Symbolic Capital Research Articles

Turkish Islam and Kurdish difference

In this article I discuss the ways in which the Turkish state uses Islam as a weapon to delegitimize and render unnecessary Kurdish distinctiveness and associated rights claims. Drawing on the particular discourse employed by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a series of political rallies in Diyarbakır, the symbolic capital of Turkish Kurdistan, I highlight key patterns in the instrumentalization of religion to maintain Turkish dominance. The Kurdish question as it is experienced by Kurds of Turkey, contrary to expectations, is not at all a matter of “discrimination” and “otherization.” Rather, the Kurdish problem arises from a lack of recognition of the Kurds as a separate self.

Is interdisciplinarity distinctive? Scientific collaborations through research projects in natural sciences

This article focuses on (inter)disciplinary collaborations through the co-application to research projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the main provider of research funding in Switzerland. We suggest that interdisciplinarity is a potential mode of distinction and that its frequency and the disciplines involved may be associated with specific configurations of scientific, institutional, international, extra-academic, and network resources. We rely on biographical data on all biology and chemistry professors in Switzerland in 2000 ( n = 342), including all their funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation. In a first step, we highlight the role of the resources mentioned previously in structuring the symbolic hierarchy of disciplines using multiple correspondence analysis. In a second step, we look at how interdisciplinarity fits into these structures based on an opposition between international and institutional resources and on the unequal distribution of scientific (and social) capital. We show that these interdisciplinary logics of social distinction differ across the two disciplines. On the one hand, collaborations with biologists seem to help chemists reaching dominant positions in the academic field, while their degree of internationality is associated with interdisciplinary collaborations. On the other hand, the biologists who are the most endowed with symbolic capital are more likely to collaborate with the medical sciences.

Scientific Disinformation in Times of Epistemic Crisis: Circulation of Conspiracy Theories on Social Media Platforms

AbstractThe spread of disinformation about science in social media has been a major concern worldwide, especially at a time of crisis in which all institutions that produce knowledge and truth, including science, are delegitimized or discredited by society. Given this, the purpose of this research is to map the circulation of information on the most frequent conspiracy theories in Brazil, seeking to identify actors, discourses, and interactions on different digital platforms. Using a mixed methodology for identifying informational flows among supporters of conspiracy theories on Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube, the results show that, even though there is distrust about the relationship between science, government and industry, scientific authority is a symbolic capital of extreme importance for the circulation of information on conspiracy theories related to science.

Sacrifice of Humans and Animals in Religious Practices

The main practice of the ancient Mediterranean religion was the sacrifice of animals, including the slaughter and the gifting of one or more animals. Traditional blood offerings were part of a life and death cycle that should thrive both animals and humans. Throughout the Empire Christians and pagans alike rejected such sacrifices. This article discusses the pagan and Christian critiques of Greco-Roman blood sacrifices. Authority was founded on the cultural killing of animals and the distribution and eating of their flesh in an old sacrificial discourse. In the new soteriological discourse, power was founded on a symbolic capital of moral and physical pureness and intellectual insights, and the goals of spiritual perfection and redemption. Some of the religions that participated in the new conversation, although Christianity banned it, continued to practice animal sacrifice. Direct human body screening for medicine and future study, as well as electronic medical data, are both useful in minimizing biomedical research sacrifice for animals. These techniques and strategies of research may be more economical and applied to a range of human health issues.

Turkey and Central Asia during the coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has become a classic "black swan" and has made significant adjustments to international relations. The Republic of Turkey, considering the Central Asian region (CA) as an important direction of its foreign policy, also faced the need to respond to the challenges of the pandemic. Based on this, the subject of this article is the relations between Turkey and the Central Asian countries after the outbreak of the pandemic, as well as the identification of new foreign policy tools that Turkey has used in practice to adapt its course in Central Asia. The purpose of the study was to analyze the results of Turkish policy in the region during the designated period. Based on the review of the array of factual data, a new direction of Turkish policy towards the Central Asian countries is indicated – the promotion of the symbolic capital of the victory of the "Turkic world" in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in the autumn of 2020, as well as the attempts being made to consolidate on this basis. The analysis of cases that, according to the authors, may affect relations between Turkey and some countries of the region in the medium term is carried out. The conclusion is made about the short-term growth of Turkey's influence in the region and the potential interest of the Turks in the growth of instability in Central Asia, which the Turks are trying to use to maximize their course and discredit other external actors.

Traditions of Remo in Blater Community of Madura

Blater community is a sub-culture within the Madurese community, which until now still exists in carrying out Remo tradition. Members of blater have various professions and activities, and they are feared and respected by the people of West Madura. They maintain their influence through a gathering called Remo in the cities of Bangkalan and Sampang. During Remo, blater members conduct saweran or bhubuwan (giving some money) to the host. The amount varies from around 500.000 to 2.000.000 rupiahs per person according to the financial and social status of the member. This is a qualitative research. The data collection techniques were in-depth interview, observation, and documentation. We interviewed the members of blater, and analyzed the qualitative data. We conclude that every community needs activities to maintain its existence. In West Madura society, it comes in the form of Remo. This existence is required as a form of recognition from the society. The study also finds that it is important for the individual member to assure oneself of having power of symbolic, social, cultural, and economic capital.

“BRANDING” OF THE WORLD: A SOCIO-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF HUMAN PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD

A specific feature of the modern world is the capitalization of not only ideas, objects, social practices and institutions, but of the world itself. Branding is a special process, allowing the construction of an acceptable picture of reality that is independent of the practices of care and political domination. It initially focuses on a desired and expected target. The main topic of the present research is the phenomenon of the “Big Bang” in the cultural and social field. The analysis of transformation of scientific theory into a metaphor of sociocultural reality enables us to trace the mechanism of symbolic creation in modern society. Its study contributes to revealing the peculiarities in redistribution of symbolic capital as well as benefits and privileges that a «world-brand» has in comparison with “world-pictures”, “world views” and other forms of symbolic capital. The “world-brand” as a result of symbolic creation in the cultures of post-industrial civilization can be represented in the explicit parameters.

Small and Medium Enterprises in Mexico and the Craft Beer Sector in Baja California: Dynamic Capabilities, Culture, and Innovation

This article studies how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in emerging economies implement adaptative strategies to respond to constant changes in demand and global uncertainties, such as those stemming from the current SARS-COV2 pandemic. In this study the knowledge management capabilities used by SMEs in the craft beer sector in a region of northern Mexico are the focus of analysis. The objective is to present the competitive capabilities that craft beer sector has demonstrated in Baja California region and how small companies compete with the national industrial brewery and survive. Sources are data from a sample of companies and interviews with brewery owners, with which the analysis approaches, also, the Baja California business environment. The article highlights the routes of creativity, innovation, and symbolic capital of the companies in the region, and uses ideas from dynamic capabilities and knowledge management theoretical frameworks, to understand the craft brewery milieu. The conclusions in this article include the confirmation about the usefulness of these analytical frameworks based in the capabilities approach and the territorial knowledge. Also, the description of the existence of a complex Baja Californian milieu, where a multimodal scheme of craft beer characterized by different places of distribution and types of beer container, food-districts, at Mexicali, Tijuana, and Ensenada and a second generation of entrepreneur groups leading local business, is identified.

KEKERASAN SIMBOLIK DALAM NOVEL LUKA PEREMPUAN ASAP KARYA NAFI’AH AL-MA’RAB: PERSPEKTIF SOSIOLOGI SASTRA

Symbolic violence is violence that occurs subtly and unconsciously, so that there is no resistance from the party being dominated. The objectives of this study were (1) to describe the form of symbolic violence and (2) to describe the factors of symbolic violence in the novel Luka Perempuan Asap by Nafi'ah Al-Ma'rab in the perspective of sociological literature. This study uses a sociological literary approach that focuses on symbolic violence according to Pierre Bourdieu. The source of research data is the novel Luka Perempuan Asap by Nafi'ah Al-Ma'rab. The research data is in the form of story sequences such as narratives, sentences, and paragraphs that represent symbolic violence. The results showed that (1) forms of symbolic violence were characterized by euphemization and censorship mechanisms. The forms of euphemization mechanisms include obligation, efficiency, image, bonus giving, trust, and kindness. Meanwhile, the forms of sensory mechanism are in the form of marginalization, coercion, threats, and disappointments. (2) The factors causing symbolic violence in the novel Luka Perempuan Asap by Nafi'ah Al-Ma'rab are due to economic capital in the form of money, cultural capital in the form of achievement, while symbolic capital is in the form of titles and social status.

Playing to be influencers: A comparative study on Spanish and Colombian young people on Instagram

This paper explores and describes how Colombian and Spanish young people present themselves on Instagram according to the social game and the symbolic capital that they infer as normative from influencers. The methodology used combines the focus group technique (seven groups) with a content analysis of the profiles of the informants (N = 651). In total, 53 first-year creative industries university students participated. The results show that the work developed by the influencers has given rise to an aspirational narrative genre that young people tend to emulate according to the Instagram habitus in order to be recognised as leading players. Their self-presentation has three main features: a) a preference for showing ‘in-classifying’ practices such as leisure and tastes for freedom; b) the predominance of a specific type of profile and gestures that avoids self-production markers and aspires towards a global audience; and c) the normalisation of self-promotional discourse. Most informants experience Instagram as a game in which they compete to accumulate visibility conceived as relational validation, although in the case of Colombian informants there is a more professional outlook towards the platform. Finally, for all of them, Instagram constitutes a serious game, and many of them admit to feeling too exposed. As a result, they have implemented self-surveillance practices, such as consulting with peers before posting photographs, using secondary accounts and deleting posts.

Online video games and patient-staff power relations. A qualitative study of care and custody in forensic psychiatry.

Accessible summaryWhat is known on the subject? Frontline forensic mental health staff often face challenges when providing recovery‐orientated care, as they must balance between caring for the forensic psychiatric patient and at the same time ensuring safety and security for all other patients and staff at the ward.Research shows that balancing between care and custody in everyday clinical practice is possible, but more practical nursing studies showing ways of balancing power relations are needed to guide clinical practice.Online video games are increasingly recognized as promising new tools to promote social relations, establish competencies and re‐articulate power relations in therapeutic environments. What the paper adds to existing knowledge? This paper provides insights into how using online video gaming interventions may influence the establishment of social power relations of staff and forensic psychiatric patients. It adds to existing research by providing a conceptual way to study and understand how mental health nurses may balance between care and custody, delivering care to accommodate patients' needs without compromising safety and security at the ward.This study answers a call in current research by providing qualified knowledge regarding the use of online video gaming to build and sustain therapeutic relations in mental health care. What are the implications for practice? Our paper suggests that balancing between care and custody is possible by using online video gaming interventions in forensic psychiatry. It moreover provides practice‐close knowledge that may inspire and guide clinical mental health nurses to further develop online video gaming interventions in mental health care for the benefit of their patients. IntroductionIn recovery‐oriented care, forensic psychiatric nurses must engage in care relationships with forensic psychiatric patients (FPs) whilst focussing on ward security. Online video games (OVGs) may provide a platform for negotiating power and social relations. Studies showing how OVG interventions may influence power balances in forensic psychiatric care are needed to guide clinical practice.AimOur aim was to study how power relations were articulated between FPs and staff in an OVG intervention in a Danish forensic psychiatric ward.MethodData consist of three months of observational data and interviews with three staff members and six patients. We used sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's framework of field, power and capital to analyze data.ResultsThe OVG intervention consisted of two power fields, “in‐game” and “over‐game.” In‐game concerned the practice of gaming. Over‐game described the organization of the gaming intervention. Specific logics, skills and symbolic capitals drove power in each field.DiscussionPower in‐game was open to FPs and staff, leading to symmetric power relations. Power over‐game was open to staff only, resulting in asymmetrical power relations.Implications for practiceOnline video game interventions may facilitate power balancing in forensic psychiatry. These insights may guide the development of new OVG interventions for patients and nurses in mental health care.

How Capital generates capitals in English elite private schools: Charities, tax and accounting

The sociological literature on elite private schooling is frequently informed by Bourdieu’s signature concepts of cultural, social and symbolic capital. Yet, his insistence that economic capital is the ‘root’ of these other capitals is often overlooked or downplayed. This paper addresses this lacuna. While it gestures to Bourdieu’s other capitals, its primary focus is on finance itself and the various legal and accounting regimes that facilitate schools’ financial capital acquisition, accumulation and conversion into other individual and organisational capitals. We interrogate these schools’ income-generating and spending strategies on fees, infrastructure and scholarships, explicating how charity law, tax regimes, and accounting rules work to their advantage. In so doing we demonstrate how ambiguous law and accounting regimes enable them to produce exclusivity through pricing and luxury infrastructure. In short, we show how elite private schools in England keep fees high, scholarships low and luxury pervasive KEYWORDS Private schools; financial capital; charities; tax; accounting; social class.

Symbolic Capital Habits in Civil Society in Song Dynasty

As an important part of modern society, symbolic capital has become an important link to maintain social relations, obtain identity, and achieve social structure and ideological reproduction with the development of human history. At the same time, the symbolic capital system that makes the symbolic capital meaningful has also been embedded in the social structure of human beings, and the symbolic capital can be reproduced as a symbol. This paper will use the theory of symbolic capital to analyze the symbolic capital system in the Song Dynasty civil society, study its occurrence, development and role under the historical background of the Song Dynasty, and find out the universality of the civil society in the historical development.

The Matthew Effect and Symbolic Capital in Anthropology and Beyond

The Matthew Effect and Symbolic Capital in Anthropology and Beyond

Talks in the Bookshop: A Social Science Cultural Programme on the Margins of the University

This article looks at events featuring authors of social science publications held at a bookshop in a large French city. Study of the organization and the system of author events, combined with a series of interviews with attendees, sheds light on a local social science cultural offering and reveals the ongoing transformation of bookshops’ role as cultural intermediaries. The bookshop carries out a form of hybrid consecration, between the university and the general public, and uses these events as a tool to maintain its symbolic capital in a close relationship with the academic world.

Стратегии концептуализации исторической ответственности в контексте современных медиарепрезентаций

The article analyzes theoretical models of historical responsibility and the peculiarities of their application in the context of modern media presentations. A comparative analysis of the models of historical responsibility in modern foreign philosophy and social and humanitarian knowledge clearly indicates the dominance of the universalist and constructivist approaches in understanding historical responsibility. In the latter case, it is viewed as a social practice that develops within a certain community and is focused on appropriation or participation in the distribution of symbolic capital. Historical responsibility is a “tense” relationship of the emerging sociocultural situation, where the discursive practices of historical responsibility (imparting guilt; identifying victims, criminals, participants, observers) turn out to be a kind of a mechanism of symbolic dominance in the political space. This state of affairs cannot escape the influence of, first of all, the media. They turn out to be an environment for the actualization and transformation of historical responsibility discourses that begin to obey the media's logic, goals and objectives. Based on the methodological ideas of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of symbolic struggle and sociophilosophical analysis, the scientist, instrumentalist and pluralistic media strategies in relation to the discourse of historical responsibility were identified and analyzed. The main criterion for highlighting these media strategies was the role of the history researchers' professional community. Each of them was presented in the context of opportunities and risks. The analysis shows that, in the modern symbolic space, these strategies are blended, as a result of which various subjects of historical responsibility not only contribute to the fragmentation of space, but also create potentially conflict-prone clusters. In the context of works by A. Rigney, A. Erll, M. Rothberg, L. Bond, and R. Crownshaw, the article demonstrates that the blending of media strategies is especially noticeable in the context of new transcultural and cross-border ways of collective memory dynamics, when the familiar images of the victim, the criminal, the participant, and the observer find themselves in new interpretative contexts of the host culture, the historical politics of the host society, and the dynamics of its transgenerational values.

Конкурс «Центры культуры Пермского края» как инструмент политики идентичности на локальном уровне

Introduction: cultural policy is related to issues of identity and takes the central place among the instruments of identity policy. The possibilities of socio-cultural design based on local identity lead to tangible changes in the socio-economic development of local communities. Objectives: to determine the markers of the local identity in the winners’ projects of the “Cultural centers of Perm region” competition and, on this basis, to identify promising directions for the use of identity resources in the cultural policy of municipalities. Methods: cross-temporal comparative analysis and discourse analysis of the projects – winners of “Cultural centers of Perm region” competition in 2007–2022. Results: the territory specialness discourse components are defined in the projects – winners of “Cultural centers of Perm region” competition. Four directions of characteristics for local identity in design practices are identified: (1) emphasizing the specifics of the place (geographical, historical, socio-economic, etc.), which manifests itself in an active construction of a territory’s ambitions (capital, centre, etc.); (2) the use of cultural heroes of the place – famous countrymen, historical figures associated with the territory; (3) defining the symbols of the territory, their monumentalization (the appearance of new monuments or art objects that materialize the symbolic capital of the territory); (4) the use of historical narratives and mythologems of the place. It is shown that monumentalization (the appearance of new iconic places in the territories due to the installation of new monuments and the creation of art objects) is the most popular direction of broadcasting local identity in the design practices of municipalities in the field of culture. At the same time, the use of cultural heroes is least reflected in the projects of the winners. Conclusions: the local identity meanings were used by all the winners of “Cultural centers of Perm region” competition. At the same time, the solution of the image problem associated with the creation of new infrastructure facilities and the formulation of local ambitions prevails over the tasks of community cohesion. A promising direction for project activities based on local identity is to strengthen work on the local heroic pantheon in the territories of the region. The selected directions can be considered as potential resource niches, filling which conditions for the consolidation of territorial communities within the framework of certain identification systems are created.

Dmitry Grigorovich’s Literary Memoirs: Axiology and Plot

Referring to the memoirs of Dmitry Grigorovich, this article considers the general principles of axiology and plot of the memoir text. A contemporary of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grigorovich became the “last chronicler” of the era of the 1840s. In this article, the author attempts to read Literary Memoirs as a work of fiction (novel), establishing typological connections between everyday sketches and essay-like sketches and plot situations that have a literary genesis. First, the author examines the phenomenon of Dmitry Grigorovich’s creative work in the axiology aspects. It is demonstrated that the symbolic capital of the writer’s name, despite the authority and significance of some of his works, was lost by the end of the nineteenth century. In this regard, the main intention of “literary recollections” is understood as an attempt to correct the past (represented by the narratives of Ivan Panaev, Avdotya Panaeva, and Pavel Annenkov), having experienced it in the present, i.e., through writing and auto-description. The main part of the article is devoted to the interpretation of plot models of memoirs and the principles of selection of historical figures. Often this selection itself (the choice of a publicist or a memoirist, what to write about and what to keep silent about) contains significant resources for auto-commentary. For example, in the description of childhood experience, referring the reader to the novels of Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, and John Greenwood, one can trace “heraldic” features that frame the writer’s experience. Particular attention is paid to the figures central to the memoirs — Fyodor Dostoevsky and Alexander Dumas, embodying the specific features of the national writer and genius, with an individual portrait of Grigorovich himself built between them.

Reflections of orality in contemporary Angolan literary narratives: reading Boaventura Cardoso

This study presents reflections on the symbolic capital of oral Angolan tradition, attesting to the proximity between orality and writing in Boaventura Cardoso�s narrative fiction. To this end, the works Fogo da Fala: um conjunto de contos and A Morte do Velho Kipaca�a were selected for analysis. A structuralist approach was adopted as a theoretical framework for the investigation. However, the central aim of the article is to highlight the impact and the importance of orality in the contemporary narrative of Angolan literature, with Boaventura Cardoso as a starting and ending point. The article argues that orality is imposed not only as a source and a substrate, but also as an affluent and confluent of literary production engaged with references of Angolanity. The study also seeks to establish guidelines for a more theoretical study of oral literature in Angola and beyond.

“Peaceful Conquest of Minds and Hearts by the Power of Enlightenment ...”: Activities of the Vilna Department of the “Society of Zealots of Russian Historical Enlightenment in Memory of Emperor Alexander III”

The article examines the activities of the Vilna department of the “Society of Zealots of Russian Historical Enlightenment in Memory of Emperor Alexander III”, whose appearance at the turn of the 19—20th centuries was part of a non-conflict management practice aimed at forming a positive symbolic capital of the empire on its northwestern outskirts. In addition to purely scientific activities, this Society was intended to become an element of a public environment controlled by the authorities, whose representatives could relay imperial ideological values, exerting an integrative impact on the local population. The Vilnius branch of the “Society of Zealots ...” was an attempt to combine the traditional imperial policy aimed at comprehensively strengthening the “Russian principles” in the region and the “soft power” strategy aimed at rejecting unilaterally coercive methods of influencing the local population in developing a general imperial spiritual intellectual identity. On the basis of archival materials, first introduced into scientific circulation, the main stages of the existence of the Vilnius Department of the Society, the main forms of its work, the numerous problems facing it, which ultimately did not allow to fully realize the significant cultural and integrative potential of this project, are considered.