Bourdieu, Pierre (1930–2002)

The Relational (Habitus, Capitals, and Fields)

In this context, the word relational expresses the interdependence of social determinations. This interdependence is present everywhere. It can be located in individual behavior, the life of social groups, and the evolution of societies. Bourdieu describes the level of individuality with the concept of habitus or sometimes with habitus of class. Habitus is a structured and structuring ensemble of ways of being and living. Individuals inherit them from the social environment into which they were born, that is, their own class. Bodily and intellectual dispositions (hexis) give individuals their social and cultural identities (ethos), which are markers that direct them in life. Individuals are never born isolated from their social context. They develop conscience through the mediation of a social background that supports their growth. Thus, individuals are not social actors, Bourdieu believed, but rather agents of society.

Heritage relies on four principal resources that Bourdieu called capitals. He distinguished the symbolic [Page 260](indications of prestige like high-school diplomas), the economic (material richness and means of obtaining it), the social (the network of relatives and friends), and the cultural capital (know-how and savoir-vivre). Each heritage implies a precise volume and structure of capital. The way they take shape depends on their position inside the class system and its corresponding habitus in society. Heritages determine the trajectory of individuals and groups within a society. They reflect the social career of habitus and classes in the various domains of everyday life. Bourdieu defined them as fields.

There are many social fields (e.g., the fields of economics, politics, cultures, religions), each of which is likely to be divided into specialized subfields (e.g., finance within economy, haute couture within fashion). All social fields and their subfields have a relative autonomy, and they are all more or less interdependent. The sum of the social fields is the social space. This space reflects the social allocation of resources in a society according to the various habitus and their classes. It draws a picture of the interdependency between social determinations within a society and of the shapes interdependencies can take according to the point of view of each social class.

The Reproduction of Society

Everyday life is composed of the meeting of different habitus equipped with their capitals in the various fields and subfields of the social space. Bourdieu gives the following formula of practical life in his famous work Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste

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