The interest in disinterest - Bourdieu's contributions to the reflection of writing in the academic field

Abstract

Academic writing doesn't just convey knowledge - it creates it itself. It is a symbolic system, a structured and structuring instrument of knowledge and communication that actively creates epistemologies. Because it is a symbolic system, it fulfills the political function of imposing or legitimizing domination. Hence, this paper is focused on dominating the interest in disinterest of exposing and demarcating the “I” in academic writing - resulting from the interest of the scientific field in expressing science in a neutral, impersonal, universal and finished way. My interest in writing about this theme was triggered by the reading of Pierre Bourdieu's writings - writings that carry an aesthetics of repetition and play on words, that play the academic game seriously, that present the rules of the game itself, making sociology a weapon against ignorance of recognition - against symbolic violence. This violence is silent, smooth, insensitive and invisible to its own victims. It is also steeped in the culture of the academic field and can be seen in the technical and formal aspects of its writing style - in its form. From a bibliographic analysis of Bourdieu's theory and participant objectification - from the socio-analysis proposed by him - I intend here to present some reflections on the symbolic violence existent in the form of academic writing, using my own praxis as the basis for writing this article as reader of Bourdieusian theory and as a writer and a researcher of academic writing.