The Field of Hand-Woven Carpets based on Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice

Iranian hand-woven carpet as a domestic and national art and cultural text of society is facing many problems and challenges today. Explaining the reasons of these problems or some of them has been less studied from sociological point of view despite the presence of this cultural product in social life. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of action is one of the most important theories in the field of sociology of art, which has made it possible to analyze different areas of art. The analysis and attempt to formulate the field of carpets according to this theory is the subject of this research. Since hand-woven carpets encompass numerous fields, this study examines three market fields (large manufacturers and exporters), designers and weavers, which are closer than other fields within the framework of this theory and Bourdieu’s system. In this way, the art of carpet weaving and hand-woven carpets are studied and analyzed according to the principles of action theory. Some of the research findings are as follows: Among the carpet fields, the bazaar field has a wider scope and is closer to Bourdieu’s vision of the field and the actors and the pursuit of power and capital. The actors of this field belong to the wealthy class and have all kinds of capital, but they try and compete with each other and exercise symbolic power and violence to gain more capital and resources. Designers and weavers belong to the middle and lower classes and have no capital and other resources. In the field of designers and weavers, although the actors try to make profit, there is no competition and symbolic power. Hence, the type of class, the type of profession, and the position of these actors, and finally the amount of capital and income they earn, do not matter and do not correspond to the market class. Even if one recognizes the need to study the impact of other fields on carpets, it has been shown that the field of Iranian hand-woven carpets, depending on its size, is restless and opaque and does not have the necessary independence, the power to use force and conflict to distribute or balance the capital in all its own fields.