The Latest Breaking News from Pierre Bourdieu

Psychology says people who can afford expensive restaurants but still feel uncomfortable there may be carrying an older money rule

Luxury settings often signal exclusivity and status through the entire experience. Everything from the lighting and style of service to the expected dress code, wording on the menu and higher prices can reinforce the feeling that the occasion is meant to be different from an everyday meal.

The Economic Times · Sep 21

Quote of the day by Bertrand Russell: 'There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other...' and how most of us are guilty of the second

Reading serves a dual purpose: it offers personal satisfaction while also catering to the desire for intellectual recognition among peers. This blend of motivations can drive individuals to choose books based on public perception rather than genuine interest. Psychological theories identify this as the contrast between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.…

The Times of India · Jul 30

The Life, Old Age and Death of a Working-Class Woman review – a son confronts his mother’s decline

Didier Eribon’s guilt and shame fuels an angry and eloquent meditation on our attitudes towards the elderly and the end of life

The Guardian - UK · Mar 30, 2025

Ghassan Hage is one of Australia's most significant intellectuals. He's still on a quest for a multicultural society that hopes and cares

It is 50 years – two generations – since then Immigration Minister Al Grassby launched the idea of a multicultural Australia at a Melbourne conference in 1973. Ghassan Hage, Professor in Anthropology and Social Theory at the University of Melbourne, and currently visiting scholar at the prestigious Max Planck Institute…

The Conversation · Jul 19, 2023

How 'Succession' feeds the hidden fantasies of its well-to-do viewers

“Succession” has returned for its fourth and final season, giving the show’s fans one last opportunity to watch the kids of the wealthy Roy family desperately try to gain the approval of their media mogul father by any means necessary.

The Conversation · Mar 23, 2023

Tantrums to tinsel: why I love the curious and festive tradition of the Santa photo

In April 1995, my uncle secured a lucrative job in Saudi Arabia. He and my aunt left their home in suburban Sydney and relocated to a western compound (a residential gated community for expats) in Jeddah. My aunt shares stories of life under Saudi’s strict laws and how she craved…

The Conversation · Dec 8, 2022

Editors have long been publishing's hidden handmaidens – what might we gain if we acknowledged their role?

Editors are almost always unseen and unheard – until something goes wrong. That might be a relatively minor mistake, such as a typo – as in a cookbook that mistakenly listed “people” instead of “pepper” in a recipe. Or it could be more substantial questions about the integrity of a…

The Conversation · Nov 27, 2022

Moving back home doesn't mean you've failed in life –- here's why

“When I was in high school,” the essayist Anne P. Beatty recently wrote, “ambition meant two things: escaping my hometown and becoming a writer”.

The Conversation · Nov 14, 2022

Annie Ernaux, French feminist who uses language as 'a knife', wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Annie Ernaux was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on October 6. The 82-year-old writer, whose sociological autofiction and memoir is influenced by Simone de Beauvoir and Pierre Bourdieu, is the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature since the founding of the awards in 1901. Ernaux…

The Conversation · Oct 8, 2022