‘Clear and accessible – Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory makes difficult ideas available to an undergraduate audience’ -Larry Ray, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent The SAGE Key Concepts series provides students with accessible and authoritative knowledge of the essential topics in a variety of disciplines. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages critical evaluation through understanding.Written by experienced and respected academics, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension.Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory:• Provides brief accounts of the central ideas behind the key concepts of critical social theory• Prepares students to tackle primary texts and/or gives them a point of reference when they find themselves stuck • Discusses each concept in an introductory way • Offers further reading guidance for independent learning• Is essential reading for undergraduates in sociology and across the social sciences.

Symbolic Power/Symbolic Violence

Symbolic power/symbolic violence

Related concepts: field, capital, doxa, discourse, habitus, power, power/knowledge.

In the work of Pierre Bourdieu, who first formulated these concepts, symbolic power and symbolic violence are used interchangeably. I will suggest here that we can usefully use the two terms to refer ...

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