Symbolic power without symbolic violence ? critical comments on legal consciousness studies in USA

Abstract

The reception of a constructive social theory in the American sociology of law is analyzed in this paper. To do so, it focuses on a specific and celebrated trend in the Law and Society movement here termed Legal Consciousness Studies. It is argued that there is a theoretical ambiguity in these studies that follows from the fact that they adhere to different currents of social theory, which are irreconcilable to the extent that they are based on different presuppositions about social relations. To illustrate this ambiguity, the concept of symbolic efficacy employed in these studies is analyzed and contrasted to Pierre Bourdieu's idea of symbolic power. © Editions juridiques associées.