Original scientific paper
Cultural capital and simbolic power: the three aspects of bourdieu's theory of ideology
Nenad Fanuko
orcid.org/0000-0002-4047-6252
; Filozofski fakultet u Rijeci
Abstract
The fundamental concepts of Bourdieu’s sociology – capital, habitus, fi eld and symbolic power – are reviewed with regard to the issue of ideology. In Bourdieu’s analysis of ideology one can distinguish three related and intertwined aspects. The fi rst is linked to Marx and structuralism, where ideology is conceived at the structural level with regard to its
function and mode of operation as well as its relation to other structural levels. The second aspect is “durkhemian” and ideology is considered as a system of classifi cations (hierarchies) and their legitimation. Habitus as the socialised subjectivity is central here. The third aspect is “weberian” where ideology is viewed as a fi eld with special regard to its producers – specialists. As any other fi eld, ideological fi eld is relatively autonomous so its products cannot be directly linked to the interests of the dominant class, as vulgar Marxism does. Bourdieu does not emphasise enough the distinction between ideology in durkhemian sense, as systems of classifi cation and aspect of “lived experience”, and ideology as the product of specialists’ work within the intellectual (i.e. ideological) fi eld ruled by its own laws. Although processes in the ideological fi eld do refl ect and reproduce power relations in the fi eld of social classes, the connection between the two is not presented clearly enough.
Keywords
ideology; sociological theory; Bourdieu; cultural capital; symbolic power; habitus; field
Hrčak ID:
82617
URI
Publication date:
30.5.2009.
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