布迪厄（Bourdieu）以「象徵暴力」概念進行的分析工作，布迪厄將社會理論化為一套對於存在的生產與分配以及為此爭鬥的機制，或者說是一套對於生命生存力的生產與分配以及爭鬥的機制。我揭示布迪厄的一些關鍵概念如何在這場生存力爭鬥的幾個面向構成了分析的角度。「慣習」（habitus）所強調的概念是一種與實踐效率有關的生存力：當一個人越有效率，他的生活也會變得更具生存力；指向生存力的「幻覺」（illusio）則源於擁有人生追求使得生命富有意義：也就是擁有「存在的理由」（raison d’être）的爭鬥讓生命在我們自己的眼中具有價值；「資本」（capital）關注衍生自承認的生存力：一種對於「什麼真正具有價值」的感知，源於他人認可我們的人生追求、品味與財產之重要性與意義。人們增強自身存在的爭鬥受到他們所繼承的慣習、幻覺與資本之性質形塑，他們投資自己的繼承以盡可能過上令人滿意的生活。然而至關重要的是，這個繼承的價值取決於為其定價的社會現實。例如在一個非英語通行現實的世界中，人們無法繼承具有價值的英語能力。這也是為什麼人們增強自身存在的爭鬥永遠是一場使現實維持在自己這邊以最大化自己與現實共謀的爭鬥。象徵暴力對於布迪厄而言是創造這種共謀的力量。宰制者得以自然化這種與現實共謀的感知，如此一來不僅將宰制者的現實強加於人，也使得他人以這種現實為唯一可能存在的現實去經歷它，象徵暴力衡量的即是此舉的程度。這場講座檢視這樣一定程度上的力量蘊含何種模式的宰制與抵抗。

In this lecture I examine the analytical work performed by the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ in Bourdieu’s theorisation of society as a mechanism for the production and distribution of, and the struggle over, being, or, to put it differently, the production and distribution of, and the struggle over, the viability of life. I show how Bourdieu’s key concepts constitute analytical angles on dimensions of this struggle for viability. Habitus highlights a conception of viability associated with practical efficiency: the more efficient one is, the more viable one’s life becomes. Illusio points to the viability that comes from having a life pursuit that makes life meaningful: it is the struggle to have a raison d’être that makes life valuable in our own eyes. Capital focuses on the viability derived from recognition: the sense of worthwhileness that comes when others validate the importance and significance of our life pursuits, our tastes, and our possessions. People’s struggles to augment their being is shaped by the kind of habitus, illusio and capital they inherit and for their capacity to invest their inheritances such as to yield an as satisfactory life as possible. The value of this inheritance, however, is crucially dependent on the social reality that valorizes it. One cannot inherit a valuable capacity to speak English in a world that is not an English-speaking reality. This is why the struggle to augment one’s being is always a struggle to keep reality on one’s side to maximize one’s complicity with reality. Symbolic power for Bourdieu is the power to create this complicity. Symbolic violence is a measure of the degree to which the dominant can naturalize this sense of complicity with reality such as to not only impose their reality but make others experience it as the only possible reality there is. The lecture examines what kinds of modes of domination and resistance such a degree of power entails.