Social and Symbolic Spaces in the Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu

The paper introduces the history of the concept of social space of Pierre Bourdieu in its interaction with symbolic space. The primary focus is such an issue as the relationship between the objective scientific classification of social relations and the practical everyday classifications of social agents. Symbolic space is realized as a space of lifestyles that express differences that are objectively inscribed in the living conditions of social agents. According to Bourdieu, the connecting mechanism between social space and symbolic space (the space of lifestyles) is habitus. It is a system of stable dispositions that incorporate the agent’s experience and function as a matrix of perception, evaluation and action. Bourdieu seeks to show how the same structural invariant is reproduced simultaneously in both social and symbolic spaces. He constructs a social space using contemporary French society as an empirical object. The study demonstrated how the French social space can be characterized by three dimensions, which Bourdieu identified as the total volume of capital, composition of capital, and evolution of capital (evolution of social position in time).

social space, symbolic space, habitus, capital, social position, lifestyle, social classifications