Symbolic Value

The word symbol comes from the Greek verb symballein, meaning “to piece together; to (re)join.” Within the verb symballein this assembly or joining together also implies a veiling or coveting. In its modern meaning the word symbol is that image of an object, person, or thing made to stand for a wider concept or quality. By utilizing imagery symbols are visually effective; they embody ideas and reinforce ideologies and beliefs. Symbols are multilayered; they can have multiple meanings. The examination of symbols, therefore, involves peeling back the layers of cultural and historical palimpsest in order to get a glimpse at the structural origins of meaning. Symbolism is a popular and historically legitimized modus operandi for the social realm. It attempts to harmonize the problematic relationships between the ideal and the material, in order to synthesize organizational and cultural discord. Historically framed in the mystic and spiritual symbols crystallize ideas whilst remaining general. By reason of relationship, association, attribute, or convention symbols have complex and intentionally ambiguous meanings.

Symbolic value functions as an authoritative embodiment of the symbol. A person, thing, or place may have symbolic value; that is, aside from any tangible capital (e.g., economic or political) they have significant symbolic resonance. Buckingham Palace, for example, is far more than a purely economic or structural feature; it is a symbolic resource of British historical longevity, stability, and power. At the same time, Buckingham Palace also stands for colonialism, the British Empire, and domination. Symbols are interpreted differently depending on the cultural resonance for that group or person. Certain things can have a use value—a practical objective as well as symbolic value; for example, the ability to communicate identity (e.g., a Rolls Royce car provides the owner with both transport and status). A place or object can have both economic and symbolic value (the Eiffel Tower). Thus, the value of any given object is always a sum of its symbolic and other capital. The British monarchy, for example, has relatively little political acumen (the monarch can offer advice upon policy), but the symbolic value of the [Page 913]monarchy (unity, coherence, deference, stability, tradition, culture) far exceeds its political use value.

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002), the acclaimed French sociologist, developed the related concept of symbolic capital in his book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, the origins of which are found in Max Weber's analysis of status. It is also possible that the source of symbolic value goes deeper into the recesses of the human psyche, for example, into human mythology (the human-spiritual connection with the referent or phenomena). In particular, symbolic value may be linked to religious beliefs concerning the relationship among God (or gods), people, and the referent: the divinity of the symbol (the Christian crucifix). A fundamental problem when using symbolic value as an analytical tool to determine meaning is that symbols may be too abstract or too complicated (in their relationship to the real or the material) to be easily defined or interpreted.

In art, Symbolism is a style developed in the mid- to late 19th century and is characterized by the integration of symbols and ideas, which represent more profound thoughts, feelings, or ideas. Edvard Munch's painting “The Scream” typifies this art form. Symbolists believed that art should capture higher or absolute truths that are accessed only by powerful abstract means. In literature, the French 19th-century poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) is representative of the Symbolic school. In La Vie Anterieure, one of his more famous sonnets, he writes a poetic description of the symbolic “to understand without effort—the language of flowers and speechless things.”

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