Frédéric Lebaron

The Norwegian Field of Power anno 2000

ABSTRACT This article, in the line of Bourdieu (1989), belongs to the research domain about elites and the field of power. Using data from the Norwegian Power & Democracy survey on elites, conducted in 2000, it specifically seeks to uncover the main dimensions and fractions in the Norwegian field of power. Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) has been used to address this issue. The three main findings are these: firstly, our results show that the three most important principal dimensions in the field are an economic capital axis, then an educational and social capital axis, and then an axis separating the judicial positions from positions in culture, organizations and politics. Secondly, the political positions are the most accessible. Thirdly, the public judicial group is the most homogeneous.

Pierre Bourdieu: Economic models against economism

The use of economic analogies by Bourdieu has often been the object of much criticism. For some scholars, it reveals an “economistic” vision of the social world too much inspired by neoclassical economics. For others, it is a kind of mechanical metaphor transposed to cultural phenomena in a determinist way, as in the holistic (Marxist) tradition. To understand this usage and to refute these contradictory criticisms, we return to and focus on the very first occurrences in the 1958–1966 period – the focus of our article – of what Bourdieu would call a “general economy of practices” in his book Esquisse d’une theorie de la pratique. Two central aspects, often forgotten by critics, are presented here: first, the close but very particular link between his work and economics as a growing scientific discipline during these years; second, the criticisms Bourdieu makes of the economic model as a general scientific tool for the social sciences. If one insists only on one of the two sides of the coin, one risks misunderstanding Bourdieu’s original scientific habitusand intellectual project. By contrast, this “double” position opens the possibility of an “integrated” vision of social and economic factors of practices, thanks to the introduction of the “cultural” and above all the “symbolic” dimensions of social life.

Central bankers in the contemporary global field of power: a ‘social space’ approach

In the context of the financialization of the global economy, and the importance of financial elites (see Savage and Williams in this volume) the role of central banks has become particularly important. The financial crisis of August– September 2007, (the ‘sub-prime mortgage crisis’) has given a new illustration of the growing functional importance of these central banks, which are in charge of monetary and financial stability through their particular daily interventions on the markets. As ‘lenders of last resort’ in case of declining confidence between banks or financial actors and, more generally, ‘custodians of monetary stability’ as they are often described, central bankers determine the general level of confidence in the set of monetary and financial instruments which have developed in recent years, and contribute highly to the production of macroeconomic decisions, and financial dynamics. Behind the opaque walls of central banks, well known to be very secretive institutions, particular social agents appear to be a new economic and political elite. Their role, action and beliefs have become determinant for the reproduction of the economic and social order as a whole. This specific ‘financial’ elite is related to the state bureaucracy (from which it frequently emanates), to the political field and to the dominant actors of the financial markets. In Europe, the creation of the European Central Bank (ECB) has objectified this process by putting the so-called ‘independent’ governing council of the ECB at the centre of monetary policy but also of macroeconomic policy in general. In the very recent period, European central bankers have been put under political pressure by French politicians, condemning the high level of interest rates and above all the over-evaluation of the Euro, resulting from the specific actions of the ECB. In this situation, knowledge of the social trajectories which lead to the position of central banker in different parts of the world is a first step to understanding the social reality behind the emergence of these new global elites. It will help for example to determine the degree of homogeneity of this group and its internal structures; this knowledge will also give an understanding of the social ‘embeddedness’ of monetary and macroeconomic decisions, otherwise seen as structural macro-conditions without any social content. In this sense, the sociology of central bankers is a specific contribution to economic sociol-

Social capital in the field of power: the case of Norway

This paper analyses social capital structures in the field of power, based on data from the Norwegian Power and Democracy Survey on elites. Separating between objectified, institutionalised, embodied, and inherited social capital, and inspired by Bourdieus approach, we analyse the relations between social capital and the other forms of capital by way of specific multiple correspondence analysis and ascending hierarchical cluster analysis. First, we find that the level of institutionalised social capital varies from one fraction of the Norwegian elite to another. Secondly, the range of networks established through previous work experiences is related to field seniority. Thirdly, the positions of highest endogamy are situated in the religious field, and to a lesser extent, in the scientific field, and in the juridical field. Finally, the ‘core of the core’ is defined by actors who are strongly interconnected inside what is called ‘the tripartite system’, with a high level of multipositionality and intersectorial connections.

Toward a New Critique of Economic Discourse

PIERRE BOURDIEU’S interest in economic issues is obvious in his first works on Algeria, which are a major contribution to economic anthropology (Bourdieu, 1958, 1977). But from that time onwards, Bourdieu has never stopped using and discussing economic theories or models, especially the rational-choice model (Bourdieu, 1974, 1977, 1979). Neither did he stop contributing to the empirical exploration of various economic realities, especially through his works on education, taste and consumption, credit, personal housing, editors, etc. In this sense, Bourdieu is one of the main authors in what, following the Durkheimians, we call ‘economic sociology’, and the publication in 2000 of Les Structures sociales de l’economie does not constitute a surprising shift in his work. His various investigations of the economic sphere rest on a coherent view of economy and economics, aiming at integrating the analysis of economic behaviours and institutions into a general vision of social practice, a ‘general economy of practice’, as he wrote in Le Sens pratique (1979). I will argue here that Bourdieu proposes, especially in his last book Les Structures sociales de l’economie, what I will call a new critique of economic discourse (I mean ‘new’ in comparison to the Marxist and heterodox – institutionalist, post-Keynesian, etc. – economics), which he develops in three main complementary directions. First, he lays the stress upon the symbolic aspect of economic life, which relates his sociology directly both to the Weberian and the Durkheimian traditions, but he also concentrates on symbolic domination and struggles, which connects him with Marx. Bourdieu secondly

O espaço das desigualdades educativas no município de São Paulo

Este artigo apresenta os resultados parciais de uma pesquisa sobre o estado atual das disparidades educacionais em Sao Paulo. A partir de uma Analise de Componentes Principais Standard (ACP), realizada com dados do Censo 2010/IBGE, identificou-se e comparou-se as caracteristicas sociodemograficas da populacao do municipio e a distribuicao de indicadores educacionais entre as regioes das subprefeituras da cidade. Isso permitiu examinar a relacao entre posicao social, condicoes de vida e usos socialmente diferenciados do sistema de ensino. Os resultados revelaram que, se um primeiro eixo opoe de maneira esperada os bairros ricos aos bairros pobres, um segundo revela uma divisao mais fina, no interior do espaco urbano, ligada a posse do diploma de ensino medio, que diferencia tanto as regioes de classes medias e altas, como as subprefeituras das periferias da cidade.

ECB Leaders. A New European Monetary Elite

The members of the Governing Council are often described as belonging to different factions. Some are ‘doves,’ others are ‘hawks.’ To which faction do you belong? As chairman of the ECB, I am talking on behalf of the Governing Council. It is an excessive simplification for summing up the positions of the various members of the Council that way. We have a thoroughly closeknit Goveming Council; the entity making the decisions in the ECB is the Governing Council, properly speaking, and not a fraction thereof. Each of us is responsible for the stability of the whole eurozone, and none of us represents any particular lobby, any particular economy or notion whatever it may be. Moreover, I consider that collective wisdom is fundamental and, de facto, each of us integrates others’ wisdom and views and reserves the right to change his approach according to this interaction. As a chairman, I see to it that the Governing Council fulfils his mandate as inscribed in the treaty price stability. (Inverview Jean-Claude Trichet, 2006).1 The councils of the central banks include hawks and doves, such has always been and will always be the case. Two of the worst hawks of the Governing Council of the ECB are Jurgen Stark, a member of the executive board, in charge of monetary policy, and Axel Weber, the chairman of the Bundesbank.

Pierre Bourdieu, Geometric Data Analysis and the Analysis of Economic Spaces and Fields

In this paper, we discuss the current relevance of geometric data analysis (GDA) in a new state of the field of economics where social science disciplines interested in economic phenomena tend to converge. We argue that this methodology can respond to the growing need to seek for more solid empirical foundations, and to adopt a multidimensional approach in social economics. We begin by setting out the basic principles of GDA methodology, which clearly distinguish descriptive and inferential moments of the research. Then, we show why and how Bourdieu used these methods in the studies he carried out in France in a variety of economic spaces and fields: lifestyle and consumption, corporate management, the individual housing market and publishing. We stress that GDA helps us to formalise the configuration and dynamics of economic institutions, groups and interests in a truly multidimensional and pluralistic way compared to standard methods used by mainstream economics.

Grundzüge einer geometrischen Formalisierung des Feldkonzepts

In diesem Beitrag wird die enge Verbindung analysiert, die zwischen dem Begriff des Feldes und jener Gruppe von Methoden besteht, die unter den Namen Korrespondenzanalyse bzw. neuerdings geometrische Datenanalyse zusammengefasst werden. Bourdieu selbst verweist auf die hier angesprochene ‚Wahlverwandtschaft‘ zwischen Konzept und Methode: „Wenn ich zum Beispiel die Korrespondenzanalyse viel verwende, dann weil ich meine, das diese ein im wesentlichen relationales Verfahren ist, dessen Philosophie vollig dem entspricht, was meiner Ansicht nach die soziale Realitat ausmacht. Es ist ein Verfahren, das in Relationen ‚denkt‘, so wie ich es mit [dem] Begriff Feld zu tun versuche.“

„Nobel“-Ökonomen als öffentliche Intellektuelle Die Zirkulation von symbolischem Kapital

„Preise“ sind soziale Konstrukte und spielen fur die Bewertung von Forschung und die Erlangung offentlicher Anerkennung fur wissenschaftliche und andere Leistungen heute eine bedeutende Rolle. Die Institution des „Preises fur Wirtschaftswissenschaften der schwedischen Reichsbank in Gedenken an Alfred Nobel“ kann als sozialer Konstruktionsprozess von offentlichen Intellektuellen im engeren Sinn analysiert werden: Und zwar so, wie er wahrend der Dreyfus-Affare in Frankreich entstandenen ist, namlich als Erzeuger geistiger (wissenschaftlicher, literarischer, kunstlerischer) Guter, denen es ermoglicht wird, aus ihrer eigentlichen Aktivitatsund Legitimitatssphare herauszutreten, um offentlich einen Standpunkt zu diversen moralischen oder politischen Fragen einzunehmen.