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This article is the fourth in a special issue of the Journal of Ancient History, "Social Biographies of the Ancient World." It notes that the course of events put forth by 1 Maccabees, a composition that is clearly favorable to the Hasmonean dynasty, is remarkable: Jonathan does not seem to hurry to take control of the temple, which had been the main goal of his brother's previous wars. Moreover, the lack of a high priest, integral to the maintenance of the Judean cult and the source of previous troubles, does not seem to pose a problem. The narrative calls our attention to the processes by which Jonathan gained enough support to take the Judean high priesthood, which 1 Maccabees obfuscates. A look into the forms of capital accrued by Jonathan and the different fields in which they come into play in 1 and 2 Maccabees can expand our understanding of the historical process, in which a relatively minor figure prevails in the Hasmonean memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the nature of educational administration and leadership as an influential subfield in relation to the fields of power and religion within the historical context of Iran. Grounded in Bourdieu's Theory of Social Fields, this study adopt a new sociological faspective on education and upbringing. This approach posits that for a comprehensive analysis of specific phenomena such as the field of educational administration and leadership, necessitates examining them in the broader social issues. Therefore, utilizing the method of document research and employing the thematic analysis technique aligned with the Bourne and Clark approach, as well as the Atrayd Sterling model, the social history of Iran was studied in two faiods: pre-Islamic (Ancient Iran) and post-Islamic (up to the mid-Qajar faiod and modern educational developments). The results revealed that in ancient times, educational administration and leadership took shape within the hierarchy of Zoroastrian Mobeds with different levels of cultural capital, aristocratic social capital, and symbolic capital derived from political positions. This resulted in a limited professional inheritance in social classes, a prominent characteristic of this specific field. The primary function of this field was the dominance of cognitive knowledge, the stratification of knowledge along class lines, and the reproduction of classes based on a managerial value system. In the Islamic faiod, due to the diminishing link between the fields of power and religion, as well as the relative independence of the educational field, especially during flourishing faiods, educational administration and leadership became more specialized and intrinsic in nature. Renowned religious scholars, in their roles as custodians or representatives of authority, assumed responsibility for educational administration based on their professional qualifications and cultural capital. The function of this field is explicable based on its degree of independence. Keywords: field of educational administration and leadership, central capitals, sociology of education, Bourdieu, field of power Synopsis Studies on educational leadership and administration can be chronologically divided into two waves of convergence and divergence. The first wave, influenced by the positivist paradigm in the 1960s and coinciding with the theory movement in educational administration, occurred alongside the globalisation wave. During this faiod, the global foundation of educational leadership and administration knowledge was established and exported from the Western world to other countries as a universal model. The second wave, influenced by interpretive and critical paradigms, rejected universal theories of educational leadership and administration and emphasized the need to consider the social context in the production of knowledge in this field. Studies centered on East and Southeast Asia highlighted the importance of social values and norms as a neglected factor in educational leadership studies and incorporated these values into indigenous leadership models. New approaches, such as social constructivism, have emphasized the re-conceptualization of educational leadership and administration with a focus on its textual dimension. From the faspective of sociologists like Bourdieu, educational leadership and administration can be conceptualized as a position and action associated with that position, resulting from the interaction of structure and agency. According to Bourdieu(2009), society is composed of a set of fields that are influenced by macro-fields such as the field of power. Each field, while being influenced by the field of power, must also be able to maintain the necessary independence from the forces exerted by it in order to carry out its inherent functions. Viewing educational leadership and administration as a field influenced by the field of power and religion as an ideological field has a close relationship with the new sociology of education and Richard Bates' critical approach to educational administration, which views it as a tool for knowledge control and social control that has a close relationship with the top of society's power and serves as a channel for implementing the policies of the field of power)Bates, 1980(. Based on this reasoning, the present study examines the nature of educational leadership and administration consistent with historical transformations in Iran, with the aim of developing indigenous knowledge of educational leadership and administration based on the cultural and social differences of Iranian society. To achieve this goal, the historical-documentary research method was employed, using the content analysis technique based on Braun and Clarke's approach and Stride Sterling's model. The social history of Iran in two faiods, pre-Islam (ancient Iran) and post-Islam (until the mid-Qajar faiod and new educational reforms), was studied. Conclusion Iran's historical trajectory has been marked by two distinct faiods: Ancient Iran and Islamic Iran. These eras have witnessed the emergence of education administration and leadership in varying forms, shaped by the evolving relationship between the power field, the religious field, and the logic governing these spheres. During Ancient Iran, the actors in the field of education administration and leadership were selected based on the prevailing class-based logic of society and a professional inheritance approach. These individuals were entrusted with implementing the will of the ruling power, wielding significant cultural capital and symbolic status. With their epistemic dominance, they served as instruments of social control and symbolic violence. The Islamic era brought about a transformation in the logic and interconnectedness of these fields, expanding the circle of actors involved. Education administration and leadership shifted to individuals from the field of education who, while possessing substantial cultural capital, also received significant economic and social capital from the power field. Prominent scholars were selected based on their cultural capital alignment with the power field and promoted accordingly. These scholars, as school administrators, relied on economic capital from the religious field to manage educational institutions. Throughout Islamic Iran, whenever the field of education administration and leadership maintained its autonomy vis-à-vis the dominant ideology, its inherent functions became more prominent. This underscores the crucial role of field autonomy in enabling effective education administration and leadership. Education administration and leadership in Iran's historical context have been profoundly influenced by the power and religious fields. Analyzing this field without considering its connection to these overarching forces is an incomplete endeavor. The differences between education administration and leadership in ancient and Islamic times stem from the changing relationship between the power field and the field of education administration and leadership, as well as the latter's fluctuating autonomy shaped by the prevailing logic of the era. Subordinating education administration and leadership to ideology undermines the field's inherent functions. When the power of the religious or political field overwhelms the professional aspects of education, effective administration and leadership become compromised. In essence, Iran's historical journey highlights the intricate interplay between education administration and leadership, power dynamics, and religious influence. Understanding this complex relationship is essential for comprehending the evolution of education systems and their impact on society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many companies are currently investing in artificial intelligence (AI) because of its potential to increase customer satisfaction or financial performance. However, the success rates in implementing AI systems are low, partly due to technology-centric approaches that neglect work practices. This study draws on Bourdieu's theory of practice to highlight the potential power shift related to AI in customer relationship management, based on the concepts field, capital, and habitus. Two longitudinal case studies were conducted to understand the power shift related to AI implementation. These two AI systems were designed with the objective to support employees. However, subsequently, their implementation changed the balance of power with a significant shift towards more management control, resulting in a devaluation of employees' work practices. The paper discusses implications for theory and practice in terms of the discrepancies and power shifts following the introduction of AI systems to support customer relationship management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theorizing the concept of Soviet literature is associated with the understanding that in the 1920s the literary process is undergoing massive changes. The mass writer undergoes ideological molding. The “order for inspiration” after 1926 does not come from the financial market, but from the authorities. But regardless of the instance that actualized the order, the fusion of literature with power gives rise to “paraliterature,” which typologically equates the “tabloid” generated by financial mechanisms with mass custom-made thematic literature. An appeal to the motives of the behavior of participants in the early Soviet literary process, the study of which is provided by the archives of proletarian writers’ unions, reveals the possibility of a sociological and literary interpretation in the concept of a Soviet writer. In the sociological perspective, the Soviet writer belongs to the market of ideological values, and the referential content of this concept, proposed by E.A. Dobrenko and M.O. Chudakova — “mass graphomania” or subordination to the doctrine of socialist realism — corresponds to the social practice of the 1920s–1930s. In the literary perspective, the writer appears as the author, “a structure acting in the space of the work.” The immanent perspective liberates the Soviet writer from the status of “Sovietness” and makes it possible to attribute his works to the achievements of world literature.

This article focuses on the entrepreneurial and pro-social activities of William Rushworth II from 1897 to 1944. He inherited a family business modest in scale, which eventually became one of the largest music houses in the world. The Company business model incorporated entrepreneurial and pro-social activities. Our theoretical model shows the transmutability of the forms of capital and how they were utilised by William to identify productive opportunities in the music industry sub-field. Our findings show that converting cultural capital into economic capital was of prime importance to an entrepreneur operating within the cultural industries. Bridging social capital was vital to build links vertically and horizontally across the industry value chain to transform cultural capital into symbolic and economic capital. Intra-field habitus hybridisation was utilised to transfer practices within the different sub-fields of the cultural industries. William transformed his economic capital into social and cultural capital through his support and sponsorship of music and the arts. Business success led to appointments to prestigious organisations and entry into the field of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article uses Pierre Bourdieu's field theory to explore the development of the counter-narrative of European integration in Poland. It argues that systemic features of the EU field of power induce political actors in the in-between member states to develop two types of narratives. These narratives are aimed at dealing with the state's perceived lower status imposed by the hegemonic narrative produced by the field's dominant actors. Whereas the adaptive strategy of an aspiring saint has been supported by the hegemonic pro-integration narrative, contestation of existing power relations has been legitimized by means of a disillusioned rebel counter-narrative, where correction into normality defined by established EU members is replaced with the new normal as defined by the contestants. Empirically, the analysis of hegemonic narrative and counter-narrative production in Poland is based on the qualitative analysis of speech acts produced in the years 2011–2020 by politicians and officials with regard to the eurozone, migration, rule of law and the COVID-19 pandemic crises. The findings demonstrate the interplay between policy and identity (counter-) narrative, but also show how narrative entrepreneurs use their stories to appeal to domestic and European audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes how the leaders and the candidates of the main parties in Romania built a European field of power and subject positions in the context of the 2019 European elections. We adopt the premise that the (re) positioning of these politicians towards the EU is part of their ongoing strategies of (de) legitimization. In this respect, the study focuses on how they assign themselves a "European authority" in relation to audiences through their positioning as actors in the field. On the basis of a mainly critically discursive methodological framework, we analyze a corpus consisting of electoral messages on Facebook. The research reveals the ways in which the political actors build claims, representations and positionings about the EU through naturalizing (a) symmetric relations, statuses, and symbolic power hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a follow-up to a previous essay that mapped the dynamics of the modern world-system theory into what was called a Global Power-Field (GPF) during the colonial era phase of planetary history. It continues this mapping project by exploring the reconfiguration of the field in the postcolonial period. This field of power operated on the practice of ‘objectification’ of asymmetrical relations within its domain. The current essay extends that analysis by further identifying the forms of ‘objectification’ in the field’s contemporary phase. A prominent feature of the current field is the non-locality of its operations; a term signifying the level of dispersion of its vectors of power across the globe. The investigation will conclude with a detailed case study of how this current version of the GPF impacts the Global South by examining Post-Revolutionary Iran’s relations with the West.

This article is a follow-up to a previous essay that mapped the dynamics of the modern world-system theory into what was called a Global Power-Field (GPF) during the colonial era phase of planetary history. It continues this mapping project by exploring the reconfiguration of the field in the postcolonial period. This field of power operated on the practice of 'objectification' of asymmetrical relations within its domain. The current essay extends that analysis by further identifying the forms of 'objectification' in the field's contemporary phase. A prominent feature of the current field is the non-locality of its operations; a term signifying the level of dispersion of its vectors of power across the globe. The investigation will conclude with a detailed case study of how this current version of the GPF impacts the Global South by examining Post-Revolutionary Iran's relations with the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparison, as a fundamental operation in the social sciences, is anything but a clearly defined method. Rather, there is a highly heterogeneous field of comparative approaches with different intellectual traditions, ideas of "comparison," specific problems, and research strategies. In fact, different streams of comparative studies exist in parallel, each highly elaborated in its own way but largely ignoring the achievements of the other tradition and thus ultimately wasting analytical potential—namely cross-national studies (often associated with quantitative methods and explanatory objectives) on the one hand and cross-cultural studies or cultural comparisons (usually associated with qualitative methods and hermeneutical approaches) on the other. However, contemporary social sciences are confronted with an increasingly complex global reality that can no longer be described on the basis of one-dimensional frames of reference. Drawing on the basic methodological principle of relationality, the aim of our article is to develop Pierre BOURDIEU's theory of fields and social spaces in a direction that allows different approaches to comparison to be made fruitful on the basis of a common frame of reference. Based on this generalized framework, national, international, and transnational comparisons become possible without having to essentialize or hypostasize specific reference frames and corresponding units of analysis.

Comparison, as a fundamental operation in the social sciences, is anything but a clearly defined method. Rather, there is a highly heterogeneous field of comparative approaches with different intellectual traditions, ideas of "comparison," specific problems, and research strategies. In fact, different streams of comparative studies exist in parallel, each highly elaborated in its own way but largely ignoring the achievements of the other tradition and thus ultimately wasting analytical potential—namely cross-national studies (often associated with quantitative methods and explanatory objectives) on the one hand and cross-cultural studies or cultural comparisons (usually associated with qualitative methods and hermeneutical approaches) on the other. However, contemporary social sciences are confronted with an increasingly complex global reality that can no longer be described on the basis of one-dimensional frames of reference. Drawing on the basic methodological principle of relationality, the aim of our article is to develop Pierre BOURDIEU's theory of fields and social spaces in a direction that allows different approaches to comparison to be made fruitful on the basis of a common frame of reference. Based on this generalized framework, national, international, and transnational comparisons become possible without having to essentialize or hypostasize specific reference frames and corresponding units of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article belongs to the special cluster, "Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe", guest-edited by Katarzyna Jezierska and Serena Giusti. The article looks at think tanks through the prism of a specific social space whose emergence is ascribable to both transnational processes and local social structures. Four processes are identified as shaping the institutionalization of the first think tanks in Belarus, founded as a tool for the "desovietization" of science and "democratization" of politics in the early 1990s: (1) the destabilization of relations between science and politics spurred by the Soviet perestroika beginning in 1986; (2) the autonomization of national elites and a political field in Belarus following the collapse of the Soviet Union; (3) the transformation of the labor market, including the crisis of state-supported research and academia, which ejected a large number of well-educated professionals; and (4) the intensification of transnational exchanges and the legitimization of references to Western practices. To systematically analyze these processes, a model consisting of the following four dimensions is proposed: configuration of relations between science and politics, position of the think tank space in the field of power, professional logics of career or competition, and transnational diffusion of resources and their local appropriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The crisis of neoliberalism and the upsurge of populist politics have renewed interest in how contemporary economic elites justify their privileged position, trying to be "moral" and "rich" in an era of increasing inequality and an anti-elite climate. We addressed this question through an ethnographic analysis of the socio-cultural life of the heirs of the Israeli economic elite and of the boundary-making processes that philanthropy allows them as they face internal and external challenges. Adopting analytical tools from a cultural process approach to inequality and a contextual approach to elite distinction, we suggest that the heirs generate distinct social and symbolic position within a changing field of power by presenting themselves as an "elite without elitism." This is accomplished through a mutually reinforcing interplay between intra-elite distinctions and "inter-class inconspicuous distinction." We contribute to the current analysis of elite reproduction "beyond Bourdieu" first by pointing at the (re)production of power and difference within the elite, and second by showing that where distinctions are drawn, matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linking the Latin American historic-structural approach with Pierre Bourdieu's reflexive sociology, this article analyzes the configuration of Argentina's "private university circuit" between 1955 and 1983. Using a factorial multiple correspondence analysis (FMCA), the author has analytically condensed its structure and constituted a typology of its institutions, identifying two main principles for establishing a hierarchy. One is "endogenous" and looks at its relative autonomy and academic illusio; the other, "exogenous," linked to levels of heteronomy vis-à-vis the global field of power, makes it possible to understand the influence of the governments in power and the Catholic Church in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

»Die Globalisierung politischer und wirtschaftlicher Eliten in nationalen Feldern der Macht«. The article contributes to the discussions about global elites from a field-theoretical and empirical perspective. The examination of comparative biographical data on political and economic elites in two countries from the Global North (Germany and the US) and the Global South (Brazil and India) shows that elites in all four countries are globalizing. However, this process is strongly embedded in specific historic and socio-cultural structures of national fields of power. Emerging powers from the "Global South" seem to establish their own "schools of power" for the educational reproduction of their national elites. Therefore, speaking of a homogenous global elite is misleading and obscures the multiple conflicts between elite factions in national fields of power, as well as between national elites from different countries and world regions. Consequently, field-theoretical research on elites must be embedded in a comprehensive analysis of power, conflict, and class-relations on the national as well as on the global level of the capitalist world system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the meaning and implications of Bourdieu’s construct of the field of power and integrate it into a wider conception of the formation and functioning of elites at the highest level in society. Corporate leaders active within the field of power hold prominent roles in numerous organizations, constituting an ‘elite of elites’, whose networks integrate powerful participants from different fields. As ‘bridging actors’, they form coalitions to determine institutional settlements and societal resource flows. We ask how some corporate actors (minority) become hyper-agents, those actors who ‘make things happen’, while others (majority) remain ‘ordinary’ members of the elite. Three hypotheses are developed and tested using extensive data on the French business elite. Social class emerges as persistently important, challenging the myth of meritocratic inclusion. Our primary contribution to Bourdieusian scholarship lies in our analysis of hyper-agents, revealing the debts these dominants owe to elite schools and privileged classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article’s main aim is to propose a novel model explaining the continuous domination of identity issues in modern Polish political discourse. The model proposed here may also appear useful as an explanation of similar tendencies in some other Central European countries. It is based on a specific reading of the modern history of the region—one relying on a structural perspective and specifically using Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of a “field of power.” In conclusion, the article suggests that the perspective it proposes may challenge what it calls simplistic accounts of processes of long duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kostova, Roth and Dacin called in 2008 for the advancement of a theoretical conception of the multinational corporation (MNC) that takes into account both power relationships among actors and the structure of its internal institutional field. While micro-political scholars of MNCs have started to answer the former part of the call regarding power, the second part has not been thoroughly addressed yet. Furthermore, the agentic aspects typical of power games and the structural aspects characterizing institutional fields have not been fully combined in a multi-level perspective of MNCs so far. Leaning on Bourdieu, we suggest an answer to the pending call. We theorize the MNC as a playing field of power emerging around the issue of finding a meta-rate of conversion of the actors' capitals constituted in national fields. We conceive such issue field in a dynamic state due to the constant entry and exit of new players (e.g. through mergers, acquisitions or divestitures). This results in the need to continuously test the validity of exchange rates. The role of the metainstitutional field level of the MNC as a global category is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crucial yet often-overlooked starting point for any Bourdieusian field analysis is to relate the field under consideration to the ‘field of power’, so as to enable an examination of its relative autonomy or heteronomy, i.e. its relation to other fields of society and to society as a whole. However, Bourdieu and his successors did not implement this key conceptual consideration systematically, or did so peripherally at best. For this reason both the theoretical and the empirical status of the field of power remain, for the most part, unclear. The fundamental philosophy of ‘methodological relationism’ has not been systematically applied, of all things, to a core element of Bourdieu’s theory of society which basically is a theory of power relations. We argue that a relational approach to the field of power is essential for theorizing the relation between (a) fields and (b) fields and the social space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assumes a network dynamics perspective to explore the charitable sector campaign known as 'Give it Back, George', which overturned a threatening tax change announced in the UK Budget 2012. We consider network activity from diverse viewpoints. Collaboration by disparate players enhanced the campaign's legitimacy, high-status actors with a tertius iungens strategic orientation eschewing the limelight while others took centre stage. While extant research has shown how lower-status actors may profit from the networks of prominent individuals, we demonstrate that the reverse may apply. We suggest that elite actors who activate ties and bring together disconnected others are often less visible than apparent dominant actors. Social movements are not always reformist but may be deployed by elite incumbents to preserve the status quo. The story we narrate here is therefore less concerned with field transformation than with field preservation at the elite level when faced with threatening change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that Australia’s first two universities were connected to class status. It challenges the idea that these universities extended the “educational franchise” at their outset, by interrogating the characteristics of the student population in comparison with the characteristics of the population in the colonies. It looks at the curricula within the university system to show it is always “interested”, never neutral – it may be unique to the social, cultural, political and economic location of each university, but ultimately it benefits those who hold power in these locations. Design/methodology/approach – This research involves empirical analysis of characteristics of university students in Australia in the 1850s, including country of birth, religion, age, previous education and fathers’ occupation, as well as population demographics from the censuses that took place in the colonies of NSW and Victoria at that time. It also involves an analysis of the sociology of knowledge in nineteenth century Australian universities in light of this empirical data. Findings – Socio-political influences on the establishment of the first universities in Australia highlight the power of conferring legitimacy to particular areas of knowledge and to whom this knowledge was made available. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to using the student data for the first three years of enrolment because in order to make comparisons between the student population and the population of the colonies, the student data needed to be from a time as close to the population census as possible. The Sydney census was in 1851, so student data from the University of Sydney was 1852-1854. The Melbourne census was in 1854, so student data from the University of Melbourne was 1855-1857. Originality/value – Australian historiography suggests that early universities in Australia were open to all, regardless of background. This paper challenges this orthodoxy through empirical findings and theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Bourdieu's construct of the field of power has received relatively little attention despite its novelty and theoretical potential. This paper explores the meaning and implications of the construct, and integrates it into a wider conception of the formation and functioning of elites at the highest level in society. Drawing on an extensive dataset profiling the careers of members of the French business elite, it compares and contrasts those who enter the field of power with those who fail to qualify for membership, exploring why some succeed as hyper-agents while others do not. The alliance of social origin and educational attainment, class and meritocracy, emerges as particularly compelling. The field of power is shown to be relatively variegated and fluid, connecting agents from different life worlds. Methodologically, this paper connects biographical data of top French directors with the field of power in France in a novel way, while presenting an operationalization of Bourdieu's concept of the field of power as applied to the French elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of a larger study on the changes in the field of Bulgarian social sciences after the 1960s and the years of the “thaw”; the author compares the public narratives of scholars (the anti-Stalinists, the “young generation”, the reformers) with the narratives contained in the archives of State Security (SS) (primarily Sixth Directorate of SS and the Cultural-Historical Intelligence). The article traces the forms of control, the non-autonomy of the scientific field and its relationships with various situations in the field of power. The author describes the specific constellations through which SS participated in the field of power that controlled the “metacapitals and the exchange rate of capitals between different fields” (P. Bourdieu). Similar to other researchers of the archives opened after the “revolutions of 1989” (S. Combe, J. Rowell, E. François), the author indicates “disappointment by the archives” of the political police. The study highlights the inner contradictions within SS, the tension arising between the different institutions, disciplines, generations, and groups, which formed strange unions, mobilized different “capitals”, including Party, nomenklatura-based, or international capitals, in order to attain a dominant position in the scientific field. The hypothesis is that these were real, not fake, transformations in the “totalitarian social sciences”; that the new scientific concepts, debates and university centres were not merely a result of the transformation of Marxist ideology or of political-ideological strategies pursued by the ruling Party and its closest assistants, the SS agents; that new “utopian segments” appeared within the ideology itself, but quickly turned into instruments of domination. This type of causality is hard to comprehend by those adherents of the so-called “totalitarian paradigm” who wonder whether the social sciences were only an ideological tool or, on the contrary, represented a resistance against the Marxist “scientific ideology”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores pathways to power from the perspective of the French corporate elite. It compares those who enter the ‘field of power’ with those who fail to reach this final tier. Adopting an innovative econometric approach, we develop and test three hypotheses. These underline the pivotal role of external networks and the strategic advantage of hyper-agency in maintaining power; and indicate that social origin remains a powerful driver in determining success. Birthright and meritocracy emerge as two competing institutional logics which influence life chances. Higher-status agents benefit from mutual recognition which enhances their likelihood of co-option to the extra-corporate networks that facilitate hyper-agency. The objectification of class-based differences conceals their arbitrary nature while institutionalizing the principles informing stratification. We re-connect class analysis with organizational theory, arguing that social origin exerts an enduring influence on selection dynamics which inform processes of hierarchical reproduction in the corporate elite and society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the business elites in western societies have a very privileged social background in common, there are substantial differences in the reproduction mechanisms and social trajectories leading to a position within this elite group. These differences are explored by comparing the career paths of the top 100 CEOs in Britain, France, Germany and Denmark. In France and Britain, this reproduction is mediated through degrees from elite universities. In Germany, the principle of admission is the incorporated cultural capital acquired through an exclusive bourgeois origin combined with any university degree. Elite universities also hold little importance for Danish top CEOs, partly due to the institutions’ historic decline; instead, reproduction is mediated through time spent in the economic field, placing the case of the Danish CEOs between that of their British and German counterparts. Specific trajectories of Danish executives, in particular sales people, are identified using Multiple Correspondence Analysis and cluster analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The social science disciplines are strongly differentiated both on an epistemological level and in problem choice. It can be argued that they are characterized by a number of different epistemological ways of position-taking or ways of legitimizing social scientific knowledge production. Furthermore, different scientific problems and social institutions are allocated as research objects to different social science disciplines. This article looks into how these different epistemological styles and choice of scientific problems not only are internal principles of differentiation but also constitute important relations to other powerful social interests and institutions in the field of power. I argue that we can understand the social sciences as a field of force and struggle, where different disciplines compete in producing legitimate representations of the social that also represent specific societal interests. Using the language of Bourdieu, I construct a space of social scientific epistemological position-taking using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). Into this space I project a number of supplementary variables representing social science disciplines, position-taking towards non-academic institutions, interests and research subjects, and thus show how different epistemological position-taking is connected to specific societal interests, problems and institutions. The article draws on data from a survey conducted among Danish social scientists in autumn 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we draw on Bourdieu’s The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power and his associated conceptual apparatus to examine Singapore as a ‘field of power’ and the formation of Singapore’s ‘state nobility’ through an elite secondary school. We ask how well Bourdieu’s conceptual apparatus travels, given Singapore’s geo-political history and its strategic positioning with regard to what it calls its ‘global hinterland’. We work with Bourdieu’s notions of ‘social alchemy’, ‘cognitive machine’ and ‘social paradise’ to illuminate how an elite school in Singapore carefully and successfully grooms the future state nobility for Singapore’s field of power, in part through the development of students’ transnational capitals. We show, however, that Bourdieu’s conceptual resources are not fully portable and point to their merits and limitations in explaining the workings of power in Singapore and in relation to one of its most elite schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses ways in which Pierre Bourdieu's literary sociology has inspired scholarship on modern Chinese literature, helping it to move away from overly politicized paradigms of literary historiography. The article also asks the question to what extent the use of a Bourdieusian model has resulted in an overemphasis on the 'relative autonomy' of a literary field that, at various times during the twentieth century, has been operating under conditions of strong direct state interference. After giving a general overview of the use of Bourdieu's ideas in the study of modern Chinese literature, the article focuses especially on the question of autonomy and the state, arguing for the study of state censors as specific 'agents' within the literary field. The article ends with a brief discussion of the rapid rise of online literary communities in China, their practices and their relation to state institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper focuses upon the relationship between the business and philanthropic endeavours of world-making entrepreneurs; asking why, how and to what ends these individuals seek to extend their reach in society beyond business. It presents an original model of entrepreneurial philanthropy which demonstrates how investment in philanthropic projects can yield positive returns in cultural, social and symbolic capital, which in turn may lead to growth in economic capital. The model is applied to interpret and make sense of the career of Andrew Carnegie, whose story, far from reducing to one of making a fortune then giving it away, is revealed as more complex and more unified. His philanthropy raised his stock within the field of power, helping convert surplus funds into social networks, high social standing and intellectual currency, enabling him to engage in world making on a grand scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the notion of 'being critical' in the application of the theoretical approach of Pierre Bourdieu to educational policy research. It stems from a concern to avoid a kind of 'critical ghetto', where educational research is reinterpreted in Bourdieusian terms, or metaphorised in his conceptual language, without realising the practical implications and consequences of viewing educational phenomena from such a perspective. Issues of research theory and practice are discussed, as well as the meaning of 'being critical'. A series of case examples are offered where a Bourdieusian approach uncovered hidden generating structures in a range of educational settings: the education field of power; teacher education; language in education; and social capital policy. Rather than prioritise the political and emancipatory aspects of such critical analyses, the article, whilst acknowledging the necessity of these, draws attention to the practical, policy implications arising from the studies. The underlying argument is that 'bad' research, constructed without recognition of the full practical dynamic of educational phenomena, gives rise to 'bad' policy; in other words, partial and fragmented policy or policy with unexpected outcomes undermining its effectiveness. The article concludes that a Bourdieusian perspective consequently has direct relevance to educational leaders and managers and that 'being critical' has a real practical relevance. As such, this area of policy research has a central role to play within contemporary educational discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the religious festivals in Mexico in which national and international immigrants, natives, and religious leaders participate. Participation reflects a field of power in which there is political, social, and economic conflict among those involved. Many social groups, such as immigrants, use holy day celebrations as a forum to garner support for their causes, and to negotiate their place within the community. The theories of transnational migration and that of Pierre Bourdieu are used as a basis.