Forms of capital

Please observe that this is an early work-in-progress version of a chapter forthcoming in: Nordic Elites in Transformation, c. 1050-1250 Volume II: Strategies and Social Networks, ed. by Hans Jacob Orning, Kim Esmark & Lars Hermanson (London & New York: Routledge, 2018/19). The English of this article has not been proofread yet and the text may contain typos and mistakes.

In this study I examine fashion blogging as a subfield of the field of fashion media by using a Bourdieusian theoretical framework. After identifying the steps of the “career” of bloggers, my aim is to highlight the cultural, economic, and social resources (forms of capital) that blog- gers use to access the field, and the strategies they mobilize to shape their relations with other agents within it. The empirical terrain which is investigated to answer these questions is the Italian fashion blogo- sphere; thirty-four in-depth interviews with (mainly female) fashion bloggers and six with key informants (fashion journalists and website editors) were collected between 2011 and 2014.
Moreover, a more general aim is to question common-sense interpre- tations (blogs as a revolutionary tool in fashion communication and as a new fashion marketing frontier) to give a normalized picture of fashion blogging as a progressively autonomous social field, governed by its own laws. Through an in-depth analysis of the Italian case this article seeks to stimulate an international discussion over other national fields of blog production.

KEYWORDS: fashion blogging, fashion journalism, forms of capital, social field, fashion media, Pierre Bourdieu

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Ausgehend von Beobachtungen in einem Sozialkaufhaus und bei einem Tafel e. V. setzt sich der Beitrag mit solchen ›kritischen‹ Zugängen zur karitativen Wirklichkeit auseinander, die diese im Nachweis mangelhafter Sozialität als eine Unwirklichkeit disqualifizieren. ...
Based on observations made in a charity shop and at a food bank, the article deals with ›critical‹ approaches which downgrade these charitable domains to illusory worlds lacking real sociality.

Abstract In this study I examine fashion blogging as a subfield of the field of fashion media by using a Bourdieusian theoretical framework. After identifying the steps of the “career” of bloggers, my aim is to highlight the cultural, economic, and social resources (forms of capital) that bloggers use to access the field, and the strategies they mobilize to shape their relations with other agents within it. The empirical terrain which is investigated to answer these questions is the Italian fashion blogosphere; thirty-four in-depth interviews with (mainly female) fashion bloggers and six with key informants (fashion journalists and website editors) were collected between 2011 and 2014. Moreover, a more general aim is to question common-sense interpretations (blogs as a revolutionary tool in fashion communication and as a new fashion marketing frontier) to give a normalized picture of fashion blogging as a progressively autonomous social field, governed by its own laws. Through an in-depth analysis of the Italian case this article seeks to stimulate an international discussion over other national fields of blog production.

""This paper explores the conceptual and methodological challenges that arise when operationalizing Bourdieu's framework in the context of immaterial capitals on the UK student forum www.thestudentroom.co.uk. The paper first compares different conceptual approaches to immaterial capital. It argues that the literature addressing social capital and the Internet is undermined by its tendency to rely on a priori conceptions of capital, and to ignore the existence of alternative forms of capital within the area under study. The use of a social network analysis paradigm also leads to a flattened, and one-dimensional understanding of the social world. By contrast, the paper illustrates how the Bourdieuan approach to capital enables the researcher to recognise the unique forms of power circulated within the specific field under observation. It also requires attention regarding the pattern to this power's distribution, and the practices enforcing this. The paper moves on to exploring the difficulties in conducting the essential step of mapping out the boundaries of specific internet fields. Using  research on The Student Room as an example, a range of possibilities demand consideration, regarding whether an online community is better understood as comprising its own field, or acting as an agent in a wider field. The example of symbolic capital circulated on The Student Room is used to illustrate Bourdieu's guideline that the boundaries of a field are situated at the point where its capital ceases to exert effects. While this enables the recognition of a site-specific field, it raises further conceptual difficulties. In particular it is difficult to position lurkers in relation to an online community's field, when these individuals might derive capital through viewing the site, yet do not interact with site members in any way, and therefore can't be seen as struggling with other field occupants for this capital. One further challenge is that of identifying the specific rules and regulations surrounding conversion of capital on and beyond the online community.
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Background: This study investigates the association between forms of capital and mental health among unemployed youth, with a specific focus on the mediating role of feelings of deprivation and self-esteem as "mechanisms of embodiment". Methods: The study is based on a primary data collection among unemployed Brussels youth in the transition from education to employment (2015; 18-to 29-year-olds; N = 1151). Multi-group Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to explore the association between forms of capital, mechanisms of embodiment and mental health. Results: Our results show that different forms of capital are related to the mental health of unemployed youth. These associations are partly mediated by feelings of deprivation and self-esteem. Clear gender differences in these relations are found. Conclusions: The results of this study contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the mental health situation during the transition from education to employment, by showing how "subjective mechanisms" are explaining the relations between "objective resources" and mental health.

Of the forms of capital (financial, human, cultural, social) only social capital is accessible to the working class. “Social Capital’s Unique Accessibility,” Journal of the American Planning Association, special section on social capital, edited by Judy Hutchinson. 2003.

L’article propose une définition et un repérage empirique du concept de ‘citoyenneté matérielle’. La question  du statut, prioritaire dans les approches juridiques, se situe au second plan dans cette lecture véritablement sociologique de la citoyenneté qui se concentre sur le thème des pratiques individuelles. Si les droits permettent à la personne d’avoir accès aux ressources sociales, les capitaux déterminent l’ampleur de ces ressources allouées individuellement : dans l’ensemble elles forgent les capacités que la personne met en œuvre dans l’expérience du quotidien, à savoir en pratiques de citoyenneté.  En utilisant les données Eurostat, l’attention se focalise donc sur les pratiques mises en œuvre par les ressortissants nationaux, européens et  de pays tiers en France et en Italie en mettant en relief  la persistance et la complexification d’une hiérarchie de la citoyenneté dans l’Europe contemporaine.

"What would a virtual form of capital look like? As Bourdieu states, "a capital does not exist and function except in relation to a field" (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 101). We must therefore further question how appropriate the concept of field is for new media, and whether mediated, online spaces assert sufficient autonomy to form fields. Like film, new media have not been directly explored by Bourdieu. Application of his work is complicated by new media's distinct properties which distinguish it in important respects from the media institutions addressed by Bourdieu. These questions are also pertinent to wider concerns about how the Internet is conceptualised, especially given the problematic but intuitive tendency to draw a distinction between the 'online' and the 'offline' in this area. This paper addresses these concerns with reference to a particular UK online community. Using netnography and online qualitative interviews, my initial findings from a pilot study strongly point to the presence of a virtual form of symbolic capital that takes on distinct characteristics in the setting of this website. This illustrates how field theory can provide a fruitful tool for deepening understanding of online communities, while situating them in their wider social context.
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