ABSTRACT
This chapter follows on from the previous chapters and interludes in covering three of the ‘great’ anthropologies Bourdieu produced in the 1980s. The first is his social critique of taste made in La distinction (1979) and illustrates differences of cultural consumption across the social spectrum. However, there is also coverage of philosophical issues included in the book, in particular, the social critique of Kantian aesthetics that Bourdieu offers and its implications for cultural values. If taste is an example of ‘social, cultural and economic capital’ as immanent in fields of cultural consumption, a second example demonstrates how similar exegetics play out in the field of French higher education, namely his studies of universities (Homo acedemicus, 1984) and state training schools in France (La noblesse d’état, 1989). Topics explored include: the social dynamics in universities leading to the events of Mai 68 in France; and the place of the elite Grandes Écoles as constitutive of the ‘field of power’ and the ‘symbolic violence’ it legitimates – and how! These topics are set in a historical context, which illustrates critical insights to key social institutions but also allows for the opportunity to further develop issues of Bourdieusian reflexivity.
Interlude III
Issues of language are central to Bourdieu’s philosophy and practice: in his critique of language science; the role of language in social life; and in the language of the human sciences. Language is key to understanding and operationalising Bourdieu’s metanoia. This Interlude addresses Bourdieu’s various perspectives on language. In particular, it uses his critique of the German existentialist philosopher, Martin Heidegger, as a way of exploring how fields shape language and how this influence has significance for what is consequently expressed in them. How language is ‘transmuted’ and ‘transubstantiated’ in social fields according to the ‘symbolic power’ they both create and utilise is set out. Firstly, language has implications at the level of epistemology and consequent political ontology. Second, it is a crucial issue in the language used to express ‘scientific’, including philosophical, language. These themes are explored with reference to various contexts, such as the French intellectual field and its links between the philosophical and the political. Field theory is offered by way of an example to illustrate how all this can be studied and understood. The Interlude paves the way for chapters on the literary field, as well as an exploration of the key role of language in developing and expressing a ‘new gaze’ on the social world.
