Who is Pierre Bourdieu?

Pierre Bourdieu is a French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher. He first studied the role of capital in the sociological field for social positioning. Later, he extended the concept of capital to the area of culture and symbol. He became the pioneer of the investigative frameworks and terminologies of ‘language and power’.



Bourdieu believed that every kind of capital is as a resource for individuals to help empower themselves, and produce or reproduce inequality.   ​

​

​What are the forms of capital?

​According to Bourdieu, ‘capital’ can present itself in three fundamental guises:

​

‘Economic capital’: economic resources which is immediately and directly convertible into money such as cash, financial assets and property rights. It is at the root of all the other types of capital.

​
​‘Social capital’: which is made up of group membership, trusting relationships, social connections, networks of influence and support.

​
​‘Cultural capital’: which entails the system of attributes such as forms of knowledge, language skills, educational qualifications and cultural acquisition.

​'Linguistic capital' is under 'cultural capital'​, defined as the mastery of and relation to language, representing a means of communication and self-presentation acquired from one's surrounding culture.

Both “cultural capital” and “social capital” are convertible into economic capital on certain conditions. For instance, having academic qualifications and extensive social network may help one get a position or job promotion.

​
​While the above forms of capital are regarded as the value of an individual,they work as the ‘Symbolic capital’, which includes accumulated honor, prestige or recognition. 



 

​How can we interpret Bourdieu's central idea?
Bourdieu’s notion of ‘capital’ implies the resources brought to an individual to yield power and exercise control over others. Every individual is not confined by his/her social class membership. Instead, they have the potential to control their future and shape their own destiny by accumulating ‘capital’.