ABSTRACT
The French philosopher and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu was one of the leading figures in contemporary sociology until his death in 2002 at the age of 72. This chapter focuses on those theories and concepts germane to consumer culture. Intrinsically, Bourdieu's work should be read as a political exercise; as an analysis of the structures of power, division, and inequality that permeate and stratify society. Bourdieu's best known work is possibly his book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste which has influenced a wide array of disciplines within the social sciences such as sociology, anthropology, the arts, cultural and media studies, and increasingly, consumer culture. Bourdieu also introduced the concepts of "capital volume", or the weighted sum of the three types of capital, and the "compression of capitals" which is usually the composition of cultural and economic capital.
