Väljateooria

Väljateooria, often translated as "field theory" or "theory of practice" in English, is a concept developed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. It describes a social space where individuals and groups compete and struggle for positions and resources. These fields are distinct social arenas, such as the artistic field, the scientific field, or the political field, each with its own rules, logic, and forms of capital.

Within each field, agents possess varying amounts of different forms of capital, including economic capital (money), cultural capital (knowledge, education, taste), social capital (networks of relationships), and symbolic capital (prestige, recognition). The distribution of these capitals determines an agent's position within the field and their ability to exert influence. The struggles within a field are for the accumulation and control of these capitals, and for the power to define the rules and meaning of that field itself.

Bourdieu's väljateooria provides a framework for understanding how social structures and individual agency interact. It emphasizes that social life is not static but rather a continuous process of negotiation, competition, and transformation driven by the dynamics within these fields. The theory helps analyze power relations, social reproduction, and the production of taste and cultural distinctions. It argues that social practices are shaped by an individual's position within a field and their embodied dispositions, or habitus, which are internalized structures of perception and action acquired through socialization.