Pierre Bordieu: The Economic Field
The aim of this article is to construct an economic theory that is close to the practical logic of the agents. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus allows one to replace the rational agent of economic theory with a more realistic account of economic practice. This article contributes to restoring economics to its true nature as an historical science by giving economic theory an anthropological foundation. To do so requires that the market be regarded as a social and historical construction, i.e. as a field of forces, in which a specific struggle takes place. The structure of the economic field is defined by the distribution of different forms of capital, and economic strategies are circumscribed by this structure. As a site of struggle or competition in which prices are used as weapons in company strategies, the economic field is highly dynamic. Technological capital often plays an important role in the subversion of the established hierarchies, especially when innovation results in redefinition of the borders between fields. However, companies are fields in themselves, i.e. sites for internal struggles, which contribute to their strategies. And too, a company’s strategies depend on the relation between its position in the field of production and the position of its clients in social space.
