ABSTRACT
The controlled distribution of honour and public recognition of merit by the state was thus seen by many as an important device for the purposes of good government and social order. In many respects Pierre Bourdieu’s highlighting of ‘social capital’ and ‘cultural capital’ alongside economic capital constitutes a reworking of Max Weber’s conception of status as a form of social organization which cannot be reduced to class position. The role of sacredness in the production of celebrity suggests that its socially integrative effects may be similar to those of religion. Nikolas Rose argues that the ‘enterprising self’ in advanced liberalism is oriented towards autonomy, ‘it is to strive for personal fulfilment in its earthly life, it is to interpret its reality and destiny as a matter of individual responsibility, it is to find meaning in existence by shaping its life through acts of choice’.
