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@article{ Wilterdink2017, title = {The Dynamics of Inequality and Habitus Formation: Elias, Bourdieu, and the Rise of Nationalist Populism}, author = {Wilterdink, Nico}, journal = {Historical Social Research}, number = {4}, pages = {22-42}, volume = {42}, year = {2017}, issn = {0172-6404}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.42.2017.4.22-42}, urn = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-55146-8}, abstract = {This article deals with the dynamics of social inequality and social stratification from a historical-sociological perspective. It purports to clarify basic problems in this field with the help of insights developed by sociologists Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. I systematically compare both thinkers’ ideas on the dynamics of inequality, pointing out similarities and divergences, and critically discuss them. After a summary of basic notions in their work, the paper deals subsequently with the reproduction of inequality in connection with habitus formation; changes in inequality structures over time - more specifically, trends of de-creasing inequality (functional democratisation) and increasing inequality (functional de-democratisation); and the causal connections between changes in inequality structures and changes in habitus, mentality, and ideology. The final section of the paper focuses on a current issue: the emergence of populism in contemporary Western societies. On the basis of the preceding argument, I advance a tentative explanation of the rise of nationalist populism in the context of tendencies of increasing socioeconomic inequality.}, keywords = {populism; Bourdieu, P.; Elias, N.; Elias, N.; Habitus; Macht; soziale Schichtung; power; Populismus; soziale Klasse; social stratification; habits; Bourdieu, P.; social inequality; social class; soziale Ungleichheit}}