Bourdieu's Field Theory Research Articles

Periodistas frente a los monitoreos de medios: un análisis desde la teoría del campo

Los monitoreos de medios no suelen acompañarse de indagaciones sobre la manera en que las y los periodistas consumen e interpretan estos proyectos. Mediante entrevistas, este estudio llena ese vacío de información al centrarse en la subjetividad de periodistas de medios monitoreados. El estudio, fundamentado en la teoría del campo de Bourdieu, reveló posiciones frente al monitoreo agrupadas en dos polos (conservar/subvertir el campo) estructurados en torno a la acumulación de capitales. Conocer las dinámicas internas del campo periodístico permitió comprender su grado de apertura al cambio.

Challenges and Coping Strategies Brought by Digital Media to the Development of B&B Industry under the Perspective of Field Theory

Based on Bourdieu's field theory, the article discusses the challenges and coping strategies of digital media in the development of the B&B industry. In the Internet field, the power struggle between B&B operators and consumers becomes the main focus. By utilizing the Internet platform, B&B operators compete to increase brand awareness and influence and attract consumers' attention. Meanwhile, consumers also influence B&B brands through the Internet field, forming a complex, competitive network. In the competition for symbolic capital, B&Bs gain social recognition through the Netflix effect and celebrity recommendations to further enhance their image and competitiveness, and through self-media accounts and matrix content marketing, B&B content is widely disseminated to enhance their exposure in the Internet arena. However, the B&B industry is also facing the problem of homogenization and needs to maintain its personalized characteristics in competition. Combining local characteristics and innovative models, B&B operators can achieve sustainable development and promote rural revitalization.

REPORTERS' ACCESSIBILITY: WORKING CONDITIONS OF LOCAL JOURNALISTS COVERING INDIGENOUS CONFLICT IN SWAT

This research investigates the working conditions and challenges faced by local journalists in the Swat district of Pakistan amidst periods of violence, focusing on incidents such as military operations and suicide bombings by the Taliban. Through interviews with journalists in the region, the study explores how they navigate the complexities of reporting traumatic events while grappling with physical and emotional strain. Employing Pierre Bourdieu's Field Theory, the research analyzes journalists' strategies for accessing conflict zones safely and ensuring the journalistic principles of objectivity and fairness. Using concepts like Capital, Habitus, and Doxa, the study situates journalists within the volatile social landscape to highlight the interconnectedness of their professional and personal spheres. Despite possessing cultural and social capital, journalists face significant risks to their safety while fulfilling their reporting duties in dangerous environments.

Analysing Western Classical Ballet with Bourdieu's Field Theory How to use it as a social stratification tool

Known as one of the representatives of elegant art，western classical ballet holds a certain status and influence in Western society, During the reign of Louis XIV in France, with his vigorous promotion, ballet gradually flourished, even serving as a tool for the king's prestige to achieve French national independence [1]. Through analyzing the phenomena of ballet in the western society, it can be found that classical ballet has become a social stratification tool in Western society. The learning threshold for Western classical ballet is relatively high, and students from upper-class society have more opportunities to receive high-level classical ballet education, while students from lower-class society often lack the corresponding capital and other issues to gain equal opportunities. However, ballet in China, through the combination of localisation and orientalisation, ballet has become a popular dance form for the Chinese public. This paper will analyze how Western classical ballet serves as a social stratification tool in Western society using Bourdieu's field theory, comparing with the social function of ballet in China.

Development studies meet Pierre Bourdieu: the case of Chinese Private FDI in Zambia

ABSTRACTInspired by Bourdieu's field theory and utilising the case of Zambia, this article aims to enhance the understanding of the intricate relationship between Chinese private investors and sub-Saharan state institutions. The study proposes an epistemological framework that integrates sociological, anthropological and neo-institutional approaches to development studies. Through extensive fieldwork and over 75 interviews with both Chinese and Zambian stakeholders, we explore various contexts in which group-actors related to foreign capital in Zambia operate. We argue that three separate habiti – inhabited by the Zambian political class, Chinese investors and ‘ordinary’ Zambians – are crucial for comprehending private foreign capital operations in this sub-Saharan state. The ordinary Zambians and Zambian political class fields converge primarily during elections, while interactions between ordinary Zambians and Chinese investors have remained very limited (predominantly employee–employer relations), creating an ideational structure of hostility. In contrast, the Zambian political class and Chinese private investor fields crosscut and are mutually constitutive.

Structural Comparison, Transfers and Unequal Power Relations: Field Theory as a Conceptual and Methodological Tool

This paper proposes a comparative approach theoretically and methodologically based in the sociology of literature, and more specifically on field theory, which takes into account circulation and transfers, as well as international power relations between centers and peripheries. As developed in the first section, this approach combines Bourdieu's field theory, Casanova's analysis of the world republic of letters, Even-Zohar's polysystem theory, Moretti's quantitative methods, and the author's own work on the circulation of literary texts and forms. Exemplified by case studies borrowed from the existing literature (including the author's research), the methodological framework developed in the following sections addresses authorities (publishers, prizes, festivals) and writer's strategies.

A review of actor-oriented capitals and investments in the field of interpreting in Türkiye

This study aims to reveal the significance of the habitus and capitals of interpreters in Türkiye and the investments made to acquire such capital, and by employing a descriptive approach through the framework of Bourdieu's Field Theory and Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (1999). Within the scope of our study, Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and capital have been used to discuss the position of interpreters in the field in Türkiye. Using a historical perspective, we will discuss the “actants” i.e. human and non-human actors that have played an influential role since the emergence of the profession in Türkiye. According to the ANT, it could be concluded that in Türkiye, these actors may consist not only of individuals but also of agents such as organizations such as TKTD and Türkiye AIIC VEGA, remote working conditions that have become widespread with Covid-19, and volunteering movements that emerged after the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. During the research process of this study, sources such as interviews, webinars held on virtual platforms, newspaper clippings, the online archives of TKTD, and memories shared in books, theses and books on the history of translation and interpreting have been explored. Following our research, it has been determined the first interpreters in Türkiye acquired similar capitals and habituses, whereas present interpreters that accumulate different types of capitals depending on current circumstances and needs such as use of technology and first aid knowledge for community interpreting. Our study shows that the valued capitals play a key role in determining the position of actants in academia and the interpreting sector, resulting in a new dynamic between actants with the network.

부르디외의 장이론으로 본 NFT 아트의 가치 정립

This study aims to gain insight into the reasons why art auction houses actively accept NFT art from a socio-cultural perspective. Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, the auction house is viewed as an actor, and a qualitative case study on Seoul Auction was conducted. The study reveals that Seoul Auction does not simply introduce NFT to the field of art, but instead refracts it through an expert selection system commonly used in that field. As NFT art gains recognition in this field, Seoul Auction accumulates symbolic capital, which contributes to preserving its dominant position in the field of art. At the same time, Seoul Auction also faces a symbolic struggle against new platforms attempting to enter the field of art by trading NFT art. Furthermore, Seoul Auction is engaged in a symbolic struggle to legitimize NFT art transactions taking place outside the field of art through the media. The analysis of the acceptance of NFT art by auction houses contributes to a better understanding of the stratified order among actors in the field of art and the linkages between this field and the broader society that surrounds it.

Navigating academic habitus in a higher education system that prioritises external funding – the case of Israel

ABSTRACT Israelis consistently secure European Research Council (ERC) grant funding at higher success rates compared to peers from most participating countries. Israeli scores in the ERC metric within the Adjusted Research Excellence Index (AREI) have been significantly above average and double those of the next highest (Switzerland) – yet on other AREI indicators, including publication and mobility measures, Israel has scored only modestly. Since governmental funding mechanisms in Israeli higher education are heavily weighted to reward institutions for securing external funding, competition between Israeli institutions is intense. This study seeks to understand how various actors in the Israeli system position themselves within their field, and how they navigate and negotiate their positions framed by various disciplinary, institutional, and national pressures. To explore this question, this study uses 43 interviews with stakeholders within the higher education system (including policy makers, senior administrators, and grant winning academics) and documents’ analysis to present the perceptions and strategies of actors at all levels of the Israeli academic research system, using Bourdieu's field theory. We show that the national academic habitus regards grantsmanship as cultural capital and grant attainment as symbolic capital. We highlight differences between the humanities, social, life, and physical/engineering sciences in their perceptions and strategies around external funding.

Different while being similar: The dual institutional process and differential organizational status

Connecting the neoinstitutional theory with Bourdieu's field theory, we develop a framework on the dual institutional process of integration and differentiation in a field. While the neoinstitutional theory has focused on similar organizational structures, we shift the research focus to offer an institutional explanation of differential organizational status. Drawing insights from Bourdieu's theory and key concepts, we highlight that the very institutional mechanisms causing isomorphism-regulative forces, normative pressures, and cognitive processes-also generate systematic status differentiation among organizations via their different levels of capital, homologous structures, and various habitus in a field. Our extended framework has theoretical significance in advancing the neoinstitutional theory, the research of status in organizational and economic sociology, and the Bourdieusian perspective. By theorizing status differentiation among organizations, it also adds an important dimension to enrich our understanding of multilevel status and social hierarchies.

Scalar properties of the transnational field of human rights: Field effects and human rights in Bahrain.

Whilst a body of work exists that has engaged with and conceptualised transnational fields, and in particular for this paper, the transnational field of human rights, more work needs to be done to elaborate on the effects of transnational fields, at the national level. Using Bourdieu's field theory, and more recent scholarship that focuses on scalar aspects of fields, this research focuses on a human rights field at the national level in Bahrain. The paper addresses two levels/dimensions of the transnational field of human rights: the transnational level and the national level, focussing on the field's vertical autonomy. Based upon nineteen in-depth interviews, the research retrieves the biographical trajectories of Bahraini human rights activists and activists from iNGOs with a specific remit that includes Bahrain. The paper argues that the vertical autonomy of the transnational field of human rights has demonstrable field effects at the national level, and that this has a number of implications. First, where transnational fields have greater vertical autonomy, the national level can operate with varying hierarchies, with actors adopting practices that diverge from those acting transnationally. Second, as a result of these scalar differences and the vertical autonomy of the transnational field, actors at the national level may have to adapt their practices, others can be side-lined as a result of 'symbolic pollution.' Third, in order for local actors to engage with transnational advocacy networks, they must be the right type of actor.

Illusio der Autonomie: Carolin Amlingers Studie über literarische Arbeit

Carolin Amlinger's <i>Schreiben. Eine Soziologie literarischer Arbeit</i> is a large-scale, but still coherent analysis of contemporary literary production in Germany. Inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, trained in critical theory, and based on interviews with authors she interpreted using qualitative methods, Amlinger combines three approaches: a history of the (West) German literary market and the development of the literary public sphere from 1871 to the recent present, an account of institutions in the present-day German literary scene, and an analysis of the habitus of contemporary authors. Amlinger shows how literary work today is characterized by a blurring of the boundaries between market and public. According to her observation, this development goes hand in hand with an essentialization of authorship – an understanding that justifies precarious work with the promise of creative self-realization. As the review argues, this results in an analytical balancing act: on the one hand, to show how literary writing and the notion of it are reshaped, and at the same time to remain sensitive to the resistance of literary practices and to concepts of authorship that oppose a neoliberal notion of labor. Amlinger's refraining from complementing authors' self-conceptions with observations of actual practices and the products of literary labor make it difficult for the study to consistently pursue both perspectives.

Research on The Realization Path of Industry-education Integration to Promote Regional Industrial Transformation and Upgrading

The integration of industry and education has become the only way for the country to promote industrial transformation and upgrading, drawing on Bourdieu's field theory to analyze the coupling relationship between industry-education integration and industrial transformation and upgrading, and by analyzing and comparing the current situation of higher education and industrial structure development, find the practical problems of education in the transformation and upgrading of the service industry, and then put forward the realization path of industrial transformation and upgrading from the aspects of regional layout, hierarchy and professional subject category of higher education.

Between scientific legitimation and cultural legitimation: transformations in the field of Integrative and Complementary Practices

The National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices (NPICP) was published 15 years ago, and between 2017 and 2018 it saw two phases of growth and increased from 5 to 29 modalities of Integrative and Complementary Practices (ICP), namely an increase of 24 new practices within a year. The scope of this article is to understand the conditions for such transformations in the ICPs in the Unified Health System (SUS), reflecting upon how social actors interpret these changes. Thus, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight interlocutors, analyzed in the light of Pierre Bourdieu's field theory. The results show that the expansion of the NPICP, motivated by political-institutional factors, is comprehended in two matrices of thought that are related to the cultural and scientific legitimation of the ICPs in the SUS. The conclusion drawn is that the rapid expansion of the NPICP generated a crisis in the field, showing the need for a restructuring dialogue with its social bases.

How does home ownership affect migrants’ sense of relative deprivation? An investigation based on field theory

BackgroundChina is continuing to witness rising numbers of migrants (e.g., individuals migrating from rural to urban areas), and alongside this are the social restrictions and institutional barriers migrants face. Such restrictions and barriers are a consequence of the long-standing urban-rural dualist system and can create a sense of relative deprivation among migrants—that is, dissatisfaction when migrants perceive they are at a disadvantage compared with local residents of an area. Objective and methodBased on Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, the current study used data from the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey (N = 1849) to explore the mechanism through which migrants' home ownership or non-ownership in the migration process affects their sense of relative deprivation. To do so, a ranked regression and parallel multiple mediation model were developed. Additionally, a heterogeneity analysis was conducted to account for the region in which migrants lived and their age. ResultsThe results revealed that home ownership significantly reduced migrants' relative deprivation. Moreover, the perception of economic and symbolic capital was found to play a role in the effects of wealth and class, respectively. From the heterogeneity analysis, the direct and mediated effects of housing attributes on migrants’ relative deprivation were more significant for migrants in the eastern versus central and western regions of China, as well as among new-versus older-generation migrants. ConclusionTo improve the feasibility of home ownership among migrants and, thus, alleviate their relative deprivation in the inflow area, relevant policies (e.g., improving the housing system pathway) should be developed and implemented.

The Indigenization Debate in China: A Field Perspective

AbstractThe indigenization of sociology has been an issue of considerable controversy in China. Rather than taking a side in the debate itself, this article intends to make sense of different perspectives in the debate. Utilizing Bourdieu's field theory, it links a sociologist's view on indigenization with the sociologist's position within China's sociological field. This article traces the history of the indigenization debate in China and proposes a theoretical model based on Bourdieu's insight. It then analyzes how the different combinations of academic and political capital shape the different positions on indigenization and how such a debate can be viewed as a symbolic struggle in the intellectual field.

The overview of Bourdieu's literary field theory

The 1960s - 1970s were marked by the dynamism of the Western intellectual milieu, especially with the flourishing of new theoretical trends in the social sciences and humanities. Pierre Bourdieu's field theory appeared as an intellectual response to pre-existing theoretical trends, including Structuralism, Marxism, or Émile Durkheim's concept of collective consciousness, etc. Starting from the theoretical principle of social cognition, considered as an authentic form of non-consciousness, Bourdieu dealt with the social relationships established between social conditions and positions. Accordingly, the social relationships are more realistic than the subjects participating in those ones. Thereby, he proposed structural mechanisms of dominance and competition to prove the existence of the social game. The space of the social game is what Bourdieu calls "field". There are different fields corresponding to different social sectors. This article outlines in general the process of forming the literary field theory. It aims to show the relationships between the literary field and others in Bourdieu’s sociological system as well as his contributions to the landscape of the contemporary literary theory.

Critical education policy network analysis: Theoretical elaborations and methodological implications

Education policy networks are reshaping education across the globe. While these studies grow in number, critical policy researchers argue for critical self-reflection, noting the risks of engaging simply in research of elites, by elites and for elites. In this essay, the author proposes three theoretical elaborations for critical policy network analysis with implications for methods. The author suggests: 1) examining policy networks as sites of hegemonic construction and maintenance; 2) studying policy networks through the lens of racial capitalism; and 3) utilizing Bourdieu's field theory to bridge micro-social network insights with concepts of domination. Finally, the author suggests implications of the proposed theoretical elaborations for methodologies and how critical researchers can support counter-hegemonic efforts.

Publishing and Society: A Comparative Analysis of Bourdieu's Field Theory and Paradigm of External Analysis using the Case of the Book Publishing Industry in China

The publishing industry has a long history of development as an integral part of people's social life. This essay provides a preliminary exploration of the special status of the publishing industry in sociological research through a comparative analysis of Bourdieu's field theory and the Marxist-oriented external analysis paradigm. It critically assesses the Chinese publishing industry, with its strong political and complex historical background, by analyzing the external relations and field characteristics of the Chinese publishing industry. Due to the social peculiarities of China's socialist system coexisting with the market economy system, the state of political influence intersecting with social class influence is also taken into account in the analysis.

Utilizing Field Theory to Examine Mega-event-led Development

Scholars and practitioners have long been analyzing and evaluating the way events, particularly mega-events, serve as a mechanism of change. Powerful descriptions are typically brought to life via event impact and legacy case studies: yet, I argue such work can remain atheoretical—or—conceptually disorganized. I draw on Bourdieu's field theory and the management study of Field Configuring Events to develop a new analytical framework: the "Cognitive and Relational Mapping of Field Configuring Events"—offering a set of interrelated concepts to strengthen analysis and conceptual consistency between studies, while providing latitude to overlay different disciplinary perspectives. I detail methodological and conceptual advantages afforded alongside six ways the framework could be applied and extended across various cases and contexts.