Symbolic violence

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The symbolic violence (violence symbolique) is a term developed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and means misunderstood and thus socially recognized violence , with the help of which the prevailing view of the social world is legitimized.

Bourdieu distinguishes symbolic violence from “naked violence”. When which force is used depends on the balance of power between the two parties and the integration and ethical integrity of the group around them.

Symbolic violence is hidden in every action content that is negated by the external form of action in practice . However, this is not done consciously in the form of a rational calculation. The violence works through a kind of complicity. It is anchored in the habitus of the actors : either in dispositions to rule or in dispositions to submission .

Symbolic violence can be robbed of its symbolic strength by making conscious the arbitrariness with which it works, i.e. by eliminating the misunderstanding of the doxa (ie principles of judging and evaluating). Symbolic power and symbolic rule are closely related to symbolic violence.

Symbolic power

In this context, symbolic power is a power to enforce the recognition of power. Implementation is achieved through demonstration of power through demonstration. This again requires an accumulation of symbolic capital .

Through symbolic power the truth is misunderstood as power, as violence, as arbitrariness. The two terms symbolic power and symbolic violence are sometimes used synonymously.

In modern societies the power balance is anchored in institutionalized positions instead of personal relationships .

Symbolic rule

This “gentle” form of violence is a way of exercising domination and exploitation. That symbolic rule is easier to enforce because it meets with less disapproval. Just as the accumulation of symbolic capital is legitimized only through the work of concealment, symbolic rule, which is recognized as legitimate, is based on concealment.

See also: structural violence

The male rule

In his work The Male Rule (French 1998) Bourdieu examines a special form of symbolic rule. There is an enormous difference between men and women in the likelihood of access to public space . Furthermore, women are systematically positioned below men in public spaces. According to Bourdieu, this can be traced back to socialization within a society in which the sexual habitus is developed . From this arises the bilateral nature of the relationship of domination. Dispositions for submission are anchored in the female habitus, while in the male habitus dispositions to rule. However, this is unconscious on both sides. Bourdieu assumes that the symbolically generated attributions are only apparently natural. The division into sexes then seems to be natural.

According to Bourdieu, there have already been changes in the structures of rule: male rule no longer asserts itself with the evidence of the obvious. However, these visible changes still hide continuities. In order to completely break the relationship of domination, a revolution of the symbolic order is required, which is not limited to a conversion of consciousness, but changes worldviews and starts with dispositions.

literature

  • Pierre Bourdieu: Social Sense . Critique of Theoretical Reason. Clockkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1987. Chapter 8.
  • Pierre Bourdieu: Uncovering the hidden mechanisms of power. In: The hidden mechanisms of power. VSA, Hamburg 1992. pp. 81–86.
  • Pierre Bourdieu: A gentle force. Pierre Bourdieu in conversation with Irene Dölling and Margareta Steinrücke . In: Irene Dölling , Beate Krais (ed.): An everyday game. Gender Constructions in Social Practice. Frankfurt a. M. 1997, pp. 218-230
  • Pierre Bourdieu: Divide and rule. On the symbolic economy of the gender relationship. In: Gender. Ethnicity. Class. On the social construction of hierarchy and difference. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2001. pp. 11-3.
  • Pierre Bourdieu The male rule. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 2005 (French La Domination masculine , 1998).
  • Werner Fuchs-Heinritz, Alexandra König: Pierre Bourdieu. UVK, Konstanz 2005. pp. 207-213.
  • Stephan Moebius , Angelika Wetterer : Symbolic violence . In: Austrian Journal for Sociology . tape 36 , no. 4 . VS-Verlag, December 2011, ISSN  1862-2585 , p. 1–10 , doi : 10.1007 / s11614-011-0006-2 ( springer.com ).