Well, that was a verbose article. I wonder how it reads in its original French. Does it also read as so long-winded, or is it because the translation took out some of its conciseness. In any case, what I gathered from this is that Bourdieu, much like our other authors, is frustrated with everyone’s insistence that something traditionally viewed as purely economical is still viewed as such. This time we have the idea of capital taking center stage. Bourdieu identifies three different types of capital: The usual economic type, cultural capital, and social capital. He defines economic capital as that which is “immediately and directly convertible into money and may be institutionalized in the forms of property rights” (243). It’s the sort of capital that most people envision, one that is tied to money. This reminded me of one of our past readings regarding money as a way to create social relationships (or something along those lines). I do wonder how that would feed into Bourdieu’s theory. He doesn’t focus on economic capital quite as much as on the other two, but I think his approach to money is a bit more neutral. And I would’ve also liked to know more about the relationship between different types of capital, such as economic and social capital, or economic and cultural, and how the three work against or with each other. He touched on it, but most of this article was just definitions. Are there other types of capital out there he didn’t touch on?
Moving on, we have cultural capital, described as “convertible, on certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the forms of educational qualifications” (243). Here we see the relationship between cultural and economic capital. There’s some commentary on the nature vs nurture argument, as Bourdieu stresses the idea of family and the transmission of cultural capital. There are three categories beneath this type of capital: Embodied, Objectified, and Institutionalized. Embodied cultural capital is “in the form of long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body” (243). Objectified cultural capital involves material things (243). While institutionalized cultural capital is “a form of objectification which must be set apart because . . . it confers entirely original properties on the cultural capital which it is presumed to guarantee” (243). Education was also an important part of this segment, because the way someone gains cultural capital is through self-improvement by learning. However, you have to already have a certain amount of cultural capital, passed down to you from your parents, to be able to succeed in education.
Finally, there’s social capital, and I’ll admit it, I skimmed over this one. It is said to be “made up of social obligations (‘connections’), which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the forms of a title of nobility” (243). It sounds a lot like social networking. You maintain and foster your relationships, and then you can use them when the need arises. We’ve all heard of it.
Beyond that, there was also the explanation on conversions in the end, and how economic capital can be converted into the other types of capital. Overall, this was a very dense read about a topic I’d never considered. I’m still wondering about the original French. So much can be lost in translation. There was no way I was going to read all those notes at the end though.
In conclusion, I do think this article feeds into the trend of finding social and cultural trends within economics. I think these articles are demonstrating the intersection between writing and money, since a large part of writing is discovering the connections that most people don’t think about. As we’ve read in previous works, a lot of authors write about what they believe is being misrepresented. In this case, it’s economics. Plus, writing can come with a lot of social and cultural capital, since people build connections through literature and literature itself is considered a material good of culture (or, more specifically, objectified cultural capital.
I’m sorry if I misspelled your name, Bourdieu.
Writing and Money 