ABSTRACT
Bourdieu’s early ethnographic studies were on Algeria and the marriage strategies amongst peasant farmers in the south-west of France in the 1950s. This chapter sets out what he found there, in particular in relation to the contrast between traditional and modern societies – in effect, pre-capitalist and capitalist. It goes on to demonstrate how insights gained here were later developed in extensive studies of French education and culture at the time. It details the discoveries made about the way that students shaped their own academic outcomes and how the structures of schools and universities were complicit in relative failures amongst their populations – the discussion here spans both these early studies and later work on key aspects of education in France and beyond. The concept of cultural capital is highlighted. The chapter then goes on to show how the same concept was explored in Bourdieu’s extensive work on French culture: in particular, museums and photography. The chapter highlights Bourdieu’s analysis of the way state institutions work to instil a certain form of capital, which contributes to the social reproduction of the French social hierarchy across time.
