

Since its establishment in the sociological lexicon, symbolic violence has been applied in multiple disciplines of the social sciences and in numerous case studies.įor example, in his Learning Capitalist Culture (2010), anthropologist Douglas E. Symbolic violence finds expression through body language, comportment, self-presentation, bodily care, and adornment.

The concept of symbolic violence was created to argue that hard power is not sufficient for the effective exercise of power. īourdieu's theory of symbolic violence further elaborates and develops Max Weber's thoughts on the role of legitimation in domination. Although La distinction focused mainly on aesthetics and taste within modern French culture, it established a framework within which he and other sociologists would examine meta-behavior within society as it relates to power, social capital, and individual habitus. The term symbolic violence first appeared in Pierre Bourdieu's work alongside the similar concepts of symbolic power and cultural capital, which make physical analogy to the power differentials between social groups within a hierarchy. the very ways in which we talk to one another sustain relations of domination. Slavoj Žižek discusses symbolic violence in Violence (2008), arguing that it is located in the signification of language itself, i.e. Bourdieu made efforts to stress that symbolic violence is generally not a deliberate action by a hegemonic power, but rather an unconscious reinforcement of the status quo that is seen as the “norm” by those who exist within that social stratification. The term began to be used by other sociologists and authors in the early 1990s. Symbolic violence can be manifested across different social domains such as nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic identity. It is often unconsciously agreed upon by both parties and is manifested in an imposition of the norms of the group possessing greater social power on those of the subordinate group. Symbolic violence describes a type of non-physical violence manifested in the power differential between social groups. Symbolic violence is a term coined by Pierre Bourdieu, a prominent 20th-century French sociologist, and appears in his works as early as the 1970s. Term coined by the 20th-century French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu
