Bourdieu, Pierre

(born Aug. 1, 1930, Denguin, France—died Jan. 23, 2002, Paris) French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu introduced the concept of cultural capital, wealth based on social status and education, noting that success in school and society depends largely on the individual's ability to absorb the cultural ethos, or what he termed habitus, of the dominant class. Influenced by structuralism, he suggested that habitus is similar to yet more fundamental than a language. His works include The Algerians (1962), Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977), Distinction (1984), and Acts of Resistance: Against the Tyranny of the Market (1998).

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