Structures of Consumption and Professional Identity: An Analysis of the French Household Budget Survey

Abstract

As conventional class categories hide too much pertinent information, there is a growing body of work on lifestyles and consumption patterns of more detailed occupational groups that seeks to distinguish the underlying social structures. While research in Bourdieusian class analysis focuses on class practices, limited attention is paid to agents’ strategic interests. Using French household expenditure data, this article explores the structures of consumption, instrumental for professional advancement, within the ‘service class’. The article provides conclusive evidence of maintained distinctions between the identities of business, technical and educational professionals through the expenditure-based structures of consumption. The study illustrates the capacity of Bourdieu’s capital composition principle to reveal the social structures. The article argues that the instrumental, capital-signalling role of strategic investments in the markers of distinction resonates with the principles of Bourdieu’s logic, delineating not only the symbolic but also the social space, with implications for understanding inequality.