Des héritiers aux initiés? Note sur les nouvelles modalités de la reproduction sociale par l’école

Abstract

In the French-language literature on education, the notion of the inheritor, popularized by Bourdieu and Passeron’s 1964 book, is still commonly used to evoke the ideal-typical student from the most socially advantaged backgrounds. But does it truly capture what is at stake today in the reproduction of social inequalities at school? Several societal and educational changes prompt us to take a new look at the theories and concepts used to explain and interpret the modes in which social inequalities reproduce themselves. To condense and evoke what characterizes today’s privileged student, we have extended the metaphor of the ‘insider’, asking ourselves what are the adjustments this new language would suggest for the theory of social reproduction. The issue of access to elite institutions in France is an empirical illustration of the heuristic potential of such an approach.