As Pierre Bourdieu observed in his studies on the reproduction of the French elites in the Grandes Écoles (e.g., Bourdieu 1989) based on empirical data from the 1960s and 1970s, the cultural capital plays a key role in the entrance to these institutions. This capital manifests itself in formations of ‘habitus’, which decisively determine the selection criteria especially in the oral examinations (“concours”). To date, the very harsh social selectivity for admission to a Grande École hasn’t diminished; on the contrary, it has increased further.

What role does the cultural capital of candidates play in today’s admission procedure and which of its facets receives special attention in the selection process? These practices that produce power effects during the admission process can also be understood as discursive practices. The analysis of elite and excellence discourses in a determined institution may enable the reconstruction of collective interpretation patterns on the subjective conditions of candidates admitted to these elite colleges, and of the power effects that these discourses are producing. In this context it is possible to elaborate the importance of cultural capital in the selection processes. Such a discourse analysis is the subject of this study, which is dedicated to the problem of reproduction of the future scientific elite at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS).

The focus of this contribution is the methodological reflection of the analysis of elite and excellence discourses, that allows working on the question of whether dimensions of cultural capital play a role in the admission to the ENS, and if so, which ones. For the theoretical foundation of the discourse analysis various elements of the discourse theories of Foucault and Bourdieu are synthesized and developed as a framework for the analysis. For both authors, the concept of discourse is very closely related to the concept of power. Foucault (1971, p. 22) understands discourses as practices that produce power effects in the sense of a “huge machinery of exclusion”. Simultaneously he delivers fruitful elements for the reconstruction of rule systems for discourses. While Foucault focuses on the internal structure of discourses, the research interest of Bourdieu (e.g., 1982) is aimed more at the external conditions of discourses, i.e. their social embedding. A synthesis of elements from both discourse theories as a framework for this study seems beneficial in this context. Simultaneously, based on this theoretical framework a concrete research program of a discourse analysis will be developed.

This study on the effects of elite and excellence discourses and in the elite educational system in France, which has a tradition stretching back over 200 years, has a special interest for countries like Germany, where these discourses, especially in the field of higher education (e.g., the “excellence initiative”), have arisen only recently.

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