Forms of Capital: General Sociology, Volume 3: Lectures at the College de France 1983 - 84

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This book is a collection of lectures by Pierre Bourdieu, defining and defending sociology as an intellectual discipline. It focuses on the concept of capital, which is fundamental to his theoretical approach and is divided into economic and cultural capital. Bourdieu explains how these forms of capital exist in relation to fields and confer power over them.

Format: Hardback
Length: 450 pages
Publication date: 14 May 2021
Publisher: Polity Press

This is the third of five volumes based on the lectures given by Pierre Bourdieu at the Collège de France in the early 1980s under the title General Sociology. In these lectures, Bourdieu sets out to define and defend sociology as an intellectual discipline; in doing so, he introduces and clarifies all the key concepts for which he has become so well known, concepts that continue to shape the way that sociology is practised today.

In this volume, Bourdieu focuses on one of these key concepts, capital, which forms part of the trilogy of concepts – habitus, capital, field – that define the core of his theoretical approach. A field, as a social space of relatively durable relations between agents and institutions, is also a site of specific investments, which presupposes the possession of specific forms of capital and secures both material and symbolic profits. While there are many different forms of capital, two are fundamental and effective in all social fields: economic capital and cultural capital. These and other forms of capital exist only in relation to the fields in which they are deployed: the distribution of the forms and quantities of capital constitutes the structure of the field within which agents act and they confer power over the field, over the mechanisms that define the functioning of the field and over the profits engendered in the field – over, for example, the transmission of cultural capital in the educational system.

An ideal introduction to one of Bourdieus most important concepts, this volume will be of great interest to the many students and scholars who study and use Bourdieus work across the social and humanities, and to general readers who want to know more about the work of one of the most important sociologists and social scientists.

Weight: 718g
Dimension: 160 x 233 x 39 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509526703