CHAPTER 5

The Forms of Capital

Pierre Bourdieu

he social world is accumulated history, and and every prize can be attained, instantaneously,
T if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous
series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria
by everyone, so that at each moment anyone
can become anything. Capital, which, in its ob-
between agents who are treated as interchange- jectified or embodied forms, takes time to ac-
able particles, one must reintroduce into it the cumulate and which, as a potential capacity to
notion of capital and, with it, accumulation produce profits and to reproduce itself in iden-
and all its effects. Capital is accumulated labor tical or expanded form, contains a tendency to
(in its materialized form or its “incorporated,” persist in its being, is a force inscribed in the
embodied form) that, when appropriated on a objectivity of things so that everything is not
private, that is, exclusive, basis by agents or equally possible or impossible.1 And the struc-
groups of agents, enables them to appropriate ture of the distribution of the different types
social energy in the form of reified or living and subtypes of capital at a given moment in
labor. It is a vis insita, a force inscribed in ob- time represents the immanent structure of the
jective or subjective structures, but it is also a social world, that is, the set of constraints, in-
lex insita, the principle underlying the imma- scribed in the very reality of that world, that
nent regularities of the social world. It is what govern its functioning in a durable way, deter-
makes the games of society—not least, the eco- mining the chances of success for practices.
nomic game—something other than simple It is in fact impossible to account for the
games of chance offering at every moment the structure and functioning of the social world
possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds unless one reintroduces capital in all its forms
out the opportunity of winning a lot of money and not solely in the one form recognized by
in a short space of time, and therefore of chang- economic theory. Economic theory has allowed
ing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, to be foisted upon it a definition of the econ-
and in which the winning of the previous spin omy of practices that is the historical invention
of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new of capitalism; and by reducing the universe of
spin, gives a fairly accurate image of this imag- exchanges to mercantile exchange, which is ob-
inary universe of perfect competition or perfect jectively and subjectively oriented toward the
equality of opportunity, a world without inertia, maximization of profit, that is, (economically)
without accumulation, without heredity or ac- self-interested, it has implicitly defined the other
quired properties, in which every moment is forms of exchange as noneconomic, and there-
perfectly independent of the previous one, every fore disinterested. In particular, it defines as dis-
soldier has a marshal’s baton in his knapsack, interested those forms of exchange that ensure

From John G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, pp. 241–258.
Copyright © 1986 by Greenwood Press. Reproduced with permission of ABC-CLIO, LLC.

78
 The Forms of Capital 79

the transubstantiation whereby the most mate- is only due to the fact that this conversion is
rial types of capital—those that are economic refused in the very intention that produces
in the restricted sense—can present themselves them, which is nothing other than the denial
in the immaterial form of cultural capital or so- (Verneinung) of the economy. A general science
cial capital and vice versa. Interest, in the re- of the economy of practices, capable of re-
stricted sense it is given in economic theory, appropriating the totality of the practices that,
cannot be produced without producing its neg- although objectively economic, are not and can-
ative counterpart, disinterestedness. The class not be socially recognized as economic, and
of practices whose explicit purpose is to maxi- that can be performed only at the cost of a
mize monetary profit cannot be defined as such whole labor of dissimulation or, more precisely,
without producing the purposeless finality of euphemization, must endeavor to grasp capital
cultural or artistic practices and their products; and profit in all their forms and to establish the
the world of bourgeois man, with his double- laws whereby the different types of capital (or
entry accounting, cannot be invented without power, which amounts to the same thing)
producing the pure, perfect universe of the artist change into one another.2
and the intellectual and the gratuitous activities Depending on the field in which it func-
of art-for-art’s sake and pure theory. In other tions, and at the cost of the more or less expen-
words, the constitution of a science of mercan- sive transformations that are the precondition
tile relationships, which, inasmuch as it takes for its efficacy in the field in question, capital
for granted the very foundations of the order can present itself in three fundamental guises:
it claims to analyze—private property, profit, as economic capital, which is immediately and
wage labor, etc.—is not even a science of the directly convertible into money and may be in-
field of economic production, has prevented stitutionalized in the form of property rights;
the constitution of a general science of the econ- as cultural capital, which is convertible, on cer-
omy of practices, which would treat mercantile tain conditions, into economic capital and may
exchange as a particular case of exchange in all be institutionalized in the form of educational
its forms. qualifications; and as social capital, made up of
It is remarkable that the practices and assets social obligations (“connections”), which is con-
thus salvaged from the “icy water of egotistical vertible, in certain conditions, into economic
calculation” (and from science) are the virtual capital and may be institutionalized in the form
monopoly of the dominant class—as if econ- of a title of nobility.3
omism had been able to reduce everything to
economics only because the reduction on which CULTURAL CAPITAL
that discipline is based protects from sacrile- Cultural capital can exist in three forms: in
gious reduction everything that needs to be the embodied state, that is, in the form of long-
protected. If economics deals only with prac- lasting dispositions of the mind and body; in
tices that have narrowly economic interest as the objectified state, in the form of cultural
their principle and only with goods that are di- goods (pictures, books, dictionaries, instru-
rectly and immediately convertible into money ments, machines, etc.), which are the trace or
(which makes them quantifiable), then the uni- realization of theories or critiques of these
verse of bourgeois production and exchange be- theories, problematics, etc.; and in the institu-
comes an exception and can see itself and tionalized state, a form of objectification that
present itself as a realm of disinterestedness. As must be set apart because, as will be seen in the
everyone knows, priceless things have their case of educational qualifications, it confers en-
price, and the extreme difficulty of converting tirely original properties on the cultural capital
certain practices and certain objects into money that it is presumed to guarantee.
80 Pierre Bourdieu
The reader should not be misled by the self the product of an investment of time and
somewhat peremptory air that the effort at ax- cultural capital (Becker 1964a, pp. 63–66). Not
iomization may give to my argument.4 The no- surprisingly, when endeavoring to evaluate the
tion of cultural capital initially presented itself profits of scholastic investment, they can only
to me, in the course of research, as a theoretical consider the profitability of educational expen-
hypothesis that made it possible to explain the diture for society as a whole, the “social rate of
unequal scholastic achievement of children return,” or the “social gain of education as mea-
originating from the different social classes by sured by its effects on national productivity”
relating academic success, that is, the specific (Becker 1964b, pp. 121, 155). This typically
profits that children from the different classes functionalist definition of the functions of ed-
and class fractions can obtain in the academic ucation ignores the contribution that the edu-
market, to the distribution of cultural capital cational system makes to the reproduction of
between the classes and class fractions. This the social structure by sanctioning the heredi-
starting point implies a break with the presup- tary transmission of cultural capital. From the
positions inherent both in the commonsense very beginning, a definition of human capital,
view, which sees academic success or failure as despite its humanistic connotations, does not
an effect of natural aptitudes, and in human move beyond economism and ignores, inter
capital theories. Economists might seem to de- alia, the fact that the scholastic yield from ed-
serve credit for explicitly raising the question ucational action depends on the cultural capital
of the relationship between the rates of profit previously invested by the family. Moreover,
on educational investment and on economic the economic and social yield of the educa-
investment (and its evolution). But their meas- tional qualification depends on the social cap-
urement of the yield from scholastic investment ital, again inherited, which can be used to back
takes account only of monetary investments and it up.
profits, or those directly convertible into money,
such as the costs of schooling and the cash The Embodied State
equivalent of time devoted to study: They are Most of the properties of cultural capital can
unable to explain the different proportions of be deduced from the fact that, in its fundamen-
their resources that different agents or different tal state, it is linked to the body and presupposes
social classes allocate to economic investment embodiment. The accumulation of cultural
and cultural investment because they fail to take capital in the embodied state, that is, in the
systematic account of the structure of the dif- form of what is called culture, cultivation, Bil-
ferential chances of profit that the various mar- dung, presupposes a process of em-bodiment,
kets offer these agents or classes as a function incorporation that, insofar as it implies a labor
of the volume and the composition of their as- of inculcation and assimilation, costs time, time
sets (see especially Becker 1964b). Furthermore, that must be invested personally by the investor.
because they neglect to relate scholastic invest- Like the acquisition of a muscular physique or
ment strategies to the whole set of educational a suntan, it cannot be done at second hand (so
strategies and to the system of reproduction that all effects of delegation are ruled out).
strategies, they inevitably, by a necessary para- The work of acquisition is work on oneself
dox, let slip the best hidden and socially most (self-improvement), an effort that presupposes
determinant educational investment, namely, a personal cost (on paie de sa personne, as we say
the domestic transmission of cultural capital. in French), an investment, above all of time,
Their studies of the relationship between aca- but also of that socially constituted form of
demic ability and academic investment show libido, libido sciendi, with all the privation, re-
that they are unaware that ability or talent is it- nunciation, and sacrifice that it may entail. It
 The Forms of Capital 81

follows that the least inexact of all the measure- hereditary transmission that is always heavily
ments of cultural capital are those that take as disguised, or even invisible, it defies the old,
their standard the length of acquisition—so deep-rooted distinction the Greek jurists made
long, of course, as this is not reduced to length between inherited properties (ta patroa) and ac-
of schooling and allowance is made for early quired properties (epikteta), that is, those that
domestic education by giving it a positive an individual adds to his heritage. It thus man-
value (a gain in time, a head start) or a negative ages to combine the prestige of innate property
value (wasted time, and doubly so because more with the merits of acquisition. Because the so-
time must be spent correcting its effects), ac- cial conditions of its transmission and acquisi-
cording to its distance from the demands of the tion are more disguised than those of economic
scholastic market.5 capital, it is predisposed to function as symbolic
This embodied capital, external wealth con- capital, that is, to be unrecognized as capital
verted into an integral part of the person, into and recognized as legitimate competence, as
a habitus, cannot be transmitted instantaneously authority exerting an effect of (mis)recognition,
(unlike money, property rights, or even titles for example, in the matrimonial market and in
of nobility) by gift or bequest, purchase or ex- all the markets in which economic capital is not
change. It follows that the use or exploitation fully recognized, whether in matters of culture,
of cultural capital presents particular problems with the great art collections or great cultural
for the holders of economic or political capital, foundations, or in social welfare, with the econ-
whether they be private patrons or, at the other omy of generosity and the gift. Furthermore,
extreme, entrepreneurs employing executives the specifically symbolic logic of distinction ad-
endowed with a specific cultural competence ditionally secures material and symbolic profits
(not to mention the new state patrons). How for the possessors of a large cultural capital: Any
can this capital, so closely linked to the person, given cultural competence (e.g., being able to
be bought without buying the person and so read in a world of illiterates) derives a scarcity
losing the very effect of legitimation that pre- value from its position in the distribution of
supposes the dissimulation of dependence? cultural capital and yields profits of distinction
How can this capital be concentrated—as some for its owner. In other words, the share in profits
undertakings demand—without concentrating that scarce cultural capital secures in class-
the possessors of the capital, which can have all divided societies is based, in the last analysis,
sorts of unwanted consequences? on the fact that all agents do not have the eco-
Cultural capital can be acquired, to a varying nomic and cultural means for prolonging their
extent, depending on the period, the society, children’s education beyond the minimum nec-
and the social class, in the absence of any de- essary for the reproduction of the labor-power
liberate inculcation, and therefore quite uncon- least valorized at a given moment.6
sciously. It always remains marked by its earliest Thus the capital, in the sense of the means
conditions of acquisition that, through the of appropriating the product of accumulated
more or less visible marks they leave (such as labor in the objectified state that is held by a
the pronunciations characteristic of a class or given agent, depends for its real efficacy on the
region), help to determine its distinctive value. form of the distribution of the means of ap-
It cannot be accumulated beyond the appro- propriating the accumulated and objectively
priating capacities of an individual agent; it available resources; and the relationship of ap-
declines and dies with its bearer (with his bio- propriation between an agent and the resources
logical capacity, his memory, etc.). Because it objectively available, and hence the profits they
is thus linked in numerous ways to the person produce, is mediated by the relationship of (ob-
in his biological singularity and is subject to a jective and/or subjective) competition between
82 Pierre Bourdieu
himself and the other possessors of capital com- a given individual can prolong his acquisition
peting for the same goods, in which scarcity— process depends on the length of time for which
and through it social value—is generated. The his family can provide him with the free time,
structure of the field, that is, the unequal dis- that is, time free from economic necessity,
tribution of capital, is the source of the specific which is the precondition for the initial accu-
effects of capital, that is, the appropriation of mulation (time that can be evaluated as a hand-
profits and the power to impose the laws of func- icap to be made up).
tioning of the field most favorable to capital and
its reproduction. The Objectified State
But the most powerful principle of the sym- Cultural capital, in the objectified state, has a
bolic efficacy of cultural capital no doubt lies number of properties that are defined only in
in the logic of its transmission. On the one the relationship with cultural capital in its em-
hand, the process of appropriating objectified bodied form. The cultural capital objectified in
cultural capital and the time necessary for it to material objects and media, such as writings,
take place mainly depend on the cultural capital paintings, monuments, instruments, etc., is
embodied in the whole family—through (among transmissible in its materiality. A collection of
other things) the generalized Arrow effect and paintings, for example, can be transmitted as
all forms of implicit transmission.7 On the other well as economic capital (if not better, because
hand, the initial accumulation of cultural cap- the capital transfer is more disguised). But what
ital, the precondition for the fast, easy accumu- is transmissible is legal ownership and not (or
lation of every kind of useful cultural capital, not necessarily) what constitutes the precondi-
starts at the outset, without delay, without wasted tion for specific appropriation, namely, the pos-
time, only for the offspring of families endowed session of the means of “consuming” a painting
with strong cultural capital; in this case, the ac- or using a machine, which, being nothing other
cumulation period covers the whole period of than embodied capital, are subject to the same
socialization. It follows that the transmission laws of transmission.8
of cultural capital is no doubt the best hidden Thus cultural goods can be appropriated
form of hereditary transmission of capital, and both materially—which presupposes economic
it therefore receives proportionately greater capital—and symbolically—which presupposes
weight in the system of reproduction strategies, cultural capital. It follows that the owner of the
as the direct, visible forms of transmission tend means of production must find a way of appro-
to be more strongly censored and controlled. priating either the embodied capital that is
It can immediately be seen that the link the precondition of specific appropriation or
between economic and cultural capital is estab- the services of the holders of this capital. To
lished through the mediation of the time possess the machines, he only needs economic
needed for acquisition. Differences in the cul- capital; to appropriate them and use them in
tural capital possessed by the family imply dif- accordance with their specific purpose (defined
ferences first in the age at which the work of by the cultural capital, of scientific or technical
transmission and accumulation begins—the type, incorporated in them), he must have ac-
limiting case being full use of the time biolog- cess to embodied cultural capital, either in per-
ically available, with the maximum free time son or by proxy. This is no doubt the basis of
being harnessed to maximum cultural capital— the ambiguous status of cadres (executives and
and then in the capacity, thus defined, to satisfy engineers). If it is emphasized that they are not
the specifically cultural demands of a prolonged the possessors (in the strictly economic sense)
process of acquisition. Furthermore, and in cor- of the means of production that they use, and
relation with this, the length of time for which that they derive profit from their own cultural
 The Forms of Capital 83

capital only by selling the services and products from the fact that, being embodied, it has the
that it makes possible, then they will be classi- same biological limits as its bearer. This objec-
fied among the dominated groups; if it is em- tification is what makes the difference between
phasized that they draw their profits from the the capital of the autodidact, which may be
use of a particular form of capital, then they called into question at any time, or even the
will be classified among the dominant groups. cultural capital of the courtier, which can yield
Everything suggests that as the cultural capital only ill-defined profits, of fluctuating value, in
incorporated in the means of production in- the market of high-society exchanges, and the
creases (and with it the period of embodiment cultural capital academically sanctioned by
needed to acquire the means of appropriating legally guaranteed qualifications, formally in-
it), so the collective strength of the holders of dependent of the person of their bearer. With
cultural capital would tend to increase—if the the academic qualification, a certificate of cul-
holders of the dominant type of capital (eco- tural competence that confers on its holder a
nomic capital) were not able to set the holders conventional, constant, legally guaranteed value
of cultural capital in competition with one an- with respect to culture, social alchemy produces
other. (They are, moreover, inclined to compe- a form of cultural capital that has a relative au-
tition by the very conditions in which they are tonomy vis-à-vis its bearer and even vis-à-vis
selected and trained, in particular by the logic the cultural capital he effectively possesses at a
of scholastic and recruitment competitions.) given moment in time. It institutes cultural cap-
Cultural capital in its objectified state pres- ital by collective magic, just as, according to
ents itself with all the appearances of an auto- Merleau-Ponty, the living institute their dead
nomous, coherent universe that, although the through the ritual of mourning. One has only
product of historical action, has its own laws, to think of the concours (competitive recruitment
transcending individual wills, and that, as the examination), which, out of the continuum of
example of language well illustrates, therefore infinitesimal differences between performances,
remains irreducible to that which each agent, produces sharp, absolute, lasting differences,
or even the aggregate of the agents, can appro- such as that which separates the last successful
priate (i.e., to the cultural capital embodied candidate from the first unsuccessful one, and
in each agent or even in the aggregate of the institutes an essential difference between the
agents). However, it should not be forgotten officially recognized, guaranteed competence
that it exists as symbolically and materially ac- and simple cultural capital, which is constantly
tive, effective capital only insofar as it is appro- required to prove itself. In this case, one sees
priated by agents and implemented and invested clearly the performative magic of the power of
as a weapon and a stake in the struggles that go instituting, the power to show forth and secure
on in the fields of cultural production (the artis- belief or, in a word, to impose recognition.
tic field, the scientific field, etc.) and, beyond By conferring institutional recognition on
them, in the field of the social classes—struggles the cultural capital possessed by any given
in which the agents wield strengths and obtain agent, the academic qualification also makes it
profits proportionate to their mastery of this ob- possible to compare qualification holders and
jectified capital, and therefore to the extent of even to exchange them (by substituting one for
their embodied capital.9 another in succession). Furthermore, it makes
it possible to establish conversion rates between
The Institutionalized State cultural capital and economic capital by guar-
The objectification of cultural capital in the anteeing the monetary value of a given academic
form of academic qualifications is one way of capital.10 This product of the conversion of eco-
neutralizing some of the properties it derives nomic capital into cultural capital establishes
84 Pierre Bourdieu
the value, in terms of cultural capital, of the irreducible to objective relations of proximity
holder of a given qualification relative to other in physical (geographical) space or even in eco-
qualification holders and, by the same token, nomic and social space.12
the monetary value for which it can be ex- The volume of the social capital possessed
changed on the labor market (academic invest- by a given agent thus depends on the size of the
ment has no meaning unless a minimum degree network of connections he can effectively mo-
of reversibility of the conversion it implies is bilize and on the volume of the capital (eco-
objectively guaranteed). Because the material nomic, cultural, or symbolic) possessed in his
and symbolic profits that the academic quali- own right by each of those to whom he is con-
fication guarantees also depend on its scarcity, nected.13 This means that, although it is rela-
the investments made (in time and effort) may tively irreducible to the economic and cultural
turn out to be less profitable than was antici- capital possessed by a given agent, or even by
pated when they were made (there having been the whole set of agents to whom he is con-
a de facto change in the conversion rate between nected, social capital is never completely inde-
academic capital and economic capital). The pendent of it because the exchanges instituting
strategies for converting economic capital into mutual acknowledgment presuppose the re-
cultural capital, which are among the short- acknowledgment of a minimum of objective ho-
term factors of the schooling explosion and the mogeneity, and because it exerts a multiplier
inflation of qualifications, are governed by effect on the capital he possesses in his own right.
changes in the structure of the chances of profit The profits that accrue from membership in
offered by the different types of capital. a group are the basis of the solidarity that makes
them possible.14 This does not mean that they
SOCIAL CAPITAL are consciously pursued as such, even in the
Social capital is the aggregate of the actual or case of groups like select clubs, which are de-
potential resources that are linked to possession liberately organized in order to concentrate so-
of a durable network of more or less institution- cial capital and so to derive full benefit from
alized relationships of mutual acquaintance and the multiplier effect implied in concentration
recognition—or in other words, to membership and to secure the profits of membership—
in a group11—which provides each of its mem- material profits, such as all the types of services
bers with the backing of the collectivity-owned accruing from useful relationships, and sym-
capital, a “credential” that entitles them to credit bolic profits, such as those derived from asso-
in the various senses of the word. These rela- ciation with a rare, prestigious group.
tionships may exist only in the practical state, The existence of a network of connections
in material and/or symbolic exchanges that help is not a natural given, or even a social given,
to maintain them. They may also be socially in- constituted once and for all by an initial act of
stituted and guaranteed by the application of a institution, represented, in the case of the family
common name (the name of a family, a class, group, by the genealogical definition of kinship
or a tribe or of a school, a party, etc.) and by a relations, which is the characteristic of a social
whole set of instituting acts designed simulta- formation. It is the product of an endless effort
neously to form and inform those who undergo at institution, of which institution rites—often
them; in this case, they are more or less really wrongly described as rites of passage—mark
enacted, and so maintained and reinforced, in the essential moments, and is necessary in order
exchanges. Being based on indissoluble material to produce and reproduce lasting, useful rela-
and symbolic exchanges, the establishment and tionships that can secure material or symbolic
maintenance of which presuppose reacknowl- profits (see Bourdieu 1982). In other words, the
edgment of proximity, they are also partially network of relationships is the product of
 The Forms of Capital 85

investment strategies, individual or collective, logic of laissez-faire, through all the institutions
consciously or unconsciously aimed at estab- that are designed to favor legitimate exchanges
lishing or reproducing social relationships that and exclude illegitimate ones by producing oc-
are directly usable in the short or long term, casions (rallies, cruises, hunts, parties, recep-
that is, at transforming contingent relations, tions, etc.), places (smart neighborhoods, select
such as those of neighborhood, the workplace, schools, clubs, etc.), or practices (smart sports,
or even kinship, into relationships that are at parlor games, cultural ceremonies, etc.) that
once necessary and elective, implying durable bring together, in a seemingly fortuitous way,
obligations subjectively felt (feelings of grati- individuals as homogeneous as possible in all
tude, respect, friendship, etc.) or institutionally the pertinent respects in terms of the existence
guaranteed (rights). This is done through the and persistence of the group.
alchemy of consecration, the symbolic constitu- The reproduction of social capital presup-
tion produced by social institution (institution poses an unceasing effort of sociability, a con-
as a relative—brother, sister, cousin, etc.—or as tinuous series of exchanges in which recognition
a knight, an heir, an elder, etc.) and endlessly is endlessly affirmed and reaffirmed. This work,
reproduced in and through the exchange (of which implies expenditure of time and energy
gifts, words, women, etc.) that it encourages and so, directly or indirectly, of economic cap-
and that presupposes and produces mutual ital, is not profitable or even conceivable unless
knowledge and recognition. Exchange trans- one invests in it a specific competence (knowl-
forms the things exchanged into signs of recog- edge of genealogical relationships and of real
nition and, through the mutual recognition and connections and skill at using them, etc.) and
the recognition of group membership that it an acquired disposition to acquire and maintain
implies, re-produces the group. By the same this competence, which are themselves integral
token, it reaffirms the limits of the group, that parts of this capital.15 This is one of the factors
is, the limits beyond which the constitutive that explain why the profitability of this labor
exchange—trade, commensality, or marriage— of accumulating and maintaining social capital
cannot take place. Each member of the group rises in proportion to the size of the capital. Be-
is thus instituted as a custodian of the limits of cause the social capital accruing from a rela-
the group: Because the definition of the criteria tionship is that much greater to the extent that
of entry is at stake in each new entry, he can the person who is the object of it is richly en-
modify the group by modifying the limits of dowed with capital (mainly social, but also cul-
legitimate exchange through some form of mis- tural and even economic capital), the possessors
alliance. It is quite logical that, in most societies, of an inherited social capital, symbolized by a
the preparation and conclusion of marriages great name, are able to transform all circum-
should be the business of the whole group, and stantial relationships into lasting connections.
not of the agents directly concerned. Through They are sought after for their social capital
the introduction of new members into a family, and, because they are well known, are worthy
a clan, or a club, the whole definition of the of being known (“I know him well”); they do
group, that is, its fines, its boundaries, and its not need to “make the acquaintance” of all
identity, is put at stake, exposed to redefinition, their “acquaintances”; they are known to more
alteration, adulteration. When, as in modern people than they know, and their work of socia-
societies, families lose the monopoly of the es- bility, when it is exerted, is highly productive.
tablishment of exchanges that can lead to lasting Every group has its more or less institution-
relationships, whether socially sanctioned (like alized forms of delegation that enable it to con-
marriage) or not, they may continue to control centrate the totality of the social capital, which
these exchanges, while remaining within the is the basis of the existence of the group (a
86 Pierre Bourdieu
family or a nation, of course, but also an asso- gation and representation (in both the theatrical
ciation or a party), in the hands of a single agent and the legal senses) that fall into place—that
or a small group of agents and to mandate this much more strongly, no doubt, when the group
plenipotentiary, charged with plena potestas is large and its members weak—as one of the
agendi et loquendi,16 to represent the group, to conditions for the concentration of social capital
speak and act in its name and so, with the aid (among other reasons, because it enables nu-
of this collectively owned capital, to exercise a merous, varied, scattered agents to act as one
power incommensurate with the agent’s per- man and to overcome the limitations of space
sonal contribution. Thus, at the most elemen- and time) also contain the seeds of an embez-
tary degree of institutionalization, the head of zlement or misappropriation of the capital that
the family, the paterfamilias, the eldest, most they assemble.
senior member, is tacitly recognized as the only This embezzlement is latent in the fact that
person entitled to speak on behalf of the family a group as a whole can be represented, in the
group in all official circumstances. In this case, various meanings of the word, by a subgroup,
diffuse delegation requires the great to step for- clearly delimited and perfectly visible to all,
ward and defend the collective honor when the known to all, and recognized by all, that of the
honor of the weakest members is threatened. nobiles, the “people who are known,” the para-
The institutionalized delegation, which ensures digm of whom is the nobility, and who may
the concentration of social capital, also has the speak on behalf of the whole group, represent
effect of limiting the consequences of individual the whole group, and exercise authority in the
lapses by explicitly delimiting responsibilities name of the whole group. The noble is the group
and authorizing the recognized spokesmen to personified. He bears the name of the group to
shield the group as a whole from discredit by which he gives his name (the metonymy that
expelling or excommunicating the embarrass- links the noble to his group is clearly seen when
ing individuals. Shakespeare calls Cleopatra “Egypt” or the King
If the internal competition for the monopoly of France “France,” just as Racine calls Pyrrhus
of legitimate representation of the group is not “Epirus”). It is by him, his name, the difference
to threaten the conservation and accumulation it proclaims, that the members of his group, the
of the capital that is the basis of the group, the liegemen, and also the land and castles, are
members of the group must regulate the con- known and recognized. Similarly, phenomena
ditions of access to the right to declare oneself such as the “personality cult” or the identifica-
a member of the group and, above all, to set tion of parties, trade unions, or movements with
oneself up as a representative (delegate, plenipo- their leader are latent in the very logic of repre-
tentiary, spokesman, etc.) of the whole group, sentation. Everything combines to cause the sig-
thereby committing the social capital of the nifier to take the place of the signified, the
whole group. The title of nobility is the form spokesman that of the group he is supposed to
par excellence of the institutionalized social cap- express, not least because his distinction, his
ital that guarantees a particular form of social “outstandingness,” his visibility constitute the
relationship in a lasting way. One of the para- essential part, if not the essence, of this power,
doxes of delegation is that the mandated agent which, being entirely set within the logic of
can exert on (and, up to a point, against) the knowledge and acknowledgment, is funda-
group the power that the group enables him to mentally a symbolic power; but also because the
concentrate. (This is perhaps especially true in representative, the sign, the emblem, may be,
the limiting cases in which the mandated agent and may create, the whole reality of groups that
creates the group that creates him but that only receive effective social existence only in and
exists through him.) The mechanisms of dele- through representation.17
 The Forms of Capital 87

CONVERSIONS types of capital, and on the other hand, semio-

The different types of capital can be derived logism (nowadays represented by structuralism,
from economic capital, but only at the cost of a symbolic interactionism, or ethnomethodology),
more or less great effort of transformation, which reduces social exchanges to phenomena
which is needed to produce the type of power of communication and ignores the brutal fact
effective in the field in question. For example, of universal reducibility to economics.19
there are some goods and services to which eco- In accordance with a principle that is the
nomic capital gives immediate access, without equivalent of the principle of the conservation
secondary costs; others can be obtained only of energy, profits in one area are necessarily paid
by virtue of a social capital of relationships (or for by costs in another (so that a concept like
social obligations) that cannot act instanta- wastage has no meaning in a general science of
neously, at the appropriate moment, unless they the economy of practices). The universal equiv-
have been established and maintained for a long alent, the measure of all equivalences, is nothing
time, as if for their own sake, and therefore out- other than labor-time (in the widest sense); and
side their period of use, that is, at the cost of the conservation of social energy through all its
an investment in sociability that is necessarily conversions is verified if, in each case, one takes
long term because the time lag is one of the fac- into account both the labor-time accumulated
tors of the transmutation of a pure and simple in the form of capital and the labor-time needed
debt into that recognition of nonspecific in- to transform it from one type into another.
debtedness that is called gratitude.18 In contrast It has been seen, for example, that the trans-
to the cynical but also economical transparency formation of economic capital into social capital
of economic exchange, in which equivalents presupposes a specific labor, that is, an appar-
change hands in the same instant, the essential ently gratuitous expenditure of time, attention,
ambiguity of social exchange, which presup- care, concern, which, as is seen in the endeavor
poses misrecognition, in other words, a form to personalize a gift, has the effect of transfiguring
of faith and of bad faith (in the sense of self- the purely monetary import of the exchange
deception), presupposes a much more subtle and, by the same token, the very meaning of
economy of time. the exchange. From a narrowly economic stand-
So it has to be posited simultaneously that point, this effort is bound to be seen as pure
economic capital is at the root of all the other wastage, but in the terms of the logic of social
types of capital and that these transformed, dis- exchanges, it is a solid investment, the profits
guised forms of economic capital, never entirely of which will appear, in the long run, in mon-
reducible to that definition, produce their most etary or other form. Similarly, if the best mea-
specific effects only to the extent that they con- sure of cultural capital is undoubtedly the
ceal (not least from their possessors) the fact that amount of time devoted to acquiring it, this is
economic capital is at their root, in other because the transformation of economic capital
words—but only in the last analysis—at the root into cultural capital presupposes an expenditure
of their effects. The real logic of the functioning of time that is made possible by possession of
of capital, the conversions from one type to an- economic capital. More precisely, it is because
other, and the law of conservation that governs the cultural capital that is effectively transmitted
them cannot be understood unless two oppos- within the family itself depends not only on
ing but equally partial views are superseded: on the quantity of cultural capital, itself accumu-
the one hand, economism, which, on the lated by spending time, that the domestic group
grounds that every type of capital is reducible possesses, but also on the usable time (partic-
in the last analysis to economic capital, ignores ularly in the form of the mother’s free time)
what makes the specific efficacy of the other available to it (by virtue of its economic capital,
88 Pierre Bourdieu
which enables it to purchase the time of others) validated by the educational system, that is,
to ensure the transmission of this capital and converted into a capital of qualifications, is
to delay entry into the labor market through subject to a more disguised but more risky
prolonged schooling, a credit that pays off, if transmission than economic capital. As the ed-
at all, only in the very long term.20 ucational qualification, invested with the spe-
The convertibility of the different types of cific force of the official, becomes the condition
capital is the basis of the strategies aimed at en- for legitimate access to a growing number of
suring the reproduction of capital (and the po- positions, particularly the dominant ones, the
sition occupied in social space) by means of the educational system tends increasingly to dis-
conversions least costly in terms of conversion possess the domestic group of the monopoly of
work and of the losses inherent in the conver- the transmission of power and privileges—and,
sion itself (in a given state of the social power among other things, of the choice of its legiti-
relations). The different types of capital can be mate heirs from among children of different
distinguished according to their reproducibility sex and birth rank.21 And economic capital itself
or, more precisely, according to how easily they poses quite different problems of transmission,
are transmitted, that is, with more or less loss depending on the particular form it takes. Thus,
and with more or less concealment; the rate of according to Grassby (1970), the liquidity of
loss and the degree of concealment tend to vary commercial capital, which gives immediate
in inverse ratio. Everything that helps to dis- economic power and favors transmission, also
guise the economic aspect also tends to increase makes it more vulnerable than landed property
the risk of loss (particularly the intergenera- (or even real estate) and does not favor the es-
tional transfers). Thus the (apparent) incom- tablishment of long-lasting dynasties.
mensurability of the different types of capital Because the question of the arbitrariness of
introduces a high degree of uncertainty into all appropriation arises most sharply in the process
transactions between holders of different types. of transmission—particularly at the time of suc-
Similarly, the declared refusal of calculation and cession, a critical moment for all power—every
of guarantees that characterizes exchanges tend- reproduction strategy is at the same time a le-
ing to produce a social capital in the form of a gitimation strategy aimed at consecrating both
capital of obligations that are usable in the more an exclusive appropriation and its reproduction.
or less long term (exchanges of gifts, services, When the subversive critique that aims to
visits, etc.) necessarily entails the risk of ingrat- weaken the dominant class through the princi-
itude, the refusal of that recognition of non- ple of its perpetuation by bringing to light the
guaranteed debts that such exchanges aim to arbitrariness of the entitlements transmitted
produce. Similarly, too, the high degree of con- and of their transmission (such as the critique
cealment of the transmission of cultural capital that the Enlightenment philosophes directed, in
has the disadvantage (in addition to its inherent the name of nature, against the arbitrariness of
risks of loss) that the academic qualification birth) is incorporated in institutionalized mech-
that is its institutionalized form is neither trans- anisms (e.g., laws of inheritance) aimed at con-
missible (like a title of nobility) nor negotiable trolling the official, direct transmission of power
(like stocks and shares). More precisely, cultural and privileges, the holders of capital have an
capital, whose diffuse, continuous transmission ever-greater interest in resorting to reproduction
within the family escapes observation and con- strategies capable of ensuring better-disguised
trol (so that the educational system seems to transmission, but at the cost of greater loss of
award its honors solely to natural qualities) and capital, by exploiting the convertibility of the
which is increasingly tending to attain full effi- types of capital. Thus the more the official trans-
cacy, at least on the labor market, only when mission of capital is prevented or hindered, the
 The Forms of Capital 89

more the effects of the clandestine circulation reading, cultural capital is the oldest in Bourdieu’s
of capital in the form of cultural capital become work and dates back to the 1960s and his studies of
determinant in the reproduction of the social education. The concept of social capital appears
structure. As an instrument of reproduction ca- about ten years later. No translation into English ex-
ists of the following two key texts by Bourdieu: “Les
pable of disguising its own function, the scope
trois états du capital culturel,” Actes de la Recherche
of the educational system tends to increase, and
en Sciences Sociales 30 (November 1979):3–6, and
together with this increase is the unification of “Le capital social. Notes provisoires,” Actes de la
the market in social qualifications that gives Recherche en Sciences Sociales 31 (January 1980):
rights to occupy rare positions. 2–3.
For the way that Bourdieu’s work has been re-
Editors’ Notes on Further Reading: Pierre ceived in the United States, see Jeffrey Sallaz and
Bourdieu, “The Forms of Capital” Jane Zavisca, “Bourdieu in American Sociology,
The idea that people draw on their social connec- 1980–2004,” Annual Review of Sociology 33 (2007):
tions and other social resources in order to achieve 21–41. That social capital goes very well with net-
their goals is not new. The economic benefits of par- work theory can be illustrated with the work of
ticipation in social groups, for individuals and com- Ronald Burt, for example, Brokerage and Closure: An
munities, were already clearly noted in such classics Introduction to Social Capital (2005). Many tightly
as Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1840 work Democracy in focused empirical studies show how social inter-
America and Max Weber’s “The Protestant Sects and action contributes to economic outcomes, for ex-
the Spirit of Capitalism,” pp. 302–322 in Hans ample, Ivan Light and Edna Bonacich, Immigrant
Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds., From Max Weber Entrepreneurs: Koreans in Los Angeles 1965–1982
(1946). But the designation of these resources and (1988). For a systematic treatment of the concept
participation as “social capital” has provoked enor- of social control, see Nan Lin’s Social Resources and
mous interest during the past fifteen years or so, Social Action: A Theory of Social Capital (2000). For
sparked especially by the intellectual entrepreneur- an economist’s use of social capital, see, for example,
ship of political scientist Robert Putnam, whose Gary Becker, Accounting for Tastes (1996).
1993 book on Italy, Making Democracy Work, argued Much of the literature on social capital is inter-
that participation in voluntary organizations is ben- disciplinary, unwieldy, and imprecise, as emphasized
eficial to political participation and civicness more in the useful overview article by Alejandro Portes,
generally. He followed this by the popular article “Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in
“Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Modern Sociology,” Annual Review of Sociology 24
Journal of Democracy 6 (1995):65–78, and a book- (1998):1–24. See also Michael Woolcock’s critical
length treatment, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and appraisal of how the idea of social capital can apply
Revival of American Community (1999). to the problems of economic development, in his
The work of Pierre Bourdieu, including the article “Social Capital and Economic Development: To-
we have reprinted, constitutes the earliest systematic ward a Theoretical Synthesis and Policy Framework,”
social science treatment of “social capital.” Together Theory and Society 1998:151–208. A more recent
with “habitus” and “field,” “capital” constitutes one guide to the now-enormous literature can be found
of the key concepts in Bourdieu’s sociology, as noted in Ted Mouw, “Estimating the Causal Effect of So-
in An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology (1992) by Pierre cial Capital: A Review of Recent Research,” Annual
Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant. “Capital” roughly Review of Sociology 32 (2006):79–102. And Portes
means “power” or “resources” to Bourdieu; it also revisits the idea of social capital, citing it as one of
comes in a number of forms that under certain cir- the central “explanatory mechanisms” in a general
cumstances can be transformed into one another. In argument about economic sociology, in his 2010
a programmatic article on economic sociology— book Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry. For
“Principles of Economic Anthropology” (included a critical discussion of the way the concept of social
in The Social Structures of the Economy [2005])— capital has been used at the World Bank, see Ben
Bourdieu makes reference to about a dozen types of Fine, Theories of Social Capital: Researchers Behaving
capital. Of the two types of capital discussed in this Badly (2010).
90 Pierre Bourdieu
Notes 5. This proposition implies no recognition of the
1. This inertia, entailed by the tendency of the value of scholastic verdicts; it merely registers the re-
structures of capital to reproduce themselves in in- lationship that exists in reality between a certain cul-
stitutions or in dispositions adapted to the structures tural capital and the laws of the educational market.
of which they are the product, is, of course, re- Dispositions that are given a negative value in the
inforced by a specifically political action of concerted educational market may receive very high value in
conservation, that is, of demobilization and depoliti- other markets—not least, of course, in the relation-
cization. The latter tends to keep the dominated ships internal to the class.
agents in the state of a practical group, united only 6. In a relatively undifferentiated society, in which
by the orchestration of their dispositions and con- access to the means of appropriating the cultural
demned to function as an aggregate repeatedly per- heritage is very equally distributed, embodied culture
forming discrete, individual acts (such as consumer does not function as cultural capital, that is, as a
or electoral choices). means of acquiring exclusive advantages.
2. This is true of all exchanges between members 7. What I call the generalized Arrow effect, that
of different fractions of the dominant class, possess- is, the fact that all cultural goods—paintings, mon-
ing different types of capital. These range from sales uments, machines, and any objects shaped by man,
of expertise, treatment, or other services that take particularly all those that belong to the childhood
the form of gift exchange and dignify themselves environment—exert an educative effect by their
with the most decorous names that can be found mere existence, is no doubt one of the structural fac-
(honoraria, emoluments, etc.) to matrimonial ex- tors behind the “schooling explosion,” in the sense
changes, the prime example of a transaction that can that a growth in the quantity of cultural capital
only take place insofar as it is not perceived or de- accumulated in the objectified state increases the ed-
fined as such by the contracting parties. It is remark- ucative effect automatically exerted by the environ-
able that the apparent extensions of economic theory ment. If one adds to this the fact that embodied
beyond the limits constituting the discipline have cultural capital is constantly increasing, it can be
left intact the asylum of the sacred, apart from a few seen that, in each generation, the educational system
sacrilegious incursions. Gary S. Becker, for example, can take more for granted. The fact that the same
who was one of the first to take explicit account of educational investment is increasingly productive is
the types of capital that are usually ignored, never one of the structural factors of the inflation of qual-
considers anything other than monetary costs and ifications (together with cyclical factors linked to ef-
profits, forgetting the nonmonetary investments fects of capital conversion).
(inter alia, the affective ones) and the material and 8. The cultural object, as a living social institu-
symbolic profits that education provides in a de- tion, is, simultaneously, a socially instituted material
ferred, indirect way, such as the added value that the object and a particular class of habitus, to which it
dispositions produced or reinforced by schooling is addressed. The material object—for example, a
(bodily or verbal manners, tastes, etc.) or the rela- work of art in its materiality—may be separated by
tionships established with fellow students can yield space (e.g., a Dogon statue) or by time (e.g., a Si-
in the matrimonial market (Becker 1964a). mone Martini painting) from the habitus for which
3. Symbolic capital, that is to say capital—in what- it was intended. This leads to one of the most fun-
ever form—insofar as it is represented, that is, damental biases of art history. Understanding the
apprehended symbolically, in a relationship of effect (not to be confused with the function) that
knowledge or, more precisely, of misrecognition and the work tended to produce—for example, the
recognition, presupposes the intervention of the form of belief it tended to induce—and that is
habitus, as a socially constituted cognitive capacity. the true basis of the conscious or unconscious
4. When talking about concepts for their own choice of the means used (technique, colors, etc.),
sake, as I do here, rather than using them in research, and therefore of the form itself, is possible only if
one always runs the risk of being both schematic one at least raises the question of the habitus on
and formal, that is, theoretical in the most usual and which it “operated.”
most usually approved sense of the word. 9. The dialectical relationship between objectified
cultural capital—of which the form par excellence
 The Forms of Capital 91

is writing—and embodied cultural capital has gen- economic anticipated profits, which would only
erally been reduced to an exalted description of the explain the nationalism of the privileged classes,
degradation of the spirit by the letter, the living by must be added the very real and very immediate
the inert, creation by routine, grace by heaviness. profits derived from membership (social capital)
10. This is particularly true in France, where in that are proportionately greater for those who are
many occupations (particularly the civil service) there lower down in the social hierarchy (“poor whites”)
is a very strict relationship between qualification, or, more precisely, more threatened by economic
rank, and remuneration (translator’s note). and social decline.
11. Here, too, the notion of social capital did not 15. There is every reason to suppose that social-
spring from pure theoretical work, still less from an izing, or, more generally, relational, dispositions are
analogical extension of economic concepts. It arose very unequally distributed among the social classes
from the need to identify the principle of social ef- and, within a given class, among fractions of differ-
fects that, although they can be seen clearly at the ent origin.
level of singular agents—where statistical inquiry 16. A “full power to act and speak” (translator’s
inevitably operates—cannot be reduced to the set note).
of properties individually possessed by a given agent. 17. It goes without saying that social capital is
These effects, in which spontaneous sociology readily so totally governed by the logic of knowledge and
perceives the work of “connections,” are particularly acknowledgment that it always functions as sym-
visible in all cases in which different individuals ob- bolic capital.
tain very unequal profits from virtually equivalent 18. It should be made clear, to dispel a likely mis-
(economic or cultural) capital, depending on the ex- understanding, that the investment in question here
tent to which they can mobilize by proxy the capital is not necessarily conceived as a calculated pursuit
of a group (a family, the alumni of an elite school, of gain, but that it has every likelihood of being
a select club, the aristocracy, etc.) that is more or less experienced in terms of the logic of emotional in-
constituted as such and more or less rich in capital. vestment, that is, as an involvement that is both nec-
12. Neighborhood relationships may, of course, essary and disinterested. This has not always been
receive an elementary form of institutionalization, appreciated by historians, who (even when they are
as in the Bearn—or the Basque region—where as alert to symbolic effects as E. P. Thompson) tend
neighbors, lous besis (a word which, in old texts, is to conceive symbolic practices—powdered wigs and
applied to the legitimate inhabitants of the village, the whole paraphernalia of office—as explicit strate-
the rightful members of the assembly), are explicitly gies of domination, intended to be seen (from
designated, in accordance with fairly codified rules, below), and to interpret generous or charitable con-
and are assigned functions that are differentiated ac- duct as “calculated acts of class appeasement.” This
cording to their rank (there is a “first neighbor,” a naively Machiavellian view forgets that the most
“second neighbor,” and so on), particularly for the sincerely disinterested acts may be those best corre-
major social ceremonies (funerals, marriages, etc.). sponding to objective interest. A number of fields,
But even in this case, the relationships actually used particularly those that most tend to deny interest
by no means always coincide with the relationships and every sort of calculation, like the fields of cul-
socially instituted. tural production, grant full recognition, and with
13. Manners (bearing, pronunciation, etc.) may it the consecration that guarantees success, only to
be included in social capital insofar as, through the those who distinguish themselves by the immediate
mode of acquisition they point to, they indicate ini- conformity of their investments, a token of sincerity
tial membership of a more or less prestigious group. and attachment to the essential principles of the
14. National liberation movements or nationalist field. It would be thoroughly erroneous to describe
ideologies cannot be accounted for solely by refer- the choices of the habitus that lead an artist, writer,
ence to strictly economic profits, that is, anticipation or researcher toward his natural place (a subject,
of the profits that may be derived from redistribution style, manner, etc.) in terms of rational strategy and
of a proportion of wealth to the advantage of the cynical calculation. This is despite the fact that, for
nationals (nationalization) and the recovery of highly example, shifts from one genre, school, or special-
paid jobs (see Breton 1962). To these specifically ity to another, quasi-religious conversions that are
92 Pierre Bourdieu
performed “in all sincerity,” can be understood as living close to the place of work) make it possible to
capital conversions, the direction and moment of save time. (This is in contrast to the cash savings of
which (on which their success often depends) are the poor, which are paid for in time—do-it-yourself,
determined by a “sense of investment” that is the bargain hunting, etc.) None of this is true of mere
less likely to be seen as such the more skillful it is. economic capital; it is possession of cultural capital
Innocence is the privilege of those who move in their that makes it possible to derive greater profit not
field of activity like fish in water. only from labor-time, by securing a higher yield
19. To understand the attractiveness of this pair from the same time, but also from spare-time, and
of antagonistic positions that serve as each other’s so to increase both economic and cultural capital.
alibi, one would need to analyze the unconscious 21. It goes without saying that the dominant
profits and the profits of unconsciousness that they fractions, who tend to place ever greater emphasis
procure for intellectuals. While some find in econ- on educational investment, within an overall strat-
omism a means of exempting themselves by exclud- egy of asset diversification and of investments
ing the cultural capital and all the specific profits aimed at combining security with high yield, have
that place them on the side of the dominant, others all sorts of ways of evading scholastic verdicts. The
can abandon the detestable terrain of the economic, direct transmission of economic capital remains
where everything reminds them that they can be one of the principal means of reproduction, and
evaluated, in the last analysis, in economic terms, the effect of social capital (“a helping hand,” “string-
for that of the symbolic. (The latter merely repro- pulling,” the “old boy network”) tends to correct
duce, in the realm of the symbolic, the strategy the effect of academic sanctions. Educational qual-
whereby intellectuals and artists endeavor to impose ifications never function perfectly as currency. They
the recognition of their values, i.e., their value, by are never entirely separable from their holders:
inverting the law of the market in which what one Their value rises in proportion to the value of their
has or what one earns completely defines what one is bearer, especially in the least rigid areas of the social
worth and what one is—as is shown by the practice structure.
of banks, which, with techniques such as the per-
sonalization of credit, tend to subordinate the grant- References
ing of loans and the fixing of interest rates to an Becker, Gary S. 1964a. A Theoretical and Empir-
exhaustive inquiry into the borrower’s present and ical Analysis with Special Reference to Educa-
future resources.) tion. New York: National Bureau of Economic
20. Among the advantages procured by capital in Research.
all its types, the most precious is the increased vol- ______. 1964b. Human Capital. New York:
ume of useful time that is made possible through Columbia University Press.
the various methods of appropriating other people’s Bourdieu, Pierre. 1982. “Les rites d’institu-
time (in the form of services). It may take the form tion.” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales
either of increased spare time, secured by reducing 43: 58–63.
the time consumed in activities directly channeled Breton, A. 1962. “The Economics of National-
toward producing the means of reproducing the ex- ism.” Journal of Political Economy 72: 376–
istence of the domestic group, or of more intense 386.
use of the time so consumed, by recourse to other Grassby, Richard. 1970. “English Merchant
people’s labor or to devices and methods that are Capitalism in the Late Seventeenth Century:
available only to those who have spent time learning The Composition of Business Fortunes.” Past
how to use them and that (like better transport or and Present 46: 87–107.