Field (Bourdieu)

About: Field (Bourdieu) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11421 publications have been published within this topic receiving 180769 citations.

Unity and Fragmentation of the Habitus

Abstract: This paper examines a unitary notion of the habitus present in Bourdieu's early works and its transformation along his sociological career, to later conceptions of a fragmented habitus concept to examine contemporary relationality and social change. The career of the concept of habitus in Bourdieu shows that interplays of habitus and fields are seen to demand increasing labour of integration from individuals as social life becomes more differentiated. The paper claims the need for sociology to engage with field analyses to advance explorations of the habitus and to acknowledge the potential pliability of the concept. It is suggested that sociology may adopt the psychoanalytic notion of ‘standing in spaces’ (and associated notions of ‘liminality’ and experiences in interstitial positons) for a productive development of the notion of fragmented habitus, and to enhance proposals that view the social with a history that is made available to humans to change.

The History of the Family as an Interdisciplinary Field

Abstract: The History of the Family as an Interdisciplinary Field As a new field, the history of the family is broadly interpreted, its boundaries undefined. "Family" is loosely used in reference to the historical study of childhood and youth, certain aspects of the history of education, and the history of women and feminist movements. The field is frequently confused with what might be considered some of its parts. It has also been identified with "psychohistory," although not all aspects of the history of the family have involved psychological interpretations. The future definition and character of the field will depend on the nature of work done in the next decade.

Sociology as socioanalysis: Tales ofHomo Academicus

Abstract: An unusually imaginative and productive thinker, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has, over the past three decades, produced one of the most ambitious and fertile bodies of sociological work of the postwar era. The sheer range and diversity of his investigations, however, have until recently hampered the efforts of Anglo-American readers to grasp its overarching unity and therefore its full originality. Spanning the anthropology of colonial Algeria, the sociology of language and culture (including education, science, literature and the arts, sports, taste, and religion), the analysis of class and politics, and the dissection of the theoretical and epistemological underpinnings of social science, Bourdieu's writings may, from the outside, seem eccentric and overly dispersed. They scarcely allow for easy entry; on the contrary, their scattered and daunting appearance has often encouraged superficial assimilation. Indeed, a quick survey of their reception in several areas of contemporary theory and research in the United States reveals a distinct pattern of fragmentation, misunderstanding, and selective ignorance. Beyond the intrinsic difficulty of Bourdieu's texts and, until recently, the erratic flow of translations, this laborious and truncated appropriationand, sometimes, outright expropriation-of Bourdieu in American sociology can be traced to a number of factors (Wacquant, 1989). Among them are the institutional and cognitive cleavages that structure the field of U.S. social science and inform the assimilation of foreign intellectual products; an oversight of the collective nature of Bourdieu's enterprise, due to the effect of the stereotype of the French "patron" and his "circle"; the relative unfamiliarity of American researchers with the Continental traditions of social

Educational Field of Study and Social Mobility: Disaggregating Social Origin and Education

Abstract: We examine the relationship between social origin and education by looking at it in more detail than is usually done. Rather than seeing origin and education as hierarchical characteristics, we argue that both should be disentangled in more detailed combinations of hierarchical levels and horizontal fields. Using Dutch survey data for men, we show that children often choose fields of study in which affinity is found with the class fraction of their father. This way, social selection into fields of study is guided by the domain of the father’s occupation. Importantly, affinity in domains across generations hampers intergenerational social mobility.