Social Space and Symbolic Power

Author(s): Pierre Bourdieu

Source: Sociological Theory , Spring, 1989, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1989), pp. 14-25
Published by: American Sociological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/202060

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 SOCIAL SPACE AND SYMBOLIC POWER*

PIERRE BOURDIEU
College (re France

I would like, within the limits of a lecture, ists, while works that come from a much
to try and present the theoretical principlesearlier period (so old, in fact, that they
which are at the base of the research even precede the emergence of the typically
whose results are presented in my"constructivist"
book writings on the same topics)
Distinction (Bourdieu 1984a), and and
draw
which would probably make them
perceive me as a "constructivist" have
out those of its theoretical implications
that are most likely to elude its readers,
characteristically been ignored. Thus, in a
book due
particularly here in the United States, entitled Pedagogic Relationship and
Communication (Bourdieu et al. 1965), we
to the differences between our respective
cultural and scholarly traditions. showed how the social relation of under-
If I had to characterize my work standing
in two in the classroom is constructed in
words, that is, as is the fashion theseand through misunderstanding, or in spite
days,
of misunderstanding; how teachers and
to label it, I would speak of constructivist
structuralism or of structuralist constructiv- students agree, by a sort of tacit transaction
ism, taking the word structuralism in a tacitly guided by the concern to minimize
sense very different from the one it has costs and risks, to agree on a minimal
acquired in the Saussurean or Levi-Straus- definition of the situation of communi-
sian tradition. By structuralism or struc- cation. Likewise, in another study entitled
turalist, I mean that there exist, within the "The Categories of Professorial Judgment"
social world itself and not only within (Bourdieu and de Saint Martin 1975), we
symbolic systems (language, myths, etc.), tried to analyze the genesis and functioning
objective structures independent of the of the categories of perception and appre-
consciousness and will of agents, which are ciation through which professors construct
capable of guiding and constraining their an image of their students, of their per-
practices or their representations. By con- formance and of their value, and (re)pro-
duce, through practices of cooptation
structivism, I mean that there is a twofold
social genesis, on the one hand of the guided by the same categories, the very
schemes of perception, thought, and action group of their colleagues and the faculty. I
which are constitutive of what I call habitus, now close this digression and return to my
and on the other hand of social structures, argument.
and particularly of what I call fields and of
groups, notably those we ordinarily call
social classes.
I think that it is particularly necessary to
Speaking in the most general terms, social
set the record straight here: indeed, science, the be it anthropology, sociology or
hazards of translation are such that, for history, oscillates between two seemingly
instance, my book Reproduction in Edu- incompatible points of view, two apparently
cation, Society and Culture (Bourdieu andirreconcilable perspectives: objectivism and
Passeron 1977) is well known, which will subjectivism or, if you prefer, between
lead certain commentators-and some of physicalism and psychologism (which can
them have not hesitated to do so-to take on various colorings, phenomeno-
classify me squarely among the structural- logical, semiological, etc.). On the one
hand, it can "treat social facts as things,"
* This is the text of a lecture delivered at the according to the old Durkheimian precept,
University of California, San Diego, in March of leave out everything that they
and thus
1986, translated from the French by Loic J. D.
Wacquant. A French version appeared in Pierre
owe to the fact that they are objects of
Bourdieu, Choses dites (Paris, Editions de Minuit, knowledge, of cognition-or misrecog-
1987, pp. 147-166). nition-within social existence. On the

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SOCIAL SPACE AND SYMBOLIC POWER 15

other hand, it can reduce the social worldonly by means of a break with
be obtained
to the representations that agents primary
have representations-called
of "pre-
notions"
it, the task of social science consisting in Durkheim and "ideologies" in
then
in producing an "account of the Marx-leading
accounts" to unconscious causes. In
produced by social subjects. the second instance, scientific knowledge
Rarely are these two positions is expressed
in continuity with common sense knowl-
and above all realized in scientific practice
edge, since it is nothing but a "construct of
in such a radical and contrasted manner. constructs."
We know that Durkheim is no doubt, If I have somewhat belabored this
together with Marx, the one who expressed opposition-one of the most harmful
these "paired concepts" which, as Reinhar
the objectivist position in the most consistent
manner. "We believe this idea to be Bendix and Bennett Berger (1959) hav
fruitful, he wrote (Durkheimshown, 1970, p.
pervade the social sciences-it
because
250), that social life must be explained, notthe most steadfast (and, in m
by the conception of those who participate
eyes, the most important) intention guidin
in it, but by deep causes which lie
myoutside
work has been to overcome it. At th
risk
of consciousness." However, being a of appearing quite obscure, I cou
good
Kantian, Durkheim was not unaware of sum up in one phrase the gist of the
the fact that this reality can only beanalysis I am putting forth today: on th
grasped by employing logical instruments, one hand, the objective structures that the
categories, classifications. This being said,
sociologist constructs, in the objectivist
objectivist physicalism often goes hand in moment, by setting aside the subjectiv
hand with the positivist proclivity to con- representations of the agents, form th
ceive classifications as mere "operational" basis for these representations and const
partitions, or as the mechanical recording tute the structural constraints that bear
of breaks or "objective" discontinuities (asupon interactions; but, on the other hand,
in statistical distributions for instance). these representations must also be taken
It is no doubt in the work of Alfred into consideration particularly if one wants
Schutz and of the ethnomethodologists
to account for the daily struggles, individual
that one would find the purest expression
and collective, which purport to transform
of the subjectivist vision. Thus Schutz
or to preserve these structures. This means
(1962, p. 59) embraces the standpoint
that the two moments, the objectivist and
exactly opposite to Durkheini's: "The
the subjectivist, stand in a dialectical
observational field of the social scientist-
relationship (Bourdieu 1977) and that, for
social reality-has a specific meaning and instance, even if the subjectivist moment
relevance structure for the human beings seems very close, when taken separately,
living, acting, and thinking within it. By to
a interactionist or ethnomethodological
series of common-sense constructs, they analyses, it still differs radically from
have pre-selected and pre-interpreted this them: points of view are grasped as such
world which they experience as the reality and related to the positions they occupy in
of their daily life. It is these thought
the structure of agents under consideration.
objects of theirs which determine their In order to transcend the artificial oppo-
behavior by motivating it. The thoughtsition that is thus created between structures
objects constructed by the social scientistand representations, one must also break
in order to grasp this social reality have to with the mode of thinking which Cassirer
be founded upon the thought objects(1923) calls substantialist and which inclines
constructed by the common-sense thinking one to recognize no reality other than
of men, living their daily life within their those that are available to direct intuition
social world. Thus, the constructs of the in ordinary experience, i.e., individuals
social sciences are, so to speak, constructs and groups. The major contribution of
of the second degree, that is, constructs of what must rightly be called the structuralist
the constructs made by the actors on the revolution consists in having applied to the
social scene." The opposition is total: insocial world the relational mode of thinking
the first instance, scientific knowledge can which is that of modern mathematics and

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16 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

distances.
physics, and which identifies the real not Such is not the case in real
with substances but with relations space. It is true that one can observe
(Bourdieu
almost everywhere a tendency toward
1968). The "social reality" which Durkheim
spoke of is an ensemble of invisible
spatial rela-
segregation, people who are close
together in social space tending to find
tions, those very relations which constitute
themselves,
a space of positions external to each other by choice or by necessity,
and defined by their proximity to, close to one another in geographic space;
neighbor-
hood with, or distance from each other,
nevertheless, people who are very distant
fromabove
and also by their relative position, each other in social space can en-
or below or yet in between, in the middle.
counter one another and interact, if only
Sociology, in its objectivist moment, is intermittently,
briefly and a in physical space.
social topology, an analysis situsInteractions,
as they which bring immediate grati-
called this new branch of mathematics in fication to those with empiricist dispositions
Leibniz's time, an analysis of relative
-they can be observed, recorded, filmed,
positions and of the objective relations
in sum, they are tangible, one can "reach
between these positions. out and touch them"-mask the structures
that are realized in them. This is one of
This relational mode of thinking is at the
point of departure of the construction those cases where the visible, that which is
presented in Distinction. It is a fair bet,
immediately given, hides the invisible which
determines it. One thus forgets that the
however, that the space, that is, the system
of relations, will go unnoticed by the truth of any interaction is never entirely to
reader, despite the use of diagrams (andbeoffound within the interaction as it avails
itself for observation. One example will
correspondence analysis, a very sophisti-
cated form of factorial analysis). This suffice
is to bring out the difference between
structure and interaction and, at the same
due, first, to the fact that the substantialist
mode of thinking is easier to adopt and time, between the structuralist vision I
flows more "naturally." Secondly, thisdefend
is as a necessary (but not sufficient)
because, as often happens, the means one moment of research and the so-called
has to use to construct social space and interactionist
to vision in all its forms (and
exhibit its structure risk concealing theespecially ethnomethodology). I have in
results they enable one to reach. The
mind what I call strategies of condescension,
those strategies by which agents who
groups that must be constructed in order
to objectivize the positions they occupy occupy a higher position in one of the
hide those positions. Thus the chapterhierarchies
of of objective space symbolically
Distinction devoted to the different fractions
deny the social distance between them-
of the dominant class will be read as a selves and others, a distance which does
description of the various lifestyles of
not thereby cease to exist, thus reaping the
profits
these fractions, instead of an analysis of of the recognition granted to a
locations in the space of positions purely
of symbolic denegation of distance
power-what I call the field of power. ("she is unaffected," "he is not highbrow"
or "stand-offish," etc.) which implies a
(Parenthesis: one may see here that changes
in vocabulary are at once the conditionrecognition of distances. (The expressions
and the product of a break with I the just quoted always have an implicit rider:
ordinary representation associated"she withis unaffected, for a duchess," "he is
the idea of "ruling class"). not so highbrow, for a university professor,"
At this point of the discussion, we and so on.) In short, one can use objective
can
compare social space to a geographic distances
space in such a way as to cumulate the
within which regions are divided up. advantages
But of propinquity and the advan-
this space is constructed in such a waytages
that of distance, that is, distance and the
recognition of distance warranted by its
the closer the agents, groups or institutions
which are situated within this space, symbolic
the denegation.
more common properties they have; and How can we concretely grasp these
the more distant, the fewer. Spatialobjective
dis- relations which are irreducible to
tances-on paper-coincide with social the interactions by which they manifest

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SOCIAL SPACE AND SYMBOLIC POWER 17

themselves? These objective relations Add to this the fact that this sense of
are
the relations between positions occupied one's place, and the affinities of habitus
within the distributions of the resources experienced as sympathy or antipathy, are
at the basis of all forms of cooptation,
which are or may become active, effective,
like aces in a game of cards, in the friendships, love affairs, marriages, asso-
competition for the appropriation of scarce ciations, and so on, thus of all the relation-
goods of which this social universe is the ships that are lasting and sometimes
site. According to my empirical investi- sanctioned by law, and you will see that
gations, these fundamental powers are everything leads one to think that classes
economic capital (in its different forms), on paper are real groups-all the more
cultural capital, social capital, and symbolic real in that the space is better constructed
capital, which is the form that the various and the units cut into this space are
species of capital assume when they are smaller. If you want to launch a political
perceived and recognized as legitimate movement or even an association, you will
(Bourdieu 1986a). Thus agents are distri- have a better chance of bringing together
buted in the overall social space, in the people who are in the same sector of social
first dimension, according to the overall space (for instance, in the northwest region
volume of capital they possess and, in the of the diagram, where intellectuals are)
second dimension, according to the struc- than if you want to bring together people
ture of their capital, that is, the relative situated in regions at the four corners of
weight of the different species of capital, the diagram.
economic and cultural, in the total volume But just as subjectivism inclines one to
of their assets. reduce structures to visible interactions,
The misunderstanding that the analyses objectivism tends to deduce actions and
proposed particularly in Distinction elicit interactions from the structure. So the
are thus due to the fact that classes on crucial error, the theoreticist error that
paper are liable to being apprehended you as
find in Marx, would consist in treating
real groups. This realist (mis)reading is on paper as real classes, in con-
classes
objectively encouraged by the fact thatfrom the objective homogeneity of
cluding
social space is so constructed that agents
conditions, of conditionings, and thus of
who occupy similar or neighboringdispositions,
posi- which flows from the identity
tions are placed in similar conditions and
of position in social space, that the agents
subjected to similar conditionings, and exist as a unified group, as a class.
involved
therefore have every chance of havingThe notion of social space allows us to go
beyond
similar dispositions and interests, and thus the alternative of realism and
nominalism when it comes to social classes
of producing practices that are themselves
similar. The dispositions acquired in the
(Bourdieu 1985): the political work aimed
position occupied imply an adjustment to
at producing social classes as corporate
this position, what Goffman calls the permanent groups endowed with
bodies,
"sense of one's place." It is this sense of
permanent organs or representation,
one's place which, in interactions, leads
acronyms, etc., is all the more likely to
people whom we call in French "lessucceed
gens when the agents that it seeks to
modestes," "common folks," to keep to to unify, to constitute into a
assemble,
their common place, and the others group,toare closer to each other in social
"keep their distance," to "maintainspace
their(and therefore belonging to the
rank", and to "not get familiar."sameThesetheoretical class). Classes in Marx's
strategies, it should be noted in passing,
sense have to be made through a political
may be perfectly unconscious and take
workthe
that has all the more chance of
form of what is called timidity or arrogance.succeeding when it is armed with a theor
In effect, social distances are inscribed in that is well-founded in reality, thus mor
bodies or, more precisely, into the relation capable of exerting a theory effect-theo
to the body, to language and to time-so rein, in Greek, means to see-that is, of
many structural aspects of practice ignored imposing a vision of divisions.
by the subjectivist vision. With the theory effect, we have escaped

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18 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

tion of visions of the world which them-

pure physicalism, but without foresaking
selves
the gains of the objectivist phase: contribute to the construction of this
groups,
such as social classes, are to be made. They
world. But, having constructed social space,
are not given in "social reality."weThe
knowtitle
that these points of view, as the
of E.P. Thompson's (1963) famous book
word itself suggests, are views taken from
The Making of the English Working a certainClass
point, that is, from a determinate
must be taken quite literally: theposition
workingwithin social space. And we also
class such as it may appear toknow that there
us today, will be different or even
antagonistic
through the words meant to designate it, points of view, since points of
view depend on the point from which they
"working class," "proletariat," "workers,"
are taken,the
"labor movement," and so on, through since the vision that every agent
organizations that are supposed has of the space depends on his or her
to express
position
its will, through the logos, bureaus, in that space.
locals,
flags, etc., is a well-founded historical
By doing this, we repudiate the universal
artefact (in the sense in which subject,
Durkheim
the transcendental ego of phenom-
enology
said that religion is a well-founded that ethnomethodologists have
illusion).
But this in no way means that taken
oneover
can as their own. No doubt agents
construct anything anyhow, eitherdo
inhave an active apprehension of the
theory
or in practice. world. No doubt they do construct their
vision of the world. But this construction is
carried out under structural constraints.
II
One may even explain in sociological
We have thus moved from social physics to terms what appears to be a universal
social phenomenology. The "social reality" property of human experience, namely,
objectivists speak about is also an object of the fact that the familiar world tends to be
perception. And social science must take "taken for granted," perceived as natural.
as its object both this reality and the If the social world tends to be perceived as
perception of this reality, the perspectives, evident and to be grasped, to use Husserl's
the points of view which, by virtue of their (1983) expression, in a doxic modality, this
position in objective social space, agents is because the dispositions of agents, their
have on this reality. The spontaneous habitus, that is, the mental structures
visions of the social world, the "folk through which they apprehend the social
theories" ethnomethodologists talk about, world, are essentially the product of the
internalization
or what I call "spontaneous sociology," of the structures of that
but also scientific theories, sociologyworld.
in- As perceptive dispositions tend to
cluded, are part of social reality, and,be adjusted to position, agents, even the
like
Marxist theory for instance, can acquiremost a disadvantaged ones, tend to perceive
truly real power of construction. the world as natural and to accept it much
more readily than one might imagine-
The objectivist break with pre-notions,
ideologies, spontaneous sociology, especially
and when you look at the situation
of the dominated through the social eyes
"folk theories," is an inevitable, necessary
moment of the scientific enterprise-you of a dominant.
cannot do without it, as do interactionism, So the search for invariant forms of
ethnomethodology, and all these forms of perception or of construction of social
social psychology which rest content with a reality masks different things: firstly, that
phenomenal vision of the social world, this construction is not carried out in a
without exposing yourself to grave mis- social vacuum but subjected to structural
takes. But it is necessary to effect a second constraints; secondly, that structuring
and more difficult break with objectivism, structures, cognitive structures, are them-
by reintroducing, in a second stage, what selves socially structured because they
had to be excluded in order to construct have a social genesis; thirdly, that the
construction
objective reality. Sociology must include a of social reality is not only an
sociology of the perception of the individual
social enterprise but may also become
a collective enterprise. But the so-called
world, that is, a sociology of the construc-

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SOCIAL SPACE AND SYMBOLIC POWER 19

microsociological vision leaves out asocialized

good agents, we are capable of per-
number of other things: as often happens ceiving the relation between practices or
when you look too closely, you cannot representations
see and positions in social
the wood from the tree; and above all, space (as when we guess a person's social
failing to construct the space of positions position from her accent). Thus, through
leaves you no chance of seeing the point habitus, we have a world of common
from which you see what you see. sense, a world that seems self-evident.
Thus the representations of agents vary I have so far adopted the perspective of
with their position (and with the interest the perceiving subject and I have mentioned
associated with it) and with their habitus, the principal cause of variations in per-
as a system of schemes of perception and ception, namely, position in social space.
appreciation of practices, cognitive and But what about variations whose principle
evaluative structures which are acquired is found on the side of the object, in this
through the lasting experience of a social space itself? It is true that the correspon-
position. Habitus is both a system of dence that obtains, through habitus (dis-
schemes of production of practices and a positions, taste), between positions and
system of perception and appreciation of practices, preferences exhibited, opinions
practices. And, in both of these dimen-expressed, and so on, means that the social
sions, its operation expresses the social world does not present itself as pure chaos,
position in which it was elaborated. Con- as totally devoid of necessity and liable to
sequently, habitus produces practices and being constructed in any way one likes.
representations which are available for But this world does not present itself as
classification, which are objectively differ- totally structured either, or as capable of
entiated; however, they are immediately imposing upon every perceiving subject
perceived as such only by those agents who the principles of its own construction. The
possess the code, the classificatory schemes social world may be uttered and constructed
necessary to understand their social mean- in different ways according to different
ing. Habitus thus implies a "sense of one's principles of vision and division-for
place" but also a "sense of the place of example, economic divisions and ethnic
others." For example, we say of a piece of divisions. If it is true that, in advanced
clothing, a piece of furniture, or a book: societies, economic and cultural factors
"that looks pretty bourgeois" or "that'shave the greatest power of differentiation,
intellectual." What are the social conditions
the fact remains that the potency of eco-
nomic
of possibility of such a judgment? First, it and social differences is never so
presupposes that taste (or habitus) as a
great that one cannot organize agents on
system of schemes of classification, the is basis of other principles of division-
objectively referred, via the social con-
ethnic, religious, or national ones, for
ditionings that produced it, to a social
instance.
condition: agents classify themselves, ex-Despite this potential plurality of possible
pose themselves to classification, by structurings-what Weber called the Viel-
choosing, in conformity with their taste, seitigkeit of the given-it remains that the
different attributes (clothes, types of food, social world presents itself as a highly
drinks, sports, friends) that go well together structured reality. This is because of a
and that go well with them or, more simple mechanism, which I want to sketch
exactly, suit their position. To be more out briefly. Social space, as I described it
precise, they choose, in the space of above, presents itself in the form of agents
available goods and services, goods that endowed with different properties that are
occupy a position in this space homologous systematically linked among themselves:
to the position they themselves occupy in those who drink champagne are opposed
social space. This makes for the fact that to those who drink whiskey, but they are
nothing classifies somebody more than the also opposed, in a different way, to those
way he or she classifies. Secondly, a who drink red wine; those who drink
classificatory judgment such as "that's champagne, however, have a higher chance
petty bourgeois" presupposes that, as than those who drink whiskey, and a far

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20 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

greater chance than those who drink red

in a variety of ways, since they always
wine, of having antique furniture,include
playinga degree of indeterminacy and
golf at select clubs, riding horses vagueness,
or going and, thereby, a certain degree
of semantic
to see light comedies at the theater. These elasticity. Indeed, even the
properties, when they are perceived by
most constant combinations of properties
agents endowed with the pertinent are cate-
always based on statistical connections
gories of perception-capable ofbetweenseeing interchangeable characteristics;
that playing golf makes you "look" like a
furthermore, they are subject to variations
traditional member of the old bourgeoisie
in time so that their meaning, insofar as it
depends
-function, in the very reality of social life, on the future, is itself held in
suspense and relatively indeterminate. This
as signs: differences function as distinctive
objective
signs and as signs of distinction, positive or element of uncertainty-which
negative, and this happens outside is of any
often reinforced by the effect of categor-
ization, since the same word can cover
intention of distinction, of any conscious
search for "conspicuous consumption."
different practices-provides a basis for
(This is to say, parenthetically, that my
the plurality of visions of the world which
analyses have nothing in common with
is itself linked to the plurality of points of
those of Veblen-all the more so in that view. At the same time, it provides a base
distinction as I construe it, from the for symbolic struggles over the power to
point
produce
of view of indigenous criteria, excludes the and to impose the legitimate
deliberate search for distinction). Invision
otherof the world. (It is in the intermediate
positions of social space, especially in the
words, through the distribution of proper-
ties, the social world presents itself, ob- States, that the indeterminacy and
United
jectively, as a symbolic system which is
objective uncertainty of relations between
practices and positions is at a maximum,
organized according to the logic of differ-
ence, of differential distance. Socialand also, consequently, the intensity of
space
tends to function as a symbolic space,symbolica strategies. It is easy to under-
space of lifestyles and status groups stand why it is this universe which provides
characterized by different lifestyles. the favorite site of the interactionists and
Thus the perception of the social of Goffman in particular).
world
is the product of a double structuring: Symbolic
on struggles over the perception
the objective side, it is socially structured
of the social world may take two different
because the properties attributed to forms.
agentsOn the objective side, one may act
or institutions present themselves in bycom-
actions of representation, individual or
collective, meant to display and to throw
binations that have very unequal probabili-
ties: just as feathered animals areinto morerelief certain realities: I am thinking
likely to have wings than furry animals, for instance
so of demonstrations whose goal
the possessors of a sophisticated masteryis to exhibit a group, its size, its strength,
of language are more likely to be found its cohesiveness,
in to make it exist visibly
a museum than those who do not have this (Champagne 1984); and, on the individual
mastery. On the subjective side, it is level, of all the strategies of presentation
structured because the schemes of percep-of self, so well analyzed by Goffman
tion and appreciation, especially those(1959, 1967), that are designed to mani-
inscribed in language itself, express the pulate one's self-image and especially-
state of relations of symbolic power. I am something that Goffman overlooked-the
thinking for example of pairs of adjectives image of one's position in social space. On
the subjective side, one may act by trying
such as heavy/light, bright/dull, etc., which
organize taste in the most diverse domains. to transform categories of perception and
Together, these two mechanisms act to appreciation of the social world, the cogni-
produce a common world, a world oftive and evaluative structures through
commonsense or, at least, a minimum which it is constructed. The categories of
consensus on the social world. perception, the schemata of classification,
But, as I suggested, the objects of the that is, essentially, the words, the names
social world can be perceived and expressed which construct social reality as much as

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SOCIAL SPACE AND SYMBOLIC POWER 21

structure of social space. More concretely,

they express it, are the stake par excellence
legitimation
of political struggle, which is a struggle to of the social world is not, as
some
impose the legitimate principle of believe, the product of a deliberate
vision
and purposive
and division, i.e., a struggle over the action of propagnda or
legitimate exercise of what I call the
symbolic imposition; it results, rather, from
"theory effect." I have shown elsewhere
the fact that agents apply to the objective
(Bourdieu 1980, 1986b), in the structures
case ofof the social world structures of
perception
Kabylia, that groups-households, clans, and appreciation which are
or tribes-and the names that designate
issued out of these very structures and
them are the instruments and stakes of which tend to picture the world as evident.
Objective relations of power tend to
innumerable strategies and that agents are
endlessly occupied in the negotiation reproduce
of themselves in relations of sym-
bolic power. In the symbolic struggle for
their own identity. They may, for example,
manipulate genealogy,' just as we, forthe production of common sense or, more
similar reasons, manipulate the texts of precisely,
the for the monopoly over legitimate
"founding fathers" of our discipline. Like-
naming, agents put into action the symbolic
capital that they have acquired in previous
wise, on the level of the daily class struggle
that social agents wage in an isolated struggles
and and which may be juridically
dispersed state, we have insults (whichguaranteed.
are Thus titles of nobility, like
a sort of magical attempt at categorization:
educational credentials, represent true titles
kathegorein, from which our word "cate- of symbolic property which give one a
gory" comes, originally means to accuse right to share in the profits of recognition.
publicly), gossip, rumours, slander, innu-Here again, we must break away from
endos, and so. On the collective and more marginalist subjectivism: symbolic order is
properly political level (Bourdieu 1981), not formed in the manner of a market
we have all the strategies that aim at price, out of the mere mechanical addition
imposing a new construction of social of individual orders. On the other hand, in
reality by jettisoning the old political the determination of the objective classifi-
vocabulary, or at preserving the orthodox cation and of the hierarchy of values
vision by keeping those words (which are granted to individuals and groups, not all
often euphemisms, as in the expressionjudgments have the same weight, and
"common folks" that I just evoked) de- holders of large amounts of symbolic
signed to describe the social world. Thecapital, the nobiles (etymologically, those
most typical of these strategies of construc- who are well-known and recognized), are
tion are those which aim at retrospectively in a position to impose the scale of values
reconstructing a past fitted to the needs of most favorable to their products-notably
the present-as when General Flemming, because, in our societies, they hold a
disembarking in 1917, exclaimed: "La practical de facto monopoly over institutions
Fayette, here we are!"-or at constructing which, like the school system, officially
the future, by a creative prediction designed determine and guarantee rank. On the
to limit the ever-open sense of the present. other hand, symbolic capital may be of-
These symbolic struggles, both the in- ficially sanctioned and guaranteed, and
dividual struggles of everyday life and thejuridically instituted by the effect of official
collective, organized struggles of political nomination (Bourdieu 1982). Official
life, have a specific logic which endowsnomination, that is, the act whereby some-
them with a real autonomy from the one is granted a title, a socially recognized
structures in which they are rooted. Owing qualification, is one of the most typical
to the fact that symbolic capital is nothing expressions of that monopoly over legit-
other than economic or cultural capitalimate symbolic violence which belongs to
when it is known and recognized, when it the state or to its representatives. A
is known through the categories of percep- credential such as a school diploma is a
tion that it imposes, symbolic relations ofpiece of universally recognized and guaran-
power tend to reproduce and to reinforce teed symbolic capital, good on all markets.
the power relations that constitute the As an official definition of an official

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22 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

effect
identity, it frees its holder from the of codification which is at work in
symbolic
struggle of all against all by imposing such mundane
the operations as the granting
universally approved perspective. of a certificate: an expert, physician or
The state, which produces thejurist, is someone who is appointed to
official
classification, is in one sense the supreme
produce a point of view which is recognized
tribunal to which Kafka (1968) as refers in
transcendent over particular points of
The Trial when Block says to the view-in the form of sickness notes, cer-
attorney
who claims to be one of the "great tificates of competence or incompetence-
attor-
neys:" "Of course, anybody cana say pointhe
of is
view which confers universally
'great', if he likes to, but in these recognized
matters rights on the holder of the
the question is decided by the practicescertificate.of
The state thus appears as the
the court." Science need not choose be- central bank which guarantees all certifi-
tween relativism and absolutism: the truth cates. One may say of the state, in the
of the social world is at stake in the terms Leibniz used about God, that it is
the "geometral locus of all perspectives."
struggles between agents who are unequally
equipped to reach an absolute, i.e., This self-
is why one may generalize Weber's
fulfilling vision. The legal consecrationwell-known
of formula and see in the state
the holder of the monopoly of legitimate
symbolic capital confers upon a perspective
symbolic violence. Or, more precisely, the
an absolute, universal value, thus snatching
it from a relativity that is by definition
state is a referee, albeit a powerful one, in
inherent in every point of view, as struggles
a view over this monopoly.
taken from a particular point inBut social
in the struggle for the production
space. and imposition of the legitimate vision of
the social world, the holders of bureaucratic
There is an official point of view, which
is the point of view of officials and which authority
is never establish an absolute
expressed in official discourse. This dis-monopoly, even when they add the auth-
course, as Aaron Cicourel has shown, ority of science to their bureaucratic
fulfils three functions. First, it performs authority,
a as government economists do.
diagnostic, that is, an act of knowledge or In fact, there are always, in any society,
cognition which begets recognition and
conflicts between symbolic powers that aim
which, quite often, tends to assert whatata imposing the vision of legitimate divisions,
person or a thing is and what it isthat is, at constructing groups. Symbolic
power, in this sense, is a power of "world-
universally, for every possible person, thus
making." "World-making" consists, ac-
objectively. It is, as Kafka clearly saw, an
almost divine discourse which assignscording to Nelson Goodman (1978), "in
everyone an identity. In the second place,
separating and reuniting, often in the same
administrative discourse says, through operation," in carrying out a decomposition,
directives, orders, prescriptions, etc., whatan analysis, and a composition, a synthesis,
people have to do, given what they are. often by the use of labels. Social classifi-
Thirdly, it says what people have actually cations, as is the case in archaic societies
done, as in authorized accounts such as where they often work through dualist
police records. In each case, official dis- oppositions (masculine/feminine, high/low,
course imposes a point of view, that of the strong/weak, etc.), organize the perception
institution, especially via questionnaires, of the social world and, under certain
official forms, and so on. This point of conditions, can really organize the world
view is instituted as legitimate point of itself.
view, that is, a point of view that everyone
has to recognize at least within the bound- III
aries of a definite society. The representa-
tive of the state is the repository of So we can now examine under what
common sense: official nominations and conditions a symbolic power can become
academic credentials tend to have a uni- power of constitution, by taking the term,
versal value on all markets. The most with Dewey, both in its philosophical
typical effect of the raison d'Etat sense
is theand in its political sense: that is, a

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SOCIAL SPACE AND SYMBOLIC POWER 23

power to preserve or to transform secration

objectiveor revelation, the power to conse-
principles of union and separation, crate or of
to reveal things that are already
marriage and divorce, of association there. and
Does this mean that it does nothing?
dissociation, which are at work in the In fact, as a constellation which, according
social world; the power to conserve or toto Nelson Goodman (1978), begins to exist
transform current classifications in matters only when it is selected and designated as
of gender, nation, region, age, and social such, a group, a class, a gender, a region,
status, and this through the words used toor a nation begins to exist as such, for
designate or to describe individuals, groups those who belong to it as well as for the
or institutions. others, only when it is distinguished,
To change the world, one has to change according to one principle or another,
the ways of world-making, that is, the from other groups, that is, through knowl-
vision of the world and the practical edge and recognition (connaissance et
operations by which groups are produced reconnaissance).
and reproduced. Symbolic power, whose We can thus, I hope, better understand
form par excellence is the power to make what is at stake in the struggle over the
groups (groups that are already established existence or non-existence of classes. The
and have to be consecrated or groups that struggle over classifications is a funda-
have yet to be constituted such as the mental dimension of class struggle. The
Marxian proletariat), rests on two con- power to impose and to inculcate a vision
ditions. Firstly, as any form of performative of divisions, that is, the power to make
discourse, symbolic power has to be based visible and explicit social divisions that are
on the possession of symbolic capital. The implicit, is political power par excellence.
power to impose upon other minds a It is the power to make groups, to mani-
vision, old or new, of social divisions pulate the objective structure of society.
depends on the social authority acquired in As with constellations, the performative
previous struggles. Symbolic capital is apower of designation, of naming, brings
credit; it is the power granted to those who into existence in an instituted, constituted
have obtained sufficient recognition to be form (i.e., as a "corporate body," a cor-
in a position to impose recognition. In this poratio, as the medieval canonists studied
way, the power of constitution, a power toby Kantorovicz [1981] said), what existed
make a new group, through mobilization, up until then only as a collectio personarium
or to make it exist by proxy, by speaking plurium, a collection of varied persons, a
on its behalf as an authorized spokesperson,purely additive series of merely juxtaposed
can be obtained only as the outcome of individuals.
a
long process of institutionalization, at the Here, if we bear in mind the main
end of which a representative is instituted,problem that I have tried to solve today,
who receives from the group the power to that of knowing how one can make things
make the group. (i.e., groups) with words, we are confronted
Secondly, symbolic efficacy depends on with one last question, the question of the
the degree to which the vision proposed mysterium
is of the ministerium, as the canon-
founded in reality. Obviously, the con- ists liked to put it (Bourdieu 1984b): how
struction of groups cannot be a constructiondoes the spokesperson come to be invested
ex nihilo. It has all the more chance of with the full power to act and to speak in
succeeding the more it is foundedthe in name of the group which he or she
reality, that is, as I indicated, in the produces by the magic of the slogan, the
objective affinities between the agents who watchword, or the command, and by his
have to be brought together. The "theorymere existence as an incarnation of the
effect" is all the more powerful the morecollective? As the king in archaic societies,
adequate the theory is. Symbolic power isRex, who, according to Benveniste (1969),
the power to make things with words. It is is entrusted with the task of regere fines
only if it is true, that is, adequate to things,and regere sacra, of tracing out and stating
that description makes things. In this the boundaries between groups and, there-
sense, symbolic power is a power of con-by, of bringing them into existence as

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24 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

such, the leader of a trade union or of a Benveniste, Emile. 1969. Le vocabulaire des institu-
political party, the civil servant or the tions indo-europeennes, Vol. II: Pouvoir, droit,
religion. Paris: Editions de Minuit.
expert invested with state authority, all are
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1968. "Structuralism and Theory of
so many personifications of a social fiction Sociological Knowledge." Social Research 35
to which they give life, in and through (Winter): 681-706.
their very being, and from which they -. [1972] 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice.
receive in return their power. The spokes- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-.1980. Le sens pratique. Paris: Editions de
person is the substitute of the group which Minuit.
fully exists only through this delegation- . 1981. "La representation politique. Elements
and which acts and speaks through him. pour une theorie du champ politique." Actes de la
recherche en sciences sociales 37 (February-March):
He is the group made man, personified. As 3-24.
the canonists said: status, the position, is
- . 1982. "Les rites d'institution." Actes de la
magistratus, the magistrate who holds it; recherche en sciences sociales 43 (June): 58-63.
or, as Louis XIV proclaimed, "L'Etat, -. [1979] 1984a. Distinction: A Social Critique of
c'est moi;" or again, in Robespierre's the Judgment of Taste. Trans. Richard Nice.
words, "I am the People." The class (or Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
. 1984b. "Delegation and Political Fetishism."
the people, the nation, or any other Thesis Eleven 10/11 (November): 56-70.
otherwise elusive social collective) exists if
- . [1984] 1985. "Social Space and the Genesis of
and when there exist agents who can say Groups." Theory and Society 14 (November): 723-
744.
that they are the class, by the mere fact of
-. [1983] 1986a. "The Forms of Capital." Pp. 241-
speaking publicly, officially, in its place, 258 in Handbook of Theory and Research for the
and of being recognized as entitled to do Sociology of Education. Edited by John G.
so by the people who thereby recognize Richardson. New York: Greenwood Press.
themselves as members of the class, people - . 1986b. "From Rules to Strategies." Cultural
Anthropology 1-1 (February): 110-120.
or nation, or of any other social reality that
a realist construction of the world can
Bourdieu, Pierre and Monique de Saint Martin.
1975. "Les cat6gories de l'entendement professoral."
invent and impose. Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 3 (May):
I hope that I was able, despite my 68-93. (Reprinted as "The Categories of Profes-
sorial Judgment," in Pierre Bourdieu. [1984] 1988.
limited linguistic capabilities, to convince Homo Academicus. Trans. Peter Collier. Cam-
you that complexity lies within social
bridge, Polity Press, and Stanford, Stanford Uni-
reality and not in a somewhat decadent
versity Press, pp. 194-225).
desire to say complicated things. Bourdieu,
"The Pierre, Jean-Claude Passeron et Monique
de Saint Martin. 1965. Rapport pedagogique et
simple, wrote Bachelard (1985), is never
communication. The Hague: Mouton. (Translated
but the simplified." And he demonstrated
in part as "Language and Pedagogical Situation,"
that science has never progressed except
pp. 36-77, and "Students and the Language of
by questioning simple ideas. It seems to
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me that such questioning is particularlyPapers 1980, edited by D. McCullum and U.
needed in the social sciences since, forOzolins,
all University of Melbourne, Department of
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to satisfy ourselves with the commonplaces
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