Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Bourdieu and Adorno: Converging theories of culture and inequality

  • Published:
Theory and Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno both conceive culture as legitimating the inequalities of modern societies. But they postulate different mechanisms of legitimation. For Bourdieu, modern culture is a class culture, characterized by socially ranked symbolic differences among classes that make some seem superior to others. For Adorno, modern culture is a mass culture, characterized by a socially imposed symbolic unity that obscures class differences behind a facade of leveled democracy. In his later writings, however, Bourdieu’s theory converges with that of Adorno. He too begins to privilege the high culture of intellectuals over mass culture by employing the universal standard of autonomy from economic interests. But there remains one vital difference between these theories. Bourdieu grounds the origins of a critical, autonomous culture in specific social structures, while Adorno grounds it in technology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adorno, T. (1973a). Negative dialectics. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, T. (1973b). The philosophy of modern music. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, T. (1974). Minima moralia. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, T. (1977). Reconciliation under duress. In T. Adorno et al. (Eds.), Aesthetics and politics (pp. 151–176). London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, T. (1984). Aesthetic theory. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, T. (1989–90). On jazz. Discourse 12 (1), 45–69.

  • Adorno, T. (1991). Culture and administration. In The culture industry (pp. 93–113). London: Routledge.

  • Adorno, T. (1993). Theory of pseudo-culture. Telos, 95, 15–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1988). Homo academicus. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1996). The rules of art: Genesis and structure of the literary field. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1998a). Acts of resistance. New York: New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1998b). On television. New York: New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1998c). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2000). Pascalian meditations. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2004). Science of science and reflexivity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2008). Sketch for a self-analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P., & Haacke, H. (1995). Free exchange. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, D. (1974). Kant’s aesthetic theory. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denning, M. (1996). The cultural front. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio, P. (1977). Market structure, the creative process, and popular culture: Toward an organizational reinterpretation of mass-culture theory. The Journal of Popular Culture, 11, 436–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartman, D. (1991). Culture as class symbolization or mass reification? A critique of Bourdieu’s Distinction. The American Journal of Sociology, 97, 421–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartman, D. (2009). From autos to architecture: Fordism and architectural aesthetics in the twentieth century. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. (1972). Dialectic of enlightenment. New York: Herder and Herder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment. Standord: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jay, M. (1973). The dialectical imagination. Boston: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) (1967). The radiant city. New York: Orion.

  • Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) (1987). The city of tomorrow and its planning. New York: Dover.

  • Marx, K. (1964). Economic and philosophical manuscripts. In T. B. Bottomore (Ed.), Karl Marx: Early writings (pp. 61–219). New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. (1967). Capital (Vol. 3). New York: International Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollock, F. (1978). State capitalism: Its possibilities and limits. In A. Arato & E. Gebhardt (Eds.), The essential Frankfurt School reader (pp. 71–94). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swartz, D. (1997). Culture and power: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheatland, T. (2009). The Frankfurt School in exile. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiggerhaus, R. (1994). The Frankfurt School. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Witkin, R. (2003). Adorno on popular culture. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, C.-T. (2002). Privatising culture: Corporate art intervention since the 1980s. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Gartman.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gartman, D. Bourdieu and Adorno: Converging theories of culture and inequality. Theor Soc 41, 41–72 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-011-9159-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-011-9159-z

Keywords

Navigation