Page 100 - Contemporary Cultural Theory 3rd edition

ContCultural Theory Text Pages 4/4/03 1:42 PM Page 91

Critical theory: from ideology critique to the sociology of culture

insisted that sociological ‘science’ could itself uncover ‘the pos-
sibilities for action’ that politics will need to explore (p. 629).
Where the Frankfurt School had conceived of intellectuals as
significantly productive of critical sensibility, Bourdieu tended to
detect only material self-interest. This kind of ‘reflexive’ critique
is necessary, he argued, to break with the ‘habits of thought,
cognitive interests and cultural beliefs bequeathed by several
centuries of literary, artistic or philosophical worship’ (Bourdieu
2000, p. 7). But such cynicism can easily lead to a radical over-
estimation of the reproductive powers of the social status quo.
Bourdieu struggled to find ways of thinking the role of the
intellectual that could allow for his own developing aspiration
to activism. Hence his interest in what he termed the ‘corporatism
of the universal’, the idea that intellectuals have a kind of collec-
tive self-interest in the defence of the culture sphere, which can
somehow translate into something close to a traditional humanist
politics (Bourdieu, 1989; Bourdieu, 1996). The problem should be
obvious, however: the approach belied his own scepticism about
the intelligentsia’s pretensions to distinction, while simultane-
ously understating the general moral significance of his own
political interventions. As a British socialist writer observed:
‘Bourdieu’s political stance...is...less a reflection [of] than
an antidote to aspects of his theoretical vision’ (Wolfreys, 2000,
p. 99). Whatever the limits and possibilities of Frankfurt School
critical theory, this could hardly ever be said of either Adorno
or Habermas.

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