Bourdieu uses his training in sociology to illustrate how this works, actually studying who has access to artistic education and who does not, and what position these people occupy within society with statistical analysis. Bourdieu instead defines taste as a product of history reproduced by education, used to distinguish a society‘s elite from the rest of the masses and tautologically provide proof of its superiority. The subtitle of this book tips you off explicitly to what's under attack: The Kantian model of the notion of taste being universally accessible to any rational mind provided it positions itself to appreciate beauty within a state of disinterestedness. His book preceding The State Nobility, and the focus of my article annotation, is entitled Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. His book The State Nobility argues that the grand ecoles and universities in France not only train the elite who run and enjoy the greatest spoils of society, but create a funneling system that uses enough meritocratic means of distinction to lend justification and legitimatization to this class. One of the main themes French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu grapples with in his large ouevre is how advanced industrial and post-industrial societies produce, reinforce, and justify a social elite.
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