Bourdieu and the Quest for Intercultural Transformations

Abstract

Building and expanding on Bourdieu’s notions of cultural capital, habitus, and field, this conceptual article aims to contribute to a better understanding of intercultural transformations. Distancing itself from essentialist reductionism in the analysis of cultures, it associates intercultural transformations with habitus crises through “culture shock,” with the realization of intercultural capital, and with changes in the scope and configuration of cultural pluriformity. In going beyond Bourdieu without abandoning him along the way, the approach outlined in the course of this article combines a range of conceptual tools which may prove to be useful in sustaining struggles for social justice in educational institutions and in society at large.