ABSTRACT
One of the most important contributions of Bourdieu’s sociology is the analysis of the symbolic dimension of economic practices. Since his early ethnographic studies on traditional Algerian society, Bourdieu has shown interest in the ways mythical and ethical representations contribute to the reproduction of the economic and social order that produce them. This becomes his starting point in developing a theory of ‘symbolic capital’, a form which all types of capital take when their possession is perceived as legitimate. Produced by the transfiguration of power relations into meaning relations, symbolic capital is closely related to the concept of ‘symbolic violence’: the violence exercised upon a social agent with his or her complicity. In this context, the State plays a leading role, since it appears to legitimately monopolise symbolic violence and act as the central bank of symbolic capital. Bourdieu’s criticism of neoclassical economics and neoliberal politics can be placed in this theoretical perspective. Bourdieu analyses neoliberalism as a belief system that mystifies interests and power by making them articles of faith. Neoliberal discourse is a symbolic order which presents itself as universal and neutral, but increasingly becomes a tool to exercise power. Bourdieu stresses that the economic discourse contains the effect both of naturalisation and of universalisation, which produce symbolic violence, legitimated and distributed by the State.
