ABSTRACT
According to the “illusio” of the academic field, funds and reputation are allocated to departments on the basis of performance in research as represented in publications, patents, and citations of publications per investment in personnel and equipment. Following Bourdieu's theory of capital and fields we might, however, expect that the availability of forms of capital (economic, social, cultural, and symbolic) penetrates the allocation of funds and reputation so that the outcome cannot be explained purely by performance, but also has to be accounted for in terms of the power structure in the field. The more unequally the different forms of capital are distributed in the field, the more unequal will be the allocation of funds and reputation among departments, and the more it will deviate from an allocation based on performance (Bourdieu 1986, 1988, 1996b).
