Bourdieu: A Comparative Analysis
The theory that people’s sense of taste is influenced by their surroundings was very much believed by Bourdieu. Bourdieu writes that an individual’s opinions or their sense of “taste” is always connected back to specific class based experiences and influences. To continue, this would mean that two separate people, each connected to two very different social and cultural backgrounds will inevitably have notable differences in taste due to the fact that each of their social backgrounds contain separate social expectations, and it is these social expectations that would be expressed within each individual.
In his work, Bourdieu discusses his concept of “Cultural Capital”, which I have mentioned previously. Inspired by Marx, Bourdieu agrees that
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From this research he concludes that taste “is used by individuals to enhance their position within the social order and that distinction is the means through which they establish their taste as different from that of other, lower classes of people. “This is not a matter of actual class position based on one’s economic status but of cultural capital.” This is a concept that has proven to be correct in countless situations, an example being in everyday consumption, from museum visits to the possessions a person owns and chooses to display. For instance, people throughout generations have chosen to display objects that reflect what they would believe to be tasteful, and though displaying these objects they establish their position of class. People “learn to rank images and objects according to a system of taste that is steeped in class based values.” In today’s world, it could be argued that one simply needs to look at the ways in which a person decorates their home and possessions that they choose to display in order to determine what social class they belong to. This theory can be reflected in our society today, and remains to be a subject and concept studied. The book “Watching the English; the Hidden Rules of English Behaviour” written by Kate Fox discusses how social classes are distinguished in modern day England. Fox discusses humorously how markers of class are everywhere in today’s world and that our classes can be noted through analysing which shops we choose to visit, what we purchase, and what we choose to display to others. Fox uses cars as an example, and states that the car we own is chosen to reflect our social standing. “The English like to believe, and will often doggedly insist, that social-status considerations play no part in their choice of vehicle. But the truth is that car
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