ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Bourdieu’s lens of field structuring to analyse how entrepreneurs, as actors of an emergent field, engage in the struggle to access field-specific forms of capital, gain legitimacy and secure dominant positions. We build on evidence from an ethnographic fieldwork among entrepreneurs operating in the French “alternative” weddings field. This subfield quickly emerged and gained autonomy towards the broader international field, relying on its own (endogenous) logic of appropriation and transformation of forms of capital. In our analysis, we identify three phases of field structuring: emergence, insitutionalisation and field locking. Some actors enter the field early and appropriate field-specific resources. These dominant actors then use their power positions and exert symbolic violence to “lock” the field to other actors and to innovative practices.
We contribute to the application of Bourdieu’s sociology into the field of entrepreneurship research. First, our analysis reveals the importance of power, appropriation of forms of capital and symbolic violence within entrepreneurial fields. This contributes to a social and relational understanding of entrepreneurship. Second, with the identification of the three phases of field structuring we contribute to broader discussions on Bourdieu’s notion of fields and their endogenous logics of autonomy.
