Summary
In Moments of Resistance, following Bourdieu (1992), the capacity of the dominant to ignore, non-recognize or misrecognize the subordinated — not physical violence, but a more sophisticated and effective form of domination, whose counterpart is resistance as a physical presentation of power seeking symbolic recognition (PDF p.40, 54).
Details
- The situations the book analyzes focus mainly on the more subtle strategies of domination by power holders, the non-recognition or misrecognition of the needs and rights of dominated groups and the power to ignore the fundamental equality between human beings; this is what Bourdieu (1992) termed symbolic violence (PDF p.40).
- Symbolic violence is a representation of superior power of the dominant (similar to politics) used to submit a group by means of non-recognition, humiliation and degradation (similar to violence); resistance, its counterpart, is a physical presentation of power by subordinated groups (similar to violence) seeking symbolic recognition (similar to politics) (PDF p.54).
- Non-recognition of the local population in settler democracies constitutes symbolic violence, which often deteriorates into increasingly physical violence in order to maintain the regime, at the same time that the democratic institutions are improved for the recognized “nationals” (Mann 2005) (PDF p.51).
- The closure of political space to specific groups in democratic states by symbolic violence can be achieved formally by the legal system and institutional procedures, and also informally, through everyday behavior, discourse, and language (PDF p.51).
- Exclusion and misrecognition are acts of symbolic violence, and in order to maintain the exclusion of a group, the state may use physical violence (PDF p.51).
Related pages
Lev Grinberg, Political Space, Movements of Resistance, Imagined Democracy, Moments of Resistance