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Capital culturel et inégalités sociales

Morales de classes et destinées sociales

Preface by Stéphane Bonnery

Bibliothèque idéale des sciences sociales



Cultural capital and social inequalities.
Class morals and social destinies

The (re)publication in the Bibliothèque Idéale des Sciences Sociales (Bi2S) of the work of Georges Liénard and Émile Servais finally brings to the attention of the scientific community an unjustly unknown investigation. Indeed, although it was published in 1978 in Belgium by Vie Ouvrière, this book has not circulated much in France. It is therefore practically a question of giving access to it for the first time. The book is the result of a sociology thesis carried out by two researchers, and it reports on one of the first surveys on the socialization of children conducted in the homes of families from different social classes.

The new preface by Stéphane Bonnéry, after the original one by Jean Remy and Jean-Claude Chamboredon, as well as the afterword by Georges Liénard, Éric Mangez and Hugues Draelants, underline its precursory character for the sociology of education and children.

Thus, this book describes the practices of differentiated socialization according to family groups of various social classes, the inter- and intra-generational trajectories in which they are inscribed, the representations that children and their families make of their future, in particular the work they hope to do and the social position they aspire to. Based on these in-depth descriptions, the sociological analysis shows how the practices of differentiated socialization are both a habituation and an internalization of the future social position.