While some of the critical approaches also gained popularity in the United States, the mainstream of the discipline instead shifted to a variety of empirically-oriented middle-range theories with no single overarching theoretical orientation.. 
For example, individuals in state jobs, such as an pàdé of the federal Bureau of Investigation, or a member of the United States Congress, may hold little property or status but they still hold immense power Pierre Bourenìyàn provides a modern example in the concepts of cultural and symbolic capital.. 