Popularizing
Nanoscience: Theoretical
Pursuits
Speculation: The Symbolic Capital of
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology was unproblematically
perceived as a
symbol of technological progress and advancement. The social
context built by these perceptions is one of elite activity and
privilege that holds key economic, technological, and social benefits
for those fortunate enough
to be included.
Pierre Bourdieu (1977) :
- symbolic capital
is “perhaps the most valuable form of accumulation in a
society” (p. 179, emphasis in original)
As a form of
prestige and renown symbolic capital is “the more or less perfect
interconvertibility of economic capital” (p. 177).
- symbolic capital entails the collection of wealth and power but
in
ways that appear neither overt nor self-interested.
symbolic capital of nanoscale science
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