Bourdieu with Marx, from Economy to Ecology

Abstract

As I did for Michel Foucault in my book Foucault with Marx, here I show how the work of Pierre Bourdieu can contribute to a renewal of Marxism. The concept of “cultural capital” designates a second component of the dominant class: a “competence capital,” endowed with its own mode of structural reproduction. Beyond its social and political relevance, this analysis reveals the immense ecological impact in terms of productivism and consumerism of this “other front.” Its limit is due in particular to the fact that it remains within the framework of a sociology: its programme concerns “social relations,” but not the “productive forces.” As a result, it contributes to broadening the programme of “historical materialism,” but cannot replace it. It is in fact situated on the generic terrain of a “praxeology” and not on that of a theory of history.