This paper analyses social capital structures in the field of power, based on data from the Norwegian Power and Democracy Survey on elites. Separating between objectified, institutionalised, embodied, and inherited social capital, and inspired by Bourdieu's approach, we analyse the relations between social capital and the other forms of capital by way of specific multiple correspondence analysis and ascending hierarchical cluster analysis. First, we find that the level of institutionalised social capital varies from one fraction of the Norwegian elite to another. Secondly, the range of networks established through previous work experiences is related to field seniority. Thirdly, the positions of highest endogamy are situated in the religious field, and to a lesser extent, in the scientific field, and in the juridical field. Finally, the 'core of the core' is defined by actors who are strongly interconnected inside what is called 'the tripartite system', with a high level of multipositionality and intersectorial connections.Certain reliable indications exist that the science of political class is divided into three camps, corresponding to the three sectors that compose it: the first is the sense of energetic volition, the second is economic and the third is intellectual /. . . /. These three groups together constitute the political class, and their interdependence and interaction are such as to obscure often the criteria that distinguish them from one another. They form circles which, though far from coinciding with one another, have points of intersection. To fix the relations of these circles is the most important and most arduous task before us. (Michels (1949). First Lectures in Political Sociology: 106-7)Although the notion of social capital has been an increasingly popular concept since the mid-1990s, and although most analyses focus on network relations and resources, there is no agreed definition of social capital or consensus on how it should be measured. Nor are there many studies that link social capital to social class and elite positions in a comprehensive and systematic way. The purpose of this article is to forge that link, by way of an analysis of the distribution of social capital in the Norwegian field of power.The concept 'field The Sociological Review, 59:1 (2011)

In this article we analyse class cultures by mapping out differences in ‘original taste’; that is, respondents’ classed preferences for food and drink. By employing Multiple Correspondence Analysis, we produce a relational model of tastes. Using three indicators of social class – occupational class, income and education – we find clear class divisions. The upper and middle classes exhibit diverse and what are typically regarded as ‘healthy’ tastes; this contrasts with the more restricted and what are typically regarded as ‘less healthy’ tastes found among the working classes. Our findings challenge ongoing debates within cultural stratification research where it has become almost usual to demonstrate that the contemporary upper and middle classes exhibit playful tastes for the ‘cosmopolitan’ and the ‘exotic’. We find that upper- and middle-class households also enjoy very traditional foodstuffs. We argue that this illustrates a need for a relational understanding of taste: even the consumption of the traditional peasant food of pre-capitalist Norway can be refashioned as a badge of distinction in the 21st century.

This essay examines how the contemporary city is being redefined as a fundamental

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