From Bourdieu to Piketty: tracing the emergence of ‘un nouveau capitalisme patrimonial’

Abstract

ABSTRACT Thomas Piketty has claimed that his best-selling study of socio-economic inequality, Le Capital au XXIe siècle is significantly indebted to Pierre Bourdieu’s work on social class and distinction. This claim has not convinced a number of commentators in France who claim some allegiance to Bourdieu’s theoretical legacy. Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, Didier Eribon, and Frédéric Lordon have argued that Piketty’s work represents a betrayal of Bourdieu’s legacy in its advocacy of the myths of meritocracy and liberalism. This article argues to the contrary that Piketty’s analyses of an emerging global elite can be interpreted as developing Bourdieu’s empirical findings and theoretical approach in important ways. It shows, first, that Piketty’s formula explaining the mechanism driving inequality (r > g) is directly translatable into Bourdieu’s theoretical lexicon. Second, the article argues that Bourdieu’s analyses of ‘la nouvelle bourgeoisie’ in both La Distinction and La Noblesse d’État anticipate Piketty’s later work on the global elite that has emerged under ‘un nouveau capitalisme patrimonial’. Finally, the article demonstrates that Piketty’s enquiries have led him to question both meritocracy and liberalism, in their classic forms, and ponders the possible political significance of this abandonment.