Forms of capital and mobility in the political field: Applying Bourdieu's conceptual framework to UK party politics

This article makes the case for applying Bourdieu's sociological approach and research tools to the issue of recruitment and upward mobility within political parties. In particular, it engages with his concepts of 'field' and 'capital', and explores the varied forms of capital that contemporary politicians acquire as they progress in the profession of politics. In so doing, it makes use of Bourdieu's schema for integrating socio-economic, field-specific, cultural and symbolic factors into discussions of political advancement and power. This framework is then used to interpret empirical material collected from a study of elected politicians at Westminster. This documents and compares the forms of capital possessed by front and back-bench politicians, new and old, in the UK political field. The findings here suggest that the forms of capital being acquired by the newest generation of front-bench politicians, clearly distinguishes them from both the older generation and from the larger pool of elected MPs. British Politics (2010) 5, 202-223. doi:10.1057/bp.2010.2