Field and group: a conceptual approximation between Pierre Bourdieu and the social representation theory of Moscovici

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the view of social reality (or social space) both in Pierre Bourdieu’s thinking and in Serge Moscovici’s social representation theory (SRT), starting from a discussion on Bourdieu’s notion of field, particularly when he explains the sociology of taste, and on the notion of group in SRT. In Bourdieu’s sociology, the field is organized by principles such as economic and cultural capital, assuming that struggles occur in the social space according to agents’ social positions, habitus, and cultural practices. In the social representation theory (SRT), groups orient themselves, in their communication, towards the field of an object that mobilizes them, assuming that there is equality in the relationships of members as they build consensual, common sense knowledge about this object. In a sociology of the taste of artists, for example, the Bourdieusian sociologist can also make a description of the social practices in this group, rather than describing only practices referring to a single object (art). However, Bourdieu does not seem to focus on the study of groups. On the other hand, social representation researchers could be criticized for not always giving enough importance to the foundation of material objects. Both authors have in common the fact of privileging the symbolic dimension in the construction of social reality. They also have in common the challenge of overcoming the subjectivity-objectivity dichotomy in the individual-society relationship. By means of such conceptual approximation, the article aims to build a psychosocial view of education, particularly of the school, without adopting in advance one theory (SRT) to the detriment of the other (Bourdieu).