Introduction

In the 1980s and 1990s, many studies called into question the concept of social class as a way of describing the evolution of social structures in Western countries, with some even announcing the death of social classes. Economists working on social inequality have developed a different approach, which delineates classes not by occupation but by wealth and economic resources. The neoliberal turn of the 1980s, which occurred after Bourdieu’s research presented in the 1979 book Distinction, thus invites us to re-evaluate the importance of economic capital in relation to cultural capital in relationships of domination. With the development of financial capitalism and the increase in wealth inequalities, the role of cultural capital, which lies at the heart of Bourdieu’s analyses of the manufacture of class boundaries, warrants being re-evaluated and updated.