The main objective of this article is highlighting the importance of operating with concepts, accepting the challenges posed by the empirical reality. For that, the study was based on empirical material that resulted from researches conducted by the Research Group in the Sociology of Education - SOCED/PUC-Rio. On several occasions, Bourdieu questioned the purely theoretical interpretation of his concepts. "To put the theoretical things in play" was the author's recommendation many a time. In the present text we try to exemplify the results of the experience of operating with his concepts, focusing on two main aspects: the conditions for the transformation of the habitus, and the empirical outline of the cultural capital of the school elites studied in prestige institutions in Rio de Janeiro. In studying the latter aspect, Bourdieu's proposal of working "with and against the authors" came to the forefront. As much as we value his work in the Sociology of Education, the empirical description of cultural capital in his vast production issues from the French reality of the decades during which he developed his studies. To operate with the concept of cultural capital in a way adequate to the empirical challenges that we faced, we made use of authors that discussed the transformations of the cultural field beyond the perspective of the boundaries between high culture and popular culture as analyzed by Bourdieu.
Habitus; Cultural capital; Transformations; Cultural practices; School elites