The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu can rightly be considered not only the forerunner of methodological and empirical innovation in the social sciences, but, above all, the translator of the deconstructively de-structuring approach of the infamous structuring structures (Bourdieu, 1979) which, according to him, influence and shape the procedural modalities of the social actor, whose practical sense can be deduced from the cultural and social practices of which he himself is both producer and user.
The Distinction: Social Critique of Taste…
According to Bourdieu , the process of constituting the subject is reified by the object. Reality and the individual, in the most plural sense there is, are in a dialogical relationship and are the product of that process of incorporation that the scholar defines as habitus ; that is, the set of structuring structures (Bourdieu, 2001) that govern, being the mere manifestation of the dominant over the dominated, the social actor; and whose visible outcome is manifested, in toto , through the holistic analysis of social behavior, that is, through the social deconstruction of those relationships that exist between value systems and identity/class affiliations, of which homo sacer/ludens becomes the bearer.
This thought is made explicit in Distinction (1979 – Italian translation 1983), in which Bourdieu concretely demonstrates the hierarchical scales through which Parisian society, structurally organized by social classes, is constituted. He clearly demonstrates the relevance of the social and cultural component of behaviors apparently naturalized by class membership. The dialectic of the dominant over the dominated is emblematically established in this work.
…in cyberspace
Contextualizing Bourdieu might seem anachronistic, yet the field interviews conducted by the French sociologist are extremely relevant, now more than ever, in the era of social distancing and restricted sociality. In the era of cyberspace , of heterotopia, to borrow from Michel Foucault, of hyper-place and non-place, distinguishing oneself through taste, or rather through cultural or playful/photographic capital—think of the practice of the selfie today—is extremely compelling. Already in the late 70s, Bourdieu had grasped the importance of the aesthetic dimension , in the most holistic sense possible, as a constitutive trait of social identity. Taste, Bourdieu said, is subordinate to the scale of belonging.
Humans believe they have a certain natural predisposition/inclination toward what is actually the product of embedded social practices. Among the variables that determined the social practices and customs most appealing to the Parisian bourgeoisie of those years, Bourdieu cites social , cultural , and economic capital . From quantitative research, he understands that there is a strong positive correlation between the social and aesthetic dimensions . The bourgeoisie are able to distinguish themselves from workers by virtue of their social position/role, but not by choice. It is a social practice that undermines the pre-established order of discourse. This was further corroborated by the sociologist's fieldwork.
Identification through “the perfect man”
The social use of taste is correlated to the social role of the actor and not natural or biologically determined; essentially, Bourdieu says, it is constructed. Weber stated in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 1991), that social and cultural determinants are the driving force of this superstructure, and Bourdieu, in this examination, dissects its etiologies. Indeed, the social practices of taste were strongly correlated with educational qualifications and desires, but, essentially, with the agentive/submissive role that, in many respects, the social actor plays within that great conflictual field that is life, in which the subject becomes object, to paraphrase Marx. In fact, Bourdieu said, social identification occurs through the taste of the infamous " Perfect Man" (Bourdieu, 2001) and this process of identity construction , which passes through a multiplicity of sociographic, cultural, psychological variables, etc., becomes the driving force of yet another social process, apparently devoid of
Cyberspace and plural identities
In the current fluctuating and ethereal field of life, which refutes any ontogenetic approach to existence, social being presents and represents itself through primary/secondary socialization agencies: the world of the media . Social networks and plural identity spaces form the backdrop for the new generation of NEETs and so-called digital natives , who identify and form virtual groups on whose relational construction processes an individual's entire social capital depends. That era and those devices are what philosopher Giorgio Agamben defines as: What is striking in the reactions to the exceptional devices that have been implemented in our country (and not only here) is the inability to observe them beyond the immediate context in which they seem to operate (Agamben, 2020).
These are devices that the philosopher defines as pervasive in the society of biosecurity and biopolitics, conferring immediacy and plurality to an ipsem identity , as Ricoeur puts it. If the individual, therefore, identifies socially through the virtual network, which then becomes social and, therefore, a medium for distinguishing oneself or joining the Other, how relevant is Bourdieu's research?
Technologies of power?
It is, if we consider the assertions made by Bourdieu himself in Photography: Uses and Social Functions of a Media Art (Bourdieu, 1960) , in which the sociologist defines the social function of the photographic image. In the ethnography conducted in the 60s, in fact, one can discern the fallacy of the mere iconological-referential dimension of the "Veronica" (Icon-true image) and grasp the Barthesian punctum . Men, Bourdieu states, identified with their own social class (peasants, photographers, bourgeois, etc.) thanks to the functional and social use that photography performed, and continues to perform, in the French hinterland .
Today, perhaps, aren't we witnessing the same agency of the image? Children and adolescents use Orwellian devices of effectiveness and "technologies of power" to create a kaleidoscopic self-identity: plural, playful, socially restricted, and seemingly unifying.
Valeria Salanitro
Bibliography
- G. Agamben, Where are we now? The epidemic as politics, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2020.
- R. Barthes, The clear room, Hill & Wang, 1980.
- P. Bourdieu, The Distinction, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2001.
- P. Bourdieu, Photography: Uses and Social Functions of a MediumRimini, Rizzoli, 2008.
- M. Foucault, The Order of Discourse, Turin, Einaudi, 2004.
