THE THEORY OF THE «FIELD OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION»: AN ATTEMPT TO OVERCOME THE ANTINOMY OF «STRUCTURALISM» AND «SUBJECTIVISM»

Abstract

The article examines Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the «field of cultural production» as an attempt to overcome the opposition between structuralist and subjectivist approaches. The study analyzes the methodological foundations of Bourdieu’s «constructivist structuralism» and demonstrates how his conception seeks to reconcile the existence of objective social structures with the active role of agents in the production and transformation of cultural meanings. The author reconstructs the logic of Bourdieu’s approach and considers the ways in which objective structures and subjective practices mutually determine one another within the dynamics of cultural production.

A significant part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the specific organization of the «field of cultural production» as a relatively autonomous component of the broader «field of power». Bourdieu interprets this field as a competitive space in which agents and institutions struggle for symbolic authority and legitimacy. Particular attention is paid to the concept of «illusio» as a form of belief in the value of the game and its stakes, as well as to the mechanisms through which cultural value is collectively produced. The article emphasizes that artistic legitimacy does not emerge exclusively from the individual creator, but from the entire network of agents and institutions participating in the production of symbolic belief.

 Bourdieu’s theory of «refraction» is juxtaposed with sociological approaches based on the logic of «reflection». The article shows that, unlike reductive models that establish a direct correspondence between social origin and artistic production, Bourdieu insists on the mediating role of the field itself, which restructures external social and economic determinants according to its own internal logic. This perspective allows the author to demonstrate how struggles over artistic legitimacy conceal broader conflicts concerning power, capital, and symbolic domination.

Part of the study is devoted to the opposition between the autonomous and heteronomous poles of the «field of cultural production». The author analyzes how artistic strategies are organized around different principles of hierarchization and how cultural agents seek legitimacy through the conversion of symbolic capital borrowed from other social fields, including religion, economics, and politics.

The article concludes that Bourdieu’s theory of the «field of cultural production» provides an effective conceptual framework for understanding cultural struggles as forms of symbolic competition over legitimacy and authority. The author argues that the relative autonomy of the cultural field is inseparable from its dependence on mechanisms of symbolic recognition and from its constant interaction with other forms of social power. In this sense, the theory of the field makes it possible to interpret artistic practices not merely as aesthetic phenomena, but as strategies situated within broader structures of symbolic exchange and domination.