The things purer, more sublime, the things of art, are no different from social and sociological objects. In fact, their "purification" and their estrangement from the everyday world are the result of specific social relations. And these relationships constitute the universe where they are produced, distributed, consumed and where the belief in its value is generated.

In the texts that compose this book, Pierre Bourdieu analyzes in detail the rules that shape, in each field of cultural production, what is considered valuable and what is not, and what are the processes and agents that lead to the consecration of an artist or a Work, or to his forgetfulness. Thus, it is concerned with describing the system of hierarchies and struggles for distinction that operates in the field of publishing houses, theater, art galleries and museums. Through notions such as field, symbolic capital, habitus, illusio, Bourdieu demonstrates that dispositions and acts considered more individual and freer - for example, literary and musical tastes - are crossed by the social logic that determines the legitimacy of certain Artistic forms and the heretical character of others.

The power of this analysis is also that it explains the relations between art and politics and reveals the possibilities of subverting the verdicts and bets of the artistic game. One way of arguing that domination relations can be questioned.