SOCIOLOGY
5/18/2014
The Forms of Capital by Pierre Bourdieu 1986
Pierre Bourdieu 1986.
The Forms of Capital
Source: Knowledge Policy, proofed/corrected this html version (1) by comparing it with a
.pdf image of the article from a book found at: The Eltan Burgos School of Economics.
First published: Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.)
Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (New York, Greenwood),
241-258.
Originally: in “Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital.” in Soziale
Ungleichheiten (Soziale Welt, Sonderheft 2), edited by Reinhard Kreckel. Goettingen: Otto
Schartz & Co.. 1983. pp. 183-98. The article appears here for the first time in English.
Translated by Richard Nice.
The social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects. Capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its ‘incorporated,’ embodied form) which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. It is a vis insita, a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. It is what makes the games of society – not least, the economic game – something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds out the opportunity of winning a lot of money in a short space of time, and therefore of changing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, and in which the winning of the previous spin of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new spin, gives a fairly accurate image of this
The Forms of Capital by Pierre Bourdieu 1986
Pierre Bourdieu 1986.
The Forms of Capital
Source: Knowledge Policy, proofed/corrected this html version (1) by comparing it with a
.pdf image of the article from a book found at: The Eltan Burgos School of Economics.
First published: Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.)
Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (New York, Greenwood),
241-258.
Originally: in “Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital.” in Soziale
Ungleichheiten (Soziale Welt, Sonderheft 2), edited by Reinhard Kreckel. Goettingen: Otto
Schartz & Co.. 1983. pp. 183-98. The article appears here for the first time in English.
Translated by Richard Nice.
The social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects. Capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its ‘incorporated,’ embodied form) which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. It is a vis insita, a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. It is what makes the games of society – not least, the economic game – something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds out the opportunity of winning a lot of money in a short space of time, and therefore of changing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, and in which the winning of the previous spin of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new spin, gives a fairly accurate image of this
References: New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1964a. Becker, Gary S. Human Capital. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964b. Bourdieu, Pierre “Les rites d’institution.” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 43 (1982): 58-63. Breton, A. “The Economics of Nationalism.” Journal of Political Economy 72 (1962): 376-86. Grassby, Richard “English Merchant Capitalism in the Late Seventeenth Century: The Composition of Business Fortunes.” Past and Present 46 (1970): 87-107. Classes and Classifications (1979) France Subject Archive | Philosophy Archive @ marxists.org