PIERRE BOURDIEU AND LOIC WACQUANT

.a matterof a few years,in all the advancedsocieties,employers,

internationalofficials, high-rankingcivil servants,mediaintellectuals
and high-flying journalistshave all startedto voice a strangeNewspeak.
Its vocabulary,which seemsto have sprungout of nowhere,is now on everyone's
lips: 'globalization' and 'flexibility', 'governance'and 'employability', 'underclass'
and 'exclusion', 'new economy' and 'zero tolerance','communitarianism'and
'multiculturalism', not to mentiontheir so-calledpostmoderncousins,'minority',
'ethnicity', 'identity', 'fragmentation',and so on. The diffusion of this new
planetaryvulgate -from which the terms 'capitalism', 'class', 'exploitation',
'domination' and 'inequality' are conspicuousby their absence,having been
peremptorilydismissedunderthe pretext that they are obsoleteand non-pertinent-
is the result of a new type of imperialism.Its effects are all the more powerful and
perniciousin that it is promotednot only by the partisansof the neoliberal
revolution who, undercoverof 'modernization',intend to remakethe world by
sweepingaway the socialand economicconquestsof a centuryof social.struggles,
henceforthdepictedas so many archaismsand obstaclesto the emergentnew order,
but also by cultural producers(researchers, writers and artists)and left-wing
activists,the vast majority of whom still think of themselvesas progressives.
Like ethnic or genderdomination,cultural imperialismis a form of symbolic
violencethat relies on a relationshipof constrainedcommunicationto extort
submission.In the caseat hand,its particularityconsistsin universalizingthe
particularismsbound up with a singular historicalexperience.Thus,just as, in the
nineteenthcentury,a numberof so-calledphilosophicalquestionsthat were debated
throughoutEurope,suchas Spengler'sthemeof 'decadence'or Dilthey's
dichotomy betweenexplanationand understanding,originated,as historianFritz
Ringerhas demonstrated,in the historical predicamentsand conflicts specificto the
peculiar world of Germanuniversities,so today manytopics directly issuedfrom
the particularitiesand particularismsof US societyand universitieshave been
imposedupon the whole planetunder apparentlydehistoricizedguises.These
commonplaces(in the Aristotelian senseof notions or theseswith which one argues
but over which there is no argument),theseundiscussedpresuppositionsof the
discussionowe most of their power to convinceto the prestigeof the place
whencethey emanate,and to the fact that,circulating in continuousflow from
Berlin to BuenosAires and from Londonto Lisbon, they are everywhere

2 Radical Philosophy 105 IJanuary/Febru.ry 2001,

powerfully relayedby supposedlyneutralagenciesranging from major international
organizations(the World Bank, InternationalMonetaryFund, EuropeanCom-
missionand OECD),conservativethink-tanks(the ManhattanInstitute in New
York City, the Adam SmithInstitute in London,the FondationSaint-Simonin
Paris,and the DeutscheBank Fundationin Frankfurt) and philanthropic
foundations,to the schoolsof power (Science-Poin France,the London Schoolof
Economicsin England,Harvard's KennedySchoolof Governmentin America,
etc.).
In additionto the automaticeffect of the internationalcirculation of ideas,which
tends,by its very logic, to concealtheir original conditionsof prodqctionand
signification,the play of preliminary definitionsand scholasticdeductionsreplaces
the contingencyof denegatedsociologicalnecessitieswith the appearanceof logical
necessityand tendsto maskthe historicalroots of a whole setof questionsand
notions:the 'efficiency' of the (free) market,the needfor the recognitionof
(cultural) 'identities' or the celebratoryreassertionof (individual) 'responsibility'.
Thesewill be said to be philosophical,sociological,economicor political,
dependingon the place and momentof reception.Thus 'planetarized',or
globalizedin the strictly geographicalsenseof the term, by this uprooting and, at
the sametime,
departicularizedas a result
of the illusory break effected
by conceptualization,these
commonplaces,which the
perpetualmedia repetition
has graduallytransformed
into a universalcommon
sense,succeedin making us
forget that, in many cases,
they do nothing but express,
in a truncatedand
unrecognizableform
(including to thosewho are
promoting it), the complex
and contestedrealities of a
particular historical society,
tacitly constitutedinto the modeland measureof all things: the American society
of the post-Fordistand post-Keynesianera,the world's only superpowerand
symbolicMecca.This is a societycharacterizedby the deliberatedismantlingof
the socialstateand the correlativehypertrophyof the penal state,the crushingof
trade unionsand the dictatorshipof the 'shareholder-value'conceptionof the firm,
and their sociologicaleffects:the generalizationof precariouswage labour and
social insecurity,turned into the privileged engineof economicactivity.
The fuzzy and muddydebateabout 'multiculturalism' is a paradigmaticexample.
The term was recentlyimported into Europeto describecultural pluralism in the
civic sphere,whereasin the United Statesit refers,in the very movementwhich
obfuscatesit, to the continuedostracizationof Blacks and to the crisis of the
nationalmythologyof the 'Americandream' of 'equal opportunityfor all', cor-
relative of the bankruptcyof public educationat the very time when competition
for cultural capital is intensifying and classinequalitiesare growing at a dizzying
pace.The locution 'multicultural' concealsthis crisis by artificially restricting it to
the university microcosmand by expressingit on an ostensibly'ethnic' register,
when what is really at stakeis not the incorporationof marginalizedcultures in the

3
academiccanonbut accessto the instrumentsof (re)productionof the middle and
upper classes,chief amongthem the university,in the contextof active and
massivedisengagement by the state.North American 'multiculturalism' is neithera
conceptnor a theory, nor a socialor political movement-even though it claims to
be all thosethings at the sametime. It is a screendiscourse,whoseintellectual
statusis the productof a gigantic effect of nationaland internationalallodoxia,
which deceivesboth thosewho are party to it and thosewho are not. It is also a
North Americandiscourse,eventhough it thinks of itself and presentsitself as a
universal discourse,to the extentthat it expressesthe contradictionsspecificto the
predicamentof US academics.Cut off from the public sphereand subjectedto a
high degreeof competitivedifferentiationin their professionalmilieu, US
professorshavenowhereto invest their political libido but in campussquabbles
dressedup as conceptualbattlesroyal.
The samedemonstrationcould be made aboutthe highly polysemicnotion of
'globalization', whoseupshot-if not function -is to dressup the effects of
American imperialismin the trappingsof cultural oecumenicismor economic
fatalism and to makea transnationalrelation of economicpowerappearlike a
natural necessity.Througha symbolic reversalbasedon the naturalizationof the
schemataof neoliberalthought,the reshapingof socialrelationsand cultural
practicesafter the US template,which has beenforced uponadvancedsocieties
throughthe pauperizationof the state,the commodificationof public goodsand the
generalizationof job insecurity,is nowadaysacceptedwith resignationas the
inevitableoutcomeof nationalevolution, when it is not celebratedwith sheep-like
enthusiasm.An empiricalanalysisof the trajectoryof the advancedeconomiesover
the longueduree suggests,in contrast,that 'globalization' is not a new phaseof
capitalism,but a 'rhetoric' invoked by governmentsin orderto justify their
voluntary surrenderto the financial marketsand their conversionto a fiduciary
conceptionof the firm. Far from being -as we are constantlytold -the inevitable
resultof the growth of foreign trade,deindustrialization,growing inequalityand the
retrenchmentof socialpolicies are the result of domesticpolitical decisionsthat
reflect the tipping of the balanceof classforces in favour of the ownersof capital.
By imposing on the restof the world categoriesof perceptionhomologousto its
social structures,the USA is refashioningthe entire world in its image:the mental
colonizationthat operatesthroughthe disseminationof theseconceptscan only
lead to a sort of generalizedand evenspontaneous'Washingtonconsensus',as one
can readily observein the sphereof economics,philanthrophyor management
training. Indeed,this doublediscoursewhich, althoughfoundedon belief,mimics
scienceby superimposingthe appearanceof reason-and especiallyeconomicor
politological reason-on the socialfantasiesof the dominant,is endowedwith the
performativepowerto bring into beingthe very realities it claims to describe,
accordingto the principle of the self-fulfilling prophecy:lodged in the minds of
political or economicdecision-makersand their publics, it is usedas an instrument
of constructionof public and private policies and at the sametime to evaluatethose
very policies. Like the mythologiesof the age of science,the new planetaryvulgate
rests on a seriesof oppositionsand equivalenceswhich supportand reinforceone
anotherto depictthe contemporarytransformationsadvancedsocietiesare under-
going -economic disinvestmentby the stateand reinforcementof its police and
penal components,deregulationof financial flows and relaxationof administrative
controls on the employmentmarket,reductionof social protectionand moralizing
celebrationof 'individual responsibility' -as in turn benign,necessary,ineluctable
or desirable,accordingto the oppositionsset out in the following ideological
schema:

4
 state ~ [globalization] ~ market
constraint freedom
closed open
rigid flexible
immobile,fossilized dynamic,moving,self-transforming
past,outdated future, novelty
stasis growth
group,lobby, holism,collectivism individual,individualism
uniformity, artificiality diversity,authenticity
autocratic('totalitarian') democratic

The imperialismof neoliberalreasonfinds its supremeintellectual accomplish-

ment in two new figuresof the cultural producerthat are increasinglycrowding the
autonomousand critical intellectualborn of the Enlightenmenttradition out of the
public scene.One is the expert who, in the shadowycorridorsof ministries or
companyheadquarters,orin the isolation of think-tanks,prepareshighly technical
documents,preferablycouchedin economicor mathematicallanguage,usedto
justify policy choicesmadeon decidedlynon-technicalgrounds.(The perfect
examplebeing plans to 'save' retirementschemesfrom the supposedthreatposed
by the increasein life expectancy,wheredemographicdemonstrationsareused to
railroad privatizationplans that consecratethe powerof shareholdersand shift risk
to wage-earnersthroughpensionsfunds). The otheris the communication
consultantto the prince -a defectorfrom the academicworld enteredinto the
serviceof the dominant,whose missionis to give an academicveneerto the
political projectsof the new stateand businessnobility. Its planetaryprototypeis
without contestthe British sociologistAnthony Giddens,Director of the London
Schoolof Economics,and father of 'structurationtheory', a scholasticsynthesisof
various sociologicaland philosophicaltraditions decisivelywrenchedout of their
contextand thus ideally suitedto the taskof academicizedsociodicy..
One may seethe perfectillustration of the cunningof imperialist reasonin the
fact that it is England-which, for historical,cultural and linguistic reasons,stands
in an intermediary,neutralposition (in the etymologicalsenseof 'neither/nor' or
'either/or') betweenthe United Statesand continentalEurope-that has supplied
the world with a bicephalousTrojan horse,with one political and one intellectual
head,in the dual personaof Tony Blair and Anthony Giddens.On the strengthof
his ties to politicians,Giddenshas emergedas the globe-trottingapostleof a 'Third
Way' which, in his own words -which musthere be cited from the catalogueof
textbook-styledefinitions of his theoriesand political views in the FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions)sectionof his London Schoolof Economicswebsite,
<www.lse.ac.uk/Giddens/FAQs.htm> -'takes a positive attitudetowardsglobaliz-
ation'; 'tries [sic] to respondto changingpatternsof inequality', but begins by
warning that 'the poor todayare not the sameas the poor of the past', and that,
'likewise, the rich are not the sameas they usedto be'; acceptsthe idea that
'existing socialwelfare systems,and the broaderstructureof the State,are the
sourceof problems,not only the meansof resolvingthem'; 'emphasizesthat social
and economicpolicy are intrinsically connected',in order betterto assertthat
'social spendinghas to be assessedin termsof its consequences for the economyas
a whole'; and, finally 'concernsitself with mechanismsof exclusionat the bottom
and the top [sic]', convincedas it is that 'redefining inequality in relationto
exclusionat both levels is consistentwith a dynamic conceptionof inequality'. The
mastersof the economy,and the other 'excluded at the top', can sleepin peace:
they havefound their Pangloss.
This is a revised version of a translationby David Macey of an article that originally appearedin
Le Monde Diplomatique 554, May 2000,pp. 6-7.

5
 I:;

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RP97 -Sept/Oct 1999 RP101 -May/June 2000

Alan Sinfield: The Andrew Sullivan Phenomenon Ben Clift: The New Social Democracy in France
Simon Bromley: Castefls's The Information Age Ross Poole: Indigenous Claims and Liberal Theory
Stella Sandford: Contingent Ontologies of Sex and Gender Martha E. Gimenez: Materialist and Marxist Feminisms
Etienne Balibar Interview: Philosophy in France Jacinda Swanson: The Politics of Personal Responsibility
Ben Watson on The Zizek Reader Francis Mulhern on Althusser's Machiavelli and Us

RP98 -Nov/Dec 1999 RP102 -July/August 2000

Fred Halliday: The Significance of the Twentieth
Henry Staten: 'Radical Evil' Revived
John Roberts: Philosophizing the Everyday
Malcolm Bull: Hearing the Silence
Kate Soper on Western Attitudes to Nature
Century Ben Watson: Philosophy on Television
Craig Brandist: Neo-Kantianism in Cultural Theory
Kate Soper: Realism, Humanism and the Politics of Natul
Peter Hallward: Reply to Critchley on Badiou's Ethics
laplanche Interview: Rethinking Psychoanalysis

RP99 -Jan/Feb 2000 RP103 -Sept/Oct 2000

Ben Watson: Scruton's Backwoods Musicology Julian Petley: New Labour versus Horny Catbabe
Peter Hallward: Recent French Philosophy Peter Osborne: Radicalism and Philosophy
Matt F. Connell: Adorno's Proustian Sublimations Lynne Segal: Psychoanalysis and Politics
Steve Giles: Reflections on Kracauer's 'Mass Ornament' Jonathan Dollimore: Wishful Theory and Sexual Politics
John Roberts: On Autonomy and the Avant-Garde
RP100 -March/April2000 John Kraniauskas: Empire, or Multitude -Transnational Negri
Homi K. Bhabha: On Minorities: Cultural Rights
Mark Neocleous: Against Security RP104 -Nov/Dec 2000
Simon Critchley: The Ethics of Alain Badiou Madeleine Davis: Dictators and Democrats in Latin America
Chetan Bhatt: Primordia! Being Howard Caygill: Levinas's Political Judgement
Lance & Tanesini: Identity Judgements, Queer Politics Bill Schwarz: Actually Existing Postcolonialism
Kevin Magill on A.J. Ayer: A Life Jay Bernstein: Social Signs and Natural Bodies

April 2001

Commentary John Roberts: Protest and Survive

Articles Monique Schneider: Genealogies of the Masculine
Catherine Malabou: History as Mourning

Neil Smith: New Geographies, Old Ontologies

Reviews Swasti Mitter on Nussbaum's Women and Development

Stewart Martin on Badiou's Manifesto for Philosophy

Nathan Widder on Patton's Deleuze and the Political

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JANUARY'FEBRUARY 2001

Editorial collective COMMENTARY

Chris Arthur, Andrew Chitty, Diana
Coole, Howard Feather,Jean Grimshaw, NewLiberalSpeak: Notes on the New Planetary Vulgate
Esther Leslie, JosephMcCarney, Kevin
Magill, Stewart Martin, Mark Neocleous, Pierre Bourdieu and Loic Wacquant 2
Peter Osborne,Stella Sandford, Sean
Sayers, AlessandraTanesini

Editorial group ARTICLES

Howard Feather,Kevin Magill, Stewart
Martin, Mark Neocleous,Peter Osborne Feminism against 'the Feminine'
(Reviews), Stella Sandford, Alessandra
Tanesini
StellaSandford

Contributors The Constitution of Society: Pinochet, Postdictatorship and the

Pierre Bourdieu is Professor of Multitude
Sociology at the College de France and Jon Beasley-Murray
Director of Studies at the Ecole des
Hautes Etudes en SciencesSociales
Loic Wacquant teachesin the Department Gillian Rose and the Project of a Critical Marxism
of Sociology at the University of Tony Gorman '.."""
California, Berkeley.
Stella Sandford te~chesphilosophy at Kant's 'Raw Man' and the Miming of Primitivism:
Middlesex University. She is the author of
The Metaphysics ofLove: Gender and Spivak's Critique of Postcolonial Reason
Transcendencein Levinas (Athlone, 2000). ChetanBhatt 37
Jon Beasley-Murray is Lecturer in Latin
American Studies at the University of
Manchester. He has published articles on
Peronism and cultural studies, Sendero REVIEWS
Luminoso and civil society theory, and
Gilles Deleuze's film theory. Adriana Cavarero. RelatingNarratives: Storytelli.ngand Seif1wod
Tony Gorman teachesphilosophy at the CarolynSteedman , 45
University of Staffordshire.
Chetan Bhatt teachessociology at Judith Butler, Emesto Laclau and Slavoj Zitek, Contingency,Hegemony,
Goldsmiths College. He is the author of Universality: ContemporaryDialogues on the Left
Liberation and Purity (UCL Press, 1997) John Roberts """"""""""""""""""""""""""" 48
and a forthcolning book, Hindu
Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Giorgio Agamben,Remnants ofAuschwitz: The Witnessand the Archive
Modem Myths (Berg). Victor Jeleniewski Seidler,Shadows of the Shoah: Jewishidentity and
Belonging
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