SOURCE: Swartz, David. “Bridging the Study of Culture and Religion: Pierre Bourdieu's Political Economy of Symbolic Power.” Sociology of Religion 57, no. 1 (spring 1996): 71-85.

In the following essay, Swartz explains the main ideas behind Bourdieu's theory of culture in terms of its relationship to the sociology of religion.

This essay examines key features of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture in light of their potential contribution to the sociology of religion. Bourdieu himself has devoted little attention to the study of religion.¹ Yet, significant features of his approach to the study of culture find inspiration in the materialism of Karl Marx and particularly in Max Weber's sociology of religion.

Bourdieu's Political Economy of Symbolic Power

Bourdieu proposes a sociology of symbolic power in which he addresses the important topic of relations between culture, stratification, and power. He contends that the struggle for social recognition is a fundamental dimension of all...