Why Use Bourdieusian Theory to Study Gender, Class and Work? The Case for ‘Gender Capital’

Abstract

Pierre Bourdieu’s primary intellectual concern was the role of culture in the production and reproduction of power and inequality. As Atkinson (2009) suggests, Bourdieu’s analysis of cultural life has been widely influential and has inspired a ‘cultural turn’ in the theorisation of class. In particular, he moved beyond economic determinism to explore alternative forms of social and cultural wealth. In doing so he provided an understanding of class that progressed beyond stratification and focussed on practice; his approach allows an analysis of the individual and their unique, yet structured, class experiences. And while his primary intellectual concern was class, his conceptual toolkit has proven to be adaptable — making it suitable for the analysis of gender, class and occupation.