Distinction: A Social Critique Of The Judgement Of Taste
V I The Consequences of Stratificalioa404PIERRE BOURDIEUDistinction: A Social Critiqueof the Judgement of TasteThe Social SpaceThe distribution of the different classes (and classfractions) runs from those who are best provided· with both economic and cultural capital to thosewho are most deprived in both respects (see figures I and 2). The member of the professions,who have high income s and high qualifications,who very often (52.9 percent) originate from thedominant class (professions or senioi:- executives),who receive and consume a large quantity of bothmaterial and cultural goods, are opposed in almost all respects to the office workers, who havelow qualifications, often originate from the working or middle classes, who·receive·Iittle and consume little, devoting · high proportion of theirtime to care maintenance and home improvement; and they are even more opposed to theskilled or semi-skilled workers, and still more tounskilled workers or far labourers, who havethe lowest incomes, no ·qualifications, and origi-nate almost exclusively (90.5 percent of farmlabourers, 84.5 percent of unskilled workers) fromthe working classes. 1The differences stemming from the total volume of capital almost always conceal, both fromcommon awareness and also from 'scientific'knowledge, the secondary differences which ·within each of the classes defined by overall volume of capital, separate class fractions, defined by .different asset structures, i.e., different d.istriburtions of their total capital among the differentkinds of capital [economic and cultural].! :' Once one takes account of the structure of totalassets-·and not only, as has always been done iin:.plicitly, of the dominant kind in a given structure,'birth', 'fortune' or 'talents', as the nineteenth century put it--one has the means of making moreprecise divisions and also of observing the specific effects of the structure of distribution be. tween the different kinds of capital. This may; forexample, be ·symmetrical (as".in the case of the25
405ti'ife-Styles and Consumption Patternsf }ofessions, which combine very high income . sociologists almos . .ways forget that the 'objects'a rnetricalthey classify produce not only objectively classifi.;able practices but also classifying operations thatare no less objective and are themselves classifiable. The division into classes performed by sociology leads to the common root o the classifiablepractices which agents produce and of the classificatory judgements they make of other agents'practices and their own. The habitus is both thegenerative principle of objectively classifiablejudgements and the system of classification (principium divisionis) of these practices. It is in the relationship between the two capacities which de-·fine the habitus, the capacity to produceclassifiable practices and works, and the capacityto differentiate and appreciate these practices andproducts (taste), that the represented socialworld, i.e., the space of life-styles, is constituted.The relationship that is actually established beThe Habitustween the pertinent characteristics of economicand social condition (capital volume and compoThe mere fact that the social space described heresition, in both synchronic and diachronic as· can be presented as a diagram indicates that it ispects) and the distinctive features associated withan abstract representation, deliberately conthe corresponding position in the universe oflifestructed, like a map, to give a bird's-eye view, a.styles only becomes intelligible when the habituspoint of view on the whole set of points fromis constructed as the generative formula whichwhich ordinary agents (including the sociologistmakes it possible to account both for the classifiand his reader, in their ordinary behaviour) seeablepractices and products and for the judgethe social world. Bringing together in simultanements, themselves classified, which make theseity, in the scope· of a single glance-this is its heupractices and works into a system of distinctiveristic value-positions which the agents cansigns.When one speaks of the aristocratic ascetinever apprehend in their totality and in theirofteachers or the pretension of the petitecismmultiple relationships, social space is to the pracbotirgeoisie,one is not only describing thesetical space of everyday life, with its distancesgroups by one, or even the most important, ofwhich are kept or signalled, and neighbours whotheirproperties, but also endeavouring to namemay be more remote than strangers, what geotheprinciplewhich generates all their propertiesmetrical space is to the 'travelling space' ( espaceandalltheirjudgements of their, or other peohodologique) of ordinary experience, with its gapsple's, properties. The habitus is necessity internaland discontinuities.ized and converted into a disposition that gener-,, But the mos crucial thing to note is that theates meaningful practices and meaning-giving9uestion of this space is raised within the space itperceptions;it is a general, transposable disposi elf-that the agents have points of view on thistionwhichcarrie5out a systematic, universal apobjective space which depend on their positionplication-beyond the limits of what has been diwithin it and in which their will to transform or· conserve it is often expressed. Thus many of the · rectly learnt--of the necessity inherent in thelearning conditions. That is why an agent's wholewords which sociology uses to designate the classet of practices (or those of whole set of agentsses it constructs are borrowed from ordinary usage, where they serve to express the (generally po- . produced by similar conditions) are both systematic, inasmuch as they are the product of the aplemical) view that one group has of another. As ifplication of identical {or interchangeable)carried a ay by their quest for greater objectivity,'.:with. very high cultural ·capital) ·ori'(in the case of higher-education and secondary;teachers or employers with cul.tural capital dorni-.; ant in one case, economic capital in the other).ione thus discovers two sets of homologous posi,'tions. The fractions· whose reproduction dependson economic capital,. usually inherited-indus. trial and commercial employers at the . higher level, craftsmen and shopkeepers at the intermediate level-are opposed to the fractions which·are least endowed (relatively, of course) with eco. nomic capital1 and whose reproduction· mainlydepends on cultural capital-higher-educationand secondary teachers ·at the higher level, pri. mary teachers at the intermediate level. .a26
,,.QenFIGURE 1 The space of social positions (shown in black)FIGURE 2 The space of life-styles (shown in grey)JI( Capital volumeeIarl collectoc111right-hank 9;ille11r.sfatherhigher educationpianoantique shops. Colonne concertsgolf bridgecocktailsoperanon-commercialRenoir Dulybooks on art50-60 h!!. workhi-Iicruises exhibitio11sProfessions .,,,,·warholEllXenakisr-Connaiss rir.n dr. inheritanceIgWebeni Boul .z. her-ed.I 83,000F - C 57,lOOFHigchess. e 10 ue 1teaC.hcrs #.whisky Vasarelyleft-bank gallerlesurban propenyPrivate-sector I boatavan\-garde festivalsLe Mondeboulevard Jheatreexecutives .1'Anis .Chinese restaurant loreig11 languages ., . .buying hometicJFrance-Musiqueflea market eininais40-50 hrs. workproducers r'. ·movie cameraParis regionpolitical or phllosoph1cal essayscreel!! cardspasTemps ModernesL"8'.pansion2 childrenKandinskyBachKnoll furniture [& ; 71 ScrabbleWatteaufrozen foodBrechtLe Figaroair travel----- DuchampSecondaryPublic-sectorsailingTEPTNPteachecs Kmountains executives -TlIAutomoblln Clullforeign-car rid111g, -scocks and shareswater-skii11gtennissecond ho1ne2.1 children§ E: -ln 1Le Nouvel Observateurlithographslight grillsC 40,IOOFBreug!lelmuseumVivaldiL'Expresstowns 100,000 pop. flornanescwe churchesComedle-Franc;aisecycling holidays country walking camping swimming· France-Culturerent homechampagneI08IRavelwages I salaries psychologyStravinsky cinema clubfather BEPCsurfingweaving yogaVan Gogh hang-gliding trekking minibusceramicsecologymodern jazzIN.! Wtur.d . Ji(.1ntermediariesImineral waterVian.40 hrs. workJeanstarted gher ed.Socialandmedical services .,,,,162,000FTour ial andcommercial profitsLA,toJ'"m IwomenI An craftsn)en and dealers .# jAlain Delon·., o.ooo pop.homeownerfather employer ;-.- - photographyIIhistorical nar1ativeHistoria huntingLeqtures pour TousGuy des CarslL ellmenhrs.worktownsPrix Goncourtn 0-60Utrlllosalad.------- fa::.:th er:.;,wagc-earnerRenault 16BrassensCµltuta.I capitalLeo FerreF.conomic capitalJacques Douai1102,000Fho:!!l holidayauctionC47,700Fbuslnest . mealsPeugeot 504Citroen OS GStrade fairs2.1 children BraqueGoya Bu"uelKafkaAri!\Rhap ody in BlueBeall es&:onomic capitalCultural capitale0
Nco·Jacques Brei[I.··I 33,000Fa.I Primary teachers ;jJun1·0 r.commc rcial . - "executives, sccrecancs.1.7 childrenb ccaJ"-C 36,000FBEG- BEHaur,.tstamp collectionScience et vening classesexecuuvcs.,.UtrilloIlight ope1aBultetFrance Inter[IBEPCCommercialOffice workers ;Radio Luxe1nbourgpetanquePernodsparkling 60while winelg.1.7 childrenl.9childrenLe Parisien LibereGuetarylove stories""' DellyLevitanhrs. workLouis deFun sCEYIForemen.,.CAP-BPI 21,000FSemi-skilledregional pa.perbeerbicyclefishing funfair. adventure storiespetanquePernodsparkling white wine villages.1Vwatching sports1. 9 childrenIIfarming proficsfI J .I J1.:.51n 1rcnRenault 4FernandeI118,000F - C 26,000FBrigitte Bardot45-50 hrs. workfootbnllbeloleaccordion'pastabreadpublic dancesordinary red winebacon2.8 childrenUnskilled .,.rugby§potatoesI Skilled workers ][·employees ;;#'car maintenancesewingdo-It-yourself[varietysnowsGuy LuxMarianotierc T. FlossiIQa- g-folk. dancingcookingAmi 6picnicsRenault 8BEiAz11avou140-45 hrs. Sheilacircus workJohnny Hallyday 8father CE I.Petula ClarkEu1ope No. 1Renault 10Sl1nca 1100jTechnicians -"L'HumanileFrance-Solr enaull 6j113,000Fno qualificationfatherno qualification[Farmers'lI pi l G] c.
V l The Consequences of Stratification408FIGURE3Conditions of existence, habitus, and life-style- - - acts of perception and appreciation--- conditioningobjectively classifiableconditions of existence I(class of conditionings)and position in structureof conditions of existence(a struccuring structure)Habitus 1a structuredandstructuringstructuresystem ofschemesgenerating --- classifiablepracticesand workssystem ofschemes ofperceptionandappreciation{'taste')Life-Style la systemof classifiedand classifyingpractices,i.e., distinctivesigns ('tastes')system ofschemesetc.conditions of existence 2etc.Life-Style 2etc.Habitus 2etcsystem ofschemesetc.conditions of existence netc.·schemes, and systematically distinct from thepractices qmstituting another life-style.Because different conditions of existence produce different habitus-s tems of generativeschemes applicable, by simple transfer, to themost varied areas of practice-the practices en.,.gendered by the different habitus appear as systematic configurations of properties expressingthe differences objectiv ly inscribed in conditionsof existence in the form of systems of differentialdeviations which, when perceived by agents endowed with the schemes of perception and appreciation necessary in order to identify, interpretand evaluate their pertinent features, function aslife-styles (see figure 3).2The habitus is not only a structuring structure;·which organizes practices and the perception ofpractices, but also a structured structure: theprinciple of division into logical classes which or .ganizes the perception of the social world is itselfthe product of internalization of the division intosocial classes. Each class condition is defined, simultaneously, by its. intrinsic properties" and bythe relational properties which it derives from itsposition in the system of class conditions, whichis also a system of differences, differential positions, i.e., by everything which distinguishes itfrom what it is not and especially from everythingit is opposed to; social identity "is defined and asserted through difference. This means that inevi-29
Sfi!,lfe-Styles and Consumption Pattems ta!, ly !nscribed within the dispositions of the hab titus ·is the whole structure of the system of1 conditions, as it presents itself in the experience : {a life-condition occupying a particular posi-mtori within. that structure. The most fundamental·:oppositions in the structure (high/low, rich/poor.· etc;) .tend to establish themselves as the funda;::rriental structuring principles of practices and the.pei:ception of practices. As a system of practice.generating schemes which expresses systematical y the nec ssity and freedom inherent in itsclass condition and the difference constitutingthat position, the habitus apprehends differencesbetween conditions, which it grasps in the formof differences between classified, classifying practices (products of other habitus), in accordancewith principles of differentiation which, beingthemselves the product of these differences, areobjectively attuned to them and therefore tend toperceive them as natural.While it must be reasserted, against all forms ofmechanism, that ordinary experience of the socialworld is a cognition, it is equally important to realize ontrary to the illusion of the spontaneousgeneration of consciousness which so many theories of the 'awakening of class consciousness'(prise de conscience) amount to-that primarycognition is misrecognition, recognition of an order which is also established in the mind. Lifestyles are thus the systematic products of habitus,which, perceived in their mutual relationsthrough the schemes of the habitus, become signsystems that are socially qualified (as 'distinguished', 'vulgar' etc.). The dialectic of conditionsand habitus is the basis of an alchemy whichtransforms the distribution of capital, the balance-sheet of a power relatiqn, into a system ofperceived differences, distinctive properties, thatis, a distribution of symbolic capital, legitimatecapital, whose objective truth is rnisrecognized.As structured products (opus operatum) whicha structuring structure (modus operandi) produces through· retranslation according to thespecific logic of the different fields, all the practices and products of a given agent are objectivelyharmonized among themselves, without any deliberate pursuit of coherence, and objectively orchestrated, without any conscious concertation,with those of all members of the same class. The30409habitus continuously generates practical metaphors, that is to say, transfers (of which the transfer of motor habits is only one example} or, moreprecisely, systematic transpositions required bythe particular ·conditions in which the habitus is'put into practice' (so that, for example, the ascetic ethos which might be expected always to express itself in saving may, in a given context, express itself in a particular way of using credit).The practices of the same agent, and, more generally, the practices of all agents of the same class,owe the stylistic affinity which makes each ofthem a metaphor of any of the oth rs to the factthat they are the product of transfers of the sameschemes of action from one field to another. Anobvious paradigm would be the disposition called'handwriting', a singular way of tracing letterswhich always produces the same writing, i.e.,graphic forms which, in spite of all the differences ·of size, material or colour due to the surface (paper or blackboard) or the instrument (pen orchalk)-in spite, therefore, of the different use ofmuscles-present an immediately perceptiblefamily resemblance, like all the features of style ormanner whereby a painter or writer can be recognized as infallibly as a man by his walk.Systematicity is found in the opus operatumbecause it is in the modus op.erandi.3 It is foundin all the properties-and property-with whichindividuals and groups surround themselves,hous s, furniture, paintings, books, cars, spirits,cigarettes, perfume, clothes, and in the practicesin which they manifest their distinction, sports,games, entertainment , only because it is in thesynthetic unity of the habitus, the unifying, generative principle of all practices. Taste, the propensity and capacity to appropriate (materially orsymbolically) a given class of classified, classifyingobjects or practices, is the generative formula oflife-style, a µnitary set of distinctive preferenceswhich express the same expressive intention· inthe specific logic of each of the symbolic subspaces, furniture, clothing, language or bodyhexis. Each dimension of life-style 'symbolize.swith' the others, in Leibniz's phrase, and symbolizes them. An old cabinetmaker's world view, theway he manages his budget, his time or his body,his use of language and choice of clothing. arefully present in his ethic of scrupulous, impecca-
410ble craftsmanship and in the aesthetic of work forwork's sake which leads him to measure thebeauty of his products by the care and patiencethat have gone into them.The system of matching properties, which includes people--one speaks of a 'well-matchedcouple', and friends like to say they have the sametastes-is organized by taste, a system of classificatory schemes which may only very partially become conscious although, as one rises in the social hierarchy, life-style is increasingly a matter ofwhat Weber calls the 'stylization of life: Taste isthe basis of the mutual adjustment of all the features associated with a person, which the old aesthetic recommended for the sake of the mutualreinforcement they give one another; the countless pieces of information a person consciously or· unconsciously imparts endlessly underline andconfirm one another, offering the alert observ:erthe same pleasure an art-lover derives from thesymmetries and correspondep.ces produced by aharmonious distribution of redundancies. Theover-determination that results from these redundancies is felt the more strongly because thedifferent features which have to be isolated forobservation or measurement strongly interpenetrate in ordinary perception; each item of information imparted in practice (e.g., a judgement ofa pain,ting) is contaminated-and, if it deviatesfrom the probable feature, corrected-by the effect of the whole set of features previously or simultaneously perceived. That is why a surveywhich tends to isolate features-for example, bydissociating the things said from the way they aresaid-and detach them from the system of correlative features tends to minimize the deviation, oneach point, between the classes, especially that between the petit bourgeois and the bourgeois. Inthe ordinary situations of bourge;ois life,banalities about art, literature or cinema are inseparable from the steady tone, the slow, casualdiction, the distant or self-assured smile, the measured gesture, the well-tailored suit and the bourgeois salon of the person who pronounces them.· Taste is the practical operator of the transmutation ·Of things into distinct and distinctive signs,of continuous distributions into discontinuousoppositions; it raises the differences inscribed inV I The Consequences of Stratificationthe physical order of bodies to the symbolic ; rde jof significant distinctions. It transforms objec; tively classified practices, in which a class cbndi'. 1tion signifies itself (through taste), irito .classify ing practices, that is, into a symbolic expressioli i'.of class position, by perceiving them in their mu'.:) tual relations and in terms of social dassificatdfy schemes. Taste is thus the source of the systeni'"o(distinctive features which cannot fail to be per.:- ceived as a systematic expression of a particular :class of conditions of existence, i.e., as a distlric ·tive life-style, by anyone who possesses practiCal.knowledge of t
Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste The Social Space The distribution of the different classes (and class fractions) runs from those who are best provided · with both economic and cultural capital to those who are most deprived in both respects (see fig ures I and 2). The member of the professions,
CRISIS & CRITIQUE Dialectical Materialism Collective CINEMA VOLUME 7.2/ISSUE 2, 2020 ISSN 2311-5475 CRISIS & CRITIQUE CRISIS & CRITIQUE. 3 CINEMA CRISIS & CRITIQUE . It is an immanently impure art as it is never fully art, never fully high art, but cannot av
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