Symbolic Violence: The Shape(ing) of Things to Come

Abstract

Following on from the notion of community, an understanding of the processes that construct and maintain the narratives around which we frame our lives and beliefs is necessary. As we have seen, a new generation of interethnic families are finding themselves to be no different in many respects from other families forming within the processes of globalization. The differences inherent in interethnic families are no longer sufficiently problematic within emerging forms of globalizing capitalism to require recognition and norming. Bourdieu’s sociological framing tells us that social space, in its connection to the construction of a politicized habitus, is not neutral. Thus the restructuring of space which has accompanied the shift of capitalism into a globalizing axiomatic, whether it be national, familial or personal, is inherently political and subject to forces of symbolic violence. These families are not attracting the same social sanctions as earlier generation for a reason, and party this can be explained by focussing on the nature and process of symbolic violence.