International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   Habitus and field are twin concepts drawn from a Bourdieu-inspired theoretical repertoire. They are widely used in the social sciences to analyze power relations with an emphasis on questions of symbolic power and violence. Their value added in international studies is that they provide a way of integrating and analyzing the material and ideational aspects of power relations and that they do not rest on (or reproduce) the state-centric assumptions that inform and shape much of the analysis in the field. The point of departure is that the way people understand the world and their own place in it is key to all power relations. It shapes what kinds of things (e.g., money, arms, culture, diplomas, or contacts) confer advantages on people, institutions, or states. It also influences the extent to which people, institutions, or states recognize (or misrecognize) hierarchies and, therefore, how they behave. How do people, institutions, and states conceive of their own interests? What kind of strategies do they follow? The answer depends on their understandings of the context they are in. Symbolic power is rooted in these understandings; it is the power to shape them, to make them seem natural, and hence to obfuscate the power relations they entail. Symbolic violence is the violence these understandings do to those who are on the receiving end of a hierarchy; ... log in or subscribe to read full text