User:Ccarson2/Distinction (sociology)

In sociology, distinction is a social force that assigns different values upon different people in societies. In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (La Distinction, 1979), Pierre Bourdieu described how the powers that be define aesthetic concepts such as "taste", whereby the social class of a person tends to determine his or her cultural interests, likes, and dislikes, and how political and socio-economic, racial and sexual distinctions, based upon social class, are reinforced in daily life within society. Moreover, in The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can't be Jammed (2004), Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter describe "distinction" as a social competition in which the styles of social fashion are in continual development, and that the men and women who do not follow the development of social trends soon become stale, and irrelevant to their social-class stratum.

Cultural Distinction
Interest in distinctions within culture is further being explored leading to new ideas. Cultural distinction is being expanded upon by the cultural capital, which are the social assets of a person, and a key element of visual display empowerment.

External appearance plays a role in forms of cultural capital that may be more extrovert. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu discussed an objectified cultural capital, where the visual aesthetic of people or objects is more important than the inner-meaning. Bourdieu argues that pictures that are not attractive become appealing because of the high levels of cultural capital. Giselinde Kuipers evaluated physical looks among four European countries. Her study found the relationship of social position and beauty for males was weakest, but for females was highest. This study reflected Bourdieu’s aesthetic disposition because Kuiper found that young and educated people are attracted to a an original beauty. Kuipers research presents evidence of cultural capital being more transmissible. Such examples being younger generations having different aesthetic styles into traditional culture.

Legal Distinction
Distinctions of legal societies, being internal and external perspectives, play a role on the way law communities are viewed. Legal distinction’s position in society is determined by a variety of factors such as culture, ideology, politics, economics, science, education and technology.

Sociologist Max Weber uses assessment of value judgments against socio-scholars. Sociology scholars, in law, are commonly viewed as fixers of law policies who give important guidance to the law makers. Weber argues that socio-scholars have to show passion for any value among society.

Law and morals should be separated according to the separation thesis. This thesis is criticized by many sociologists due to systems being separated from normative systems in society. Distinction in legal and social science is shown to be different from the normative order.

Roger Cotterrell argues law is made up of a communal network and the operations within are determined by intrinsic values. In Cotterrell’s argument, he concludes a dualistic view of law being symbolic and instrumental by socio-legal theory instead of legal theory to determine legal normativity.

Military Distinction
Military distinction deals with the roles of military personnel and society. Various differing roles in many countries could change the distinction military perceives to society.

Task changes in the military has changed the view on society for the role that is established. Soldiers are viewed as peacekeepers and identify with this role while also being in the role of a warrior. Terrorism is another factor that plays a role on military and their perception by society. Terrorism is a major threat that military deal with and are not typically tasks of police forces. Society sees the structural position of the military to be separate from police forces.

Civil-military divide influences roles of work force and military organization. The two groups interact by social, cultural, and educational differences. Roles are defined by relationships between military personnel and citizen-soldiers. Social actors, like threats to environment, cause tensions that could be brought into discussion for differing sectors of military.

Peer Review Response (remember to remove before moving)
Thank you to users CJMcKenna98 and Bellanapodano for providing me with feedback for my rough draft of my article. Adding a link to what cultural capital in the “Cultural Distinction” paragraph will be helpful so pointing that out was good. Also changing the wording around a little. As for Legal distinction I will indeed make sure people know certain terms like socio-scholars is sociology scholars.


 * Add more hyperlinks to help people who are not familiar with the topic
 * Word some of the paragraphs better
 * Provide better descriptions for the lay person