false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170981437m/80336.jpg 80336 6 <p> No judgement of taste is innocent. In a word, we are all snobs. Pierre Bourdieu brilliantly illuminates this situation of the middle class in the modern world. France's leading sociologist focusses here on the French bourgeoisie, its tastes and preferences. Distinction is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind. </p><p> In the course of everyday life people constantly choose between what they find aesthetically pleasing and what they consider tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Bourdicu bases his study on surveys that took into account the multitude of social factors that play a part in a Frenchperson's choice of clothing, furniture, leisure activities, dinner menus for guests, and many other matters of taste. What emerges from his analysis is that social snobbery is everywhere in the bourgeois world. The different aesthetic choices people make are all distinctions-that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu finds a world of social meaning in the decision to order bouillabaisse, in our contemporary cult of thinness, in the "California sports" such as jogging and cross-country skiing. The social world, he argues, functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement. </p><p> The topic of Bourdieu's book is a fascinating one: the strategies of social pretension are always curiously engaging. But the book is more than fascinating. It is a major contribution to current debates on the theory of culture and a challenge to the major theoretical schools in contemporary sociology. </p> 1681910 1979 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste total:180|5:66|4:74|3:33|2:5|1:2| 180 737 346 25 5 1 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Tue May 27 08:42:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 08:46:32 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 1 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Nov 09 23:36:52 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 17 23:35:52 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Sun Jun 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 08:40:58 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 06:38:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Mar 24 15:52:30 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 15:52:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 06:34:38 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 06:35:20 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Aug 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 15:08:38 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 15:10:56 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 12:33:12 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 12:33:57 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Dec 06 10:58:57 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 06 10:59:27 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Thu Aug 28 01:24:09 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 01:44:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 04 16:14:44 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 16:20:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Nov 14 20:57:06 -0800 2007 Mon Sep 29 08:23:26 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Apr 10 19:41:25 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 23 08:36:51 -0700 2008 1 0 false false Sat Jun 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 07:58:49 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 13:33:22 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 11 11:30:48 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 11 11:37:26 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Sun Jul 08 21:18:06 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 21:20:35 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Tue Mar 04 07:00:33 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 07:02:21 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Mon May 05 14:40:36 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 14:41:47 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu May 01 12:01:39 -0700 2008 Thu May 01 12:14:04 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sun Jan 27 11:55:57 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 11:56:29 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Mon Mar 31 23:16:10 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 23:16:10 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=80336