FiCanJ, a hIgh pro portion of ....hose rc:aders arc n i d ustrial and commCr<iaJ employe rs who o f ,"" conlinue Iheir activity 10 an r advanced age

and du,r
:f ;

, ,

.;-

.)

i g
-=

. .... ... Q>, "' .... :> .E ...; ..; ... ...:
"

But Ihe difference between rhe 'scn sational press and rhe 'inf rmative' o press uJfimately reproduces Ihc opposit ion betWeen {hose who make poli' tics and policy, in des, in words or in ed thoughl, and lhost- who unckrgo it, between aC live opinion and opinion Chat is aCled upon. And il is nO acciden t rhat fhe an ti thesis hctween und erstanding and scnsibi lity, re' ti on and sensation, which is at Ihe hean of the dominant reprcscmluOn of Ihe rdationsh ip befween thc dominan r and the domin2!ed, evokes t opposi tion hctwn fWO relations to the 5O(ial world, bctwn the so,-cr cign viewpoint of those who dom inate Ihe social world in pncrice or t though! ('Genen! ideas', id Vi rginia Woolf, 'are always geneN: 1s ideas') and rhe blind, narrow, parrial visi on (lhat of the ordinuy soI lost In the bude) of those who are dom . inated by this world. Pol'" analySis presupposes dislance, heig hl, 'he overview of the OOsc:r:er ",ho places h i mself above the hurl y-burly, or the 'objectivity' of Ihe hl$fon, who lakes and gives rhe lime for reflection by perf rming a son of pO],tI o
'

"' ... 0 ..... ... ....: ... ... ... ...; ... .... "' ''' ...

;t ;! :G
... "' ... ....

.npon<kn. by

a.u (rx.ion o(

M:x

Ptolb,li,y (91 of reading dlay ",pe'

60.' '"

If rcspon<kn' '*'" rtld d p.per, prob.bili,y ( 91 o(

Nl1ion.1 d.ily

Region.1

F1fr'R(.... (11m ..orkeB S.mi.sk,lkd, .ic Sk,lkd, (OIl:mrn Sm.U nnploB

Junl(>t
W _

CIc,inl

6).0 10,1

" "

au,",,,",,,

UffU",,"

M:nH)f

C'fff.

6}.7 14.0
n.'

0.6 49.8

H.4

18.8 20.1

17.}

"

".,

r
'"<

dividing.line Ix:[ween the working classes-who, apart m local papers, rClid almost exclusively omnibus papers-and the mid die classes. Tc<hnicians, whose level of newspaper readership is very dose o [hat of f remen, a opposed !O clerical workers. who ad more papers
I a nd cultural

92}

'"

H} 61.6
".

"" .. ,

schooling in e pre which encourages practices and in[(tesls close 10 [hose of other manual workers, and secondary so::hool ing, which, by I l("Ut slightly initiat.ing its pupils into lcgitime culture and its values. lOuoduces a break wI(h I popu lar work! V!CW.
(ltisling dilferellCes-tC(hnical Ir:lining,

len L'Hum,,,,ili or L'Et;uipd. One no doubl sed here L1 M...u less of ,

also more rightwing papers (i.e., m :( :

ore ofren LA

he combined effc<tS of ry different work milieux, the workshop and which !Cnd (0 h office, and also of types of e forc

Croix, Lt FigIJro and

S.miskilkd, domc:s.ic Skilkd. fotCr'R(n Sm.1I emplB Clerical Junior uffu';vn Busi<>ess.. M:nio, nees.

F11tnC"1S, (11m workeB

46., 40.6 72.2

'" '"

12.8 14.6 13.0 ll.6

n.,

lO.3

Sou1Ct' C.S. XXXIX (CESP. (976).

}2.0

9}.4 8lj 10.8 61.1

,,. 914

whkh, im. !ranslalions of t r d r or ra.ll.ying.e.rics,XI nd f actuality, whICh c is d reader, immel"$td opposed o 'facile' art, or eroticism opposed 10 pornography, !he so.caJli qual "f ewspapers nll for a relarion to the object implying !he affirmacion of a Islance from the object which is the affirmation of a power over lilt' obJtXt and also of the dignity of (he subject. They give the reader much more Iha the 'rsonaJ' opinions he needs; (hey acknowledge his digniry . a polmn l.sub]tXc npable of being, if not a subject of hislory, then II l("Ut the sub,ect of a d,scourse on history. Having (hus sified lhe meaning of the relacionship of (he differcl'lt SOCIal dasses {Q lhe r newspapers, [hrough whkh we no doubc can grUP one .diension of hcir ob;a:tive and subjeclive relation !O 'poJiliO' ( hl(h 15 al .sten 1O [he r:I[es of pmieipation in the leadcrships of Ihe . d,ffren[ parues, and in elcc(or:ll tu u c r:I[cs), we can Iry [0 dcnYC: some indicadons to polidcal positions from [he variations in reader' ship of Ihe polilically most clearly marked nadonal ncwsJYolpcrs ( I 36). Firs(, il is poS$iblc (0 dr:lw fairly prisely !he simultaneously poioU'
as as , a.s rn-o

nl 'alienadon', like acs(he(ic 'alienation', nn neulralizc lhe mediate presence, !he urgency and functions of (he object substilule I euphemislic he indiT! slyle f Ihe i o 1 uneran(C of ,: ds subsume under lhe unifying <:ancepcs o po lmnl aalysls he ImmedIacy, f aCIUali!y of ephemeral even IS, of satisfics the ur o ity of (he or inary very(hlflg lfl evenlS and ShOrtlerm, 'facile' sensations. Like 'difficulr' arc as

chey ,ve oremen, o T verify [his. one only has to rvc ch c f d,sunctly higllt'r inCOrTM:$ and a geographical disnibu[ion ry similar l nk more concentrated in ,he clerkal workers ( r:lCCS for rhe n 1 onal dailies and [he Pu,s), ave much lo..er 28.4 p<'TCent rcspcivc y, as ga nsc (he cleri l IIo'(c:klies (18.' p<'rcc:n oremen more or[en read he am' ...orkers 41A p<'rcent n 43.2 p<'TCen ) ; f L'Humaniti-Di"...NM, whereas lhe nibus pap<'rs and, among the weeklies. derical workers slightly more often rcad Lt Figaro, U MOIUk and La C;JC, and, among che weeklies, La Vit and cspecially u Nouwl ObstTVat,Jlr. There is every reason [0 think chat !hose whom chis dividing.lim: sepames are or to re ion, the pw:d in OIher resp<'<[S, articularly as regards heir Hade unions and the political anics, with, on [he cler cal workers' side, a

Ihac of

alchough a ..ho are only a i li readership J a i t and t ad

[0

ca

aliitudes lig i p of pracdsing C:uholics, Forcc Ouvricre unionists and So higher proportiOn l cialiscs (or I'SU, or eX femelef ) vocers, but also Gaullim, and on the m.nual workers' side, a higher propoflion of agnoslics or nonpr.lCtising " ucholics, CGT unionists and Communist vorers These opposi[ions are hemselves .n integral part o( life-scyles linktd different social ;.:.clories d and diff n[ workin,ll condi[ions (for e..mplt: diffc nces ccor ing co how e lecarianized, ccording co [I\(: long [he lin(:8'" has been urbnized and pr o size of cht firm ccc.). and [he pc:asanlry is n..: boundry bt[wec:n [he indusnial working cl .1$0 marked by che probabil;y-much hightr among indl.lsri.l orke1S-()f reading nllian,l !lCW$f>'p<'r, espe(iJly L'HlI..."" Ii, and by Ix flCt chat g"{uhural ..orkers almos[ always read only Catholic 9,'ccklies (u pntrn., . t.... VH) whereas indusnial workers read a g t f varic:IY of papers J\s one moves up lilt' occupauonal hierarchy (which ;s to SOIT\(" exccn[ linktd ..i[h M:n ori y in chi: working doss) [Ix Caholk prrn is inc ingly SUpplallled by [hi: Communis[ press. whkh is nO[ suo/ising when O!lc knows th" clx [endcncy [0 VOle on [I\(: left varia in IIx same way. Exctp[ f r L'HJlmanifi, [he newspapers and weekly magazines only o !'("ally fulfil lhcir role polilical markers starling al [he level of the mid dlt classes. The space mapped OUI by the quantity and quality of reading rtproducC$ fairly exactly the ordinary oppositiOns by volume and compop t
( ' re .0 . u.. oss .. ' ( rea C reas a.s

fractions of 10.....: middle . d "c-''''' m ""_CC ' _

lAwtr
;:

fum workers

__ __ __ __

L' " ' '" I ..., r

c' 'e '

o OJ ,

__

-"C- "' -'' "' ' '' O '" ' '' ' '
__ __ __ _

P"mltJI
0""'

I:AI/ron

Fr..1I(t- Sum of 0 _. "",r 2.3.4

, 0.6 2.4 , 66 91 IIA 42

1>.I,ly

__

'6 o "

FisM.mm, m,r>Crs
Semi-sk,lIt<! Skillt<!
foremen

"

Un5killtd

,
"

, "

" " " " 10.8 " "

" '6

2.6

,., " " ,. ,

" ,
" ., "

" """ i I ' P, "

, 0,)

C""X F

Ll

lJ
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skim .ho: correspond,ng do'ly p'f""r eorho:. ,ho: day bcfo<e o. ''''' dayS bcfor<: .he su...-q 1101 . m.de. For .11( wtckly pubhc.nons, rhe read,ng f"""od 'he wc-ck prcct<!,ng .he SUN"

Sourc", C.S XXXIX (secondo')' 1O.lyslI) I. uch numbn '"'""tJ tho: p<'r(cn,"sc of ind,.,du.!. In t2/;h cI:lSI r..w(>t\ 9.'ho hod

"

""

.j.8

Jl.8

97)

..... 01

sition of epitJ, both at Ihe level of the middle classes and a. the level of {he dominanc class. On one side. we find the economically (rebti"ely) rich l1Ietions. cl1lfrsmen and small shopkcq>Cl"$, or industrial and com merCial employers. who read lirrle, and mainly omnibus ppr:rs; on lhe other, rhe euhurlJy (rebtivc1y) rich fractions. clerical workers, jun iot ex' ccutivcs and primary te(hers al Ihe first lc\'c1 and. at the second level, fO" fcssionals, enginttl"$, senior CXecUfl"CS, secondary and higher.cducutofl ro:aehel"$. who rclId a 101 of narional dailies, cspedally the mOSr 'legit< mate' ones, and wttkly magazines. In the middle classes as in the dOI nan{ class, rhe proportion of readen of narional papers and lefr-" ,ng

papers declincs. and the proportion of readers of regional papers and nghf.wmg papers incro:a5CS. as one movcs from Ihe primary or secondary to:aehcl"$ to the small or big commercial employers OOly for the dominant class d the newspaper fully play irs role as an at1';Ur\c-8<'ncnlling princ'ple defined b)' a cer.ain disflnctive posidon in a field : iU' msruullonali,ed p"ne'plcs. and .h-e adu:Ky wlfh which If 'ex IfJ ro:a<krs no dottb. depends on th-e degm:' of homology bc-twttn 'pos>llon in Ihe { w:ld of Ihe pfC$.S .nd liS fC.ders' po5uion ,n .he- {w:ld of t da ( or dass fracoons), the bu.s of the" opm,on'genef1111ng pnn(,'

II one pok we find the indus.,;.l and commercial employers IndioS liule, mainly omnibus papers and u Fi gl1ro; at the o.her, 'he t ' crs (and, still funller away, ,he iRltilc(!ual$). rcadi ng 1 101. mainly 1.4 cach. Montk or L'I/Jlmanili or U NOli"" (JI,$tn1altur. The space of Ihe wttkly magazines-no doub. because: they have (0 maintain 1 greater dis,'nce f ,he daily cou of polilinl li(c, bo:-cause ,hey deVOl<: mon: spaC(; 10 cui, ';::a maners and also box,uK', in oRkr (0 achievtc r/l(, high (; n;uluion n ann"::! advertisers. they muSt avoid all principles of division and CKduliQn'Q and seek ,he mos. ncu,l areas, objec,s and stylcs-.-.is less ckarly marke d out, although u N,,<'lI OIJ1tn.uIlr is niH fairly clearly opp<:Md
pic. nlllS ,he mosl hc,crogenrous of them, such IS the executives Or engineers), sine surveys in sI.lCcessive years produce divergences anributabLc to the small ness e of the corresponding populal1ons in the reproentative umple. However, know from the survey on press re;odc:rship in the dominantel:lSS alone (C.S. V), ....hich sepll1Ues them out, that priyate-5ectO< executivcs much more often r<:1Id L'/hmwt and u Fgll,1t (and the economic and financial i press: Lt! E(hos, EIII'prill ), much less of en Lt MtnIik and u NOIII!d Ohm. t lIltll', Ihan publi<:'S('(lor execulivcs. 2nd also Ihl! the members of Ihe IIrer. al"}' and scienlific occup;lIions read Lt NOlii'll Oh_ltll' more of en t Figllro less oflen than the teIChers. So it would iKCm Ihal the mode of lilt: dimibu lions of Ihe daily and weekly papers ranked by political conrenr_ omnibus papers (wi th L'lIurort), l.t Figllro, l.t MtnIik, U NOllwl 06itn'Il' Itll', L'Hllm..nitl-lends 10 shif "eadily 15 one movcs through the (ractions l in the (01l0win8 order: commerdal lnd indusrrial emplo)ers. priV2tNec!Or execurives, professions, public.seclor neculivcs, IC7,chers, inrd1cCluals (rhe cenlnl categories. cspecially the professions and engineers. heing chanCier icd by a p;irdcularly Strong dispersion o( their choice of read,ng.matler).

L'Exprns and Lt Poi",. We should perhaps nm rnd tOO much ;nlQ Ik dl fcrrnces I...ttn II\( fra(,ions defining inrcrmcdiue positions (Ialty f.
'0

and u

the opposition belwCCn L.t Figaro or L'Exprm lnd U NOliI'd expresses nor only rhe opposition betwa:n the dominam and Ihc inlted fl1lctions. between rhe private and rhc public. and. mote preclst berween, on the one hand, Ihe employers closnt to Ihe private pale 0 Ihe economic field. 1(;I$t rich in educational capital and no doubt mo:!1

The opposition betwccn the fnctions in terms of rhe composilion of their capilal is blurred by the effects of thc opposition, within C7,ch (rac lion. between 'old' 2nd 'young' or, more precicly, predecessors and sue cessors. Ihe 'old gng' and the 'new wave'. The dominaled (ranions, who. bccauc of their position in the space of the dominant cl2SS, inchne towards pmial, symbolic subversion, contain their own (ICmponlly) dominam groups who may be pushed lowards concrvalion (pard response to rhe subYersivc dispositions of rheir own challengers). s,m' larly. wilhin lhe dominanl franions. who have an imeresr in all fo rms 0 conservation, the successors (and, to a lesser extent, women), who arc temponrily kept lway from power, may, up to 2 point and for a cerrln nClions. Thus time, share lhe world view put f orward by the dominated f

ll1ened with declin, the oldcst privare.sector executivcs, those mOSt thrC . ked to the employers, and, on the other hand, the public.senor execu I and the t(;lchers; bUI also the opposition between the predecessors " d the successors, the old and the young.lI unwittingly on the confusion between class slruaglcs and ,1'1PIyin8 . . :aSS"f rJction stru88lcs, or, more SImply, between fight and flght.bank or l I and leftbank, and al.so on the classificatol"}' and. concep ual fuzzin.es:' J(Sulting from the partial overlaps between the dLfferent LIltemal dlvL' . 'onS of the dominant class, the NOllwl ObJn-t.altllr enables all domLllant members who an: dominat in one or anoter of the poosible . tJ-""inrellecfUab, the young, women--t expeflence the sum of thelr spec . necessarily partial challenges 15 the mOSI ndlcal assault on the cstablished order. Consigning the cl2SS struggle 10 history, it offers ils readers as 2 bonuS the means and the gntifications of a simultaneously ethical, )eSthetic and political snobbery which can combine, in 2 SOtt of anti bourgeois pessimism, the appearanccs of intellcrual vanguardisr"?' which . leads to elitism, and political vanguardism, whICh l(;Ids to populism. If It 'ppcars that mOSt of the judgements it delivers on the social world have n othet b15is than the quarrel between the 'old gang' and the 'new o wavc', and if its contcslation of the CSlablished order boils down to 2 orms-those of cstablished Cliquelle, politics or all-this contcsting of f is because the strategics of symbolic subversion which offer themselycs in the competitive stru88lcs for succession reach their limits in recognition of Ihe game and of the slakcs which they presuppose and produce. More precisely. il is because the imernal order of the dominant class depends vel"}' directly on evel"}'thing which regulatcs the stru({ure of social lime, i.e., the order of succcssions, whethet It be the representations which as lign 10 each age its passions and powers, its libertics and dutics, or the respect for forms and forms of respect which, beller Ihan any rules, guar ame.: social distanccs by maintaining temponl distanccs, the gaps, P2Usn, delays and expectations which propriety imposes on the impa. tknee of the inheritors.

ass

,n

0hJml

Yf

III this poinr, it is poosible to represent and systematize: the set of rela lIons cmblished, in a proyis ional diagnm of rhe political spICe (see 8ure 2\). This seeks to show how Ihe different class fractions an: distrib Uted in relation to one anOlher (reluive posilions dearly being easier 10 verify than distances) 2nd also in relation 10 the t of polilical 'products' or 'marqucs' which funClion as landmarks or insignia. This space can im mediately be seen to be a systematic diSIOllion of the spICe of the classes 2nd class fnctions di!tributed by the volume and composilion of their pital. The I of fl1l(lions siluated on the kfr in the political space (and In the figure) are pulled downwards and those on the right are pulled

The Political Space

IS. ,hroK'K,J Khm,. COfl'(fue.td on .he bu.. of. I ,h .il>bl. ".,i,,;,s (.nd v:anouI .n.ly:scs of corrcspondenc.,j Th . ' """<toIj.. . !"" Or mog""\( mICS Ind"""C<I ore 'hose whl,h fune.ion :as poli,;<,1o:.e 1, ' ' ' , . "_. mark..
n". di'gr.u'l'l

'.

rn"que,,::,.,

0 assoiatcd Ifajectorics) art' combined. The positions given 10 the elm t>t' o:;
consider1bly with the volume of the population, which is generally 1Irid linked fO itS $(Kial scalier (although the incrt'ascd volume of 1 f(":I;dership rIlay result as much from mort' intense penetr1tion in a restricted sPlee as front extension of the space covered).

capilli voIumo: ,ight...;n'. domini"!

ff1.ctions or 'mu(lucs' only indicate, of cou, the cenlr11 poim around

....hich

wards, ""hieh is und'fS!nd3bk since the dfccls of the opposilion by r1Il1 elpinl volume and the opposition by elpical composition (and

the group or readership in qucslion is mort' or less widely dimi!). ted. 1bc '$(Kial surface' corresponding to c-aeh of these poims in fa"

big <Otnmrrr,.l .

p<1YlO1...'or nttu"vu ..,

left",;n, (Ief,bank)

domin'I.d
domin.nt

L'E:qx."

<"g,nten

II

Fig.,.,

profioru

"gh'.
domlf1lfu d_

(",111,-',

publiNtttor $tnior """.;va hi,lI,r.d. '<I(ht:n On. c'pi,,) <ult. capi,.,

craf.Stl'I<n

lITl,lJ shopkccpen

li,.1 right

U Poi",

Political choiccs art' much less independem of social elm than is gen tf1!ly supposed, even when the laner is synchronically defined by p0s session of a capital of a given volume and composition. To demonstrate

e f jectory The S pecific Eff ct o Tra

SO much furlhel in Ihe diltttion opened up by Michelat and Simon by

this, one only has to conStruct the categories adluatelynd one could
mean

U iI4Q"J.

JunIor urives

..... pe, ,. I>o'''geoi.i( j

,

ldon',

know

for,,,,,,,,

L 'All,..,..

GluUist .jgh.

fatme"

perhaps above all, by securing the means of describing and undersnnding what the differem political 'Iradc:-marks' and the corresponding products available (in France) do not make it possible to identify and isolate the dl"CCIS of trajectory and inculcation (Ihrough the parents' occupalion for each class or elass fraction II is regrettable th21 the surveys

taking accoum of the diachronic propertics of c-ach social position and,

o:<on, Capital

rul, C2piW -

and political opinions); even more so, perhaps, that they are equipped with no mc-ans of grasping diltttly-in lhe y in which they are ultem:!

or

'<chni",,,,,

uh..lcf,

IltItll,

in.dl.u.],

offl.e worhll

and thaI of a primary leacher, or a foniori a clerk, a flelOry worker or a miner is not an excuse for sociology 10 do the ume thing. If il is 10 have any chance of producing 2 sciemific epI2nation, il must uncover the really different ways ofbeing or declaring oneself CommuniSI and the dif krent mc-anings of 2 VOl( for lhe CommuniSI P:any that art' hidden under the nomlllli identity of yotes, while at the same time allowing for the
,killed un,k,lled

justified-the differences which make nominally identinl opinions really incommensurable. The fact that elcctoral logic ignores the differ enccs betwc:cn Ihe Communist VOte of an artiSt Of 2 univcnilY lC2(her

Sori.lo" POlly

politically important flet Ihal ele<:toral logic trellIS opinions which differ In bolh their intentions and their reasons as identical.
1S

lII01I<_""

ill space, such

The bet remains Ihat one ClnnOI !luly understand the somelimes im mense differences betwc:cn Cltegories which art' nonClheless close in
(ans, unless one takcs into aCCOUnt n01 only capital volume and compo . SIIIOn but also the hisloriClI evolution of these propcrtiC$, i.e., the . t'l)C(:tory of the group as a whole and of Ihe individual in question and . lineage, whieh is the b;l.Sis of the 5ubjcclive image of the position ob IC(:livcly occupied. One of the most determining chaf2cterislia of politi.

craftsmen and small farmers. or foremen and Icchni

m,,,,,,

r::C" c:::-_ -, o,"C L _ CC """ _

Id,....'n. dom,n.ted

P."y

Communi"

IS

c obscure, decp-roored choices of {he hab i(Us.' {hey involve lhe . mo or less expl .clf a sysremuic represe ntation an agent has of Int sO l " orl, of hiS pos,uon within if and CIa ' of the position he 'ou hi' to . OCcupy_ POIUlC.t1 dISCOUDC when if exists u such, is ofren no rno ,han : Ih mOl"( or less euphemlzed and univtrsa Jiled exp CC'lved U such by [nOS(' :",ho lifter if) of Ihar repr ression (never , esenl2lion. In O tt ord$, be,wttn Ihe posHlan f(';IlIy oc(upied and Ihe polilinl 'positions' . Opte<!, there In(CI'V<:ncs a reprcs<:nt2lion . . of 'h, poslIIon WhI(h, aI . 'haugh de,erml ed by Ihe position (so long as Ihe posirion is defined ompe'd Ihu IS, J() diachronioJJy), may be at odds wi,h (he political r POSIfOns [h pos.ition stems to entail for an (xtctl121 observer (Ihis IS whal IS sometlmcs call('(/ 'false conscio . ,'o_ "). The sIope of the lOd d' lYI , ... uI and above all, the olltctive Il"ljtclOry governs, Ihrough lemporll : dtsposltlons, ,he percellon of [he posilion occupied in [he social world and the e.ncan[ed o d senchalled rdation l [0 [hal position which is one of {he nnclp11 m('(/la lon {hro.ugh whi ch {he relationship /x-{wccn so . . . 11Jslflon and pohtlcal posmon' IS establishe o J d. TIle degree 10 which mdlvlduaJs and ,ro,p' " ... lurn= {Oward . S the fuillre. noveliy. move . . melli, lOnoVatl?n, progress--dispositions which all: particularly mani . . fcsted tn ll/x-!";Ihsm {owards 'rhe young'. the hring rrs and beneficiaries of the new or<kr-cand, more gene!"ally, inclined towards social oplimism. or, on the OIher hand, o ienred IOwarus the P:l.S[ and inclined [0 SOCIal 1lI1 and. consefVansm depends on rheir past and potelliial coHec tlve t!"aJtctory, '.e., on the eKtelll 10 which rhey have succ eeded in n':prv-

ClII choices lies in Ihe ((I {h1 more Ihan all olher ,ho',0. much mo ' {han (h

ducing Ihe properties of their ucendalllS and arc (or feel ) wle 10 rq>ro Juce Iheir properties in their descendanlS. /I. d:lSS or d:lSS f!";lClion is in decline, and Iherdon': turned IOwards the when i! is no longer able 10 reproduce itself wilh all its properties of past, (Ondilion and position and whm 1 large proportion of its youngest [11crnbcrs. in order 10 reproduce their ove!"all capinl and maimain their pOSition in. socal space, mU 1 ar Ihe le:l.S! perf?rm a n::c?nversion of their 01 by 1 hlnge 10 condmon, marked by a C1pital whICh IS accomp1 l horizontal movemenl In SOCia space; III other words, when Ihe rcproduc. don of d:lSS posilion becomes impossible (didtlJJtmtnl) or mJuires a . chang<' of clm f!llccion (ronvcrsion) In Ihis case, thc ch:lfl in the mode of social gener-llion of rhe agellls It:;lds 10 the appca!";lncc of differ C"!ll gcne!lliions whose confliclS cannOi be reduced 10 wht is usually PUI under Ihe hcading of gene!"ation confliCts since Ihey arise from Ihe oppo silion between values and lifestyles associaled with Ihe predominance of eirtter economic or cultural capital in the :USC1 !lrU([Un':. The libc!"al con scrvarism of those f!"actions of Ihe dominan! el:l.SS whose reproducdon un be taken for granled thus conlrasts wilh the reactionary dispositions of the flllCtion! whose collective future is Ihreatened and who can only mainlain rheir value by binding themselves to the past, referring ro sy tems of values, i.e., a logic of thc determinalion of value, corresponding 10 I superseded Slale of the structure of the lield of clm relations.

lhe senior exutives (CS. ll). l'ht;- are Ihe calegory mOSI inclined to say 'ha Ihef$ do not know how 10 win rcspt (62 percent of them, a.s aga.nst 1) percenl of ,he junior CKecuriycs and clerical ...orlcers, 4 percent 0( the manual ...orkers, 48 percent of the farm workers, 4 percent of Ihe $enior exulivcs), to attribute children's failure at school 10 their 'not rkin8 hard enough' (H percenl, as agains! 47 perccnl of junior execu ilv,", and clerical workef$, 46 percclll of manual and farm workers, 40 per cent of senior executivcs) or 10 consider Ihal school discipline is 100 lax (4) pcrcent, as ag:ainSi }8 pcrcmt of manual workers, 36 petcenl of junior Cxutiv,", and derical workcf$, }\ percent of fum workers and 30 percent . of SCnlor exC(ulivcs) (SOFRES. 1973). Thq arc more oftm in favour of

The repressive dispositions of ,he smlll independenl cnfrsmen and shop kttpef$ and, moll: espially, of Inc, oldesl flllClions of these n':lativcly old groups, appear in a whole set of convergent indices. Thus they manitn[ a suspicion verging on hoslililY towards modern an and antsls ...1>0, in aU lheir praClices. and especially in .he liberties rhey rake with ,he linguistic, lIori)l, cosmetic or ([hical norms, no doubl symboli2e aU Ihal these groups deplore 01 detesl in 'young people: T...enty pcrcent of them declan': Ihal '(he modern artist lakes his audience for a ride', as agai nsr 13 r(enl o bolh Ihe senior execulivcs and lhe manual workers, 9 pe,,;ml 0 Ihe ju nlOI exC(ul;vcs and 6 percent of Ihe farm ...orkers; 28 percent of lhem con Cur ....ith the view ,hal 'an is just a mailer of business', compared 10 20 per Cent of rhe junior execulivcs, manual and f workef$ and l) percent of arm

r.

o 5HiC!r film censorship Ihn 11 DIller gr u; n (ootm! !O the manui . l ;$ WOrkers and [unlO! tx!XuflVe$ (eS. L ). It r no! sU'Prising rhal lik th e i(a big commercial employers and ,he foremen, they devote a 5ign;l n ponion of their (generally limited) rcading 10 Mil/lilt, a magainc , all 5 iatizes in . ,he rhcmcs and social fanusies (such as cnophobja) pem.bourgcols nlment. Ther( IS every rasan to suppose thaI the _ e . u :crulf$ moogly ,n these co egories. [r(mc Tlgh! ro

Although it is cemi n Iha! individuals occupying similar r i{ioliS lTl """ . . a . , have d Ing !O their social origins :and their I erent opinions aceord" lories, evcrylhing $rns fO i ndicate Ihal {he effectS of individual !Ory, which arc: panicularly visible i n the C25e of groups dclcrminal( posirions in social sPa(c and rhetdore more di$""rsc:d 1 _I 1'1 ... 1 ... . . . respects" re e:xe:rlcu Wi th Ihe: ,. Imlt$ 0r rhe inherenl e:treels of d . 11'1 SO Ih1 the: e:lhico-poli liol dispositions of the: me:mbers of the: same: ,,:'a orms of the: dispo$idon which fUl'ldmemally 'hal"al;, or pear U ttal'lSf med f ,. tem the: whole dass. Thus 06Jhfuium, the: deep-rooted respect for the: . estblrshed orde: wh.ich setS lim it$ to petitbourgeois revoir, is also rhe

--- --

.. l'(). :;

occupyifl rae:

;.

ell more aculely by rhose who ity of the 'person' are f ronrs ro Ihe dign s of oppression and exploilalion. but freed from the most brutal form J inclines Ihem 10 demands because rheir very concern for dignity . ' ander Thus rhe fear of losing all ch leslify ro rhe dignily of rhe dem Ihey ha,e been promisc-d (parricubrly hHe won, by trying to gel I hC ain the form u and quahficflons), does nOI f lly. expl ("rough educarion . ary means of the rgeois bargammg strategies. The ordm ken by petit,bou rltions are for t e.m a lUI rI, rkel1' Struggle, strikcs or demonst . extremllLCS by excessle Ihey will consid.cr only ....hen driven 10 ....hieh bolic rake fO the weers') . They prefer sym usticc ( If be, we'll I J sers up a reb, wirh campaigns for Nuorion, which po ns starring Ihey have inordi

' :!a

'informal of orll domination. orform of ion', in ....hich which is achied (lO llenive anion re faith, and rhat particular aw:m. o.f indi '. a strictly seria gr?u iat rough rhe ' samion'cause'. the sameldesIrepingcl er a viduals et lCal son of d e
assoc co 10 ,,

'

bUls of rhe: s:x'1 VirtUes of rhe ne:w pedte bourgeoisie. When it is a m{(er of sellmg goods and services which. like {ulrural goods or mlfe- rial 'comfort' goodS-household equipme:n t, buildings or furniture

In the political arena, elhiol submission 10 rhe dominant class and 10 'he 'values' it embodics is revealed in a limired challenging of the cst)]). . Irshed order which, being based on the sense of nOI occupying one's . proper plce: In (hI! order, conforms to the proprieties of the trger class avourite Slral even when challenging Ihal class. Thus. in applying rheir f egy, which consists in denouncing rhe established order in the nme of rhe very principles it proclaims, Ihe pelit bourgeoiS bear wilness to theIr recognition of those principlcs and appeal for recognition of thcir rirdeu srruggle against scandals nd, above all, hypocrisy, the source of aU Kan" dais. Their desire for social recognidon and their prolcpdc identification wilh Ihe dominant class are revealed in rhe nature of their demand which give prioriry 10 the symbolic aspects of cxislence, nor only becusC

the disposirion to sell one's own virrues, one's own certaintics, one's own values, in a word, the certainry of ones own value, in a SOrt of ethic,.} JobMry, n assertion of exemplary singularity which implies condemna, non of all other ways of being and doing. This disposirion is particubrly oiled for when endeavouring to convert the working classes, to bring them IntO the race by fOisring on them the latcst bourgeois 'must', rhe btest m><lc or the lar1 morality, and when applymg rhe same indignanr . .' convlcuon 10 repressIng the 'repressive' disposition s of rhe working "a whih others applied in the past to repressing Iheir irrepressible: laxity and mtempennce.

clothing or leisure goods-are more or les:;; succc:s.lful malerializlfions of the domin2nt Hfe' ryle, the Kquisition of wh ich implies a recognit ion of . . rhe dommn r ethICal or aesthetic values, norhing succeeds berrer than

bkd solely by Ihe conspicuous expenditure of goodWill, a summons. Volunlry aClion, the rvenrion which recognizes no end ouuide re disin rerested elhical inte i tion. in r privileges, thaI of nghtcous ind. gn , t l , confers, among orhe one y of Ihose who have 'done Ihell bit, d (he name of the impeccabilit h calls all, Cleared a fait ccompli whic their whole dutl and. above red', 'dt:ln (\ivity, frcc of all com o f r recognition.' Stricrly 'd.isinrercs the pre.wndltlon for the ccess of promises' with politics, is \n fact form of SOCial reeogllll1on, rhat (he institutionalization. the most perfect associations, pelit.bourgeois ,:,oe is more or less secrerly pursued by all parries, secure Ihe, protirs of dlgIIY menrs par ecellence. which, unlike gencral mtcrest ....hlle promlsmg and respectability for underrakmgs 'of co satisfy puticubr inleresls.

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pelil bourgeois lire pmicularly l1>erc is every rason to suppose Ihal the isl Parry_n unseemly 1lh 10 compromiso: themso:lves ilh. the Commun 1S, ind above al. unKCepl,,e 10 pmy, un:oppKCiarive of Iheir speon.: Im"7 loSY wllh whIch Ihey lhe mora],zing, edifying. vaguely humanosllc phraso:o , personal development, rea,.I.Iy ido:nlify ('values'. 't:oking responsibility' . . hen rheir sense o(personal worrh 'growlh', 'p:mnL:l1hip, 'cOfIcern' erc )-.. by more com and (heir IIldividu:olislic rcso:rvalions have been encourased egnated WLlh forl1bk condilions of uistence and an early upbrinsing impr soci,,1 Ollgll'l, Id'g'ous values condUCIve to personalism. n.c higher their incu c"on so Ihal lhe more probable are these c/fCCIS of (QfLdiliOflins or tory they are very likely 10 be reinforced by lhe dfccis of 1 dcchnlllg lra[cc d mo'e lowards lhe may also suppose Ihat the pelil bourgeois ",oul . ly JC'o.' PSu and il$ combin:otion of prott::r and propriety, If it ... ere less o,trr oIullonary or if;1 'grew up 10 be responsible parry of so'ernmt?l, as has now happened with Ihe Icchnocralicmodernsr wi.ng o t he SocIalISt , lIllelhgcnt on "y. But thl'y respond C<"jually well to l rdormlllg. SCrvat;sm. [n shorr, they "',,cr, nd a< limes of crisis Ihey (an s"" ng bruplly.

. To un<krstand [he dispo$irion ....h- h may, ac rdmg 10 Ihe degrre o( o poli[icization, exprnst"d in '[he" .PgresJIe. or 'con.sc:rvadve polida! r . f'O'ilions. Ont ....ould have 10 aa[yse d nscculi[y enpdered by 11K : a ...hole lill:lime !ivcd u der experience of hrcal of 'c"denl, IIlnns. un . employment md [IK ne atie ca Ing 10 the sub-prokuria[: and lhe corresponding 1[IXhme![ [0 l _ vant and 10 [he individual or C: collective s[ralegies responsibl r h u I lon' which has nothmg In : : comon wilh attachmen! 10 Ihe es a s r cr. One ....ould havc 10 ex' . . amme how ....orkn cond' ,ons and, splficaJiy, Ihe diSCiplines. espially as regards time im fro b' t c empoyer [end. in [hemsdves. quile apm l ; '" / " . . . ' from an, d," vglca meu/calion conr'nuous1Y to relnt 'e Ihe dlsp051110ns or < v .' ' . ' ..10. I r' rmgmg whICh (I rlm.:Irily and <klir.lldy) inculcated by an reproduces [he n harshru and r1gldllY of the exiS!ence for ...hich [ . il Prcp;!rcs- (II goa ...11 ut uymg Ihal 'poliliol educalion' cannOt be IC> _ __ . " I dUCcu---\lS [ho$t- who mlerest I" cmse es In the subj("(1 almOSI al....ys SUp" . " " ,,, ,. pose---ro Ille consCIOUS lransmi";," 0f I, represcntl1onS most dlrectl, " k-- 10 Ille sphere of [he 'poI mca/. m the ordm2N sense of Ihe ....ord. It I In cu J " " " - lJO: WOuId L al leasl as absurd 10 r=uC( Ihe COnd1l10ns of production of Ihe " " "' " r __ "_ /" " / ,,,_luonS ....h" h are ' Ihe, basis of por ' I )Udgemcnn and pr.>Clices to speIC " lI1(a ' . . . . . ei lically r 1I1ca socIaI Iza110n--<>r w,_ . to US mSlltul10nahzed aspecl. . ..... ." 'civic inSlrucrion' in sch00I$-IS 11 would be [0 reduce [he social COndl[10nS . li of the prodUCIIon 0f laste-...hich ;5 al$O 1 political disposilioo-tO $pcci

UOS. and arc dislincdy gre:ltcr among women th n n. cOn lam,_ IUllon of politics by ethos, although i, is less mark f2 lImong manu al workers. who are more 'pol idcized', (han amon small nner! and smal l employers, dOC$ nor splre rhe members of the !o k' g cI:mes. For [h of them who, bc:cau.sc: of their.sex (women) th ir': (the .old), thclr ' . d 8C ce of rc:sidence (coun try dwdlers) and, a SOClate with thiS, their 01::. pla fi ; l cupational milieu (workers in smal' a mo exposed to the r threat of social decline, of falling or re p IntO ( e sub-pr?lelariat, ' g and at the same time are political! [he Ieast uca[cd and organized, and (herefore less inclined and c ui lo grasp problems and situatioN . Ihrough polilinl cate....ri- q'fP rccpllon an, apprec" lIon, hpc: la ",re IS " ' 0-. '" . nothll'1g 10 counlerbalance the tendenc, to pessImism an, even - 1'11 ... " . . . . . " " ment whI(h II'1C/11'1" them to a 0- , IIleu reJCCllon 0f 'polItI," an, .po. _",_ ' _ ,...,' / . . . . . ' lIIc[ans, of every sort and so to ab5[enllon or conservallsm.

' Hwever, if rhe position occupied in social space at a Lven m ,Oent is not hoke.:! to polirinl positions by such simple: and ,Ilt'Cr re aIr ,", . . . '- rhose obse-"" In orhCt areas, rhlS IS no! on/, LOUa. .. III,. "'u11 an, _ c _ _ .... [VI _ V I Col. " Invc u':I.Jccrory oncrus 1M: perception of Ihe social world a o . ' , b e all 0( :iSCcm ts future, rhrough rhe experiences linked to social ,or clUlc.lii h "cal chOlct' w 1$ also, and espedaJJy, bttause the chances rhal poIi ' il t be . no mort than a politically blind rtspo" ,f ,I1I$S (lhOS mcrea.o;e as m,yes IOwa! s { hc hI8es{ age groups, tOwards rhe smaller IOns ' ' and . v,dbga, or down Ihe hlcr:archy of levels of education or of SOCIal posj. Th

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isely Ihe uni would have to analyse more pr("( artistiC [r.>ining.) One 10 an ordered l1y ugh which [he allachmen[ o( pn<:rical medialions thro to rld. i.e., one subordinlled an ordered domestic tQfld, snning with df on industrial ses its unierse of labour. impres he - order im by [he s al. moral and social-<Icnd empor how ,he order of [he factory-t emes of lhoughl ed 'priva[e' lik. into the sch C"C" inlo [he sphere o( so-call sed and which are il [0 be thought and eKpres eKpression ....hieh enable er the d n ould have 10 consiokr wheth outside (ha[ sphere. One .... resentS is 1'101 f[en aprlied Jtbili[y which Ihe family rep 0 security, autonomy and and island [he memory of p:tS[ struggles basiion, wilh. for instance, uding, fot ex bOth the lasl of honour (incl (Onsritu[es the cl"'\sJ sense ('Icry[hing which ' vision of basis of a whok -conservat;e c(rrain cuJr of irilily. the ample, a nt of ka.sl resis n the sues), 2nd also the poi dii5ion of l:lbour betwec: l itiCizcd' by [he ied by women, ...ho ale '<kpo (symbolized in and embod tance Ihrough which the forces of in chargc of consumption) ir Sla[u.s and pUI [he t level of [he n of pnctice and the dec:pes ation penelrllc 10 Ihe h(",l domin unconscious. 'screc:ning' s life more suscep[ible to [he may ",\Ssume [hal individual One al$O fidds). that is. of locally bascJ groups (and 'fal.sc: comeKI" dfec[s or tcrms of a p il posilion in social space in likely to understand Ihe more d etc.), ,he mol': lhey -space (illagc, ntighbourhoo gnphiully based sub 10 opinion or [0 elmine [he chances of KCess the propccnies which del lack al ncwsPl'-per ). Those it (such as reading a nation [he mesns of cKprcssing e owners of IifIY ce that is dominated overall (th ...ho an: domimlnt in a spa may Ihus ore local nolahid, f men etc.) a n:gion of small holdings, heclarcs in choices of those who ich re in humony with [he make polilical choices wh explains why me logic no doubt partly e the ....hole $OdcIY." The dominat of Ihe civil service Ihe bottom of [he hierarchy offICe ....orkers. ....ho are al [han foremen, marc often ole on Ihe left of mlddle<lns wage-carncl1, and one may nsume rking clns. Marc gentrally. ...ho arc at the lop of Ihe wo [I\n( fields in an<! whater the po$;tion of that. other .hings being equ.l, U$ field are mOn: nt in a n:Ja[i"dy au.onomO [I\( social space, lhose domina rtSpOOding n lhose dominated in .he cor indined to vOle OIl .he right [ha 10 vOle on [he of all fields 11( more indined fields, 1nd Ihal Ih( domin1[ed r agen.s. lefl than the corresponding dominan

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Political Language

long as ich remains unexpbined $0 Thus. the ekmellt of disctCJY.Incy wh posi determinants of e{hical dis lhe question is lookd al in terms of the n poll t is set up, in each opinio tions is epbind b y the relationship Iha te e opinions ana a determina or election, betWeen 1 supply of ready-mad r nions may make mistakes ove capacity to choose. TIlt consumers of opi they rely on the politically the object (allodoia) and. ind, the more of of their class ethOS, for lack uncertain, or een indetenninate, schemes and appreciation. (he more spec,fically political principles of percep.ion not their own. But [hey may "kely they are 10 endolX opinions ,hal arc

comparability of the dan and the material and mental aUlomation of rhe analysis, the survey allributcs the operation of (f)mlilurion to the respOf dem, even when it is in faet a product of the qucstioning. The effect 0 qucstioning is a1l the Sfronger, rhe more complefdy the 'rcspondent' .are deprived of rhe ml':.lO$ of iog rhe 9ucstioos as 'political' and of giVing ,hem an answer_nd a 'polirical' answer_nd rhe furrher they are (,om

also choose one constituted opinion when, whether rhey know ir Of n Ot, they would choose another, more or less differem one jf ir were cOn Stl luted ;15 such and, above all, if, being professed by a determinate group . of professionals, il had soml' claim to respectability, The political field purs forward a universe of political possibles whi( h avours the effCCt of spurio ;15 such, thus I'xertS a twofold effccl. First, it f ' us identification resulting from the let that the same implicit senS(' ma orms of the 'alrcady.rna recogniu: its political I'xpres5ion in different f d I'xplicit', Secondly. il tends to produ(e an effect of closure by tadtly p. . ming Ihe unive of realized possibles ;15 the .uiverse of possible p0s , Sibles, thus dehmlllng the universe of rhe politically thinkable. Th tWO effectS an:: exerted here ....ith parlicular force because 'demand' hardl ever (at least in the dominated classes) pre<xim a supply of poHllc ormulated, it only 'knows what II discourse: unformulated or partially f mc:as' when it 'sees what it recognizes'. rightly or \"rongly, in an offered opinion. That is why it is necessary ro return to the analysis of the logocemrism of the politicQ.sciemific' survey which, in its methodological innocence, performs a SOf[ of in vitro replicadon of the mOSt fundamental effect of the di\'ision of political labour. By offl'ring a choice among several uncr. lnccs and ;l5king for a position to be taken on the already.unered. tM survey-like political consulrarions---proceed.s ;15 if ir had alrl':.ldy resolved the csscmial problem of politics, namely, the qucslion of the transmura tion of experience into discourse, of the unformulated ethos into a con orm of SI;IUted, constituting logos, of a class sense, which may imply a f adaplation and resignation to Ihe self-evidences of the social order, into a conscious, i.e., explicitly f ormulaled. apprehension of that ordn. Elimi nating the labour of f ormulation, Ihe survey tacitly presupposes thar the person qucsrioned would have been capable of producing or even repro ducing Ihe proposition which constilutcs the statement of the qucstion, or even of spontaneously adopting the relation to language and to polio tics which underlics the production of such an inquiry (although the 'ycs' or 'no' it can always produce cannot be regarded as an inde of Ihat . aptitude) At the same time, by unconsciously begging the qucstion. ir denics itsdf the poibility of gathering the information which governs the ml':.lntng ,hat can be given 10 all rhe information directly gathem!. Recognizing only the ele<:toral imperative of formal equality before ,he ql.lcsrionnain::, whkh combines with the technical imperative of staod ardized informuion.gathl'ring, Ihe pn::-condition for the formal

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. did the bossc5 cal, I!-yI':.Ir orker? .'IiI of the Age of tilt W . y",'ay, we e C!'1p like that An a fC'a1 supposed 10 be having . {{me. . . 8/1i/Jing wrn'ktr

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g<:. (OIpU$ f coheret. .homo ditions of prodl.lClion of a the . fulfiIhng . . con . tly consl1tuted pnnClple ,, s, "" !'lIed from an explici cous opInion eoe IS II 5tery, Iher . ..L , u ctical mastery and ven rn;l , . twetO ethOS and logos, pra betWn the. practical There is no ncssary hn tinuity. a !'1 iol discon (ob)ecllvely ay praClice. IOd.udmg alt. ItS mat r which (an guide everyd s, syStem)II' y ng made expliCit or, slilt les l cal aspeetS wi!hOUI ever bei whICh IS lic mastery of eKpcrienc c tualizcd and fhe symbo ca presu]> ed as political and whICh discou socially recogniz expr te p2r ive refetence 10 th concn:: L . brackeling of alt dirccl, exclus e n::poses til L" IS so, and bause the 15 . . f a situation. Because t,, I ' ' IS S ression, that is, to condo o p f experience to exp m I Clf Images I ame experienccs may rccog tively undclermioed, the:, . . very differem discourses. I ' credII por . d, and It .woul? be wng to flexibility is 110t unlimite This O being what It . r of arbitranly. bnngmg ' IOt " . . ]' l be1(a, 'anguag, w;'<' the powe ,, L ed wlt.,m certain Im'tS ulation tends to be comalO Ignncs, Manip <Its. g capable of u' ist an argument wilhoUI bem . uo;; ,.., cause one may L . LI, to tcs d also ormubung II pnnClples' f istancl', still less of epIiI';tly guing res nor t osc 0f its own resourccs whIch are Ixou ropular lan uage h;15 e or melapho' find an equivalent in a parabl L;, . , ana,YSIS "ut Wn, h '""metimCS r, r I ;Sh ' " 'You len au this one, epressng SCcpt ci5 (such as tha!. even e a tne lime ) , . . me Your walch. and I'll glv you ! ." , ...h or a spokesmao, class habuus IS no , h "'f '1 "- ... wnen rccognlzmg " L I p od . dominatd cb frequen! I infallible If the members of the ng of :i tse With. I, lf, ":II the mca.ol course thai is in contradiCtion dis t? ey h condll1on, thIS IS because t prxtice and ....ith their obj(ive 0 I ell o inslrumenls . producl1on sess , lilies without posing Ihe talk r their 'pohtlcal r.onge . disc rse wilhoul having control ove ....hen::. I he eKperience and expfCSSlOO IS Th is c;ossin .poim bet....etO noos e in; il is hee that (he reb , profcssional pr ucers of discourse com . slgr bymen. the Slgnflers and .Ihe re SCt up betw11 {he expertS and the . 0 bound up wllh the raISing .. <."' . . '_ . ' nl11"" The 'omlnate,. Wll,, inferests are thaI al the mercy of Ihe d,scou consciousness, i .e., with languag.:, are I erge from doxa they are liable ? arc presented to Ihem: whenever {hey em l' gnitions encouraged by the dom flll inro allodoia, infO all the false reco

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nan{ discoul'SC. AI best, . rhcy ue at rhe m r wh tole i {O provide e: Inti ! ow" spoke; them with Ihc m 111 . e, f'Cncnce. l1J.e essen " rhe;r tial indetcrminacy of f 'IS ' . { r('n(t and ('''pion "'n (' is Compounded bY Ihe dI"\x1 of Icgltlma [Ion and ccnsorship (;I( cy irn..!:cr(('d by rhe: dOmm . C _ an! uS( of lan,1.12 m:ognlzcd, ('ven by rh . 8e, racilly e spokesmen of Ih dmmatcd. as the ock ofupres:sion of politica iegifll1l . l opinion. 21t o nt bn8ua I[S and cicstroys Iht, sponuneous poli/ical dis ; u ; diS(ted. co of Inc- domin leaves dHm only silen ated. It ce or a borrowed bn whOS{' J08ic from thaI of popular uSJgc but without be eo'n8 11m of a der:anged language. erudite u in which the 'fin rd onJ rhere 10 dinilY of the expl'CS5 mark t ivc: inrc-nrion, a ;:h una JI" to expres rhmg rrue. re;l1 or 'feh', s any, dispo.uesses ,he .of the very experi IS supposed !O express ence it , It forces r("<eurse sr; spokesmen, 0 sc:lves condemned !O whe ue thel usc: the demmant , an l'\' 0' gul"" (whI d IS S '" ' I ' UulCie lOtroduce distance fro nt to m the madaten and " , werse, f em II and then e:tperience lelr problems ' .of their proble s) , .or at least a reutine language whkh, in ad , roUtinllin, ditien te its f"nnlenS as a mnemen' an net, Conslltutes the on ' IC d a safety . ly system of defence (. : IhoSt' whe can nellher play the game nor 'spoil' it, a langua I" which n , er engages wllh churns ou t its canonic reality but al f mur and sI er gns, and which dispoS$(Ssc:S the mandaters of their exr rien,I" a sc<en "," il( ' d nme. Threugh Ihe langu age and rdatien te Ianguage, bound up whole life-style, which with a foist the mves on I anyone whe seeks te pate in 'political life', ""rtki. ' wl,ole re,anon toth r ' e wrI I IS Imposed. a h ( " of nral which (like art) tion distances and neul"es, en abling speakers to speak WilhoUf thinkin . . g what they s , k. !hrs IOlnnSluUy language, which prese euphemistic nts itsc:lf in t g , l of univelS<llity, de.rea l everything it names (fe . lizes r eXl ,mJJlJon ou t .of ,,":o,k. a ministe speaks r 'a cerrain erosion . p emerll ), ImpoSing teully invisible cens a fOlal bUf orship n h p the dominared, who un rnslen .of the srific interests of onf c belw.-en y the sanlllZed words .of of tidal dis<ourSt' and irm ,- , ate g,umblings I(U . Questlens w,IlCh . U vor, _ c _ seem !O demand a simple ' , , . . o e a III f act addressed, by a tacit priv. ilege. to individuals .or ned nOl, SO much by a plIr ticular cale gory of political in ie y Ihe capaclfy to sustain the neurralize<l, quasi.theoretical reiat In te I'guage which ' is the preconditien for the produnien and Ie" pl len 0f dl$Ceurse 'ef ,I" . neraI roterest' en ( ues(lon '.ofgeneral interest" I I.e; rh ,?pcI!Y not .only ; ' Ie decipher an(1 manipulate the 'Ihniol' ters, .0 po III language, but also to situale themselvt:S at Ihe level of q asl ab strac l n al which political discGurse: is usually pitched both in t Ie synta ; liS Ullel111(e5 aod io the imp licit references it cenr;ins- or m re pre cise y, 10 recogolle (in both senses) a 'poliuo!" questien, I 'dent,fy JI ' as such and fed oiled e upon Ie answer ii, and I answer it 'politically ", I.e. . , In accerdance with the norms of political po-

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litenCSs. In short, a 'politicO"sciemific' question oils for the expafiuing erence dispOSitien which enables ooe Ie manipulate language witheut n:f fO any practiol situation, I1ther:lS one might with an essay {epic or eJ(. JIIlinarien queslien. to gl1nt it Ihe conventional serieusness that is ap plied ro schelastic exercises .or p:lrlour SlImes. er' of the: television Ooe ooly need look at the de/ioition which Ihe 'ref me 'Face lr face' gives ofpoliliol debate :lS he uoderslands ic 'It is program perhaps not superfluous 10 remiod you that th,s is a polilical debale. I f thiok that, if you will agree. I will SI1It hy uking (4th ' "II, starting with Mr Habib Odoocle, since we have agtttd Ihn he is tG speak firsl, Ie defioe [ your gtrrn'aI/JOJilUm, your ".."...}/ ill1trJl"l4li(m , Ibt prolJlrm, and tG give ';c. 'tIJII/Iks from IWO alCas, firsl roucalion, in IN bro4d Im!r, and then informa tion, again ill IN broad JmSt, aod theR, of course:, you may sum up.' Like the Idevised debale, Ihe survey is very dose to the sehol1Stk silllalioo in lhe questions it 1Sks, which are oflen, 10 within a word or twO, those "'hich furnish ENIr. dissertation topics, political science lectun: themes or lhe titles of articles in LI MOII,u. Above all, il is very dose to lhe dassroom b virtue of the fotm of lhe soc:ial Iarion in which the questioning nkes y piKe. Only schol1St;c neutralization and distancing can enable olle 10 re spond adequately ro a situation in which 2 perfect stranget comes up and asks political questions (normally excluded from such encounlers) wilhoul even Ihinking of invoking lhe authoriry of 2 third I"Y. It h;tS betn estab / ihed empiriuHy Ihal polilical discussions mosl oflen occur belween people of idenlical opiniGn_ If this is SO, it is because I whole spontaneous semiol, ogy is implemented SO :lll to avGid 'burning issues', ,he foremost of which a politic:al issun, and to establish Ihe provisional consensus which, in the :occidental encounters of everyday life, can only be crealed by m:-ourse: Ie commonplaces and by CGnSlanl vigilance, One is reminded of a mark by Piern: Greco, who pointed OUI {hat lhe question, 'Are your friends' friends yeur friends?' invites answers inciple, which, even if identical, may differ radically as regards {heir pr being produced either by a simple logical calculation base<! en a syntactic writing of Ihe UHeranec il$df. or by mental reftnc<: to Ihe real world o( f iends. Lik aI/ the disceurse: .of the 'dexosopher', who never teaches r anYlhing ether than {he difficulty of taking sides, the questioning he proposes produces diSlance: it distances Ihe receiver by reminding him .of the compleKity and depth .of the questions through Ihe very complexity or the formu tien; it distances reality by imposing the empty intentien b alilY demanded by the obligatory subjects of scholastic disceurse:. . The unreality of the mOSI specifically political (juesriens also, and espe CIally, arises from Ihe fact thaI they only take en their (ull meaning in n:latien Ie the semantic field which is nGne olher Ihan the field of diff r e nl political positions corresponding Ie different positiens in the field of Ideological productien_ For a cemplete understanding .of Ihe meaning

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i P o r:j, :

: as f.

objtively implied in the mOSI summary pon5e ( 'yes' or 'no' in a reft endum) 10 a question such as, 'Arc you in favour of or opposed to a ,. gional reform designed to create regions endowed with eKtenSi ' powers?.60 onc would havc be: able to mobilic ,hc ernirely Spe(i competcnce pos.scsscd by polmcal commCrnltors and analysts, which ClI. abIes them to construn the system of possibles. itcmizc thc se:t of Ic. vant,positions on thc queslion. definc the meaning each of thCS( has III Ihe internal and cxtcrnal slr:l!cgies of thc political groups concerned and uncover what each group has at stake. In short. the mOSt genuinely polil. ical questions, those:: which most imperatively demand specific politic competence, are those:: which arise:: for the professionals who argue about Ihem (such as problems of consdtudonal law or, in other circles, lbe: question of the dictatohip of the proletarlal) or those: which. though vcry dirc<dy aff ting the most concrete conditions of CXIStence of theil addresse, appear in the form thcy have to take in ordel to bome rCi;' es ognized slakes in the struggles which take place in the field of ideological produCtion. Nothing more dearly reveals the truth of this selfintetested questioning than the ruling fraclion's obsession with the 'economic inf rmation of o thc citittn$', inspired by their dream of 1 dominated class possrning IUSI enough economic competence 10 recognllC the economic competence of ,he dominant class. The infOlm1tion which governmen,s so readil y and abun dandy supply is of the SOrt which lends to disqual i f (as a doctor does his y patient'S knowledge) the information the dominated derive in pnCliul form from tncir ordinny experience (f example, their knowledge: of the or risc in tnc C05t of living or of inequality in taxatio ) This 10<15 to 1 politi. . cal discourse:: which, nther than giving understanding, dictates a sundpolnl, and, far from providing the means of rel1ting parllculu, pr:l.ctical Informa tion to general information. is content to shun t individual experiences onto the appropriate genetal fr:l.meworks. Opinion surveys often reproduce thc logic of those:: surveys on the 'economi( information'of the population' which Sttk 10 mosure ,he rnpontkn!s" knowledge and acknowledgement of official economics and economic 'nfOrmItion, the simple validating SUtC ment of 1 poli 'inl economy, and which, with a sovreign ethnocentrism, reduce the pnctical economics and politics of the agents to a clumsy stat men! of officiI1 economics and political Kience (in particular through a pliori and a posteriori coding orentions nkulated to obllter::lle what IS (5scnt;al, namely, the mode of explmlon).

ust f a nel"lllizcd distr \ Cl CSSness, is often the source of 'apath a d: : n the only escape from f t l pl d okesmen. forms of spch and sp . f all is to fall back on wtlal an : ivaknCC: or indetcrmmacy IOwardS /I. 8Ua h\ than mb o s, substance r:l.thel r::1.1hcr t an w redate, the body p c (<If! a on a smooth lOngue. rones, facc r:l.ther than rm, an f o

wards political lan8ua, broadly identified, like everything symboh l with the dominant, Ihe masters of the art of packagmg and of r obbJl' g off with words_ This suspICion of the political 'sta', a 'theatre wh rules ue nOt understood and which Icaves ordinary taste with a sense 0

10 reinforce the decp distrust-nor inco mpatible ed 10' with an equally deep form of reco gnition-which the dominated f , c,
Evry,hing combines

Condusion: classes and classifications

Kul K",,,s If ( Ilave [0 choose the b5et of 1""0 evils ' 1 choose ntidler

Taste is an acquired disposicion !O 'di/f crenl;Ue' and 'appreciac , I . Kan ! Ys-:-'n o[er ords, 10 [ablish and mule diffc:n:nces by a . ofdlsI Crlon ....I(h IS nor (or not n rily) a dislinct knowJ , in . t.c:bmt $ sense, lnce I ens"res rc<ogn;rion (in Ihe ordi nary sense) . [he: obJc[ 71fhoUf Implylog knowledge of the dlsrincrive btures which <k line n. The schemes of the habitus, rhe primary forms of cbssifi(ation. . owe [lCIr speCIfic efficacy 10 the fan (har they funcdon Jow rhe level of conSCIOUs and Inguage, yond Ihe Inch of imrospeniv( SCf\niny or conuol by rhe wlil. Om:nung practices practically. rhey embed ""hu some would mlsl k nJy calJ lIa/un in fhe mos ! automatic ges!I,lf('S or rhe . a paren ly mos ms'g'llficanr (ech iqu of Ihe body-wys of walking o blOWing one n . ways of eliling or talking_nd engage the most fundamentl pnnCJpl of construcrion and evaluation of rhe social world. those which most direclly epre5ii the division of labour (between the c11ss. the age groups and the se) or . the division of the work of domlnalloll. in divisions betWn bodi and between rela!ions to rhe . body which borrow more fealur Ihan one, as i f to give rhem Ihe appe2r anc of nalur;Jlness. from the seual division of bbour and Ihe div;siOll ?f sexual labour. Taste is a pr;JClieal maslery ofdistribulions which makes . II possible 10 sense or intuit whal is likely (or unlikely) to befall-and . . [herefore to befit-an indiVidual occupying 1 given poSition in social Sp1C. Ii funmons as a SOrt of social orienra[ion, a 'sense of one's place'. . gU'?'ng the occupanu of a given place in social space lowards the social . . posmons wJUS[ed 10 {heir properties, nd towards the pr;Jclic or goods whICh befil the occupants of th1t posi{ion. It impli a pl'llClieal anricipa

c:

groupS. ,Ild rhus, Ihe social agents whom the sociologist classifies are producers ot only of classifiable acts but also of acts of cI:wification which are llCmselv d:wified. Knowledge of the social world has (0 take inlO ac (Ounr a pl'llctical knowledge of this world which pxists il and which ir mUS[ nOt fail (0 include in irs obtcCt. although, as a firs[ snge, this knowledge has 10 be constituted (lg(linsl the panial and interested repre >CIltarions provided by practical knowledge. To speak of habitus is ro in clude in the object rhe knowledge which the agentS, ...ho are pan of the object, have of the object. and the contribution [his knowledge mak 10 . the f(2lily of [he obje<1 But it is nOt only a mailer of putting back into the real world that one is endeavouring (0 know, a knowledge of the real orce it exerts). Ii orld [hat contributes to its reality (and also [0 Ihe f ... me:ln5 conferring on this knowledge a genuinely constitutive power, the very power it is denied when, in t name of an objectivis[ conceplion of objectivity. one makes common knowledge or Iheorerical knowledge a mere refle<tion of the real world. Those who suppose they are producing a materialist theory of knowl edge when thq make knowledge a passive recording and abandon the 'xtive aspeu' of knowledge to idealism, as Marx complains in the TM, Q7I FINtrbach, forget Iha[ all knowledge. and in particular all knowledge of [he social world, is an aCi of construction implementing schem of thought and expression. and that betwn conditions of existence and pmtices or representations Ihere intervenes the structur ing activiry of t agtnts. who. far from reacring mhanically to mhanical stimula [ions, respond 10 Ihe invitalions or threats of a world whose moning they have helped ro produce. However, rhe principle of rhis structuring activiry is nOI. as an inrelltualist and anrigeneric idealism would have ir,a sysrem of univenal forms and categories but a system of internalized. embodied schemes which. having been constitu{ed in the counc of col b:tive hislOry, are acquired in rhe counc of individual history and func rion in their praai((ll sme, [ pr(laiu (and not for the sake of pure (If knowledge).

r social meaning and value of the chosen pl'llctice or {hing probably be, given their distribution in social space and rhe practical .iH kJ10wledg<c Ihe other agenrs have of t correspondence betwct'n goods

'ofI of whal

Embodied Social Structurn

llJis means, in rhe first place, thai social science, in constructing the 50Clal world, rak note of the facr rhar agenrs are. in Iheir ordinary pm: tCe. t subj15 of aCl$ of construction of the social world; bUI also rhat I[ ainu, among orher things, ro describe the social genesis of rhe princi pies of cOnstruction and seeks Ihe basis of rhese principles in the social Vooor]d.) Breaking wirh the anri'generic prejudice which ofren accom

. The: cognitive: SUUCIUI'(S which social agems imple:me:m in rhe:ir ptae. ucal knowlc:dge of the: social world arc: ime:rnalizc:d, 'e:mboditd' muClUrc:s. The: pr:aClical knowkdge: of the: social world thaI is SOciII posc:d by 'rc:uonable:' be:haviour ....ithin it impl e:me:ms classi sche:ts (or 'forms o clllS5ificati n', 'me:ntal StruC turc:s' or 'sym .o forms -apart fro th lr connotations, these: e:xprc:s ions are: virtuall, in. s . te:rchangeable:), hts(OrI(:al sche:mts of ptrccpuon and appre:ciation ....hich are: the: product of the: objc:ctive: division into dassc:s (age glQUps. gende:fS, social classes) and which function be:low the level of <ansciout nc:ss and discourse:. Being the: product of the incorpor:atio n of the fu_ me:mal structurts of a sockty, these: principlts of division ate: comm on 10 all the: age:nts of the society and make: possible the produClion of. com mon, me:aningful world, a <ammonscnsc world. All the: as<:ms in a given social f ormation share: a SCt of basic ptrccp!ua1 . schemts ,,:,hlCh . rc:o:;e:lve the: be:ginnings of objectifintion in Ihe: pairs 01 : anagon.'sflc ad,ecllvts commonly used (0 elassify and qualify persons Of obJ1$ tn the: most varitd arc:as of pr:aClice. lbe ne:(work of oppositi0n5 t be:. high (sublime:, elevalc:d. purc:) and low (vulgar, low, modest), spmrual and material, fine: (rc:fin.c:d, elegam) and <aarse: (helvy. fal, crode, brotaJ), light (subtle, lively, sharp, adroit) and helvy (slow, thick. blum, laborious, clumsy), f ree: and f orc:c:d, broad and narrow, or, in ..... een unique (r:are:, differe:nt, distinguishc:d, cclu' o:ther dimenion, be:.... Slve, e:xcqmonal, smgulu, novel) and common (ordinary. banal. commonpbce, trivial, routine:), brilliant (intdligcnt) and dull (obscure, gte)', mc:diocre), is the matrix of all the: commonplacts which find such ready a((cpnnce: becausc be:hind them Jits the whole social order. T1tt ne:lwork has ils ultimate: source: in the: opposition be:rween the 'tli,:' of rhe: dominant and the: 'mass' of the: dominatc:d, a <antingent, diS" organizc:d mulriplicity, inte:rchangelble and innumer:abk, e:xistinB onl.' statistically. These: mylhic roots only have: to be allowed to take: Ihtt'

pan!es onidon of the Kliv( ast of knowledge. it ks i 1lIve dlSlnbutlons of properties, especially material ones lIght by CenSIl50:S and surveys which all p="P"".... selec, . r,on an d ' cauon), the baslS of the SYSI(ms of classification which agents ilrlo.I-. every sor1 0f {h g, not It (0 the <IIsUlbu!Jons m ' . . thcmsc:Jvc:s. I . . .-,. " III to what I.S somellmes oiled the 'cognitive' approh, which, th III ... (hnoJoglCal form (muclllJ mhrpology, cthnosciro ce, eth ucs, <:rhnobotany (tc. ) and In Its 5O(Ioiogioi (orm (il'ller:acrio nomcthodoJogy et . ), i8oom; hc question of the genesis . Structures and t lficaflon , 111 .Kicnce en'luiro into the a'i I bc'wtt ,he prlflClples of dIVISion and the SOCIal divisi ons (btl a:ncr.ltlons, the seX/:S CIC. ) on which they are based , and into . lions of the use made of {hac principles according TO ' . Ihe: POSItiOn . ... . ' 'b pkd n Ihe: dISlrI ullons (qutslions which all . ' re<Juire: lhe: . U$t 01 snll5l1cs)

.<<";.. "

Conllllt
;, ;;:n

t ::

to generale:, at will, one or anothe:r of .the tirdsly re in order Cla!lonS (OurSC es of Ihe ettrnal sociodicy, such as apocalypuc dtnun t r:'1 ::s of 'kvdlig' 'lIii3Ii:mion' or 'mmifi.-ation.', which (If ,I. Ihe: decline: of SOCle:!lts wllh the: decadence: of bourgeoIS houses. #nl l Ihe: homogeneous, the: undiffe:re:nmtc.d. nd be:tr:ay n ' 'll inlo I.C , .'C felr of number, of undiffcn:ntiated horOO IOdlffe:n:nt to dlf threatening to subme:rgc: tht privale: spaces of " alld (onstantly fttt"flCt . uduslV(ness. .... ur ois -mingly most formal oppositions within this social mytholoBY bO t> rder back, 'fhC de: 'V( lhe-ir idcoloBical stn:ngth from !he: fut Ihat they S discreetly, to (he mosl fundame:nal oppositions wilin the: ,1w1Y or l the domInant and h.e: domlO:U, ordc:r: lhe oppo$ilio.n. Iween '" l . d 10 the diVISion ofbbouT, and the: OPPOSlllOn, rOOled 10 . ..hIeh I inscrilx tTl twO pnnclpIts 0fdom hc d,VISion of the labour of domination, beeWt ' t ' ' . ant and dommat"', te:mpora, and sp'll(Ua, Mllon" .-0 POWe:1S domin I follows that the map 0f SOCllI space pre. malerlaI and inttlltual e:1C. It ISIOnnIIy orward can also be: read as a SlliCl .table: 0f the h f . I IOusy Put "t It ....hich organt. Iht idel 0f Ire SOCIaI constiluted and acquired cate:Borits . . subjtcls be:longmg {O Ihat world and . ." ld in lhe minds of all the 0: 0pPOslilons 10 . sche:m (and h shaped by il nle: $;Ime: c1assificato fidds orga speCIfied, 10 . which they arc e:prcsstd ) can funCtIon: by kmB of Ihe: donant c1, niwl around polar positions, whe:ther 10 the fidd Ition cOSIl' organized around an 0pp?sition homologous !O the oppos al product10n, luting the fteld of Ihe: SOCIal elasses, or m .lhe: fiel of cultur h which is ilself organi zc:d around 0pposlllons whlC. reproduce the: sruc. turc of Thc dominant class and 310: homologous to II (e:B , tht oppoSlllon . tntal opposi. the: fundam. betwoxn bourgeois and avanl.garde Ihc::me) lion consuntly supportS SlXond. third or n . nk opposmons (Ih . ...hich underlie the 'purc:sr' e:lhical or athe!l(: lud&ements, wllh ther or difficult nOl1ons of kaUIY, the:1I high or low scntime:nts, thcir facik light or heavy slyles O:IC.), whik e:uphtmizing itsclf to the point of

mo;:

':ss

. misn:cogniubility. . . and the h8;ht WhlCh. 10 a Thus, the opposition be:tween the heavy . : numhcr of ils uses. especially schobstic onts, SCfVes 10 dlsltngulsh popu lar or petit.bourgeois lastts from bourgeois tastts, can be: used by Thelin: Ctiticism aind at lhe dominanl fraclion of the: dominant class 10 cxpras t rcbtionship between 'intellectual' lheam:, which is condemn.c:d for ils 'laborious' pretensions and -opprasive:' didaCliism, and 'bourgeois' . etn:, which is praise<! for its taCt and ies anof klmmmg over surfaces. . . By Contrasl. 'inldkclual' criticism, by a slmpk IOvefSlon of valuc:s. e:x p .ttsses the n:lllionship in a scarcely modified form of the: $;Imc oP! il. IOn, with lightness, identified with frivolity, be:ing opposed 10 profun. { dlty. Similarly, it can be: shown that the: opposition between right and orm, concerns the: relationship be:tween ehe dom !cft, ....hich, in its basic f Inanl and the dominated. can also, by meln! of a fiTS! transformation,

designate (he rc:Jarions between dominated f ractions and dolt )' Illall{ lions within thc dominant dm; the words right and left then meaning d 10 IhI: meaning they have in expressions like , , takt 0IiI . theu or 'Idrbank' theatre. With a funher degree of 'de.rt gh, a IUlton', . can even serve 10 distinguish two rival tcndcnciC'S wilhin an aV3flt. artistic or litcl'llry group. and $0 on. II f ollows thaI, whcn considered in each of Ihdr uses, the pa"rs of 1 ifitrs, the sysu:m of which constitutes Ihc (onccplull ..... 'lUll. -, uipm m, . JUdgemcm 0f lUte, a extremely poor, almOSI indefinite, but p . "": for this reason, npable of ciiciting or expressing thc sense of th . l bk" Each ulicubr u of one of these pairs only takes on in f I 1 f mean. 109 IJ'I rdatlon to a urllVCr5e of discourse that is different O!1Ich rne usually implicit---5ince it is a question of Ihe system of Stlf"f:vi<k C IIId presuppositions thai are: taken for gnnled in Ihe field in . re:laIlo IIId which Ihe spakers' slnlegies are: defined. BUI ClIch of Ihe COU n pl lied by usage hll for undenones ;lll lhe other uses it mighl hav of the homologies between Ihe fields which allow Innsfers from one: 10 anolher- - :-and also all Ihe other couples which . are: interchan ablr . . wllh II. w!lhm a numce or tWO (e.g., line/crude for light/hCllvy) g Ihal i&. ' in slightly diff ere:nt contexts. The fan thai the Stmi-<odified oppositions contained in ordinary 11ft. guage reappar. wilh very simil2r Hlues, as the basis of the dominant yj. sion of the social world, m all dm-divided social f ormations (consider Ihe tendency to see Ihe 'people' as Ihe site of tolally uncontrolled appe tites and sexuality) can be understood once one knows that, reduced 10 their f ormal StrUCture, the same fundamental relationships, preciselJ thoSt which express the major relations of order (highjlow, strongJwnic elc.) reappear in all class..divided societies. And Ihe recurrence of Ihe m adic slrunure: studied by rga Dumezil, which rges Duby shows in Ihe case of feudal society 10 be fOOted in the social Structures it legln mallS. may well be, like the invariant oppositions in which Ihe relation ship of domination is expressed, simply a 'lessary OUlCome of die intersection of the two principles of division which are al work In all class-divided societies-Ihe division between Ihe dominant and Ihe dom inated, and the division between Ihe different fnclions competing foe" dominance in Ihe namc of diff rent principles, INllal(JrlS (warriors) an1 e ora/oTIS (scholus) in feudal sociely, businessmen and intellectuals no...

Knowledge without Conce pl$

Thus, through the differemialed and diff erentiuing condilionings onS cialed wilh Ihe differenl condilions of existence, through Ihe excls ad incluso, unions (,"?arriaga, affain, alliances elc.) and diVISIO . O (meompal1b,itucs, 5Cpanuons, suugglcs etc.) which go,ern the SO chld slructure and the structuring force il exer!s. through all Ihe hienr

!ications inscribe{] in objects (especially cultunl producls) , in d claSS' , - , ) _ . . (for example, the ""ucatlona, system or simp y m anguage, . /"1 . lu1lOns Il lOgs and warmngs 1m di(lS gh all Ihe judgements vcr ICIS, gr.tdth ! .ne! he institutions speciall designed for thi. purpose, such as.lhe the eduOlional system, or constand) armng from the meetings . . . ,.. ly or Il - ", "" . nClions of everyday hfe, Ihe SOCial order IS progressive,y IflSCtlucu .. tC In le,s minds. Social divisions become principles of division, orga JIle! In he image of Ihe social world. Objective limils become a $Cnse of filling I practical anticipation of objeclive limils Klluited by experience It", ' " dve limits. a sc:nsc: of one's place which leads one to exclude , plKCS and so forth from which onc is esc from the goods, pef$()nS ,cluded. . . . . . , 0 r (Jr tng Ihe Im"s. . e. 0 Ihe mOSI m The j(nJt' of hmns Imphes j gtll and practICal ",,((ani ,d t of Ihe correspondence belween teal diVISions n S . -. . les of division, belwttn social Slructures and menIal StruCIUres, IS r bledly Ihc f;lCI Ihat primary experience f Ihe social world is Ihat order WhiCh, bealuse Ihey Structure: of don, an adhetence to relalions of hought world, ate "Cq>led. as w rld and the I. insqnbly bolh the real n8 a lT' m sdf<vident. Primary percepllon of Ihe SOCial world.' ar f pTlnI' Ifl pie mechanical reflection, is always an act of cognition olymg I g to pies of consnuctiOn Ihat are eXImal I? Ihe conslruled . ils immediacy; bUI at Ihe same time II IS an act of mscognIl10n. ImIYlflg . Ihe mOSI absolUle form of recognition of the SOCial order Domlflalcd har.tcleristi.cs by agents, who assess Ihe value of thcir position and Iheil c. applying a system of schemes of perception and. appreclallon. whlCh IS the , embodiment of the objective laws whereby Ihelf value IS ob)CCtlvcly con StilUted tend 10 attribute to themselves whal Ihe distribution atlributes 10 them', refusing what they are tefused ('ThaI's nOI for Ihe likes of us'), lining these:lves as thc :ldjuling their expcCtacions 10 their chanccs, 1:lb1i$hed order defines them, reproducing Ifl the.r verdlCl on Ihem, sdves lhe verdict the economy pronounces on Ihem, in a word, con, dcmning themse:lves to whal is in any case Iheir 101, /a Maliioll, as Plalo PUI it, conse:ming 10 be what Ihey have to be, 'modc:st', 'hublc' ad . 'obscure' Thus Ihe conservation of Ihe social ordet IS dec.slvely telfl' . forced by whal Durkheim called 'logical conf ormity',6 i e., Ihe orchestn lion of categories of perception of Ihe social world, which, beig adjusled to the divisions of Ihe established order (and theteby 10 the Ifl Ictestsof Ihose who dominate it) and common 10 all minds StruCtured in lccordance wilh thosc SlruCIUres, presenl every appe:!nnce of objective "CS5ity.l The system of cbssificatory schemes is 10 I taxonomy based o explicit and cxplicidy eoncened principlcs in Ihe. same way that Ihe . dISPOS ns constituting lute or ethos (which ate dlmenslons of . arc II itio . . . Opposc:d. 10 aeslhelics or elhics. The scnse: of SOCIal realities thai 1$ ae 'luiled in the confromation with a p"rlicular form of social necessity is

;
; : ir :
f"OF'

opposed

''I wltho.JI IRteresrs or fit$, toget":er with the crrelltive: n:fusaJ of Ihal' , . pn:me fo'm of ma.tena c vulgaOly, the redUCl on of the unique hsu to t . ' class, the explananon of the h'gher by Ihc lower, the application to W()uld unclassiliable o cplanatory models fil only or the 'bout is' . rhe pem. ( b mrsw,$, the limited and common, $Carcdy "'dines inlcllt ' clI'al, to conceplUali Ihc sense of social position. stiU less thcir own posit" 0 and the perverse n:lation to the social world it forces on them. (The ' " pe eumple is Samc, whose whole work and wholc existence re"ole Iro n this affirmation of the inteJJtua['s subyef$ive point of honour. This particularly clearly in the p=ge in Bti"l lind Nothi "l"t1.J on the psy( ogy of Rauber!, which can be n:-ad as a desperate effort to sayc the in the person of the intdlectual, an unneated crotor, begotten by hil works, haunted by 'thc project of being God', from every sort of redUctio,. to the r:aJ, the type, the class., and to affirm the lrans<cendcncc of the ego against 'what Comte called _rrri.Jimr, that is. explaining Ihc higher by the lower')'

;- iogy of tilt utopian thinktr, Icss and un1H1<Chcd, 'frtt.fIo.t '

what makes it possible to aCI 41 if one knew the SUuCture of th world, one's place within it and the diSlances Ihat need 10 be k

''' I u;"'''''',,''

':
-e'

",ay) .- . ."" -- -- -- -- - - -- -- -- - . " .-- -- -- -- - - -- -- -- - -(pre as apptopriate, mo"e dosc:r to the a((ent' of an addressa: of move away from it by acccntuating his ordinary higher lUtuS Of

\SS al the Sltme time) has nothing to do with an intclltual operation

pt 0..;.

plying conscious rere"nce to eplicil indices and lhe implementation <fuse; produced by and for the concept. The SlIme classificatory op! o tion (rich/poor, young/old elc.) (an be applied at any point in Ihe dis any or ils segments ibution and n:produce its whole: range wilhin mon sense tdls us that one is always richer or poorer Ihan someone,

u"(

1a5S by speaking to him in a cenain way (thetWy pUlling oneself in a

"The practical 'attributive judgement"' whereby one puts 5Omc:one in a

ro romeonc, more right.wing r Iefl.wing Ihan some' superior or inferior . . but Ihis does not enlatl an elementary relallvlsm). onc--

(com

way and Slale: its principles.

oncsc:lf explicitly in the dassilintion (1$ so many surveys on social d_ ask prople to do), Slil! less to describe Ihis classification in any systemaric

('being distant'), playing with objective distancc by emphasiting il ' (being 'aloor, 'staou-offish') or symbolically denying il (being ap proachable; 'hobnobbing'). It in no ....ay implies the capacily to situ.1e

the arl of behaving mnmt if 1 11 with persons and things that have: and ,, 1 givc 'class' ('smaf\' or 'un5mar!'), finding the right distance, by a 5Or! of practical calculation, neither 100 dose ('gelling famLliar') nor 100 &r

thu is simuhaneously coherent and adequate to social mtlity. The practi cal 'science' of posiTions in social space is the competence presupposed by

Thc praclical mastery of dassifiotion h1$ Mthing in common wilh Ihe reflexive mastery thaI is required in order 10 COnStrUct a taxonomy

}O) on the social classes. based on a tdt In 1 scrid of interviews (n invotvtd classifying thirty occupadons (wrillen on cards), ,he reo ...hich spondentS often first asked how many classes the set should be divided into, and then several rimes modified the number of classes and ,he criteria of (Iuslfication, 50 :os to nkt xcount of the different dimensions of each occu 'ion and theKfore the di!kKnt respects in which i, could be evaluated; 0' they spontaneously suggested that they could carry on sub-diyiding indefi nilely. (nlC")' thereby exposed Ihc artificiality of the situnion Created by a theoretical in<luiry which called for the 1doplion of a throrcti(al anilude 10 hieh, as Ihcir inilial uncettainty indicated, (he ,pondenlS were quitc un .. accustomed. ) "nd yct Ihcy almost always agreed on the nnks of Ihc differ mt occupalions when taken twO by two. (l.ensk! made similar obsc:rvations O in an experimen< in which thc resP.?"denrs were aked f rank lhe (amilies in 1 small town in New England.)'o
It is not surprising that il is possible 10 fault Ihe practical sense of s0cial sp:ace which lies behind class-attribulive: judgemenl; the sociologisls

There is no betler oppo,tunity to observe: the functioning o( this sense of the placc one occupies Ihan in condescension slnltegies. which prcsup both in the author of the 5I<1Iegy and in the viCtims a practical knowled . of the gap betwccn the placc really occupied and the place fictitiously ,nd, cated by the behaviour adopted (e.g., in French, uSC of Ihe familiar IU). f When the person 'naturally" identified with a Rolls Royce, a top hat or got ($CC appcndi 4) takes Ihe metro, sports a flat cap (Ot a polo neck) orp[.f!I f ootball, his practices take on their meaning in tdation ro ,his amibuIIOl"l by 5tatU5, which continues to colour the real practKes, :os if by sUp.'rimP"": tioro. But one could also point to the yari1lion$ thlt o.arles Bally obSCi-vcd in the Style of speech 1<Ccording ro the social gap betWCCn the interlOCuton. or the variations in pronuociation according to the addn:-sse: the Spdker e

who use their respondents' self -<onrradictions as an argument for deny. ing the existence of classes simply reveal thaI they undcntand nothing of ho.... this 'sense' works Of of lhe artificial situation in which they an: making il work. In fact, whether it is used 10 siluate onesc:lf in social space or 10 place othcn, Ihe sense of social space, likc every practical $Cn$C, always refcn to the patticular situation in which it has to orient

and surveys of class on a nalionwide scale." BUI if, as has oflcn bttn ob $Crvcd, respondents do not agree either on Ihe number of divisions they
c!assificarion is a funerion of lheir posiTion within it. make within the gtoup in question, or on the limilS of the 'Strata' and he criteria used 10 define lhem, this is not simply due to Ihe fuzziness 'nhen:nt in all practical logics. It is also because prop!e's image of Ihe

Pf:l.ctices. This explains, for example, Ihe: divergences belwCl':n surveys of thc reprcsc:nlalion or thc classes in a small (Own ('communily studies')

va!uc.s, as t.hey called, are never anything other than the prim:uy, . pnmilive d'sposHlons o( the body, 'visceral' tastCS and distasles, in which the group's mOSI vital ime!CSts are embc.:lded. the things on which one is reprcd to Slake one's own and Ofher people's bodies. The sen5C of diS' gs u i IIncnon, the d rtlw (discrimination) which demands th21 certain thin brought together and others kept apart, which excludes all misI'!' . ltances and all unnatur:ll unions--i e., all unions comr:lry to the common . dasslficallon. ro the a JiJ iarri (.separation ) which is the bsis of coJlc<:d

So nO:fhing is (u (her reove<l (rom an act of cognition, as '0''';;.., by .rhe m ellectuahst tradmon, than Ihis nse of Ihe $O(;al Struq "'hlch. as 1$ so well pur by the word 1...sIimulr2neously 'rhe f J lilt, rcejving .flavours' and 'the capKity 10 discern aCSlhe!i( vaJue:' i Of (Ial .ne'SSJly adc: second a!llre. IlImed into muscular pan<:ms so. . dy ullomansms Everyth'"g tllkes place as if Ihc 50CiaJ (ond " - .lI1d L{[Onln.. . . - IInked .to a Ia (ond mon [cnd= to inscri Ihe relation to Ihe I . world In a la.mos, gcneralittd rdation [0 onc's own body ' " 0 . " "Ql. ' Y , lOS. one' body, present.lng It ,to othc. moving iI, making space fOr II, ' which gives the body liS SOCial phYSiognomy. Bodily ne)(is, 2 baslC j. d ' . cnslon 0f {hC .sense 0f SOCia, om:n nuon, is a practical way of ell: ( Ing (xpresslng one's own sense of social value. One's rdatio ilC'rlc: p the socl1 wOrld and 10 one's ropcr place in it is never mOre dC:l.rl . prcs:sc<l fhan In the splice nd lime one feels emided {O Ik, from Ot ... >; . . . . mOre preclstIy,.1n the space one claims wifh one's body in physic1 s pace, through beating and gatutC$ that re stlf:l$Surcd or reserved, expans ive ," . . or con,mn= ('presence. or mSlgm,cance') and with one's speech ' ' . lime, through {he inler2Clion time one appropriates and the stlf'aMu;: . or aggrcs.slVe, careles.s. or unconscious way one appropriates if. U There IS no bener Ima of the logic of socialization, whi,. tre2tS h ", " . . body as a 'mmory:,08S.er',. thn those complexes o( gestures, poSturtS and words-s,mple mteqecllons or favourite dich(s-which only have 10 . \. be sl' .-.vI mro, I"k. a fleatnca, costume, to awaken, by the evocative I e IPr ' u power o( bodily mimeSIS,. a universe of ready.made feelings and expcri. . ences. The ele:nen{ry aCllons of bodtl y gymnastics, especially the specifi. cally sexual, ,ologlCa))y preconmucted aspect of it, ch1rd with social meamgs an values. (unnion as the most basic of metaphors capable eo mg a whol relationship to the world, 'lofty' or 'submissie'. 'expan. , slve or narrow , and through it a whole world. The practical 'choices' of the sense of i.a! <.>rienurion no more p!CSuppose a the ran o pos5lbillUcs than docs the choice of phonemes; these enacted cho.lCes Imply no actS of chOOSing. The logocentrism and imellectualism of ntdlttluals, combined with the prejudice inherent in the science which lakes 1$ ilS object the psyche. the soul. the mind, consciousness. rep ntatio s. not 10 mention the pclitbourgcois pretension 10 the S11' tUS of person , h.ave prevented us (rom seeing that, 1$ Lcibniz PUt II, 'we are automatons In thrcc--quarters of what we do'. and that the uJrimare

an

f'.
.

identity-responds with visceral, murderous horror, abso- d individual hysical fury, to everything which lies in Plato's 'hy Inte disguSt, metap that is, the embodied one', everything which passes understanding, r ate social onomy, which, by challenging the principles o( the rncarn a t the .sexual division ially the socially constituted principles of rder, cspec of sexual labour, violatcs the mental OJder, labour and the division . sense ;'ndalOusly Routing common

id Of

(1In ton that socialization tench to ical equivalences bet""ttn the -; be showr esubliShing aU KIrtS of pr2(lonstit t Ih body as :an :ana
logical opera
( u

cen thl: social world--divisions betwe(:n the sexes, ben dlifen:nt divisions or r , more prccisdy, bet,",e(:n bet""ttn tnc- social das.ses-o riot age groups and $ associated with thl: individuals occupying pr2(ti . riot meanings and valuC divisions lind it equlv;llent positions in the spaces dfined by th(se integrating tbe symbolism of social dom;. be sho....n ,hat it does KI seual domination and sub symbolism nlllOn and submission and the ette, which uses into th "me body langua is secn in tiqu and the curved or, which amounts to 1he opposition betwe(:n rhe straight e(:n raising (oneself) and lowering (oneself), as one the "me thing, be'... (of tCSpl, conTempt elc, ) used to of the generative principles of the marks hieralchica! relations.

lly (lin (li mission

by

of

lymbolilC

of

represemation of

d in perceiving The basis of the pertinence principle whkh is Implemente persons or the social world and which defines all the characteristics of or negatively things which can be perceived, and perceived as poSitively tion of inte!CSting, by all those who apply these schemes (2'nothet defini individu (ommon sense) , is based on nothing other than the inletCSt the lIs or groups in question have in recognizrng a feature and in identifying the individual in question as a member of the SCI defined by that feature; intete$1 in rhe aspect observed is never completely independent of the ad Vantage o( observing it. This can be clearly S<X1l in aU {he classifications eature which, like the "'eryday opposition buill around a stigmati ( bctWC(cn homosexuals and heteroseuals, isolate the inteTCSting trail (rom al! the !CSt (i.e., all other (orms o( sexulity), which remain ind iA"erem and undiA"eremiated. It is even clearer i n all 'labelling iudgemems'. ....hlCh are in faCI :Kcu$;ltions. CaltgllftmtJ in the original Arislotdian Sense, and whkh, like insults. only wish to know one of the properties constituting the social identity o( an individual or group ('You're juS! a :), regarding, (or eumplc. fhe married homosexual or convened Jew as a 'closet queen' or coven Jew, and thereby in a sense doubly Jewish or Ilomosexual. The logic of the stigma reminds us that social identity is rhe Stake in a struggle in which the stigmatized individual or group, and, mOre gcnera!Jy, any individual or group insof.u as he or it i s a potential

Advdtllageous Allyibulions

objt o.f c.at$oriZ2lion, can only retalat against th patial rcept whKh l mns It to on of ItS chara({ 1st] S by hlghllghnng, in its 'OIa l dfini tion, rh best of irs chal"3cttristic5, and, mor gtnraHy, by St r tuB.. a its characttrislics' r a gling to impose th taxonomy most f vou l"3ble t least to giv to tht dominant taxonomy tht (Ontnt most fhncting 10 what it has and what it is. Those who ar surprised by th parlldoxe; that ordinary logk and I guag engendr whn thy apply their diVisions to continuous rna tudes forget th paradoxes inhrent in trtating language as a PI.I loginl inSlTumnt and also forget the social situation in which such t a lationship to language is possible. Th contr:ldictions or pal"3doxes 7' whic ?rdinary Janguag classifications Iad do not derive, as all f ms or o . poSlllV1Sm suppose, from some nllal madC<Juacy of ordinary Jngua but from the fact that these socio-logkal acts are not directd towards t pursuit of logical cohrnc and that, unlik philological, logical or lin guistic uses of language-which ought really to be called SCholastic, sillct they all presuppose schoit, i.e., leisur, distanc from urgency and nts sity, th absenc of vital stakes, and th schobstk institution which ill mOSt social universes is the only inslitution capable of providing all these-they obey the logk of the parei pris, which, as m a COurtroom, juxtaposes nOi logkal judgemms, subject 10 th sole cnterion of cober. ence, but charges and defn"S. Quit apart from all that is implied. in tbe oppositions, which logicians and ven hnguists manlge to fOiget, be tween the art of convincing and the art of persuading, it is clear rhat scholastic usage of language is 10 the orator's, advocat's or politician's usage what the classificatory systms devised by the logician or statini cian (Oncerned. with cohrenc and mpirical ad'lu acy are to the gorizations and categoremes of daily lik. As th tymology suggestS, the latter belong to the logic of the trial.1) Evry ral in'luiry into th divi sions of the social world has to analyse th intrestS associated. with mcm bership or non.membero;hip. As is shown by the anention devoted. to stl"3tegic, 'frontier' groups such as th 'labour aristOCl"3cy', which hesitates between class struggle and class collabol"3lion, or the 'cadres', a ctgory of bureaucratic statistics, whose nominal, doubly negativ unity concc-als its real dispersion both from the 'imereste<! parties' and from their opPO nents and most observers, the laying down of boundaries betWeen ,he classes is inspired by the stratgic aim of 'counting in' or 'being counred in', 'cataloguing' or 'annexing', whn it is not the simple recording . legally guaranteed stat of the powr relation between the classl groups. . Leaving asid all cases in which the Stltutory impositlon of an arbltr.ary boundary (such as a }().kilo Jimi, on baggage or the rule that a vehJd over two tons is a van) suffices to eliminate the difficulties thaI ari:;t f th sophism of the heap of g in, boundlries-even the mosl form looking ones, such as those between age.groups--do indeed freeze 1"'....
i

1 0

:u..

. ular state of social struggles, i.e., a given stale of the distribution of 1 antlges and obligations, such the right to pensions or cheap fares, a pUlsory schooling or military service. And If we are amused by AI ( m of p the communication onse Allais'satstoryverythe father whochiullsbecomes three years olcord to P tl"3in the moment his ld d ( and the Slop needs a ticket to tl"3vd), it is because we immedi21dy sec the socio fgical absurdity of an imagi:l1ry vlriation which is as impeccably logic11 base thdr belove<! pa s e on ;ethosntirswhicbhe logicians or defendd with all l"3doxeSt.rHere the limits amcked one's ength, lnd the to ar fro much means of knowl cl ificatory systems which ftx them are not ge as means of power, harnessed social functions and ovrtly or co vertly aimed at satisfying the interests of a group.
as

ass

10

so

e c l aesthetic, psyc iatri r for ns c classifications thaI arc A number produced by the 'insmutional sciences" not (0 mention those produced. a e educational syslem. are similarly subordmated t soc a o incukated (unctions, although they der e their specific efficacy t e apparent neutrality They arc produced. in accordance with the specific logic. and In the sific language, of relatively autOnOmous fields, and they combine a real dqx:ndcnce the classificatory o( t e dominant habitus (and ultimately on the these arc the product) with an apparent independence. The laner enahles them o he 10 e iti ate a par the classification Struggle and the class struggle. Perhaps the ticular state most typical cnmple of Ihese semi-2UlOnOmOUS systems of classification is Ih system "

of thi a , by th

h co

iv

from h ir

il

nd

on sehmes social Structures o( which

of of adjectives which undc'Pins seholaslic 'apprcciations'.

10 rll

h t lp l g m

cate

rll

'''

Commonplaces and classificatory systems are thus the stake of strug gles between th groups they cha cterize and countrpose, who fight Over them while striving turn them to their own advantlge. Georges Duby shows how the model of the three orders, which fixed a Stl!e of the social Structure and ajmed to make i t permanent by codifying it, was able to bc used simultlnously lnd successively by antagonistic groups: first by th bishops. who had devised it. againsr the hertics, the monks and the knigh ts then by the aristocracy, against the bishops and the king; and finally by the king, who. by setting himself up as the absolute subject of the classifying opel"3tion. as a principle external and supenor to the classes II gcnel"3led (unlike the three orders, who were subjects but also objects, judges but also parties), assigned each group its place in th s0Cial order. and eslablished himself as an unassailable vantage-point.l In lhe same way it can be shown thlt the schemes and commonplaces which ptovide images of the different forms of domi nation, the oppositi on be tWn the sexes and agegroups. as well as the opposition between tht nel"3tions, arc similarly manipulatd. The 'young' can accept the defini, tlon that their elders offer them, take advantage of the lemporary licnee they are allowed. in mny societics (,Youth must have its Ai ng') , do whar
;

rhemselvC1, [he primordial, tacil eomr.l(t whereby they define 'us' as 0p posed to 'Ihem', 'other prople', and which is rhe basis of the exclusionS ('not for Ihe likes of us') and inclusions they perform among the char.lc tenSliCS produce<! by (he common dassifiotory syslem.

is wigned (0 [hem, rtvd in the 'spedtic Yinu(1' of youlh, virlil, viriJi , . enthUSIasm, and get on ",,"h (helf own businknighfrr:ln!r f v o tli . "' ( ty, t -, ' scions 0f (he m..." lCVlI 2r1Stocr:lCY," Jove and violence for the )"Ourh RenaIssance Flortnce, and (very form of regulaled, ludic wildness (SfXJ rock erc.) for cOntcmpor.uy adolcsccnrs--in shorl. allow themselves be k1 in the SIIC of'YOUlh', Ihal is. irrelponsibiliry. enjoying Ih(' . , of IrresponsIble beh2v lour In return for renouncing T<'$ponsibiliry, 1I do . , I n Sllllmons of specific enSIS, whcn the order of succ("$l;ions is [hreate td, 'young people', refusing [0 remain consigned 10 'youlh', tend to (on gn the 'old' to 'old a'. \'o:/aoling 10 take th<: rcsponsibiliti(1 which ddi adults (in the senSC' so:cially compkte persons), rhl'y must push r , orm of IrresponSibility which ddi holders of rnponslbil1flC1lnto th1 f . Tk "isdom a d prudence claimed by old age, or r.lther f({.iremen! ; Ickrs thn ollapS( Into conS(rvallsm, archaism or, quire simply, senile . IrresponslblllfY The nwcors, who are likely to be also the biologicaU youngest, bUI who bnng wllh them many ?her diSlinnive propeni stemming rom chagC1 In Ihe Ial condilions of produnion o( rllt .. pnnClpall)' the family and the e<!ucuional syst producers em), escape the mo r.lpldly. from 'y?uth' (irrponsibility) the mldier (hey are fO break With the IrresnSlblc .behalor assigne<! to (hem and. freeing themselves (rom the I nternailze<! llmlf5 (thoS( which may make ,0. ye:If-old f 1 '100 young reasonably to aspif(' (0 a position or an honour), d o nothC1late to push f rwa , 'lap.frog and 'take the C1(btor' to pre o. . . (lpllle rhelr preckcC1SOrs fall inro (he past, the outdate<!, in short, social dea.[h. Bur they have no chance of wi n n ing the struggles over the limilS which bf(ak out between the agegroups when (he sense of [he limils is IOSI, unlC1S they manage ro impose a new definilion of the SOCially com' plete person, inluding in it char.lneris(ics normally (i.e., in terms of [he prevailing claSSificatory principk) associa[ed with youth (emhusiasm, energy and so on) or char.lnerislics (hat can supplam the virtues nor mally associa[ed with aduhhood. In short, what individuals and groups ;n"esr in the particular ma.ning hy gie [0 common classificatory systems by the use they make of rhem IS Infinlrely more Ihan [heir 'In[eres(' in [he usual $CnS( o( the term; i[ is their whole .social being, everylhing which defines their own idea of

rr::. ;: ::

..t>creby agen(s conWU(l their percep(;on of realily, in p.>rticular the pro cess of accentuating diffencC1 yis-ivis 'oulsiders' (dissimilalion) and rein fOrcing similari[ies wi[h insiders (:wimilalion).'" Similarly, s[udies of [1cism have shown [hat whenever different groups are jux[aposed, a defini, tion of the approved, valorized behavio...r tends [0 be conmSled with the dcspisro, rejec[ed behaviour of Ihe o(her group." Social identity lies in dif {creme, and dilferen(e is :wc:reed against whar is closcst, which tq)rnents [he gmtlC11 thmtt. Analf$is of stereotyping, [he propensiry 10 assume a cor, tespondence between membership of a ca[egory (e.g., Nordic or Medirerra ne:an, WC1lern or Oriental) and possession of 1 p.>rlicular property, so Iha[ knowledge of a person's otegory srron81y influences judgements of him, is In line "'"h analysis of [har sore of social stereolyping in which all lhe members of a social f orma[ion tend to concur in amibuting cerrain proper' ties 10 members of [he diffenI social dasses (= appendix 4). The {Ut that, in their relationship to the dominanl classes, the dom, inale<! classes amibute to themS(lvC1 suength in the sense: of labour power and fighting slrength-physical suengrh and also srreng[h of chaN-Cler, COUl1Ige, manlinC'SS-ocs nOt prevent the dominant groups -<l from similarly conceiving Ihe relationship in terms of fhe scheme Slfong/wak: bU I [hey reduce the strenglh which Ihe dominated (or the young, or women) ascribe 10 themselves [0 brUle strength, pas:sion and instincr, a blind, unpre<!iClabk force of nature, the unre:tSOning violence ... of dC'Sire, and Ihey amibule to themselves spirit al and intellectual -conlrol that predisposes [hem to control others, a slf(ngth, a self $Inglh of soul or spiri[ which allows them to conceive rheir relation ship 10 Ihe dominate<!-the 'masses', women, [he young-lilS [ht of the soul to rhe body, undemanding to S(nsibility, culture to nature.

(I.

The Clam 'jica!io'J. Struggle

PrinciplC1 of division, inextricably logical and SOCiological, function wilhin and for the purposes of the snuggle betwC(:n social groups: in producing conCeptS, they produce groups, Ihe ery groups "'hich pro duce rhe principks and Ihe groups agains[ which they are produce<!. Wha[ is 11 srake in the slrugglC1 about rhe meaning of the social world is power over lhe dassifinlory schemes and sys[ems which are the b:l..lis of the reprcscmalions of Ihe groups and rherefore of their mobilization and demobilizalion : rhe evocative power of an Utler.lnCe which putS things in a diff erenl lighl (as happens, for example, when a single word, such as 'paternalism', changes the whole experience of a social rdnionship) or which modifies rhe schemC1 of perception, shows $Omelhing ciS(, other properties, pf(viously unnotice<! or rekga[ed [0 [he background (such as e Common intcrests hitherto masked by e[hnie or national diff renc(1); 2 5Cpal1llive power, a disrinClion, diarriri , distlio, drawing discrete units r OU[ of indivisible conlinuity, difference OU[ of the undiffef(ntiued.

Social psychologists have observed Ihal any division of a popularion infO [Wo groups, howevn arbi trary, i ndurC1 discrimina[ory behaviour favourable [0 members of the agenlS' o"'n group and hostile to members of [he other o:.:: or 81'O!JP, even if it h:l..l ldvc:rx dl" tS f [he former group. 19 MOK gcner:ally, tlley bribe under the term 'u[egory differentialion' Ihe operations

groups (such as the trade union of lilt 'cadres'), which progressively i' pose the representation of [heir existence and their unity, both on theil own members and on other groups. A group's presence or ai>scnce in thc official classification depends on iu capacity to get itself rccognized, 10 get itsclf nmiced and admilled,

Only in nd through rhe srrug&le do rhe internalized limIts beeo bolldaries, barriers [h1 have .10 be moved. And ind, the systemIl'It clWlficawry so:hem.es 1$ (onsmutc:<l as 2n objectified, inslilutiOlla.li system of classIfication only when J{ has .ccuc:d to function as a sen . . ,Jm!!s so Ihat thc guardlans 0( the established order must enuocialc <>f , sy . . . Icmatlz( and Codfy thC pnnCLp,eli 0( pIodunion of lhat order, both IeaJ I and ':Pl'C$enlcd, so as to dtfcnd them aains{ heresy; in shon, thry mUSl: . consutute rhe doxa as orthodoxy OffiCIal systems of classification' S b as the theory of the {h orrs, do (Xplicjly and systematically wha! . cl2SSIfic2rory schemes did racllty and practically. Am iburcs, in the sen of pmli:arcs, thrcby become allriPllli()ItJ, powers, c:l.p3ciries, Privilc prerogatives, 2unbutcd to the holder or a POSt, so that war is no Ion what the warrior docs, but the ojJinllm, the specific funclion, Ihe rai d'eu"C:, of the btllaltJr. ClassificatOI)' di smlio, like law, freezes a cerr.tj Slale of . h por [dadon which il aims to fix f er by enuncillin [ n:: . and. o , g II The cI,ficatol}' syslem as a pnnople of 10gicrJ and ( hfy. . politica dIVISIon only eXIsts and funClions becausc it reproduces, in a l Innsfign::d f orm, in the symbolic logic of diff n::ndal gaps, i.e., of dis e . conllnUlty, the genel"lllJy gr.Jdual and continuous differelKes which Slruc. run:: the established order, but it makes its own, thai is, specifically symbolic, contribution to Ihe maimenance of that order only because il as .The specifi(1ly sybolic power to make people sec and believe which IS gIven by the Impomion of mental Strucrures. . Sysles of cJassific.ation would nOI be such a decisive ObjecT of struggle If {hey d,d nOI (mlbu{e 10 th exiSlence of classes by enhancing the cf. ficacy of Ie objectIve mhamsms wilh the reinforcemem supplied by reprcsc:mauons StruClun::d 10 accordancc with the classification. The im. posirion of a recognied name is an aCI of rccognition of full social exis tencc which tl"llnsmutes the Ihing named. It no longer cxists merely de IO, as a. tolerated, illegal or illegitimate pl"llctice, but becomes a s(Killi . . funCllon, I C., a mandau:, I mission (lNru /), a task, a role--all wor<u ,,:,hich exp r diffen::nce belWttfl authorittd activi[y, which is as SIgned t.o an IOlvldual or group by lacit or explicit delegation, and mell: usurpanon, whIch creates a 'Slate of affairs' awaiting instilUlionaliulion. But the specific dft of 'Collfive reprcsc:mations', which, conm.I)' to what the Durkhcimian connotations might suggest, may be the product of rhe applinlion of the: ume scheme of perception or a common system of classification while still being subje-ct to antagoni5{i( social uscs, is most clearly seen when the word precedes the thing, as wiTh voluntary associations thll tum into rccognittd ptofessions or cotpOr.Jle defence

of whic e Bcnveis.,e speaks: Wy existence of the 'nameless crafts'Ages, or \llegltilme. CI\V'l!es, such Middle

s (rom the shad nd so to win a place in the social order. It Ihus escape

, business in lnti<:]uity and the of the modern healer (formerly called an 'emplnc ). boneseller :as thoS(: . bou up WIth the words (hat ?esig. or proslilUre Thc fate of groups is nmon depends on ,he capacity to narc them: thc power to impose rccog . s' etc , to ap mobilize around a name, 'prolelaria!', 'working class', 'cadre r nae,. and 50 to proprhte a common name and to commune in prope the union {hat makes them strong, around lhe umfylng power

mobilize , n of s wor<l.

uces lhe: order of In fact, {he: order of words nevcr exactly reprod f rhe stIUI"C: of rhe system of things. It is the n::lative innnce par d,sunct valu o classifying, c1assiflcd words (within whICh the tUn:: of the d,smbuuon of IKular label is defined) in I"C:larion to the SllUc nly rc.sult.ing.from the (p capital, and mol"C: prcci5Cly, il is rhe limc.lag institutIons sanc inertia inherent in classification systems as <:]uasllegal changes. in ;OOs,.linked to (ioning a mte of a power relation) between es .L mles, wICh creaes changes in the produCtive aPflllr:ltus, and chang explolllng Ihe dLscrepanCles lhe space for symbolic str:ltegies aimed at words so as 10 get the betwn the nominal and the real, appropliating le ailing to t the things they designate, or appropriating thin .i wLthout haYing en words thai sanction them; exercismg responsLbllllles [he legitimate titlement 10 do 50, in order 10 ac<:]uire the right to claim associaled with titles, or, conversely, declining the matnial advantages tages bestowed by devalued tides so as 10 avoid losing (he symbolic advan ulabl ones; mol"C: prestigious labels or, al least, vaguer ad .mol"C: man.ip a, vergmg on Impos donning (hc mos( flallcring of the available IOSlgm 'an Cr:lflSmen'. or lure if need bc-like the POlICrs who call themselves new labo::l5, like tcchnicians who claim 10 bo:: engineers--o r inventing title to sepa. physiotherapisu (l!.inirifhkaptllltJ) who count on {his new lhese rate them from mere masseurs and bring lhem closer 10 doctors. All al ensur. stralegies, like all processes of competition, a papcr-chase aimd . of ing constant diSlinctive gaps, tend [0 producc a sleady Inflallon omies (col rirles-restrained by the inertia of lhe institutionalized taxon IcctiYe agreements, salary scales elc. )-to wich egal guaranto:a all: .al' . tached The negotiarions between amagom!IIC Interesl groups, whICh allsc from lhe establishmenl of collcclive agreemenrs and which concern, insepar.Jbly, {he {asks entailed by a given job, the propenies rc<Juin::d of . . irs occupanrs (c g , diplomas) and the correspodig adantages, th material and symbolic (Ihe namc), an: an InSlllullonal,ttd. thearn(11

eac

Yersion of the incessant struggles over the classiflcalions which help to produce lhe classes, although thne classifications are Ihc product of the Struggles between ,he classes and depend on the power relations bo::{ween
''''m

The Reality o Re f presentation and the Re presentation of Reality

The classifying subjeclS who classify the propelfies and praCliees of others, or their own, are also elassifiable objecu which elass fy i themsdv tS (in the t)'e$ of others) by appropriating practices and properries that a alreadr elassified (as vUlgar or disringuished, high or low, heavy , or lig etc.-In other words, In the lasr analysIs, as populu or bourgCOis) ac. cording ro their probable distribution between groups that are them. $elves classified. The mosl classifying and besr classified of thCSl:' properties are, of course, those which are overtly desig nated to function as signs of diSlintrion or marks of infamy, stigmara, especially the names and titles expressing class membership whose intersecli on defines socill identity al any given time-the name of a nation, a regio n. an erhnic group, a family name. the name of an occupllion, an educ arional '1ualifi. otion, honorific tides and so on, Those who classify themselves or orhers, by appropriating or classifying prutices or prop erries Ihat are classified and classifying, nnnot be unaware that, throu gh distim:tive ob jecls or practices in which rheir 'powers' are exprt"Sd and Se which. being appropriared by and appropriate to classes, classify rhose who appropriate them, they classify themselves in the eyes of Olher clmifyin g (but also classifiable) subjects, endowed with elassifiutoty schem es analogous 10 those which enable Ihem more or less ade<Jualcly 10 antic ipate their own classification, Social subjects comprehend the social world which compre nds Ihem. This means that rey nnnOt be characterized simp ly in {errps of , , marerral propeflles, stUtlng with the body, which can be counted and measured like any olher object in the physical world. In faCt, c:Jh of :rhese properdes, be it the height or volume of the body or the eKrem of landed properry, when perceived and appretiated in relati on co other properties of rhe same class by agents e<Juipped with SOCia const ituted lly schemes of perception and appretialion, funnions as a symbolic property. II is therefore nC'Cry to move beyond the opposirion betwe en a 'social physits'-which uses stalistics in objcctivist fUhion to estab lish distribu tions (in both the sUlistinl and C'Conomic senses ), '1uantified eKpres sions of rhe differential appropriation of a finite '1uamily social energy of by a brge number of tompeting individuals, idenrified Ihrough objec tive indiotors'---IInd a social semiology" which seeks ro decipher mean ings and bring co light the cognitive opel1l1ions whereby agenrs produce and dipher them. We have to refuse the dithoromy between, on the one hand, Ihe aim of arriving at an objtive 'mlity', 'independent of in dividual consciousnesses and wilts', by breaking with common represen tations of the social world (Durkhdm's 'prenotions'), and of uncovering 'Iaws'-that is, significant (in the sense of nonrandom) reb

:::

, {lOnshiM between distriburions-and, on the olher hand, (he aim of r" . rasping. nOt 'reality', \)u r ay:nts' representanons 0f ' 90'h' h are 1h II, IC . . 'reality of a social world conceived 'as Will and reprcsemauon . hole In shon, social science does not have 10 choose rween that. form 0.( ' ",,," physics, represenrw by Durkheim-who agrees with SOCIal semi " ology in acknowledging rhat one :n only k no,:,," "re:' "lIy by app'ylng .og. . inSllumems of classification ---lInd the IdeaISt semIology WhICh, ;cal undcrraking to construct 'an account of accounrs , as Harold Garlinkel ', pUIS I , can do no mo than retord the rNordings of a social world , " J u wh' h is ultimately no mo than the pr uuci 0f meOla", I.e., 'IIIgUISIlC, lC . L ' ' (lures. What we have to do is 10 bring tmO In" scIence 0f sarClly, of competilion (or scarce goods, the pD(tical kno,,:"ledy: v.:hich th o agtlUS obtain f thmseles by producing--on t.he bl of ,helr exper. . . ""' of the dlstrtbul1ons, Itself ..l_lIdem on theIr posmon III the dlSIllbUlionjvi$ions and classifications which are no ,ess vu/C'Cl1ve Ihan -r _.' ' those of the balanusheets of social physcs. .In Olher ,,:"ords. we ave to . , -" "'yond the op"""illon belween obJUv!Sl thcortes whICh tdennfy .' the social classes (but also rhe sex or age c,asses ) ':"'11h d'sc-:le groups, " simple coumable populations separ:ared by boundanes obttcttvely dra;"'n . . tn reality, and subjectivist (or marglllaitst) thcortes which reduce he so . I order' 10 a sort of collcctive clmificadon obtained by aggregallng the ivid ual classifications or, more precisely, rhe individual s{t:alegics, cl sifled and c!mifying, through which agents class rhemselv and orhe. , . One only has to bear in mind thaI goods are convened IIO dlstlllcllve signs, which may be signs of disrinction but also of vulganty, as n as . . they are perceived relationally, 10 see thar the represcnralon whteh IIIdl . viduals and groups inevitably projccl through telr practICes and pror ries is an integral parr of social realiry . A c1ss IS dened as much by lIS king.pmfimi as by its king, by its consumpnon- ,hlch ?Ot be con ,:" spic\loUS in order to be symbolte much as by liS poslIlon III the rela tions of producrion (even if il is true thl.rhe later governs the .formr). .e.. petil.bourgeOis-vlslon which reduces SOCial lIIg lbe Bcrkcldan-i . to perceived being, ro seeming. and whic, foretfln!ll thar there IS no need 10 give rheatncal performances (rtpYtJfnlall/lnJ) III order to rhe . objecl of mental representations, reduces rhe SOCial world 10 the sum of the (mental) representations which the various groups ave of t ht. rical performances put on by the other groups, h the vlllue o mStsllg on the relative autonomy of the logic of symbohc rncttIOns wlth . respect to rhe marerial determinants of socio-ccnomte conditIon. !he III dlvidual or collective classification slruggles aImed at transformlllg the caregories of perceplion and appreciation of the social world and, . . through this, rhe social world itself, are Indeed a forgotten dimenSion of the class snuggle. BUI one only has ro ml.izc rar the lassificl?ry schemes which underlie agents' praclicl relallonshtp to thClr condllton and the representation they have of;t ar themselves the product of that

coojl;on' in order [0 s {he: limits of thi ,I . ' c!mdiouon slruUI( depends on -irion s :l.u[onomy ?osiflon I.II rht in lhe ...... StruCture" and r" ' c1:1.J sub" 's-:ncIud1n8 Intetlectuals, who fCC . so. ' grasp thu which defines the limits of their :tre not those bc-s, .P]ac to I tho that is, the illusion of rhe absence: of limir5- ught of Ihe SOCIa W?r]d, -to Il'2t1sct:nd 'rhe limits of their minds' tha are rh:tp5 never I Illeel,. have and give of their posicion, which defi n in c :mallon rhey nes rhose:

Postscript: Towards a 'vulgar'Critique of Pure CYltlques

(. ,
. .

The reader may have wondered why. in :l. hK{ devoted {O laste and an, no appe1! is made 10 Ihe tradition of philosophical or literary {he,ics; and i he: or she will no daub! have re:alizcd {hal Ihis s a deliberate refupj. II is (crellin th:l.! 'he 'high' aesthetic, borh Ihal which s cng:tgcd in a i practical (orm in legitimate works and 11m which is expressed in wri, ings intended 10 mke il eplici, and presenl il formally, is fundamen tally constiruted, whatever the variants, aginst aJl that this research may have cstablished-namdy, the indivisibility of t25te, {he unity of the mOSI 'pu' and most purified, the most sublime and most sublimated t25tcs, and the most 'impure' and 'coarse', ordinary and primirive t25tCS. This m(2.ns, conversely, that this project hiS uiml, above all, a SOrt of deliberate amnesia, a readiness to renounce the whole corpus of culti vated discourse on culture, which implies renouncing not only the prof its secured by exhibiting signs of recognition but also the more inlimate profits of erudile gratification, rhO$<: ProUSt refers 10 when he indi(2.tcs how much his lucid vision of the pleasures of reading h25 COSt him: 'I have had to Slruggle here with my dearesl aesthetic impressions, endeav ouring to push intellcctual hOllCSlY to il$ ultimate, cruelJest limits' withoul being able 10 ignore thaI the pleasures of 'lucid vision' may rc TC$Cm Ihe 'purest' and mOst refined, albeit often somewhat morose, form of enjoymenl,' A.nd if we must now allow Ihe 'relUm of rhe rep', having pro duced the truth of the tiSte against which, by an immense repression, the whole of legitimate a<:Slhelics has been construc[(d, rhis is not only in order to subject the IfUlhs won 10 a final test ({hough it is not a question

of 'compuing and cOnlr.lslin, rival [hcoris) , b.. , ,,'," .m ord(r [o p". >v v(n( {h( absenee 0' d"Ilcn confrontation from "" 0wmg 1hC two d' cou l"SeS CXIS[ pe2CefuJly as par:dld alternativo, in (Wo carefU,',' ' y 1 par:u<;u universes 0, thought and diKourse. _
S(:

' re' (at and the ,"thelics which provides its theory ue founded s re a f , J ( nsa[ion), [h , prim:: : : aOpIChni 0fhC senses asInsimple Ka1 calls 4l>Urt; [ !:I: whu .hr tUle of I longue, [he paluc and the throl( ' a surrendcr [0 Iffime , c laiC senSltion which in another order looks 11 ' denc:, [ the ,nsk of seeming [0 indulge in the 'facile (/fens' wjc'E:: [U [ w J:8:g( 1C[icS is o:{\ ! d '::rics 10 an:aeslh.:(r :.:; a. 'lie momngs ,whICh boutgco[S e!h . give the word thaI e !:$ es.senC\i,s based ontothe disgus;' Ihal 'i:71:::ilr::rSC17II . ' " one SIC or 'mak" one vomit') for everythin.8 thI IS 'f,10Ie-fac ile music, or 1 ("ile slylislic effen bUI al' virtue or n 'C:lsy l ' ' Th ( I f i f ;i n threfore Shal!, an: :h'. be; t?it;:; a t l ng naturall leads t? the fusal of whal is facile in th e{hi:ad:a;e{lc . sense, 0reverything which offers pleasur'es IhatU too Immcdlately lcces" . sible and so discredited as 'childi'h' 0r pn. m1flve (as opposed to he.d erred pleasures of legitimale 1It). TIlliS people speak of," 'facile,dr.t 10 . tS haraclenze the obtrusive elegance of a certain Style of 0urna IStlC Wfl{ rng or rhe tOO insisrem. tOO PredICta.ble charm of whal is called 'light' ' music (a word whos:e conlallons vlflually correspond 10 those of'flC ile'-("O l'd r l s nl g ). or cerrain per(oranc" of classical music thus a :iti; du: te ulgu sensualtty or 'Casbah oricma!ism'; whO h d one , .rn erpreta((n o( the 'Dance of the $even Veils' in StSS' ;:, l U,SIC', :ular' works, as the words used to " describe Ihem n;ic: Ie, r I?h t , of o,ursc:.: bl also 'frivolous', m ; rficta : , as '(utile', 'shallow', 'su tn{l.O th : -waler s':) r. intzy register of oral satisJ;tion5' " syrp:' ':ug , 'cloying';are,notyn Iy a son of insult to refinemem. a slap insch ma, ,; 'he a 'de a rng ( dil) audience which will not stand for 'fadle'face _ offer t ngs ( .IS a mph,mem to an artist. especially a condunor, to say he I : !:'tS IS au lence ); they arouse distaste and disgusl b) the methods of uetlon, usually. denounced as 'low'. 'de,rading d,m- . whICh A",ng, . ' they try . t use, gIVIng lhe sj>t1lor the sense of being unted like any Tom, DICK or Harry who can be seduced by tawdry charms which invile h' Ss o he mo,st elementary forms of pleasure :.Ir : te pHSlveprimitive andof the infantile laSI' '0' ,.-,. ,. Y utisfaClions I<:jUIdS ('syrupy') 0r tne. quasl'anlmal gr:ltilicarions of sc::xual desire ' One . might evoke Ihe Phtonlc prejudice, endlessly reaffirmed, in favour"of the
-

Disgust at the 'Facile '

l'

" ",

u Al

r:

'

'1

'

're

"

or primacy 'noble senses', vision and hearing,and the<:juasi.ntnKant gives to form, al seduction. which is more 'pure', over colour exemplary let in which Schopen' [lUt it will suffice to <:juote a <:juite the 'sublime' and the 'charming' hauer "ublishes an opposition betwa:n Criliqut ofJudgtmml between the identical to the one Kant mak" intiful' and the 'agreeable', 'thar which 'plC1Sure' and 'enjoyment', Ihe 'beau penhauer delin" the 'eharming or pleuc:':s and 'that which gr:ltific::s'. Scho by presenting to it directly its aUDctive' as that which 'cxcites thehwill s the beholder away from the fulfilment, its satisfaction', thaI whic 'drawall apprehension of the beau pure contemplation which is demanded by by objectS which diltttly ap liful, because it nessarily excites Ihis will,simultaneously the tWO forms emns peal 10 it'; and, significantly, he condsl which the satisfaclion recognized of satisfaction, oDI and sexual, again tituted: 'The one speci" {of the specifically a"lhellc is 10 be cons Dutch paintings of still lifc::, when charming}, a very low one, is found in which by their deceptive likeness Ihey err by representing articl" of food,things they represent, and this is nessarily excite the appetite for the putS an end to all a"thetic con ;USI an cxcitement of Ihe will, which e, becau we may is tempbtion of the object. Painted fluit ofyet admissibland as asebeautiful regard it as the further development the Aower, obliged ro think of being product of nature in fOlm and (olour, withoutrepresented with dc:t:p ive it as eatable; but unfortunately we often lind, herrings, cr:lbs, bread and nawralness, prepared and served dishes, oysters,ether to be condemned. In altog burrer, bcc:r, wine, and so forth, which is charming consists in naked fig. historical painting and in sculpture the l treatmcnt are calculated to ex, ures, whose position, dr:lpery, and gener:l pure aesthetical contemplation cite Ihe passions of the beholder, and thus is defeated." is at once annihilated, and the aim of art ,6 and all a"rhetiQ in Schopenhauer is here very close to Kant dominaled fDction of the the which, in a r:ltionalized form, Ihe ethos ofpUIS it, the 'charming', which dominant class is expressed; as he so well ed. from subjeclivity and its im reduC" the 'pure knowing subjed. 'fre every desire, every servilude', pure desires' 10 a 'willing subject, subject to and exhibitionist, it cap eertS real violence on the beholder. Indec:ent to bodily rhythms, and lUres the body by its rhythm, which is attuned , suspense and surprises, captivat" the mind by the deceptions of itsuplotS sed to the 'distanee' forcing on it a real participation which <:j lte oppo at as out of pbce and 'disinterestedness' of pure taste, and bound r appc-fictitious scandal, as Don Quixote when, cartied aWlf by rea.! ange at a he HSaults Master ro's puppetS. ents-from Punch Th( most radiol dilfc::nce between popular entertainm neighbouthood cin lhe old and Judy shows, wrestling or cifCu or evenainments is found in audience 5()(cer matches---1lnd bourgeois entert ema, 10 "), some anl, manif participation, In one it is (OnSlinvasions):est (1)0,0$ whisdis intermitOlher it in the times dire<t (pitch or playing.ticld.
ItS :IS 10 s i 10 C:lSl:

tent, di$t2n!, highly .itualied, wilh obligalory applauS/:, 2nd evcn 5houis of cnthusi:l$m, al I end, o. cven pcrfoxlly silcn! (wnc ert$ in chu.chc$) , )al , a bourSCOis c1l!ertlinmenl which mimics popular enler lainme1l!, is only an appan:nt exctplion: t 5igns of participalion (hand<bpping o. foot tapping) an: limited 10 a silenf skerch of rhe gcslU n: (II Insr in frtt jan).

The 'Tmte of Rejfertion' and the 'Taste ofSeme'

Whaf pun: 1a:5le refuses is indeed Ihe violence 10 which rhe popular spec_ t1l0r consents (one Ihinks of Adorno's descripti on of popular music and ils eif oxls); it demands n:spcl, Ihe distance which c allows ;1 10 keep ils dislance. II expecls {he work of art, a finalilY with no olher end rhan il' self, {O 1tc11 Ihe spectaror in accordance with the Kant;an impcr:llive, {hat is, a:5 an end, not a means. Thus, Kan t's principle of pure laste is nothing olher Ihan a refunl,' a disgusl-I disgust for objC<:ls which im. pose (njoym(n{ and a disgust for the crude, vulgar las{e which revels in {his imposed enjoyment: 'One kind of uglin ess alone is incapable of being rqJresenled conformably 10 nature with out dnuoying all acsthelic delighl, and conSC<juendy artinic beaUlY, namely, Ih1l which excilCS d is glm_ For, as in Ihis slrange sensafion, whi ch depcnds purely on the imagi nation, Ihe objecl is represen{ed as insisting , as it were, on our enjoying it, while we slill sel our face against it, Ihe artificial representation of {he objc<:t is no longer distinguishable from {he nature of Ihe objc<:t ilself in our senmion, and 50 it cannot possibly be regarded as beautiful' (pp.

",hich allows Ihe aUlhor 10 .cmain silent as 10 the condition5 of rcaliulion of what i$ in faC! a p<:.formativc utterance, Some typical cumpl: 'We say . e of a man who rmains unalfoxled in the presence o f whll w (n$lder sublime. Ihal has no foxling. We dtmand bolh IUC and f llng of eery man. and, gr:lnred some degrec of culture, we givo: hIm cred" fo. h , . (po 1 16); 'Every judment whICh is 10 show 1m: (t of th indIVIdual IS 'If{lIiffli 10 be an independent judgement of the indIVIdual .hlmsetr (p. 137): 'I take my siand on the ground thaI my judgcmenl II 10 H one of {:lSI. and nOI one of understanding o. reason' (p. t40); 'fine m mllil be (.OX art in a double sense: (p. 18)).

174_ ln) .9

Disgust is Ihe puadoxical experience of enjoymenl extorted by vio lence, an entoymenl which uouses horr o. This horror, unknown to Ihose who surrender to sensalion, results fundamenlally from removal of {he di5lance, in which fttm is :asserted, tdo befween- rhe rqJtesenlarion and the thing represented, in short, from aiit'lali()1/, {he loss of Ihe sulr l jc<:r in Ihe objecl, immediale submission to the immediate prescnt under the enslaving violence of {he 'agn:t':able'. Thu s, in conlr:lSt 10 {he inclina tion aroused by the 'agreeable', which, unlike beaulY. is common to humans and animals (p. 49). is capable of seducing 'those who are alwys imenl only on enjoyment' (p. 4); also 47. 1 7 1 and 'immediately S<itisfi.cs rhe senses'-whcrcas it is 'mediarely disp leasing' 10 rcason (p. 47) '_ 'pure lasle', Ihe 'taste of reAcclion' (p. 54) which is opposed ro the 'Iasle of sense' as 'charms' arc opposed 10 'form' (pp. 65, 67), musl exclude in terest and must not 'be in the least preposses sed. in favour of Ihe n::Il ex iSlence of {he objecl' (p, 43).

doubrful honOuf of having Ihe name of common sense , . bcslOwed upon il; and bcslOwed. 100. in an acceplltion of the word (JI1Imon (nol merely in Ouf language, whcre it actually has a doubl meanmg, but also in many olhers) which makcs il amount 10 wh t IS v/gar {daJ VIII gart)-what is everywhere 10 be mel with_ quahty whKh by no means

n-h tn llQ and blood, neutr:llilCS bolh elhical resistance and ac5theu( neu' . tf:llization' il annihilatcs the dislanciuing po"""r 0f representation, I"" ' essenfially human power of suspcnding immedille, animal auachme1 10 e the sensible and refusing submiSSion to Ihe pure aff ct, 10 sImple )Isth esis. In the face of this Iwofold challenge to human freedom and to cuI ture (Ihe ann-nature). disgust is rhe amb!valcnt expclence of {he horrible seducrion of the disgusting and of enjoyment. WhKh pcrforms a , 50ft of reduClion to animali{y. corpon::llllY, the belly and sex. Ihat IS, 10 whar is common and rherefore vulgar. removing any difference belween those who resisl with all their might and those who wallow in pleasure, who entoy enjoyment: 'Common human undersnnding . . . has rhe

1lIc:: obiccr which 'insists on being entoyed'. as an image and in eali{y,

ar wrillen in the impc"tivo:, or r:lthcr in that SOli of urious constuive

C.ilif{lIt remains in the rgisle. of Sdlm, 'ought'. l11C statmenrs on taste

Simple gl1lmmalicaJ analy5i5 bears OUI HI's complaint th ai Kant's Ihir d

confers credil or dislinction upon its possessor' (p. 1 )1). Nalre under siood as sense C<1ualittS. bUI at the lo",,"csi level (an c:'rly rstOn of the 'lcvelling..!own abhorred by Ihc Heideggcrians). Aristotle Iught Iat differem things differentiale themselvcs by what makcs Ihem Similar. I.e., . , a common char:lcter; in Kant's teXI, disgust d,S(:overs .Wl.lh or,?r {he common animalilY on which and against which mOr:l1 dlStlOWOn IS con strUCted: 'We regard as coarse and low Ihe habits of thought of those who have no foxling for beauriful natu . . . nd who dvo.te hemselvC$ {O the mere enjoyments of sense found In eattg and drmkmg (p. . Elsewhere Kant quilC diTdy stalCS Ihe socill basts of the opfl?Smon bclWOXn the 'Iasle of reAcclion' and rhe 'Iasle of sense': 'In Ihe belnnln. the novice musl have been guided by inslinCi alone. Ihat voice of God which is obeyed by all animals. This permiued some Ihings 10 be used. for nourishment, while forbidding olhers. Here it is nOI noxcssary m assume a special inSllOet which is now losl. It could simply have been {he sense of smell. plus ils fIini{y with the o.gan f tase and the welJ_nown lion of the liner 10 the organs of d'8""on: 10 short n blilly. pcrcel able even now. 10 sense, prior 10 the consumption of a certain foodstuff.

1.6?),

rc:.

whctho or nOt it is fit for consumption. It is not cven ncccssary to as. sume that this sensitivity was kttner in the first pair than it is now. Fot tt is a f amiliar enough fact that mcn wholly absorbc-d by their senSC$ h1 e much grc;ltCr perceptive po ... ers than those "'ho. O(cupied with thought as well as with the senses, arc 10 a degree turned away from the scn suous.''' We rccogniv: here the ideological mechanism which works b describing the terms of the opposition one establishes betwee n the SOCi cluscs as stages in an evolution (here, the progress from nature to cui. rure). Thus, although it consistently rduses anything resembling an empi". cal psyChological or sociological nesis of tute (e.g., pp. 89, 1(6). each time invoking the magical division between Inc Il'lnscenden tal and the empirical," tnc theory of pure tute is grounded in an empir ical social re lation, as is shown by the opposition it makes between the agreeable (which 'docs not cultivate' and is only an enjoyment--.. ...p and cui. fure,OJ or its allusions to the teaching and edunbility of taste. ' The an. tithesis between culture and bodily pleasure (or nalure) is rooted in the ?ppoition between th cultivated bourgeoisie and the people," the . m2gmary slle of uncultlatCd nature, barbarously wallo wing in pure en. Joyment: 'Tute that requires an added clement of chum and emotion fOt ils ddight, nor to sJ>Cllk of adopting this as the mC2Sure of its approal, has nOt yet emerged from barbarism' (p. 6).

lM(

" 5thes,s.

If one follows through all the implications of an aesthetic which ance wirh the logic of Kant's 'Essay On Neguive Magnitudes', hsin accord. '0 ure "r!Ue by ,e magnnude of ,he vices overcome and pure taste by mea. ,he 'ntenmy of the ,mpulse denied and the vulgamy refused, then the most :Kcomplis ?" has to be" recognized in those works which carry the anu. tllc$.$ of (lv.hzcd bamartsm. contained impuJse, $ubltm..ed CCHrxness. ' to the highest <kgrec of tension. This criterion would pomt to Mahler. who wenl fUtfher than ay other composer in the dangcmus gamt of facility . and every form of h'gh-cultural rc(upcrauon of lhe 'populu atrs' or even 'schmaltz'; and. eulier, Bthovcn, whose rccognizerl greamcss is measured by the negdve magni tude of the violences. extravagances and e"csses. often celebrated by hagiography. which arllstic rcstraint, a k ind of 'mourn' ing', has had to overcome. The inhibition of tOO immediately accessible pleasure, initially the pre-condition for the cxpertence of 'p ure' pleasure. can even become a source of pleasure in itself; refinemtnt can lead to a culuvl' lion, for i own sake, of Freud's 'preliminary pleasure'. an e"et incre:U lng dd crmenr of the resolution of tension. wuh. for exa mple. sro,." ng diS" tance bc''''ccn thc dissonan t chord nd its full or con"cn "ona l resolution Thus ,he 'purest" f orm of the acsthcrc's plenure. ';$thes;s purified, subll mated and denied. may, paradoxically. consist in an as(etic;sm. a lum, a mined: suStained rcnsion. which is ,he very opposite of primary.l primitive

ure, plC2Sure purified of plC25U'S pred.sposed to become a of plc 'll excdlencc, and the work f art a tCSt ?f "hical sU.l>crior. 5robol of mOl ? . . ) an indisputable mC2Sure of the capacity ot subhmal10n whICh de t the truly human man.'6 What is a. take in acsthcti discourse, an . imn<"Kition of a delinlIIon of the genumdy human, IS r ,n the aHempted . . 11 ' '"" nhIlfy f h;08 Icss than the 71/()1I - o huma7llIJ Art IS ca11_. upon to mark not r . . difference betWeen humans and nonhumans; artiStic experience, a ,h< , _c ' = Creations, natura naturanJ, whe, y the artist r f ee imitation of natural . tnn endence of natura na so:: (and through him, the beholder) arms hiS by ptoducing 'a second nature (po 176) subJcct only to the laws of ' '"ala tVllle expenene crcttive genius (p. 171), is the Ioscst appoach t? the d" n whICh f ly engenders IS of j"ruituJ odgi"ariuJ, the CfC2,tlve percepl10 liS n objccl without recognizing any rules or conStnmtS other than w 'an wn (p. 168). The world produced by artistic 'creation' is nOt only in the manner of "her nature' but a 'countcrnatUte', a world produced ' ' nature but against the ordinary laws 0f oarurc-tho5C 0f gravity III dance, of th05C of desire and plC2Sure in painting and sculpture etc -by an ct : unetlon of SOCial Ie artistic sublimation which is predisposed to fullil a f gitimation. The negation of enjoymcnt-inf riot: coarse, vugar, merce nuy, venal, servile, in a word, natunl--tmpl,es affirmation of Ie sublimity of Ih05C who can be satisfied with sublimilcd, ncd, dlstln wn guished. disintetCSted, gntuitous, free pleasures. The opposlt!on bct the lUtes of nature and the tUtes of freedom introduces a relationship which is that of the body to the soul, between thOSC who arc 'only natu' ral' and those whose capacity 10 dominate their own biologic1 nalute f firms their legitimate claim to dominate social nature. No wonder, then, . fhu u Mikhail Bakhtin has pointed Out apropos of Rabelals, the popu lar l:naginuion can only invert the rduionship which is the basis of he aathetic sociodicy: responding to sublimarion by a Sll1l.tcgy of reduCl!on Ot degl'ldarion, as in slang, parody, burlesque or caricuure, using e? n ity or scatology to turn af"Sy,versr' head over hls, all . the 'vlues I. . which the dommant STOupS proJcct and rccogmze thClr subhmlty: It tides roughshod over diffcrence, flouts distinction, and, hke the Carmval . g1mes. reduces the distinctive pleasutCS of the soul 10 the common sattS faclions of food and 5CX.'1

pure pleasure-ascclic, empty pleasure whch imlies the renunciation

fi

t The theory of beauty as the absolute Crc;ltion or artifx rHUJ, cnb1ing every man (worthy of the name) to mimic the divine act of creallon, IS no dOubt the 'nltural' eprC$Sion of the occupational ideology of tho5C who like to call them5CJves '"carors'. which explaios why, even wahout any direCt inAuenct, it has coostantly becn reinvented by anists, ftom leonardo da Vinci, who made tnc artist 'thc mas,er of all ihings', 10 Paul

A Denied Social Relationship

_ . . ..

. .

..

Klec:, who imtd (0 Cte:lfC lIS nturc docs. I? Anui(c parr from ' deaf rdationship ""ilh the antithesis between (he twO forms of 1eSlh p,Jre, and through rhis, with the oPJ>Osi i n between the culn ll due and the barbarous muses-the opposmon Kant establishes lit.. Iwec:n 'frt(; arc', ' hich is agreeable on its own account' and whose Pro --: . . d . uct IS frttdom---$lnC( I( IS agreeable on lIS ol/:n account and in no WI (onslnins the: bcholdcrlO-and 'mercenary an', a servile 2cdviry mractive by means of whil it rtsuhs in (e'8 , the pay), which : , consequently capablc of bemg a compulsory Imposition' (p. 1(4) wh pUCI f orces itself o the: beholder with the enslaving viol of Its 5('nSlbJc charms, very directly exp Kant'$conception of the position of 'pure' Of 'autonomous' inrdkctuals in the division of lWour, and more priscly in the division of intdkclUal labour. Thc,e 'pure' intellectals are, according t T Co fl f o fIN FiMlilritJ, nont :> ht n ic f other than philosophy prof("$SOrs,I but attislS and writer.; would no doubt be [he purest of all. The Criliqllt () illdgmunf s less remote / i than If seems from the 'Idea for a Univenal History'. which has rightly bern n as. the xrcssion of the subli,:med interests of the bouris intel l[gen[sla; thIS [ntellectual bourgeoIsie, 'whose legitimation', as Norbert Elias PUtS it, 'consists primarily in its intellectual, S(ientific or artistic acc?mpJishments', occupies an uncomfortable position in social space, enllrdy homologous to that of the modern intelligtntsia: 'an dite in lhe eyes of tht people, il has a lowtr rank in the eyes of the courtl, aristoc. ." racy. A number of the oddities of Kant's text are explained once it is seen thaI re second term of Ihe fundamenlal opposition betwcen plC)5ure . . . and enloyment IS twofold; the tthLcal punty of the plC)5ure of culture i s cldined not only against the bamuism of enjoyment but also against the heteronomous enjoymtm of Civilization: 'To a high degree we are, through art and science, (111111nd. WI' are civilized-pcthaps tOO much for our own goin all sorts of social grace and decorum. But to con od-ider ourselves as having reached morality-for that, much is lacking. The . Ideal of moralLlY belongs to cuhure; ilS use for some simulacrum of mo rality in the love of honour and outward decorum constitutes mere civili ulion.'l) Kant castS into the darkness of the 'tmpirical' 'the interest indirectly aflachtd to ItIt ba.uliful by the incJinuion towards society' that is pro duced by ttlt process of Civiliution, although this 'refined indination' g iving no ptisfaction of enjoyment is as close as possible 10 pure plea sure. 1bc: negation of nature leads as much to the perversion of 'unnteCS" sary inclinations' as to the pure morality of aesthetic plC)5ure: 'Re-aso" has this peculiuity that, aided by the imagination. it can create artificial desires which are not only unsuppontd by natural instinct bUI actually contrary to it. These desires, in the beginning called concupiscenct, g?d ually generate a whole host of unnecesury and indeed unnatural incllna tions caHed luxuriousness.'''

<>...

-r J

'(xi

1be 'counternature' proves ambiguous: civilization IS bad, culture good. The difftn::nce bctwcen hereronomous, txltmaJ, dviliud pltasure and culrivattd plC)5ure, which presupposes 'slow effortS to improve the mind' (langsa8U Btmiihllng dtT inntrm Bikiltng dtr Dm1l1ngJ<frt),ll can only be resolved, for Kant, on tht terrain of erhics, i.e., of the derermi nantS of aesthetic pleasure, txternal and pathologica.l on one side, purely internal on the other. This pure aeslhetic is indeed the rationaliution of an tthas.: pun:: plea ible intI'rest, perfeclly sure, plC)5ure IOtally purified of all sensuous or sens fl of all social or fashionable interest, as remott from concupiscence as it is from conspicuous consumption, is opposed as much to tht refined, allruiStic entoymtnt of the courticr as it is to the crude, animal enjoy men[ of the people./(, Nothing in the content of this Iypically profes tofial aesthttic could stand in tht way of its being recognized as univenal by its solI' ordinary readers, the professors of philosophy/' who wen:: tOO concerned with hunting down histOricism and sociologism to sec ttlt his Torical and social coincidenct which, here as in so many cases, is tht basis of thcir illusion of univemlity.13 And the formalization which is re quired in order for social impulses and interests to be expressed within the limits of tht censorship of a particular form of social propriety can only hdp to encouras<: this illusion. so that a diS(ourse which makes art a criterion of an ethical and aesthetic diSllnnion which is a misrecog niled form of social difference can be read as a universal expression of (he univenality of af! and acsthetic experience. Totally ahistorical, like all philosophical thought that is worthy of the name (everyphil()J()phia worth its salt is permns)-pcrfcctly ethnQ(tntric, i since i, takes for its solt datum the lived experience of a honu! #jIMliatj who is none other than Ihe subject of aesthetic discour.;c conStitUTed as [he univers,1 subjeer of aesthetic expetienct--Kanr's analysis of the judgemenT of [aste finds its real basis in a set of aesthetic principles which 1re the univeruliution of the dispositions associaled with a particular social and economic condilion. But it would be a mistake TO see only a formal muk in all the features which the formaliztd diS(ourse owes to ttlt effOrt to resolve rhe prohltms raised by tht Ihtoretical division and conceptual distinctions worked OUt in the Other CriliqlltJ and to txprcss 'the thinking of Immanud Kant' in accordance with the discursive , SChtmes constituting what is called 'Kanlian [hought .19 Since we know thu tht very principlt of the symbolic efficacy of philosophiol discour.;c liC$ in the play betwtcn [90'0 structures of discourse which The work of f ormalization secks to inregratt without enrircly succeeding, it would be naive to reduce the lIuth of this double discourse to The subterranean discourse: in which the Kant;an ideology of the ba.utiful is expressed and "'hich analysis reconstitutcs by reconnecting the web of notaTions blurred by the inrerftrences of the structures. The J(Xial '<fttgtwin #j. / lMfi( jlldgmrmf can only funerion, for Kanr him!iClf and for his readers, Ln the form of highly sublimated categories, such as tht OPf>05ilions

between bealj{y nd chum, ple:asure and enJoyment or culture and ci . . . il' uoon, euphemisms WhiCh, wllhour my COnSCIOUS lmentiOn of dissi l .. laling, enable social opposirions to be expressed md experienced ill n form conforming to the norms of expression of a specific field. Wha ,l t hidden, Ihar is. (he double SOCial relarionship-to the coun (the Sit lS t civilization as opposed to culture) and to the people (tht sire of nat Of and sense)-Is bolh present and absent; It presentS itself in the tex,U, t 1 such guise Ihat one nn in all good faith not se<e it rhere and rha( naively re?uctive re:a?lng, whICh would reduce Kant's text to the SO(ia/ rehllonshlp rhat IS disgUised and rnnsfigured Within il. wOllld be no I false (han tht ordinH), reading which would reduce it ro the phenomt lla/ truth in which it appears only in disguise.

are only suggested and which, above all, gives 10 the whole enter rise Ihe air of a demonstration directed IOwards establiShing a lIurh, Ponstilutes a transformation or dislOnion. To summanzc: a discourse: hich, as is shown by the atlention Dcrtida devo{(s to the writing and typOgraphy, is the roduct of (he intention of ru ring content inlO form, . o d which rejectS In advance any summary aIming 10 separale content form, ro reduce the text 10 ils simplest expression. is in fact to deny undamental intention of the work and. by a SOrt of transcen the most f den tal reduction which no cridque has any thought of carrying out, to of everything by wich th philosophical text affirms p<"rform the epochi . , : , . ils existence as a phIlosophICal text, I.e" lIS dISInterestedness , liS fr= dom, and hence its elevadon, its distinction, ils distance ftom all 'vulgar'

Ihat

;rOm

Parerga and Paralipomena

There is perhaps no more decisivt way of maniftsting the social mecha . nisms which bd ro the denial of Ihe !(':al principles of the judgemenl of taste (and their redenial in all f aithful readings) thm 10 se<e them at work in a (ommemary intended (apparerHly, at leaSI) ro manif tsr them i.t., In the re:ading of the Crill'{ue ( Judgtmml offered by Jacques Der: 1/ rida Although thlS reading brings to lighl some f the hidden presup. ? : , poSl(!ons of Kam s approach to laste by tnnsgreSSlng the most bindin8 rules of orthodox commentary, ir remains sub)C<:t ro tht censorships of the pure reading. Dcrrida does inde<ed se<e that what is involved is (he opposilion be. twc<:n icgitimale 'ple:asure' and 'enjoyment' or, in .erms of objc<:ts, be. tween the agreeable af!S which seduce by Ihe 'charm' of Iheir sensuous content and the Fine Arts which offer pleasure withour enjoyment. He also sees, without txplicitly connecting il with the previous opposition, the antithesis between Ihe gross tastes of those who 'are coment to enjoy the simple sensations of the senses, at table or over a bol1le'-'consump rive orality' se<en as 'interested taste'--Ilnd pure taSle. He indicates Ihat disgust is perhaps Ihe true origin of pure taste, inasmuch as it 'abolishes representative distance' and. driVing one irresistibly towards consump tion, annihilates the freedom that is asselled in suspending immediate attachment ro thc sensuous and In neurralizing the affect, thaI is, 'disin' tereSledness', a lack of imerest as to .he existence or nonexistence of Ihe thing represented, And one can. no doub., rhough Dcrrida avoids doing so explicitly, relate all the f oregoing oppositions. which concern the con sumer's relation 10 Ihe work of art, ro rhe last of the oppositions picked up, Ihe one which Knr establishes, at rhe level of production, betWeen 'free art', involVing free will, and 'mercenary art' , which exchanges the value of its labour for a wage. It goes wilhout $;lying .hal such a transcription of Dcrrida's lot, which condenses and tightns, thus making connections excluded from .he original. whkh, by insfltuting an 'order of reasons', produces links

disNUTSCS. But Derrida's supremely intellectual game presupposes lucidity in commitment to the game; 'It is a question of pleasure. Of thinking pure pleasure, he being.pleasure of pleasure. Starting out from pleasure, te . . third Critique was Wflnen for It, and mUSI be read fot lf. A somewhal and pleasure-Without concepts and without enjoyment--ll somewhal srrict pleasure, bUI we learn here, once again, (hat there is o pleasure without srri(lure, Lc:ning myself be led by pleasure. I recogmzc: and. at the same

whole book in motion, J ledUc( if: In treating rhe third Criuqut as a work of m or a beautiful object, which il was not meant simply to be, I aCl as stence of rhe book were indifferent to me (which, Kant explains, if the exi is rC<Juire<l by every aesthetic experience) and could be considered with tmperturbable detachment',}' Thus, Dcrrida rells us the truth of his text and his re:ading (a particular case of the experience of pure pleasure), thaI is, that it implies the epoche of any thesis of existence or. more simply, indiff rence 10 .he existence of e the objecl in <.Juesrion, but he does so In a text which irself implies thaI tpoche and lhat indIfference. It is an exemplary form of denegation-you Iell (yourself) Ihe truth bu. in such a way Ihal you don't tell It-which defines Ihe objective lruth of the philosophical texl in its social use; which confers on the philosophical lext a social aceeptability proportion. e ate to its unreality, its gnrui!ousness, its sovereign indiff rence,)1 Because he never withdraws from Ihe philosophical game, whose conventions he respeCtS, even m the rilual lransgressions al which only tr:lditionalists Could be shocked, he can only philosophically tell the tTuth about the philosophical text and its philosophical reading. which (apa!! from the silence of orthodoxy) is the best wy of nOt telling i., and he cannot truly tell the trulh about the Kamian philosophy of af! and, more gen erally, about philosophy itself, which his own discourse: has helped to Produce. JUSI as the pictorial rhetoric which continues to foist itself on eery artist produces an inevitable aesthticization, so .he philosophical W;iy of talking aboul philosophy derealizc:s everyrhing thaI can be $;lid about philosophy,

lime,

!I I pervert an injunClion. [ j(J (>W it: the emgma of pleasure sets the

rpect (or convenli.on even in their oUIr.tges-in shorr, every. . thmg whICh secures rccognmon of membcrship." Failing to be, at rhe same time, social breaks which truly renounce the g r:uificalions associared wirh membership, rhe mosr audKious intellec

quum,

The r.tdica! qucsrionings nnounced by philosophy He in f cr CirCII scribed by Ihe imels linked ro membership in the philosophical that is, to the very J(islence of this fl(ld and the coponding censo,. ships. The /icld is the historical prodUCI of the labour of rhe suc cess philosophers who have defined ceruin lopics as philosophical by {hem on c,:,mmentary, discussi<ln, critique nd poJemic; but the pr . . ms, rheoncs Ihcmc:s or concc:p $ whlc an: depoSlled in writings COf\. .' sldcn:d at a gIven momem as phllosophu:al (books, utides, essay top'CS l etc.) and which consritule impose: themselves as l sort of auronomous world on wouldbe philosophers, who mUSI nO t onl know them, s items of cu.hun:, bUI. n:conizt them, as objls of . re:fltxlYt) belIef, f . whIch hey dl$<juahfy the.mselvcs as philosop dlng hn. All those: who profess to be phdosophcrs have a hfe-ordearh inte1 '-lU l philosophers, in Ihe existence of this re:posilOry of consecr.tled le;rs, I mastery of which constitutcs rhe core: of their specific capital. Thus, shorr of jeopardizing their own exislence as philosophers and rhe symbo lic powen ensuing from Ihis tille, they can never carry rhrough rhe bn:aks which imply a pr.tcrical epoche of Ihe rhesis of the txistence of philO$() . phy, Ihar is. a denouncemenl of the tadt conrr2Ct defining the condilio llS of membership in the field, a repudiation o( the fundamental belief in III( COnvnI!ons of the game and the .value of the stakes, a refusal to gnnt . th mdlsputable SIgns o( n:cognltion-ref erenccs and reverence,

objlifitd philDwphy

fOt t c 't
(P:'

fic

giC 10 Ihc word and placing the person of Ihc philosophcr al Ihe cenlre of . lhe philosophical stage wunrers irs limiU in Ihe objective conditions of ils own existence as an activity aspiring to philosophinl legirimacy, that is, in the eistence of a philosophical fic:ld demanding recognition of the principlcs which are the Philosophical objlificuion of the lrulh of philosophical discourse en

common practice: among arlim, 5inc Ouchamp-has the effecl of lurn commcmary, 1 typially holastic s<=nre, both in iu condilio!"" of pro . duction (lectures, e$plally '" 19rigallon classes) and rn Ihc dOCIle y1 rigorO\lS disposilions it demands, inlo a personal ork suilabl or publica. . ,iOfl in am.prde I"CYlews. by a furlhe:r lransgresiilon, scandahzrng lhe: or tJodox, of lhe: ucred frontier bcr"'fl the academic field and the lilerary i.e., belw('(:n lhe: 'IICrious' :lfId lhe: 'frivolous'. This cntails a dramatiza tion (.orist m 1(;"'), pankularly visible: in 'parallc:l-(olumn' produClion, ims 10 draw arrenrion to lhe: philosophical 'geslure', making Ihc ",hich a ..cry unerance of discouf$C an 'act' ill the: senllC which avant.prde painters

:118

d ,

very basis of irs exislence. By mcans of this semi.ootectifieation one can situare oneself simultaneously inside nd oUlsi,*, in the game and on the (Ouchline, i.e., on Ihe malgin, at the (ronrier, in regions which, like rhe 'fl1l.me',partrg()1l, are: the: beginning, points from which one can be as dinant as possible from the interior without blling into Ihe eXlerior, OUler darkness, that is.
SO

...

mny limilS. the beginning of rhe end, Ihe end of

into the vulg.l.Tily of the non.philosophinl, the coarseness of 'empiricaI', 'onric', 'positivist' discourse, and where one can combine the profits of lransgn:ssion with Ihe profits of membership by producing the discourse that is simultneously cloStst 10 an exemplary performance of philosophi.
to

inlO

destruction of philosophy.

riruals o( liber:Jtory rr:Jnsgn:ssion. Just as, by mir:JcuJous dialeclical re newl, the coundess acts of derision and dcsacr:Jlization which modern an has perrared against an have always rurned, insofar as these 2re still allistic 2(1S, to Ihe glory o( art and rhe anist. so Ihe philosophical '<k constrUClion' of philosophy is indeed, when the very hope of radical re cOnstruction has evapor:Jled, Ihe only philosophical answer 10 the

consecl1ued rexts. Like rhe religious nihilism of some mystic heresics,!<I philosophical nihilism 100 can find an ultimare parh of SlIlvation in the:

rhe sociology of knowledge, and 10 perual(: irs txi$" rence and its specifically philosophical powers by using it as an emblem or as a marrix for discourses which, whatever their Slared inlenlion, an: always, also, symbolic srraregies deriving their power r:sscmially from the:

history of ideas or

tual breaks of pure reading srill help to prve rhe stock of consecrated texts from becoming dead lem:rs, mere archive marerial, fit at besl for rhe:

"The Slralcgy of r:rrkillg as one's objeCl lhe: very tradilion 0111' belongs 10 alld one's Own activi.y in order (0 makc lhem undergo a quasi objc:cli!iolion-

Whereas the: orthodox reading takes lilenl1y Ihc oven logic of lhe s.ac1C"d tcu_he 'order of rn.sons' il pUIS (orward, lhe plan whkh il announces and rhrough which il continues 10 impose ils order on its own dcroding lho: heretical 'C":Iding I1kes libenics wilh lhe: norms and fo.ms imposed by tho: guardians of Ihe {CXI. On Ont side, lhe: is .he 'right' 'C":Iding, Ihc onc ....hich Kanl hilS designalN in advance, by manifesting the apparenl archi t((lonics and logic of his discourse, with a whole apparalus of skilfully articulated litles and sub-titles and a permanenl display of the eXlcrnal signs of dcductivc rigour, by basing on his p.evious writings (with a nC":lI di"t of circub.r self.legitimalion) a problematic which is, to a Irgc etcnt, thc artificial p.oduct of Ihe divisions and oppositions (betw('(:n undcrstand ing and reason, theory and pnnict etC.) produced preciscly by his own Wrilings, and which. h,vc 10 be known and recognized by ,nyone (aftt. Hcs<=1 nd so m,ny Oti>crs) who sccks 10 be known and recognized u , phiIO$Ophe:r. On li>c Oli>cr side, rhell: is a deliberately skcwed appro,ch, de (mIred. Jibcnlcd and cvcn subvcrsiv<:. whkh ignores lhe: signposrs and re fuses {he: imposed order. fastcns on lhe details III'gknN by ordinary cOmmcnruors, notes. cxamples, pa:n,hncs, and Ihus finds i.lIC]( obliged-

cal discourse and

an exposure of the objective truth of this discourse.)l

if only to jU$tify flu' libeny i! takes-!o denounce the arb;tnrins of!ilt onhodo rC':Iding and even of the oven logic of !he discourse analysed Q raise: difficulti alld Cn to bring !o light some of the social slips "'hi despite all the dron at ntionaliu!ion and euphemintion, belflY the ckn ' intentions which ordinary commcntary, by definition, ovcrlooks.Jot>

Mark's itself. during an hour of storm and darkness when the mosaiC1

changing brilliance. [ remember

su r , is u l ucid as ever in describing this. Endeavouring to understand e and com mullinte the idolatrous p leuure he takes in reading a famous page (a passage from Ruskin's S/(Pln 0 Vmiu), he has to evoke not only 1 the properties of the work itself, but the whole network of criss-crossing ref erences woven around it-reference of the work to the personal experl' ences it has accompanied, fileilil1ted or producl':d in the reader, refefCnC( of personal experience to the worlQ it h as insidiously coloured wilh lIS connotluions, and references of eperience of the work 10 a previous e' pericnce of the same work or experience of other works, each of them enriched with all the associations and nncC$ it carries wirh it: It is itself mysterious. full of images both of beauty and religion like thaI same church of St. Mark whl':fC all ,he figures of the Old and New Tem men ts appear aginst thl': background of a sort of splendid ObscurilY and

sure. it Offl':fS above all an l':Xempluy speciml':n of the pleasure of art, the pll':uure of the love of Ut, of which , like all pleasure, it is nO! easy to spc-ak. It is a pure pf.casure, in thl': sense that it is irrl':ducible to the pur. suit of.the profits of distinction and is felt as the simple pleasurc of play, of p aYIg the cullural gae well, f pla ing on one's skill at playing, of ? eltlvallng a pleasur whICh 'cultivates and of thus producing, like a kmd of endless fire, Its ever renewed Sustenance of subtle allusions, def. erent or irreverent ref l':rences, expected or unusual associalions ProUSt, who never ceased to cultivatl': and also analyse cultivated pica.

cultivating cultivated pleasure, mificially eahing thIs artificial pleasu by a rout's u ltimate refinl':ment which implies a lucid view on this pi

readmg, thts pure readmg stili concedes the ntial point fO the philo. sophical work.ll Asking to be treated as it treats its objecf, i e., as a "'ork of art, making Kam's object its own objenive, i.e., cultivated pleasu

The Pleasure ofthe Text Although it marks a sharp ?reak with . . .

ft5 the joy of seeing those beautiful, mysterious figures increased. but was elt in understand 1 l"red by 1MpltasllTt, so /O l/Wa!, 0 "lit/ilion which [ f : i in orc 08 the texts inscr bed in Byzant e characters bc:side their haloed f so the beaUty of Ruskin's images was intensilicd and corrupted by j)C1ds. e the pride of ref rring 10 the sacred text. A SO rt of egoistic self.regard is in which aesthetic pica. 1 il inc it,ble in t mingitdjoyJ 0 aTI and ",,,iion c sure may lX"OCome more acute bUt 1'101 rema", so pure. l':renccs, which rein Cultivated plC"llsurl': feeds on these intertwined ref

the ordinary rirual of idoltrou

re

haing rtad i/ I' IN first timt in

51.

shone only with their own matenal ligh t and with an inner gold, earthy and ancien t, to which the Venetian sun, which $CtS ablazc even thc angels on the campaniles, added nothing of itsclf; Ihe emotion [ fc:l! in reading that page ,here, among all the angels which drew their light from the surrounding shadows. W1lS very greal and perhaps flOt "ery pure

plc:l5UfC, and fhe inimitable charm they objectively exert on all who arc qulified to Cn ter Ihe game, possessed by their possession. Even in its pUICSt form, whl':n it seems most free of 'worldly' inlcrcst, this game is Iways a 'society' game, based as Proust again says. on a 'f eemason ry of r cuSlOms and a heritage of tradilions': 'True d Istinction bc:sides, always a( ken to address only distinguished persons who know rhe same customs. and il tiM 7/{It "txplam". A book of Anatole France implies a host of learned knowledge, ineludes IInmdmg aI/lisions that the vulgar do nOt perceive lhere, and thoe, its other beauties aput, make up its incompara. ble nobilily.')9 Those whom Proust calls 'thl': aristocracy of intellect' as know how to mark thdr distinction in the mOSI peremptory f h ion by addressing 10 the 'tlite', made up of those who can decipher them, the disClC(1 but irrefutable signs of their membership of the 'elitl':' (like the loftiness of emblematic references, which designate nOI so m uch sources or au thorities as the very exclusive, very select circle of recognized intel' [ocutors) and of the diSCfCtion with which they arc able to affirm their mcmbt:rship. 'Empirical' inreICSI enters into the composition of the most disin telCSted pleasures of pu r laslC, becausc Ihe principle of the pleasur<: e derived from these refined galTlCS for refined players lies. in the Jast analy. SIS. in the denied experience of a social r<:luionship of membt:rship and celusion. The sense of distinClion. an acqu ired disposition which func tions with the obscure necessity of inSlinct, is affirmed nOt $0 much in the manifestos and positive manifestations of self-<onfidence as in lhe in numerable stylistic or thematic choices which, being based on the con cern to underline difference, exclude all the forms of inlClleclual (or artistic ) activity fCgarded at a given moment as inf rior vulgar objects, e unworthy references. simple didactic exposition. 'naive' problems (naive CSScntially because they lack philosoph ical pedigree), 'trivial' questions (Docs the Critiqllt " jlld I grmml get it right? Is the aim of a reading of the Criliqllt to give a true lccoun of what Kanl uys?), posirions stigmatized as 'empiricism' or 'historicism' (no doubt because they threaten Ihe very existence of ph ilosophical activity) and so on. In short, the philosophical Sellse of distinction is another form of the visceral disgust at vulgarity

forC( and legitimate each other, producing, inseparably, bt:lief in the vallie of works of art, the 'idolatry' which is the vl':ry basis of cultivated

....hich defines pun: tute u an internalized social rrlationship, a social lationship made: fksh; and a philosophically distinguished mlding of C,irif{It' )Md I grmmr (annot Ix eltf'ted to uncover the social rebtiOft. ship of distinction at the heart of a ....ork that is rightly rrgardo:<.l as tbt very symbol of philosophical disdnction.

Appendices Notes Index

Appendix 1 Some Reflections on the Method

For an earlier version of this text, it was decided to adopt, for once, an order of presentation as close as possible [0 the actual process of research,

and [0 present progressively, in the order in which they were perf ormed, the operations which led to a systematic explanation of the data colleered in various statistical and ethnographic surveys. It was hoped that in this

way there might be more ready acceptance of a body of theoretical hy potheses which, i f presented at the ourset, might have appeared arbitrary or forced; but which could never have been extracted from the material analysed if they had not been present, in the form of heuristic schemes, from the very beginning of the research. Although the present order of exposition, which stans Out from the point of arrival of the research, is less favourable [0 the smug display of data and procedures which is usually regarded as the best guarantee of scientificity, and although the additional rigour it implies is offset by a whole series o f ellipses and shortcuts tending to reinforce the suspicions of those who remain at tached [0 a naively empiriCist conception of scientific work, it eventually presented irself as the only sequence which allows each fact to be replaced in the system of relations from which it derives irs truth-value. For this reason, it is necessary to outline the main operations of the research, without seeking to disguise the artificiality of this retrospective recon srructloo. The survey on which the work was based was carried out in 1963, after a preliminary survey by extended interview and ethnographic observa tion, on a sample of 692 subjects (both sexes) in Paris, Lille and a small provincial town. To obtain a sample large enough [0 make it possible [0 analyse variations in practices and opinions in relation to sufficiently ho mogeneous social units, a complementary survey was carried out in 1967-68, bringing the total number of subjects [0 1,217 (see table A. l ) .

Because the survey measured relatively stable dispositions, this time-lag does not seem to have affected the responses (except perhaps for the question on singers, an area of culture where fashions change more rapidly) 1 A n initial analysis showed that certain categories were extremely

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senior executives (cadres supirieurs ) and the teachers (pro femurs ) . It was decided to isolate, despite their small number, the artistic ptoducers (classed among 'intellectual occupations' by INSEE and grouped with the pro esseurs ), the cultural intermediaries (grouped with primary teach f

heterogeneous, as regards both their objective charanerisrics and their erences, in particular the independent craftsmen and shopkeepers p ref (arlisam el pelils commer(ants ) , the junior executives ( cadres moyens ) , the

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sector senior executives; and, among the pro jeJJeuTJ, between secondary school teachers and higher-education teachers (although there were very
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The sam!,le contained approximately the same number of Parisians and ' provincials, and was devised so as to allow analysis of practices and over-represented so as to give an adequate sample of each of their frac tions without distorting the composition of the class. In particular, this

few o f the latter) .

choices by class fraction. The upper and middle classes were therefote

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made it possible to study the taste of socio-occupational groups which were very small in number at the time of the survey, but which, like the
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new petite bourgeoisie, were found to occupy strategic positions and which have in fact grown steadily in number and importance. In the case of the

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extent, from 'middle-brow' culture

the survey, i.e., very uniformly excluded from legitimate culture. And the working class as a whole does not have the weight it would have in a representative sample. This of (ourse implied that not all (he data con cerning the whole sample would be published ( such information is, strictly speaking, always meaningless) . Furthermore, the farmers and f arm workers were excluded from the analysis, after a preliminary survey which showed that the questionnaire was completely inapproptiate and that quite other methods were required [0 identify the dispositions of a population totally excluded from legitimate culture and even, to a large ment did, however, bring to light the only and most fundamental piece of information which can be derived from purring questions on legiti

there was undet-tepresentation of ' the most disadvantaged category, that of the semi-skilled workers and unskilled labourers, who are very uniform with regard to the object of

classes po pu/aires,

(la cU/lure moyenne ) 4

This experi

.-

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which any questioning of this sort produces when it forgets to question itself and forces itself authoritatively on agents for whom it would not exist outside of that situation (an effeCt which, as was subsequently shown by secondary analysis of numerouS 'opinion polls', leads to the production of pure artifacts ) .

mate culture to a category that is excluded from it, namely, the almost universal recognition of the dominant culture. It also made it possible to e observe, at maximum intensity. the eff ct of imposition of a problematic

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heterogeneous, as gards both their objc<:live chu:tclerislies and their preferences, in particulr Ihe indepenOcn, enftsmen and shopkn (artisans tl pitils (omm"(dnts), the junior eKccutivcs (tuirtJ moytnJ ), the nd the te:l.cners (pro/ tWU,s ). It was $Cnior exccutives (tuirtS decided to isolate, despite their sm1I number, ,ne artislic producers (cbsse<! among 'intellcctual OC"cuptions' by INSEE and grouped witn Ihe/" / turs), tne cultunl intermediuies (grouped witn primry te:l.cn IJ tJJ ; ers by INSEE) and tne art cnftsmen nd small artdealers (a,Ila1l/ tI pttilJ (lJInmm;anIS d'art ); and to distinguish, among the ("drts moyt1lJ, be tWeen junior administr:.Itive eKcculivC"S, iun iOf commercial exeeu tives and tar among the rtuirn sllp"itllrs, belWel:n privale.sector and public. ies; Ior senior CKccutives; and, among Ihe between secondary school te:l.chers and higher-eduolion te:l.chers (although the we very few of the laner) . The sample contained pproKimatcly the same number of Parisians and provincials,I and wu Ocvised so u to allow analysis of pr1niccs and chokes by class fnction. The upper and middle classes were therefore over-represented so u to give an :tdc<Juale sample of each of their fr1c, tions without diSlOrdng the composition of the class. In panicular, this made: it possible to study Ihe tasle of soci(K)(cupalional groups which we very small in number at Ihe time of the survey, but which, like the ound (0 occupy slmegie positions and new petite bourgeoisie. were f which have in fKt grown steadily in number :tnd importance. In the ClSe of the daHtJ there was underrepresentation of Ihe mosl disadvantaged category, that of the semikillcd worken) and unskilled labourers, who are very unifOlm with regard to the OOjc<:1 of the survey, i.e., very uniformly excluded from legitimate culture. And Ihe working class as a whole doa nOI have Ihe weight it would have in a rcpresent1!ive pmple. This of course implied that not all the dat1 con ceming the whole pmple would be published (such information IS, slrictly speaking, :tlways me:l.ningless). Furthermore. Ihe farmers and f arm workers were excluded from the analysis, after a prdiminary survey which showed that Ihe <;Juestionn:tire was completely inappropriate and that <[uite olher methods were required. 10 identify the dispositions of a populalion totally excluded from legitimate culture and even. to a large eKtent, from 'middlebIOw' cuirure (La (UIIUTI moymnt).' This experi ment did, however, bring 10 light the only and mOSI f undament:tl pic<e of informarion which can be derived from putting questions on legiti. male culture to a calegory Ihat is excluded from iI, namely, rhe almosl universal rccognirion of the dominant culture. II also made it possihle to ob5crve, al muimum intensity, the effect of impoSition of a problematic whICh any questioning of this sort produces when il forgets 10 <[ueslion iudf and forces itsclf authoritatively on agents for whom il would not exisl outside of Ihat siluation (an effect which. as was subsequently shown by SC(:ondary analysis of numerous 'opinion polls', le:l.ds to Ihe produClion of pure utifacu).

supkiturs)

f!'IJ/ tJJtuTS,

piJ ulairtJ, /,

For each socio-occupational category, the disrribution by sex, age qualifications was checked against the results of rhe 1968 census for whole of France. This verification was nor possible in the case of rhe cat gories consriucing the new petite boureoisie) which the censuses nor break down by age and qualification. The quesrionnaire was based on the hyporhesis of rhe uniry of raslte . and mcluded, m addition to a ser of quesrions on personal phorc)gr: and attitudes to phorography which have been in loth 6 twenty-five questions on tastes in interior decoration srucly, singers, cooking, reading, cinema, painting, music, phorogra hY, radii, pastimes etc. (see the questionnaire, reproduced at the end of this apl>e dix) . Whe endeavouring ro grasp systems of tastes, a survey by Clo:se . questionnaire IS never more than a second best, imposed by the need obtain a large amount of comparable data on a sample large enough to . treated statistically. It leaves out almost everything ro do wirh the m()da Ity of practICes; but in an area which is that of art, in the sense of a per' sonal way of being and doing, as in 'art of living', the way things done and the way they are talked about, blase or off.hand, serious or vent, often makes all the difference (at least when dealing with em""'01 practices, such as viewing TV or cinema). That is the first reason everything that is said here about differences between the classes or fractions in fact applies a fortiori. Furthermore, in order to give the systems of dispositions : taste as much scope as possible within the limits of a questionnaire, a se- , f1es of gambles was made, in which the exploration of a whole area (c.g : musIC, CInema, cooking, clothing) was enrrusred to two or three q ues- ' tlons (sometimes only one) whICh often had ro stand in for a whole bat- . tery of tests and observarions. For example, the subjects were asked to . choose, from list of adjectives established a posteriori on the basis of ' non-directive InrervIews and tests (showing photographs of socially . marked faces, bUildIng a compoSite ['identikir'} picture of the 'ideal' male or female face by adding socially marked features, hairstyle, mous tache, whISkers, beard etc. ) , those which seemed to them best suited to . their friends. This could not be expected ro yield more than an atten uated, blurred image of the deep dispositions which guide the choice of spouses, fflends or colleagues (partly because the list of adjectives, how ever carefully prepared, was imperfect and forced a number of respon dents Into the negative choice of the least unacceptable option ) -' However, the loss of precision and detail in the analysis of particular . areas, each of whICh would require a whole set of surveys, observations . and tests, IS offset by a gain in systemaricity. Jusr as in a single field, paInting for example, the particular configurarion of preferences ( Renoir does not mean rhe same thing when combined wirh Leonardo and Pi casso as when linked with Utrillo and Buffe t) is a substiture for rhe indi cations of manner which would be yielded by direct observarion and

questioning; so roo, rhe meaning of each particular application of rhe single system of dispositions emerges in its relationship with all the orhers. Norhing more clearly manifests the systemariciry of the habitus than the systematic redundancy within unlimited invention which de fines all its products, judgements or pracrices. Ir is, however, by mobilizing around a systematic survey all the statis tical data available on each of rhe areas directly explored, and also on areas excluded from the initial definition of the object of inquiry, such as knowledge of economics, theatre-going, attitudes ro child-rearing or sex uality etc., that one is best able ro check and fill out the dara provided by the main survey. This makes it possible ro compensate for any patchiness or superficiality (depending on the strength of the indicators used) of informarion gathered directly from such a wide range of fields; and ro do so without falling inro the abstract unreality of 'secondary analysis' of the disparate data mechanically accumulated by 'data banks' devoid of theoretic capital, positivistic institutions which are the pride and joy of research bureaucracies.8 The fact remains rhat some of the inherent limitations of secondary analysis cannot be overcome. Thus, like the various surveys by INSEE ( I nstirut national de la statistique et des etudes economi9ues) the survey conducted by SOFRES (Societe franc;aise d'en9uetes par sondages ) in 1966 at the re9uest of a number of firms, for the strictly limited purpose of discovering consumer intentions (C.S. V), gives little information as to the fre9uency and occasion of consumption or on the 9uality of rhe goods consumed, which often make all the difference (e.g., theatre-going covers both avant-garde and boulevard theatre); it does not distinguish between museum visits and visits to exhibi tions, which (as we know from the INSEE survey on leisure, C.S. IV), do not always vary in the same way-museum-going, a more ascetic aCtivity, being more common among teachers, whereas exhibitions attract more members of the profes sions and a fraction of the old business bourgeoisie-and it gives no in dication of how often they are visired. It lumps concerts, opera and ballet together in one 9uesrion, although one would probably find an opposi tion between concerts and opera analogous to that between museums and exhibitions. Similarly, the reading of works of philosophy does not mean much until one knows which 'philosophy'. There is reason ro think, for exam ple, that each fraction of the dominant class has 'its' philosophers or even irs idea of the philosopher and philosophy, and that one group will think of Teilhard de Chardin, or even Sainr.Exupery or Louis Leprince-Rin guet, whereas another will think of Same or Michel Foucault. Thus, in 1967 when the arts students of rhe Ecole Normale Superieure ( ENS), ro a large extent drawn from the dominated fractions of the dominant class, were asked whom they would like to see invited ro speak in their college, they thought first of Same, Claude Levi-Strauss, Paul Ricoeur and Fou-

- - - '

--'' -

casso as when linked with Utrillo and Buff et) is a substitute for the indi cations of manner which would be yielded by direct observation and

However, the loss of preCision and detail in the analysis of particular . areas, each of which would reqUire a whole set of surveys, observations and tests, is offset by a gain in systematicity. Just as in a single field, patn tlng for example, the particular configuration of pref erences ( Renoi r does not mean the same thing when combined with Leonardo and Pi_

dix) . Whe e deavouring to grasp systems of tastes, a survey by do,1C . questionnaire IS never more than a second best, imposed by the need obtain a large amo unt of comparable data on a sample large enou gh to . treated statistically. It leaves out almost everything to do with the mod:./.': Ity of practICes; but in an area which is that of art, in the sense of a pe sonal way of being and doing, as in 'art of living', the way things a",' done and the way they are talked about, blase or off-hand, serio us or ",,.. vent, often makes all the diff erence (at least when dealing with COli'". practices, such as viewing TV or cinema) . That is the first reason why ' everythtng that IS said here about diff . erences between the dasses or fractions in fact a plies a fortiori. p " Furthermore, in order to give the systems of dispositions constitu ting ' : taste as muc h scope as possible wIth tn the limI tS of a questionnaire , a 50. " nes of gambles was made, in which the exploration of a whole area (e.g., . musIC, Cinema, cooking, dot hing ) was entrusted to two or three ques- " tlOns (sometimes only one) whICh often had to stand in f or a whole bat. ' tery of tests and observations. For example, the subjects were asked to choose, from list of adjectives established a posteriori on the basis of . nondIrective IntervIews and tests (showing photographs of socially marked faces, buildIng a composite ['ide ntik it'} picture of the 'ideal' male Or f emale face by adding socially marked f eatures, hairstyle, mou.. tache, Whiskers, beard etc. ) , those which seemed to them best suited to their frien ds. This could not be expected to yield more than an atten. uated, blurred image of the deep dispositions which guide the choi ce of spouses, fnends or colleagues ( partly because the list of adjectives, how ever carefully prepared, was imperf ect and f orced a num ber of respon dents Into the negative chOICe of the least unacceptable option ) .'
'

S(Udy,6 twenty-five questions on tastes in interior deco ration singers, cooking, reading, cinema, painting, music, photogra hy, pastimes etc. (see the questionnaire, reproduced at the end of this

The questionnaire was based on the hypothesis of the unit y of tast( and tnduded, 10 addition to a set of questions on personal photc and attitudes to photography which have been in

For each sociooccupational category, the distribution by sex, age qualifications was checked against the results o f the 1%8 census for whole of France. This verification was not possible in the case of the gories constituting the new petite bour eoisie, which the censuses not break down by age and qualification.

q\J.estioning so roo, the meaning of each particular application of the single system of dispositions emerges in its relationship with all the others. Nothing more dearly manifests the systematicity of the habitus than the systematic redundancy within unlimited invention which de

fines all its products, judgements or practices. It is, however, by mobilizing around a systematic survey all the sratis rical data available on each of the areas directly explored, and also on areas exduded from the initial definirion of the objecr of inquiry, such as knowledge of economics, theatregoing, attitudes to child-rearing or sex uality etc., rhat one is best able to check and fill out the data provided by

rhe main survey. This makes it possible to compensate for any patchiness or superficiality (depending on the strength of the indicators used) of informarion gathered directly from such a wide range of fields; and to do so wirhout falling into the abstract unrealiry of 'secondary analysis' of the

disparate data mechanically accumulated by 'data banks' devoid of theoretic capital, positivistic institutions which are the pride and joy of research bureaucracies.8 The f act remains that some of the inherent limirations of secondary analysis can nor be overcome. Thus, like the various surveys by INSEE

( I nsti(Ur national de la staristique et des erudes economiques) the survey conducred by SOFRES ( Societe fran,aise d'enqueres par sondages) in 1966 at rhe request of a number of firms, for rhe strictly limited purpose of discovering consumer intentions (C.S. V ) , gives linle informarion as goods consumed, which often make all rhe difference (e.g., theatre-going covers both avam-garde and boulevard thearte) ; it does not disringuish ro the frequency and occasion of consumprion or on rhe qualiry of the

:'

hcrween museum visits and visits to exhibitions, which (as we know from rhe INSEE survey on leisure, C.S. IV), do nOt always vary in the same way-museum-going, a more ascetic activity, being more common es among teachers, whereas exhibitions attract more members of the prof sions and a fraction of rhe old business bourgeOisie-and it gives no in

dication of how often they are visired. It lumps concens, opera and ballet togerher in one quesrion, air hough one would probably find an opposi

uncil one knows which 'philosophy'. There is reason to think, for exam ple, rhat each fracrion of rhe dominanr class has 'irs' philosophers or even irs idea of rhe philosopher and philosophy, and that one group will think

tion between concerts and opera analogous to that between museums and exhibitions. Similarly, rhe reading of works of philosophy does nor mean much

of Teilhard de Chardin, or even Saint-Exupery or Louis Leprince-Rin guet, whereas anorher will think of Same or Michel Foucault. Thus, in

1967 when rhe arts srudencs of the Ecole Normale Superieure ( ENS), ro a large extent drawn from the dominated f ractions o f the dominant class, were asked whom they would like to see invired ro speak in rheir college, rhey rhoughr first of Same, Claude Levi-Strauss, Paul Ricoeur and Fou

"

-.--

--

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- . .

- -

.1

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. . . .

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cault; whereas the students of the Ecole Nationale d'Adlmini 'ratic ' 's ( EN A ) , mainly the sons of senior civil servants or members of the f essions, named Raymond Aron, Fran.;ois Bloch-Laine, Pierre Ma,ssC Paul Delouvrier. Sartee, top of the Jist at ENS, was only fifth at which put three politicians at the top of its list, Mendes France (seC'OI Another limitation of the SOFRES survey (CS. V ) is that it does provide all the information needed ro construct the system of tory principles-volume and structure of assets, and social " at ENS), Giscard d'Estaing and de Gaulle.

rained in such an artificial situation as interrogation by questionnaire, re course was had throughout the analysis-whenever a difficulty arose or a new hypothesis required it-to observations and questionings in real sit uations (see, for example, the interviews interpolated in part II). But

There is virtually no information on the respondents' economic

( land and property, industrial and commercial profits etc.) or their cui" tural capital, whether objectified (works of art, antique furniture, pianl;) . etc. ) or embodied (educational level) or on their social origins and previ; : ' ous careers.
,

above all there was a rule that had to be unlearnt, the unwritten rule that only data collected in socially defined scientific conditions, i.e., by pre . pared questioning and observation, may entr Into the sClentlfic cn . sttuction. This rule, which would not be so Impressed on the SCIentific unconscious if i t did not have the advantage of putting the sociologist out of the game, and therefore out of reach of the socio-analysis which every analysis properly implies, had to be transgressed in order to bring up all the information which the sociologist, as a social subject, inevita bly possesses, and which, when verified by comparIng It WIth the measur

tains some very useful information (e.g., on ownership of works of art), ' , but does not allow analysis by fractions (precise information on occupa, Finally, the INSEE survey on leisute activities (CS. IV), although providing the most remarkable set of data ever collected on cultural con sumption, is limited by the nature of its classification ( the industrialists" ' for example, end up in a curious position because the category used in.. cludes all those employing more than five people); by the fact that it deals with declared practices, which are not related to real practices in the same way in all classes; and by the lack of inf ormation on the quality of , the activity, which means that the scatter of practices is underestimated. By reducing the diff erent classes of practices and goods to their fre quency, i.e., quantity, in areas where almost everything depends on qual ity, one systematically reduces the difference between the classes ( though without aff ecting the ordinal relations ) . Thus, diff erences in the quantiry tions was not collected) .

(CS. V I ) fills in some of these gaps, but very imperfectly, since only the " distribution by newspaper read is available (and not by class or class frae- ' tion ) . The survey carried out for the Ministry of Culture (CS. VII) con, ; :

The CESP (Centre d'etudes des supportS de publicite) survey of

197()

able data of observation, has a place In SCIentific dISCOUrse. Only a research diary could give an adequate idea of the countless choices, all equally humble and derisory, all equally difficult and decisive, and therefore the countless theoretical reflections, often minute and un

worthy of the name of theory i n the ordinary sense of the word, which had to be made, over several years, when I was faced with a questionnaire

difficult to classify, an unexpected curve, a badly phrased question, a dis tribution that was incomprehensible a[ first sight, in order to produce a text whose success must be measured by the extent to which it allows the reader to forget the thousands of revisions, alterations, checks and COt esting at every point the rections which made it possible, while manif high 'reality content' which distinguishes it from the 'not even wrong'

sociological essay. And so I have simply presented, as the argument called f or them, the items of inf ormation that are needed to undetstand or check the stages of the statistical analysis, endeavouring to avoid both the methodological flourishes which often mask [he absence of any real reflection on the operations and also the theoretical elevation which de prives the reader of every means of verification. ( For example, although I have refrained from giving it the air of a formal protocol, I have endeav oured to provide the informed reader-without disconcerting readers less familiar with the technique-with all the information required to check the results of those analyses of correspondences which are presented in detail: the dimensions of the table, the number of questions and total

thors. But it is, above all, the manner of conducting the visit-in particular, the time devoted to it-and the manner of conducting onelf while visiting which provide inexhaustible material fot the games of dIS. . [inC non. In view of [he limits of [he data collened and of any inf ormation ob-

visits more uniformly through the year and the week and so escape the disenchanting experience of crowds in peak periods. These diff erences in rhythm are themselves associated with marked diff erences in the quality of the exhibition areas-diff erent 'levels' of museums, more and less 'dis tinguished' exhibitions-and in the quality of the genres, styles and au

of museum visits are compounded by diff erences in their quality. The privileged classes, being less subject to collective rhythms, distribute their

number of corresponding modalities, the numbet of individuals, the na ture and coding of the table, the list of variables, a description of the hy potheses underlying the distinction between active and illustrative variables, a list of the specific values and the rates of inertia, the main ab solute contributions and relative contributions. )9

There remains one final problem, which would no doubt merit a long discussion: that of writing. The main difficulty, especially on such a sub ject, is that the language used must signal a break with ordinary experi ence, which is no less necessary in order to appropriate adequately the

deny or negate. It is not easy to find the right tone, co avoid both celebra tion and provocation (whic h is merely its inversion), when the very questions that have to be asked in order to construct the object are re' jeered in advance, within the object itself, as barbarisms. Scientific dis-

Art is one of the major sites of denial of the social world. But the same '.. unconscious intention of disavowal lies behind a number of ': which overtly set out to speak of the social world, and which as a resul t may be written, and read, schizophtenically. ( How many p ilosophers socIologIsts Or phIlologIsts came to philosophy, sociology or ' , ' because It was one .of those obscurely situated areas of the social space , whICh make I[ pOSSIble to aVOId defin itIOn ' All these de facto utop ians. " who do not wan t to know where they are, are not in the best position to,I" understand the social space in which they are positioned. Would we " erwise have so many readings and lectom or 'reproducers', . " " without material, thoughts without instruments of thought and there :" fore without an obJect--<tnd so litrle observation, so few auctores or , '. ducers?) It is not possible to advance the science of the social world and :1:,1 to make i t known, except by forcing the return of the repressed, by 'neu. i , tralIzmg neutralIzatIOn, denying denial in all its forms, not the least of ',' which is the de realization through hyperbolic radicalization performed by some revolutIOnary dIscourse. NeIther true nor false, neither verifiable nor falsifiable, neither theoretical nor empirical, such discourse-like Ro Clne, who never referred to 'cows' but only to 'heifers'--cannot talk of the SMIC (statutory minimum wage) and the vests (undershirts) of worklOg-c1ass men but only of the mode of production and the proletar Iat or of the roles and attitudes of the 'lower middle class'. To break with this genteel abstraction, it is not sufficient to demonstrate: one has to show-but not denounce-thin s and even people, make them palpable" . and take lOCO a worklOg-c1ass cafe, onco a rugby pitch or a golf course, or IOto a pnvate club, people who are so used co saying what they think they thlOk that they no longer know how to think what they say. The subjective and objective difficulty of writing is not solely due to the fact that language is being asked to say what it is normally used ro

product of scientific description, and to make more difficult the distanc. i " ing and neutralization which the semi-theoretical language of fake sci. ence generally encourages. The same is true of all the document s, . ( f acsImiles of books or articles, photographs, extracts from " et . ) which ave bee inserted in the text, in order to discourage absent_ 'i. mInded readings whIch are abstract in the sense that they have no ent in reality.

knowledge produced than to produce it; and at the same time bring ho,..,; the corresponding social experience to those who do not, or do not M,m ro know about it. The 'concrete' analyses ( although there is concrete about them in the ordinary sense of the word, since they J I) suppose constructio n ) are there to assist the return in to experience

distinguishes the pure reign of art and culture from the lower region of the social and of politics, a distinction which is the very source of the eff ects of symbolic domination exerted by or in the name of culture. Ter roristic, because it presumes to reduce to 'uniform' classes everything that is 'liberated' and 'alternative', 'multiple' and 'diff erent', and to confine the supreme experience of 'play' and jouissance within the grey propositions

course on art and on the social uses of arr is bound to appear both vulgar and terroristic. Vulgar, because it transgresses the sacred boundary which

of a 'knowledge' which if it aims to be 'positive' must be 'positivist', 'to talizing' and therefore 'totalitarian'. If there is any terrorism, it is in the peremptory verdicts which, in the name of taste, condemn to ridicule, indignity, shame, silence (here one could give examples, taken from ev eryone's familiar universe), men and women who simply fall short, in the eyes of their judges, of the right way of being and doing; it is in the sym bolic violence through which the dominant groups endeavour co impose their own life-style, and which abounds in the glossy weekly magazines: 'Conforama is the Guy Lux of furniture', 1 0 says

>

Le Nouvel ObJervateur,

cidity sparked offby class harred or contempt. Only the effort required to construct the field of struggles within which the partial viewpoints and antagonistic strategies are defined can give access to a knowledge which

which will never tell you that the Nouvel ObJ is the Club Mediterranee of culture. There is terrorism in all such remarks, flashes of self-interested lu

diff ers from the blind insights of the participants without becoming the sovereign gaze of the impartial observer. Objectification is only complete

when it objectifies the site of objectification, the unseen standpoint, the blind spot of all theories-the intellectual field and its conflicts of inter esc, in which somecimes, by a necessary accident, an interest in truth is generated-and also the subtle contributions it makes to the mainte nance of the symbolic order, even through the purely symbolic intention of subversion which is usually assigned to i t in the division of the labour

of domination. When dealing with such an object, scientific work on the object is in separable from work on the working subject. It depends above all on the capacity he has to dominate practically, in his practice, the mechanisms he is endeavouring to objectify, which may continue to govern his rela tion co the objecr. One might offer for meditation, like 'Parallel Lives' in the past, the history of the Princeton Project, a vast empirical study of the consumption of music, whicb brought rogether Adorno and Lazars

cerally attached to the values and profits of Culture co be able to make it an object of science; and a submissive empiricist, ready for every abdica

reid, an epistemological couple made flesh. An arrogant theotetician who refuses to sully his hands with empirical trivia and who remains coo vis

tion demanded by a scientific order stricrly subordinated to the social order. An arrogant positivist who attempts to set up as the norm of all scientific practice a methodology of resentment based on a sort of venge-

ful fury against any global inquiry; and a subm issive Marxist who goes in , for vulgar Marxism when refinement is need ed and elegant Marxism ; when vulgarity is called for. Each sees the sh ortcomings of the other. ' The epistemological obstacles which social sci ence has to overcome are ' ini tially social obstacles, One of these is the common conception of the ' hierarchy of the tasks which make up the socio logist's job, which leads so <, many researchers to disdain humble, easy yet f ile activities in favour of ' ert exercises that are both difficult and sterile. An other is an anomie reward ' system which forces a choice between a safe thesis and a flash in the pan, ' pedantry and prophecy, discouraging the co mbination of broad ambi tion '' and long patience that is needed to produce a work of science. Unlike the ) sometimes illum inating intuitions of the ess ay form, the sometimes coher- .' ent them of theoreticism and the sometim es valid observations of empir icism, provisional systems of scientific pr opositions wh ich strive (0 ' combine internal coherence and adeq uacy to the facts can only be pro- : duced by a slow, difficult labour which rema ins unremarked by all hasty readings, These will only see repetitive rea ffirmations of theses, int ui tions , or already known facts in the provisional conc l usion of a long series of ,. totalizations, because they ignore what is essential, namely, the structure of the relations between the propositions.
,

Approximate annual income of your family: less than 10,000 F 20-25,000 F 40-50,000 F 10-15,000 F 25-30,000 F 50-60,000 F 1 5-20,000 F 30-40,000 F more than 60,000 F Do you own: a record-player a tape recorder a camera an auromobile (indicate make) a TV a movie camera

Do you have a telephone?

L

Where did you get your furmture., ' department srore flea market (give name) auction inherited antique dealer rented specialized shop other ( specify) (give name) craftsman

Se x:

The Questionnaire

2. Is your furniture: modern . anuque country-style 3. If you had the choice, which style of furniture would you rather buy: modern anuque country-style
4.

Year of birth: Marital status: single widowed Place of residence: How long have you lived there' less than 5 years 5 to 10 years more than 10 years Previous place of residence: Highest educational qualification: Occupation (be as precise as possible) : married divorced

Number and age of children:

6. Of the activities listed below, which do you do often, which do you

Which three adjectives best describe the type of interior you would like to live in: neat (soigne) warm clean and tidy . . imaginative (f amai easy to matntam comfortable si, ) practical and func classical studied (compose) tional cosy (intime ) harmonious sober and discreet . . , 5. Of the qualities listed above, whICh three are least Important ro you. do tarely, and which do you never do' often do-ityourself sport ( specify) campmg walking painting or sculpture

rarely

never

Highest educational qualification and occu pation of your father and paternal grandfather (o r last occupation ) : father qualification occupation paternal grandfather

often playing a musical instrument ( speci fy ) parlour games (specify) watching TV

rarely

never

travel, exploration historical novels scientific

philosophical classical authors modern authors

7.

8. Do you prefer clothes that are:

Which are your three favourites among the following singers? Edith Piaf Charles Aznavour Luis Mariano lio Ferre Jacques Brel Petula Clark Georges Guetary Johnny Hallyday Jacques Douai Franc;oise Hardy Gilbert Becaud Georges Brassens classically cut and good value for money that reflect fashion and suit your personality sober and correct daring and out of the ordinary (recherche) comfortable chic and stylish other ( specify) everyday homemade, by yourself or one of the family made up by a small tailor or dressmaker made to measure by a large fashionhouse or tailor from a chainstore (confection ) from a boutique (prh a porter) best

14. Which are your three favourite types of films? adventure spectaculars war musicals comedies Westerns films with a message thrillers dramas historical

nouvelle vague
1 5. Which films in this list have you seen' For each film, give the names of the director and leading acrors, if known. [This list was used in Paris. In the Lille area, another list was used that reflected the films available in local cinemas. ] seen director actors Divorce Italian Style Rocco and His Brothers Singing in the Rain The Leopard The Suitor L'abominable homme des douanes Exterminating Angel Ballade pour un voyou 55 Days at Peking Les dimanches de Ville d'Avray Le glaive et la balance The Trial The Magnificent Seven Le voyage a Biarritz Le boucan ier des lies Salvarore Giuliano The Longest Day Vice and Virtue Imperial Venus the actors the director the plot

9. Are your clothes:

10. When you have guests for a meal, to serve: simple but wellpresented delicate and exquisite plentiful and good potluck
II.

what kind of meals do you prefer

appetizing and economical original and exotic traditional French cuisine other ( specify)

12. Of the qualities listed above, which three are least important to you? 13. Which are your three favourites among the following types of
books? thrillers love stories poetry political

In the following list of adjectives, underline the ones indicating the personal qualities you most appreciate: conscientious refined bon vivant levelheaded sociable amusing (drole ) pragmatIC determined artistic wellbred dynamic stylish

16. What interests you most in a film?

17.

18. If you watch TV, which programmes do you mainly watch'

If you listen to the radio, which programmes do you mainly listen ro? cultural programmes light music news classical music current affairs other (specify)

...

..

. . . . . .

-... .. .-

- - -- - - -

19. Which of the opinions below is closes< to your own view?

Classical music is complicated. Classical music isn't f people like us. or I love classical music but I don't know much about it. I like classical music, Strauss waltzes f example. or All music of quality interests me.

25.

ollowing opinions: Whar do you think of rhe f Modern painting is jusr slapped on anyhow; a child could do it. I don't need to know who painted it or how. I can't appreciate pain ring because I don'r know enough about it.

26. Wirh rhe following subjecrs, is a photographer more likely to pro

duce a beautiful, interesting, meaningless or ugly photo?!! beautiful inreresring meaningless a landscape a car crash a little girl playing with a car a pregnant woman a still lif e a woman breasrfeeding a metal structure tramps quarrelling cabbages a sunset over the sea a weaver at his loom a f olk dance a rope a burcher's stall rhe bark of a tree a famous monument a scrapyard a first communion a wounded man a snake an 'old master' ugly

20. Which of the musical works in this list do you know? In each case,
name the composer, if you can. known composer

La Traviata Concerto f rhe Lefr Hand or Eine Kleine Nachtmusik L'Arl6ienne Sabre Dance Firebird Suite Scheherazade An of Fugue Hungarian Rhapsody L'Enfanr er les sonileges Blue Danube Twilighr of the Gods Four Seasons WellTempered Clavier I.e Marleau sans maitre
2 1 . Which are your rhree favourires among rhe above works?

Rhapsody in BIue

22.

Which of rhe opinions below is c10sesr ro your own view? Paintings don't interest me. Galleries aren'r my strong poinr;

I can'r appreciare rhem.

Paintings are nice bur difficulr; I don'r know enough to ralk about them. I love the Impressionists. Abstract painting interests me as much as the classical schools.
23. Which are your three favourites among the paintets Iisred below?

Observation

(to be completed by interviewer)

Leonardo Renoir Buffet Utrillo

Dali Goya Van Gogh Breughel

Kandinsky Raphael Braque Rousseau

Vlaminck Watreau Picasso

Home apartment house amily) house suburban derached (single-f

age: quality: municipal (council flar) bourgeois number of rooms: decoration: old poor

Schedule

!.pavilion )

ollowing museums or galleries (if possible, say 24. Have you visired rhe f in which year and with whom--school, relarives, friends, alone) ? Louvre Jacqueman-Andre Jeu de Paume museum of your city (or region) Modern Art Museum

f airly prestigious . . very presng!ous

518 / furniture:

Ap pendIX

predominant style: /loor: other observations:

Appendix 2

Complementary Sources '

Dress
men: blue overalls
SUl(

casual (sweat-shirt, jeans . . . ) smart 'town' clothes tie

pullover

shape and colour of shirt: rolled-up sleeves cuffs buttoned

double cuffs

women:

costume (suit)

housework clothes ( housedresses) footwear: high heds slippers

skirt and blouse slacks /lat heds etc.

very smart

dress

I . The survey on incomes, carried out in 1970 by INSEE ( I nstitut na tional de la statistique et des etudes economiques) on a sample of about 45,000 households, was based on the records kept by the tax authorities. It therefore only deals with taxable income, excluding numerous trans f ers ( social security allowances etc.) and also certain types of income from property. Some forms of income, in particular those derived from all f ar f amily-owned businesses, are represented by tax estimates which f

well-groomed or not:

make-up and perfume:

short of reality. Despite these limitations, the survey provides original data on the structure of the income received by each socio-occupational category, the disparities in average incomes between categories and the revenus des menages en 1970',

Hair

dispersion within each category--see G. Banderier and P. Ghigliazza, 'Les

men: short

very short sideburns brilliantine short bun

medium long

moustache ( specify type)

crew cut parting ( side/middle) beard

cember 1974 ) . The data presented in my study (which concern house holds, not individuals-except f property income) 2 come from tables or by P. Ghigliazza. II. The J 970 INSEE survey on vocational training and skill was based on a sample of 38,000 individuals. I t gives a precise description of the re lationship between general and vocational training and occupational situ ation (occupation, skill, wage level, mobility etc.) and provides data on the subjects' occupational and geographical mobility ( changes between 1%5 and 1970) and on inter-generational mobility (occuparion and qual not published by INSEE (except for the indication of average total tax able income......". Banderier and Ghigliazza, p. 29), but supplied to me

Collections de I'INSEE, ser. M, no. 40 (De

women:

very short visible perm Speech

medium bleached dyed long

bouffant straight

frizzy

refined slang

standard

mistakes in grammar ( specify)

prof essionnelle en 1970',

ification of father and subject). The initial findings have been published: R. Pohl, C. Thelot and M . F. Jousset, 'I.'enquete formation-qualification

accent:

strong slight none

1974). The data presented here relate to economically active men born in and after 1918. They result from secondary analysis of tables supplied at

Collections de I'INSEE, ser. D, no. 32 ( May

my reCfues,L III. INSEE's regular survey on household living conditions and ex penditure was based in 1972 on a representative sample of 13,000 house holds.' It consists of a survey by questionnaire dealing with the characteristics of the household (composition, ages, occupation of the

- - ------------ ---- -

. . .-.

.-.----

520

/ Ap pendix 2
VI. The survey on readership of the press, conducted by SOFRES in 1970 on behalf of the CESP, used a sample of 2,682 persons, economically active or not, each living in a household the head of which was a large Industrial or commercial employer, a member of the prof essions, an engi

makes it possible to assess the whole range of expenditure (except certain' major and infrequent ites such as air travel, removal expenses etc. ) , ood in the well as Items of consumption not preceded by purchase ( f of f armers, items drawn from their stocks by craftsmen and other categories of households. This explains why consumption is con. which are evaluated at their retail price to allow comparison

head) , accommodatio and facilities, major expenditure (clothing, fUe, etc . ) , penodlc expenditure ( rent, servICe charges etc. ) , combined wilth analysis of account books f current expenditure, left with each house,: or hold f a week, collected and checked by the interviewer. This ,u,v, or

neer, a senior executive or a secondary or higher-education teacher. At the end of the interview, the respondent was handed a questionnaire to be returned by post. The rate of response was 66 percent. The question . nOIre dealt matnly with centres of Interest ( 'subjects you enjoy talking abou!'), household and leisure equipment, main and second residences, holidays, business trips, cultural practices, reading, records, museums, cinema etc., art collections, sport, cars, economic behaviour etc. I had ac cess to the distributions by daily or weekly paper (but not by sociooccu

conditions de vie des menages en 1972',

siderably higher than income in the case of f armers and small busi nessmen ( categories which are always particularly prone to under-decla.e ,' ", thelf 1Ocome) . For the overall findings, see G. Bigata and B. Bouvier " SIS of tables by nartow categories produced at my request. IV. The 1967 INSEE survey on 'leisure activities', based on a random '

32 ( February 1972 ) . The data presented here come from secondary analy. '"

Collections de l'INSEE, ser. M, no: ,

pational category) . VII. The survey on cultural practices was carried out in 1973 on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, on a sample of 1,987 persons aged 1 5 and over. The questionnaire included a set of questions previously asked in

structure of the working week and year, and in particular on the various cultural practices, visits to museums, exhibitions and monuments read ing, attendance at various types of entertainments, use of caf and es

sample of 6,637 individuals representing the whole adult French popula. ', tlon, used a questlonnalfe conta101Og questions on living conditiOIl$ ', ( household help, child minding, distance from certain f acilities--theatre ' swimming pool etc.-possession of a second residence etc. ), on

t
..

of TV programmes watched, the eype of records owned and listened to, the works of art owned etc. ) . The way in which the inf ormation was gathered (pre-coding of the sociooccupational categories into ten categories) did not permit a more precise analysis by class fraction. The etudes et de la recherche,

on certain cultural activities (particularly on their content--e.g., the type

1967 by the INSEE survey on leisure and some more detailed questions

ran s, outings, parties, radi, televisio, the various pastimes-gardening, . ' . do.It yourself, hunt1Og, fish 109, gambhng on horses, literary or artistic ac . .tlVltles, collecting etc. For the findings, see especially P. Debreu, 'I.c:s comportements de loisir des Fran,ais', Collections de I'lNSEE, ser. M, no. 2 5 (August 1979 ) . The data presented here (which concern only the male population) are denved from secondary analysis of tables produced V. The 1966 survey on 'businessmen and senior executives' was carried ou by SOFRES on behalf of the Centre d'etudes des supportS de publi CIte (CESP). The sample consisted of 2,257 persons aged 1 5 and over, at my request.

tau

main findings are published in: Secretariat d'etat a la culture Service des

1974 ) .

Pratiques culturelles des Frant;ais, 2 ols.

( Paris,

ers and f arm labourers) ; ( 2 ) ouvriers (industrial manual workers) ; (3) in dustrlal and commercial employers; ( 4 ) clerical workers and junior executives; ( 5 ) senior executives and the 'liberal professions'.

The other surveys consulted are simply listed below ' These studies, al most always devoted to particular area of cultural activity, are generally , based on relanvdy hmlted samples. They mostly use a classification which groups the occupations into five categories: ( 1 ) agriculteurs (farm

each hv10g 10 a household the head of which was a large industrial or essions, a senior executive, an commerCIal employer, a member of the prof engineer or a secondary or higher-education teacher. The questionnaire mcl ded a set of questions on reading habits and the previous few days'

read 109 of dally, weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines, use of radIO and TV, standard of living, household equipment, life-style (holi essional lif (conferences, travel, business e days, SpOrt, consumption), prof meals) , cultural practices and the principal basic data (educQtional level, income, population of place of residence etc. ) . I had access to the whole set of distributions by the socio-occupational category of the head of household or individual.

XI. IFOP, 'La frequentation et I'image du cinema en 1970',

formation du Centre VIII. 'Cinema fran,ais: Perspectives 1970', Bulletin d'in national de la cinematographie, special issue 91 ( February 196 5 ) . IX. IFOP, Les acteurs et actrices pri/ iris des Fran,ais, October 1968. X. IFOP, Les acteurs et actrices pri/ iris des Fran,ais, September 1970. Bulletin d'in

On the cinema

f ormation du Centre national de la cinematographie, 126 ( 1970). Xl': 'Le public cinematographique', Bulletin d'inf ormation du Centre na tlonal de la cinematographie, 1 53-154 (June-August 197 5 ) . XIII. SOFRES, Les Fran,ais et Ie cinema en 1 975, March 1975. XlIIa. CESP, Etude sur "audience du cinema, XVI ( Paris 197 5 ) .

atre audiences in 1964.) XV. IFOP, Elude aupres des speClateurs des 'parathelitrales' au Theatre de la :': ' Ville ( Paris, IFOP, 1969 ) .

On lhe lheatre XIV. SEMA (Societe d'economie et de mathematiques appliquees) , Lf. ' lhelitre et son public, 2 vols. ( Paris, 1966 ) . ( A majot survey of Paris the- .

"

urnishing On decoration andf XXXII . ETMAR, u marche de i'ameublement dam I" f oyers domestiques: im porlance des "' pens" et caraclirisJiques de la clientCie ( Paris, ETMAR, 1967) . ood and clothing On f XXXllI. INSEE, 'La consommation alimentaire des Fran,ais', Collections de I'INSEE. ( The regular INSEE surveys on eating habits.)
In addition ro this source, and secondary analysis of the INSEE survey on sulted: XXXIV. SOFRES, L" habiludes de lable des Fran,ais ( Paris, 1972). XXXIVa. SOFRES, us Fran,ais et la gastronomie, July 1977. ( Sample of 1 ,000 , ) XXXV. Thi Nguyen Hun, 'leg depenses d'habillement des Fran,ais en 1971-1972', Colleclions de l'INSEE, ser. M, no. 38 (November 1974). household living conditions (1II above), the following were also con

On radio and TV XVI. 'Une enquete par sondage sur l'ecoute radiophonique en France', . Eludes el conjoncture, 10 ( Ocrober 1963), 923-1002. ( A major study in I . 1 96 1 of a sample of 1 2,000 people. )
Of the numerous studies by the opinion research department of the XVII. Us ICles eClaleurs el I" ""iniom musicales. ( A survey carried out in , p XVIII. Us d()Jsiers de I'teran. (A survey carried out in 1 97 1 . ) XIX. Une roquele sur I" variites: Irailemenl des dunne" par I'analyse f ac. , ' lorielle des correspondanc", July 1972. " pinions, habitudes d'ieoute XX. Us audileurs de France-musique: attiludes, o 1969 and 1970.) ORTF between 1966 and 1974, the following were particularly used:

:;

des ""iniom, July 1972. XXI. L" festivals el fa radio: phase exploratoire, July 1974.

In addition ro data from secondary analysis of the INSEE survey on lei sure ( IV) and from the survey on cultural practices (VII), the follow XXXVI. SOFRES, L" Fran,ais et Ie sporl, February 1 968. XXXVII. IFOP, us attitudes des Fran,ais Ii Ngard du sporl, December 1972. people aged 1 5 and over. ) ing were consulted:

On sport

1969). XXIV. IFOP, L" achals de livr" pour la jeunesse ( Paris, IFOP, 1970). XXV. SOFRES, us Fran,ais el la leclure ( Paris, SOFRES, 1972 ) .

On reading habils XXII. IFOP, L" lecteurs et acheteurs de /ivr" ( Paris, IFOP, 1967 ) . XXlII. IFOP, La clienlCie du livre ( Paris, Syndicat national des editeurs,

XXXVIII. SOFRES, Les Fran,ais el Ie sport, June 1975. (Sample of 2,000

On the press

yse seelorielle de Ndition, vol. 1 , Elude des marches: XXVI. SERVO, Anal ynlhese des resultats du son resullats qualilatifi, vol. 2, Elude des marches: s dage ( Paris, Cercle de la librairie, 197 5 ) . XXVII. SOFRES, L'image des ecrivaim dans I'o pinion publique, April 1976. XXVIII. CESP, L" leeteurs de la presse. ( Annual surveys on the reading of
daily, weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines.)

XXXIX. CESP, Douzieme hude sur I" leeteurs de la presse, 1976. ( Sample of 5,562. The data presented in chapter 8 are derived from secondary anal ysis of tables by narrowly defined categories produced at my request.) XL. IFOP, Les lee/eurs de quolidiem dans la campagne iteetorale, February 1978.

In addition to the CESP survey already mentioned (VI):

e , On drama or music fslivals . XXIX.]. Henrard, C. Martin,]. Mathelin, Elude de Irois feslivals de must que: La Rochelle 1974, Saintes 1974, Royan 1975 ( Paris, Centre d'etudes des techniques economiques modernes, 1975 ) . XXX. F.-X. Roussel, u public du fstival mondial de theatre de Nancy e ormations et d'etudes d'economie, 1 97 5 ) . ( Nancy, Centre d'inf XXXI. SEMA, Donne" slatisliques sur Ie systeme musical fran,ais ( Paris, SEMA, 1967 ) .

On s pending on selfpresenlalion XLI. SOFRES, Pourquoi I" Fran,aises veulenl-elles maigrir? March 1974. emmes et la mode, October 1974. (Sample of 1 ,100 XLII. SOFRES, us f
XLIII. IFOP and Groupe d'Ctudes de Marie-Claire, L'arJ de recevoir, De cember 1977January 1978. XLIV. IFOP and Groupe d'etudes de MarieC1aire, L" Fran,ai"s et la beaute, December 1976. ( Sample of 1,016 women aged 18-45.) women aged 18-50.) ( Sample of 450 women aged 18-65. )

,, - ,

- r - ------ r

XLV. ETMAR, Achals de vetemenls, 1971. (Sample of 552 women in region.)

On morality XLVI. IFOP, Les Fran,ais el l'amour, November 1975. XLVII . SOFRES, Attiludes envers I'homosexualile (L'Express,
7-1 1 , 1973).

Appendix 3

Statistical Data

XLVIII. IFOP-France-Soir, Les Fran,ais sonl comme ,a, Allgu.st-OePt'efl XLIX. SOFRES, L'image de la juslice
1977.

ber 1974. ( Sample of 1,217.)

dans I'opinion publique,

L. SOFRES, Les Fran,ais el la censure au cinema, September 1974. LI. SOFRES, Les Fran,ais el I'arl moderne, April 1972. ( Sample of

The Survey

Table A.2 Tasces and cultural practices of classes and class fractions ( % ) :
Aesthti( disposition :
linle girl CI"", N 166
100 287 78 119 ')84 88 72 "

I. a

tht f ollowing subjects would m:l.kt a belIutiful photo: Bark Woman brtlSl f ttding
""

Preferred p:ilintcrs MeuJ frame 6

9

Work;"g ddsJesb Cnsmen, small shopkecp=rs derical, junior CXC(utl,/(S Techni<i.ans, prinury teachers
New ptcitc bour-

SunSitt
90 91

Folk First communion dance '0

4l " 63

with
'"

of ,

Pregnant woman
1\

,6

'9

" " l6 "

" "
61

17 2l " 49

V" Raphad 12 2l
19

19
20 11

Middk c/4mi
geoisie'

Industrial and (omm. employell Executives, engineers Prokssions Secondary and higher. tchers, artistic producc:rs
:I..

60

74 ,.

46

14

Buffet
8

Uuillo
20

V\aminck Waneau 6
6 14 12

Renoir Gogh D.a.1i

49

Bnr.quc Goya
, \6 14 12 29 28 19

Brcughel
1 8 6

Kandinslcy
o

16
24 2l 12 19

26 \8 \8

"

48 47 42

3
o

8 ,

" 22 12

30
24 16

13
2' 11

" 12

"

t02
232

80

27 12 17

18 41

13

'9

"
61

l6

'0

" " "

30 ,.

22

"

"
1\

"

\0

l' II 41

4 19

27

17

18

16

\0 12

Il

49 42 H

56

o o
3

3
7

I
12 7

"
"

'0
47

8 4

12

6 2

20 2l

\0

17

19

14

21 24 16

17 8 22

2l 14

2l 12

10 6

P/'" d.:J.s.sdd U

81 467

. . . <0""" ',', medical sc:rvic, culrural inu:rmcdiaries, an c['2frsmen and <kalers, sc:cretanes and Junior c. Includes social and cial exutivr:s. d. Total for four groups preceding.

The percentages exclude 'don't knows'. b. Excluding ( urncrs lnd t2rm b.bourm.

"

64

22 \8

2l

48 "

31

"

" 48

49 2l

16

47 61

'9

11 '6

3
6 9 , ,

12 6

\8 " 22

"

19 27 1I

6 10 2

19

31 18
8 18

I
9

\0

, 1\

20

\0 \6

30
48

47

49

" 9

" 1I

27

}6

6
4

-- .

Table .-1.3

Tastes and cultural Pl'2crices of classes and class fractions ( % ) : lI.a

Opinions on arrb

Prclcrmi musical work{ EiRe L'Enfant An Well- Concerto Twilight Kkine of TempcKd for Left u Sob", Rhapsody Hun82tian N:Kht- Four Firebird C'( 10 of Hmd Tra...iata Dance in Blue Rhapsody God. musik Seuons Suite Sortile Fugue Clavier
28

a"",

F urhMg (Uwts

Doesn't Nice Love the Lke Modern art's Do like in[cre5t b" Impres. abstract not jWt to know who L'Arle- 8'"" '" m, difficult sionists sl:&pped on painted it sieRne Danubt
2. .2 7 4 l2 44 7 42

Cl1lftsmen, -'maU shop-

MiJJk d.msd

Ottic:a.l. junior cxutlves Technicians, prinu.ry (eachc New (iu bourgeoisie

k<ep<n

I. 17 3

"
6l

, 2.
l2 I' 12

,
7

Indusuw and (omm.

U I/'" d4mI'

Executives, cngineell Prokssions Secondary and hi8hcr. tochtts, artistic producers

employers

14

'"

30 ,.

J4
22 14

" 64 " " " " "

"

4t 3. 18 14 30 1

60

66

"

24

30 2l 18

27 22 2t 12 20

24 2t

8 0

"

"

14 Il

" 4J

27 40 3. 3. 31

17 29 26 4J 27

27 II

"

22 24
17

18

to

"
II

40

J4

II

" "

"

"

"
22 46 '7 2.

to
7 12

1
0 1

1 3

2 2 10 12

0 0 7 8 3

27

2t

2l 20

20

13

28 "

" "
28 21

"

38

19 17 13

J4
II 27

I.
10

10 3 1

14 " 13 Il
II 17

10

3'

6 13 ,

"

'0
,

l2 2t

"

18

2t

" "

30 3.

30

" "
4t

"

10

3 2

12

13

17

2l

a. TIlt perccntllgCS exclude 'don't knows'. b. Each respondent was invited to say which of SC"Yeral opinions wu closest to his own.

II

14

2t 12

"

3
17

14

(. Each respondent was invited ro choose thret' worb from a lin of 16. our groups preceding. d. Total for f

Il 2l

19

22

I.

J4

2l

"

4
2

l2 14

13 12

..

.. .

--

' ' --

. . _ _ . .

..

-. - - - . - . - . .

-.

_ .

Ttthk A.4

Tasres and cultural practices of classes and class franions ( % ) : lILa

Dil'tors'
3-6 7-11 o 1-3 4+ STones

Film

Love

Historical Travel 61

0-2 WflrkiNg {Unts Craftsmen, small shop kp< Clerical, junior executlves Tcchnician5, primary reache.,. New petite bourgeoisie 77
"

19 27

12+
o I

Thrillers

novels
19

Classics
\0 II 28 32 41 28 '0 l6 21
47 "

Poetry
8 10 21 17 21
" 6

Philosophical

essays
2

Slang 8
4

in

Mistakes "

grammar Standard 68
77

Rdlnro
o 4

Strong accent
"

Slight acccnt 14 37 '6

" 26

accent 12 '0 28
68 "

No

89
SO '56

10 18 l7 }2 44 " 29 '9
38

2 2 4 , 28 9 \0 23 10 , 8

49 17 20 41
jQ 16

11

7 17 " J9 22 26 41 40 3l 37

60

,
"

'1 47 49 34 "
68

22
40

8
,

28
., o

12 16
o ,

, 19 18 8 1'5 21 35

'9

4
o ,

MJdk cim,W/

28 22 28

" 61 '52 42

39

11

17 7 10 9 19

l8 " "
41

l8 "
43

,. '6

14 '0
12

40
41

,
o o

14
o o o o o

6 21 7.
SO

, 20
6

10
o o

Industrial and employers

comm.

Exccutives, enginc:c:rs Professions Secondary and higher-ed. teachers, artistic

28 22 Il

43 l8 44

l6

8 27 l8

II

l8 "

40

48

'6

29 "

'" 81

12

J U ppw cillJti

produce.,.

I'

II 22

2 26

22 47

46

}2 1 '5

7 6

38

of 16 mUSICal works. ( , Number of dimtot5 identified in list of 19 films.

a. The percentago exclude 'don't knows'. b. Number of composct5 identified in list

II

I'

29 l8

24

41

" 42

" "

l4 "

10
,

"

o o o

II

44

Il 12

67 87 87

d. Each respondent was Invired to choose th ree ry of books e. Interviewer's observations. f. Total for four groups pmed-ing.

84

, II

ftOm a list of 10 ry_

16

9l
84

Table A.' T2St and cultural prac[ic of classes and class fractions ( % ) :
Auiviriesb Louvre 'nd

IV:'
R20dio< Light Preferred sinnd

Do-ityourself, (I"",

Worlei"K d.wn

often
63

Photography or home movIeS

'0 59

Records,
ohen
46

P2inting, sculptun:, often

4

Mus. insu., often

6

Modem An Gallery
6

musIC

Light

Cl'2fumen. small shopkp<. Clerical, junior exccufiVes

"

N""
2'

Classical musIC
10

cultul'2l or classical
II

musIc ,nd

Guerary
31

Mariano
18

P. Clark
30 30

Aznavour

7.

MitlJit d.rmf

Technicians, primary teachers New petite bourgeoisie:

"

3. 47

6 7 10 24 II

13 21 40

4' '0 13 14 31

61

Industrial and comm.

"

"

60 ,.

69
,.

,.

" "
I. 21

68 " " " "

"

17 18

" "
II

"
21 4 17

"

Hallyd2y
17

Brei
24

Brasscns
41

Fe:rri
20

Douai
7

20 II ,

"
,

"

,6 31 ,.

"

" "
I.

36 47 I.

2 II , 7 ,

31 4.

32 40 72

20 30 Jj

II 12

2.

U JIPn' {/&utI'

employt'n Executives, engineers Professions Secondary and highercd. tachers, artistic producers

47 44 38 ,.

66

12

13

21

,.

2.

"

41

"

6
14 I.

"

'0

31

13

44 46 61

17

" "

14

61

14

29 I.

40

"

71

"

16

16 10

64

"

II

"
2.

" "

13 3

10 7 4

26 21

"
7 9

"
2
I.

3l

6 ,

21 42

61 70 71 .,

10 ,. 31

36

"

21

68

a. The percentages exclude 'don't knows'. h. Each respondent was asked to say whether he never, occasionally or ohen practised various activities. ( Muscum-going was measured by at [ellS[ one visit 10 the Louvre and Modern Art Gallery.)

"

c. Type of radio programme: most often listened to. list of 12. d_ Each respondent was asked to choose: thrtt singers from a e. Total for four groups preceding.

I
6

12 27

4 ,

"

41

71

48

"

3l

12

*ti

Table A.6 Tastes and cultural practices of classes and class fractions ( % ) ;
h FURNITURE

n4 / "'p penalx J

V. Simple Original, Con Suit Value Chic Potwellexotic Bon sClen Well Pragfor person- ,nd money ality stylish vLVant uous b,,<l mane Stylish Refined Anis(lc luck presented delicate'
3
, CLOTHES' FRIEND'
COOKING'

iNTERIOR'

DepT.

Specialiw:l shop

W",kitrg cidJ5ts

srort

Au( FIca non market

4 3 I

fur to Clean, m:untidy ram Cosy Warm Studied

'1 41

22 39 30
"
41

"

4
4

8
I'

44 29

28

Craftlimn, small shopkeepers Clerical, junior executives Tcchnicians, pri.

29
"

27
"
42

4 4

8 4

10

26 24 32

"

m''Y {ClIchers New pemc

24
48

40

6,

12 6
14

22

68

"

10

, 6 ,

8 9
,
I'

"
31

, "

6
II

2
10 I'

17

,
II

4 14 6

10

22
II

I3 12 26

M/ddI (Lw,i

bourgeoisie

I'

47
"

6 19

10
19

31
17

19 9 16

"

32 30

18 20 16

10 18 8

6 18 9

27 29 I3

16 21 17
17

19

"

9
30

9
jQ

\0

27

II

Industrial and

39

39

26 12

29 46

26 "

I' 8
I'

44

comm. employ

10
Executives, engmeers Profn'iion

39 28 31

18 16 19

II 10 I'

17 17 16
48 43

24
19

6 8

17
II

42 61

Secondary and highertiStic producers U ppn-

"

10 17

12
II

12 )6 10

"
I'

23 )4 33 21
14

23 12
I'

"

jJ

9 18 I3

18 16 6

17 9 17

16 27 28

22 26 27

16

13

31 "

)9

38

16 17

9 8

ed. reachers, ar

Each rcspon cnt W:lS uked co S('lecr the three adjectives, from a list of twelve, best describing the interior he or she would like to lIve m; ro seleCT the three statemcms about clothes (OUt of six) whICh best expressed his or
c.

a. The pcrccnTlges exclude 'don't knows'. b. Place (or places) whcu= furniture was purchased.

riaJJei

30 II

27 31

I,

10

21 18

J2

7
II

16

36

28

I' II

12 I3

22

meal (out of her tastes; the rhr(e qualities (OUt of twelve) most appreciated in frit':nds; and the type of seven) he or she' liked to servt': to friends. d. Toral for four groups preceding.

17

" )6

17

14

19

16

27

36

I'

I2 I'

38

16

12

31

20 17

29 26

12 11

- _.

Tllbk A.7
EduOl(ional capiral

Aesthedc disposidon by roucadonal capital.a

Und-

"'P' Su_
82.0 88.0 72., 68.' 69.0 74.' 88.' 92.-' n.' 8'.' 76., '7.0 6'5.0

Famous manu Old ment mUler

}., 'M 19.0 39.' 32.' ".' )0.) 4n 39.'

mUnion
'1.0 31.0 32.' 19.0 1_0 n.o

,=-

First

Little Folk girl dance and cat

'4.' 60.0 \6.0 37.0 61.) n.o n.o '6.' 46.0 n.o 34.0

Woman breast feeding Woo...46_0 4}.0 55.' '8.0 '6.0 '9.0 49.' 36_0 }7.' 2'.' 3'.' 44.0 44.0

Still life
2M }7.' <D_'

Bad< of
, ,=

a. e peKCfUJBCS ex elude'don't knows'. Since it was not po55ible to reproduce the compkte table of dis . . utlOns among t different responses (ugly, meaningless, imCfCSting. beautiful) for (2(h object, the fable nb. Indates the PCKtage of rcspondcnt who consider that a beautiful photo could be made of dlCSC objrs, which have ran , from left ro fight, from the mOlt 'f2cik' (i.e., ahndy strongly defined as llCS(tic) to the most difficult (I.e., those not ddi or scarcely ddincd as aesthetic objects in terms of the common acsttic at the time of the survey). ing the t le, it shoul be borne n mind that the distribution bctwttn the diff"ettm raponscs itsc:lf In . 'lanes With the obJfS and With eduatlonal level, 50 thar [he structure which I have endeavoured [0

Agrigation, grande &ole

No qual., CEP CAP BEPC 8accalaureat Started higher ed.

Lin<,

30.0

23.5 31.' 41.0

36.'

}7.0 27.' 42.0 4'.0 60) \6.0

72.0

2'5.5

36.'
39.'

4U

<D.' 41.5 44.0 4'.0

n.'

Rep<
.., 6.0 6.'

Tramps quarl ling

4.0 s.' 4.'

Pgnant woman
s.,

Meul uruc Snake

13.0 18.' 17.' 23.' 32.0 28.'5 38.0
'""

"'bin""
4.0 13.0 13.0 18.0 22.'5 27.0 S,

Buto;:her's suI!
'0 6.0 '.0 10.' 18.0 19.' 2-'.'

""r- Wounded
yard
'-' l_O 6.0 13.0 22.' 16.0 31.0

moo
'.0 ,.,

,,,,h
0.' 0 10 '.0 ,. , I.'

c"

6.'

12.0 13. 21.0 19.' 22.'5 29.)

1.'

S.O 18.0 29.0 24.' 36.)

22.0 31.0 32.' 31.0

16.0 14.' 16.' 22.'

12.' 17.'5 22.'

,. ,

9.'

'2.0

1'.)

highlight by emphasizing the strongest tendency in column would hve bcc:n much more visible if the . respondents had bcc:n oittred a simple dichotomous chOicc (between beautiful an ugly). FOr examle, In he case of the famous monument, if the pctcentage who think it would make a beautiful photo . combu\ed wlfh 15 the pcrcenta who think it would make 1(1 intefC5ting photo, one fi?ds that, as for the sunset, he Jl.C"ent ages decline steadily as cduational level rises (87.' percent of thene With only the CEP or no qualification, 90 pctct for the CAP, 78 percent for the BEpc, 74 pcKent for the baca1aurfat, '9 percent or incomplete , higher education, '57 pcn:cnt for the licence, H percent for the agrc,gatlon and the grandcs ccolcs).

oc

Other Sources

Table A.8 Some indicacors of economic capital by socio-occupational cate ory ( % ). g

, '

;,

occupation.al category Farm workers Farmeo Unskilled Semi-skilled Skilled Foremen Craftsmen Small shopkeqx'1'S Commercial emPlOYees Office workers
Jr. aclmin executives

Sodo-

Average [mal Income

10 to

Range of income (CS. I. 1970)

20 ro
30

Income sources

Nature of (CS. III. 1972 ) home tenure

(francs) < 1O,OOOF 20,OOOF 30,OOOF 6O,OOOF lOO,OOOF to

12,706 1 1 ,339 14,903
43.5 63.2

60 to
o

IndusL
lOO,OOOF+
o

(CS. I. 1970)

comm. salaries profits

86.0 W3 93.4 97.7 98.2 99.5 34.1 24.3 97.S 98.8 99.3 98.S 84.2
II

md

Non comm. profits

0.4 0. ' 0.1 03 0.7 0.8 l.l 4.8 2.6 1.9 '.7 3.9
24.9

41.3 22.6

109 7.1 14.7 23.8

30. 4 38,0

4.2 5.6 7.9 lOA 16.7 42.0 25,8 28.8 22.2 21.6 47.9 48.1 27.8 46.4 36.9
)3.3

1.0 03 0.2 0.3

II

0"
o o

profits propeny Sh2re5 Owner Mortg2.ge Tenant accommodation Agric. tied

5. '

Utban

Stocks

,nd

Free or

0.8 6.4 2.3 2.4 2.7 4.1 12.9 20.2 8.9 '. 1
I Ll

6.3 16.5 3.3 3.6 3.6 6.7 14.2 19.2 9.' 8.6 17.5 8. 7 12.4 lOA 30.2
40.0

16.9
57.3

12.8 18.1 10.2 24.6 23 .3 3'5.'5 30.9 1 '5.9 13.4 24.1 36.9 35.5 20.8 26.0 23.2
JJ.6

37.6 17.8
63.2

32 .7

34,7 13.7 8.2 09 12.3 1 S.3 1l.S '.9 2.1

U

} }

18,49 21,289

44. 3

51.8
42.4

'3 1.3 2.2 2.2 1.4 96. 9 93.2 3. 4 2.1 4.0 2.4
o

91.9
l.l

6.8 8.9

17. 32.) 27,2 33.8 41.7 12,2 15.1 32.6 19.1 12.1 2.6 2.9 0.8 86 48

0.1 0.7 0.8 0.2 2.' 0.' 0.6 0.1 14.6

33.6
II

17.7 15.0 11.4 15.0 32.7 32.2 9.9 14.0 12.8 9.7 18.1 10.0
49.8

1.6 0.' 0.4 3.' 3.8 0.7

55.2 57.7 42.2 33.2 46.8

2";,729 26,864 22,546

7.'

'.3

25.3 23.2 27.6 29.4 26.4 30.1 29.6 2'5.4 11.1 4.1 11.5 44 18.S 6.'

3.4 39 4.0 l. l 8.9 4.8 3.7 ,., 23,1 31.9 24.2 32.8 22.3
33.0

7.3 3.2 '.1

Social & medical Primary teachers

servICes

Technicians

63.2
".3 43.4 50.1 56.9 36.1 27.0 1 1.6 39.1 37.3 49.2 40.0

13.' 6.7 6.9 4.7

4.1 o

32,770

17

O. ,
O. I
o

1.0

'.8 10.0 7.6 29.7

3.0 61.616 102,222 2.2 1.3 0.' 57,229 0.4 1.4 83,309 3.1

Commercial employers Industrialists Sf. admin. executives Se<ondary & highc=r Enginrs ed. teachcn Prof essions

96.7 64.0 83.0 98.7 97.6 41.0

0.9 47. 'j 31 2.1 17.5

6.0 9.4 4.4 ' 3 4.3 14.1

87.2

0.1 4.9 3.7 0.9 0.8 1.8 3.4

27.9
o

26.4

51.R

7.6 9.7 '6 24.9

43.5 27.6

99.6

26.0 3.6

34.7
lU 15.5 10.4
30.3

32.8 20.'5 12.6 12.2 3'5.6

27.7 30A 21.0

40,6

33.8
42.6

6.6 7.' 10. 1

Farm workers 2 Farmers 3 Unskilled 4 Semlskitlro Skilled 6 Forcmn 7 Cnftsmcn 8 Small shopk , !':f'S 9 C -OmmrclaJ employttS 10 Office workers I I JUn ior admlnlS(fnivc executives 12 Technicians n S0I

28.S 22.6

Cial and mcdlCaJ Sf:rvlCes 14

Primary Ia(nrs 15 Commercial employers 16 Industrialists 17 Senior administrativ exutives neers 19 Secondary and nigner education teacners 20 Prof ions

18 Engi.

1.8

- - .--

--

- -

Table A.9 Some indicators of social trajectory and inherited cultural capital, by socio-occupacional category ( % ) .
pation (C.S. II, 1970 )
occu

Father's
.

b qualification Industrial No

Father's

Unskilled, Soci()occupational category Farm workers Farmers Farm labourers Farmers

29. 7 3.B 13.6 B.B 6.1 l.l

Craftsmen, Skilled, f oremen

l.1 1.2

and Junior comm. executives employers

3.3 O.B 0.4 0.2
LI

semi-skilled,

Domestic
rvams

small shopkeep:'rs

Semi-skilled Skdled Fomen Craftsmen Small shopkeepers Commercial employees

Unskilled

46.9 88.6
30 3 25.3 14.0 12.6 16.7 lB. 1 10,3 16.8 10.3 7.2 22.2 12.7 6.9

mmers
B.O 1.9

O.B 0.2
17

l.O
2.3

execUtives fessions
O.l 0.6
o

&nior

qualifica.tion,

Pro-

no response

CEP
17.2 27.9

BEPC calaureu education BacHigher

0.6 1.1 0.6 0.7 0.2 O.l
o

0.3 0.2 0.4 1.2 1.4 2.1

81.4
69.B

0.2
o

25.8

23.9

1 .O 17.7 25.8 25.6 13.6 10.7 18.0 17 .3 15.6 20.5 16.B 12.4 19.8

l.9 9.0 10.9 10.1

7.6 7.2 10.0 11.3

O.l 0.9
17

25.3

1.9 I.. 2.2

2.1 2.9 3.7 2.4 2.1 3.7 6.4 11.9 11.5

0.1 0.1 0.1

84.0

15.1 22. 29.8 30.7

0.6 1.3

7'5.4 67.3 6l.3 64.l 61.2 4.6 '57.8 40.6

23.6 11.8

3.2

2.0

1.'5

0.3

O.l

0.3 0. 4 1.1 0.6 2.2 2.9 1.4 6.0 3.6 3.7 11.3 l.9

1.0

0.9

63 4.9 4B I I 2B 2.0 3.4

I.l

16.8 20.4 9.9 1 .6 14.8 9.l 14.8

7.0

1.9 OB 09 27 3.3 2.1 4.' 1.3 I.l

0.

34.3 39.4 18.3 10.1 13.7 11.4 6.4 12.4 13.1 27.4 29.2 14.3 1l.4 15.4 12.0 14.7

8.1 8.1 1 .4

2.9 6.0 7.7 I.. l.2 4.1 2.0 9.1 3.2

1.6 2.3 3.4 9. 3.4

0.4 0.6 0.7 0.3 2.4 1.0

32.0 31.9 37.1 34.'5 41.6 42.9 40.'5

1.9

1.1 3.4 2.1 2.1 l.1 5.0

Jr.

Office workers admin. executives

M p

1.7 I.O 16.4

13.0 12.9

4.1 6.7 l.6 '5.9 6.1 5.4

3.3

1.2

Social & medic21 Technicians servICes Prim2ry {ochers

12.3

0.6

16.1
9.1 3.8 1 '5.2 12.6 11.7 15.2 9.4

Commerci21 employers Sf. admin. executives Secondary & higher-ed. teachers Professions Engineers

Industrialists

3.4 0.6 1.3 0.6 2.1 1.6 0.4

13.5 19.2 7.7 l.2 7.1 4.l l 5

77 7.4 6.6 4.6 2.9 2.B

l4

1 5. 3
2.6 I.l

.2
6.1

10.8 6.9

l.1 3A

!.7

46.
37.2 36.1 48.1 >2.9 3'5.1 32.0 31.6 23.3 30.4

42.9

1..

l.2

14.7 10.3 11.7 8.7 5.2

17

1.0 1.1 1.0

23. 7
9.7

11.2

18.0
6.7 l.9 1 1 .4

l.4

0.9
o

20.3 12.1

1).7

14.B

3 .

25.5
23,2 26.2 20.7

19. 1

2.4

1.9

3.6 38.1 36.'5 29.4 33.6

27.1

43.2
36.9

9.4 3.

.6
3.1

l.3 2.6 7.2 8.7 7.9 12.3 7.4

2.2 10.0 11.4 11.6 14.' 12.5

2.7

8
6.2

3.9

11.3
15.4

4.3

4.2

18. 22.8

O.l

20.8

23.4

26.2

ather', occup(ion, (he calculation excludes non-responKS and 'miscelb.neous' occupations. a. For the f

b. Exduding thnim diplomas. c. Indudes Army and Police,

Table A.IO Educational capiral, spare time, fertility and place of residence, by socio-occuparional category ( % ).
Educational capital' 1970) Started CAP, BEC, BP 10.3 13.7 7.0 18.2
41.2 38.8

(C.S.

II,

( 1 %8 census, economically active men and women, aged 16+) Average no. of Rural <10,000 pop. 9.3 6.2 11.6 12.3 10.0 10.1 12.8
13.2

Place of residence

Socio-

occupational caregory farm workers farmers Unskilled Semi-skilled Sk;II.. foen Craftsmen Small shopkrs Commercial employ Office workers Jr. admin. executives Technicians servICes Social & medical Primary teachers Commercial employers

qu. CEP
67.4

No

BS,

higher
o o o

BEH 1.8 1.0 0.1 004 1.9 5.7 2.4 1.4 3.8 1.8 9.0
19.6

BEPC Baccalauttat education Licence + (C.S. IV, 0.6 1.8 0.8 1.7 0.7 0.8
o o 1 o o

pn wtdc,
62.9

Pop. to SO,OOO 4.9 30 13.0 14.3 13.") 14.3 ll.8 13.3 14.0 12.3 11.7 12.0 14.3 14.4
16.4 16.0

Pop. 50 Pop. 100 Pop. 200,000 100,000

l.l
w

to 200,000 1.9 0.8

77

to 2,000,000 30
Ll

Paris conurbation 1.7 03

1 '5.3

children communes 3.00

77.8 87.5

19.6 37.3 22.0 2804 25.1 31.9

4 ').1 70.0 51.3 29.2 19.0 23.5 19.6 19.1 1 '5.9 8.9 6.0 2.2
l.'5

0.2

68.0
21.9

2.83 2.77 2.42 2.10 1.94

0.8 6.0 6.7 7.4 7.7 '.2 6.1

28.3 27.0 18.2 12.8 37.0 28.1 13.6 1 1 .7 10.6 8.6 10.3

18 .l IS.7 19.3 21.7 13.9 17.1 21.2 20.'5 20.9 20.1

22.0

II

8.'

1 5.5

0.3 0.4 1.0 1.1 3.8

6.'

0.1 03 0.7 0.1 1.7 0.6 0.8 ,.4 '.6

73.9 27.7

23.2 22.4 26.4 47.6

81.1

9.2 97

22.3 23.6 13.9 15.l 23. 4 3D 33.7 35.2 26.5 18.0 21.8 17.2
39.3 45.3

0.1 0.2 0.2 0.' 03 4.4 1.9

o

2.7 2.1 6.0 ,.4

17.4 16.0

43.1

34.S 39.0

36.1 23.9 25.6 19.9 1804 2804 604 5.1 15.') 24.1 10.9
').S

1.92 1.68 1.97 1.71 1.67

,., 7.0 1 1 .1 9.3 9.' 9.6

8.1 7.2 6.6 7 1 7.8 11.1 1 1 .8

14.1

8.'
7.4 7. 1 7.4
8.1

49.7 10.9 16.7

40.1 26.0 21.3 10.0

'5.7

3.8 11.9 '.8 32

11.4 0.6 6.0 9.7 4.' 11.8 '.0 0.7 1.7

14.4 0.7 '.9 ,.4

9.9

3.0 8.7 1.8 3.4 24.0 55.3

74.2 74.2

1.69

22.4 15.S 22.3 63 '.7 '.8

7.8 7.7 6.8 7.0 6.3 7.7 7.3

II.I

9.3

17.0 18.2 16.5 20.5 19.7

39.3
7.6 4.0
13.7

In

39.2 36.9 16.7 4.7 2.8 4.2

3. 3 8.2 10.6 13.7 11.5

U

Sr. admin. executives

Industrialists Enginrs Secondary & higher ed. teachers Professions
2.

1).7 6.2 3.1 0.7 2.6

10.3 2.09 45.1 31.5 26.8 8.3 67.1 2.00 8.6 7.2 9. ' 7.9
1l.2

'9 '.7 ,.8 11.3

1l.4 93 1 1.6 13.4

8.3 6.6 0.7 1.2

9.2 4.6 2.8

2.6 1.8

2.06

14.4

8.9

25.4

32.5 24.8

20.0

The perC(:nt.ages exclude other diplomas. b. &onontU ,t SJaJiSllqllt, 27 Ouobt::r 1971, 28.

Tabk A.ll Consumption and cultural practices, by socio-occupacionai category ( % ).

Total consumpdon (.S, III, 1972)
""

Ownm of

Cultural practica (C.S. Spc:ctator Car sports maintenance"' at kast at least

1 14 hf$. a week

IV,

1967)

occupational

Socio-

p" household category (fCllncs) 22771 26667 21840 26471 2_ lH20 28HO _I "'''' 27774 }6272

consumption Second Tde Washing. '5 times (francs) home phone: machine ( francs) a yor unit of capita 16lO 636' 6170 6'2 7476 9174 8444 10118 1O124 9227 11478 10979 11316 11627
"480

""

Do-it-yourself at least once: a week

Enter Variety Theatre Concert

Chhcau, monume:nt, Stamp on Library Evening collection mc:mbenhip classc:s the: yor 0.' Tde fair in the ,.., b 31.6 2U 26.0 38.2 43.9 38.8 43.6 37.9 43,0 52.9 8.4 rain at show at least lc:ut once once: a week b 63 13.8 6., '.2 a year b 16.'5 15.4 22.5 29.0 26.4 16.3 16.'5 18.0 28,2 38.7 38.7 b 19.8 at least once a yor ar leut

Farm workers Farmers Unskilled Semiskilled Skilled Foremen CClI f tsmc:n Small shopkeepers Comme:rcial e:mployttS Office workc:rs Jr. admin. eXc:<utivo Tc:<hnicians Social & medinl ser Primary teache:rs Commercial e:mploye:rs Industrialists
VICO

7928 8824 8578 9}lO 10192

l2n!

1.0 2.2 2.2 l.4 3.3 10,9 14.1 14,5 7.2 9.6 11.9 6.l 7.'

1 5,8 0.3 )0 '.6 24.2 48.0 H.2 28.6 13.2 29.4 2H 41.7 29.9 72.3 7).1

,.

1.7 2.3
o

b 12.8 41.9 35J 29.0 39.9 37.3 28.'5

b
1.3 9.'

b 36.'

once: a year b 27 2.7 4.7 '.1 13.3 " 9.0 9.3

III

Piano

b 0.2 1.7 '.3 '.7 13.6

o

b 0.9 10 9.3 6.0 1.9 2.0 1.9 '.6 10.3 1.3 16.5 b 19.Q
o

b
23.7 12. 21.6 29.2 40.3 30.9 2'5. 20.5 38.8 '58.4 52.2

b
1.3
I.l

b
1.3
o

0.7 0,6 2.4 5.8 7.1 5.2

'5.4 H

IO 12.6
12.6 4.8 8.0 17.8 13.1

10.6

34.8 44.4 '50.8 -'3.9

11489 1lJ60 13818 12192 15461 I lIl90 1'5277 ",.. 14463

19TH

H438
Hln

1.0

42.2

36.'
43.7 29.2 37.7 39.l 38.7
'4.3

6.1 .6 9.3 '.3

I.'

'.7

,.

0.3

0.2 0.4 3.'

2.'

I.'

32.7 2}.7 29.9

6.6
b

29.4 b 6.9

14.4

3.7 12.9

4.' 3.7 20.3 9.8 1'5,8

6.l 10.6 12.4 12,7 14.7 12.9 b 10.3

4 7. 9

6.6 '.9 1.2 7.3 18.3 6.' b

21.6 lU

'.7
o

20.2 10,8 b 21.6

3.' 12.8 6.' b

20.7

l2787 '1886 47680

1()419

Sr. admin. execu

29. 7 2J.2
2 3.9

18.6

3.6 '5, 22.3

21.7
24.'5

b
29.3

b
'59.'5
o

2.'

b 67.2
38.1
68.'

64,8
31.4 29.8
9.8 20.0

14.1 28.9

2.'

52.1

43.7

18.3 25.9

7.0 27.8 23.9 '0.0

tIVes Engineers Secondary & higher ed. teachers

Prof essions

1469'
13920

198;'5 19308
17708 22467

67.7

22 .3 14.2
2'5.0

77.6
39.7

27,9
15.4

3.2 3.'
o o
not

34.4
26.4 14.1

1 1 .6 '.l
2.8

13.3
20.9

'.8 17,9

77.6

62. 1 70. 1
20.9 33.0

12.1 26.9 30.6

24 . 3 50.8

21.7

28.3 26.4 25.9

49.3 '2.8 34.1

408l3
'57133

13136 16370

27,8
4.7

84.'

31,)

9.4

27,8 2'.8

38.8 57.6

38.9

13.9 42.4

)7.6

a. Pcrce:ruagc:s calculated for 100 owners of cars or two-wheeled vehicles. b. The: (non-significant) figurc:s for the farm worken and social and medical services (men) are duced.

iq>CO

Appendix 4

Associations: A Parlour Game

thors of the questionnaire produce a 'datum' which only has to be seen, ect. i en as g v , in order to produce a political eff This game, in which politicians are at stake, is a political game; but it is so in a much deeper sense than that given ro the word i n political sci ence institutes and opinion research organizations. The politicians here are only the pretext for a game of attribution, categorization, and the ob.

asSOCIates the left-wing politicians, and especially Marchais, with the most pejorative attributes, and the trick has been pulled off. Guided by or the hierarchies they impose, because they take them f granted, the au

1975) then only has ro observe, with strict neutrality, that a 'majority'

jects offered are attributes, predicates, categoremes ( as Arisrotle put it, obscuring the original meaning, which is relevant here, of accusation ) . In 1975 a survey was carried out, inviting a sample of the population to associate various objects with various politicians. The originarots of the idea, as the comments whic h accompany the publication of the findings suggest, no doubt saw it simply as an 'entertaining' variant of the peri odic surveys on the 'popularity' of public figures. However, the real point of the test they unconsciously produced (and this unconsciousness is part of its value) is not that it shows whether this or that politician is a fox or

unless onc assumes that, far from making random individual associations,

imagination, one finds statistical regularities which cannot be explained

which govern these attributions is objectively raised by the fact that where one might have only expected the random associations of the

The question of the rules ( is that the right word ? ) , principles or schemes

a crOW, an oak Of a fir tree, white or black, nor even whether the 'reds' more often assilt black to the spokesman of the 'whites' (conservatives) than vice versa. The interviewer presented lists of six objects or characters (colours, trees, classical heroes, carroon characters etc.) and asked the subjects to ollowing six attribute one and only one of these objecrs ro each of the f politicians: Jac<jues Chirac, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Georges Marchais, Pranois Mitterrand , Michel Poniarowski, Jean-Jac<jues Servan-Schreiber.2

the people questioned are guided in the connections they make by com mon principles of vision and division. Because these principles function implicitly and are not consciously orm or their application, scrutinized as regards either their internal f agents do not all apply the same scheme to the same object. However, as is shown by the fact that the meanings brought to light for each object are both finite i n number (and not as numerous as the respondents, as

they would be if the principle of attribution had to be sought in the reo spondents' individual history) and immediately intelligible (even in the schemes which the respondents may apply in each case, thereby selecting erent aspects of the same object or person, are both finite in number diff erent readings of the same and common ro all the respondents, so that diff object are intelligible to all of them. If the meaning that is 'chosen' presents irself unequivocally in each case, despite the polysemy of the objecrs considered in isolation, that is absence of any explicit codification ) , one is entitled ro assume that the

The findings of the survey, commissioned in June 1975 by the weekly magazine Le Point, were published in Sondages, 3-4 ( 1975 ), 3 1 -47, with the following as sole commentary: 'The findings of this survey are enter taining to read, but they have a deeper interest as well. The set of attri acers of his public image. butions made for each politician reveals many f rea Sometimes it is diffic ult to distinguish with certainty the multiple rather sons which have led the subjects ro see a politician as one colour ox, or as a hairdresser rather than a than another, as an ant rather than a f more lawyer. However, when a politician is identified with one object by and than a third of the sample, the explanation is generally self-evident, eren t resulrs of light is cast on the motivations of the choices by the diff generally the other politicians vis-avis the same objecr. Connections are known made either in terms of the man's physical appearance, or the best We shall earures of his personality, or his position and political career. f exetCIse not comment further on the findings, but will leave the reader ro

because the particular scheme of perception (among those objectively ap plIcable) that IS actually applied is clearly designated, insofar as it is the only one which enables an intelligible and constant relationship of equiv.

alence or exclusion to be established between the objects, and therefore an intelligible relationship between the aspecrs ( thus consti tuted) through which the objects, things or persons can enter into the relation

his imagination.' . ob,ec Wit h this apparent abdication the analyst gives himself an air of t, 14 July or tivity as he steps aside f the journalist. The latter (in Le Poin

ship. Thus, the scheme strong/weak or rigid/supple (which is no doubt virtually co-extensive with the deeply internalized opposition male/fe male) is clearly the basis of the opposition between the oak-majestic, powerful and rigid-and the reed-weak, supple, fragile, fickle--and also of the opposition between Giscard (or Poniatowski) and Servan-

r
Tabk A.12
Overall survey results. Colours Politicians Giscard d'Eswng POnilUQwski Chil'2C Servan-Schreibcr Mitternnd Marchais White Black Blue Orang< Yellow Grecn Oak Plane T=s Palm-uee Reed Poplar Fir

3) %-

16 16 14 13 6

10% 22 9 9 10
40

29%

14 25 12 13 7

6% 16 12
23 23

18 18
23

9%

12% 13 18 19
24

31%

20

18 14

14

21 11 6 16 15

22

8%

20 6 16 18

14% 18 18
21

18% 7 12
26

19% 12
22

17 12
Animals Grasshopper

21 16

18 15 14

10% 18 17 14 17
24

Flowers Chrysan- Lily of the valley the-mum

P oliticians Giscard d'Estaing Poniatowski Chine Servan-Schrcibcr Mittarand Marchais

Poppy

Narcissus

Lilac

Carnation

Ox

Ant

Fox

Crow

Tortoise

14 24 10 9 16
27

23

16 21 14 16 10

12 8 9 13 21
37
Games

14 16 15
27

18 16
25

18
20 20

12
38

29

17 11

21 13 7

17 16 9

16 6 9 19

11 22 12 14 12

18 8 15
28

24

21 \0

13 15 11 22 15
Hats

9 17 16 \0 16
32

9 12 15
33

18 13

Politicians Giscard d'Estaing Poniatowski Chirac Scrvan-Schreibcr

Bridge

Monopoly Dominoes

Poker

o)(SS
23

Roulcm:

Beret

Cap

StntW boater

Felt hat

Helmet Top har

39

16 15

24

14 17

9
7

Mincmnd

14

14

6 21 18 17 15

12 16 18
20

14 12 13

6 17 13
26

18

18

18

40

11 9 12 13

\0 5 \0 12
16

14 14 21
U

\0 14 22 16
26

8
41

46

30

17 11
7

18 13 13
6

Cars

furniture

Poliricians Giscard d'Estaing P oniatowski Chirae Servan-Schreiber Mitterrand Marchais

Citroen 2ev

Renaulr

Peugeot

504
19 % 28

Rolls Royce

Porsche

Simca

1100 6% 20 17 21

Louis XVI Wardrohe chair

25

Empire desk

Four-poster

10% \0

10

12
50

12 14 15 20

9%

39 %

bed

Knoll sofa

Farmhouse tahle

30

23 12 15 3

20

18% 10
28

7%

16 7
9

27 \0 7

25

11

13 12 24 19

15 19 11 12 7

36%

33 %

20 19 10 11 7

12% 17 18
28

10 22
32

6%

11 14
Family

17 13

12 9 7 24
42

6%

Famous women Brigitte Bardor Mireille Mathieu Jane Birkin Michele Morgan Jackie Queen of Kennedy England Father in-law

Politicians Giscard d'Estaing Poniatowski Chicae Servan-Schreiber Mitterrand Marchais

Son

Brother

Son in-law

Father

Cousin

14 12 21
24

16 13

7 15 14 \0 18
36

10 11 15 19 21
24
Jobs

26

15 15 8 25 11

15 14 21
29

27
32

13 8

15 11 8

28

25 6

12
26

19 15 7

11 13 18 20

15 12
25

19 17 12

24

12 12 .19 20 13

24
27

11 \0 20 8

11 16 8 15
40

10

Cartoon characters Mickey Mouse Donald Duck Lucky Luke

Politicians Giscard d' Esraing Poniatowski Chicae Servan-Schreiber Mirterrand Marchais

2.

Lawyer

Concierge

Overseer

Hairdresser Doctor Chauff ur e

Asrerix

Popeye

TintiD

32
:')

28 11 12 12

11 13 14
36

19

31

20 14

13 \0 12

15 17

24

16 14

29

22 17 14 15 8

13 19 20 14
\0

26

19 15 17 14
9

14 14
IS

19

18

24

17

15 20

22

10 14 19

23

7 22 14 14 20

22

13 20 16 14' 15

20 18 13 16 I1
22

The itliciud numbers indicue the highat pen:cntagc in each column.

ilblt A.13

' Variations in survey responses on the part of Mitterrand and Giscard voters.

Colours 'tieians Whirr Blue

20,6% 9.3 22.4 10. 2U n.o

Animals Orllnge
S.4% 12.1 16.8 17.8

T= Fo.
29.9% 7.3 12.1 14.0 22.4 14.0

ittl""lIId WlII'.1

Yellow
9.% 1 'i.9

Blaek
l'i.O% 39.3 14.0

Grn
to.% 7.3 12, I 17 .S 33.6 16.8

0.
8.4% 42.0 11.2 73 to. 2U

Grass hopper
19.6% 6.3 16.8 24.3 21.5 1O.

Crow
1O.%

An,
16.8% 84 14.0 D.O 24,3 20.6

Tortoise
14.0% lL2 16.8 31,8 12.1 14.0

0"
19.6% 15.0 3.6 3.6 32.7 20.6

Palm ,,
18.7% 20.6 IS.7 23.4 11.2 6.'

Poplar
20_6%

Plane
IL2% 28.0 18.7 7 ' 93 24..

Rd
19.6% 8.4 15.0 3'. .'1 14,0 6.'

Fil

Giso.rd d'Esaing 36.4%' ' PonialOwski l'i,O 12. J Chirae ScrvanSchreir 15.9 11.2 MiHerrand MaKhais 8.4
Jwtm
33.3 IS.0 20 7.2 10,8 4,

9.3'

30.8
18,7 13.1 11.2

"

2 l , 'i

19

26.2
17.8 43 18.0 8.6 31.7 27. to.1

28,0
25.2 7.3 93 18.7

23.4
12,1

9.3

17.8

17.8

19.6 14.0

7.' 27.1

19.6

: Giscard d'Escaing Poniatowski Chine Servan-Schreibcr Mirrerrand , Marchais

36.7 18.0 28.1 7.9 79 14

7.2 23.0 12.2 22. 22, 12.9

3.6 86 29 10.8 13.7 60.4

12.9 14.4 23.7 20.1 IS.0 10.8

12.9 42,4 20.1 4.3 72 12.9

14.4

6.3 9.4 79 10.8 20.1 4.'1.3

30.2
22.

94

38.8
12.2 7.9 94 3.0 26.6

18.7 15.8 18.0 lU 18.0 18.0

9' to.8 I t . 'i H.5 23.0 10.8

43.2 2S.1 15.8 2.9 4.3 3.8

108 18.7 15.8 17.3 21.6 D.S

15.1 1 'i.S 20.1 216 14.4 12.9

'.0 18.7 23.0 20.1 19.4 13.7

IS.O '.3 7.2 21.6 23.7 2.'1.2

8.6

14.4

15.S

17.3

17.3

16.5

79

2.'1.9

Famous women
irkians

Family MiehHe Morgan

14.0% 6' 16.8 8.' 40.2 13.1

Games Son-in
low

Gisc.lrd d'Emlng Poniatowski OIif2( Scrvan-SchreiooMittemnd , Marchais

. Wltrs J

;,lnTm IJOtm

Brigitte Bardot
12.1% 11.2

Jane Birkin
15.0% 13.1 11.2 22.4 16,S 20.6

Jackie Mireille Kennedy Mathieu

18.7% 1').0 19.6 28.0 10.3 7' 12.1 % 11.2 16.8 6' 13.1 39.3

Queen of Enlj:land
27.1% 42. 1 D.O '.6 3.7 5.6

Son
17.8% 4.7 17.8 24.3 24.3 93

Brother Father
10.3% 5.6 20.6 2.'1.2 20.6 16.8 20.6% l'i.O 9. 6.5 29.0 18.7

Father-in low
30.8
13.1 12.1 19.6 8.4 14.0 %

Cousin
16.8% 25.2 1 1 .2 16.8 1.9 26.2

Bridge
32.7% I 'i_9 9.3 93 25.2 7.5

Dominoes Chess Monopoly

6.5% 17.8 15.0 15.9 17.8 26.2 IS.7% 1.1 13.1 16.8 15.9 22. 4 1,9% 17.8 19.6 14.0 16.8 15.0

Poker
16.8% 18.7 24.3

Roul

18,7% 16.8 26.2 15.9 12.1 93

8.4

1 'i.5

28.0
13.1

19.6 D.O

I 'i.O
12.1 12.1

28.C

17.S

12.1

16.e

Gis.card d'Estaing , : Poniatowski : Otif2c ' Scrvan-Schreibe:r

Marchais

14.4 13.7 21.6 2j.Q 1.8 11.5

5.8 7.9 19.4 16.5 22.3 28.J

10.8 1,8 18.0 33.8 14.4 7.2

'.3 15.1 10.8 79 20.9

37.4 18.7 15.1 '.3 18.0 ,..

' Minemnd

28. 1

26.6 15.1 14.4 7.9

33.8
6.' .I 17.

18.0 16.5 30.2 !'i.S 13.7

29.5 37.4 10.8

7 9 2.'1. 9 6.' 16.

6.' 8.6

4.3 '.0 '.3 12.9 15.1

41 .7 17 . 20.1 8.6 7.2

5.8 26.6 17.3 17. 12.9

28. 1 15.1 9.4 12.2 15.8

15.8 16.5 26.6 13 .7 12.9

'.0 11.5 16.5

2.'

13.7

""

'.8

29. .'1 I . 1

27.3

11.9 .

24.'
23-7

10.1

'M

24.'

.liricians lillm'ltIIIi Wllri Giscard d'Esaing Poniatowski Cline Servan..5chreiber

Miuerrand

13""
8.4% '.7 14.0 12.1 41.1 lS.7

""',

StflilW

H...r5

Helmet
S.4% 442 12.1 6' '.7 13.1

up
7.5 % '6 7 ' 93 16.8 .'13.3

"I< lu,

Cars Top h"

.'12.3 % l3.1 15.0 8' 7.3 2.8

Citroen
2"

Peugeot Porsche
2'.2% 6.5 18.7 34.6 6.5 7.5

'04

Renault ,
7.5% 18.7 14.0 11.2 26.2 22.4

Rolls Roycc
43.9% 17.8 12.1 13.1 7.' '.7

Simca
llOO

Wardrobe:
1.9% 24.3 12.1 8.4 2.'1.2 20.8

Louis XVI chair

37.4% 17.S 2U 8.' 9.3 '.7

Furniture

Hmpirc:

do'

Four-postcr "'"
18.1% !'i.O 20.6 29.0 '.7 11.2

Knoll &
3.7% 8.4 19.6 '" 16.S l'i.9

Fwnh
"b

13.1 % 1U 15.0 37.4 19.6 3.7

9.% 12.1 33.6 2'i.2 10.3 8.4

7.5% 9.3 11.2 6.' 10.3 .'14.2

11.2% 23.4 24.3 1'i.9 22.4 2.S

4.7% 22.4 IS.7 17.8 27.1 8.4

30 8 % . 18.7 18.1 11.2 15.0 '.7

,6

1'.0

6.'

7.'

28.0

MaKhais

36 .4

F::::7
0>""
M d , u ..

Estaing Ponia[Qwski

11.5 12.2 10.1 12.2 41.0 12.9

16.5 15.8 23.7 20 44.4 '.0

7.2 31.7 23.0 12.9 6' 18.7

12.9 '.0 86 11.5 1'.8 46.0

79 lU 20.1 23.7 18.0 15.1

43.9 20.1 14.4 15.1 '.3 2.2

12.2 8.6 4.3 9' 12.2 .'13.2

23.7 32.4 25.9 6.' 10.1 1.4

1 'i.8 12.8 30.2 23.7 12.2 3.0

9.4 8.6 15.1 1'-1

33.8
22.3 6.' 20.1 6.' IO.S

'.8 15.S 24..'1 24.' 11.5 18.0

7.2 27.3 1 5.1 12.9 14.5 12.9

37.4 1'.8 18.0 12.9 11.5 '.3

37.4 19.4 21.6 6.' 8.6 6.3

79 15.S 18.7 27.3 13.7 16. 'i

4.3 13.7 18.7 33.8 19.4 10.1

'8

7.9

7.9

Servan-Schreir Mitrerrand

6.'

" 5
17.

2n

49.ti

Job. 'ticians
Lawyer
IS.7% 09 93 14.0 4.'1.8 10.3

Flowers Hairdrnser
13,1% 16.8 2U 29.9 9.3 8'

Cartoon charKters Narcissus

20.6% 14.0 19.6 27.1 8.4 9.3

1;11Ir'f4lld wtll'I

Overseer
11..'1 % 11.2 20.6 12.1 B.I 19.6

Donor
1'.9% 9.3 12.1 19.6 26.2 1'i.0

Concierge
9.3% 31.8 19.6 11.2 3.7 22.4

Chauffeur
20.6% 26.2 1 'i.0 13.1 0.9 22.4

Chrysanthemum
2U% 38.3 15.9 2.8 3.7 16_8

Poppy
10.3% 7.> 10-3 93 23.4 38.3

Lilac
B.t % 6.' 18.7 30.8 19.6 to.3

Lily of the nlley

13.1 % !'i.0 21.5 12.1 2.'1.2 12.1

Carnation
20.6% 18.7 12.1 16.S 13.7 12.1

AsttErix
14.0% 15.9 12.1 11.2 26.2 18.7

Donald Duck
12.1 % 18.7 22.4 17.8 14.0 13.1

Lucky Luke
23.4% 10.3 15.0 1'.0 18.7 l'i.9

Mickqo

Mow<
23.4% 10.3 19.6 21.5 12.1 12.1

Popeye T
6.5% 24.3 15.0 12.1 15.9 24.3

t;i-J

Gisa.rd d'Esraing Poniatowski Chiru Serv2l\-Schreibc:r Minerf2nd Marchais Gisc:ard d'Esaing Poniarowski Clil'2( Servan-Schiber
Mirtttrand Marchais
'The italicized

2;

11

l'

1;

l'

,., 19.4 14.4 8.6 20.1 0.7

20.1 17. 43.2 9' 6.5 36

V, 3.'1.3 19.4 '.0 6.3 l'

L' 7.9 5.8 16.5 20.9 47,.'1

6.> 12.2 8.6 33.1 25.2 14.4

29 79 79 28.1 21.6 31.7

'.8 13.7 72 12.9 24.5 36.0

14.4 8.6 7.2 1'-1 IS.O 36.7

21.6 19.4 28. 1 17.3 8.6 '.0

33.1 19.4 23 .7 12.2 38 '.8

7.2 17.3 12.2 26.6 27.3 9'

22.3
16.5 15.1

18.0 20.9

34.) 25.9 17 . 5.8 7.2 9.4

8.6 9' 12.9 25.2 17.3 26.6

23.7 13.7 20,9 15.S 12.9 12.9

79 13-7 2.O 12,9 23.7 18.7

6.' 209 11.5 13.7 2.'1.9 21.6

"

1<

"

7.2

"

a.

numrs indicate the highest percentage in each column.

Table A..13

' Variations in survey responses on the part of Mitterrand and Giscard voters.
Colours Grasshopr
Anim.1ls Am 16.8% 8.4 14.0 IH 24.3 20.6

Mittwrand wttrJ
Chirac

Politicians

Whit

Blu

Yellow

Black

Orange

Gm:n

Crow

Fo,

Tortoise

Poplar

Plane

Fi r

Giscard d'Estaing 36, 4 %. 1 0 Poniatowski

12.1 15.9 1I,2 8,4

20.6% 93 22,4 10.3 21.5 15,0

9.3% 15.9 18 7 30.8

15.0% 39.3 14.0 7' 1.9 11.5

8.4% 12.1 16.8 17.8 17,8 26.2

10.3% 12.1

7.'

84% 42.0 I L2 7' 10,3 21.5

19.6% 6.5 16.8 24.3 21.5 10,3

10,3% 2'.2 28.() 7,5 9.3 IS.7

29.9% 7, 12.1 14.0 22.4 14.0

14.0% 1 1.2 16.8 31.8 12.1 14.0

19.6% 15.0 '.6 '.6 32.7 20.6

18.7% 20.6 18.7 23.4 11.2 6.,

20.6% 9.3 23.4 19.6 12.1 14.0

11,2% 28.0 18.7 7,

19.6% 84 15.0 35.5 14.0 6,

9.3% 17.8 17.8 7.' 19.6 27.1

Servan-Schrir

GiJutrd lIOurJ

Miuerrand Marchais

I L2
13.1 7.2

17.8 33.6 16,8

93 24.3

Giscard d'Esraing 3.3

Poniarowski 18.0 24. 72 10,8 4,3

36.7 18.0 28.1 79 79 1.4

3.6 8.6 2.9 1O.S 13.7 60.4

43 18.0 8.6 31.7 27.3 10.1

12.9 14.4 23.7 20.1 18.0 10.8

12.9 41.4 20 I 43 72 12.9

14.4 9,4 15g 30.2 22.3 7.9

6,5 9.4 7.9 10.8 20.1 45.3

38.8 12.2 26,6 7.9 9.4 '.0

18.7 15.8 18.0 IU 18,0 18,0

9.4 10.8 IU 34.5 23.0 10.S

43.2 28.1 15.8 29 4.3 '8

10.8 18.7 15.8 17.3 21.6 15,8

15.1 15.8 20, I 21.6 14.4 12.9

'0 18.7 23.0 20.1 19.4 13.7

18.0 43 72 21.6 23.7 2'.2

86 14.4 17.3 17.3 \6.5 25.9

23.0 12.2 22.3 21.3 12.9

Chim ,x.rvan-SchR'ir Mirrrrand Marchais

Famous women Brigitte Hardor Jan Birkin Jackie Kmnedy Mireilk Mathieu Michtk Morgan Qutcn of England

Family

Games

Politicians M;llwrami 1!O J ln' Giscard d'Esuing Poniatowski

Chirac Servan-Schreiber

Son

Brother

Farher

Fa(hr-in l,w

Cousin

Bridge

Domin Chess

Monopoly

Poker

Roulette
8.4 \ti 15 .9 17.8 28.0 12.1 16.8

12.1 % 11.2 19.6 28.0 15.0 13.1

".0% 13.1 t 1.2

11.4

18.7% 15.0 18.0 10.3 7.5 19.6

12.1 % 11.2 16.S 6., 13.1 39.3

14,0% 6, 16.8 4<J.l 13.1 8.4 37.4 lS.7 I ,. I ..,

27.1 % 42. 1 15.0 '6 37 ,.6

17.S% 47 17.S 24.3 24.3 93 33.8 6.'

10.3% .6 20.6 25.2 20.6 16.8 IS.O 16.' 30.2 1'.8 n.7

20.6% 1',0 9,3 6,5 29.0 18.7 37.4 IO.S 19.' n.7

14,0% 30,8 13.1 8.4 12.1 19,6

18.7 % 16,S 2., 1 '.9 12.1 9.3

16.S% 25.2 11.2 16.8 1.9 26.1

32.7% 1'.\.9 9.3 9.3 25.2 7.' 41.7 17 .3 20.' 8.6 7.2 ,..

6.5% 17.8 15.0 15.9 17.8 26.1

18.7% 13.1 13.1 16.8 15.9 21.4

15.9% 17.S 19.6 14.0 16.8 15.0

16.8% IS,7 24.3 t :1.0 12.1 12.1

GiJuwd voltrJ
Chine

Marchais

Mittcrrand

16.8 20.6

Giscard d'Estaing 14A Poniatowski 13.7

5.:rv:an-Schreiber Mitterrand Marchais
U.8

23.0
... "

21.6

',8 7.9 19.4 16. 22 .3

28. I

10.8 1 '.8 IS.0 33.8 14.4

43 t5.1 >09 40.,

10 7.9

7.2

.8D ,..

26.6 28.1 1 .1 14.4 79 7.2

33.1

17.3 , '.6

7.9
0.7

'.8

7.9 2'.9 6' 16.' :U.7 19.4

6.' 8.6 1 '.1 29.' 21.3 1:1.9

12.9
n.1

4.3 '.0 .,

26.6 17.3 '.8

28. 1 15.1 9.4 12.2 U.8 19.4

26.6

,...,

17.3 12.9 20.1

1 3.7 12.9

I:I.S 165

'.0 11.5
23.7 24.J 18_7

14.1

16.'

2.9 13.7 10.1 24.'

266 22.}

furniture

AfiJlnrMtJ IIOIm

Pol iticians

Helmet

Top ""

Citroen
20

Porsche

Renault
,

Rolls Royce

Sima

BOO

Wardrotx

Louis XVI chair

Empire <iak

FOUf-postf

b<d

Knoll

.,c,

Farmhouse
(able

Giscard d'Estaing Poniatowski Chim Scrvan-Schrei( Mittttrand Marchais

8.4 Ili 4.7 14.0 11.1 41.1 18.7

13.1 % 11.2 15.0 37.4 19.6 3.7

SAIli 44.2 12,1 6' 4.7 13. I

7.5% '.6 75 9.3 16.8 53.3

9.3% 12.1 33.6 15.2 10.3 8.4

52.3 % 13.1 15,0 8.4 7.' 2.8

7.5% 9.3 11.2 6.' 10.3 '4.2

11.2% 23.4 24.3 1'.9 22.4 32,S

15.2% 6.) 18.7 34.6 6.' 7.'

7.5% 1S.7 14.0 11.2 26.2 22.4

43.9% 17.8 12.1 13.1 7.' 4.7

4.7 % 22.4 18.7 17,8 27.1 8.4

1.9% 24.3 12.1 8.4 25.2 20.8

37.4% 17.S 21,5 8.4 93 4.7

30.8% lS.7 IS.7 1I.2 15.0 4.7

IS.7% 20.6 29.0 15.0 4.7 11.2

3.7% 8.4 19.6 34.6 16.8 15.9

,.6% 15.0 6.' 7' 28.0 36.4

GiKud HIm

Giscard d'F.sraing Poniatowski Chirac Servan-Schreibcr Miucrrand Marchais

lU 11.2 10. t 12.1 41.0 1 2.9

16.5 15.8 23.7 20

44.4

7.2 31.7 23.0

12.9 '.0 8.6 IU 1'.8 46.0

7.9 1'-\ 20.1 23.7 18,0 15.1

43.9 10.1

12.2 8.6 4.3 9.4 12.2 53.1

23.7 32.4 2'.\.9 6.' 10. 1 ..4

1'.\.8 12.8 30.2 23.7 12.1 '0

9.4 8.6 IH 1 '.1 34.; 17.3

33.8 22.3 6.' 20.1 6.' 10,8

'.8 15.S 18.0 24.' 24.5 I L'

7.2 27.3 1.1 12.9 24.' 12.9

37.4 1'.S 18.0 12.9 1t.5 4.3

37,4 19A 21.6 6.) '.6 6,

7.9 1'.\.8 IS.7 27.3 13,7 16.5

4.3 U-7 IS.7 33.8 19.4 10.1

'8 7.9 7.9 6.' 22.3 49.6

'0

12,9 6.' IS.7

l 'U 43 22 14.4

lobo

Flower.;

. a.ado (

OUY$aJ)theroum

lilac

Liiy of the
valley

Na1"ci!OSU5

Carnation

-- -------

Asterill

Ilonatd Lt,o:l-. Mickey "' '''' .l. .;.... ... -.J ... ..1] io.. _ ...' .... ... l!oI '-- illl;j c...
. .

Cartoon character.;

_.= .

MinclTlInd Marchais

.. 1O.t!'

43

. ... 70 1.4

22.3 12.9

""'''

H.7 60 4

-...

.-.- :t'T'''-----. --"""'.... .

_ _ . .

27.3 10.1

18.0 10.8

---r;,... -.- ---- ..

. .

7.2 12.9

22.3

IV . ....

7.9

20.1 4J.3

. '-":I'

,. '.0

Tr.7

18.0 18.0

"7 -:1.

23.0 10.8

.."

"

lT3 21.6

. -Zl.1'i

,.

U.8

14.4

2tI T

12.9

19.4

-"ZT:ti -

23.7

13.7

2J.2

T7.3 16." 2J.<)

Famous women Brigir[(' Bardor Jan(' Blrkin Jacki(' Kennedy 18.7 % 15.0 19.6 28.0 10 3 7, Mirc:illc: Mathieu Michck Morgan Quttn of England Soo I7.B% '.7 17.B 24.3 24.3 93

Family Father-in l,w Son-in low 18.7%

Games (. b('SS 18.7% 13.1 13.1 16.8 15.9 22.4

Politicians

Brother

Farhc:r

Cousin

Bridge:

Dominoc:s

Monopoly

Poker

Milurrand WltrJ
Giscard. d'Estaing POniatowski Chine Servan-Schreiber Mi([('rrand Marchais 12. 1 % 11.2 19.6 28.0 15.0 13.1 15.0% 13.1 11.2 22.4 16.8 20.6

Roulette

12.\% 11.2 16.8 6.' 13.1 39.3

14.0% 6. '
16.8 8.

27.1 % 42. 1 15.0

10.3% 5.6 20.6 2J.2 20.6 16.B IB.O 165 30.2 15.8 13.7 5.B

20.6% 9.3 6.5

40.2 13. 1

'.6

37

1 5.0

14.0% 30.8 13.1 ... 12.1 19.6

16.8% 25.2 11.2 16.B 1.9 26.2

32. 7% 15.9 93 9.3 2'U 7.'

6.5% 17.8 15.0 15.9 17.8 26.2

16.8 26.2 15. 9 12.1 93

15.9% 17.B 19.6 14.0 16.8 15.0

'6

24.3 15.0 12.1 12.1

IB.7

16.8%

8.4% 15.9 17.8 28.0 12.1 16.S

29.0 IB.7

GiJuud VOltrJ
Gisc:ard d'Esraing Poniatowski Chiru Servan-Schreibcr Miu('rrand MaKhais 14.4 13.7 2 1.6 23.0 15.8 IU

7.9 19.4 5.8 16.5 2B 28.1

10.8 1.B 18.0 33.8

14.4

" D.l 10.8 79 20.9 40.3

37.4 18.7 15.1 '.3 18.0

,

26.6 28.1 15.1 14.4 7.9 7.2

33.8 6.' H.l 17.3 '.8 3.6

29.5 37.4 to.8 7.9 13.7 0.7

79 2J.9 I.' 6.'

6.' 8.6 15.1 29. J 27.3 12.9

'.3 '.0 4.3 12.9 15.1 58.3

41.7 17.3 20.1 8.6 7.2 '.0

5.8 26.6 17.3 173 129 20.1

28, 1 l'U 9.4 12.2 1).8 19A

15.8 16.5 26.6

1 3.7

'5.0 11.5 16.' 23.7 24.5 18.7

2.9 1}. 7 14., 26.6 10.1 12.3

7.2

23.7 19.4

12.9 14.4

Politicians

"'no. 8.4% '.7 14.0 12.1 41.1 IS.7

Smw boater

Hm Helmet C'P

F('lr h"

Top h"

Otroen 2"

Peugeot

MilJWrIlllli fl()JwJ
Giscard d'Esraing Ponia.towSki Chine Scrvan-Schreibcr MinelTllfld Marchajs B.l% 11.2 15.0 37.4 19.6 3.7 B.4% 44.2 12.1 6.' 41 13.1

'04

Con Porsc:he

Renault
,

Rolls Royc('

Simn 1100

Wardrobe

Louis XVI
chair

FurnituR:

Empin: ""k

Four-poster "'" IS.7'1>

Knoll

>of>

FannhouS(' table

7. 5% '.6 7.' 9.3 16.8 .S3.3

9.3% 12.1 33.6 25.2 10.3 8.4

n.3$ 130.1 15.0 8A 7.' 2.8

7.5 % 93 11.2 6.5" 10.3 12.2 8.6 43 9A 12.2 JJ.2

1l.2% 23.4 24.3 15.9 22.4 32.S

2'.2% IS.7 6.'

7.5'li 18.7 14.0 ll.2 26.2 22.4

43.9% 17.8 12.1

13.1

4.7% 22.4 18.7 17.8 27. 1 ..

1.9% 24.3 12.1 8.4 25.2 20.8

37.4% 17.8 2 1 .5 .4 4.7

30.8%
1 8.7

H% 8.4 19.6 34.6 16.8 15.9

5.6% 15.0 6' 7.' 28.0 36.4

15.0

18.7 11.2 15.0 4.7

20.6 29.0 4.7 1l.2

3<6 6.' 7. ,

7.' 4.7

9.3

GiK",d flDlnl

OiiCK

Giscard d'Esraing Poniatowski

11.5 1 2.2
10. I

16.5 15.8 23.7 24.5 44.4

'.0

7.2 31.7 13.0 12.9 6.' 18.7

12.9 '0 8.6 11.5 1'.S 46.0

79 1 '.1 20. 1 23.7 lS.0 15.1

43.9 20.1 14.4 lU 4.J 2.2

23.7 32.4 2'.9 6.' 10.1 IA

15.B 12.8 302 23.7 12.2 '.0

9.4 8.6
1'-1

33.8 22.3 ., 20.1 6.' to.8

'.8 15.B 18.0 2'5 24.J 11.5

7.2 27.3 15.1 12.9 24.5 12.9

37.4
,,

37.4 19.4 21.6 6.' 8.6 6.'

79 1.S IS.7 27.3 n.7

4.J 13.7 18.7 33.8 19.4 to.l

'.8 7.9 7.9 6.' 22.3 49.6

18.0 12.9 11.5 4.3

Servan-Schreiber Mifn:rrand MaKhais

12.2 41.0 12.9

1'5.1 34.J 17.3

16.'

Jo'"
Mill,""" fIOIm "
Poniawwski Oliru &rvan-Schrc:ibcr Miuerrand Marchajs Politicians Lawyer Overseer Doctor Concier 9.3 '.tti HairdfeSS('f Chauifwr Chrysanthemum Poppy

F1ow('n; lilac 13.1 % 6., lS.7 30.8 19.6 to.3 Lily of the Donald NarciiSuS Carnation Asterix. Duck

Cartoon charact('rs Lucky Luke Mickey MouS(' Popcye Timin

v2l1q

Giscard d'Estaing

18.7'li 0.9 9.3 14.0 45.8 10.3

2U% 11.2 20.6 12.1 13.1 19.6

15.9% 9.' 12.1 19.6 26.2 15.0

13.1% 16.8 215 29.9 9.3 8A

20.6% 26.2 15.0 13. I 0.9 22.4

2l.5% 38.3 15.9 2.8 16.8 '7

10.3% 10.3 9.3 23.4 38.3

31.8 19.6 1l.2 3.7 22.4

7.'

13.1% 15.0 2U 12.1 2J.2 12.1

20.6% 14.0 19.6 27.1 8.4 9.3

20.6% IB.7 12.1 16.8 13.7 12.1

14.0% 1.9 12.1 1 1 .2 26.2 IB.7

12.1 % 18.7 22.4 17.B 14.0 13.1

23.4% 10.3 15.0 15.0 18.7 15.9

23.4% 10.3 19.6 21.5

6.5% 24.3 15.0 12.1 15.9 24.3

17.S% 18.7 14.0 2U 12. 1 15.0

GiK4rd IIOInl
ChinK

1 2.1
12.1 7.9 13.7

Gi5C2rd d'E.$raing Poniatowski Scrvan-Schf"('ibc:r Mirt('lTlInd Marchais

36.7 19.4 14.4 8.6 20.1 0.7

20. I 17.3 43.2 9A 6.' 3.6

32.4 35.3 19.4 '.0 6.' IA

IA 79 '.8 16.5 20.9 47.5

6.' 12.2 HI 25.2 14.4 8.6

2.9 7.9 7.9 28.1 21.6 31.7

'.8 13.7 72 12.9 24.5 36.0

14.4 8.6 7.2 1'.1 18.0 36.7

21.6 19.4 28. 1 17.3 8.6 '.0

33.1 19.4 23.7 12.2 ,. '.8

7.2 17.3 27.3 12.2 26.6 9A

18.0 22.3 IH 20.9 16.' 7.2

34.J 25.9 17 .3 '.8 7.2

8.6 9.4 12.9 25.2 17.3 26.6

23.7 13.7 20.9 15.8 12.9 12.9

6.20.9 11.5 13.7 25.9 21.6

19.4 16.5 n.7 27.3 12.9 10.1

23.0 12.9 2J7 lS.7

:l. iralicized numbt'n indicate the highest percenrag<' in och column.

"

Schreiber. These two relationships, even if produced successively, deter._ ' mine each other and can be expressed in the form of an analogy: the is to the reed as Giscard (or Poniatowski) is to Servan-Schreiber; even in the Giscard/Servan-Schreiber opposition, the scheme applies more " political strength, power, designating the oak as king of the f orest and " Giscard as Head of State, whereas in the Poniatowski/Servan-Schreiber ' opposition it applies more to physical appearance and the associated 'vir- . tues', designating the oak as big and sttong, and Poniatowski, ftom the point of view of bodily hexis, as powerful and massive. In another case, is the scheme noble/base, applied to the wood rather than the symbol ic ' , ' value or shape of the tree, which motivates the opposition between oak, a , noble material used in fine furniture and ancient bouses, and deal (sapin" fir), a poor-quahty wood, used for coffins, which is strongly linked Marchais, as are the colour black and the crow, a bird of ill omen.

if : t

': it ':,

to

The most fundamental symbols, such as colours, are of course very strongly . over-<letermlned. Black, for example, IS firstly the gloomy colour, sinister and, more prccisely, in the dominant representation, the symbol of the pes simistic world view (the black thoughts of someone who looks on the dark side), although, through the black flag-which, f some respondents, may or have stood m for the absent red Rag-it may receive a positive value as a symbol of radical subversion. But black is also poverty (black bread) , dirt (pactlCularly associated with certain jobs, e.g., miners-gueules noires ), igno . rance (being in the dark), drink (itre Roir ) etc

so that some 'choices' are defined purely negatively, by elimination. In each series, the first choices, the only oncs that are really determined (among the colours, the opposition whitejblack) limit all the others; for example, if Giscard is associated with the Rolls Royce or the oak, this determines the second choice, which is often a choice of the second, the 'lieutenant' (i.e., Poniacowski or Chirac, who are positionally assigned to the Peugeor 504 or the plane-tree). Everything suggests that the capacity to use all the possibil erences, is linked to ities off ered, in other words, the ability to produce diff status-assigned competence, that is, educational level and gender. For exam ple, Giscard is associated with the ant by more men than women, because the idea of hoarding and saving suggested by the ant-through La Fon raine's fable contrasting the ant and the grasshopper-is only connccrcd with Giscard (like Moliere's Miser, which varies in the same way) by those who remember him as Minister of Finance. Similarly, more men than women associate chess with Marchais, perhaps because of the popularity of chess in the USSR, whereas women, perhaps seeing chess only as 'an intel leCtual game', associatc it more strongly with Giscard. And again, perhaps because men are morc familiar with Minerrand's background, they more often associate him with the job of lawyer. (These differences are, of course, partly clue to (he related fact that men tend to be morc politicized and more leftish.) Women are more inclined to be guided by analogies with non-political characrcrisrics, such as bodily hexis, especially those indul gently related in women's magazines (e.g., Poniatowski will be seen as a Polish prince rather than as Minister of the Interior).

The application of secondary schemes, which bring it into other oppo . sitions, wlll thus cause the oak (like the other objects) to be endowed with a series of properties more or less present in the fundamental proper ties: the Gaulish roots of druidical oaks (suggesting the Cartoon charac ter, Asterix, who is also associated with Giscard ) as compared with the exotic palm-tree; noble solidity, as compared with the poplar; and sheer precedence, as compared with the plane, a tall and impressive tree but more vulgar, being associated with public places such as streets and squares.

The source of the coherence of the choices lies not in the intention of coherence but in the self-consistency of a system of classificatory schemes which, though functioning discontinuously, grasps its objects in an ob jectively consistent way. And so, little by little, through the series of met aphors, there emerges a sociologically coherent social portrait of each 'personality'. All the images associated with Servan-Schreiber are linked by something like the idea of ostentatiousness and flashiness, suggested
odil or cuckoo, and the by the narcissus, a yellow flower, close to the daff straw boater (again yellow) of the old music-hall beau, the colours or ange and yellow-particularly emphasized by left-wi ng voters, who, espe

Because the logic of the game itself and of the objects that were proposed channelled the search for associations in the direction of politics, the re spondenrs invoked analogies in physical appearance (e.g., identifying ChinK with the poplar, a tall, slender tree) only when there was no other way of avoiding a random choice. The same is true of purely verbal associations, 2S when rouicHe suggeStS Marchais, no doubt through Russian roulette. It is also tru f the search for coherence, to which social psychologists are so at tached: It IS only when no other direct relationship springs [0 mind that there is reference back to choices already made in a different series (e.g., white Giscard, so Giscard = lily of the valley) or within the same series,
=

grasshopper, spendthrift and strident; by poker and roulette, games of bluff and arriviste impatience (also associated with Chirac) ; by Don Juan and Jackie Kennedy, the American challenge,' or Brigitte Bardot; by the Porsche, the four-poster bed and the Knoll sofa, all essential accoutre ments of moderni5m I t would be wrong to suppose that such systematic choices could be inspired solely by an intuition into the unique 'personal i ty of ].-].S.-S.; what they in fact designate, in a very methodical way, is the life-style of the 'new bo urgeoisie', which is seized upon both by the dominated
_ '

cially in 1975, were probably more sensitive to the connotations;' by the

classes and by the well-established fractions of the dominant class, with a hint of racism in the choice of the Middle Eastern palm-tree and the col-

T tIbk A.14

Variations in survey according to incom (monthly) group.

Trtcs

Games

PalmPoliticians
>2,499P

Oak

Ire<

Poplar
10.696 10.6 21.2 21.2
2).8

Plane
9.1 96 19.7 18.2
22. 7

Reed
22.796 7.6 15.2
27.3

Fir
6.796 18.2 13.6 1l.2 22.7
24.2

Bridge
33.3 %

Dominoes
7.696
2).8

a.ess
19.796 10.6 13.6 19.7 13.6
22. 7

Monopoly
21.296 7.6
27.3

Poker
13.6% 16.7 10.6 19.7
24.2

Roulette
4.5% 19.7 15.2
31.8

Giscard d'Estaing 33.3 %' 1B.2% Poniatowski 21.2 22. 7 21.2 10.6 Olin<: 9.1 Servan.&htciber 4.5 Mittemnd 18.2 9.1
Muchais

1 2. 1

19.7

10.6 20.2 13.5

20. 7

13.6 16.7 6.7

23.8

10.6 16.7 18.1 B.3 12.4

23.8

19.7 12.1 9. 1 13.6 12.1

38.3

21.2 10.6 9.1

2).8

9.1 24.2 10.6 13.0 18.7

20.2

15.2 13.0 14.0

22.3

15.2 1 3.6 7.3 17.1 10.4

23.3

2,)00 '" 6,499P

6,)ooPor -. Giscard d'Estaing 27.8 Poniatowski 3).2 9. 3 Olirac 3.7 Setvan-Sehttiber Mittcrrand 9.3 14.B Muchais

Giscard d'Estaing Poniatowski Olirac Servan.&httiher Mittel'l'2Jld Marchais

30.6

19.2 10.9 5.7 17.6 1'.'

12.4 16.6 18.7

24.9

18.7 B.3 14.B 1B.5 13.0

24. 1

18.7 11.4 1 '.0

27.8

20.7 13.0 16.1 1 9.2 13.0 lB.'

24. 1

20.2 16.6 11.1 1.9 9.3

33.3

11.9 18.1 U.5 14.0 U.5

24.4

6.7
22.3

14.5 14.5 11.4 14.5 6.7

44.4

19.7 15.5 14.' 20.7 1.9 18.5 7.4

2).9

20.7 13.5 1 1 .9 1 3.0 19.7

21.2

15.5 16.6 15.5 14.B 1B.5

29. 6

20.7 16.1 13.' 3.7 14.B 16.7 14.8 20.4

29.6

19.2 22.3 0 16.7 20.4

2).9

14.B 14.B

11.1 22.2 13.0 11.1 14.B

13.0 16.7 14.B

3D 13.0

5.6 14.B 22.2 13.0 16.7

27.8

3).2

13.0 18.' '.6 16.7 1. 9

22.2 24.1

lB.' 7.4 9.3 11.1 2B.'

lB.' 11.1 7.4

1B.5 1B.5

Hats Straw boater

Helmer

Furniture Empire desk Louis XVI chair Four-poster bed Farmhouse table

Politicians
>2,499F

Beret

Cap

Felt hat

Top hat

Wardrobe

Sofa

Giscard d'Estaing Poniatowski

Chicae
Servan-Schreiber Minerrand Marchais Giscard d'Estaing Poniatowski

10.6% 6.1 15.2 13.6

34.8

9.1 % 13.6
27 .3

12.1 %
33.3

2,500 /0 6,499F

19.7 10.4 8.8 12.4 1 1 .9

39.9

22.7 19. 7 7.6 D.5 16.1 18.7

29.0

15.2 16.7 4.5 18.2 7.8

42.)

15.2% 7.6 12.4 15.2 15.2

34.8

22. 7

15.2% 13.6 16.7 1 6. 7 15.2 7.8 13.5

3 7. 9 %

25.8 13.6 15.2 3.0 4.5

47 .2

10.6% 16.7 15.2 15.2

28.8

31.8%

13.6 5.7
27.5

16.7 15.2 9.1 16.7 10.6

32.6

4.5% 10.6 21.2

33.3

33.3 %

6.1 %
24.2

19 7 10.6 6.7 1 1 .9 21.8

30.6

15.2 21.2 10.6 10.6 91

34 .7

15.2
24.2

6. 1
24.2

13.6% 16.7 12.1 7.6 18.2

31.8

Chime
Servan-Schreiber Micterrand Marchais Giscard d'Es{aing Poniawwski Chirae Servan-Schreiber Mitterrand Marchais

14.5 7.8 16.6 3. 7

42.6

6,500F Of' more

1 6. 1

1 6. 1

lOA

4.7

10.9 4.7 8.8 1 1 .4 17.1

47.2

30.1

22.3 13.5 12.4 1 3 .0 14.8 14.8

31.)

15.0 14.0 14.5 5.7 3.1

51.9

12.4 1 1 .4 22.3 20.7 9.3

29.6

19.7 17.6 1 1 .4 1 1 .9 6.2

38.9

D.5 1 3 .0 3.7 3.7 24 . 1

37.0

17.1 16. 1 1 1 .9 13.0 6. 7

35 .2

12.4 22.8

D.O

28.0

12.4 8.8 13.0 22 2 9.3

29.6

4.7 10.9 8. 3 6.2 24.4

45.1

11.1
9.3 13.0 1 3.0 7.4

1l.1 24. 1

16.7

3.7 3.7 5.6 13.0

64.8

46.3

38.9

2.

The itlllCizM numr.; indicate the highcst perccntage in each wlumn.

5.6 3.7

27.8 5.6 7. 4 13.0

9. 3

1 8. 5 7.4

18.5 1 1 .1 5 .6 9.3 37

13.0 7.4 22.2 18.5

2 1 .2 24.1 9.3 3.7 1.9

16.7 14.8

14.8 22.2 9.3 14.8 3.7

14.8 11.1

0 7.4 7.4 7.4 27.8

50.0

ruined aristocrat. ) ' The 'associations' game gives a fairly accurate idea of the everyday class struggle which deploys the quasi concepts of spontane ous sociology ('he's pretentious', 'a show-off' etc.), often closer to insults than judgements, in order to 'catalogue' or 'pin down' adversaries, in short, to imprison them in an essence. This probably explains why, as the interviewers note, the survey was so well received and so well understood ( witness the exceptionally low rate of 'don't knows' ) and why the vision of the social world and politics which it brings to light is ultimately much more real than those constructed from the would-be scientific in quiries of 'political science'. Because the practical logic governing acts of attribution proceeds piecemeal, successively, and so is not confronted with its own incoher ences, and also because, without moving outside a determinate system of classificatory schemes, one Can see the same object through different schemes, and therefore relate it to different objects or to the same object seen in other ways, all the meanings which the individual acts of attribu tion attach to the same object or person are far from being always per. ectly coherent. Thus it is not easy to reconcile the properties of the f powerful, massive and devoted Poniatowski which evoke the ox or the rugby player Spanghero ( known to commentatOrs as a 'dutiful forward' ) , and the docile strength each symbolizes, or those of the Minister of the Interior, suggesting the helmet, a symbol of repressive violence, with the properties that suggest the Rolls Royce or the Queen of England.
The specificity of practical logic, which I have analysed elsewhere in the case of ritual,7 perhaps becomes clearer when dealing with a system of schemes of which one is a native user. The native is inclined to accept the immediate, lazy understanding provided by his prac tical mastery of the schemes of p roduc tion and interpretation of the symbolism in question, so that an analysis which spells out everything implied in practical, tacit attri butions is likely to be seen as fanciful over-interpretation.

our yellow, which is also linked to the racist stigma of the yellow star. ( Servan-Schreiber is often identified as son-in-law by those with the highest income: perhaps by applying the traditional scheme one thinks of Le gendre de Monsieur Poirier--of the ambitious bourgeois and the

erent agents agree on the scheme ing reflects the extent to which the diff they mobilize to construct the objects and the relationships berween them. Thus, the survey which records the meaning-giving acts produced by the operation of more or less superimposable schemes, and the statistical analysis which aggregates them, reproduce, through a sort of experimen tal simulation, the process of production of collective representations such as the reputation of a person or the social image of a thing. These representations may be the product of the application of a single scheme of perception or a common system of classification, without ceasing to be subject to antagonistic social uses. While all apperception implies appre ciation, the coincidence of schemes of apperception does not imply coin cidence of schemes of appreciation; when agents occupying diff erent, and even opposing, positions in social space (or political space) apply the same classificatOry schemes, they almost always disagree over the value they give to the signs thereby produced. For example, right and left, rich and poor, make equal use of the opposition between white (or blue blue blood?) and black (in the absence of red) to express the opposition between Giscard or Poniatowski and Marchais; but this opposition is given diametrically opposed values, depending on whether it is used by ormer associate black Mitterrand supporters or Giscard supporters: the f with Poniatowski (and his helmet) and secondarily with Marchais; the latter associate it with Marchais. The same logic leads the left to associate the crow or chrysanthemum with Poniatowski (and secondarily Chirac and Giscard) , while the right associates them with Marchais and second arily Mitterrand. Giscard's supporters connect him with the oak, 'the king of the f orest', Asterix, 'the allFrench hero', Ie Cid, a symbol of cour age and honour, or Michele Morgan, a 'feminine ideal', while leftwing voters associate Mitterrand with the same objects. The right associates the f ox, a symbol of perfidious cunning, with Marchais and Mitterrand (also identified with Tartuff e), whereas the left associates it with Giscard. Both sides agree in using the opposition between lineage and marriage as a way of expressing social or political proximity and distance, but Gis card supporters classify Giscard or Chirac as son, brother or father, rele gating Marchais or Mitterrand to cousin, soninlaw or father-in-law, whereas Mitterrand supporters keep Poniatowski, Chirac (and secondar ily Marchais) at arm's length and make Mitterrand one of the family. Thus one only has to study common symbols or words in their practi. cal uses, to discover the need to write into their full definition the essen tial polysemy they derive from these antagonistic uses. Situations of political struggle, of which this 'party game' gives an approximate image, demonstrate contrary to those who believe in class languages that words or signs can be common, without ever---despite the illusion of ectly neutral, because they bear within them the consensus--being perf potentiality of the antagonistic uses to which they lend themselves. When i t is a matter of classifying objects that are socially classified and

Given that the relations observed are ptOduced by the application of unction implicitly and leave undetermined the distinc schemes which f eatures they pick up and the mediating terms on which the analo tive f gies are based, each person or thing involved is endowed with a restricted set of more or less coherent, unequally probable meanings. Setting aside the few codified or quasi-codified relationships, such as that between the poppy and Marchais, through the colour red, the recognized symbol of revolutionary parties, which even here is only conditional (since some respondents, no doubt the most antiCommunist, choose the chrysanthe mum, the flower of death). a concentration around one dominant mean

..

the absence of belote) to Marchais, that is, to the working class he repre. est the same practical knowledge of the relation. sents. And they mamf shi betwet;n objects or practices and the social classes when they

( Identified by theIC preference for Giscard or Mitterrand ) , the respon. . dents concur In seeing bndge as a bourgeOIs game (associating it with Giscard and secondarily Poniatowski and Chirac), leaving dominoes (in

class position ( identified hy income)' and their relation to that position

classifying, i.e., une9ually distributed between the social classes and thete. fore attributed to the social classes in the implicit or explicit associations, one finds the same agreement over meaning combined with the same dis. agreement over the value of the things classified. Thus, whatever their

creases considerably as one moves down the real hierarchies. Such is the dilemma facing the dominated, which would also arise, perhaps more in tensely, when faced with pairs of adjectives such as low and high, clumsy and skilful, laborious and g taceful, heavy and light, coarse and fine, rude

ordet by granting the attributes of the dominant gtoups, in particular the dominant positions, to the spokesmen of the dominant groups (and they do so much more often, even when they declare themselves supporters of change, than the declared supporters of the established order grant them

and polite, common and distinguished-the ordinary instruments of class judgement. Either they betray their recognition of the established

symbol of the placid, provincial working man, to Mitterrand; the Rolls Royce to Giscard (and then Poniatowski) , the Peugeot 504 to his 'lieu. rand, the Citroi'n lCV to Marchais, and the Porsche to Servan.Schreiber, who is always credited with the symbols of conspicuous modernism;9 the house table to Marchais and Mitterrand and the wardrobe to Mitterrand and Marchais (and also Poniatowski, with his aristocratic background), and to ServanSchreiber the attributes of the new bourgeoisie, the Knoll Louis XVI chair and Empire desk to Giscard and Poniatowski, the farm.

cap, emblem of the rowdy urban populace, to Marchais, and the beret,

attnbute skung ( through the skIer Kdly) to Giscard and boxing or rugby to Marchais; the top hat to Giscard (and then Poniatowski ) , the

to the spokesmen of change), in which case they manifest how difficult it is to dissociate recognition of the established order from recognition of the hierarchies it implies (by placing Giscard among the 'good' relatives, father, brother or son, or identifying him with the oak-an increasingly

tenants' Poniarowski and Chirac, the Simca 1000 or Renault 5 to Mitter.

spokesmen of change in terms of these principles. The devalued image of the dominated occupations (such as hairdresser or concierge) still has to he recognized in order to seek to bring down the dominant by giving

fre9uent association as one moves down the social hierarchy); or they be tray their recognition of the prevailing principles of hierarchy by simply inverting the distribution of the spokesmen of conservation and the

them these jobs in symbolic revenge.'O There is, in any case, only an ap eur or concierge of parent symmetry between the wish to make a chauff Poniatowski, Chirae, or, with some hesitacion, Giscard, and the restora tion of the established order that is performed by the conservatives when

sofa and fourposter; the Queen of England, Rolls Royce of womanhood, to Poniatowski and Giscard (here the Prince comes into his own); Mireille Mathieu, 'popular' in both hexis and repertoire, to Marchais and

edge of the distributions.

match people with objects, or people with each other, according to their rank in the distributions, making marriages which are immediately per. celved as wellmatched by all those who possess the same practical knowl.

then Mitterrand; Jackie Kennedy, and then Brigitte Bardot, to Servan. Schreiber. Guided by the sense of social realities which enables them to assess the proprieties and imptoprieties of social logic, the tespondents

they give to Mitterrand or Marchais-especially the latter, with his 'pre olk'-the places tentious' airs as the immodest spokesman of 'modest f that 'naturally' suit them.

dIstributions (I.e., those with the highest incomes) are also those most inclined to recognize them as right and proper by granting the dominant classes, as personified by Giscard, the attributes they are most likely to

In fact, political divergences concern not the (practical) cognition of . the obJective structures, but their recognition. Those best placed in the

possess, that is, the rarest and most valued-bridge, the top hat, the Rolls, skiing (Killy), the Louis XVI chair-and attributing the must common attributes such as the cap, the 2CV, the farm table or MireilJc Mathieu-to the dominated classes, represented by Marchais. By contrast,

the propottion who invert the hierarchy, giving Giscard, Chirac or Poni atowski the typically popular, and therefore desacralizing, cap, 2CV or dominoes, or giving Marchais the typically bourgeOis bridge or Rolls, in

---

_. . . .. . -. - . . ..-..

Notes

Pre ace f
1. For an analysis of the values of the 'old bourgeoisie', see P. Bourdieu and M. de Saint Martin, 'Le patronac', AcleJ de Ja Recherche en Sciences SociakJ (subsetJuently abbreviated to Attei ). 20-21 ( 1 978). 3-82, and for the basis of a comparison be tween Germany, England and France, F. K. Rinr, Education and Stxiety in Mod ern Europt ( Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1979). 2. This contradiCts the belief, held by many intellectuals in every country. that cul

3.

4.

5. 6.

e tural diff rences arc withering away into a common culture. For example: 'Art has become increasingly autonomous, making (he artist a powerful taste-maker in his own right: the "social location" of the individual (his social class or other posi cion) no longer determines his life-style and his values. . . . For the majority of {he society . . . this general proposition may srill hold true. But it is increasingly evi dent thar for [he significant propordon of the population, the relation of social position to cultural style--particularly if one rhinks in gross dimensions such as working class, middle class and upper class-no longer holds'; D. Bell, 'The Cui tural Contradictions of Capitalism', The Public IntereJ/, 2 1 ( Fall 1970), 16-43, esp. 19-20. A glance at an evening's TV programmes or the magazine ncks of a Bos {On or Philadelphia newsagent is enough to convince one of the contney; but one could also poinr to the work of the pioneers of the sociology of culture (see W. Lloyd Warner and Paul S. Lunr, The s..ial Lift o a MIXkrn Community [New f Haven, Yale University Press, 1941], esp. ch. 19; and Russell Lynes, The Taslt makerJ [New York, Harper. 1954]. esp. ch. 1 3 ) ; not to mention market research. which, being exposed {O the sanctions of the market, is infinitely more 'realistic' than most academic studies (see, for example, P. Martineau, 'Social Classes and Spending Behavior', Journai o Marketing, 23 [October 1958), 1 2 1 - 1 30). f A. Minron, 'A Form of Class Epigraphy', s..ial ForceJ, 28 (March 1950), 250-262. Such homologies no doubt underlie international rapprochements and even alli ances. For example, William Barrett's penetrating description of the mccting be twccn the envoys of UJ TtmpJ ModemtJ and rhe ParliJan Review group (see W. Barrett, The TruantJ: AdvenlurtJ amlmg InltllectuaiJ [New York, Doubleday An chor Books, 1982], pp. 1 1 3-123) gives a fairly accuntte picture of the affinities associated with homologous positions in the intellectual and political fields and also the differences due to [he specificity of national traditions. See S. Sontag, 'Notes on "ump" ', Parli,an Review, 31 (Fall 1%4), 515-531. E. A. Poe, 'Philosophy of Furniture', Selected ProJt and Poetry ( New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 19O), p. 386.

7. P. Bourdieu, 'The Economics of Linguisric Exchanges', Social Science In/ ormalion, 16 (December 1977), 645-668, and Ce que parler veul dire ( Paris, Fayard, 1982 ) . 8. I am grareful to my rransiaror f having been as faithful ro rhe inrenrion of my or Style as rhe demands and traditions of English will allow. 9. Readers who may suspect me of a secret indulgence rowards the model of the total intelleccual are ref erred to my analyses of the hisrorical conditions of the creation and f f unctioning of this model; P. Bourdieu, 'Sanre', Lontkm Review o Books, 2 (20 November-3 December 1980 ) , 1 1-12, and 'The Philosophical Establishment' in A. Monrefiore, ed., Philosophy in France Today (Cambridge, Cambridge Univetsity Press, 1982 ) .

7. O. Merlin, 'Mlle. Thibon dans la vision de Marguerite', Le Monde, 9 December 1%5. 8. F. Cheni'lue, 'Hair esr-it immoral?' Le Monde, 28 January 1970.

1 . The mundain, the 'man of the world', is discussed later in this chapter in the sec tion 'Scholars and Gentlemen' ( rranslator). 2. Scholastic rerms and abbreviarions: CEP: Certificar d'etudes primaires, formerly marking complerion of primacy schooling. essionnelle, the lowest trade certificate. CAP: Certificat d'aptitude prof BEPC; Brevet d'e-tudes du premier degre, marking completion of the firsr part of secondary schooling. ba(calau,.eal (bac) , examination at end of secondary schooling. petite ecok: minor tertiary technical college. licence: university degree ( three-year course in a f aculte ) . agrl ga/ion: competitive examination to recruir top category of secondary teach

f 1, The Aristocracy o Culture

Introduction
1 . Bourdieu et al., Un art moyen: essai sur les usages sociaux de la p holographie (Paris, Ed. de Minuic, 1965); P. Bourdieu and A. Darbel, L!A11lfJur de I'art: musks e/ leur public (Paris, Ed. de Minuir, 1966). 2. The word dis position seems particularly suited to express whac is covered by the concept of habims (defined as a system of disposicions )-used later in this chap

le s

3.

4.
5.

this taste for measuremenr and calcularion; and they tended to exhibit the techm cal virtuosity which, in this context, is rhe most visible evidence of the 9uantiy and 9uality of the labour provided; M. Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fif leenth-Cmlury Italy: A Primer in the Social History o Pictorial Style (Oxford, Oxford f University Press, 1972 ) . 6 . See P. Bourdieu, ' Le marche des biens symboli9ues', L'Annie Socioiogique, 2 2 ( 1 973), 49-126; and 'Outline of a Sociological Theory of Art Perception', Inter national Social ScienceJournal, 20 (Winter 1%8), :'>89-612.

ter. h expresses first the result o an organizing action, with a meaning close to that f of words such as structure; it also designates a way of being, a habitual state (especially of rhe body) and, in particular, a predirpOJilion, lendency, propemity or in clination. [The semantic cluster of 'disposition' is rather wider in French than in English, but as this note-translated literally-shows, the equivalence is adequate. Translator.) P. Bourdieu, OUlline o a Theory o Practice (Cambridge, Cambridge f f University Press, 1977), p. 214, n. l . E. Panofsky, 'Iconography and Iconology: An Inrroduction to the Study of Re naissance Art', Meaning in the ViJual Am ( New York, Doubleday, 19'5'5), p. 28. It will be- seen that this internalized code called culture functions as cultural capi cal owing to the fan that, being un<XJually distributed, it secures profits of dis. . unCClon. The sense of familiarity in no way excludes the ethnocentric misunderstanding which results from applying the wrong code. Thus, Michael Baxandall's work in historical ethnology enables us to measure all thar separates the perceptual schemes that now rend (0 be applied to Quattrocenro paintings and those which their immediate addressees applied. The 'moral and spiritual eye' of Quattrocento man, that is, the set of cognitive and evaluative dispositions which were the basis of his perception of the world and his perception of pictorial representation of rhe world, differs radically from the 'pure' gaze (purified, first of all, of ref erence to economic value) with which rhe modern cultivated spectator looks at works of art. As the contracts show, the clients of Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio or Piero della Francesca were concerned to get 'value for money'. They approached works of art with the mercantile dispositions of a businessman who can calculate '1uantiries and prices ar a glance, and they applied some surprising criteria of ap preciation, such as rhe expense of rhe colours, which sets gold and ultramarine at . the {OP of the hierarchy. The artisrs, who shared this world view, were led to In clude arithmetical and geometrical devices in their compositions so as to 8a((r

cr>

3.

4.

6. 7.

S.

8.

9.

Supi:rieure ( ENS) (in the rue d'Ulm, Paris) and the Ecole Polytechni9ue ( Poly techni9ue). The f ormer trains I ee and university teachers; the latter trains 'engi yc neers' who in fact subsequendy work as top technical civil servants or ( after fulfilling their obligation to the State, or 'buying themselves out') as top manag ers in private industry. The 'business schools' form a subset of grandes ecoks; the hest known of these is the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC). The f ollowing are also often classified with the grandes ecoles: the Institut des Sciences Politi'lues (Sciences Po), an elite college teaching mainly political science, lw etc.; and the Ecole Nationale d' Administration (ENA), which specifically trams its graduates (marques ) for the civil service ( translator). e The clearest manif estation of this eff ct in the world of legitimate music is the fate of Albinoni's 'f amous Adagio' (as the recordjackets call it), or of so many works of Vivaldi which in less than twenty years have fallen from the prestigious srarus of musicologists' discoveries to the status of jingles on popular radio stations and petit bourgeois record-players. . M. Proust, 'Sentiments filiaux d'un parricide' in PasticbeJ et melanges (Paris, Galli' mard, 1970), p. 200. G. Bachelard, Le rationnalisme a plique ( Paris, PUF, 1949), p. 106. p The word titre can mean educational qualification, ride, tide-deed ( translator). The strongest resistance to the survey came from the most highly qualified sub jects, who thereby indicate that, being cultured by definition, they ate not to be erences. (It is well questioned as to theit knowledge, but only as to their pref known that writers and artists tend to respond eagerly to 'literary surveys', which they see as acts of homage to the universality of their talent-spotting genius.) This essentialism, which can remain tacit so long as che belief supponing the so cial value of titles remains intact, necessarily achieves expression, at least in the inverted f orm of racism, when the capital is threatened (e.g., in declining aristoc racies ) . This legitimate or soon-to-be legitimate culture, in rhe form of practical and con scious mastery of the means of symbolic appropriation of legitimate or soonto-be legitimate works, which characterizes the 'culrivated man' ( according to the dom inanr definicion at a given moment), is what the '1uestionnaire sought to measure.

(agriger ). grandeJ koles: set of selective higher..cducation colleges (parallel, but generally acltltll ), awarding their own diplomas or training candidates for superior, to the f the agre gation. The academically most prestigious are the Ecole Normale

observed between the sexes (especially in the working and middle classes) in all the areas which are assigned to men, such as legitimate culture (especially the most typically masculine regions of that culture, such as history or science) and, above all, politics. . . . . . 1 1 . One of the most obvious 'advantages' bestowed by hIgh educational capaai In in tellectual or scientific competition is high self-esteem and high ambition, which cal' ones, for example), the loftiness of the style adopted etc.; see P. BourdlCU, 'The Specificity of the Scientific Field', Sociai Science Inf ormation, 14 (December may equally

10. This effect of assignment by status is also largely responsible for the differences

be- manifested in the brodth of the problems tackled ( more 'theoeti

.

12. The initials C.S. followed by a roman numeral refer w an entry In the 1m of sta tistical sources given in appendix 2, 'Complementary Sources'. 1 3 . .At equal levels, knowledge of film directors is considerably stronger in Paris than 1975), 19-47.
.

in Lille, and the further one moves from the most scholastic and most legitimate areas, the greater the gap between the arisians and the proincials. In order to. . explain this, it is no doubt necessary to Invoke the constant reinf orcements which the cultivated disposition derives from all that is called the 'cultural atmosphere', chat is, all the incitements provided by a peer group whose social composition and cultural level, and therefore its cultural dispositions, are defined by its place of resi dence; and also, inextricably associated with this, from the range of cultural goods

ment. One study found a large number of viewers disconcened by 'ies Perses', a stylized production which was difficulr to follow because of the absence of dia logue and of a visible plot-Les TiliJpectateurJ en 1 967, Rapport des etudes de marche de I'ORTF, I, 69fT. Another, which compares reactions to the 'UNICEF gala', classical in style, and the Jess traditional 'Allegro', establishes that working class audiences regard unusual camera angles and stylized decor as an impoverish ment of reality and often perceive over-exposed shots as technical failures; they applaud what they call 'atmosphere', i.e., a ce[(ain quality of the relationship be tween rhe audience and the performers, and deplore rhe absence of a compere (master of ceremonies) as a lack of 'warmth' (ibid., p. 78). 23. The department store is, in a sense, the poor-man's gallery: not only because i t presents objects which belong ro the familiar world, whose use is known, which could be insened into the everyday decor, which can be named and judged with everyday words ( warm/cold; plain/fancy; gaudy/dul!; comfortable/austere etc ); but more especially because, there, people do nor feel themselves measured against transcendent norms, that is, the principles of the life-style of a supposedly higher

22. A number of surveys confirm {his hostility rowards any kind of formal experi

class, but feel free to judge freely, in the name of the legitimate arbitrariness of tastes and colours. 24. Joseph Garat, in his Mimoires sur la vie de M. Suard, tells us that Rousseau's Dls (ours sur Ie rhablissement des lettres et des ar/J provoked 'a sort of tertor' in a reader ship accustomed to take nothing seriously. 25. Virginia Woolf, 'Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown', Collected EISays ( London, Hogarth Press. 1966), I, 326-327 26. The capacity to designate unremarkable objects as suitable for being transfigured by the act of artistic promotion perf ormed by photography, the most accessible of the means of artistic production, varies in exactly the same way as knowledge of directors. This is understandable since in both cases a rel atively scholastic mea surement is applied to a competence more remote ftom formal education than the competence implied in the expression of preference in music or painting. 27. The documents on which these analyses are based will be found in P. Bourdieu et aI., Un art moyen: mai sur les usages sociaux de la photographie (Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1965) , pp. 1 1 3-134. f gement, trans. J. C. Meredith ( London, Oxford 28. Immanuel Kant, Critique o Jud University Press, 1952), p. 65. 29. E. H. Gombrich, Meditations on a Hobby Hone ( London, Phaidon Press, 1963), p.

14.

15. 16. 17.

18. 19.

20. 21.

(July 1980), 261-293. . ., , J. Ortega y Gasset, 'La deshumaOlzaClon del arte ( 1925) 10 ObraJ Cumpletas ( Ma drid Rtvista de Occidtnte 1966), III, 355-356. S. Langer, 'On Significance in Music' in 1. A. Jacobus, cd., Aesthetics and the Ar" (New York, McGrawHiII, 1968), pp. 182-212; quotation on p. 183. (Ooe recognizes the Kantian theme--<:ndlessly reinvented even without any conscIOUS ref erence to Kant--<lf rhe antinomy of pure pleasure and the pleasure of the senses, which is analysed in the Postscript.) Ortega y Gasset, 'La deshumanizaci6n del arte', pp. 356-357. . , The 'cultivated' spectator's concern with distinction is paralleled by the attlst s . concern ( which grows with the autonomy of the field of production) to asset h IS . autonomy vis-a-vis external demands (of which commissions are the most VISible

on offer. It is among the petite bourgeoisie endowed with culcural capital that one finds most of the devoted 'film-buffs' whose knowledge of directors and actors extends beyond rheir direct experience of the corresponding films. Some 31 percent of the office workers name acmrs in films they have not seen and 32 percent of those working in the medical and social services name the directors of films they have not seen. (No craftsman or small shopkeeper is able to do this, and only 7 percent oremen name acwrs in films they have not seen.) of the skilled workers and f E. Panofsky, Meaning in the ViJua/ ArtJ ( New York, Doubleday Anchor Books, 1955), p. 12. Ibid., p. 13. . . . . For a more extensive analysis of the opposltlon between the specif ically aesthetic disposition and the 'practical' disposition, and the collective and individual gen esis of the 'pure' disposition which genesis-amnesia tends to constitute as 'nacural', see P. Bourdieu, 'Disposition esthctique et comperence artistique', Us Temps Mo dernes, 295 ( 1971), 1345-1378, and 'L'invention de la vie d'artiste', Actes, 2 (1975), 67-93. For an analysis of the aesthetic itlusio and o the col/usio whic pro duces it, see P. Bourdieu, 'The Production of Belief', Media) Culture and Soltely, 2

30. The populist image of the prolerarian as an opaque, dense, hard 'in-itself', {he 31.
perfect antithesis of the intellectual or aesthete, a self-transparent, insubstantial 'for-itself', has a certain basis here. Interest in form, when it is expressed, is still rooted in the schemes of the ethos. I t only takes on its true meaning when related to its real principle; the taste for neat, careful work which inspires it stems from the same dispositions as hyper-correc tion in language, strict correctness of dress and sobriety in interior decoration. The posture of good intentions combined wirh insecurity which characterizes the rising pecite bourgeoisie is expressed in the 'refuge' choice of saying that the ob jects could make an 'interesting'-as opposed to beautiful, ugly or meaningless photograph. Thus, 40 percent of the junior executives and clerical workers con sider that a snake would make an interesting photo ( as against 22.5 percent of the new petite bourgeoisie, who are more inclined to say it could make a beautiful photo) . This is seen clearly in literature and in the theatre (e.g., the American 'new wave' of the 1960s). Dickens could also have been cited.

104.

K.

32.

form) and to give priority to form, over which he has full control, rather than function, which leads him, through an for art's sake, i.e., an for artists, to an art of pure form.

33. 34.

'1Ult:J lU r "t:J

I-UU

u 1

35. P. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

43. For a similar critique of the application of an empty opposition (between 'soft f ocus' and 'hard f ocus') to the German Romantic paimers, see E. H. Gombrich, In Search o Culturai HiJtory ( Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1%9), p. 33. [ 44. Proust, Pasti(hes et me/anges, p. 173. 45. Eveline Schlumberger, 'Le charme enivrant de Chateau-Margaux', ConnaiJJanct tkJ ArtJ, November 1973, pp. 101-10). 46. 'Misrecognition' (mAonnamanu) combines subjective non-recognition (blind

ers of the French Communist Party. 4 1 . E. H. Gombrich, Art and /IIuJi.. ( London, Phaidon Press, 1%0), p. 313. 42. P. BCnichou, Le Jacre rU Ncrivain, 1 750-1830 ( Paris, Jose Corti, 1973), p. 212.

mme. Ibid., p. 71; italics mine. Ibid., p. 166. Ibid., p. 271. Proudhon, Duprincipe de I'art tt de sa tiestination so(iaie ( Paris, Riviere, 1939), P. p. 49. Proudhon, Contradictions iconomiqueJ, p. 256. It is impossible completely to under stand the acceptance of the theses of Zdanov, who is very close [0 Proudhon in several respects, without taking into accoum the correspondences between his 'aesthetic' and the working-class or petit-bourgeois ethos of a number of the lead

Proudhon, Contradktiom iconomiqueJ ( Paris, Riviere, 1939), p. 226; italics

and Form: Studies in the Art o the Renaissance [London, New York, Phaidon Press, j

equality (translator). 47. For an analysis of the relationship between the scholastic environment (a world apart, exercises which are an end in themselves) and the relation to langua which is required in all 'official' situarions, see P. Bourdieu, 'ies doxosophes', etichisme de la Minuit, 1 ( 1973), 26-45, and P. Bourdicu and L. Boltanski, ' Le f

ness) with objective recognition (legitimation); for example, a teacher who ob serves his pupils' 'gifts', or lack of them, and who imagines he is indifferent to social class, objectively helps [0 legitimate the causes and eff ects of cultural in

langue', ActeJ, 4 (July 197)), 2-32. 48. Virtually every treatise written in the classical period explicitly makes the link be-. tween ease and elegance of style and elegance of life-style. Consider, for example, {he doctrine of sprezzatura, the nonchalance which, according to Castiglione, dis-. tinguishes the perfect courtier and the perfect artist. 49. Two examples, chosen from among hundreds, but paradigmaric, of explicit use of the scheme 'something other than'; 'La Fian(ee du pirate is one of those very rare l French films that are rtaily satirical, real y funny, because it does not resort to the carefully defused, prudently inoffensive comedy one finds in ia Grande Vadroui/U and Ie Petit Baigneur. . . . In short, it is fomething otlJet' than the dreary hackwork of

boulevard farce' (J. 1. Bory, Lt Nouvel ObJertiattur, 8 December 1%9; italics mine). 'Through distance, or at least, through difference, to endeavour to present f a text on pictorial modernity other than the hackneyed banalities of a certain styit o art rriticiJm. Between verbose aphasia, the textual (ranscription of pictures, excla mations of recognition, and the works of specialized aestherics, perhaps marking some of the ways in which conceptual, theoretical work gets to grips with con temporary plastic production' (G. Gassiot-Talahot et aI., Figurations 1960-197 3 [Paris, Union generale des editions, 1973). p. 7; italics mine). 50. This essential negativity, which is part of the very logic of the conscitution of ras(e and its change, explains why, as Gombrich points out, 'the terminologr of art history was so largely built on words denoting some principle of exclUSion. Most movements in art erect some new taboo, some new negative principle. such as the banishing from painting by the impressionists of all "anecdotal" element The positive slogans and shibboleths which we read in artists' or critics' man! fcsros pasr or presem are usually much less well defined' (E. H. Gombrich, NOf11I

superieures ( translator). 57. This dogma is still recognized and professed in It:ss advanced sectors of rhe field of artistic production, as this typical declaration shows: 'However, I will say that these paintings by Gaston Planet are totally incomprehensible. I will say that 1 like them co be so. Nor enigmatic. But enrirely mute. Without poims of refer ence. Wirhout discractions' ( Paul Rossi, Gaston Planet caralogue) . 58. So it is always what is essential that gets left out when, as almost always happens, the survey itself, or the analysis, ignores the modality of practices, tastes or opin ions. This modality, which is one of the best indicators of deep-rooted disposi tions, is the object of very close attention in all societies. One could enumerate coundess cases in which manner, and manner alone, reveals {he social truth of dispositions, i.e., the true principle for understanding and predicting practices. 59. That is why the legitimate modality, especially in relation to works of art, which is one of the best practical indices of seniority within the bourgeoisie, remains in comparably more profitable, in rhe 'high-society' market at least, than {he scholas-

more overtly on the implicit or explicit principles of the art of living. Especia ly in . the case of comedy, it presupposes common values or mterests or, more preCIsely, a complicity and connivance based on immediate assent to the same self -evident propositions, those of the doxa, {he totality of opinions accepted at the level of pre-reflexive belief. (This explains why the institutions supplying the products, and the products themselves, are more sharply differentiated in the theaue (han in any other art.) 52. For an analysis of'art for art's sake' as the expression of the anisrjc life-style, see P. Bourdieu, 'L'invention de la vie d'artiste,' A(/eJ, 2 ( 1975), 67-93. H. This is true despite the apparent exception in which some artists return (Q certain popular preferences, which had a totally different meaning in a cultural configura tion dominated by choices which for them would he quite improbable or even impossible. These returns to the 'popular' style, which oEren pass for a return to the 'people', are determined not by any genuine relationship to the working classes, who are geneCiilly spurnecl--even in idealization, which is a form of re fusal-bur by rhe internal relations of the field of artistic production or the field of the dominant class. (This poinr has a general validity, and one would need to ex amine what the writings of intellectuals on the working classes owe to the specific interests of intellectuals in struggles in which what is at stake, if not the people, is the legitimacy conferred, in cerrain conditions, by appearing as the spokesman for popular imerests.) 54. It is in these two categories that we encounter the most marked refusal of souve nir photos (,Souvenir photos are s{upid and banal'; 'The main point of a photo is to preserve the images of those one loves'), of realism in painting ('A beautiful picture should reproduce what is beautiful in nature') or in photography (,For a photograph to be good, you JUSt have to be able co recognize what it shows' ) , and the most resolute assertion of faith in modern painting (in refusal of the opinion: 'Modern painting is just slapped on anyhow . . ' ) 55. One o f the major limitations imposed by the list of pre-formed choices is that it does not bring out these 'conflicts' and the strategies aimed at getting around rhem. A respondent who has, 'against the grain', chosen Georges Brassens or Jacques Douai might have been able co indicate his refusa1 of song, while showing his 'open-mindedness', by citing ( with an implicit redefinition) something by Kurt Weill or an old Neapolitan song. (The France-Musique radio programme of 'personal selections', 'Le concert egoisre', is very revealing in this respect . ) 56. Saint-Cloud: second to ENS rue d'Ulm i n the hierarchy of the Ecoles normales
. .

51. This is seen clearly in the case of the theatre, which touches more directly and

1%6), p. 89).

568
60.

/ Noles 10 Pages 67-77

fumi hed to ccommodare rhe President's foreign guests: 'The protocol is strict: the hierarchy IS measured in space, in rhe style of furniture and the qualiry of the drapery. R:are furniture and Lyons silks for the suitcs reserved for Heads of State; Napolcofilc mahogany and velvet for the Prime Minister's first-floor suite; satin and flowered CO((on on the second floor for the technical advisers' rooms.' J. Mi chel, Le Monti<, 27 January 197. 74. One only has to recall that appropriated objects, of all SOrtS, are objectified social (class) rclarions in order to see how one might be able to develop a sociology of the world of objects that would be something other than the record of a projetive test maSCjuerading as a phenomenologico-semiological analysis ( I am thinkIng of J Baudrillard, Le sySlime de, objets [Paris, Gallimard, 1968}). 75. Here one might invoke, not so much the erotic theory of rhythm ( used, for ex ample, to explain accelerations in rhythm leading to a peak followed by a rest), as the theory which points to a broader concordance or correspondence between musical tempo an inner rh ythms, arked for example by the tendency to pro . . duce ovements 10 time With musIC. See, for example, P. Fraisse, LeI Jt,.ucturel s rhythml'lues ( Paris, Erasme, 1956), and Pychologie du temps, 2nd ed. ( Paris, PUF,

61 .

62.

63.

64.

66.

65.

67.
68.

tic modality (and the knowlrogc that is only learnt in school-spelling, grammar or mathematics) . It would have seemed somewhat cruel to quote one DC another of the texts in which the 'cultivated' express their image of the 'petit-bourgeois' relation to cul erences (or expe ture and the 'perversions' of the aurodidact. The reader's own ref rience) can no doubt fill the gap. A picture is not seen at a glance. This illusion belongs only to those who are inca pable of "seeing" and are content to "recognize" an image by connecting it, not with a visual experience, but with intellectualized knowledge'; P. Francastel, 'Pro blemes de 1a sociologic de }'art' in G. Gurvitch, Traiti de JocioJogie ( Paris, PUF, 19(3), II, 278-279. P. de Press"" Considerations sur fa CUt,i", ( Paris, NRF, 1931), pp. 23-24. (The ital ics, which are mine, are intended to bring out more clearly the series of opposi tions which are all taken from the tradition of cultural consumption: natul'2l gift and instinct/rules and education; connoisseur/pedam; literary sense/grammar.) One could equally well have qUOted Proust (who never fails to relate manners to the manner of acquisicion) : 'She annoyed me, which was all the more unfair, in asmuch as she did not speak like this to make me think she was an imimate friend of "Meme" , but owing to a too rapid education which made her name these noble lords according to what she believed to be the custom of the counuy. She had crowded her course into a few months, and had not picked up the rules'; M. f ProUSt, The Cities o the Plain, pt. I, trans. C. K. Scott Monctidf ( London, Chatto and Windus, 194 1 ) , p. 84. Mystical discourse on the work of art is strictly inexhaustible and there is inevita bly a sense of arbitrariness when, to give a concrete illustration of the analysis, one cites a specimen such as the following, which, though it says scarcely less than the profound meditations of Gilson or Heideggcr, perhaps owes its exemplary charac ter to its very banality, as is attested by its place of publication: 'Ignorant or ini tiated, we are each of us disarmed before that mystery, the masterpiece. Uncertainly searching the canvas, we await the momem of grace when the artist's message will come to us. The silent clamour of Rembrandt, the infinite gentleness of Vermeer, no culture will make rhcse things comprehensible to us if we have not restored the calm, cteated the expectation, prepared within ourselves the void that is propitious to emorion' (Ria/itiJ, March 1960). Within the dominam class, differences by social trajectory are very closely linked to differences in capital composition; the proportion of newcomers increases 115 one moves rawards the dominated fractions (except for writers and anists). Th raction (especially the dominant fl'2ction) differ fan remains that wirhin each f ences in trajecrary arc very strongly felt. a ormation de l dtxtrine cJaJJique en France ( Paris, Nizet, 1951). See R. Bray, La f See M. Magendie, La politme moruiaine et leI thkJriei de l'honnetete en France, au XVII"iic", de 1600 a 1660 ( Paris, PUF, 192). y See H. Kanrarovitch, The King'I TUJ(} BodieI: A Stud in Mediaeval Political Theology ( Princeron, Princeran Universiry Press, 19'57). . G. Post, 'Plena Potestas and Consent' in Sludiel in Medieval Legal Thought, PubliC Law and the State, 1 100- 1322 ( Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1964), pp.

69. G. Doncieux. Un jiluite homme de kttreJ au XVlIe IiicJe: Ie Pere BouhouTJ ( Paris, Hachette, 1886). 70. See P. Bourdieu and M. de Saint Martin, 'Le Patronar', ActeJ, 20-21 ( 1978), 3-82 . 7 1 . N. Elias, The Civilizing Proem (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1978). 72. R. Banhcs, 'The Grain of the Voice', in Image. Music, Text, trans. S. Heath (london, Fontana, 1977) , pp. 179-189; quotation from p. 18'5. . e wnh 73. There is a protocol of objects which brings the hierarchy of things into li

93-162.

the hierarchy of persons. Thus we learn from an article on the Marigny reSidence,

clusion or relegation no doubt hclps to reinforce the irrationalism and anti-intel lectualism that are encouraged by an ambivalent relationship to the educational ystm and a declining or sp.uriously rising trajectory. (This false-trajectory effect Impmges on all those who aim for the future which, in an earlier state of the sys tem, was implied in their educational qualification or position.) 78. G. G. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 196), p. 25. 79. As i shwn, for example by the vue which rhe editors and readers of popu : . on highly qualified or high-ranking academic contributors lanzmg Journals set whose role is that of institutional guarantors. BO. See G. Razzan, 'Ethnic Dislikes and Stereotypes', Journal o Abnormal Social PIY f chology, 4 ( 1950), 727. 81. Although the legitimate definition of culture, or of the relation to culture or (he hierarchy of the different arts, genrc , works or authors is the stake in a peranent s: . . struggle, If would be naive to use thiS as an argument for denying the existence, at every moment, of a legitimat jerarchr The struggles which aim, for example, to tranf?rm or overturn the legitimate hierarchies through the legitimating of a still Illegmmate art or genre, such as photography or the strip cartoon, or rhrough the rehabili aton o 'minor' or 'neglected' authors etc., or to impose a new mode of apropnatlon, hnked (0 another mode of acquisition, are precisely what creates le gitimacy, by creating belief not in the value of this or that stake but in the value of the game in which the value of all the srakes is produced and reproduced. It would be no less naive to rrear these hierarchies, which reproduce in their own logic, i.e., in a transfigure form, the power rclations between the groups, as an absolute order, grounded 10 nature, although they derive most of their symbolic efficacy, that is, their legirimacy, from the fact that they are seen in this way. 82. The dominant rnanners, pronunciation, 'ease', 'distinction' tend to impose them . selves on the dommated classes themselves, and can only be devalued in the name of entirely 'extra-cultural' principles, such as the values of virility, which consti tute the dominant modality as an index of effeminacy. 83. n all these points, and especially on the opposition between ENA and Poly tech m ue, see Bourdieu and Saint Martin, 'Le patronat', ACleI, 20-21 ( 1978) , 3-82. 84. It IS :well k.nown what contempt the members of the dominant class, especially the . fracnons nchest 10 culwral capital, have for TV or radio <..juiz shows, which, like

76. For the biographical infomatio , sec C. Brunschwig, L. J. Cal vet, and J. C. Klein, 100 am de chamon jran{alJt ( Pans, Ed. du Scuil, 1972); and Who'l Who in F,.ance. 77. The fact that mathematics and physics have now become the main criteria for ex

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86. 87. 88.

89.

sociological questionnaires, appear ro {hem as parodic negations of the legitimate rdation to legitimate culrure. See in panicular E. IXmolins. A quoi tienl La Juperioriti deJ anK.W-J4Xom.? ( aris, , . Firmin-Didot, 1897); L'education nOTlvelle, ' Ecole deJ Roche! ( Pans. Flrmtn-Dldor, 1898); L'awnir de NdJlcati0Tl 1louvelle ( Paris, Firmin-Didor, 1899); P. de Couber_ tin, L'idNcation en Angle/ern ( Paris, Hacheetc, 1888); L'Mucalion angiaise en France ( Paris, Hachette, 1889). See Bourdieu and Saint Marrin, ' Lc patron at' . G. Bachelard, L'lUtilliti ra/iona/jIle de la phYJiqui contnnporaine, 2nd cd. ( Paris, PUF, 1%)), p. 60. Everything suggests that this violence increases in proportion (0 {he distance be tween the persons questioned and icgicimarc culture-symbolized, righdy Or wrongly, by the inrerviewer and his '1uestionnaire. We know that the division within the business bourgeoisie according to the dom. inam type of capital (economic or educational) corresponds to the division by _ nlomy. Hoffmann evokes in his KrerJierbllch one of the most typical fantasies of all racism in his parable of the 'cultivated young man', an ape who had been taught to speak, read, write and play music, but who could not help betraying his 'exotic origin' in 'a few little details', such as the 'inner movements' which agitated him when he heard nuts being cracked.
2.

The Social S pace and Its Tram ormatiom f

1 . The extension of the survey to the whole range of material or cultural practices,

2.

3.

4.

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6.

legitimate or not, which can give rise ro judgemenrs of taste--cooking and an, clothing and music, cinema and decoration-was intended to provide the means of examining the relationship between the dispositions generally regarded as aes thetic and the system of dispositions which consricure the habitus. Need it be said that the sociologists who are aware of this pre-condition are nor legion, especially among rhose who profess a concern for methodology? Ir could no doubt be shown in connection with a number of technical objects, as I have done for phorography-P. Bourdieu e{ al., Un art moyen: mai Jllr ieJ IIJa Jociaux tk ia photographie ( Paris, Ed . de Minuit, 196 )-that apart from what 15 implied in the negative determinisms, the limits, scarcely anything to do with the social uses of objecrs can be derived from their technical properties. Economists--and a number of sociologists least burdened by a sense of theoretical in'luiry and attention co the complexity of reality-are past masrers in the art of formalizing the 'lived experience' or the unconscious of a class. It is difficult [0 resis[ the perverse pleasure of evoking a recent study in which Gary S. ckerwho has PUt his model-making imagination to better use at other tJm[ tempts to account for the paradox whereby the demand for ccrrain goods steadily . increases with experience; G. J Stigler and G. S. Becker, 'De gustibus non est diS purandum', American Economic Review, 67 (March 1977), 76-90. To account r dispositions such as 'melomania', typical of 'benign manias', Becker invokes 10 one case the dedine in the cost of production of 'musical pleasure' which resu ts from the accumulation of the specific human capital, and in the othe he 10creased COSt of production of the 'cuphoria' which results from the declintng capacity for euphoria. QED. . . For another example of this paradoxical neglect, see P. Bourdleu, Travarl et tra tJailkuf"J en Algerie ( Paris, Mouton, 19(3 ) , and Algeria 1960 (Cambridge, Cam bridge University Press, 1979). . . The objective class must not be confused with the mobilized class, the et ?f lOdl viduals brought together, on the basis of the homogeneity of the obJecofied or embodied properties which define the objective class, for the purpose of the

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( whICh ar the basis of INSEE's socio-occupational groups) but also, in each case, . of the avaIlable mdI.Ces of the volume of the differem sorts of capital as well as age, sex and place of residence. ' 9. There are any ?bstacles to making such a mode of thought accessible and ac cepcablC:-1Oclud ng th practical logic of data collection -and analysis, and the . oncetJon of sClent,fiClty whICh is current in the social scie nces. There is every IOcentlve ro ask technology to resol e a problem which it merely displaces. This . happens, for example, when 10 an artIcle of unusual rigour for this sort of exercise Goldberg esorts t rhe [ech i'lue of 'c usal inference' to test different explanato ? , models, wah the aId of partIal correlauons expressmg the most determinant 'cau . al . relan)fls' for a particular area such as voting behaviour : (see A. S. Goldberg, . Iscernm Causal Pattern among Data on Voting BehaVIo r', American Political Sa"'.ce RevIew 60 ( 1 966) ? 1 3-922. And yer perhaps is it not just metaphysical nos talgia to refuse to be satisfied with the countless partial models rhat have been pro uced ad hoc to account for religious behaviour, political choices or eating ha lts. and to wonder whether the fragmentation of the explanatory theories . derives rom the logIC of what is to be explained or the logic of the mode of explanation. 10. Between 1968 nd 197 5, the proportion of women in the most skilled categories of workers declmed even faster (han before. In the semi-skilled and unskilled care gories, after declining between 1962 and 1 %8 the proportion of women rose from 24 percent in 1%8 ro 28 percent in 1975; see L. Theven or, 'us categories sociales en 1975: l'extension du salariat', Economie et StatiJtique, 91 (july-August 197 7), 3-3 1 , esp. 6. 1 1. The fact {hac the mode of aC'Iuisition is especially visible in cerrain comexts is a . partICular manifestation of this eff ct (e.g., mismatch berween e the scholastic mode of acquisition and 'high society' situations) . 12. The directions taken by these 'deviant' trajector ies are noc entirely random: it . sees, for example, that 10 cases of ecline, individuals originat ing from the pro . fessiOns tend to fall lOW the new ffilddle-c1asss fractions whereas the children of teahers tend o decline inco the established petite bourgeo isie. . 13. ThiS effect IS Itself an essential dimension of the effect of inculcation since che slope of the father's trajecrory helps to shape the initial exp erience of d namic in sertion in the social universe. 14. It is .a mistake to conceive ri ing groups in ter s of . simple symmetry. Although for . flsl.ng groups the educational quah catl.on a means of IS defense against ex IOitatlon-(he more so the more dommated they are-it p always tends W func . . tion, even 10 thiS case, as a means of distinction and legitimario n.

8. To construct te classes and class fractions on which the subSC<juent analyses are base

strggle to preserve or modify rhe Structure of the distribu tion of objectified prop erties. 7. Jean Benzecri pu{s [his well : 'Let us assume individuals afJ'Y > )'2' . . , . l , n' each desc,bd as possessmg three features. Leaving aside the a/32 two .demaPn I each last ents 10 descnpoon, we can say that all the individuals belong to a single species defined by feature a, which we can call species a. Bur alrh ough feacure a enables . . us to define t? IS peC!es and recognize its individuals, we can not study the former . without consldenng features /3, y of the latter. From this standpoint, if we call B the sum of f3 modalities which the second feature can aSSu me and C the sum of ' rhe )' . m alit i ? f the third feature, then studying species a means studying aBC, I.e., In addition to the first, stable feature, every form which the first ( B) or the second (C) may take; and also the possible association s between the latter . ( :.g.,. wah Y rather chan with y l or y2) ., J. Benzecri, 'De finition logi'lue et . . deflnmon statlstl'lue: notes de lecture sur un chapirre de Ernst Cassirer' ' Cahrers de
l'Analp' del Donn'tl, 3 ( 197 8), 239-242.

?, systemauc account was taken nor only of occupation and educational level

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15. It may be wondered whether individual decline has the same social effects as col lective dedine. The latter is no doubt more conducive ro collective reactions (such as the Poujadiste movement) than the former. . . Of course, one does not rule out the use of indicarors which combine the essential 16 content of the information comained in a set of factors, such as the indicator of socio-cultural status constructed by Ludovic Lebart and Nicole Tabard to 'sum- . marize' the information supplied on each family by its occupation, the occupation of the parernal and maternal ascendants and the educational level of the two spouses . However, as rhe authors rightly point Out, this synthetic variable cannot be credited with an 'explanatory power' unless the word 'explanatory' is under stood in a purely statistical sense; see 1. Leban, A. Morineau and N. Tabard, Tech_ ( Paris, Dunod, 1977), p. 2 2 1 . Far from assisting research, naive use of such indices would have the effect of excluding the question of the partu:ular configuration of the variables which is operative in each case. A fuller presentation of the fundamenral principles of this construction, i.e., the theory of the different soers of capital, their specific properties and the laws of conversion between these different forms of social energy, which is simultaneously a theory of the classes and class fractions defined by possession of a given volume and strucrure of capital, is reserved for another book, so as not to overcomplicate the present analysis of the judgement of taste. The gaps are more clearcut and certainly mort' visible as regards education than income, because information on incomes ( based on tax declarations) is much less reliable than information on qualifications. This is especially true of indusrrial and commercial employers ( who, in the CESP survey-C.S. V-provided, along with doctors, the highest rate of non-response to the questions about income), crafts men, shopkeepers and farmers. The category 'medical and social services' is characterized by the fact that it con tains men mainly drawn from the working classes and women of whom a con siderable proportion come from the upper classes (see the twO histograms in figuce 5 ) . A number of cultural propenies are acquired by virtue of position in geographical space, pardy through the quality of the social contacts favoured by spatial proxim ity. One of the most crucial is pronunciation, which unmistakably designates a stigmatized or prestigious origin. The distriburion of a class or class fraccion in socially ranked geographical space--in particular its distance from the economic and cultural 'centres'-almost always manifests also its internal hierarchies. For example. secondary analysis of (he 1%7 INSEE survey on leisure activities shows that, in all socio-occupational categories, cultural activity increases with rhe size of the town ( a good indicaroc of cultural supply): this is no doubt pardy because the apparent homogeneity of the categories conceals differences, within the categories themselves, by size of rown, especially with respect to cultural capital. In English in the original text ( translator). Gerhard ienski, who, to his credit, sees the problem of discrepancies between the different SOrtS of capital and points to some of the hidden effects they can prodce (in paericular, the tendency to 'liberalism' associated wirh strong 'decrysta1hz tion' of status) , is no doubt prevented from developing all the consequences of hiS intuition by the positivist ritual of constructing an index. See G. Lenski, 'StaUS . Crystallization: A Non-Veerical Dimension of Social Status', American O(JOIOglCai Review, 19 ( 1954), 405-413. Sources: M. Praderie, 'Heritage social et chances d'ascension' in Darras, Le partage de.r beneficeJ ( Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1966), p. 348; IN SEE, Recensement general de la population de 1968 ( Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 197 1 ) .

niques de la description statistique: mhhoties et logiciels pour "analyse des grandJ tableaux

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

2 Y A . Villeneuve, 'Les revenus primaires des menages en 1975', Economie et StatiJtiqlle, t03 ( September 1978), 6 1 . 26. Set: M . !'4ngenot, N . Alise and F . Remoussin, LeJ jeuneJ f a I'emploi ( Paris, Ed. ace ufllverslta1re5, 1972), p. 230. 27. Thes.e new strategies combine with or replace tried and tested strategies, such as . provIsion of financial aid ( a sort of advance inheritance) , reconversion of the fam ily's soci l capi.taJ through a pro? [able marriage, or a move ioro less competitive . . markets m which conomlc, solal or cultural capital is better rewarded (e.g., in . the past, the colonies; Or presnglOus----or at least honourable-institutions such as the Army or the Church, which could be entered without economic or even cul tural capital ) . 28. On the evolution of the different socio-occupational categories, see Thevenor, 'Les categories sociales en 197", and on the steady developmenr, between 1%2 and 1975, of the 'business consultancy' senor-legal, accountancy and financial con sultants, advertising agents. architectural advisors etc.-see P. Trogan, 'Croissance rguliCre de l'emploi dans les anivites d'erudes et de conseils', Economie et Statis t/que, 93 (October 1977), 73-80. 29. See C. Baudelot and R. Establet, L 'Ecole capitaliJte en France (Paris, Maspero, 1971 ) . (Translator's note.) 30. M. Griff, 'Les conflits interieucs de l'aniste dans une societe de masse', Diogme, 46 ( 1%4 , 61-94. This article gives a very precise description of the devices which advertisers, 'commercial artists', use on their apprentices, who are often would-be artists, so as to induce disinvestment ('running errands' etc . ) and reinvestment in a 'lower' field. 3 1 . proportion of the s.urplus produt'ts of the educational system find employment . In man glng the SOCial problems and conflicts created by educational 'overpra . ducoon and by the new 'demands' it has created (e.g., the 'need' for continuing education) . 32. R . Boudon, 'La crise universitaire fran\aise: essai de diagnostic sociologique', An nal", 3 ( May-June 1%9), 747-748. 33. A. Peyrefitte, u mal /ran(aiJ (Paris, Pion, 1978), esp. pp. 408-409 and 509-)11. 34. See 1 . Stone, 'The Inflation of Honours, 1 5 58-1641', Past and PreJent, 14 ( 1958), 4 5- 70. 35. See L. Stone, 'Theories of Revolution', World PolitiCJ, 18 (January 1%6), 1)9-176.

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The Habitus and the S pace of Life-St yles

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It follows from this that the relationship between conditions of existence and pracrices or rhe meaning of practices is not to be understood in terms either of the logic of mechanism or of the logic of consciousness. ). Riviere in M. Proust and J. Riviere, Cormpondance, 1914-1922 ( Paris, Galli mard, 1976), p. 326. In contrast to the atomistic approach of social psychology, which breaks the unity o.f practice to establish parrial .'la s' claiming to accouor for the products of prac tin:, the opus operatum, the aim IS to establish general laws reproducing the laws of production, the modus operandi. Ecoomic t eory, which treats economic agents as interchangeable actors, para dOXICally falls to take accou nt of the economic dispositions, and is thereby pre . . ented from really explaining the systems of preferences which define Incommensurable and independent subjective use-values. An ethic, which seeks to impose the principles of an ethos ( i.e., the forced choices of a social condition) as a universal norm, is another, more subtle way of suc-

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cumbing to amnr j of being content with what one is and has. Such is the basis ati, of the felt conrradiction between ethics and revolutionary intent. 6. 'Bourgeois' is used here as shonhand for 'dominant fractions of the dominant class', and 'intellectual' or 'artist' functions in the same way for 'dominated frac tions of the dominant class'. 7. F. Nietzsche, Der WiJie 2ur Macht (Stuugarr, Alfred Kroner, 1964 ) , no. 943, p.
8. Bananas are the only fruit for which manual workers and farm workers have higher annual per capita spending (FF 23.26 and FF 25.20 ) than all other classes, especially the senior executives, who spend most on apples (FF 3 1 .60 as against FF 2 1 .00 for manual workers) , whereas the rich, expensive fruits-grapes, peaches 630.

9.

10. 11.

12. 1 3. 14. 15. 16.

17 .

18. 19.

and nuts-are mainly eaten by professionals and industrial and commercial em ployers (FF 29.04 for grapes, 19.09 for peaches and 17.33 for nuts, as against FF 6.74, 1 1 .78 and 4.90 respectively, for manual workers). This whole paragraph is based on secondary analysis of the tables from the 1972 INSEE survey on household expenditure on 39 items by socia-occupational cate gory. A fuller translation of the original text would include: ' "Ies nourrituTeJ a la fois les plus nolt"iJJanteJ et les plus iconomiqueJ" (the double tautology showing the re duction to pure economic function).' (Translacor's note.) In the French: 'Ie gros et Ie gras, gros rouge, gros sabots, gros travaux, gros rire, grosses blagues, gros bon sens, plaisameries grasses'---cheap red wine, clogs ( i.e., obviousness) , heavy work, belly laughs, crude common sense, crude jokes ( rrans lator) . The expression 'tastes of luxury' will be used rather than 'tastes of freedom' so that it is nor forgotten that the tastes of freedom are also the product of a social necessiry defined by the 'facilities', i.e., the distance from necessity, which it offers. p amiJieJ it des jeuneJ ( Paris, CREDOC and N. Tabard, BeJoim et as iratiom deJ j CNAF, n.d.), p. 1)3. J. W. Thibaur and A. W. Riecken, 'Some Determinants and Consequences of che Perceprion of Social Psychology',journal o[ PerJonality, 24 ( 1956 ) , 1 1 3-133. K. Marx, Capital, I (Harmondsworrh, Penguin, 1976 ) , 482 ( translator). One fine example, taken from Bohm-Bawerk, will demonstrate this essentialism: 'We muse now consider a second phenomenon of human experience----one that is heavily fraught with consequence. That is the fact that we feel less concerned about fucure sensations of joy and sortOw simply because they do lie in the future, and the lessening of our concern is in proponion to the remoteness of that furure. Consequently we accord to goods which are intended to serve future ends a value which falls shon of the true intensity of rheir future marginal utility. We JYJtemati cally untkrvalue our f uture wantJ and alJo the mean! which JeTVf to JatiJjy them.' E. Bohm-Bawerk, Ca pilal and Inleml, II (South Holland, Ill., 19)9 ) , 268, 9uoted by G. 1. Stigler and G. S. Becker, 'De gustibus non est disputandum', American Eco nomic Review, 67 ( March 1977 ) , 76-90. We may assume that the deep-seated relation to the future (and also to one's own person-which is valued more at higher levels of the social hierarchy) is reRected in the small proportion of manual workers who say that 'there is a new life after death' ( 1 5 percent, compared with 18 percent of craftsmen and shopkeepers, office workers and middle managers, and 32 percent of senior executives). It is not superfluous to point out that this art, which has its recognized virtuoSO. the 'life and soul of the party', can sink into the caricature of jokes or remarks that arc defined as srereotyped, stupid or coarse in terms of the aireria of popular taste. The oppositions are much less clear-cut in the middle classes, alrhough homolo gous differences arc found between primary teachers and office workers on the one hand and shopkeepers on the other.

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extent, Russian-rises with level in the social hierarchy. The only exceptions are Spanish restaurants, which are associated with a more popular form of tourism, and North African restaurants, which are mosr favoured by junior executives (C.S. XXXIV). 22. Les groJ: the rich; grosse bouffi: bulk food (cf. grossiste: wholesaler; and English 'gro cer'). See also note 20 above (translator) . 23. That is why the body designates not only present posicion but also trajectory. 24. In 'The Economics of Linguistic Exchanges', Social Science In/ ormation, 26 (Decem ber 1977 ) , 645-668, Bourdieu develops the opposition between cwo ways of speaking, rooted in cwo relations to the body and the world, which have a lexical reflection in the many idioms based on two words for 'mouth': fa bouche and fa gueule. La hauche is the 'standard' word for the mouth; but in opposition ro fa gueule--a slang or 'vulgar' word except when applied to animals-it tends to be ccsuicted to the lips, whereas la gueule can include the whole face or the throat. Most of the idioms using la hauche imply fastidiousness, effeminacy or disdain; those with fa gueule connote vigour, strength or violence (translator's note). 25. This means that the taxonomies applied co the perceived body ( fat/chin, strong/weak, big/small etc.) are, as always, at once arbitrary (e.g., ehe ideal female body may be fat or thin, in different economic and social contexts) and necessary, i.e., grounded in the specific reason of a given social order. 26. More than ever, the French possessive pronouns-which do not mark the owner's gender--ought to he translated 'his or her'. The 'sexism' of the eext results from the male translator's reluctance to defy the dominant use of a sexist symbolic sys tem ( translator). 27. Oddly hut accurately over-determined in English by droll/drawl ( translator). 28. One could similarly contrasr the bowl, which is generously filled and held (wo handed for unprerenrious drinking, and the cup, into which a linle is poured, and more later ( 'Would you care for a little more coffee?'), and which is held between twO fingers and sipped from. 29. Formality is a way of denying the truth of the social world and of social relations. Just as popular 'functionalism' is refused as regards food, so too there is a refusal of the realistic vision which leads rhe working classes to accept social exchanges for what (hey are ( and, for example, to say, without cynicism, of someone who has done a favour or rendered a service, 'She knows I'll pay her back') . Sup pressing avowal of the calculation which pervades social relations, there is a striv ing to see presents, received or given, as 'pure' testimonies of friendship, respect, affection, and equally 'pure' manifestations of generosity and moral worth. 30. Throughout this analysis, it is the whole set of convergent tendencies that should be considered, rather rhan the scale of the differences, which are in any case mini mized by the fact that the dominant class is divided inco fractions whose fasres, especially in food, vary in opposite directions. 3 1 . Fish is an exception: it is eaten more at higher social levels, the difference between the classes being particularly marked in {he case of sole and salmon, which are as sociated with luxury, and relatively small in the case of hake and fresh-wa[er fish. 32. This is true for men, bur for women the opposition takes a 'luite different form, because the division of labour berween rhe sexes takes very different forms in the dominated fractions (where it is minimized) and in the dominant fractions (where women's exclusion from economic responsibilities tends to align them with 'young' and 'artistic' roles: bourgeois or artistOcraric women-and their -salons---have traditionally been mediators between the world of art and the world of business) . 33. Cf. J-P. Sartre, Being and NothingneJJ (London, Methuen, 1969 ) , pp. 339-3')1.

20. La boujfe: 'grub', 'nosh'; grande boujfe: 'blow-out' ( translator). 2 1 . The preference for foreign restaurants-Italian , Chinese, Japanese and, to a lesser

1'1(JU:J U) ragt:J
34. W. D. Dannenmaier and F.). Thurnin, 'Authority Status as a Factor in Perceptual Disrorrion of Size', joumal of Social Psychology, 63 ( 1%4 ), 361 365. 3'. See J. Defrance, 'Esquis d'une hisroire sociale de la gymnascique ( 1760-1870)', Actes, 6 (December 1976), 2247. 36. The dispositions which practitioners drawn from the working class or the lower strata of the middle classes bring into these collective sports-in particular, the hope of a miraculous escape from cheir class-correspond to the demands of racio nalized training and playing. 37. See Colltctions d. I'INSEE, ser. M, no. 2 (July 1970). 38. Here roo there is a hierarchy of legitimacies which defines the value assigned to the differenc sports in bourgeois conversation. Lt Mondt illustrates this fairly clearly by devoting 5(:rious 'crirical' articles, ofren by well-known writers, to tennis and rugby ( and secondarily athletics), whereas football and cycling get much more distant and impersonal treatment. 39. M. ProUSt, The Captiflt, pt. II, trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff (London, Chatto and Windus, 194 1 ) , p. 236. Jean Renoir's film La Grand. Illusion ( 1937) depicts rhe chivalrous code of French and German pilots in the First World War. British readers will remember the motto of the R.A.F., per ardua ad aJtra, 'rhrough diffi culties--and the heights--to the stars', which similarly links heroic distinction with height ( translaror). 40. Another distinctive feature, which sums up the opposition betwccn tWO relations to the body and ro social interactions: two-thirds 09.8 percent) of the tchers say they never dance, whereas dancing is very common in the professions (only 18 percent, the lowest proportion in the whole population, say they never dance) (C.S. IV). 4 1 . More rhan half the members of the Saint-Nom-la-Breteche golf club are bankers. industrialists, commercial entrepreneurs or company directors, 26 percent are managing directors, executives or engineers and 16 percent are members of the professions. 42. Equally relevant would be the analysis of the rdations betwccn the literary fidd, as the field of production of a universe of linguisric possibilities, and class habitus sec P. Bourdieu and L. Boltanski, 'Le f etichisme de la langue', ActeJ, 4 (July 1975), 2-32, and Bourdieu, 'Economics of Linguistic Exchanges'-or the rela tions, examined in chapter 8, between the space of rhe newspapers or the space of the political parties and the expectations of the different social classes.

LLI-Ljl

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4.

The Dynamics o the Fields f

A few examples all the same: 'What is Equality if not the negation of all liberty, all superiority, and nature itself? Equality is slavery. That is why I love art' ( Flau bert ro Louise Coler, 1516 May 1852, Corresponciance ( Paris, Conard, 19261933). 'In the reign of equality, and it is almost upon us, everything that is not covered with wartS will be flayed alive. The masses couldn't give a damn for Art, poetry, style. Give them vaudeville, treatises on prison labour, on housing estates and the material interests of the moment. There is a permanent conspiracy against origi nality' (20 June 1853, ibid. ). 'But it seems to me that one truth has emerged: that we have no need of the vulgar, of the numerous element of majorities, of p . proval, of consecration; '89 destroyed royalty and the nobility, '48 the bourgeOISIe, and " 1 the people. There's nothing left, except a loutish, imbecile mob. We art all wading in universal mediocrity. Social equality rules the roost. Books for every one, Art for everyone, science for everyone, just like railways and warming-rooS; Humanity is furiously intent on moral abasement and I resent being part of 1[, ( 28-29 September 18H, ibid.). One could also cite Mallarme's 'L' Art pour toUS

or 'Le mystere dans lcs Iettres', Oeuvre; complete; ( Paris, Gallimard, 194 5 ) , pp. 2j7260, 382387. 2. E. H. Gomhrich, Meditatiom on a Hobby HorJe (London, Phaidon Press, 1963), pp. 1718. 3. N. Elias, Die hfifuche GmiiJchajt ( Darmstadt, Luchterhand, 197'), p. 92. 4. Durkheim, unlike Popper, for example, whose theses he anticipates----cf K. Pop per, Objective Knowledge An Evolutionary Ap proach (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1972), esp. ch. 3-poses the problem of the relationship berween the world of science, 'the result of concentrated, accumulated human existence', and individ ual reason; but immediately obscures it by answering it in the language of partici pation, the basis of the illusion of culrural communism: 'Philosophers have often speculated that, beyond rhe bounds of human understanding, there is a kind of universal and impersonal undersranding in which individual minds seek to partici pate by mystical means; well, this kind of understanding exists, and it exists not in any transcendent world but in this world iesel. It exists in the world of science; or at leasr that is where it progressively realises itself; and it constitutes the ultimate source of logical vitality to which individual human rationality can attain.' E. [ Durkheim, The Evolution o Educational Thought (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977), pp. 341342 5. Because the possession of works of art is supposed to attest not only the owner's wealth but also his good taste, it tends to be perceived as merited and to consti tute a guarantee of legitimacy in irs own right. 6. The more 'modern' a work of 'high' an is, the rarer is the comperence it demands. 'Modernity' is defined in terms of rhe stages of the relatively autonomous history of the fields of production. This history is quasi-cumulative because belonging in the field and the hisrory of the field ( 'epoch-making') implies a self-definition by reference to, and generally in opposition to, the immediately previous art. (In the field of music, for example, this leads in certain periods to a constant extension of the field of accepted harmonies or rhe range of acceptable modulations.) This ex plains why the history of individual tastes tends to reproduce, wieh a few devia tions, rhe history of the corresponding art. 7. I am grateful to Jean-Daniel Reynaud for this reference. 8. Thus E. B. Henning has been able to show that the constitution of a relarively autonomous field of artistic production offering stylistically diversified producrs depends on the existence of two or more pat tons with different artistic needs and an equal power to choose works corresponding to their needs. E. B. Henning, 'Patronage and Sryle in rhe Ans: A suggestion concerning their Relations', The Journal 0/ EJihetics and Art CriticiJm, 18 (June 1%0), 464-471. 9. This sysrem of the ethical, aesthetic or political 'possibles' which arc effectively available at a given moment is no douht an essential dimension of what makes up the hisroricity of ways of thinking and world views, and the contemporaneity of individuals and groups linked to the same period and place. to. Advenising for luxury goods systematically exploits the association of a product with a group. In no other field are institutions more overtly defined by their clien tele than in the luxury trades. no doubt because here the virrually exclusive func tion of the products is to classify their owners. The link between the value of emblems and the value of the group which owns them is vt"ry clear in the anriques market, in which the value of an objeer may derive from the social standing of irs prevIous owners. 1 1 . The internalized classifications of taste have to reckon, at every moment, with the classifications objectified in institutions, such as the agencies of cultural consecra tion and conservation, and with all the objectified hierarchies of which they are always partly the product. But in rerurn, the dominant taxonomies are constantly challenged and revised in rhe classification struggles through which the diff rent e

classes or class fractions endeavour to impose their own taxonomy as legitimate, either directly or through the professionals who compete in the specialized fields of production. 12. Rather than elaborate here all the presuppositions of analysis in terms of field (in panicuiar, the inrerdependence between specific capital and the field in which it is ccrs, I shall merely refer the reader to earlier texts in valid and produced its eff which these ideas arc developed. See, in particular: P. Bourdieu, 'Le marche des biens symboliques', VAnnie Soci% giqlle, 22 ( 197 1 ) , 49-126; 'Genese et structure du champ religieux', Revile Fram;,aiJt de Sociowgie, 12 ( 1971 ) , 295-334; 'Champ du pouvoir, champ inrellccrue1 et habitus de dasse', Seo/ieJ, 1 ( 197 1 ) , 7-26; 'Le COu turier et sa griffe', AC/eJ, 1 ( 1975), 7-36; 'L'invention de la vie d'artiste', Actes, 2 ( 197) , 67-93; 'i'ontologie politique de Marrin Heidegger', AlleJ, 5-6 ( 1975), ormation, 14 (De 109-156; 'The Specificity of the Scientific Field', Social Science Inf cember 1975), 19-47; and especially 'The Production of Belief', Media, Culture

ket, see P. Bourdieu, 'The Economics of Linguistic Exchanges', 5,ocial Science Inf ormation, 16 (December 1977), 64)-668. 26. See F. de Saussure, Coune in General Linguistics ( London, Peter Owen, 1960), p. 121; Saussure's example is a nice one: the distinction between chaise, an ordinary . chair, and chaire, a professorial chair ( translaror's note ) . 27. Here too rhe new petite bourgeoisie distinguishes itselfby a particularly frequem choice of the adjectives which most clearly declare the intention of distinction, such as 'studied' for interior decoration or 'chic and stylish' for dress. Similarly, advertisements for the would-be luxury shops of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine de clare overtly the 'values' which the luxury shops ( Faubourg Saint-Honore) merely erences to art, for example ) , thereby exposing them to the charge of hint at (by ref 'vulgarity' in striving for 'effect': 'The furniture of Claude Deco [a shop i n the Faubourg Saint-Antoine] has that "je ne sais Cluoi" which is the soul of elegance

guaranteed positions which organizes every real interaction to be reduced to a momentary, local, fluid order (as in accidental encounters between strangers ) , and often an arrjficial one (as in socio-psychological experiments). Interacting individ uals bring all their properties into the most circumstantial interactions, and their relative positions in the social strucmre (or in a specialized field) govern their po sitions in the interaction. On the opposition between 'situation' and field or mar

sider how strong the cohesive f orces constituted by the harmony of habitus have to be in order to counterbalance the conrr2dictions inherent in the matcimonil1 enterprise as defined by cusrom and social law. 22. The intuition of the habitus provides an immediate understanding ( which would take some time ro justify explicitly) of rhe fact that, when invited ro choose from a list of personalities those whom they would like to invite to dinner, the senior executives and professionals choose moce often chan all other classes Simone Veil, Giscard, Batre, Fran,oise Giroud and Chirac, bur also Gicqucl and Mouronsi, whereas the working classes most often choose Colnche, Poulidor, Thcvenet and Marchais, while rhe middle classes most often choose Le Luron, Mitterrand, Prin cess Caroline of Monaco, Platini and Jauffrer (C.S. XLI I I ) . (Veil, Barre, Giroud: minisrers in the Giscard presidency. For Giscard, Marchais, Mitterrand, see appen dix 4. Roger Gic9uei and Yves Mourousi: TV and radio personalities; Coluche, Thierry Le Luron: enrerrainers; Poulidor, Thevenet: cyclists; Platini: footballer; Jauffrer: tennis player-translator.) 23. 'The Master's deep gaze has, as he passed, / Calmed the un9uiet wonder of Eden, / Whose final shudder, in his voice alone, awakens / For the Rose and the Lily the mystery of a name' (Mallarme, 'Toast Funebre', OeuvreJ completes, p. 55 [transla

20-21 ( 1978), 97-107. es 17. See P. Bourdieu and M. de Saim Martin, 'Les categories de I'enrendemem prof ,oral', AlteJ, 3 ( 1975), 87, 90. 18. See Ezra N. Suleiman, PoliticJ, PQU.Je1"" and Bureaucracy in France: The Administratiw Elite ( Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1974), p. 69. 19. See J. Marceau, 'The Social Origins, Educational Experience and Career Paths of a Young Business Elite', Final report for SSRC grant of 1973-1975, Paris, 1975. 20. Sc-c P. Bourdieu and M. de Saint-Martin, 'Le patronat', Actes, 20-21 ( 1978), 3-82. 2 1 . Before pointing to all the counter-cases of discord and divorce, one needs to con

Gautier at his word when he declares that the efficacy of his reviews stems nm from a calculated adjustment to the expectations of his readership but from an objective harmony of view, allowing a perfect sincerity which is essemial in order ro be believed and rherefore effective. 16. Sec A. Desrosieres, 'Marchc matrimonial et structure des classes sociales', Actes,

13. See Bourdieu, 'Le couturier et sa griffe.' 14. See Bourdieu, 'The Production of Belief.' 1 5 . J-J. Gautier, Theatre d'aujou,d'hui ( Paris, Julliard, 1972), pp. 25-26. We may take

and Society, 2 (July 1980), 261-293.

O pinion Quarterly, 18 ( 1954), 314-321. 29. See Bourdieu, 'The Production of Belief.' Jt 30. F. Nietzsche, (jber die Zukun unserer Bildungsantalten in Werke, I I I (Munich, Carl Hanser, 1%6), 189. 3 1 . Seen in the smug, joking names given to suburban houses: \a m'suffit', ',a

and distinction.' 28. The fallacy in the 'trickle-down' model is that i t reduces co an intentional pursuit of difference what is in fact an objective, automatic effect of the differentiation of the consumers' conditions and dispositions and the differentiation of the field of production, which may or may not be intentionally reinforced. See B. Barber and L. S. Lobel, 'Fashion in Women's Clothes and the American Social System', Social ForceJ, 31 ( 1952), 124-31; L. A. Fallers, ' A Note on the "Trickle Effect" ', Public

32.

33.

34.

35.
." .

m'plah' ( 'good enough for me', 'suits me'). In the Conclusion I try to show that such a postulate underlies Erving Goffman's vision of the social world, a sort of social marginalism which reduces the reality of the social order to the sum of the (subjective) representations which agents have of the ( theatrical) presentations given to them by other agents. Precisely because of its essential ambivalence, which induces alternating submis siveness and aggression, and also because of the constant risks of humiliation which it entails, the relationship between the pretentious 'pretender' and the self assured possessor is emotionally charged and generates resentment. Durkheim's celebrated precept that 'social facts should be treated as things' con tains irs own negation: there would be no need to state this methodological prin ciple with such emphasis if ordinary perception, which is a social fact and which also plays a part in making social fact, treated social facts as science requires them to be tre3ted. The aristocratic ideology of disinreresredness is no doubt the basis of a number of condemnations of 'consumer society' which f orget rhat the condemnation of con sumption is itself a consumer's idea.

tor) . 24. An inexhaustible discourse of resentment reinforces contentment with what one has; e.g., 'Just think what it must have COSt them (Q rent a villa right by the sea!' 25. The notion of situation, which is central to the interactionist fallacy, enables the objective, durable strucrure of relationship berwccn officially c003tituted and

5, The Sense o Distinction f

l . From a whole set of research projects on the different fractions of the dominant

class (the findings of some of which have already been published separately), only what is indispensable in order to account for the basic differences in life-styles is included here.

2. On the method of analysis, see L. Lebart, A. Marineau and N. Tabard, Techniques

2

de la description Jlatistique: mithodes et logideb pour I'analyse des grands tableaux

(Paris, Dunod, 1977 ) ; and for {he theoretical foundations and logical conditions actorielle et la reconnais_ of use, J. Benzeni, L'ana/yu des donnies: le(om sur l'analYJe l

3.

4.

6. 7.

8.

9.

lO.

11.

12. 13. 14.

vols. ( Paris, Dunod, 1973). Throughout this paragraph, and in the rest of (his book, the figures in parentheses represent the absolute inputs of the variables in question to the corresponding factor. Also in terms of this logic, opinions expressed vis-a.-vis pre-formed judgements, such as 'Absrran painting interests me as much as the classical schools', or 'Paint ings are nice but difficult', or [he choice of singers such as Uo Fern\ Georges Brassens or Jacques Douai, are strongly explained by the first factor. The private-senor and public-sector executives, who are widely dispersed in the plane diagram (figures 1 1 , 12 ) , are not represented by a box. This means that the fim facror in the facrorial analysis corresponds ro the second dimension of the social space and the second facror to the third dimension. In the analyses which were performed successively, either for the same set of indi cators (especially the one chosen for the final synthesis) or for the diff rent sets, e the first fanor proved (0 be more stable (its significance was not altered by any permutation in the relative position of the factors) than the second; in some areas, seniority in the bourgeoisie was relegated to third rank. In general, it is found that cultural praccices vary more strongly as a function of income, within the limits of cultural capital of course, when they have a higher diren cost (e.g., theacre or exhibitions) or when they imply possession of expen sive CCJuipment (e.g., listening (Q records, playing an instrument such as the piano, or amateur filmmaking). Visiting art museums (which are-relatively more equally distributed geographically than theatres or concert-halls) would de pend exclusively on cultural capital (to the extent, of course, that prices are kept low) if tourism, which is closely linked {Q economic capital, did not intensify this pranice (which explains why the representation of the economically richest frac tions of the dominant class is higher in museums with high tourist attraction than in 'ordinary' museums). It has been shown that the price of the seats represents only a proportion of the cost of theatre-going ( which includes transport COStS, the cost in time, the price of dinner and baby-sitting expenses) , and that all these expenditures rise with in come; see T. Moore, 'The Demand for Broadway Theater Tickets', The Review o j Economics and Statistics, 48 (February 1 %6), 79-87. This means that the overall cost of a visit to the theatre must rise very rapidly as one moves from the intellec tuals (Q the professions and the industrial and commercial employers. See P. Martineau, 'Social Classes and Spending Behavior ,jollrnal of Marketing, 23 (October 1958 ) , 121-130. The phrases in quotation marks are taken from Jean-Jacques Gautier's ideal-typical review of Franc;oise Dorin's no less ideal-typical play Le Toumant (Le Figaro, 1 2 Janua,), 1973 ) . A playwright or his play is said (Q be 'well served' by the actors. R. Lynes, The Tastemaktrs (New York, Grosset and Dunlap Universal Library, 19)4 ) , p. 62. Secondary and higher-education teachers (who represented 16.3 percent of the dominant class in 1%8 ) constitute, respectively, 54.4 percent, 39.5 percent, 34.1 percent, 27.7 percent and 13.5 percent of the dominant-class users of libraries--see 'La lenure publique en France', Notes et Etudes Documentaires, no. 3948, 15 Decem ber 1972-of theatres of the consecrated avant-garde, the Odeon, TEP, TNP, Monrparnasse (C.S. XIV), of museums (d. our complementary survey, 196') , of
'

sance des f ormes et travaux du Laboratoire de statistiques de I'Univtrsite de Paris VI,

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the 'classic' theatres, Atelier, Comedie Franc;aise, and of boulevard theatres (C.S. XIV). Secondary analysis of the INSEE 'leisure' survey (C.S. IV) shows that teachers ( 17.3 percent of the dominant class in the sample) represent, respectively, (a) 40.9 percent, (b) 38 percent, (c) 27.1 percent, (d) 19.4 percent, (e) 16,1 per cent and (f) 6 percent of the dominanc-c1ass members who say (a) they go to a library at least once a month, (b) go to a concert at least five or six times a year, (c) have been to an art exhibition in the last six months, (d) regularly visit a mu seum, (e) go to the theatre at least five or six times a year, ( f) have been to a variety show at least once in the year. The proportion of industrial and commer cial employers varies in a systematically opposite way, and they represent, for ex ample, 18.6 percent of the dominant-class members who have been to a variety show. l'). Since the density of [he pertinent information seemed no less important than its quality, all the quotations used here are taken from a single issue of Connaissance des Arts-November 1971. A close study of two years' issues ( 1972-73 ) confirms , ItS representativeness. 16. K. Marx, 'Excerpts from James Mill's Elements of Political Economy' in Earl y Writings (Harmondsworrh, Penguin, 1974 ) , p. 266 ( translation slightly modified) . 17. It can be seen that the inclination to personalism and to all forms of glorification of the uniqueness of the person is deeply rooted in the habitus. What vary be tween the fractions, i.e., according to the types of capital which are the main de terminant of class membership, are the properties constitutive of the person (de facro and de jure)-intellectual value, moral and spirirual value e{(.-which are especially exalted. 18. A French ttJuivalent of Reader's Digest ( translator). 19. The administrative executives (in the very broad INSEE definition), a fairly large proportion of whom arc of working-class or middle-class origin, are very close, in the asceticism of their tastes, to the secondary teachers, although, educationally less qualified, they are more inclined to less prestigious cultural praCtices, such as visiting monuments and chareaux. 20. Some 14.5 percent of (he judges and 13.') percent of the doctors appearing in Who's Who in France (as against 9.7 percent of the senior civil servants, 4.2 percent of the employers and company directors) have published at least one non-special ized (political or literary) work. 2 1 . K. Marx, Capital, I (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1976 ) , 74 1 . 22. Centre de recherche economi<]ue sur l'epargne, Enquete sur Itl comportemmts patri moniaux des midecim exer(ant une activite liberate (Paris, CREP, 1971 ) . 23. The same form of disposition, the product of an analagous discrepancy between cultural and economic capital, is found in members of the new-middle-class frac tions (see, in chapter 6, (he interview with a nurse who 'lives passionately') . 24. Le Quotidien du Medecin, no. 7 10, 3-4 May 1974. 2'). More strongly than all other fractions, the employers and professionals reject as ugly the photograph of a wounded man. 26. On the essential time-lag between production and consumption which assigns the most advanced producers to posthumous markets and profits, see P. Bourdieu, ' I.e marche des biens symboliques', L'Annie Sociologique, 22 ( 1973 ) , 49-126, and 'The Production of Belief', Media, Culture and Society, 2 Ouly 1980 ) , 261-293. 27. To designate life-styles, one always has the choice between a neutral, but colour less, terminology (ascetic taste) , and the 'native' labels (pedantic taste, bourgeois taste) which are liable to pull one back to the symbolic battlefield on which they were forged. 28. Some interesting indicacions of the ways in which artists use time are {Q be found in B. Rosenberg and N. Fliegel, The Vanguard Artist (Chicago, Quadrangle Books, 1%5 ) , esp. p. 312,
,

29. The classificatory systems used in the official statistics, which necessarily corre spond (Q an outdated state of the classification struggle, inevitably fail (Q record the differences resulting from the emergence of new occupations and the decline or redefinition of old ones. 30. In (his respect, the teachers occupy an intermediate position between the profes sions and the engineers or executives. Unable [0 control the conditions of entry, . . at least m higher educauon, [0 control the conditions of they have endeavoured, promotion. See P. Bourdieu, L. Bolranski and P. Maldidier, 'La defense du corps' ' Social Science Inl onnation, \0 ( 197 1 ) , 4 \-86. 3 1 . The same is true, in {he other sector of {he field, of a number of big and medium entrpreneurs, ho have 'foug t their way up' and whose habitus, like a ship . cont1nu n on as cou under ItS own momentum, tends to prolong {he virtues of ascetiCism and savmg, the tastes and interests of their early days. In other words, the employers are distinguished not only according [0 the size and status of their firms and thir prpef{y tides or qualifications, but also, although to a lesser extent, by the traJectOnes t?at have led tem [0 their positions. (These analyses . have been venfied and specified by analYSIS of the characteiistics of the heads of the two hundred largest French firms: see P. Bourdieu and M. de Saint Martin, 'Le patronar', ActeJ, 20- 2 1 [ 1978), 3-82.) 32. The SOFRES survey shows that 22 percent of the private-sec [Or executives are unde 35 and 49 percet are under 49, compared to 14 percent and 40 percent re speC{1veiy of the public-sector administrative executives (C.S. V ) . Senior execu tives in the civil service had, in 1970, an average taxable household income of 47,323 F as against 62,803 F for other senior executives (C.S. I ) . 33. artly because it was designed to bring our deep dispositions which are relatively . 'dendent ?f time, the 1%3 survey was not the best tool for grasping the varia nons 10 practices and systems of preferences linked to historical conditions. This is why recourse was had to secondary analysis of a market survey on 'executives' consumption' ( C.S. V), which, aiming to predict the demand for luxury goods, was well adapted to the most distinctive elements of the new life-style. 34. Some 8 1 percent of the private-sector executives, 80 percent of the engineers, 74 percenr of the members of the professions, 69 percenr of (he public"sector execu eives, 62 percenr of the industrial employers, 60 percent of the commercial em ployers and 58 percent of the teachers say they always keep a botde of whisky at home; 80 percent of the industrial employers, 7 ') percent of the commercial em r.loyers and members of (he professions, 73 percenc of (he private-sector execu . tives, 72 percent of the public-sector executives and engineers and 49 percent of the teachers say they keep champagne at home. o 3 ') . Entreprise, earactiristiques p jessionnelles des leeteurs: resu/tats de I'enquete [FOP ( Paris, Regie Press<, 1973). 36. J Marceau, 'The Social Origins, Educational Experience and Career Paths of a Young Business Elite', Final report for SSRC grant of 1973-75, Paris, 1975. 37. In hese struggles, in which accounrs of the social world-including allegedly sci entific oner-are almost always (unconscious) strategies for symbolic imposition, recourse to 'authorities' plays a very imporranr role. Hence the high symbolic yield of 'American research', which is spontaneously credited with the objectivity of a 'science' that is in a sense doubly neutral because foreign. Consider the use made of the studies by John MacArthur and Bruce Scott, who argue rhat the French firm gives priority to technical problems rather than financial management . and markeung, to che future of the firm conceived in {errns of technological progress and the search for new processes rather than in terms of really profitable mass production. 38. See L'Expamion, April and July-August 1975. 39. See P. Bourdieu, 'Le couturier et sa griffe', Acles, 1 (January 197'), 7-36.

40. On (his world view, set" P. Bourdieu and L. Boltanski, 'La production de l'ideolo gie dominante', Aetes, 2 Oune 1976), 3-8. 4 1 . The dominant fractions are what they are if and only if the economic principle of scratificarion asserts its real dominance, which it does, in the long run, even in che relatively autonomous field of cultural production, where the divergence between specific value and market value tends to disappear in the course of time. 42. See A. Boime, 'Entrepreneurial Patronage in Nineteenth Century France', in E. Carter II, R. Forster and J Moody, cds., Enterprim and EntrepreneurJ ( Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), pp. 1 37-208.

1. The opinions expressed on music only have to be compared with rhe knowledge

6, Culturai Goodwill

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8.

of works for it to be seen thar a high proportion ( rwo-thirds) of those who choose the most 'distinguished' answer ('All music of quality interesrs me') have little knowledge of classical music. D. Barnes, Nightwood, 2nd ed. (London, Faber, 19\0), pp. 2 1 -24. J Frank, The Widening Gyre ( Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1963), p. 6. Like the very content of these products (with, for example, their conspicuous ref erences to legitimate works) , the advertising for middle-brow cultural goods is a permanent encouragement to cultural allodoxia. It emphasizes both the economic and cultural accessibility of the products offered and also their high legitimacy, by invoking cultural authorities (e.g., Academicians or prize juries) whose authority ect, since the recognition it is given tends to vary in inverse is itself an allodoxia eff ratio to competence. Similar detence mechanisms in which the consumers make themselves the accom plices of [he vendors are also found in other areas. Thus a markec research special ist suggests that one of (he most important functions of adverrising may be to provide purchasers with arguments to reassure themselves after the purchase; J. F. Engel, 'The Influence of Needs and Attitudes on the Perception of Persuasion' in S. A. Greyser, ed., Toward Scientific Marketing ( Chicago, American Markecing As sociation, 1964), pp. 18-29. These ideological mechanisms of reassurance explain the disparity berween the agents' own evaluation of their cultural practices and the objective truth of these practices. Everything takes place as if, at all levels of the hierarchy of degrees of consecration, agents were always inclined to attribute more value to their practices than {he structure of the field objectively confers on them. Thus there is no need to invoke censorship or 'political complicity' (although this is not unknown) co explain why the most typically academic products, and also the mOSt rypically middle-brow products, have derived considerable reinforcemem from television. Partly through the economic effect of the publicity supplied by (e1evision and the corresponding changes in publishing and marketing strategies, this tends ro modify the relations between the field of restricted production and the field of large-scale producrion. Felix in Barnes's Nightwood (p. 24) shares this taste for oddities: 'Conversam with edic(s and laws, folk srory and heresy, taster of rare wines, thumber of rarer books and old wives' tales--tales of men who became holy and of beasts that became damned---read in all plans for forrificacions and bridges, given pause: by all grave yards on all roads, a pedant of many churches and castles, his mind dimly and rev erently reverberated to Madame de S(vigne, Goethe, Loyola and Brantome.' It is no accidenr that surveys on cultural practices and opinions tend co take the form of an examination in which the respondents, who are and always feel mea sured against a norm, obtain results thar are ranked in accordance with their de-

gre<: of scholastic consecration and express preferences which always correspond f airly closely ro their educational qualifications, both in their content and in their modality. 9. The image which the formally educated have of the self-educated is a fine example of the partial, self-interested truths produced by the partial lucidity of ordinary perception and of the ( unconscious) strategies through which each an of living is reinforced in its conviction of its own excellence by comparing itself flatteringly with other arts of living. 10. Need It be said that these two celebrated examples are chosen so as to invite the reader to reason a fortiori? 1 1 . Ferdinand Cheval ( 1836-1924 ) , a rural postman, built his 'Ideal Palace' single handed, from 1879 (Q 1912, with stones which he collected on his round and car ried back to his home at Hauterives ( Drome) . This extraordinary 'monument' (classified as such by Malraux when Minister of Culture) includes all rhe features mentioned in rhe rexr, and more. La Veillie deJ ChaumiereJ was a magazine which brought serialized historical romances (accompanied by engravings) to a mainly peasant readership. (Translator's note.) 1 2 . 'Though th ei Boclhisattvas and those of Nara, Khmer and Javanese sculpture and Sung paInCIng do nor express the same communion with the cosmos as does a Romancsque tympanum, a Dance of Siva or the horsemen of the Parthenon, all alike express a communion of one kind or another, as does even Rubens in The Kermme. We need but glance at any Greek masterpiece to sec at once that its tri umph over rhe mystery-laden East does nor stem from any process of the reason ing mind, but from "the innumerable laughter of the waves". Like a muted orcestra {he surge and thunder, already so remote, of ancient tragedy accom pames btl[ does not drown Antigone's immortal cry.' A. Malraux, The VoiceJ 0 / Silmce, crans. S. Gilbert (London, Seeker and Warburg, 1954), pp. 635-636. 1 3 . They arc by Ferdinand Cheval, among the inscriptions on his Ideal Palace (trans lator). 14. See P. Benichou, Le Jacre de /'icrivain ( Paris, Jose Corti, 1973), pp. 177-178. emmJ, ob 1 5 . Harpagon: Moliere's MiJer; Arnolphe: the protagonist of his Ecole deJ j sessed by marital infidelity ( t ranslator). 16. Attributed to the polirician Edouard Herriot ( rranslaror). 17. What is said here about the middlc positions (because it is most obvious in this case) is, of course, equally true of all positions in social space-time. 18. C. Baudelm, R. Establet and J. Malemort, La petite bourgeoiJie en France ( Paris, Maspero, 1974) , p. 153. 19. Among the properties of the strongly predetermined positions in the civil service (such as chose of the junior administrative executives) rhc most significant from the point of view considered here is undoubtedly the fan rhar they offer, through cheir guaranteed career-structures, rhe assurance of a relatively predictable individ ual trajectory. 20. The placement of these positions is understandable since their emergence is to a large extent due to changes in the educational system. 2 1 . The ex mple of te craftse provides a good opportunity to re-emphasize that, 10 tfCltlng as a POInt what IS In fact a space (and sometimes a genuine field), one inevitably simplifies. This simplification is entailed by rhe endeavour to grasp the social space as a whole (and so to avoid the errors almost inevirably incurred, as a direct consequence of autonomization, by monographs devoted co a particular 'occupation' ) . 22. Some 19.5 percent of all the 'junior executives' (administrative executives, tech nicians, primary teachers) and 20.3 perceor of the office workers are enrolled in a library (as against 3.7 perceor of the commercial employees and 2.2 percent of rhe small employers); 18.'5 percent and l2.9 percent respectively collect stamps

23.

24.

2'5.

26.

27.

28.

(as against 3.7 percent and 2.8 perceor); 14.2 percent and 10.3 percent follow correspondence courses or evening classes (as against 0 percent and 2 percent) (CS. IV). The notion of 'preference' in legitimate culture is only appropriate at and above a cenaln level of competence (corresponding approximately to a cenificate of sec ondary education). This is seen clearly in the fact that, below this level, the re spondents treat questions of preference as questions of knowledge, saying they prefer the painters they know, and rhat the proportion of respondents who know more or as many composers as the number of works they say they know rises wirh level of education, while the most cultivated respondents refuse to acknowledge value in some of the works they know. The office workers, especially the younges( ones, who have seen a high proportion of the films mentioned (3.'5 on average, compared with 2.4 for (he skilled manual workers and foremen, 2.3 for rhe craftsmen and small shopkeepers), are more in terested in actors than directors (on average they name 2.8 acrors and only 1 director, and often name the actors in films they have not seen). So if they had seen Visconti's Rocco and HiJ BrotherJ more than any other category, it was proba bly because of the stars, Annie Girardot and Alain Delon. The distinctive feature of the constellation of choices of the technicians ( who, as a whole, occupy the positions closest to the centre of gravity) lies in the fact that they read many more scientific or technical books and more often go in for pho tography and home movies. This law plays an important role in determining the choice of an artistic career rarher than a less risky career (or vice versa) and, among the artistic careers, the choice of those which, at (he moment in question, are the most risky (genre, manner etc ). Another indication of the ambiguous position of the socio-medical services may amiliar with the smarr SPOrtS rhan the be seen in the fact they are much more f other members of the middle classes ( for example, only 41.6 percent of them say they have never played tcnnis, as against 70.4 percent of the primary teachers; for skiing, the corresponding figures are 4 1 .6 percent and 78. '5 percent ) . The commercial junior executives and the secretaries, who have slightly less cui tural capital than the members of rhe socio-medical services, make more disparate choices. They arc interested in the films favoured by the working classes or the small employers ( The LongeJt Day, The Magnificent Seven, Vice and Virtue ) , more than the teachers and the socio-medical services, while also being interested in the favourite films of the latter (Salvatore Giuliano, The Trial, Lej dimanchej de Ville
d'Avray ) .

29. This pursuit of conformity to the ideal of distinction is revealed in the combined choice of 'pot-luck' meals and 'original and exotic' meals----'Iitrle Chinese resrau rants'-or in series such as Fran,oise Hardy, Buffet, Van Gogh, which may be or combined with the teachers' Kandinsky or the professionals' Concerto f the Left
- ,\

act 30. This is true despite the f that provincials may rely on magazines for a substitute for what they would derive from residence in Paris, i.e., that sense of being 'where the action is' which is the real basis of cultural flair or churzpah (rhis is perhaps the chief function of La Nouvel ObJervaleur ). 31. Because the opportunities offered by the cultural environment are most profitably exploited by those with the highest cultural capital, and because the conformity inducing pressures of the group on its members also rise with cultural capital, the gaps between the Parisians and the provincials become more pronounced at higher levels of education. 32. Georges Perec's novel Lej choJei ( Paris, Julliard. 1%5) captures in its own way (he relationship which a couple of these mystified mysrifiers ( social psychologists

Hand.

working in a market research agency) entertain with things whose whole va1ue lies in the words used about (hem, 33. See M. Villeae, 'La carriere d'un "cad de gauche" apres 1%8', Actes, 29 ( 1 979), 64-74. 34. <?ne of the many determinants which incline he members of the new occupa . . tions to a subversive representation of the rela(1ons between the sexes is the fact that it is in the middle class-and especially, no doubt, its new fractions-that women mos{ frequently have higher educational qualifications or occupational status {han their husbands, and that the husbands' higher occupational stams- given identical qualifications-is, no doubt, most rdented. 3'- Anticipating the point of view of {he old morality on what can only be, in these terms, a sort of 'unthinkable', Kant writes: 'An obligarion to enjoyment is a pat ent absurdity. And (he same, then, mUSt also be said of a supposed obliga(ion to actions (hat have merely enjoyment for their aim, no matter how spiritually this enjoyment be refined in thought (or embellished) , and even if it be a mystical, so-called heavenly, enjoyment.' 1 . Kant, The Crilique 0 Jud / gement, trans. J. C. Meredith (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1952), p. 48n. 36. M. Wolfenstein, 'The Emergence of Fun Morality' in E. Larrabee and R. Meyer sohn, eds. , Mass Leisure (Glencoe, Ill., Free Press, 1958), pp. 86-97. jouissance can be eroti 37. As readers of avant-garde film criti,'ism well know, jouir/ cized by playing on its coll<X1uial meaning, 'to come' ( translator). 38. The ndevour to objectify a social ethic-especially a young and therefore ag gressively Imposed one---of course entails many dangers; lucidity may be no mort than the effecr of adherence ro a contrary ethic. Each of the words used [0 charac terize two an ragonisri m<:>ralities can, of course, function as insults for champions . . of the oppome morality; It IS therefore futile {Q hope to find a perfectly 'neutral' [One ( the psychoanalytic vulgate, for example, will jdentify 'ascetic' with 'maso chistic') . In each case, one would need to restore the experiential wntent of what is sociologically objectified (e.g., the heroic dimension of the ascetic striving for virrue, which takes its pleasure in effort and in the exaltation of self-transcen dence, or the generous innocence of the Iiberarionisr cuh, which is based on an acute sense of the absurdity of social constraints and stakes); and, as has constantly been done here, the dispositions described have to be ref erred to their conditions of production: repressive dispositions, for example, have ro be seen as the product of repression (or social regression). 39. If the opposition between politicization and psychologization is carried too far, it may be forgotten that parricipation in a community of activists can also offer a solution to existential difhculties---even when these are nor the exclusive reason for joining--hy ptoviding all the assurances and reassurances of immersion in an integrated, separate, self-contained group, with its own laws, language and ritual, demanding and recognizing devotion and sacrifice; see D. Mothe, Le mili" de mili lant ( Paris, Seuil, 1973). But reducing the logic of activism to that of group ther apy may ually obscure the fact that psychological transactions, in particular (he exchange of devotion and recognition ('the comrades' confidence'), are only the experiential (bur not on that account negligible) form of much deeper transac tions between the 'total institution'which, demanding rotal dependence, gives most to rhose who give it most of what they are and have outside of itand its members, who give it most (and receive most) when they expect most from it and have or are least outside of it. f f 40. Sec P. Bourdieu, Outline o a Theory o Practice (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977), pp. 92-93. 4 1 . See N. Elias, The History 0 Manners (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1978), and State / Formation and Civilization ( Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1982), vols. I and I I of The Civilizing Process.

42. Though with no more evidence than the observacions of ordinary existence and the indirect indica{ions provided by our survey, I am inclined to think that the devotees of the sects organized around the new forms of bodily exercise are mainly recruited among the women of the new pecite bourgeoisie, and that the theme of (he liberated body takes its place in a problematic with a strong religious col ouring (at least in its vocabulary) which also includes the 'problems of the cou ple', 'women's liberation' etc 43. It is no surprise that these people should be so horrified by every form of sociolog ical objectification and so f ascinated by psychological or psychoanalytical en chantment. Nor that {hey should be ready to applaud all the fashionable variants of the old personalist denunciation of scientific 'reductionism', the elementary f orm of intellectual aristocratism, which has received unexpected reinf orcement from the identification of every attempt at scientific objectification of practices with an ethical, even political condemnation (with the theme 'science Gulag', which has enabled some well-worn posr-Heideggerian fossils co make an un looked-for come-back in the intellecrual weeklies) . Nor that the existence of a sci entific sociology is as improbable as ever in times when the position of sociologist is one of (he refuges for those intent on escaping classification. 44. Celestin Freinet, educationalist ('active method'); Carl Rogers, inventor of 'group dynamics'; Wilhelm Reich, psychoanalyst (translator'S note). "'C, 45. s.... for example, E. Dichter, La Jtrategie du diJir: une phi/osophie de la vente ( Paris, Fayard, 1 % 1 ) .
=

7.

The Choice of the Nee.nary

2.

3.

4. 5.

. .

, .

5'.

ects is common to all I t is no accident that disregard of the habitus and its eff bourgeois visions of the people, from the conservative pessimism which natural izes the properties produced by social conditions to the optimism of the idealist revolutionism which forgets that the working class is shaped by necessity, even in the form of its revolt against necessity. Need it be said {hat it is not sufficient to originate from these classes in order to produce a true representation of their view of their social world-if only because self-distancing can presuppose or induce relationships towards these classes (such as populist evangelizing) as radically closed as the simple distance of lifelong out siders? Norbert Elias relates (citing Taine) a gesture by the Duc de Richelieu which shows (hat the art of spending without counting, which in the seventeenth cen mry marked the distance between the aristocrat and the saving, profit-making bourgeois, JUSt as it now marks the distance between the bourgeois and the petit bourgeois, may, in ehe limiting case of a class whose very existence depends on the reproduction of its social capital, be the object of an explicit lesson: 'The Duke gave his son a purse full of gold so that the young man would learn to spend it like a grand seigneur. When the young man brought the gold back un spent, his father seized the purse and, in front of his son, threw it out of the window.' N. Elias, Die hOfische Gesellschaft (Darmstadt, Luchterhand, 1975), pp. 103-104. K. Marx and F. Engels, The Genna. Ideology in Collected Work.!, V (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1976), 295. Given that the amount of income devoted to food rises s{rongiy in real terms, the proportions spent on other items decline relarively less, and the structure of ex penditure remains much the same as that of skilled workers. Certain items none theless rise significantly: small household electrical equipment, maintenance and repairs, hairdressing and beauty care, telephone, books, newspapers and entertain menrs, school expenses, holidays (CS. III).

_ _ 5 5 _.

everything which might give it a purely symbolic air as regards the means used (in contrast to the exhibitionism of student demonstrations) and especially rhe goals pursued. 8. The members of the working classes, like the members of dominated ethnic groups, may make it a point of honour to belie the image that the dominant have of their class. Thus the working-class cult of cleanness or honesty ('poor bur hon_ est'), like some forms of conspicuous sobriety, no doubt owes something [0 the concern to belie bourgeois prejudice. The same intention of rehabilitation under lies rhe discourse designed to persuade oneself that 'all we lack is money' ( and nOt raste) and that 'if we had the wherewirhal, we'd know what to buy' (or 'how to dress properly'). 9. Sec P. Bourdieu et aI., Un art moyen: mai sur les wages sodaux de la photographie (Paris, Ed. de Minuir, 1%5 ) , pp 54-64. to. See Y . Delsaut, 'L'economie du langage populaire', ActeJ, 4 ( 1975), 3340. 1 1 . This would explain the image that working-class women have of feminist de mands. 12. A whole set of indices rends to show that the working classes remain arrached to a more Strict morality in everything concerned with sexuality and the sexual divi sion of labour. Thus, as regards clothing, whileno doubt for functional rea sons--they readily accept that women should wear trousers for work, they reject them much more often chan the orher classes at home and outside; similarly, they always strongly disapprove of miniskirtS, especially at work and outdoors (San. dage!, 1 ( 1968], 79). Manual workers and especially farm workers are less inclined (34 percent and 53.5 percem) than junior executives (57 percent) and senior ex ecutives ( 59 percent) to say they attach no importance ro virginity; the propor tion who consider that physical love has a fairly or very important place in life increases slightly as one moves up the social hierarchy; conversely, the proportion who say they have only loved one person in their lives declines as one moves up the hierarchy, as does the proportion who say one cannot love twO people at the same time, or that love chiefly brings tenderness ( rather rhan, say, physical plea sure), or that eroticism and infideli{y destroy love (C.5. XLVI). 13. See H. Gournelle and A. Svakvary, 'Enquete sur Ie petit dejeuner en France', An nale, d'Hygiene de Lang.e Fran,aiie, 3 ( May-June 1967) , 28. 14. The reference to {he division of labour between the sexes which connotes the rep resentation of personal or collective identity ( for example, a manual worker, in vited to classify a set of occupations, pur all the non-manual jobs in a single class, saying, 'All pansies [touS des pedes]!') evokes not so much the specifically sexual dimension of practice as the virtues and capacities associated by status with the two sexes, i.e., s{rength or weakness, courage or cowardice, rather than potency or impotence, activity or passivity. D. This fact is underlined by the rapid devaluation of labour power which accom. . pames agetng. 16. See T. W. Adorno, 'On Popular Music', SludieJ in PhiloJophy and Social Science, 9 ( 1941 ) . It would be easy to show, for example, rhat the most legitimate music is used, through records and radio, no less passively and intermittently than 'popu lar' music, without thereby being discredited, and without being accused of the e alienating eff cts that are attributed to popular music. As for repetitiveness of form, it is greatest in Gregorian chant (which nonetheless has a high distinctive value), in much mediaeval music now in favour, and in much seventeenth- and eighteenth-century 'divertimento' music originally composed to serve as 'back ground music'.

6. C Roy, 'us condirions de vie des menages, exploitation triennale, 19656667', Collection; de I'INSEE, ser. M, no. 30 (December 1973) . 7. It is no doubt the same 'realism' which excludes from political or union action

17. 'In Sud-OueJt Dimanche of 8 August, you publish a photograph of a Renault 5

18.

19.

' . ,-, " ,

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

transformed into a four-seater convertible. An arcicle subtitled "When a coach builder and a coururier get together to dress a car" presents the coach-builder Lohr as the author of the car. This is quite untrue. I am the one who had the idea of this version of the vehicle, I designed it for Cachard, and I hold the anisric copy right. I personally supervised its creation in the coach-builder's workshop; his role was purely {echnical. So a more accurate subtitle would have been: "When an art ist and a couturier get cogether to dress a car'" ( Reader's letter, Sud-OueJt Di manche, 22 August 1976). A peasant in the Bearn explained why he had not thought of becoming mayor, although he had won the most votes in the local elections, by saying: 'But I don't know how to ralk!' It would be interesting to determine, by a specifically linguistic analysis, precisely how this frontier is defined in the area of language. If one accepts the verdict of the interviewers' 'social sense', a good measure not of the linguistic sratus of the language used by the respondents but of the social image which educated interloc urors may have of it ( the taxonomies used to classify speech and pronunciation are those of scholastic usage), it appears that this difference is in fact very marked between the manual workers ( and also the crafrsmen and small shopkeepers) and the clerical workers. Of the former, only 42 percent speak a French regarded as 'standard' (cor,-ect ) , as against 77 percent of the office workers (to which must be added 4 percent of 'refined' [Chalii] speech, torally absent among the manual workers); similarly, the proponion judged to have 'no accent' rises from 12.5 per cent to 28 percent. Manual workers, the category who most ofcen describe the ideal friend as 'bon vi vant', are also those who mosr oftenby far-say they are well-disposed towards someone who eats and drinks well (63 percent of them, as against 56 percent of the farmers and farm workers, 54 percent of the junior executives and clerical workers, 50 percent of the shopkeepers and crafrsmen, 48 percent of the employ ers, senior executives and professionals--CS. XXXIV). In a similar vein, I have already noted the taSte for everything which makes rhe 'atmosphere' of a show, and also a celebration, a meal, and for those who contribute to it; and also the strongly marked propensity to expecr images ro immortalize the 'good times' of life and the symbols of festivity. The 'career' available to manual workers is, no doubt. initially experienced as (he opposite of the negative career which leads down into the sub-proletariat. What countS in 'promotion' is, rogerher with financial advanrages, the additional guar antees it gives against the ever present threat of falling back into insecurity and poverty. The potentiality of a negative career is as important in understanding the dispositions of skilled workers as is the potentiality of promotion for clerical workers and junior executives. ran(aiJ en 1970 See G. Adam, F. Bon,). Capdevidle and R. Mouriaux, L'ouvrier j ( Paris, Armand Colin, 197 1 ) . (The CGT is, ofrhe three main labour union orga nizations, rhe one most closely linked to a political party, the Communisr Party, and strongest in the traditional industries--translator.) Some 10.5 percent of the semi-skilled and unskilled workers and 17 percent of the shopkeepers cite Rousseau among the paimers, as against 6 percent of the skilled workers, 3 percent of the primary teachers and technicians and 0 percent of the junior administrative executives. The name BraGue, which is cited by 10.5 percent of the semiskilled and unskilled workers and 4 percent of the skilled workers, had become unusually prominent on radio and TV at the time of the survey, because the artisr's death coincided with the survey period. The effecrs of differences in age and differences in education combine to produce fairly marked differences in tastes in singers. The foremen and skilled workers tend
-

On

or "

to prefer che older, more escablished singers, but also those besc placed in the hier. archy of culrurai values--Piaf, Becaud, Brei, Brassens--whereas the semi-skilled and unskilled tend to prefer Johnny Hallyday and Franoise Hardy.

8. Culture and Politics

l.

2. 3.

4.

,.

6.

7.

K. Marx and F. Engels. The German Ideology, 2 nd ed. ( London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1974), p. 109. I t is the motor of conscious action if one accepts [he equation posircd by Marx in The German Idto/ogy (ibid., p. '0) that 'language is real, practical consciousness'. On the historical genesis of the philosophy of the 'invisible hand' and its function in economic and political thought, see A. Hirschman, The Pa.JJiom and the InttTIJu: / Political Arguments for Capitalism be ore Its Triumph ( Princeton, Princeton Univer sity Press, 1977). Similarly, the field of artistic production delimits at every moment die field of possible artistic positions. ound in the area of artistic competence, This very general relationship is also f or where subjective exclusion (,Thar doesn't inreresr me' or 'Thar's not f rhe likes of us') is only rhe effect of an objective exclusion. It is not possible, in the present srare of research, to grasp rhe logic of the varia tions in the rates of non-response to identical questions asked by the same organi zation at different times (a serics of IFOP surveys on nuclear energy, undertakm in 1974, 19n, 1976 and 1977). Everyrhing suggests, in any case, that these varia tions remain smaller than the variations in the differem expressed opinions. G. Michelat and M. Simon, 'Categories SO(io-prof essionnelles en milieu ouvrier et comportemem politique', Revue Frant;.aise de Scien(e PoJitique! n ( April 197).
291-316.
to

pouvoir et cultures politiques au scin des partis politiques franais', Revue Franf,aise de SocioJogie, 1 3 (OctoberDecember 1972). On Socialist activists: R. Cayrol, 'Les militants du Parti socialiste, contribution a une sociologie', Pro jet, 88 (Septem ber-October 1974); H . Ponelie and T. Dumias, 'Militants socialistes a Paris', Pro jet, 101 Oanuary 1976); L'Uniti, no. 2'7, 1-6 July 1977; 'Qui sont les cadres du PS?', u Point, no. 249, 27 June 1977. O n Communist activists: F. Pl atone and F. Subileau, UJ militants communiJ/eJ de la Fidiration de Paris ( Paris, Fondation Na tionale des Sciences Poli tiques, 1975). And on the Deputies: R. Cayrol, J.-c. pute j ram;.aiJ ( Paris, Armand Colin, 1973); and M. Parodi and C. Ysmai, I.e di Dogan, 'Les filieres de la carriere pol i tique', Revue Fran(aise de S(){iologie, 8 ( 1967 ),
468-492. 16. These conclusions are based on a summary statistical analysis of the findings of a preliminary survey by exrended interview ( n 130), carried out in the Paris re gion in 1970. (The small sample obviously makes it impossible to see the regular ities which emerge as anything more than indications of tendencies, which will be used here as illustrations racher than demonstrations.) In the first stage, the re
=

, i - ,'-_

8. The slightly higher figure for men may well be due

best defends employees' intercsts at the presenr time-UDR, Centrists, PCF, CFDT. CGT, PS, CGTFO" ( [FOP, 2 February 1980.) 1 1 . 'In your view, is there or is there not a link between the Middle East conflict and the Vietnam War?' ( IFOP, 9 October 1%7). ( Presidenr de Gaulle had just as- serted chat there was--translator.) 12. Similar distriburions (43.4 percent of 'don't knows' among women, 19.6 percent among men, 38.9 percent among the least educated. 9.4 percent among the best educated) are observed on a question on foreign policy: 'Are you satisfied or dis satisfied with the Government's performan(e in the following areas: . . . foreign policy" ( l FOP 1966). 1 3 . The link between indifference and imporence has been noted by vatious observers. for example: D. Riesman and N. Glazer, 'Criteria for Political Apathy', in A. ,W. Gouldner, ed., Sludi" in Leadership (New York, Russell and Russell, 196) , pp. '0'-"9; E. Kris and N. Leites, 'Trends in Twemieth-Century Propaganda" in G. Roheim, ed., Psychoanal ysis and I'" Social Sciences ( New York, [UP, 1947) , esp. p. 400. 14. E. Deutsch, D. Lindon and P. Weill, LeJ / amilks politiqUfS aujourd'hui en Frdlltt ( Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1966), pp. 104-10). ollows: J I'. On political activisrs in general, the main sources consulred were as f Lagroye, G. Lord, L. Monnier-Chazd and J. Palard, Les militants politiques trots partis jra1ll;.ais: pe, - ps, UDR (Paris Pedone, 1976); M. Kesselman, 'Sysreme de
1970).

the fact that the question explicidy calls for the appreciation of a principle: 'Do you think that girls of 18 should (il/ aul) be allowed to see the films they want to" ([FOP, March 1971). 9. 'Do you think chat in industrial disputes the Government supports the workers' demands, supports the employers' inreresrs, or is neutral?' (SOFRES, October

ollowing crade unions and politi(al parties, who, in your view, 10. 'Among the f

spondents were given a set of D cards, each bearing the name of a movement, grouping or party, and were asked to group the cards as they wished ( they were not explicitly asked to comment on the categories they applied or to arrach names or descriptions to the groups they established) . In the second stage, they were given a set of 24 cards, each bearing the name of a politi<ian or trade unionist (one fictitious name, Philippon, was included, so as to measure reactions to an unknown name); they were first asked to say which group or party earh individual belonged to, and then to group these cards. 17. At the risk of appearing sacrilegious, it has to be poimed our [hat it was in the name of the same faith in the legitimacy conferred by cu ltu ral competence (or, as it was often put at the time of the Popular Front, 'intell igence') that intellectuals were able to denounce the dangers of universal suffrage or, like Flaubert, to dream of the reign of the mandarins; just as they now feel both entitled and obliged, by /their emmet, to produce and profess their opinions on the great problems virtue o of the day. 18. The respondents were presented with a list of 1 7 problems and invited ro say which they thought were political . 19. This survey was carried out by the publ ication of a questionnaire in a large num ber of daily and weekly papers, between 1 and 1 5 August 1%9, at the reyuest of the Association for the Expansion of Scien tific Research (AEERS). (The fact that L'Humaniti and Le PariJien Libert did not publish it undoubtedly contributed to the under-representation of the worki ng classes.) The questionnaire contained 20 questions on the organization of the school year, the situation of edurarion, the

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senting the survey as a 'fullscale national consul tation' on a 'subject of capi tal im portance' organized 'with the kind ass istance of the press' by the AEERS, 'an independent, non-profit maki ng movement'. The 'events' of May 1968 starred with a student uprising in Paris, turned into a general strike and seemed to threaten the whole Gaullist regime. When order was rescored, the new Minister of Education initiated reforms of the educational sys tem. (Translator'S note. ) 20. Tbis popul ation, in which the different groups are represen ted in proportion to e their prerension to influence the educational system, is perf c tly representative of the self-legitimated pressure group which has always managed to exert its influ
,

changes in curriculum, teaching methods and university organization, the train ing, seleCtion and salaries of teachers, the relations bt'fween teachers, parenrs and pupils or students, the powers of the different categories of staff, the functions of edu(ation ( vocational t rain ing, 'cbatacterbu ildi ng' erc.), politics in ed ucat ional establishments, the raising of the school-leaving age, subsidies f Church schools or etc. Ir was preceded by a text of varying length depending on the newspaper, pre

J M. Chapoulie and D. Merllie, U diterminant] Jociallx et Jcolaim tUJ pratiqueJ pro. ormationJ [Paris, CSE, 1974], / mionnelleJ tUJ enJeignantJ dll Jecond dtgre et leurJ tram/ esp. pp. 120-124.) It is remarkable rhat the Cornec Federation parents, under-se lected in respect of social and cultural capital, are, alrhough more mobilized, gen erally slightly less inclined to answer the various questions, except ( i n particular) or {he one on subsidies for Church education, f which they have a higher rate of response. 23. CET: College d'enseignemenr rechnique (secondary rechnical school); CEG: College d'enseignemenr generale ( 'general secondary school'). (Translator's note.) . . 24. Every attempt [Q persuade the members of the working classes ro express thel VI sion of the social world ( e.g., (heir image of the class s{rucrure) comes up againSt the difficuiry created by this sense of impotence and unworthiness ('I don't see why people like you come and ask blokes like me-you know all thar better rhan I do' ) . On the other hand, part of the horror aroused by sociology stems from the fact that it Cjuestions any Tom, Dick or Harry instead of consulting only the aU thorized spokesmen. 2'. This analysis has the virtue of showing that, by emphasizing the dominant agen ts . ('great men') or personified collective enriries, school history conveys a chansmatic philosophy of hiswry which leaves no room for social interests or the con-

dencies are stronger in the spontaneous sample than in the representative . sample. 2 1 . It goes without saying that these capacities and dispositions are linked to those which are needed in order (0 set pen to paper ro answer a questionnaire, which are in turn linked to educational capital. Ethical dispositions exert a specific effeCt here, which is clearly secn when the respondent is invited .ro put in regular, pro longed work, as in panel surveys. (Thus the rate of response to the CESP surveys. in which the respondent has ro note every quarter of an hour, for a month, the radio stations he has been listening to, varies to some extent with the cultural goodwill that is manif ested in scholasric zeal. It is highest among junior execu tives and foremen, who are characterized by relatively high rates of library use, collecting etc.) One ought also ro consider the specific effens of selection by newspaper, and endeavour to determine how far {he fact that the enquiry was transmitted through {he reader's usual newspaper rather than, f or example. through the schools, an associacion, a union or a parry may have affected {he or make-up of rhe population of respondenrs ( f example, newspaper subscribers responded more often rhan occasional readers ) . 22. The parents who rerurned rheir questionnaires (Q the Cornec Federation of par ents' associations ( rarher than directly ro the AEERS) differ overall from the other parents by a lower social and educational level and by the higher proportion of f emale respondents. This suggesrs that previous mobilization within an organi erred by this membership tend , to in zation and the additional 'authority' conf crease the propensity to intervene politically, other things being equal. (This would perhaps explain why, among the teachers, the spontaneous, non-affiliated respondents have very different characteristics from the 'pedagogic' activists, mainly recruited among women agregees and certified ( non-agrege) men; see J.

oretold "What ence, at every level of the system. The idicJ-jorm it expressed thus f indeed subsequently came to pass: for example, the 'great majority'-for once (he term is appropriate----of the respondents desired the continuation of the recruit_ ment competitions ( agregation etc. ) , the introduction of selection, the mainte_ nance of the grandes ecoles, more emphasis on both general culture (for themselves) and vocational training ( for ocher people) etc. On all the points on which comparison was possible (i.e., all the questions except those on the grandes ecoles and the agregation, which no survey institute has ever asked) , the ten

flicts between antagonistic groups and which calls for moral judgements rather than critical refiecrion on historical processes and their social condirions. 26. It is not uncommon for the demands of personal salvation ( evening classes or do cility towards superiors) to come into conflier with rhe demands of collective sal vation ( union activities etc. ) , for practical reasons and also because they spring from rwo totally opposed visions of the social world. Eff orts at retraining or in ternal promorion ( competirions etc.) would not be so positively sanctioned were it not that, i n addition to technical improvement, they also guarantee adherence to the institution and to the social order. 27. One could poim to a vast literature produced by the champions of the 'medical order' to defend the uniqueness of the medical art, freely performed by a free (and solitary) individual, or the indignant protestations of the university establishment at the call for the recognition of collective student projeers. 28. This proposition, which has its equivalenr in aesthetics, is a particular case of the more general proposition that the propensity and capacity ro subordinate verbal or practical position-takings to explicit principles, which, as such, are subject to an intentional systemarization ( rhose of an ethic or aesthetic or a political theory, rather than those of an ethos) rise with cultural capital-this relationship being established as much through the conditions of existence necessary for rhe acquisi tion of such capital as through the effect of the specific abilities it gives. 29. To demonstrate the analogy between surveys and voting, one would have to ana lyse both the political philosophy implied in the quesrioning itself and that which is implied in the methods of analysis ( i n particular, the purely aggregative logic of sratistics) . I t would be seen that the survey most overtly reveals its true nature when, aiming to predict the result of an election or referendum, it invites the reo spondents ro give the et:Juivalent of a vote. 30. Suffice it to point out that two-stage choice is very common in the area of taste, where, as has often been shown, consumers choose a producer or distributor ( a shop, a theatre, a radio station etc.) and, through this choice, the pre-seiec{ed products they offer-when they do not simply delegate this choice to mandated experts, such as decorators, architects, and other vendors of aesthetic services. who play a role somewhat similar in such matters to that of the parry. 3 1 . Thus parry membership or allegiance is only one factor among others, whose ef ects of sex, age or occupation . f ecrs could be studied in the same way as the eff Specifically political principles f unction as factors, relatively autonomous of eco nomic and social determinants, which ( although adherence to these principles is not independent of these determinants) make it possible to produce opinions or praerices contrary to immediate personal interest. 32. Of all intellectuals, Sartre is no doubt the one who felt most 'aurhenrically' the opposirion between the abstract reality of 'commirmenr', which is always experi enced as arbitrary inasmuch as it is the product of a deliberare choice, and the opacity of a choice imposed by the conditions of existence. 33. This analysis is based on the findings of a post-l%8 survey of a sample of 3,288 men, including 176 members of the intellectual occupations, presented by Mattei Dogan to a French Political Science Associarion colloquium on workers and poli tics in western Europe. 34. See S. M. Lipsct, 'Students and Politics in Comparative Perspective', DaedaiuJ, Wimer 1%8, pp. 1-20. For a critique based on analysis of a survey of French stu dems, see also Y. Delsaut, 'Les opinions politiques dans Ie sys{eme des attitudes: les erudiams en lenres er la politique', Revue Pran{aise de Sociologie, II (jan uary-March 1970) , 3-33. 3 5 . I t is no accidenr rhat the procuration (or assistance) which is the pre-condition of access to political opinion for those who are deprived of the means of production of ' personal opinion' is one of the more or less skilfully masked targets of conser-

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36. 37.

38. 39. 40.

41. 42. 43.

44. 45.

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48.

vative or 'revolutionary conservarive' thought; sec P. Bourdieu, 'L'ontologie poli. rique de Marrin Heidegger', ActeJ, 5-6 ( N?vember 1 ?75), l ?9-1 56. . , , Set G. Ansarr, De i'uJine a /'AJsembiee natlonale ( Pans, EdlUons SoCiales. 1977), As independent producers of their own discourse, intellectuals always tend to de mand thar the institutions claiming a monopoly of the legitimate production of symbolic goods, such as churches or parties, allow them the right to self-manage. mem of opinion. In this rcspcn, the ecological movement, which refuses to be. have as the 'owner' of irs decres' votes, declining onc of the privileges of party apparatuses, represents the materialized ideal of the intellectual pany. ( I n tht present French denoral system, parties ess well placed in [e first ound Custom arHy urge their voters to transfer their voces to another party In the second round-translator. ) PSU; Parti socialiste unille, a small left-wing party founded in 1960, characterized ' by anti-statism and ideas of autogestion ( translator). In 1966 de Gaulle withdrew French forces from NATO command (translatOr). Here, too, there is a clear analogy with the cultural market. Could 'taste' function as an internalized system of classification if it were suddenly deprived of all the markers, all the objectified classifications and, in particular, all the indices of posi tion in the field of production provided by places of publication and exhibidon ' etc. which point the way to what Flaubert called 'the smart opinion'? For a classic statement of these theses, see S. M. Lipset, 'Democracy and Working Class Authoritarianism', American Sociological Review, 24 ( August 1959), 482-501. He meant, 'It's against the interests of wage-earners (la masse salarile)'; maIse Ja lariale means the total wage bill ( translator). This discourse, totally opposed to the homogeneity of the 'pure' products of an ethos or a political axiomatics, takes particular forms which could only be com pletely accounted for by describing (just as Bachelard describes 'epistemologi profiles') the 'political profiles' drawn by practices or discourses generated accord ing to different principles, in different situations, i.e., in contexts in which the ef fects of political inculcation or specifically political control are very unequally exened. What distinguishes these organizarions in rhe universe of educational institutions is no doubt the fact that they perform their educative action within the primary groups, through agent5--rhe activists-bc:lnging t? the group itif. . This ethicai liberaiism can be rraced back to ItS basiS lfl the changes 10 the mooe of reproduction of the dominant class, which are recorded in recent changes in fam ily law. They have the effect of rendering the 'virtues' of he old bourisie un. necessary or even dysfunctional (the very virtues which the tradltJonaitsts, condemned to social decline by their inability to reconvert, strive (0 perpetuate, as if they regarded the reversal of bourgeois values as the cause of the deline of which they are victims and pinned their hopes of social salvation on ethICal res toration) . Michelat and Simon, 'Categories socio-professionnelles en milieu ouvrier', esp. pp. 2%-297. aits The Paris newspapers devote to international affairs, anecdotal news (j di,," ) and sport, respectivc:ly, 14.8 percent, 8.8 percent and 8.9 percent of their space; In the provincial press these proportions are reversed: 7.9 percent, 8.4 percent and 16.5 percent; J. Kayser, Lei quotidiem jran{ais ( Paris, Arm nd Colin 1963) , pp. 125-127. These differences would be even more marked If the national pape whose readership is mainly drawn from the dominant class (like Le Monde, I.e. t garo ) were separated from the orher , which (at least in the ase. of Le ParISIen Libert) give as much space to j dIvers and spon as the prOVinCial press. aw , newsrapc: In this struggle market research is a wea n-in that it enabl the , 'penetration' to be demonstrated to advertisers, who prOVide a hIgh proportiOn

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a newspaper's income-much more rhan a means of knowledge assisting a better response to the expectations of the readership. 49. As opposed to rhose publications which are excluded as too 'marked' from places where reading-matter is traditionally supplied-waiting rooms, cafes, hairdressing salons etc.-the 'omnibus' weeklies which are specially designed to offend no sec tion of the potential clientele (ParlJ-Match, Jours de France, L 'Express ) are per fectly adapted to the situations in which they are asked (Q perform this very function (Le Parisien Libirt and France-Soir often fulfil this role in barber shops) . SO. One of the senior editors of a major 'quality' newspaper, asked if he would have published an interview with a notorious criminal, like the editors of a weekly magazine which had just been prosecuted for doing so, replied, 'Of course, but in indirect speech.' 5 1 , Dogan, 'Lcs filieres de la carriere politique.' (Force Ouvriere is the union organiza tion created in 1947-48 by anti-Communists who split away from the CGT translaror) . 52. The proportion of under-25s in the readership, insignificant for Le Figaro, is 25 percent in the case of Le Nouvel Observateur; and it is remarkable that the papers which have declined most severely in the last ten years are, along with the om nibus papers (Le PariJien Libbi and France-Soir) , L'Aurore and Le Pigaro, with their small proportion of young readers. Their decline and the rise of Le Monck and Le Nouvel Observateuf' very directly reflect the morphological changes in the dominant class in favour of the fractions richest in educational capital. 3. Just as what is transmitted through biological heredity is no doubt more stable than what is transmitted through cultural heredity, so the class unconscious in culcared by the conditions of existence is a more stable generative principle of judgements and opinions than explicitly constituted political principles, precisely because it is relatively independent of consciousness. 54. This does not exclude all the essentially ambiguous political positions (the para digm of which is the 'conservative revolutionary' movement of pre-Nazi Ger many), which no doubt reproduce, in their indeterminacy, the contradicrions inherent in the revolt against social decline (a sort of contradiction in terms) or in the mismarch between individual trajectory and collective trajectory. 55. This srrategy is very common in interpersonal relations, and especially in the economy of domestic exchanges, in which the impeccability acquired by services rendered allows the benefaCtor the role of a living reproach. 6. To understand the political practices and opinions of old people, one has to con sider not only the withdrawal effect which, with retirement from the work milieu and the weakening of social relations, tends to reduce collective pressure and sup port, but also, and especially, the effect of social decline, which is stronger and more rapid in less privileged classes and can no doubt be understood by analogy with the effect of declining social trajectories on individuals or groups. n. The unification of the economic and symbolic market and the corresponding weakening of locally based social spaces tends to f avour the 'politicization' of peas ant farmers, who, increasingly affected by the mechanisms of the economy and po litical decisions, have an increasing interest in being interested in politics. Although 'politicization' is not, as it is for industrial workers, necessarily uiva lent to a move to the left, nonetheless the real possibility of this choice appears, and conservatism itself takes on a quite different meaning. 58. On this point, see p, Bourdieu, Le sens pratique ( Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1979). 59. This relative indeterminacy of the erhos with respect to the positions expressed no doubt explains the oscillations (e.g., between Gaullism and the Communist Party) of the most deprived fracrion of the working class. 60. This is the <.Juestion de Gaulle put to the nation in a referendum in 1969 ( transla tor) .

ville, Southern Illinois University Press, 1978). p. 141. 2. G. W. Leibniz, 'Medirationes de cognitione, veritate et ideis' in Opuscula Philoso ph. ical Sekcta ( Paris, Boivin, 1939), pp. 1-2 ( see also DiJcours de Mhaphysique, par. 24). I t is remarkable that to illusrrare the idea of 'clear but confused' knowledge, Lcibniz evokes, in addition to the example of colours, tastes and smells which \Ve can distinguish 'by the simple evidence of the senses and not by statable marks" the example of paimers and artists who (an recognize a good or bad work but cannot justify their judgement except by invoking the presence or absence of a 'ie . ., . ne sa15 quol. 3 . It would be the task of a genetic sociology to establish how this sense of possibili ties and impossibilities, proximities and distances is constituted. 4. Just as the opposition between the unique and the multiple lies at the heart of the dominant philosophy of hiscory, so the opposition, which is a transfigured form of it, between the brilliant, the visible, the distinct, the distinguished, the 'outstand ing', and the obscure, the dull, the greyness of the undifferentiared, indisdnct, in glorious mass is one of the fundamental categories of the dominant perception of the social world. 5. See G. Duby, Les trois ordm ou I'imaginaire du jiodalismf ( Paris, Gallimard, 1978). 6. E. Durkheim, Elementary FONl/5 of the ReligioUJ Life ( London, Allen and Unwin, 1915), p. 17. 7. A more detailed accouor of the theorerical context of these analyses will be found in P. Bourdieu, "Symbolic Power" in Identity and Structure, ed. D. Gleeson ( DriE field, Naffcrron Books, 1977), pp. 1 1 2-1 19; also in Critique of Anthropology, 4 ( Summer 1979), 77-85. 8. Cf. JP. Same, Being and Nothingnm ( London, Methuen, 1969), pp. 557-5M, <sp.
562. 9. See H. Giles, 'Accent Mobility: A Model and Some Data', Anthro pological Lin guistics, I ; ( 1973), 87-10510. See G. Lenski, 'American Social Classes: Statistical Strata or Social Groups?', American journal of Sociology, 58 ( September 1952), 139-144. 1 1 . These divergences also emerge, in the same survey, when the respondents are first

1 . L Kant,

Conclusion
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (Carbondale and Edwards_

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asked co define social classes ar the level of cheir town and rhen at che level of the whole COUntry; the rate of non-response rises strongly in the laner case, as docs the number of classes perceived. 12. Ordinary perception, which applies to practices the scheme of the broad and the narrow, or the expansive and the constrained, anticipares the discoveries of the most refined social psychology, which esrablishes the existence of a correlation between the room one gives oneself in physical space and the place one occupies in social space. On this point, see S. Fisher and C E. Cleveland, Body Image and PerJonaiity ( New York, Van Nostrand, 1958). 13. This is true in the ordinary sense but also in {he sense of Kafka (proces 'process' but also 'trial'--d. Kafka's Die ProzeJJ, The Trial, Le Proces in French-translator], who offers an exemplary image of this desperace striving to regain a social identity thar is by definition ungraspable, being rhe infinice Iimir of all caregoremes, all . . Imputauons. 14. The sophism of the heap of wheat and all the paradoxes of physical continua mean, as Poincare observed, that one has simultaneously A B, B C and A < C, or again, Al A2, A2 A3, . . . A<)<) AlOo and A I < A lOo' In other words, though it is clear that one grain docs not make a heap, nor do twO grains, or three, it is not easy ro say whether the heap begins at 264 grains or 26;; in other words, whether 265 grains make a heap, but not 264.
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tages of renouncing responsibility, at least outside the bourgeoisie. 19. M. Billing and H . Tajfd, 'Social Categorization and Similaricy in Inter-group Be haviour', European Journal o S()cial Psychology, 3 ( 1973 ) , 27-;2. j 20. See, for example, H. Tajfel, 'Quantitative Judgement in Social Perception', British journal of Piychology, ,0 ( 1959), 16-21, and H. Tajfel and A. L Wilkes, 'Classifi cation and Quancirative Judgemem', ibid., 54 ( 1963), 101-104: and for an over view of research in this area, W. Doise, L'articulation ps}ch()sociologique et les relations mIre groupes ( Brussels, A. de Boeck, 1976), pp. 178-200. 2 1 . 'Wherever the groups and classes are set in sharp juxtaposition, the values and mores of each are juxtaposed. Our of group opposition there arises an incense op position of values. which comes [0 be projected through the social order and serves to solidify social stratification'. L Copeland, 'The Negro as a Contrast Con ception' in E. Thompson, ed., Race Relatiom and the Race Problem (Durham, Duke University Press, 1959). pp. 15 2 - l79. 22. ' . . . Ie pouvoir unificateur du nom, du mot d'ordre'-the unifying power of the name/noun, the rallying cry ( 'order word' ) . (Translator'S note.) 23. One scarcely needs to point out the affinity between social physics and the positivist inclination to see classifications either as arbitrary, 'operational' divisions ( such as age groups or income brackets) or as 'objective' cleavages ( discontinui ties in distributions or bends in curves) which only need to be recorded. 24. Here is a particularly revealing expression (even in its metaphor) of this social marginalism: 'Each individual is responsible for the demeanour image of himself and the deference image of others, so thar for a complete man to be expressed, individuals musr hold hands in a chain of ceremony, each giving deferentially wirh proper demeanour to the one on the righr what will be received deferentially from the one on the left.' E. Goffmann, 'The Nature of Deference and Demean our', American AnthropologiJt, 58 (june 19')6), 473-502. ' . . . routinely the 9ues cion is rhar of whose opinion is voiced most frequently and most forcibly, who makes the minor ongoing decisions apparently required for the coordination of any joint acrivity, and whose passing concerns have been given che most weight. And however trivial some of these little gaim and I()sJeJ may appear to be, by sum ming them all up across all the social situations in which they occur, we can see that rhei[ total effect is enormous. The expression of subordinacion and domination through this swarm of situational means is more than a mere tracing or symbol or ritualistic affirmation of the social hierarchy. These expressions considerably consti tute the hierarchy.' E. Goffmann, 'Gender Display'. ( Paper presented at the Third lorernarional Symposium, 'Female Hierarchies', Harry Frank Guggenheim Foun dation, April 3-'), 1974) ; italics mine.

1 5 . See P. Bourdieu and M. de Saint Martin, 'Les categories de I'entendement profes soral', Actes, 3 ( 1 97 5 ) , 68-93. 16. See Duby, Les trois ordm, esp. pr. 422-423. 17. Ibid., pp. 63-64, and 'Lcs "jeunes" dans la societe arisrocrarique dans la France du Nord-Ouest au XIIeme siede', Annales, 19 ( September-October 1964 ), 83;846. 18. Much the same could be said of women, were they not denied most of rhe advan

Postscri pt
1 . M. Proust, 'En memoire des eglises assassinees' in PaJtrches et melanges ( Paris, Gal iimard, 1970), p. 1 7 1 . 2. For an aesthetic explicitly based on the antithesis of the beautiful and the facile, see S. Alexander, Beauty and Other Forms () Value ( London, Macmillan, 1933), f esp. pp. 40, 164. ( In French, facile corresponds to both 'facile' and 'easy'-transla

ror.)

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3. Given in English in {he text, and described as more distinguished than its French equivalent, racoleur (translator). 4. On several occasions, and in particular in an article on the relationship between psychoanalysis and art hisrory-Meditatiom 01'J a Hobby HorJe ( London, Phaidon Press, 1%3 , es. pp. 374E. H. Gmbrich r:eers to the refusal of elementary, vulgar gnltlficatlons whICh IS the baSIS of legitimate taste, or the 'fashionable don'tJ', as he calls them, ' so easily picked up', which define legitimate taste (ibid., p. 1). . ,. A. Schopenhauer, The World aJ Will and ldia (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1883), vol. I, bk. I, pp. 268-269. 6. On the essential points, Schopenhauer's aesthetic can be regarded as a somewhat heavy commentary on Kant's aesthetic, and Fauconnet is quite justified in observ_ ing: 'Aesthetic judgement, which is essentially disinterested, is opposed in Kant's work to other, self-interested judgements, exactly as, in Schopenhauer, the volun_ tary action of the subject who knows only with a view to action is opposed to the comempiarion of the pure subject.' A. fauconnet, L'esthitique ck Schopenhauer ( Paris, Alean, 1913), p. 108. 7. By the same coken, Brecht's 'alienation effect' might be the gap whereby, within popular art itself, the intellectual asserts his distance from popular art, which makes popular art acceptable, i.e., acceptable to intellectuals, and, at a deeper level, his distance from the people, the distance presupposed by the intellectuals' leader ship of the people. 8. I t was 'refusal', says Kant, which 'brought about the passage from merely sensual to spiritual attractions.' I. Kant, 'Conjectural Beginnings of Human History' in On HiJlory, ed. L W. Beck ( Indianapolis and New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 1963) , p. 57. HaVing mdlC<ited that sexual attraction 'can be prolonged and even increased by means of the imagination' when 'its object is removed from the senses', Kant links the discovery of beauty to sublimation of the sexual instinct and concludes: / 'Re usal was the feat which brought about the passage from merely sensual to spir itual attractions, from mere animal desire gradually to love, and along with this from the feeling of rhe merely agreeable fO a taste for beauty' ( ibid. ) . 9. Here and subsequenrly in the text, page numbers in parentheses refer to I . Kant, Critique 0/judgement, trans. J. C Meredith ( London, Oxford University Press, 19l2). ested in the fact {hat it demands an im 10. The specific force of the agreeable is manif mediate satisfaction of desire, preventing 'the conscious expectation of {he future': 'This capacity for facing up in the present to the often very distant future, instead of being wholly absorbed by (he enjoyment of the present, is the most decisive mark of the human's advantage.' 'Conjectural Beginnings', pp. 57-58. 1 1 . Ibid., p. lj. 12. Paragraph 4 1 , entitled 'The empirical interest in the beautiful', alludes to what Elias calls 'the process of civilisation'-'Only in society does it occur to him to be nOt merely a man, but a man more refined after the manner of his kind (the be ginning of civilisation) . . . '-but only to cast it into the merely empirical in a single sentence: 'This interest, indirectly attached fO the beautiful by the inclina tion towards society, and, consequently, empirical, is, however, of no importance /judgement, pp. D5-1 56, and also 132). Another example for us here' (Critique o of recognition of the social dimension of taste: 'A judgement upon an object of our delight may be wholly disinterested but withal very interesting, it relies on no interest, but it produces one. Of this kind are all pure motal judgements. But, of themselves, they do not even set up any interest whatsoever. Only in society is it interesting to have taste' (ibid., pp. 43-44, note). 13. Of music, Kane says that 'it is more a matter of enjoyment than of culture' ( ibid., p. 194 ) . And later he implicidy identifies the degree to which [he arcs 'cultivate'

..
'

the mind with the 'expansion of the faculties" they call for: 'If, on the other hand, we estimate the worth of the fine arts by the culture they supply to the mind, and adopt for our standard the expansion of the faculties whose confluence in judge ment is necessary for cognition, music . . . has the lowest place' ( ibid., p. 195). 14. 'But as for the beauty ascribed to the object on account of its form, and the sup position that it is capable of being enhanced by charm, this is a common error and one very prejudicial to genuine, uncorrupted, sincere taste. Nevertheless, charms may be added to beauty to lend to the mind, beyond a bare delight, an adventitious delight in the representation of the object, and thus to advocate taste and its cul tivation. This applies eJpeciaily where taste iJ aJ yet {ruck and untrained' (ibid., p. 67; italics mine); 'he may even begin to harbour doubts as to whether he has formed his raste upon an acquaintance with a sufficient number of objects of a particular kind . . .' ( ibid., p. 139); 'the rectification and extension of our judgements of taste' ( ibid., p. 1 4 1 ) . 1 5 . Some indices of Kant's inclination to identify the universal with the universe of cultivated people: 'One would scarce think it necessary for a man to have taste to take more delight in a circle than in a scrawled outline, in an C<:1uilateral than in one that is all iobsided [Jlc ], and, as it were, deform.ed. The requiremmtJ o com1lU!n f undtrJtanding ensure Juch a pref erence without the least demand upon taste' ( ibid., p. 87; italics mine); 'We demand both taste and feeling of every man, and, granted Jome degree 0/ {ulture, we give him credit l both' ( ibid., p. 1 16; italics mine). See also or ibid., p. 147n. l6. Pointing out the very early link between still life and the vanltaJ motif---e.g., the timepiece symbolizing temperance-Gombrich acknowledges that the 'Puritan spirit' may find in this reminder an alibi for or antidote to the 'simple pleasures of the senses' offered by 'gorgeous flowers and appealing dishes', an immortalization of sensual enjoyment that 'feasts the eye and stirs up memories and anticipations of feasts enjoyed and feasts to come'; but he observes that 'a painted still life is ipJO acto f also a vanitas', because 'the pleasures it stimulates are nor real, they are mere illusions' (Meditatiom on a Hobby Horst, p. 104). 17. It is clear what is hidden in the Sollm contained in the apparently constative utter ances in which Kant presents [he definition of pure taste. 18. Ie follows that the mere intention of speaking scientifically about works of art or aesthetic experience or, more simply, of abandoning the style of the smarr essay, which is less concerned with truth than originality, is bound to be seen as one of the sacrilegious degradations which reductive materialism indulges in, and there fore as the expression of a philistinism which denounces what it is incapable of understanding or, worse, of feeling. (On (he significance of the Carnival, see ap pendix 4, note 100translator.) 19. The most systematic attempt in recent times to formulate this ideology is no doubt that by Malraux. Art, for Malraux, is the realm of freedom, and, as such, it is rhe symbol of man's power co create a significant, fully human world or, at the very least, of man's eternal srruggle to transcend servitude and 'humanize the world.' 20. By treating the work in accordance with its intention, i.e., as a finality withour an end, the beholder re-produces the act of creation, in a mimesis of the mimesis of Genesis. ( The theory of 'creative reading' is also one of the ideological themes which, because they are indispensable to the reaffirmation of rhe 'spiritual poim of honour' of the literate bourgeoisie, are endlessly reinvented.) 2 1 . In that text, disdained by the commentators (who, because of its apparent reivi ality, have even wondered if it was not a product of senility), Kant first distin guishes between 'scholars', whether 'incorporated' (in the Universiry guild) or 'independem', and mere 'men of Ieners' ('businessmen and technicians of scholar ship'), 'priests, judges and doctors', who purvey knowledge acquirt:d at the Uni

doing he serves mhers--all equally with himself intent only on enjoyment-as an excellent means ro that end, and does so, moreover, because through sympathy he shares all their grarifications,rhis is a view to which reason will never let itselfbc: brought round' (Critique o Jud f gement, p. 4 7 ) . And in a footnote Kant denounces the 'supposed obligarion ro actions that have merely enjoyment for their aim, no matter how spiritually this enjoyment be refined in thought (or embellished) , and even if it be a mysrical, so-called heavenly, enjoyment' ( ibid., p. 48n). 27. Another indication of this can be seen in rhe fact that Kam argues in favour of the scholastic reaching of art and the need to submit to rules. This is perfectly in accord wirh the logic of his subterranean discourse in defense of the academic values of Kultur, but i n contradiction to his refusal of any empirical genesis of taste, which ought ro make him subscribe to the theory of un trammelled genius f --C ( which he precisely combats---ritique o Judgrment, p. 1 8 3 ) . 28. The invariants of the professorial condition, and more especially of the posirion of the teaching profession within the dominant class ( a dominated fraction ) and within the class field as a whole, are sufficiently great, despite differences of epoch and society, to establish affinities of ethos which are the basis of the illusion of universality. 29. Would-be systematic thinking applies its universally applicahle schemes to every ects, typical of what Schopenhauer calls object. This can lead to some amusing eff 'comic pedantry', when {hese schemes ( the same ones that are at work in the Cri tique o /Judgement, but there with every appearance of necessity) are too obviously running in neutral: 'I have outlived a good many of my friends or acquaintances who boasted of perfecr health and lived by an orderly regimen adopted once and

24. Kane, 'Conjectural Beginnings', pp. 55-56. 25. Kant, 'Idea for a Universal H istory', p. 2 1 . Elias shows how the opposition be tween the court arisrocracy and the cultured bourgeoisie was built up around the comrasr between, 'on the one hand, superficiality, ceremony, formal conversation, [and] on the orher, inwardness, depth of f eeling, immersion in books, develop mem of the individual personali ty'-in short, between rhe superficial and the deep ( The Civilizing Proem, I, 1 9 ) . The whole of the second term of the opposition is contained in rhe 'slow efforts to improve the mind' ro which Kam refers. 26. 'But thar there is any intrinsic worth in rhe real existence of a man who merely lives for enjoymem, however busy he may be in this respen, even when in so

versiry, and finally the clientele of the latter, 'the people, which is composed of ignoramuses'. He then contrasts rhe temporally dominant 'higher' faculties, law, medicine and theology, with the temporally dominated bur spiritually dominant 'lower' faculty, rhat of philosophy, which has no temporal power but is 'indepen. dent of the orders of government'; perfectly autonomous, knowing only its own laws, those of reason, i t is rhereby entitled to exercise its critical power in tOtal freedom . I . Kant, The Conflict o the Pac"lti" ( New York, Abaris Books, 1979). f f ord, Basil 22. N. Elias, The Civilizing Procm, vol. I, The History o Manners (Oxf Blackwell, 1978), p. 9. 23. L Kane, 'Idea for a Universal History' in On History, p. 2 1 .

the political and social: 'If Faust represents the German soul,' writes Thomas Mann, 'then he must be a musician; f rhe German's relationship ro the world is or abstract and mystical, in other words, musicaL' T. Mann, 'Deutschland und die Deutschen', Essays, I I (Frankfurt, Fischer Taschenbuch, 1977), 285. 33. Every field of scholarly production has its own 'rules' of propriety, which may re main implicit and only be known to iniriates; sometimes, however, scholars en deavour to codif them ( for example, Boileau, Rapin, d'Aubignac or Subligny, y who exhorted the authors of tragedies to eschew subjects likely to offend the po litical or moral ideas of the audience, to exclude scenes of bloodshed which might shock, to adapt their characters to the rules of aristocratic etiquette and to avoid crude or vulgar terms). 34. See G. Scholem, 'Der Nihilismus als religioses Phanomen', Eranos, 1974; and J. Habermas, 'Die verkleidete Thora' i n PhiloJophiJ{h-politische Profile, 2nd ed. ( FrankfuCl, Suhrkamp, 198 1 ) . 35. One would need to make explicit not only the general properties of these border line positions, such as the double games they allow and the double profits they secure, but also the double vulnerability, the doubling or objective and subje(tive uncertainty as to personal identity which they impose on their occupants. 36. Thus, Derrida denounces {he artificiality and strain of applying the table of cate gories, established with respect to judgements of knowledge, to aesthet\c judge ment, which, as Kant constantly points out, is not a judgement of knowledge.

.:. .oj....
'

i-/
. '"
'

) ,

for all, while the seed of death ( illness) lay in them unnoticed, ready to develop. elt They f healthy and did not know they were ill; for while [he cause of natural dearh is always illness. causality cannot be felt. It rC<1uires understanding, whose judgment can err. Feeling, on the other hand, is infallible; but we do not call a man ill unless he f eels ill, although a disease which he does not feel . . .' etc. Kant, Conflict o the FafullieJ, p. 1 8 1 . f 30. J. Derrida, La virite en peinture ( Paris, Flammarion, 1978). 3 1 . Ibid., p. 5 1 . . 32. Philosophical denial is here merely a particular form of artisti<. denial which, as IS clearly seen in the case of music, is inseparable from a neutraiizarion or denial of

. :
. .,.

..

Derrida, La virite en peinture, pp. 79-83. By contrast, Louis Guillermit endeavours co show, through a comparison of rhe three CritiqueJ, that Kant rethought his whole theory of sensibility-putting forward a new transcendental definition of feeling which breaks the link between feeling and the faculty of desiring-to make room for a new, disinterested type of pleasure, which he discovers in aes thetic judgement, contemplative pleasure; this pleasure is not linked to desire for erent as to its existence, is solely concerned with its represen the object and, indiff tation. L. Guillermit, 'Esrhetique et Critique' in H. Wagner, ed., Sinnlichkeit und ranzosischen Philosophie von Descartes his Hegel (Bonn, Verstand in der deUlJchen undj Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann, 1976 ) , pp. 122-150. 37. By treating the Critique as a beau,tiful object, Derrida no doubt contradicts the deepest intention of Kant, who plays on the opposition hetween the frivolous and the serious-as is evidenced by the deliberately inaesthetic style-and seeks to place philosophy and the philosopher above art and the artist. But in doing so, Derrida grants the Critique the starus of an unconditioned ohject, freed from social determinants, which every pure, purely internal reading grants to the work; and which, by the same token, it grants to itself. 38. Proust, 'En memoite des eglises assassinees', p. 170; italics mine. In 'Journees de lecture', Proust further analyses the diff eren t perversions of reading-the scholarly perversion, which identifies the search for truth with the discovery of a secret doc ument, demanding 'material trouble', and the perversion of 'the lettered man', who 'reads for the sake of reading and of retaining what he has read'. Pastiches et milanges, pp. 234240; 'Days of Reading', in J. L. Hevesi, ed., EJJdYJ on Language and Literature ( London, Allan Wingate, 194 7 ) , pr. 52-55. 39. Pastiches el miJangeJ, p. 244n; 'Days of Reading', p. 6 1 n .

..<"
':

, , . ,

Appendix

1.

flections on the Method Some Re

1 . Such eff ects of fashion are also found in legitimate culture. Thus the social value of some of the works offered may have changed between 1963 and 1967, with the Four Seasons and Eine Kleine NachtmuJik being pulled towards 'middle-brow' cul ture by popularization.

OUL

ithin ch c! ass and class fraction, a very similar number of interviews was car C1e OUt Ifl Pans ad rhe Paris region and in the Nord region. The Nord is charac_ terIzed by a very different occupational structure from that of the Paris region and by a much lower average level of educational qualificarion. The 1968 census found many more industrial and commercial entrepreneurs (large and small) and fewer . . . engmeers, senior executives, technicians, junior executives and office workers in the Nord han in the Paris region. Except for primary teachers ( relatively mort numerus In the ord), the fractions richest in cultural capital seem under-repre_ . sented In thiS region. pecialiJiJ: 'a isleading term, since such workers are specialized in noth 3. ?u1IrierJ J l?g except he execUtion of one narrow, repetitive task, usually on the assembl _ hne. For rhls th9' require little rraining; rhe English term "semi-skilled" would , a very loos UJvalent. ; D .. L. Hanley, A. P. Kerr and N. H. Waites, Contemporary France: PolltlCJ ad Socuty Jtnce 1945 ( London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), p. n (translator s note). 4. See P. Bourdieu et l., Un art moyen ( Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1%5), pp. 73-84, and P. an M. C. Bourdleu, 'Le paysan et la p horogrphie', Revue Fran{aiJe de Sociologie, Anl-June 1 ?6).' 164-174. In fact, thiS exclUSion would no doubt be much less 1 uSflfied no.w, m . vlew of the far-reaching changes which have occurred, inter alia, 10 rhe relationship betwef:n the peasantry and rhe educational system, all of them . tendmg to unify the symbolic goods market. . I t sould also e noted that in the sample almost all the socio-occupational cate gones have a hlghe average eucational level and higher social origin than in the INSEE surveys. I t IS not poSSible to establish exactly how far this is due to rhe high proporrion of Parisians (sec note 2, above) and how far (0 the more precise . dcfifll tlon of the categories. 6. See Bourdieu, Un art moyen. 7. The same would of course apply to the judgements in the areas of interior decora tion, clothing or cooking. It is true that the analysis (which was in fact carried our) of some particularly representative interiors might have brought out more clearly the conrte systemariciry <:>f th.ese ts o objects and of the relationships ( very clearly VISible In the non-directive interviews) which link them to other sets, such as clothing or tasres in music. But establishing the statistical regularities . presupposed develolng the means of systematically grasping the most significant features of each universe, and also entailed sacrificing the power to evoke the . whole wealth of each pamcular realization of the srructure. 8. To avoid treating th effecr of variations in the measuring conditions as objective . dlffer:-nces, all rhe dlfferences in the nature of the indicators, the phrasing of the . questions, the codmg of the responses, the conditions of the survey and the struc ture of the ample, wer: systematically taken into account. For example, in one urvey, hunt1n and fishmg are grouped in a single question, in another separarro mto two quef1o.ns; educational level is coded in five clregories in one case, in seven caregoncs m another. 9. The economics of publishing made ir necessary to exclude many statistical tables (or, at least, . to re uce rhem to synoptic presentation) and many diagrams and documents (mtervlews, photographs etc. ) which made a real contribution to the analyses. For the same reason a bibliography which, even when reduced (0 the useful and used rexts, would have been immense, is not printed here. The list of complemen ary sources of statistical information (appendix 2 ) did, however, seem ssentl.al, to provide the indispensable means of verification in all the many cases In whICh th data used in the analysis could be only partially reproduced. 10. Conforama: a cham of cheap furniture stores; Guy Lux: a popular entertainer ( translator) . 1 1. Twenty-f our furrher questions on photography are nor reproduced here ( see Bourdieu, Un art moyen ) .
2.

['10ICS 10

rages JU}-Jl l

Appendix 2. Complementary Sources

having supplied the ( mostly unpublished) tables which were needed for second ary analysis of the INSEE surveys whose findings are used here. My thanks also go (0 Mr. P. Debreu, Mr. P. Leroux and Mr. P. Ghigliazza for generously supplying data. Use was, of course, also made of earlier surveys by the Centre de sociologie europeenne (sometimes wirh secondary analysis), such as (he survey of museum going (see P. Bourdieu and A. Darbel, L 'amour de tart [Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1966] , the survey on students and culture (see P. Bourdieu and J. c. Passeron, The Inheritors [Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1979}) or (he survey of rhe students of the grandes ecoles. oyer ) . According to the INSEE defini 2. These are given for each 'tax' household (f tion, a household (menage ) consists of all the persons living in the same dwelling occupied as main residence ('usual address' ), whatever the number of persons or oyer their relationship to the holder of the tenure. For (ax purposes, the f focal is defined more narrowly: it includes the head of the household, his spouse, if any, and the persons recognized as his dependants for tax purposes, i.e., all the persons taxed together. 3. The data given here are for households (minages ). For each socio-occupational car egory, consumprion is also indicated per capita and pe r 'consumption unit'. Ac cording to the INSEE definition, (he number of consumption units in a household is found by weighting as follows: first adult 1 unit; each other adult 0.5 unit. 0.7 uni(; each child (under 1 4 ) 4 . In reviewing rhe statistical sources, rhree bibliographical tools proved particularly useful: C. Guinchat, Bibliographie anal ytique du loisir: Prance, 1966-1973 ( Prague, Centre europten pour les loisirs er l'education, 197); A. Willener and P. Beaud, NoufJeJleJ tendanm de la comommation culture/Ie: verJ une troiJibnt culture (Paris and Cordes, CECMAS, 1972), which brings together quantitative data and survey findings on museums, photography, cinema, TV, music etc.; and the bibliogra phies of books and articles published each year from 1%9 ro 1973 on 'cultural de velopment and action', compiled by the research department of the Ministry of Cuhure.
= = =

1 . I am particularly grateful to Mme. M. C. de la Godc:linais and Mr. C. Thclot for

Appendix 4. Associations: A Parlour Game

the social world that is entirely similar to the logic found operating in the myth ico-ritual practices of pre-capitalisr societies. It thereby demonstrates that the dear-cut distinction social science makes between 'primitive' or 'savage' rhought and 'civilized' thoughr can only be due to ignorance. 2. In 1975 these politicians occupied the following posirions: Giscard d'Esraing, President; Chirac, Prime Minister, Gaullist leader; Marchais, leader of Communist Party; Mitterrand, leader of Socialist Parry; Poniatowski, Minister of the Interior; Servan-Schreiber, leader of the Radicals (briefly a minister in 1974; author of Le ft de amiricain, published in 1967 ). ( Translator'S note.) 3. In France, yellow is the colour of the strike-breaker, the 'scab'; in the 1974 presi dential campaign, Servan-Schreiber sided wirh Giscard against Mitterrand, and was rewarded wirh a ministry ( translator). fi 4. Servan-Schreiber's Le di amb-icain (translator). 5. To measure the realism of this 'collective representation' one only has (Q look back at the phorograph of the Servan-Schreiber interior, near the end of chapter 5. 6. Le gendre de Momieut' Poirier is a play on rhis rheme by Emile Augier and Jules Sandeau, published in 1854 (translator) .
1 . This sociological rest reveals a logic at work in the area of politics and images of

..---.-. . . ..

--

-_._------------

------ - -

/ / 7. See P. Bourdieu, Outline 0 a Theory 0 Practice (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977). 8. In addition to the rabies published in Sondages, i r was possible to analyse the dis rriburions by sex, age-group and income group, but the distributions by socio-oc cupational category were not available. 9. It can be seen thar the respondents, when the series that is proposed allows them to (as it does here by offering a graduated series of pertinent symbols) , make sig. nificant connections between all the elements in the two series, instead of consid ering only (wO or three of them-as they do in most of the other series, i n which some of the elements are only defined negatively, by elimination (e.g., lilac and carnation i n the flower series, and Chirac, or co a lesser extent Poniatowski, i n most of rhe series). This is an example of the effect inevitably produced by offer / ing a finite series 0 product! which excludes possibilities consciously or uncon sciously expected (e.g., belore in the game series or red in the colour series) and offers abstract or unreal possibilities which may attract some choices. Another ex ample of the same effect is the acrribution of the ant to Giscard, faute de mieux; in a differem context of possibiliries, the ant-hardworking, modesr, thrifty, obsti nate and, above all, small and numerous-would rather suggest the ascetic viffues of the petite bourgeoisie as opposed to the conspicuous improvidence of the aris tocracy and bourgeoisie. (The finite-offer eff ct also explains why, of the two liter e ary oppositions-the ant and the grasshopper, the fox and the crow--only the first is used with the same logic as i n the La Fontaine fable, while in the second, also because of the symbolic charge of the crow, the two elements function sepa rately. ) 10. A whole aspen of popular revolt, seen in insults, oaths and especially in truly pop ular festiviry, which has now been ousted by home enrercainments ( I am thinking of the analyses by Mikhail Bakhtin in his Rahefais and His World [Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press, 19M}), works in this way, through [he logic of the Saturna porarily lia, in which rhe usual order is turned upside down symbolically and tem ( 'Non semper Saturnalia erunr', said Seneca) .

Illustration Credits

Russell Lee, Farm Securiry Administration,

45; ELF-AQUITAINE, 46; Piet Mondrian,

Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43. Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Given anonymously, 5 1 ; Pier Mondrian, Painting I, 1926. Collection, The Mu seum of Modern Art, New York. Katherine S. Dreier Bequest, 5 1 ; Gino Severini, Dy namic Hierogl phic o Ihe Bal Taharin, 1912. Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, y /
New

5 1 ; X. Lambours, Viva, 145; H. Gloaguen, Viva, 145; X. Lambours, Viva, 148; F. Hers, Viva, 148; C. Rai mond-Dityvon , Viva, 148; C. Raimond-Dityvon, Viva, 149; H. Gloaguen, Viva. 149; P. Guis, Rapho, 166; R. Doisneau, Rapho. 166; Arnaud Legrain. Viva, 166; M. Del luc. Viva, 167; C. Raimond-Dityvon, Viva. 167; P. Michaud , Rapho. 167; Air France, 19 1; ]. P. Verney. Ministere de I'Agriculture, 191; P. Bringe, Ministere de l'Agriculture, 19 1; C. Raimond-Dityvon, Viva, 1 9 1 ; Chambre de Metiers de la Meuse. 191; R. Doisneau, Rapho, 191; C. Raimond-Diryvon, Viva, 200; Prospectus de Sculp lure humaine, 2 10; Tennis-magazinelSygma, 2 10; M. Delluc, Viva, 242; Esalas Bairel. Viva, 242; A. Dagherr, Viva. 242; D. de Saim-Sauveut. Lt Figaro-Magazine, 268; Documenrarion seminate, 307; R. Doisneau, Rapho, 313; Maison el Jardin, 3 13; C. Raimond-Dityvon, Viva, 373; C. Raimond-Diryvon, Viva, 377; Y. Jeanmougin, Viva, 377; La Repllbliqlle des Pyrenm, 383; Y. ]eanmougin, Viva, 385; C. Raimond Dityvon, Viva, 385; C. Raimond-Dityvon, Viva, 455.

York.

Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequesr,

'"

Index

Academic marker, 1 3 , 23, 88, 9 1 , 93, 96 Acquisition of cultural competence,

23, 6566, 68, 7172, 80, 85, 95

Adorno,

T. W.,

Aristocracy, 24, 70, 281 Aristode, 258, 489 Art, 7 , 80, 176, 254 Art dealers, 1 2 2 Art galleries, 273 Art museum, 30, 272-273 Art of living, 4748, 57, 254, 310,
370-371

386

Aesthetic, 44-50, 485-488; popular aes thetic, 4-5, 32-34, 4 1 ; pure aesthetic, S; dominated aesthetic, 4 1 ; anti Kantian, 4 1 4 2 Aesthetic choices, and ethics, 283;
-

286287

Aesthetic disposition, 28-30, 50, 53-%, 263; and photography, 35, 3940, 42; and cultural capital, 39 Aesthetic distancing, 34-35, 39-40 Ae5(hetic-in-itself, 4, 67 Aestheticism, 5 , 44, 47, 58; revolutionary, 48 Age, 16,- 106; generational conflicts, I, 296; and cinema-going, 26; bourgeois adolescents, 55; and income, 104; and educational capital, 104-105; social ageing, 1 10- 1 1 1 ; and sPOrtS, 2 1 2 , 219; and political ideology, 353-354 Alienation, 446; and being-for-others, 207; and body image, 207 Allodoxia, 142, 1 5 5 , 164, 323, 326, 327,
428, 459

Artifice, 491 Artisrs, 3, 62, 176, 228, 239, 267, 295; appropriation of cultural goods, 282; and patrons of art, 316-317 Ascericism, 214, 219, 256, 269, 287, 3 1 7 Associations, 546-547, 552-553,
5565W

Anributive judgemenr, 52, 473,

475-476, 479, ))6, 5 5 8

Authenticity, 74 Autodidacticism, 24, 67, 84-85, 147.

328329

Autonomy: of production, 3, 226; of form, 30, 49; of arc works, 228 Avant-garde culture, 1 , 239, 294 Avant-garde theatre, 19, 234-235, 239 Bakhtin, Mikhail, 491 Bally, Charles, 95, 472 Barbarous taste, and pure taste, 30-32,
4344, 178

Althusser, Louis, 228 Analogy, 53; to male/f emale differences,

l82 383

Analysis of essence, 72 Ami-intellectualism, 93, 293 Appearances, 253-2';4 Appropriation of cultural products, 23,
227228, 230, 267, 269270, 280281;

material or symbolic, 228, 282-283; struggles over, 249-2';0; quality of goods, 281-282 Appropriation of economic goods,
249250

Barches, Roland, 76 Beamy care. See Health and beauty care Being and seeming, 2 5 2 Body image, 191 193, 380; and foods, 190; and social space, 206-208; alien ated body, 207; body-for-others, 207 Body language, 1 7 7 Borges, Jorge Luis, 258 Bourgeois, 1 2 , 19, 28, 62, 75, 9 1 , 176, 265; and dominated aesthetic, 4 1 ; shocking the bourgeois, 47-48; semi

- --- "

"

_!_

Bourgeois (Cont. ) bourgeois, 150; and survey data, 174; meals, 1%, 199; entertaining, 197; clothing, 201-202; taste, 292-294; fer tility strategies, 333. See aiJo Petite bourgeoisie Bridge game, 2 1 7 Bureaucracies, 370 Cafes, 183 Casualness, 256 Charisma, 31, 208, 390 Charm, 208 Chess game, 2 1 7 Child-rearing, 368-369 Cinema, 26-28, 32, 63, 271-272; ethics and aesthetics, 45-46 Circus, 34 Civilization, 74 Class habitus. See Habitus Class solidariry, 381, 384, 390, 394 Class struggle, 48, 1 1 3, 165, 245-246,
249-251, 254, 315-317, 4 5 1 Classical taste, 65 Classification, 466-467, 471-473, 477-478; and struggles, 479-481 Clerical workers, 122; ethics and aesthet ics, 46; and food, 180 Clothing, 187; working class use of, 200-201; bourgeois use of, 201-202;

67, 13, 100, 280; and social spaces, 176; and production, 230, 232; man ner of, 282 Correspondence analysis, 260-261, 342 Cosmetics. !:iee Health and beauty care Counter-culture, 144, 251; and SpOTtS, 220; and clothing, 233 Craftsmen, 122, 135, 137, 141, 345-346; ethics and aesthetics, 46; newspaper reading by, 118 Credir, 163-161 Critics, 234-235, 239-240 Cultivated disposition, 13, 24 Culmral capical, 12, ')3-'54, 70, 1 14 - 1 1 5 , 261, 264; and cinema-going, 27; and aesthetic disposition, 39; and educa tional capital, 13-14, 18, 80-83, 133; and hierarchy of classes, 1 16, 120; and spores, 220; and economic capital, 303 Cultural competence. See Competence Cultural goodwill, 321, 323; of petite bourgeoisie, 352 Cultural nobility, 2 Culture, 1, 74, 99, 250; extra-curricular, 1 , 24-25, 63, 65; general, 23-25; de mocratization of, 228. See aiJO legiti

. . . . . .,

120, 132; supply and demand in, 232; and symbolic struggles, 254; class fraction, 260; appropriation of cul tural products, 270, 282; and pro ducers of cultural goods, 316-317; fertility strategies, 333; and working classes, 382-383; newspaper reading by, 449-450 Dominated aesthetics, 4 1 Domination, 386, 387, 395, 396 Doxa, 471 Drama. See Theatre Duby, Georges, 470, 477 Dumezil, Georges, 470 Durkheim, Emile, 72, 80, 471

generational conflicts, 296; newspaper reading by, 448 Enjoymem, 490-495 'Enlightened elitism,' 252 Entertaining, 197 Eternity, 72 Ethics, and aesthetics, 44-50, 283,
286-287, 370-371 Executives, 1 16, 120, 122, 124, 137, 265, 267, 351; ethics and aesthetics, 46; food purchases by, 185; clothing of, 202; and SpOTtS, 219; ascetic disposi tion of, 287; generational conflicts, 296; life-style of, 305; newspaper read ing by, 448, 450 Expectations of audiences, 2 39-240 Experience, 68, 74-76; l ived experience, 100 Extra-curricular cuirure, 1, 24-25, 63; and social origin, 65

mate culture

65-66, 86, %, 263, 281 Comperirion: in sports, 214; over cul rural goods, 230231 Condescension straregies, 472473 Conditions of existence, :13:14, 56; classes of, 101, 1 14; and habitus, 170, 172; and taste, 178; adaptation to, 246 Conformity, 331, 381382 Connoisseurs, 66, 279280 Conspicuous consumption, 3 1 , )) Consultancy ," I52 15 3 Consumption of cultural goods, 12,

and gender, 201-202; and counter culture, 233 Clubs, 162-163 Commercial employers, 1 1 5-1 16, 1 20, 122, 124, 263, 266-267; spending by, 184; c10rhing of, 202; and spons, 2 1 9; life-style, 30:1; newspaper reading by, 450 Commercial entrepreneurs, 123, 137 Common-sense knowledge, 22, 33, 101 Comperence, 2, 13, 23, 50, 52, 63,

Dannenmaier, W. D., 208 Delegation, 72 Democratization: of schooling, 143-144; of culture, 228 Derrida, Jacgues, 494-495 Detachment, 4, 6 Diachronic propenies of positions, 34:1,
346, 350, 453, 454 Diplomas, 25

Ease, 5)' 71, 176, 255-256, ,39 Economic capital, 1 14 - 1 1 5, 263-264; and hierarchy of classes, 1 16, 120; and taste, 177-178; and educational capi tal, 287, 291; and cultural capital, 303 Economic necessity, 54-56, 177; taste for, 374-376, 378-380 Economic power, 55, 56 Economy of practices, 224 Educational capital, 12, 53, 63, 92; and cultural capital, 13-14, 18, 80-83; and competence, 23; and gratuirous knowledge, 26; and cinema-going, 26-28; and occupation, 103-104,
296-297, 301, ,03-304, 310, 315, 390; and age, 104-105; and gender, 10;; and social origin, 10\ and reproduc tion strategies, 137, 147, 1 '50; and economic capital, 287, 291; and poli cies, 407-410 Educational function of art, 49-50, 74 Educational system, 13, 23-26, 67; in vestmenr in, 120, 122; hierarchy within, 122; and mobile classes, 132-133; and cultural capital, 133; de

Fair play, 2 1 5 Family heirlooms. See Inheritance Farm laborers and farmers, 1 14, 124,
1)5, 137 Fashion, 378 Females. See Gender Femininity, 191-192 Fertility strategies, 331-332, 337-338 Fetishism, 250 Flauberr, Gustave, 254 Flying, 2 1 8 Folk dancing, 58 Foods, 79, 177; arritudes towards eating and drinking, 179180, 183; expendi tures on, 184-185, 187, 190, 199-200;

Domestic servams, 46, 184 Dominant class, 23-24, 57, 68-69, 114, 123, 258, 266; generational conflicts in, 1 ; taste in, 16; ethics and aesthet ics, 46; interior decoration, 78- 79; or ganisation of, 1 16; degree of closure,

394 Doc/eJ, 69, 73-74

Discriminatory selection, 162 Disenchantment, 144, 146 Disinterestedness, 4, 4 1 , 55-56, 254, 282; in production of culural prod uctS, 240 Dispossession, 386-387, 390; and politi cal opinion, 428 Distancing, 34-35, 39-40, 54-55, 256,

valuing of academic <:jualifications, 133-13), 142-143, 147, 150; democra tization of schooling, 143-144; changes in, 154-1 56; uses of, 157, 160; and auwdidacts, 328-329; and dispossession, 387, 390; opinions con cerning, 4 1 1 Elective affinities, 241 Elias, Norbert, 73, 227 Empiricism, 24 '5 Engels, J F" 177, 397 Engineers, 1 16, 124, 13\ 265; clothing of, 202; ascetic disposition of, 287;

gender and eating habits, 18:5-187, 190-192, 195; and body image, 190; working-class meals, 194-195, 197; bourgeois meals, 196, 199 Form and substance, 253 Formalism, 33-34; bourgeois, 196-197, 199, 201; in sPOrtS, 220 Francastcl, Pierre, 68 Freedom, 24, 254-2:15; working-class, 194-195, 197, 201; in sports, 220 Frivolity, 74 Furnishings, 77-79 Future social ascension, 346 Future, planning for, 180, 183 Games of culture, 12, 54, 250-2:51, 330 Gastronomy, 68 Gautier, Jean-Jacgues, 240

O I U I maex
Gender, 107- 108; and photogenic object judgements, 39-40; and music recog nition, 63; and educational capital, 105; and occupation, 108; and devalu ing of academic qualifications, 133-134; and earing habits, 185-187, 190-192, 195; and clothing, 201-202; analogy to male/female differences, 382-383; and personal opinion, 402-405; and politics, 406-407, 410 General culture, 23-25 Genet, Jean, 33 Geographical space, and social distance, 124 Gide, Andre, 4 1 5 Gombrich, E. H., 50, 227 Goodwill, cultural, 321, 323; of petite bourgeoisie, 352 Gramsci, Antonio, 386 Gratuirous knowledge, and educational capital, 26 Greco, Pierre, 463 Habitus, 101-102, 109, 114, 142, 170, 260, 372-374, 466-467; production of, 123; and conditions of existence, 170, 172; and life-styles, 172-173; and political opinions, 437-440 Halbwachs, Maurice, 250 Health and beauty care, 179-HW, 184, 202, 378; and foods, 190; of petite bourgeoisie, 206; of working classes, 206 Hedonism, 180, 183, 394; and sports, 219 Hegel, G. W. F , 488 Hierarchies of legitimacy, 86-88, 93 High-society market, 88-89 Hisrory of an, 4 Homology: between social spaces, 175, 208; in production/consumption, 232-233, 241 Hosting occupations, 1 52 Humane and humanitarian tasks and feelings,' 40 Idealization, 58 Income. See Economic capital Industrialists, 1 1 5-1 16, 120, 122, 124, 135, 137, 263, 266-267; spending by, 184; clothing of, 202; life-style of, 30'); newspaper reading by, 448, 450 Inheritance, 19, 76-78, 80-83, 26'); and social class trajectories, 1 1 0 Intellectual taste, 292-294 lmellectuals, 12, 62, 176, 228, 239; right-wing and Jeft-wing, 12, 292-293; appropriation of cultural products, 270, 282; and patrons of art, 316-317; art of living, 370-371; and working-class condition, 372-374 Imenrion, 3; of observer, 30; aesthetic, 47; artistic, 52 Interior decoration, 77-79 Imolerance, 56-57 Imuitionism, 20 lnvesrmem sense, 85-88, 142, 249 Kant, Immanuel, 5, 42, 74, 466, 486-490, 492-494, 498; Kantian and ami-Kanrian aesthetic, 5, 41-42 Kantarovitch, H., 72 Kitsch, 62, 282 Knowledge, 68, 74-76, 470; gratuitous, 26; of culture, 318-319, 330; and au rodidacts, 329 Labour market, 224-225. See a/Jo Occu pations Langer, Suzanne, 3 1 Language, 176-177, 194, 226-227, 3 3 1 , 476; linguistic ease, 255; political, 459-465 Larbaud, Valery, 228 Legitimate culture, 26, 28 Leibniz, G. W. von, 466 Leisure activities, 179-180 Libraries, 273 Life-style, 101, 124, 170, 193, 208, 258, 283; and habitus, 172-173; and taste, 173-175; indicators of, 263; of new bourgeoisie, 304-305, 309-3 1 1 , 314-315 Linear thinking, 107, 126 Literary Cjuotation, 73 Lived experience, 100 Love, 243-244 Lower middle class, 44-47 Luxury goods and activities, 55, 278-282, 287 Males. See Gender Manners, 66, 68-72, 91, 9') Manual workers: ethics and aesthetics, 46; and food, 180; clothing of, 201; fertility strategies of, 333 Marital status, and social class, 108-109 Markets, 65, 85-86, 9')-%, 1 1 3; academic and non-academic, 13, 23, 88, 91, 93, %; high-society, 88-89; toy market, 223-224; labour market, 224-225 Married couples, homogeneiry of, 241, 24 3 Marx, Karl, 178-179, 2 5 1 , 280, 397, 467 Mass production, 386 Materialism, 394 Medical and social services, 123 Melodrama, 34 Mere, Chevalier de, 70 Meritocracy, 291, 303 Michelat, G., 439 Middle class, 1 1 1- 1 1 2, 122-123; (asre of, 16; and popular aesrheric, 32; and sig nificance of objects, 43; ethics and aesthetics, 44-47 Middle-brow culture, 323, 325, 327 Middle-brow raste, 16, 58, 60, 267 Misappropriarion, 431 MondamJ, 69-70, 73-74 Morality: of pefite bourgeoisie, 352-353, 367-369; and demoralization, 384; and politics, 432-437 Museums, 30, 272-273 Music, 16, 18-19; knowledge of com posers, 13-14, 63, 89; inner music, 19; songs and singers, 60-61, 83; playing of musical instrument, 75-76; concert-going, 272-273 Naivety, ,), 62 Natural feelings, 40 Natural taste, 67, 68, 74 Newcomers, 19 Newspaper reading, 2 1 , 234, 417; and political opinions, 440-444, 446-451 Nietzsche, F. W., 177, 2">2, 4 1 4 Noblesse oblige, 24 Nostalgia, 58 Objectification, 12, 85, 100, 208, 227, 239 Objectified philosophy, 496-497 Objective class, 101 Objectivism, 244 Occupations, 106; and educational capi tal, 103-104, 296-297, 301, 303-304, 310, 315, 390; and gender, 108; stabil ity of groups, 137, 141; changing na ture of, 1')0-1 '52; representational, 152 Office workers, 104, 1 14, 13'), 34, 351; food purchases by, 180, 185; clothing of, 201; fenility strategies of, 332-333; newspaper reading by, 447-448 Opera, 272 Opinion. See Personal opinion; Ques tionnaIres Ortega y Gasset, Jose, 4, 31-32 Painting, 14, 16, 20, 75, 269 Panofsky, Erwin, 2, 29-30 Patrons of an, 316-317 Peer-group pressure, 26 Personal opinion, 398-402, 405, 4 1 1 , 414-417; and gender, 402-405; pro duction of, 417-426 Personality, 281 Petite bourgeoisie, 14, 40, 48, 57-58, 79, 91, 123, 365; declining, 61, 265-266, 346, 350-351; new, 61, 265-266, 354, 357-363, 365-369, 553; pretensions of, 62, 294, 362; health and beauty care, 206; life-style of new bourgeoi sie, 304-305, 309-31 1 , 314-315; rev erence for culture, 321, 323; and middle-brow culture, 326-327; seri ousness of, 330-3 31; fertility strate gies of, 331, 337-338; upward mobility of, 333, 337-338; taste of, 339, 341-343; executam, 35 1-354; and personal opinion, 415-416 Philosophy, 496-497 Photography, 32, 58; and aesthetic dis position, 35, 39-40, 42; ethics and aesthetics, 44-47 Physical properties, 384; occupational profit from, 1 ')2-153 Piaget, Jean, 80 Pirandello, Luigi, 33 Place of residence, 10'), 1 16 Pleasure, 367-368, 490-49\ 498-499 Political space, 4')1, 453 Politics, 48, 109, 291, 397-398, 4 1 1 , 414; and social class, 1 1 1 , 427-428, 440; and age, 353-354; interest or in difference towards, 405-407; and gender, 406-407, 410; and educa tional capital, 407410; and dispos session, 428; and morality, 432-437; and habitus, 437-440; and newspa pers, 440-444, 446-4') 1 ; trajectory ef fect, 453-459; and language, 459-46 Poppet, Karl, 228 Popular aestheric, 32

..

Popular taste, 16 Popularization, 323, 326 Populism, 374 Pornocracy, 48 Positivism, 20, 94 Practical perceptions, 29 Precocity, 70 Preferences, 13, 19, 261 Presentation, 184, 202, 206; and sports,
214

Righr to speak, 4 1 1-414 Riviere, Jacques, 173 Sacred and profane, 6, 7, 19 Sanre, Jean-Paul, 207, 243 Saussure, F. de, 247 Scholastic culture, 23, 65, 68-70, 73 Scholem, Gershom, 85 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 487 Sculpture, 7 5 Selection, 162 Self-control, 40 Self-employed sector, 264 Self-esteem, 25, 142 Self-image, 25 Seniority, 70 Seriousness, 5, 54, 57, 74, 330-331 Servants, domestic, 46, 184 Servility, in production of cultural prodUCtS, 240 Sex. 5ee Gender Sexuality, 367-368 Shopkeepers, 123, 135, 137, 1 4 1 , 345-346; ethics and aesthetics, 46; newspaper reading by, 448 Significance, 2 2 'Significanrness,' 22 Simon, M., 439 Sincerity, 43; in production of cultural products, 240 Skilled and semi-skilled workers,
1 1 4- 1 1 5
,

Pretension, 14, }O, 62, 251-253, 294, 381-382; of petite bourgeoisie, 62,
294, 362

Production of cultural goods, 1 2 , 20, 2 3 1 ; and consumption, 230, 232; and taste, 2 3 1 , 241; and social class, 233-234; and audience expectations, 239-240; servility in, 240; sincerity in, 240; and dominant class, 316317

tive space, 244-245 Social structures, 467-471 Social uses, 18, 20-21, 49; and aesthetic judgements, 42-43 Social value, 21 Socialization, 474-475 Soul, 254 Spectacles, 34, 58 Spinoza, Baruch, 228 Spirituality, 19, 3 1 7

Social space, 169, 266, 343-345, 473; i n ternalization of, 175; homology be rween spaces, 175, 208; and culrural consumption, 176; and body image, 206-208; and theatre, 234; as objec

Profane and sacred, 6-7, 19 Prof essionals, 102-103, 1 14, 122, 264, 266-267; spending by, 184; food pur chases by, 18), 190; and spons, 219; generational conAic(s, 296; newspaper reading by, 448 Profundity, 74 Programme of cultivation, 67 Proselytism, 228, 370 Proudhon, P_ J, 48-49, 2 5 1 Proust, Marcel, 2 1 , 53, 97, 173, 485,
498-499

Psychoanalysis, 367, 369 Pure gaze, 3-4 Pure taste, 486-488; and barbarous taste,
30-32, 43-44, 178

Purity, 176, 254 Questionnaires, 95, 194; and personal opinions, 399-402, 405; methodology of, 503-518 Rapaport, Anwl, 259 Reading matter, 1 16. 5ee a/Jo Newspaper reading Reality of representation, 482-484 Recognition, 3 1 9 Reconversion strategies, 1 2 5 , 1 3 1 , 133,
135, 137, 147, 150, 157

References, 52-53 Religious opinions, and social class, I I I Representation, 43-44, 72, 184, 253; of realiry, 482-484 Representational occupations, 1 5 2 Revolutionary aestheticism, 48

Social age, 233 Social capital, 1 1 4 Social change, 1 5 6 Social class, 103-104, 106-108; and taste, 2, 6; legitimating social diff er ences, 7; and marital status, 108-109; trajectory eff ect, 109- 1 1 2, 1 2 3 - 1 24, 147, 264-26; and religious opinions, 1 1 1 ; and political opinions, 1 1 1 , 427-428, 440; and geographical dis tance, 124; downclassing, 147, 1 5 0- 1 5 1 , 163-164; upclassing, 163-164; and sports, 2 1 4 - 2 1 5 , 2 1 7 -220; and production of cultural goods, 233-234. See alJo Habitus Social compatibilities and incompatibilities, 241, 243 Social conditioning, 1 0 1 Social mobility, 1 3 1 - 1 3 3 Social origin, 1 , 12-13, 63, 75, 77-78, 92, 265-266; and extra-curricular cul ture, 65; and educational capital, 105 Social science, 467-468

SpOrts, 20, 93, 209; functions of, 2 1 1 - 2 1 2 ; and competition, 214; team and individual, 2 1 4 - 2 1 5 , 2 1 7 ; and fair play, 2 1 5 ; and social class, 2 1 ) , 2 1 7 -220; and cultural capical, 220; freedom and formalism, 220 'Stand-in,' 24 Statistical analysis, 22, 40, 94, 103, 557; statistical data, 525-545 Stratification, 245 Stylistic characterizations, 50, 52 Srylization of lif 5), 57, 174, 1 76, 376 e, Subjectivism, 244 Subsrantialism, 22 Substitution industry, 365 Superficiality, 74 Supply and demand, 230-232, 2 4 1 Supply side, 223 Survey data, 174, 245-246, 258; method ology, 503-'H8; complementary sources, 519-524 Symbolic capital, 291 Symbolization, 72 Synchronic propenies of positions, 34,
453

taste, 486-488; of reflection, 489-491 ; of sense, 489-491 Taste-maker, 91, 2 5 Teachers, 1 1 5 1 l6, 120, 1 2 2 - 1 2 3 , 1 3 5 , 264-265, 267; ethics and aesthetics, 46; spending by, 184; food purchases by, 185; clothing of, 202; and spons, 219; appropriation of cultural prod. ucts, 272-273; ascetic disposition of, 287; newspaper reading by, 448 Technical objects, 29 Technicians, 83-84, 122, 304; ethics and aesthetics, 46; middle-brow taste of, 58; newspaper reading by, 447 Television, 33 Theatre, 19, 32, 1 16, 120, 269; and so cial space, 234; boulevard and experi mental, 19, 234-235, 239 Theorists, 245 Thumin, F. J, 208 Time, 7 1 -72, 281-282 Tides, 22-26, 1 6 1 Toy market, 223, 224 Travelling space, 169 Trickledown eff ect, 232 Ubiquity, 72 Unskilled workers, 1 1 4 Utopia, 397 Value of culture, 250 Values, 247 Virility, 192, 384; and foods, 190-192 Visible and invisible, in clorhing expen ditures, 201 Wealth, indicators of, 116, 1 2 7 . 5ee a/50 Economic capital Weber, Max, <)5, 174 Woolf, Virginia, 3)' 444 Working classes, 57, 1 1 4; taste in, 16; and popular aesthetic, 32-33; and dominated aesthetic, 4 1 ; and signifi cance of objects, 43; ethics and aes thetics, 44-47; and educational system, 143-144; meals, 190, 194-195, 197; entertaining by, 197; clothing of, 200-201; health and beauty care, 206; fertility strategies of, 332; and intellectuals, 372-374; and dominant class, 382-383; newspaper reading by, 447 'Working wives,' 178 Yeats, William Butler, 227

Tabard, Nicole, 178 Taste, 1 , 7, 99, 174-175, 247, 466, 474; and social class, 2, 6; popular taste, 16; legitimate, 16, 56-57, 7 1 ; middle brow, 16, 58, 60, 267; barbarous and pure tastes, 30-32, 43-44, 178; and distaste, 56-57; classical, 65; and lif e styles, 173-175; and economic capial, 177-1 78; and conditions of existence, 178; and production of cultural goods, 2 3 1 , 241; bourgeois taste, 292-294; inrellectual taste, 292-294; petit-bourgeOis taste, 339, 341-343; for necessity, 374-376, 378-380; pure

Distinction is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France

and a dissection of the bourgeois mind. Bourdieu's subject is the study of culture, and his objective is most ambitious: to provide an answer to the problems raised by Kant's Critique ofJudgment by showing why no judgment of taste is innocent.
"A

complex, rich, intelligent book. It will provide the historian of the future with priceless materials and it will bring an essential con tribution to sociological theory." - Fernand Braudel "One of the more distinguished contributions to social theory and research in recent years . . . There is in this book an account of culture, and a methodology of its study, rich in implication for a diversiry offields ofsocial research. The work in some ways redefines the whole scope of cultural studies." - Anthony Giddens, Partisan Review
"A book of extraordinary intelligence."

- Irving Louis Horowitz, Commonweal

"Bourdieu's analysis transcends the usual analysis of conspicuous consumption in two ways: by showing that specific judgments and choices matter less than an esthetic outlook in general and by show ing, moreover, that the acquisition of an esthetic outlook not only advertises upper-class prestige but helps to keep the lower orders in line. In other words, the esthetic world view serves as an instrument of domination. It serves the interests not merely of staniS but of power. It does this, according to Bourdieu, by emphasizing individ uality, rivalry, and 'distinction' and by devaluing the weU-being of - Christopher Lasch, I0 gue society as a whole."
Pierre Bourdieu was Professor of Sociology at the College de France. Paris.

ISBN

0-674-21277-0