Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Routledge Classics)

No judgement of taste is innocent - we are all snobs. Pierre Bourdieu’s __Distinction__ brilliantly illuminates the social pretentions of the middle classes in the modern world, focusing on the tastes and preferences of the French bourgeoisie. First published in 1979, the book is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind. In the course of everyday life we constantly choose between what we find aesthetically pleasing, and what we consider tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu demonstrates that our different aesthetic choices are all distinctions - that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes. This fascinating work argues that the social world functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement. No judgement of taste is innocent - we are all snobs. This book brilliantly illuminates the social pretentions of the middle classes in the modern world, focusing on the tastes and preferences of the French bourgeoisie. First published in 1979, the book is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind. In the course of everyday life, we constantly choose between what we find aesthetically pleasing, and what we consider tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu demonstrates that our different aesthetic choices are all distinctions - that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes. This fascinating work argues that the social world functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement Part 1: A social critique of the judgement of taste. The aristocracy of culture -- Part 2: the economy of practices. The social space and its transformations ; The habitus and the space of life-styles ; The dynamics of the fields -- Part 3: Class tastes and life-styles. The sense of distinction ; Cultural goodwill ; The choice of the necessary ; Culture and politics -- Conclusion: Classes and classifications.;In "Distinction", Pierre Bourdieu brilliantly illuminates the social pretentions of the middle classes in the modern world. Focusing on the French bourgeoisie -- its tastes and preferences -- "Distinction" is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind. Distinction is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind. Bourdieu's subject is the study of culture, and his objective is most ambitious: to provide an answer to the problems raised by Kant's Critique of Judgment by showing why no judgment of taste is innocent.