Ricardo: >- The habitus (Bourdieu's term) of the academic is not, never will >be that of the worker. To academics the most important goal is to >excel within their own habitus; publication being the main strategy >for success. While academic journals and books are >hardly published with a view to profit maximization, there is a cultural >marketplace in which academics can accumulate cultural capital which >they can use to further improve their position. The idea of cultural capital certainly describes what's going on here. My only problem with Bourdieu is that he casts it all in Marxish terms, when it is really not necessary. Snobbery and mandarinism have been around forever. Can't remember the name of the film, but a few years ago there was this French flick about an educated son of a peasant who arrives in pre-revolutionary Paris in the 1760s. He finds that the way to advance in court society was through verbal duels with aristocrats, who have mastered the art of witty "bon mots". He finds that he excels at this and works his way up the social ladder, until he is accepted by the top ranks. When he is finally at the mountain-top of the social elite, he realizes that they are basically shallow and worthless. He goes back to the countryside and dedicates himself to clearing swamps, so peasants won't get malaria. Can't say I've been to the mountain-top of academic Marxism, but what I've seen up there from the lower plateaus pretty much inspires me to go in the opposite direction. Barkley just sent me private mail telling me that the acceptance rate for these obscure academic journals is between 10 and 15 percent, so I shouldn't get discouraged. I told him that I never had any intention of breaking into the inner sanctum. Prior to this misadventure with CNS, just about everything I've written appeared on a mailing list first. That's the way I like it. No idiotic rejection letters. God, I know why all this turns my stomach. It makes me feel like I'm back in high school again. I was ready to join the trenchcoat militia last night after getting O'Connor's rambling missive. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
