英文摘要 |
In this lecture I examine the analytical work performed by the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ in Bourdieu’s theorisation of society as a mechanism for the production and distribution of, and the struggle over, being, or, to put it differently, the production and distribution of, and the struggle over, the viability of life. I show how Bourdieu’s key concepts constitute analytical angles on dimensions of this struggle for viability. Habitus highlights a conception of viability associated with practical efficiency: the more efficient one is, the more viable one’s life becomes. Illusio points to the viability that comes from having a life pursuit that akes life meaningful: it is the struggle to have a raison d’être that makes life valuable in our own eyes. Capital focuses on the viability derived from recognition: the sense of worthwhileness that comes when others validate the importance and significance of our life pursuits, our tastes, and our possessions. People’s struggles to augment their being is shaped by the kind of habitus, illusio and capital they inherit and for their capacity to invest their inheritances such as to yield an as satisfactory life as possible. The value of this inheritance, however, is crucially dependent on the social reality that valorizes it. One cannot inherit a valuable capacity to speak English in a world that is not an English-speaking reality. This is why the struggle to augment one’s being is always a struggle to keep reality on one’s side to maximize one’s complicity with reality. Symbolic power for Bourdieu is the power to create this complicity. Symbolic violence is a measure of the degree to which the dominant can naturalize this sense of complicity with reality such as to not only impose their reality but make others experience it as the only possible reality there is. The lecture examines what kinds of modes of domination and resistance such a degree of power entails. |