Symbolic violence

Symbolic violence is a term coined by Pierre Bourdieu, a prominent 20th-century French sociologist, and appears in his works as early as the 1970s.^[1] Symbolic violence describes a type of non-physical violence manifested in the power differential between social groups. It is often unconsciously agreed upon by both parties and is manifested in an imposition of the norms of the group possessing greater social power on those of the subordinate group. Symbolic violence can be manifested across different social domains such as nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic identity.

The term began to be used by other sociologists and authors in the early 1990s.^[2] Bourdieu made efforts to stress that symbolic violence is generally not a deliberate action by a hegemonic power, but rather an unconscious reinforcement of the status quo that is seen as the “norm” by those who exist within that social stratification.

Slavoj Žižek discusses symbolic violence in Violence (2008), arguing that it is located in the signification of language itself, i.e. the very ways in which we talk to one another sustain relations of domination.