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PPE Notes Sociological Theory Notes

Thompson Studies In The Theory Of Ideology Notes

Updated Thompson Studies In The Theory Of Ideology Notes

Sociological Theory Notes

Sociological Theory

Approximately 77 pages

Notes on ideology, class, and methodology. Including summaries of Bourdieu, Durkheim, Weber, Zizek, Marx and Giddens....

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Chapter Two - Symbolic Violence: Language and power in the writings of Pierre Bourdieu

Reproduction of legitimate language

  • Bourdieu attacks the separation of language from the social conditions of its production

    • to practice this separation is ‘tacitly to accept the official definition of the official language of a political unit’

      • so linguistic practices represent power structures

    • we must reconstruct the historical process by which a unified and asymmetrically structures linguistic market was formed

  • In France, this process began with the promotion of the Ile de France dialect to the status of official language

    • this gave the bourgeoisie de facto monopoly over the political apparatus and central power

    • this was pushed forwards by the educational system, which came to be seen as the principal means of access to the labour market

    • this leads to symbolic domination, where those dominated apply the dominant criteria of evaluation to their own practices

      • i.e. judge their shortcomings in terms of their position in the language market etc.

Power and the performative utterance

  • Speakers do not just acquire linguistic competence, whereby they can use grammar correctly

    • the also acquire practical competence, whereby they can produce the appropriate sentence

    • philosophers (e.g. Chomsky) who hold the former doctrine neglect the social conditions for the establishment of communication

      • in some situations certain individuals or groups of individuals, are effectively excluded from communication - there are relations of force here

  • Utterances such as ‘I do’ and ‘I name this ship the Queen Elizabeth’ Bourdieu calls performative utterances

    • the efficacy of performative utterances cannot be separated from the institution which defines the conditions to be fulfilled for the utterance to be effective

      • there must be authority, or symbolic capital, behind the statement

  • Authority comes from outside language, so we must examine the structures and properties of the linguistic markets within which expressions are exchanged

Linguistic Markets

  • Linguistic markets (in which expressions are exchanged) have certain structures

    • these markets are the site of struggles between entrants, who seek to alter its structure in their favour, and established agents/groups, who seek to preserve the order

    • hence the structure of the market is a certain state of the relation of force between the agents/groups engaged in struggle

  • There are different markets to represent different kinds of capital - symbolic, economic, cultural etc

    • capital acquired in one market can be converted into capital in another market

      • e.g. educational qualifications can lead to lucrative jobs

  • Despite the antagonism, those engaged in struggles share an interest in preserving the market (why?)

    • hence they help to reproduce the game

  • Variations in accent, syntax and vocabulary are all socially marked, and mark the speakers that employ them

    • this can be seen from even the most elementary or intimate exchange

      • the hierarchy of language can be inverted, but only successfully by those at the top of the power hierarchy

        • e.g. a politician may talk in a dialect at a formal occasion, and hence negate the objective relation of force between the two languages, but in reality this actually serves to reinforce the hierarchy

Linguistic habitus and corporeal hexis

  • The linguistic habitus governs our linguistic practices and our anticipation of the value that our linguistic products will receive on other markets e.g. school, labour market

    • for the dominant class, there is a correspondence between the requirements of most markets and the dispositions of the habitus

      • the can speak confidently, with ease

    • the hyper-correction of the petit bourgeoisie speaks of a class seeking to produce linguistic expressions that bear the mark of a habitus other than their own

    • for the subordinate classes, their linguistic products are often assigned limited value

      • hence elimination from the education system

Symbolic violence

  • There are societies with objective institutions for sustaining relations of domination, and societies without

    • in societies without, relations of domination must be continually renewed

      • they are achieved through symbolic violence - a gentle, invisible form of violence, in which if the true nature of the relationship were revealed violence would ensue

        • e.g. the violence of confidence, of personal loyalty, of the gify, of the debt, of recognition, of piety etc

    • in societies with such institutions, individuals need not have strategies aimed at domination; violence is built into the institution

      • e.g. the education system is arbitrary (cannot be derived from universal reasoning), but is embedded in power structures - it seeks to reproduce the existing relations of domination

        • the education system simultaneously reproduces and legitimates those relations, by presenting itself as autonomous, and hence concealing its reproduction of social hierarchies

  • ...

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