Political field

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The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu coined the term political field . He developed field theory, which assumes that different fields within society (field of everyday practice, artistic, scientific, political, etc. fields) exist and act relatively autonomously from one another. The fields each have their own laws and rules. The political field is part of the social field .

The political field is a microcosm within the social world. The political field can be described "as a game that is about the legitimate enforcement of the principles of vision and division of the social world."

Power has the one in this game, who have enough social , cultural , economic and symbolic capital has (Bourdieu goes by different types of capital from). Owners of this capital must have enough free time and education (cultural capital) and feel called to be active in the political field. Whoever has symbolic or “prestige capital” has the greatest share of power in this game.

Every social field - for example the mathematical field, journalistic field, etc. - tends to become more and more isolated in its development from its environment. "The more the political field is constituted, the more it becomes independent, the more professional it becomes, the more the professionals have the tendency to look down on the laypeople." The political laypeople, the voters, are branded as incompetent by the professional politicians thereby become even more indispensable for the layperson. Bourdieu explicitly points out that the similarities with the religious field are astounding. In the religious field, it is the relationships between professional religion teachers ( priests , popes ) and believers. But it is thanks to these incompetents to expose the above "tacit premise of the political order that lay people are excluded from it".

The role of journalists in bringing the layman closer to the political field has changed. He is now involved in the political field because his activity has an influence on the political field, i.e. he can change the political field. Bourdieu doubts that the journalist can change the closed nature of the political field. It is so, "that in a time of tight jobs the worst censorship is that due to the general insecurity."

Bourdieu also analyzes the behavior of actors in the political field. Among other things, you have an interest in keeping the political field unchanged. "A very large part of the actions taken by politicians has no other function than reproducing the apparatus and reproducing themselves by reproducing the apparatus that guarantees their reproduction." However, this field is highly competitive, so it is not are all actors who want to leave it unchanged, only those who are currently overprivileged by it.

The political field has, compared to the mathematical field, in which only professional mathematicians operate, "a peculiarity: it can never become completely independent, it always remains related to its clientele, to the layperson."

This is also the chance that Bourdieu sees to exert external influence on the political field. The danger that lies in this is that one - like the journalists - becomes involved in the political field and so dependent on it. It would be important that scientists and artists get involved in the political field without making themselves dependent. "It would be important that you intervene as a critical authority, as a kind of critical parliament, like the philosophers of the 18th century were."

See also

literature

  • Pierre Bourdieu: The political field: To the criticism of political reason . UVK, Konstanz 2001, ISBN 3-89669-984-9 .

Remarks

  1. Pierre Bourdieu: The political field: To the critique of political reason . UVK, Konstanz 2001, p. 51
  2. Pierre Bourdieu, 2001, p. 52
  3. Pierre Bourdieu, 2001, p. 44
  4. Pierre Bourdieu, 2001, p. 44
  5. Pierre Bourdieu, 2001, p. 63
  6. Pierre Bourdieu, 2001, pp. 53f
  7. Pierre Bourdieu, 2001, p. 51
  8. Pierre Bourdieu, 2001, p. 65