In his article “The Forms of Capital”, Pierre Bourdieu discusses capital not only from an economical point of view, but he expands on the theme of capital and observes it from such angles as cultural and social ones. In addition, he addresses the phenomenon of conversion in the capital. In the following paper, Bourdieu’s article will be approached in terms of the interest that it presents with regard to the subject of class studies. Overall, the author’s ideas regarding capital can be evaluated as amplifying the findings of the other authors in the class readings.
The offered reading material by Bourdieu is an excellent opportunity to have a glance at the capital from a quite different point of view as the author expands on the traditional vision of capital, and helps his audience see that capital can be also evaluated as a non-economic and immaterial phenomenon. The very interesting point in the given reading is in the fact that according to Bourdieu, different forms of capital are permutable because they can be acquired, accumulated, and transformed or exchanged into the other forms of capital. Another important assumption that the author makes in his argument is his idea that the rules of interaction between different forms of capital reveal the intrinsic structure of the social formation of the world because the rules of functioning of the social world and different forms of capital are collateral. Bourdieu speaks of capital as of ‘lex inside, and makes the following remarkable comment:
It is what makes the games of society – not least, the economic game – something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds out the opportunity of winning a lot of money in a short space of time, and therefore of changing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, and in which the winning of the previous spin of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new spin (Bourdie, 1986, p. 169).
This thought by the author is of great significance because he proves that the testimony from the different epochs of human history shows that the Universe is a world of equal opportunities for any person, and what was accumulated before can be easily lost in a single moment of the history.
In conclusion, it should be stated that reflecting on the other class readings, I was thinking about the great dependence between the power of chance and the efforts that many people make during their whole life in the hope to improve their material and social status due to capital accumulation. While thinking on this matter, a question regarding the possibility and probability to become enriched came to my mind. To find the answer, I have read the whole chapter by Bourdieu quite quickly. Unfortunately, all I have found is the idea that accumulating capital can be a tricky phenomenon that depends on a variety of variables, and it is very difficult to predict that here or there an individual can find a way to accumulate stable capital. From what I have already been exposed to in my lifetime (for example economical crisis of 2008), I came to a conclusion that facts from real-life support Bourdieu’s way of thinking – it is true that someone may acquire capital unexpectedly and lose it just in the same way.
References
Bourdie, P. (1986) The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 168-180). New York, Greenwood.