Field, capital, and habitus: The impact of Pierre Bourdieu on bibliometrics

Abstract

Abstract This study is a critical review aimed at assessing the reception received in bibliometric research by the theories and concepts developed by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The data set consists of 182 documents, including original articles, editorial material, review articles, conference papers, monographs, and doctoral dissertations. A quantitative analysis was used to establish the authors and countries that most frequently make use of Bourdieu’s theories, as well as the most popular concepts, which were identified as “field,” followed by “symbolic capital” and “social capital.” Then, the article discusses the impact of Bourdieusian key concepts such as “field.” Among the findings, the following are noteworthy: the integration of his field theory into pre-existing bibliometric conceptualizations of research fields, especially when power relations are problematized; the use of “symbolic capital” in connection with citation analysis and altmetrics; and greater interest in Bourdieu’s theories compared to his methods, although some sources have used Bourdieu’s preferred statistical method, correspondence analysis. Moreover, Bourdieu’s theoretical impact is noticeable in research on journals, university rankings, early career researchers, and gender. The paper’s conclusions point to future research paths based on concepts less used in the bibliometric literature, such as “delegation.”