Socialized reality

Socialized reality

Think about the social reality in Galilei’s time. The people who had “royal blood” or “blue blood” were destined to rule over others. The kings were crowned by the Church, so they drew the legitimacy of their absolute power directly from God. Today we may laugh at such nonsense. But to the people back then, that was the reality they lived in.

Isn’t it just obvious that every human society had or has its own “reality”, which its members considered as the reality? Why should we be an exception? Bourdieu, and the giants on whose shoulders he stood, called this phenomenon (that the people in a society consider their reality picture as the only one that’s possible) doxa.

Bourdieu explained with exceptional clearly and thoroughness the phenomenology of social reality construction. How such “realities” are transmitted from body to body directly, in ways that bypass the conscious mind. Bourdieu also explained how the power relationships in a society are created and maintained in that way. The king enters the room, and everyone bows. Naturally, you bow too. And even if you may not feel like bowing, something in you knows that if you don’t bow down your head, you may lose it.

The king has his own habitus (embodied and socially sanctioned patterns of behavior); and you have yours. Socialization is to a large degree the way in which human societies and cultures operate. It’s how everyone gets “put into his place” (or habitus).

See also

• The discussion of The Paradigm Strategy poster in Federation through Images.
• In five insights you can see the other five insights, and some comments about their relationships.