Social policies as symbolic systems: regulations in the social disputes field

Social policies assemble the antagonism of presenting itself as a result and ointment to wounds produced by capitalist neoliberal contexts. Relying on bourdieusian contributions, this text argues that these policies are materialized in everyday practice grounded in symbolic systems for concealment, maintenance, and legitimation of social, cultural, and economic hierarchies. Thus, much of the social policies derived from government have control mechanisms and devices aimed at processes of classification, hierarchy, and distribution of goods produced in society, presenting the power differences as differences in competence, ability, merit, skill and luck. This plot takes place in a complex manner, through mechanisms of paradoxical acceptance, denial, incorporation, and legitimation of the status quo. In this movement, multiple mechanisms that shape perceptions and actions of individuals are produced suited to the interests of the holders of power in its various manifestations.