Class - Bourdieu

Question 1

When did Bourdieu write ‘what makes a social class’?

Answer 1

1987

Question 2

In objectivist thinking, what are the social powers in society?

Answer 2

1. Economic capital
2. Cultural capital (informational)
3. Symbolic capital

Question 3

What is symbolic violence?

Answer 3

People do not know how they are ‘meant to behave’
Subconscious experience as a form of violence
Not violent/traumatic

Question 4

What is class?

Answer 4

Material condition + relation to other position

Agents who by virtue of similar social space (distribution of capital) are subject so similar conditions of existence

This means they have similar dispositions and practises due to conditioning + homogenising effect

Question 5

Are social classes objective or subjective?

Answer 5

Social classes are both objective and intersubjective – linked

Social reality is not determined or indeterminate
No clear boundaries

Objective difference (capital) expressed in symbolic space of visible distinction

This means social world is not universal and has a plurality of visions = relative indeterminacy of reality is up to interpretation
Subjects can see other divison (religion, race)

Question 6

How are classes represented?

Answer 6

Political struggles want to represent and classify people

Representations create social world principles of division

Attempt to create universally known classification
Depends on symbolic capital by those who impose their vision - may not be realistic

Dominant want to impose own vision

Objectivised symbolisation of the group = make exist as groups collectives which already existed in a potential state