SOCI 109. Inequality, US Democracy, and Bourdieu

This seminar is centered on reading Bourdieu’s Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste and understanding the state of democracy and politics in the contemporary US*. Distinction* lays out and applies a set of principles for understanding social inequality, with a particular focus on how people’s cultural tastes or practices are often used to justify their dominated social position. We will read the entire book and some of Bourdieu’s other work on social class and politics, in conversation with works in contemporary sociology and political science. We will think together about how different racial and class groups in the US engage (or not) with politics and democracy, with particular attention to the forces that have facilitated the rise of authoritarianism and White Christian nationalism in the US.
Social sciences.
2 credits.
Spring 2026. Laurison.
Catalog chapter: Sociology and Anthropology
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology

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