Bourdieu in Greenland: coloniality of distinction and the geographies of cultural capital in student migration

Abstract

How is distinction produced in Greenland? Notwithstanding the process of “Greenlandization”, access to dominant positions remains structured by the former colonial power. Greenland's peripheral status persists in access to cultural goods, the value ascribed to qualifications, and the definition of legitimate school culture. This article examines the forces that confer value upon cultural capital and the mechanisms that govern its accumulation in this context. Discussing Varriale's concept of “coloniality of distinction” the article brings the Bourdieusian framework into dialogue with the matrix of coloniality. This approach allows to understand how the “exchange rate” of cultural capital is indexed to North-Atlantic postcolonial asymmetries. The paper examines the racialized structures of the North Atlantic educational field and explores how students navigate these structures through migration to Denmark. It demonstrates that the incorporation of field structures results both in the reproduction of symbolic asymmetries and in critical engagements with dominant regimes of knowledge production.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2026 · DOI ↗