This is the first comprehensive description of Pierre Bourdieus theory of culture and habitus. Within the wider intellectual context of Bourdieus 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 Bourdieus work. She introduces his 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 Bourdieus 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.