Loubna Mckouar's Reviews > Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

When I first read this it gave me a trauma from how smart a man can be and how stupid I could get struggling with every sentence, graph, example trying to understand it within an everyday context. But hey, it's not any "everyday life" it's a Middle Eastern one. I used this guy to theorise the power of a Saudi media Mogul, his empire, his prince field, and the "others" around the same empire. Distinction is about the individual and his strategies in every single field of life. In defining the term Habitus and developing his field theory Bourdieu focuses a lot on class but I find the power of his anthropological and sociological terms beyond a class classification. Class definitely impacts the illusio, the Habitus, the capital but the fact that all individuals are cable of 'being' in their own predictable and unpredictable ways makes class a structuring power not a defining one. In fact, not even class can predict the way an individual makes use of his own field in the positive and negative sense alike. It's helpful to read Bourdieu along Hegel, Lacan (the other confusing genius) and while keeping in mind Decerteau's "tactics" and "making do". Not an easy read but one that gives a strategic way of thinking about being within the structured society of different fields and powers. It's insane how this man developed these over the 600 sthg pages of this masterpiece I keep thinking that this is a group work. If a book gives you headache (an enjoyable one of course!!!) it's worth reading. I recommend even to non academics :)