Les formes de capital selon Bourdieu (document en anglais)

The Forms of Capital, Pierre Bourdieu (1930 – 2002), written in 1986

Our course is focusing on the multidimensionality of inequality. It is therefore essential to understand the distribution of the different forms of capitals (economic, cultural, social, and political) that structure our European society according to Bourdieu. (conceptual framing of the course)

→ Capital is accumulated labor that can be in its materialized/objectified or incorporated /embodied form.

→ Capital takes time to accumulate, has a potential capacity to produce profits and takes time to reproduce itself.

→ Accumulation ‘ossifies’ into structures that stabilize – but do not freeze entirely – social groups.

→ Since the distribution of the different forms of capital represent the structure of the social world, inequalities depend from the different controls of capitals. Inequalities are therefore multidimensional. (Starting point of Bourdieu’s take on social inequality)

- Three forms capitals: economic, cultural and social:

1. Economic capital

- It is the most easily visible and economic exchanges are the most transparent. It can be basically counted in monetary terms. It can be institutionalized in the form of property rights.

2. Cultural capital

- It consists of symbolic capacities, even though it is not easy to measure it in its entirety (it is multifaceted including what economists call ‘human capital’ and communication skills, ‘emotional intelligence’, ‘soft skills’, etiquette, savoir-faire…)

- It can be institutionalized in the form of educational qualifications. Cultural capital has a very symbolic efficacy.

- It is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and the link between the two is established through the mediation of the time needed for acquisition.

→ Cultural capital exists in 3 forms:

- EMBODIED

Bildung (culture) endows individuals with manners, codes, postures, formulae, etc., often unconsciously. All these turn into habitus (apparently natural dispositions to behave in a certain way). It cannot be delegated (like sun-tan) or transmitted directly (acquisition necessary). It is a mix of the innate properties and the merits of acquisition. The accumulation period covers the entire period of socialization.

- OBJECTIFIED

Culture enters objects. Its form par excellence is writing (books, articles,…) but also machines, monuments, paintings, movies. By ‘possessing’ and ‘using’ we get them as part of our capital. It is transmissible in its materiality.

Cultural goods can be appropriated both in their material form (need of economic capital) and symbolically (need of cultural capital).

“The Arrow effect”: usage brings about learning and improved efficacy – hence, more cultural capital (consequently, inflation of qualifications in the educational system that considers and takes for granted that embodied cultural capital is constantly increasing)

- INSTITUTIONALIZED

Educational institutions are made to provide certificates of cultural capital – ie. academic qualifications (example of the concours and its power of instituting and imposing recognition). These make it easier to convert cultural capital into other forms of capital because it guarantees a monetary value for a given academic capital.

3. Social capital

- It consists of the social obligations (“connections”) that may be convertible, under certain conditions, into economic capital and can be institutionalized in the form of a title of nobility for example (symbolic function/capital).

- It is the capacity to be backed by others’ capitals. It is a capacity to borrow collectively that rests on social relations (material and symbolic exchanges).

- It is also institutionalized as ‘affiliations’. It is not for free: it requires proximity and a certain homogeneity, exchanges, rituals. (+ investment strategies/efforts of sociability)

- It has a multiplier effects of the capitals possessed. An example is the guanxi system

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