Bell's the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism and Bordieu

This book evaluates this controversial work. His breakdown of society as social structure, polity and culture is discussed. And it considers the idea of social identity and how Bourdieu sees this developed and maintained with the ideas of social capital and cultural capital. In The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976), Bell contends that the developments of twentieth-century capitalism have led to a contradiction between the cultural sphere of consumerist instant self-gratification and the demand, in the economic sphere, for hard-working, productive individuals. Bell articulates this through his "three realms" methodology, which divides modern society into the cultural, economic, and political spheres. Bell's concern is that, with the growth of the welfare state throughout the post-war years, the population is beginning to demand that the state fulfill the hedonistic desires that the cultural sphere is encouraging. That dovetails with the ongoing requirement for the state to maintain the kind of strong economic environment conducive to continual growth.