How Culture Gives Symbolic Power

Fields and Networks in the System of the Regional Funds

The conference paper is based on the dissertation published in the University of Jyväskylä in 2005. The object of the study is the system of the regional funds of the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The research material consists mainly of the data collected by a questionnaire from the board members (n=121). It includes information about personal and organizational relations between the funds and their operational environment. These relations involve nominating, donating, personal importance and interlocking organizations.

In my conference paper I will focus on the social structure of these regional funds analysed through the board positions. The majority of the board members come from the local elite groups. It includes members of Finnish parliament, city managers, regional managers and chief editors of regional newspapers. This prestigious group of people has enough symbolic power to determine ‘will and essence’ of the region. In my paper I will discuss about the base of this elite involvement. I will propose this being related to transformation process between symbolic and other forms of capital.

Empirical findings:

Firstly, the correspondence analysis shows that the social network of the board members has a clear field structure (culture, politics, administration, economy, media and science). In other words each of these fields composes its own subgroup among the members. Secondly, cultural and economical capitals have the most segregation power in the social space much the way Bourdieu (e.g. 1979; 1985; 1996) has suggested. Thirdly, the study suggests that the positions of the boards are held more permanently by background organizations of the members than individuals. Fourthly, the structure of the board members’ network is clearly separated into inner and outer part (Knoke 1994). Fifthly, the structure of the regional funds is dominated by the central fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, to which all the regional funds belong.