The role of symbolic power in sustainability transformations

Understanding why certain values of nature become legitimate and institutionalised while others remain marginal is central to advancing sustainability transformations. This paper develops a conceptual framework that integrates the notions of symbolic power and socially endorsed beliefs to explain how values are formed, emerge, and gain legitimacy. Values are understood not as fixed attributes or individual preferences but as evolving through recursive feedback between personal commitments and socially endorsed beliefs, mediated by everyday practices. Disruptive events and deliberative spaces are seen as key entry points for shifts in the symbolic legitimacy of values, enabling the reconfiguration of moral and institutional orders. An illustrative case of small-scale fisheries governance in Japan demonstrates how symbolic power stabilises existing arrangements yet also conditions the possibilities for transformation.