This is the first comprehensive description of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of culture and habitus. Within the wider intellectual context of Bourdieu's work, this book provides a systematic reading of his assessment of the role of 'cultural capital' in the production and consumption of symbolic goods.

Bridget Fowler outlines the key critical debates that inform Bourdieu's work: the roles of Marx, Lukacs and Goldmann; Benjamin's discussion of the sacred and the profane; and Foucault's theory of discourses. She introduces Bourdieu's recent treatment of the rules of art, explains the importance of his concept of capital - economic and social, symbolic and cultural - and defines such key terms as habitus, practice and strategy, legitimate culture, popular art and distinction.

The book focuses particularly on Bourdieu's account of the nature of capitalist modernity, on the emergence of bohemia and, with the growth of the market, the invention of the artist as the main historical response to the changed place of art.