Bourdieu1986_The Forms of Capital

8/6/2019 Bourdieu1986_The Forms of Capital

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The social world is a c c u m u l a t c d . h i s t o ~ y . andif it is not to be reduced to a ~ l s c o n t l l ~ I ! 0 ~ S series of instantaneous mechanical cqUl.hbnabetween agents who 3TC treated .as interchangeable particles, o ~ c must ~ c m . t r o d u c c into it the notion of capital and. w l ~ h It, accuIllulation and all its effects. C a p l l a l s a c t : U m ~ lared labor (in its materialized f o ~ m or t.'incorpornt.cd,' embo died ~ o r m ) W h l ~ h , whe."appropriated on a private, I.C., exclUSIve , basIsby agents or groups of age.nts, enables t h c ~ appropriate social energy In the form.of e ~ f i c d or ivi ng labor. It i s ~ vis.insita, a f ~ r c c m s c T 1 ? c ~ in objective or sublcct lvc e s , ~ u t It ISalso a lex insita, the prmt-1plc u',lderlymgimmanent regularities of the world. It ISwhat makes the games of y - n o t least,the economic game-somethmg other thansimple games ~ ~ a n e e o ~ e r i n g at e v e r ~ moment the poSSibility of a miracle. ~ . o u l . c n ewhich holds out the oppor runity of ~ n n m g alot of money in a short space of ~ I m e , andtherefore of changing on.c's s?Clal s t a ~ u s quasi-instamaneously,:md III which the wmning of the previous Sp ill of t ~ e w ~ e e l c a ~ bestaked and lost at every new spm, g l V ~ s a fairlyaccurate image of this imaginary umve.rse ofperfect competition p e r f ~ t e.qual!ty ofopportunity, a world wuhout I.nerna, W l t ~ o u t accumulation , without heredity or aC9U1redproperties, in which cvery ~ o m e n t IS perfectly inde pendent oCthe p r e ~ l O u ~ onc, everysoldier has a marshal's baton I!"I his k.napsack,and every prize can be attamed, mstantaneously, by everyone, so t ~ a t at mOfll:cntanyone can become anythmg:. Cap ital, which,in its objectified or e m ~ l c d forms, tak.estime to accumulate and which, as a potential

2The Forms of Capital

Pierre Bourdieu

capacity to produce profits and to r c p r ~ u c e itselfin idemical or ex panded f?rm, ~ o n t a ae n d ~ n c y to persist in its b e m g ~ IS a forceinscribed in the objectiv!ty or thmlf:' so [ h ~ t everything is not equally posslbl.e I m ~ sble.! And the str ucture of the d lstTlbu.t1on ofthe differem types and subtypes of capI.tal at agiven moment in time r ~ p r e s e n t s !he Immanent str uctur e ofthe SOCial world, I.e., t ~ e setof constraints, inscribed in the very rc.abty ofthat world, which govern its r ncl10mng m adurable way, determining the chances of success for practices.It is in fact impossible to accoun.t for thestr ucture and functioning o.f th.c socI.al worldunless one reintroduces capital m a l l l t ~ formsand not solely in the one forn:'- rccogmzcd byet."onomic theory. Econ?mlc t ~ e . o r y hasallowed to be foisted upon.lt a ~ e f i m t t ~ n of!heeconomy of practices which IS the h l ~ t o n c ainvention of capitalism; and by e d u c m g theuniverseofexchanges to m e r . c a n ~ l l e e x c ~ a n g ewhich is objcctively and S U b J c c t i V e l ~ onentcdtoward the maximization of profit, .l.e., ~ ~ o nomical1y) sell'lnteresud, it has Imphcltlydefined the olher fonns of . exchange asnoneconomic, and t h e r e f o ~ e . dmnuresud. Inparticular, it defines .as dlstnterested thoseforms of exchange which ens ure t ~ e transub-stantiation whereby th e most m a t e T l ~ 1 t ~ p e s ofcapital- those which are economIc m t ~ e restricted sense-----cln present themscl.ves II Ithe immaterial form of cultural capI!al orsocial capital and vit-'C v e ~ s a . I n t e r e ~ t , III therestricted sense it is givcn m economic t . h e o ~cannot be produced without producmg It>negative counterpart, d i s i n l " ~ r ~ s l e d n e s . , > . -:rheclass of practices whose explicil purpose IS to

IU ltximize monetary profit cannot be definedIN such wil hout producing the purposelessIinnlilY of cultural or artistic practices andtheiT products; the world of bourgeois man,with his double..-entry accounting, cannot beInvented wit hout producing the pure, perfcctuniverse of the artist and the intellectual andthe gratuitous activities of art-for-art's sakeand pure theory. In other words, the constitution of a science of mercantile relationships.. hi ch, inasmuch :is it takes for granted thevery foundations of he order it claims to anaIY7.c-private property, profit, wage labor,IIc.- is not even a science of the field of ec0-nomic production, has prevented the constitulion of a general science of the economy ofpractices, which would treat mercantileIlchangeas aparticular case ofexchange in allItII forms.II is remarkable that the practices and assets.u s salvaged from the 'icy water of egotisticalIIku lation ' (and from science) arc the virtualIIIonopoly of the dominant class-as ifIOO nomism had been able to reduce everytlUng to economics only because the reductionon which that discipline is based protects from. : r ilegious reduction everything whichMCds to be protected. If economics deals only"h h pract ices that have narrowly economicIl1e rest as their princip le and only with goodsdllt are directly and immediately convertibleInlo money (which makes them quantifiable),Ihc:n the universe ofbourgeois production and. . hange becomes an exception and can sechIclf and present itself as a realm of disinter. ,edness. As everyone knows, pricelesslhings have their price, and the extreme diffitully of converting certain practices and cer.un objects into money is only due to the factdill this conversion is refused in the veryIntention that produces them, which is nothlilt other than the denial (Venleinung) of the.momy. A general science of he t-'COnomy of. -c tices, capable of reappropriating thelltali ty of the practices which, althoughabjectively economic, are not and cannot belO(.;ally recognized as economic, and which

be performed only at the cost of a wholeIIbor of dissimulation or, more precisely,tl4phemiza/io ll, must endeavor to grasp capital111(\ profit in all their forms and to t-'Stablish th eIMw s whereby [he difTerentt ypes of capital (orf}owcr, which :lIllOUI1IS 10 Ihe same thin g)ch:lllge ill10 olle :11101her .f)cpellding 011 Ihe licl ll in which it func

The Forms ofCapftal 47(ions, and at the cost of he more or less expensive transformations which are the precondition for its efficacy in the field in question,capilal can present itselfin three fundamentalguises: as ewnomic capital, which is immediately and directly convertible into money andmay be institutionalized in the form of prop-erty rights; as cultural capi/al, which is convertible, on certain conditions, into economiccapital and may be institutionalized in theform of educational qualifications; and associal capital, made up of social obligations('conm:ctions'), which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital andmay be institutionalized in the form ofa tideofnobility.)

Cuttural CapitalCulturalcapi tal can exist in three forms: in theembodied state, i.e., in the form oflong-lastingdispositions of the mind and body; in theobjecrijieJ state, in the form of cultural goods(pictures, books, dictionaries, instruments,machines, etc.), which are the trace or realization of theories or critiques of these theories,problematics, etc.; and in the Institutionaliudstate, a form of objectification which must beset apart because, as will be seen in the case ofcducational qualifications, i t confcrs entirelyoriginal properties on the cultural capitalwhich it is presumed to guarantee.Th e reader should not be misled by thesomewhat peremptory air which the effort atlaxiomization may give to my a r g u m e n t . ~ Th enotion of cultural capital initially presenteditself o me, in the course of research, as a theoretical hypothesis which made it possible toexplain the unequal scholastic achievement ofchildren originating from the different socialclasses by relating academic success, i.e., thespecific profits which children from the different classes and class fractions can obtain inthe academic market, to the distribution ofcultural capital between the classes and classfractions. This starting point implies a breakwith the presuppositions inherent both in thecommonsense view, which seesacademicsuccess or failure as an effect of namral aptitudes,


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_ The Fonns of CaiMtal./investmentand on economic investment (andits evolution). But their measurement of theyield from scholastic investment takesaccount only of mOllelary investments andprofits, or those directly conve.rtible intomoney, such as the costs ofschoohng and thecash equivalent of time dc\'oted to smdy; theyare unable to explain the different proportionsof their resources which difTercnt age nts ordifTerent social classes allocatc 10 economicinvestment and cultural investment becausethey fail 10 take systematic account of thestructure of the differential chanct."S of profitwhich the various markets ofTer these agentsor classes as a function of the volume and thecomposition of their assets (see c.


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The Forms of Capitalso1..../lcnbrthof imefor w h ~ c h f a m ~ 1 ycan providehim with the frt:c tIme, I.C., tlme free ~ r ~ m economicncct:ss iIY, whi.ch is ~ h e p r ~ n d l t l O n for thc initial accumulation (tIme whIch can beevaluated as a handicap to be made up).TIIEOUJt:crWII:DSTATE . Cuhural capital, in thc objectifIed statc, has anumber of properties which are d e f i ~ e d yn.lyin the relationship with cull ural c:'Pltalembodied form. Thc cultural obJectified in mderial objl.:clS and ml.:dla, s.uch aswritings, paintings, . l ~ l o n ~ " , : l . : n t , 1 T ~ s t ~ u ment:s, etc., is transml5. depend on its scarcity, the investmentsrllde (in time and effort) may turn oul to beIlls profitable than was anticipated when theywere madc (there having been a de faciOch:lnge in the conversion rate between academic capital and economic capital). T he slratetics for converting economic capital intocullural capital, which are among the shortlerm factors of the schooling explosion.nd the inflation of qualifications, are governed by changcs in the st ructure of thechanccsofprofit ofTen.xi hy thediffercn[ typesof l.:lpital.

Social CapttalSocial capital is the aggregate of the actual orpotential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or lessinstitutionalized reluionships of mutualacquaintance and recognition-()r in otherwords, to membership in a group" - whichprovides each of ts members with the backingof lhe collcctivity-()wned capital, a 'credential' which entitles them to credit, in the various senses of the word. These relationshipsmay exist only in the practical state, in material and/or symbolic exchanges which help tomaintain them. They may also be sociallyinstituted and guarantced by the applicationof a common name (the name of a family, aclass, or a tribe or of a school, a party, etc.) andby a whole set of instituting acts designedsimultaneously to form and inform those whoundergo them; in Ihis case, they arc more orless reallyenacted and so maintained and reinforced, in exchanges. Being based on indissolubly material and symbol ic exchanges, theestablishment and maintenance of which presu ppose reacknowledgment of proximity,they arc also partially irreducihle to objcctiverelationsof proximity in physical (geographical) space or even in economic and socialspace. llTh e volu me of the social capital possessedbya given agent thusdependson the sizeofth enetwork of conncctions he can effectivelymobil ize and on the \'olume ofthecapital (ec0-nomic, cultural or symbolic) possessed in hisown right by each ofthosc to whom he is connected. u This means that, although it is relatively irreducible to the economic and cu lturalcapital possessed by a given agent, or even bythe whole set of agents 10 whom he is connected, social capital is never complctdyindependentof t because the exchanges instituling mutual acknowledgment presupposethe rcacknowledgmenl of a minimum ofobjective homogeneity, and oc>(;a use it exerts amultiplier effect on the capita l he possesses inhi s own right.The profit.


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The Forms of Capitalimplied in concentration and to S(.'Cure theprofits of membership-material profits,such as all the types of services accruing fromuseful relationships, and symbol ic profits ,such as those derived from association with arare, prcstigious group.Th e existence of a network of conn(.'Ctionsis nOI a nalural given, or even a social given,constiwted once and for all by an ini tial act ofinstillllion, represented, in the case of thefam ily group, by the gcncalog iL"ai defini tion ofkinship rcl:lI ions, which is the characteristic ofa social formation. It is the product of an cndIt:ss effort at instirution, of ....hich institUlionrilcs---oftcn wrongly described as ril'cs of passage --mark th e essential mo ments and whichis ncces..ary in order to produce and reproduce lasting, useful relationships that canS(."Cure material or symbolic profits (sec Bourdieu 1982). In othcr words, t.hc network ofrelationships is the product of investmcntstrategics, individual or eo lk"Ct ive, consciouslyor unconsciously aimcd at establishing or rcproducing social relationships thatarc din .Ctly usable in the short or long term,i.c., at transfonning !"'Ontingent relations,such as thoscofneighborhood, the wo rkplace,or even kinship, into relationships that are atonce nc..."Ccss.1ryand elective, implying durableobligarions subjc..."Ctively felt (fc..."Clings of gratitude, respc..."Ct, friendship, etc.) or institutionally guar:Ultccd (rights). This is done throughthc alehcmyofconsuratioll, the symbolic constitut'ion produced by social institution (instiIlltion as a relative-brother, sister, cousin,elc.-oras a knight, an heir, an e1dcr, ctc.) andendlessly reproduced in and through theexchangc (o fgifts, words, women, etc.) whichit encourngesa nd which presupposcsand produ ces mutual knowledge and recognition.Exchange lrnnsfonns the things exchangedinto signs of recognition and, through themutual recognition and the recognition ofgroup membership which it implies, reproduces the group. By the same token, itreaffirms thc limits of the group , i.c., the limits beyond wh ich the constitutive exchangetrnde, commensa lity, or marriagc--cannoltake place. Each member of the group is thusinstituted as a custodian of the limits of thegroup: because the definition of the criteria ofentry is at sta ke in each newent ry, hecan modify the group by modifying the limits oflegitimate exchange through some fonn ofmisalliance . II is quite IOb';c...-al that, in most

societies, the preparation and conclusion ofmarriages should be the business of he wholegroup, and not of the agents directly concerned. Through the introduction of newmembers into a family, a clan, or a club, thewhole definition of he group, i.e., its fines, itsboundaries, and its identity, is pu t at stake,exposed to redefinition, alteration, adulteration. When, as in modern societies, familieslose the monopoly of the establishment ofexchanges which can lead to lasting relationships, whether socially sanctioned (like marriage) or not, they may continue to controlthese exchanges, whi le remaining within thelogic of laissez-faire, through all the institutions which arc designed to favor legitimateexchanb'CS and exclude illegitimate ones byproducing occasions (rnllies, cruises, hunts,parties, receptions, elc.),-places (smart neighborhoods, scit."Ct schools, clubs, etc.), or practices (smart sports, parlor games, cultur;11ceremonies, etc.) which br ing together, in aseemingly fortuitous way, individuals ashomogcnc...'Ous as possible in all the pertinentrespects in terms of he existence and persistence of he group.Th e reprodu ction of social capital presupposes an unceasing effort of sociability, a continuous series of exchanges in whichrecognition is end lessly affirmed and reaffirmed . Th is work, whi ch implies expenditure of time and energy and so, directly orindirectly, of economic capital, is not profitable or even concdvable unlessone in vests init a specific competence (knowledge ofgenealogical relationships and of real connections and skill at using them, etc.) and anacquired d isposition to acquire and maintainthis competence, which are themselves integral parts of this capital.'s This is one of thefactors which explain why the profitability ofthis labor of accumulating and maintainingsocial capital rises in proportion to the size ofthe capital. Because the social capital aecruingfrom a relationship is that much greater to theextent that the person who is the objt."Ct of t isrichly endowed with capital (mainly social,bu t also cultural and even economic capital),the possessors of an inherited social capital,symbolized by a great name, are able to transfonn all circumstantial relationships into lasting connections. Th ey arc sought after fortheir social capital and, because they are wellknown, arc worthy of being knowll (' I knowhim well'); Ih ey do nol tu 'IIHlke the

~ 1 1 I 1 1 I I 1 l . n c c oful lt hcir'acquaintanccs'; they. . . uII)\I. n 10 more pt.'Ople Ihanlhe),know, andtl\.u ( ) r k of socillbility, when it is exerted, islM,hl) productive . .H,'r), grou ' h as its more or less institurion"',rd forms of dclegarion which enable it to.",'t!I1Ir.IIC thc tot:Llity of the social capital,.hkh is the basis of he existence ofthcgroupf. I.mily or a nation, of course, but also an. - . : ~ d l l t i o n or a party), in the hands of a singleIJmI or a sma ll group of agents and to man" Ie Ihis plenipotentiary, charged with pltn(JE"S agtndi t I loqutndi, I. to represent thep, 10 spcakand act in its name and so, with,Id of this collectively owned capital , to. . I\C a power incommensurate with the5!! personal contribution. Thus, at theelemcntary degree of institutionaliza,the head of the fami ly, thepattr ami/i(Js,rldesl, most senior member, is tacitly rec" ,dted as the only person entitled to speak on"".11 of the family group in all official cir" ' " ' _ t ~ n c e s . But whereas in this case, diffuse. k - M ~ I ion requires the great to step forwardIRd Ilcfcnd the collective honor when thehUllliT uf the weakest membe rs is threatened ,1M mstiturionali7..cd delegation, which",Iu rt!i> the concentration of social capital,.....hits Iheeffect oflimiti ng the consequences'" ltulividual lapses by explicitly delimiting" , ~ " n i l i t i e s and authorizing the recogWind spokesmen to shield the group as a. IIlIle from discredit by expelling or excomInllnk111ing the embarrnssing individuals.II the internal competition for the monop-11,111 legitimate representation of he group isIM""1 thrcaten the conservation and accumu. . . . . 11 IIf the capital which is the basis of the

CU II, the members of he group must regu

It thc conditions of access to the right to" 'I. re oneself a member of the group and," 'me all, to set oneself up as a representativeC . k ~ l l l e , plenipotentiary, spokesman, etc.)I I he whole group, thereby committing the_ 1.1 c:lpital of the whole group. Th e title of. ,1Ii,y is the form par t:t:cdltnct of the insti"I)IIalizcd social c.1 pital which guarantees aJlrllcular form of social relationship in a lastII I way . One of the parndoxes of delegation is.... t he Illandat t.-d agent can exert on (and. up... IH)int, ag-Jinsl) Ihe group Ihepowerwhich,hi' )CrUll]) enahles him loc oncentrate. (This isI ' t r h ~ p !"'Special ly IrlLe in the l i m i ' i n c...-ascs in"hid. the rn ll!ld:Lteli llKent cre:lI c. . the !(rolLp",Iudl crellte" him hUI whi ch tlnly ni"u

The Fonn. of C.pIt., 53./

throug h him.) Th e mechanisms of delegationand representation (in both the theatTical andthe legal senses) which fall into place-thatmuch more strongly, no doubt, when thegroup is large and its members wcak-as oneof the conditions for the concentration ofsocial capital (arnongother reasons, because itenables numerous, varied, scattered agents toact as one man and toovereome the limitationsof space and time) also contain the seeds of anembezzlement or misappropriation of thecapital which they assemble.This embC"alement is latent in the fact thata group as a whole can be representcd, in thevarious meanings of the word, by a subgroup,clea rl y delimited and perfectly visible to all,known to all , and recognized by all, that of henobilu, the 'people who arc known' , the paradigm ofwhorn is the nobility, and who mayspeak on behalfof the whole grou p, representthe whole group, and exereise authorityin the na me of the whole group. Th e noble isthe group personified. He bears the name ofthe group to which he gi"es his name (themetonymy which links the noble to his groupis clearly seen when Shakespcarecalls Cleopatra 'Egypt ' or the King of F ance'France,' justas Racine calls Pyrrhus 'Ep iru s'). It is by him,his name, the difference it proclaims, thai themembers of hi s group, the liegernen, and alsothe la nd and castles, are known and recogni ...cd. Similar ly, phenomena such as the 'pe rsonality cult' or lhe identification of parties,trnde unions, or movements with thcir leaderarc latent in the very logic of representation.Everything combines to cause the signifier totake the place oCthe sib'llified, the spokesmenthat of he group he issupposed toexprcss, notleast because his distinct ion, his 'o utstandingness,' his visibility constitute the essentialpart, if not the essence, of his power, which,being en tirely se t within the logic of knowledge and acknowledgment, is fundamcntally asymbolic power; but also bccause the representative, the sign, the emblem, may be, andcreate, the whole reality of groups whichreceive effective social existence on ly in andthrough representation. l1

ConversionsTh e dillerent types of capital can be derivedfmlll ( ' ((!1 /O" , i( (apital, but only at the COS t of allIun: or e s ~ grc:I I error! of trnnsformation,


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54 The Forms of Capitalwhich is nceded to produce the type of powereffective in the field in question. For example,there are some goods and services to whicheconomic ap ital gives immediate access,without secondary costs; others an beobtained only by virtue of a social apital ofrelationships (or social obligations) whichannot act instantaneously, at the appropriatemoment, unless they have been establ ishedand maintained for a long time, as iffor theirown sake, an d therefore outside their period ofusc, i,e" at the cost of an investment in sociability which is nt:eessarily long-term becausethe time lag is one of the factors of he transmutation of a pure and simple debt intothat recognition of nonspecific indebtednesswhich is called gratitude," In contrast to thecy nical but also eco nomical transparency ofI.'collomie exchange, in which equivalentschangehands in the same instant, th e essentialambiguity of social exchange, which presu pposes mi srecognition, in other words, a formof faith and of bad faith (in the sense of selfdeception), presupposes a much more subtleeeonomyoftime.So it has to be posited simultaneously thatcconomic ca pital is at the root of all the othertypes of capiml and that these transformed,disguised foons of t.'COnomie a pital, neverentirely rl,f.Iucible to that definition, producetheir most specific effccts only to rhe extentthat they conceal (not least from their p0sses-so rs) the fact that (..'COnomie capi tal is at theirroot, in other words-but only in the lastanalysis-at the root of their effects, The reallogic of he functioningof capital, th econversions from one type to another, and the law ofconservation which governs them cannot beunderstood unless two opposing but equallypartial views arc superseded: on the one hand,eeonomism, which, on the grounds th at everytype of capital is reducible in the last analysisto economic capital, ignores what makes thespecific efficacy of the other types of capital,and on the other hand, semiologism (nowadays represcntcd by structuralism, symbolicinteractionism,or ethnomethodology), whichreduce... social exchanges to phenomena oft.:ommunication and ignores Ihe brutal fact ofuniversal reducibility toeconomies,I9In accordance with a principle which is theequivalentof he principle oftheconservationof energy, profits in one area are necessarilyp;lid for by coslS in another (so that a concept1.1,.. , WUJ. laICC nl, mC; l1ling in a gc neral st:i-

ence of the economy of practices). The universal equ ivalent, Ihe measure of all equivalences, is nothing other than labor- rime(in thewidest sense); and the conservation of socialenergy through all its conversions is \'erifiedif, in each case, one takes into account both thelabor-t ime accumulated in the fonn of ca pitaland the labor-time needed to transfoon itfrom one t) 'pe into another.It has been seen, forexample, that the transformation of economic capital into social capital presupposes a specific labor, i.e" anapparently gratuitous expenditure of time,attention, care, concern, which, as is seen inthe endeavor to personalizc a gift, has theeffect of transfiguring the purely monetaryimport of the exchange and, by the sametoken, the very meaning of the exchange,From a narrowly ecoriomic standpoint, thiseffort is bound to be seen as pure wastage, butin the terms of the lo gic of social exchanges, itis a so lid in v(.."Stmcnt, the profits of which willappear, in the long run, in monetary or otherform, Similarly, if he best measureofculturalcapital is undoubtedly the amount of timedevoted to acquiring ii , this is because thetransformation of economic capi tal into cultura l capital presupposes an expenditure oftime that is made possible by possession ofeconomicapilal, More pr("'C1seiy, it is becausethe cultural capita l that iseffl.'Ctivelytransmitted within the family itself depends not onl)on the quantity of culturalcapiul, itself accumulated by spending time, that the domesrit'group possess, but also on the usable tim:(particularly in the form of the mother's frCt'time) available to it (by virtue of ts economiccapital, which enables it 10 purchase the timeof others) to ensure the transmission of thi\capital and todclay entry into the labor marhlthrough prolonged sc hoolin g, a credit whicllpays off, ifat all, only in the very long term 21

Th e convertibility of the different types "Icapital is the basis of the strategies aimed ;11ensuring the reproduction of capital (and th eposition occupied in social space) by means "Ithe conversions least costly in leons of COliversion work and of the losses inherent in tI l(conversion itself(in a given state of the SOC!;Ipower relations), The different types of capltal an be distinguished according to thl'lIreproducibil ity or, more precisely, a c c o r d i l lto how easily they are transmitted, i.e., wit llmore or less loss and with more or less ("WICC'J lmcnt; the rate of lu


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56 ) The Forms of CapUalmost decorous names that can be found (honuraria, emolumcnts, elc.) to matrimonialexchangl..'S, the prime exampleof a transactionthat can only take place insofar as it is not perceived ur defined as such by the contractingparties. II is remarkahle that the apparentextcnsions of I..-wnomic theory beyond thelimits constituting the discipline have leftintact the asylum of the sacrcd, apart from afew sacrilegiuus incursions. Gary S. Becker,for examplc, who was une of the first to takeexplicit account of the types of capital that areusually ignorl.."ti, never cunsiders anythingother than munetary costs and profits, forgetting the nonmonetary inl'cstments (in/a alia,the affective ones) and the material and symbolic profits that education provides in adeferred, indirect way, such as the addt.."ti valuewhich the dispositions produced or reinforcedbysehooling(bodily or verbal manners, tastes,etc.) ur the relationships estahl ished withfellow studcnts can yield in the matrimonialrnarket(B .."cier 1964a).

3. '


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58 The Forma of Capitalother people's time (in the form of services). Itma y take the form either of increased sparetime, secured by reducing the timeCOllSum edin act ivities diucdy ~ n n e l e d toward producing the mea llS of reproducing the e x i sence of he dom est e group, orof mor e inlenscuse of the lime so consumed, by reoJurst [0OIher people 's labor or 10 de vices and methodswhich an: avai12ble on ly to those who havespcnttimelearning how to usethem and which(like bener tr:mspon or ivingeloseto the placeof wor k) make it possible to save time. (This isin COntrast to the cash sav ings of the poor,which ~ r e p ~ i d for in c - d o - i t o u r s e l f , barpin hunting, etc.) None of this is true ofmere economic ca pitnl; it is possession ofcultural capital that mak es it possible to deri\'egreater profit not on ly from l a b o r t i m e , bysecuringa higher yield from thesame time, butalso from spare lime, and so to increase botheconomic and cultuml a p i t ~ l . 21. It goes without saying th:1llhe dominant fractions, who tend til place ever grea tcr em phasislin educatil)nal investm en t, within an overallstrategy (If asset diversifica tion ami of i n v e s tments aimed at combining security with highyie ld , have al lsor tsofways of evadingscholastic verdicts. The dirC(..1 transmission of I.."CO-

nomic capital rem ains one ul the Wincil)almeans of reproduction, and Ihe ef1cct of socialcapital ('a helping hand ,' 'string. pulling,' the'old boy network') tends to correct Ihe effect of~ c a d e m i c sanctions. Educational qualificationsnc"er function perfectly ascurrency. They In :never entirely separable from their ho lders:their va lue rises in proportion to the value oftheirbearer, especially in the least rigid areas ofthe socia lstructure.

ReferencesBecker, G. S. (l964a) ,A Tllt(Jrttjcll1 and EmpiriC(j/Analysis with Spu ill/ t f t r ~ c e to Edu ((J lion(New York: Na tional Bureau of EconomicResea rch) .- - (1964b), Human Cap jlal(New York: Co lumbia Vni v. Press).Dourdicu, P. (1982), 'Le; rites d'instilution' AtUsdt la rt:chucht (n scitnces ~ c i a l t s , 43: 58-63.Breton, A. (1962), 'The F.t:onomics of National

' , J ~ u r n a / ojPolitiral Economy , 72: 376-86.Grassby, R. (1970), 'English Capi talismin the Latc Sevcntl..Cnt h Century: The Composi tion of Business Furruncs', Past und P S ~ n l46: 87- 107.

3Class and Pedagogies: Visible and Invisible

. . . ," " '' ' '""' of thc assumptions andparticular fonn ofi i i o " " h , , , , " pedagogy, a formICOIst the following characteris-

;" " . till' control of the tcacher over thelid 1_Implicit rather than explicit.h,., deally, th e teacher arranges thcIflrll which the child is expected 1'0 rc-

''''''Kt'lmd explore."'1!l1l' within this arranged context, the""It! PI>p:trem ly has wide powers over. I t ~ t hc selects, over how he structurt:s,"h l IIvcr the I'ime scale of his activities."'hl"l e the child apparen tly regul ates his11""11 muvementsand social relationships.\\ Itn CI herc is a reduced emphasis uponIhl I >ln .miss ion and acquisition of pec ific"111_ (SI.."C Note I).

.. "'h"re Ihe criteria for evaluating the peda-.. . ure multiple and diffuse and so not. . l ) Im:asured."'Ible Pedagogy and Infant Education

! ~ ~ : ; ~ ~ ; : C l ~ this pedagogy as an.lntermsoftheconccptsofI jl i frame, the pedagogy isI through weak classification and weakVisible pt.'tlagogi(.'S arc realiscdclassific'ltion and strongdilTerencc between visiblein vis ible llCd a).\:ugies is in the manner inh cr ite ria :Ire transmitted and in the"",of",,,;;I;,-;,, of the cr iteria. Th c more. manner (If ~ T l l i ( ) n and the

Basil Bernstein

more diffusc the criteria the more invisible thepedagogy; the more specific the criteria, themore exp licit the manner of their transmission, the more visible the pedagogy, Thesedefinitions will beex tended later in the paper.If he pedagogy is invisible, whataspectsofthechild have high visibility for the teacher? Isuggest two aspects. The first arises out of aninferen ce the teacher makes from the child 'songoin g behaviour about the dtvelopmentalstage of the child. This inference is thenreferred to a concept of readiness. The secondaspect of he child refers to his external behaviour and is conceptualised by the teacher asbusyness, The child should be busy doingthings. These inner (readiness) and outer(busyness) aspects of the child can be tra ns-fonned into one concept of ' ready to do .' Th eteacher infers from the 'doing' the state of' readiness' of the ch ild as it is reveale

Bourdieu1986_The Forms of Capital

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