Towards the Role of Self, Worth, and Feelings in (Re-)Producing Social Dominance: Explicating Pierre Bourdieu's Implicit Theory of Affect

Abstract

In this theoretical article it is argued that Pierre Bourdieu’s Social Theory pro-vides us with a convincing account of how the subjectivated social actor, social evaluation procedures, and affective states are inherently intertwined. Therefore, it contains an implicit theory of affect offering not only a better understanding of the role affective states play within sociological theory building, but also in the (re-)production of social order, especially in terms of social inequality or social domination in (late) modernity. In doing so, it also illuminates processes of social transformation. A twofold analysis is provided: A reconstruction of Bourdieu’s perspective on the general structure of (late) modernity especially emphasizing his (late) modern anthropology, as well as an examination of his theoretical considerations of the habitus. As a result, on a social theoretical level, feelings, emotions, sensations, etc. appear as a specific, particularly naturalized evaluative social practice. On the level of societal analysis feeling appreciated as the result of practically referring appreciatively towards oneself emerges as the legitimate (late) modern subject structure.