CMNS 323W Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cultural Capital, Social Capital
29 May 2018
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Class, taste & habitus in contemporary consumer culture
Class has become multidimensional (Holt, 214) complex, contradictory, and ambiguous in
contemporary, late capitalist, consumer society.
• From the late 20th century on, the distinctions between high and low culture have become
blurred – we can thank Andy Warhol specifically and a dominant middle-class sensibility more
generally for the dissolution of the boundary between elite and popular (mass) culture.
o But as Holt's research shows, creating and maintaining distinctions, boundaries,
exclusive sensibilities and status markers is as important as ever, even if the process has
become more nuanced, elusive and muddled.
• What is especially relevant to us in 323 are the ways objects for consumption have become
central to the expression of our class sensibilities through elective affinities (214).
• In a society where commodities take a central place in culture and cultural expression, it stands
to reason that objects are invested with class values and our consumptive practices become the
primary means to express our class affiliations.
o This, according to Bourdieu, is the function of taste.
Thus, my own preference for HBO and my funky urban neighbourhood and my distaste for most pop
music and all fast food has more to do with my sense of place on a multidimensional class hierarchy
than my actual ears and palate.
Class is reproduced in our lived experience by interrelated dimensions of economic capital (wealth and
income), social capital (connections and associations) and cultural capital (distinctive tastes, skills,
knowledge, and practices (214)).
• It's easy to see how commodity consumption fits into this matrix – especially the latter.
• Commodities act as objectified forms of habitus, defined as the matrix of values, beliefs,
practices and actions.
o As habitus is objectified, it is also reified, mystified, naturalized.
Cultural capital: the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech and dress, etc.) that
promote social mobility in a stratified society.
• Taste reproduces class
o Taste naturalized habitus, a mean to naturalize class
o It is what we make our distinction, the way we classify the world
o Taste classify the classifier: a mean to position oneself (consumer symbol is not
fixed/stable)
o Shows how fluid cultural capital has become
• Habitus is a system of attitude, values and tendency
o It is personal and felt as deeply personal, it’s internal but also a life style
o Structures the way we see the social world around us
o Always looking to others for confirmation
• Habitus is learnt and gained from others (parents, friends, etc.).
o It shapes our bodies, gestures, movements, social actions…
o Operates elo the leel of onsiousness: it’s taken for granted, it’s invisible
o It’s the ay it should e.
• Commodity plays an important role
• How does habitus play out in the field of consumption (our identities and life style)?
• Life style is the means of expressing habitus for consumption, is where class and consumption
come together.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
