Works
- Outline of a Theory of Practice, 1972
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Symbolic capital. Symbolic capital is prestige, honor, and recognition, which work as a resource because others acknowledge them as legitimate. It can be built from economic or cultural resources and converted back into them, and its power depends on its material basis going unrecognized as such.
What it explains
Bourdieu explains why titles, honors, inclusion, and the right to define terms carry real weight in organizations, and why status can be granted in place of authority. He also explains why those who control recognition hold a quiet form of power over those who seek it.
Tactics that draw on Pierre Bourdieu (52)
- Aligned Mentor Pairing
- Alumni Network Cartel
- Appeal to Company History
- Best Practice Push
- Borrowed Movement Vocabulary
- Career Detour Assignment
- Change Champion Field Posting
- Closed Strategy Circle
- Co-optation
- Competency Model Coup
- Cost Center Labeling
- Cultural Artifact Strategy
- Cultural Cringe Induction
- Culture Carrier Purge
- Disinheriting the Past
- Diversity Pretext
- Elite Transformation Team
- Exclusionary Vision
- Favor Bank Run
- Founding Purpose Appeal
- Gatekeeper Neutralization
- Glorified Secretary Trap
- Golden Path Narrative
- Innovation License
- Jargon Wall
- Lexicon Control
- Mentorship Blockade
- Methodology Capture
- No Bad News Culture
- Obsolescence by Platform Change
- Patronage Systems
- Power Structure Mapping
- Prestige Drain
- Proxy Attendance
- Renaming for a New Direction
- Seeding the Leadership Pipeline
- Selective Delegation
- Selective Enforcement
- Spirit of the Law Defense
- Status Erosion by Inattention
- Status Recalibration
- Status Symbol Patronage
- Tailored Role Requirements
- Tall Poppy Cultivation
- Title Without New Authority
- Track Record as Evidence
- Training as Patronage
- Unspoken Rules and Taboos
- Unsung Hero Trap
- Values-Anchored Case
- Vanity Appeal
- Velvet Cage