The Fall of the Imperial Order as Rescaling of Fields of Power: The Russian-Polish Transition, 1914-1918

Abstract

Abstract This paper theorizes the transformation of the pre-1914 imperial order in Central Europe into the post-1918 nation-state system through the concept of rescaling of fields of power, drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory and new imperial history. Rescaling designates the process by which a social field shifts its organizational scale, with a corresponding reorganization of capital hierarchies and conversion mechanisms. Post-imperial rescaling is theorized as a differentiated process, and a comparative typology of five modalities across the successor states of 1918 is proposed. The central case is Poland: the transformation of a trans-imperial space of national elite integration across the Russian, Austrian, and German empires into the institutionalized field of power of the Second Polish Republic. Three mechanisms of rescaling are identified: the devaluation of capital forms underwritten by imperial frameworks, the disruption of elite coalitions organized at the imperial scale, and the emergence of new legitimation principles in the national field.