27.11
SOCIOLOGY
BRUNA DE CASTRO
SECOND ASSIGMENT
VSFS 2022-2023
, B. Wurts
Social inequality is a recurring issue in the daily lives of the world's society.
Differences between social classes have existed for years and are historically
related to the European colonization process and especially to the advance of
capitalism - the social and economic system.
There are countless causes and consequences of social inequality, as well
as many arguments and opinions on the subject. It can manifest in a variety of ways,
like income and wealth inequality, unequal access to education and cultural
resources, and differential treatment by the police and judicial system, among
others.
‘…class happens when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or
shared), feel and articulate the identity of their interest between themselves, and as
against other men whose interest are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs.
The class experience is largely determined by the productive relations into which
men are born – or enter involuntarily. Class-consciousness is the way in which these
experiences are handle in cultural terms: embodied in traditions, value-systems,
ideas and institutional forms. If the experience appears as determined, class-
consciousness does not.’ (Thompson, 1968:10)1
The previous reference put into perspective the term of interest or habitus
explained by Pierre Bourdieu. He defines habitus as an embodied set of socially
acquired dispositions that lead individuals to live their lives in ways that are similar
to other members of their social class group. He realized that people who were
members of a certain class shared tastes because they share dispositions – or
habitus. So somehow, they come to like and dislike the same things which also
gave them the sense of ‘fitted’ into this or that class.
‘Habitus is society written into the body, into the biological individual.’ 2
Pierre’s theory has a more complex understanding of class and inequality
that also carries a critical impulse by showing hidden mechanism of power and
class domination. Similar to Marx, Bourdieu considers inequality as a class society
whose reproduction must be understood. The reproduction of inequality and
social positions is the result of the symbolic justification of hierarchies which can
1
Butler, T. & Watt, P. (1896). Understanding Social Inequality by Tim Butler (2007-01-19). SAGE Publications
Ltd pg 47-48
2
Thorpe C, Yuill C, Hobbs M, et al. (2019) The sociology book. New York, NY: DK Publishing pg 77
SOCIOLOGY
BRUNA DE CASTRO
SECOND ASSIGMENT
VSFS 2022-2023
, B. Wurts
Social inequality is a recurring issue in the daily lives of the world's society.
Differences between social classes have existed for years and are historically
related to the European colonization process and especially to the advance of
capitalism - the social and economic system.
There are countless causes and consequences of social inequality, as well
as many arguments and opinions on the subject. It can manifest in a variety of ways,
like income and wealth inequality, unequal access to education and cultural
resources, and differential treatment by the police and judicial system, among
others.
‘…class happens when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or
shared), feel and articulate the identity of their interest between themselves, and as
against other men whose interest are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs.
The class experience is largely determined by the productive relations into which
men are born – or enter involuntarily. Class-consciousness is the way in which these
experiences are handle in cultural terms: embodied in traditions, value-systems,
ideas and institutional forms. If the experience appears as determined, class-
consciousness does not.’ (Thompson, 1968:10)1
The previous reference put into perspective the term of interest or habitus
explained by Pierre Bourdieu. He defines habitus as an embodied set of socially
acquired dispositions that lead individuals to live their lives in ways that are similar
to other members of their social class group. He realized that people who were
members of a certain class shared tastes because they share dispositions – or
habitus. So somehow, they come to like and dislike the same things which also
gave them the sense of ‘fitted’ into this or that class.
‘Habitus is society written into the body, into the biological individual.’ 2
Pierre’s theory has a more complex understanding of class and inequality
that also carries a critical impulse by showing hidden mechanism of power and
class domination. Similar to Marx, Bourdieu considers inequality as a class society
whose reproduction must be understood. The reproduction of inequality and
social positions is the result of the symbolic justification of hierarchies which can
1
Butler, T. & Watt, P. (1896). Understanding Social Inequality by Tim Butler (2007-01-19). SAGE Publications
Ltd pg 47-48
2
Thorpe C, Yuill C, Hobbs M, et al. (2019) The sociology book. New York, NY: DK Publishing pg 77
