Power in the Field of Art School Professors: The Role of Symbolic, Social, Cultural and Economic Capital

Abstract

German art schools enjoy a high level of recognition in the international art world. This is hardly surprising considering that the list of the world’s most renowned and expensive contemporary artists regularly includes names who have studied and/or taught at German art schools. In the social sciences, art schools have repeatedly attracted attention as important training centres for artistic elites. In particular, the selection processes and training practices at German art schools have been discussed in various ways. However, the question of the extent to which systematic inequalities in the distribution of power exist between professors at art schools has remained unaddressed by social science analysis. Although the professors at German art schools are a socio-structurally narrow and homogeneous elite of artists, it can be assumed that they nevertheless occupy exceedingly disparate positions in the field of art. These positions should be associated with unequal opportunities in the intra and extra muros struggles of the art schools for the monopoly on a definition of what is legitimate art. Based on Bourdieu’s field theory, the article investigates the extent to which systematic inequalities exist in the distribution of power between professors, which types of professors have particular potential for influence and power, and the mechanisms that the distribution of power resources are based on. In order to grasp the distribution of power among art academy professors, the article focuses on the distributions, relationships, interactions and hierarchies of four forms of capital: social, cultural, economic and symbolic.