“Secrecy/Concealment” in Bourdieu's Concept of Capital

KOHARA Kazuma

doi:10.14959/soshioroji.42.2_3

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Other Title

ブルデュー資本概念における「秘密」と「隠蔽」
ブルデュー資本概念における「秘密」と「隠蔽」--ブルデューモデルによる「公然の秘密」とそのゴフマンモデルとの相補性
ブルデューシホンガイネンニオケルヒミツトインペイブルデューモ
ブルデューモデルによる「公然の秘密」とそのゴフマンモデルとの相補性
Bourdieu's model on “Open Secret” and the complementarity with Goffman's model

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Description

Although many scholars are aware of the theoretical importance of the "secrecy" or "concealment" in Bourdieu's concept of capital, most of them interpret it within a Marxist context such as "domination." This essay focuses on another ever-ignored characteristic of the secrecy in symbolic capital. Bourdieu describes it "the best-kept and worst-kept secret." This "secret" is, in fact, kept from everyone else, but everyone shares it. How can we explain such nonsensical behaviour? This is the theme of this essay. Besides this "secrecy" of symbolic capital, which is the "open secret" of its exchangeability with other sorts of capital, privacy of human animalistic function is also examined since it also shares the characteristic of "open secret." Two models are provided: one from Bourdieu, the Oligopolistic Cooperation Model, and one from Goffman, the Social OrderModel. The former is the model based on the metaphor of the non-free market, and the latter is the functionalist model. Although these models are similar in the sense that they both are the integration of methodological individualism and holism, they differ in their premises of zero-sum and non-zero-sum. These models are complementary: Bourdieu's model concerns more of the individual's function based on the assumption that the individual agent's motivation is relative and relational, Goffman's model concerns more of the social function based on the assumption that society creates new values, and thus his model provides social motivation for individuals that is not relational, but is rather absolute. As a consequence of the application of these models, we conclude: people try to protect this kind of secrecy or privacy because it creates symbolic capital and social order. (This article is a revision of a part of my master thesis for the University of Chicago.)

Journal

SOSHIOROJI

SOSHIOROJI 42 (2), 3-24,162, 1997

SHAKAIGAKU KENKYUKAI