File spoon-archives/bourdieu.archive/bourdieu_1996/96-12-01.092, message 10


From: "Frans Schryer" <FRANS-AT-css.uoguelph.ca>
Date:          Fri, 12 Jul 1996 19:35:18 GMT-5
Subject:       Re: symbolic violence in late capitalism


in response to question/ issues raised:

I think Bourdieu's notion of symbolic violence (i.e. the process of 
subordination which does not involve the direct use of force) is very 
current in today's world (including in the so-called late capitalist 
phase). Surely the development and differential distribution of high 
literacy skills, computer jargon, the specialized discourse of 
professinals etc. are all new forms of more prestigious dialects 
(apart from the role of standard "educated" English in many countries, 
including the U.S. where not everyone speaks English or the right 
kind of English). I can easily see symbolic violence as a useful 
concept even in relatively homogenous linguistic areas; surely the 
men in Kabyle society exercised symbolic violence over women 
(regardless of the whole issue of linguistic diversity or even state 
expansion). Have you looked at the kind of work (and use of Bourdieu) 
done by Lemke (in English studies, rhetoric)?

F. Schryer












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> Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 11:00:29 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Dan Schubert <schubert-AT-dickinson.edu>
> To: bourdieu-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
> Cc: Dan Schubert <schubert-AT-dickinson.edu>
> Subject: symbolic violence in late capitalism
> In-Reply-To: <169D95B7162-AT-lang.soton.ac.uk>
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> 
> bourdieuians,
> 
>     a few days ago i forwarded an announcement about a conference 
> being organized by richard harvey brown that will be held at the 
> university of maryland in april.  i'm organizing a session for the 
> conference called SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE IN LATE-CAPITALIST SOCIETIES.  i'd 
> like to use this opportunity to invite papers from bourdieuians for the 
> session and also to ask a question of list members.
> 
>     if you'd be interested in doing a paper for the session, which is now 
> about half-filled, feel free to submit an abstract directly to me via email, 
> or mail a copy to me at:
> 
>     department of sociology
>     dickinson college
>     carlisle, pa  17013
>     usa
> 
>     
>     now for my query.  many of bourdieu's illustrations of symbolic 
> violence seem to come in his descriptions of the genesis and expansion of 
> the nation-state.  i'm thinking, for example, of descriptions of the 
> consolidation/colonization of france such this one that appears in LANGUAGE 
> AND SYMBOLIC POWER (p.46):
> 
>       "the `dialects', which often possessed some of the properties 
> attributed to `languages',... and literary languages... gave way progressively,
> from the fourteenth century on... to the common language which was developed in
> Paris in cultivated circles and which, having been promoted to the status of 
> official language, was used in the form given to it by scholarly, i.e. written,
> uses."
> 
>     would the notion of symbolic violence have the same importance in 
> descriptions of late-capitalist (yes, i know i'm doing my own symbolic 
> violence by naming in this way) societies?  i know, as the push in the 
> u.s. for a national language illustrates, that the processes of state formation 
> and consolidation continue, but i'm wondering if there is anything about 
> late-capitalism or its new technologies that would make b's notion of 
> symbolic violence less useful or even obsolete.  (i suppose i'm trying to 
> expand on nicholas garnham's attempt to extend bourdieu [in CRITICAL 
> PERSPECTIVES] for media studies, although i must say that i think garnham is 
> very unfair to b in this essay.)   is late-capitalism simply another type of 
> field, or is it something qualitatively different that demands modified 
> scientific approaches?
> 
>   any thoughts?
> 
> 
> best,
> dan
> 
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