Social positions and groups: New approximations between Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology and social representation theory

Abstract

This article proposes approximations between Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology and Serge Moscovici’s social representation theory. Both authors are interested in the relationship between agents/groups, social context, and culture, and both value the symbolic dimension in the construction of social reality. Bourdieu highlights the social world of struggles between the socialized agent and culture, while Moscovici privileges interactions involving the collective subject which, whether in conflict or consensus, produces a theory of social knowledge that is revealing of culture. In this broader context, the article highlights relations between “social positions” and “groups” which are present in both Bourdieu and Willem Doise, an important collaborator of Moscovici in the area of social representation theory. Such relations are founded on the principle of structural homology, a principle based on the correspondence between social structure and symbolic systems. This discussion leads to another: the need to understand “consensus” and “conflict” in groups, in both Moscovici and Doise, relating them to the action of forces in Bourdieu’s social field of struggles. The notion of “group,” which is valued in our text, is little discussed by these authors. We emphasize the necessity to go deeper into group interactions in articulation with positions in the social field, and to value group representations and practices in meaning negotiation processes, as well to discuss the question of social change. We propose studying social representations—in groups with homogeneous practices—as a symbolic form of condensation and measurement of symbolic capital, adding to this approach the notion of social position and semiotic mediation.