Showing papers on "Habitus published in 2006"
TL;DR: The authors summarizes two dominant tropes in the sociology of identity in recent years, centred on the concepts of self-reflexivity and habitus, followed by an overview of extensive critical debate to which both have been subjected.
Abstract: This article initially summarizes two dominant tropes in the sociology of identity in recent years, centred on the concepts of self-reflexivity and habitus, followed by an overview of extensive critical debate to which both have been subjected. It is claimed that the key criticisms of the extended reflexivity thesis gather around accusations of excessive voluntarism in accounting for contemporary identity, while critiques of Bourdieu's conceptualization of habitus deem it overly deterministic. In an attempt to move beyond the conceptual stalemate of two distinct approaches to identity, a number of hybridized accounts have emerged in social theory.The remainder of the article discusses a number of these accounts in relation to social change, and offers an initial consideration of their strengths and limitations. It is argued that the importance of post-reflexive choice must remain integral to any attempt at hybridization of these important terms, particularly in relation to the contemporary workings of soc...
420 citations
TL;DR: The authors use the notion of the habitus as a heuristic framework for integrating the various dimensions of transmigrants' lives, and demonstrate the ways in which economic, social, and cultural capital are accumulated, exchanged, and exchanged.
Abstract: The experiences and decisions of migrants frequently confound scholarly expectations. In particular, the transnational linkages maintained by migrants transcend the social scales at which they are often assumed to live, and the spaces in which their integration or assimilation is usually studied—the neighbourhood, the urban labour market, the national society. Studies of transnationalism have shown that immigrants maintain multistranded connections to their places of origin and that these continue to influence the lifeworlds both of migrants and of those they leave behind significantly. In this paper we suggest that these multistranded connections—incorporating social, cultural, and economic ties—can be usefully considered using Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the habitus as a heuristic framework for integrating the various dimensions of transmigrants' lives. Drawing on interviews in Canada and the Philippines, we demonstrate the ways in which economic, social, and cultural capital are accumulated, exchanged,...
300 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the cultural interpretation of power proposed by the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, and present the case of the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) to test the explanatory utility of his framework.
Abstract: This article presents the cultural interpretation of power proposed by the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu. After a brief comment about his intellectual trajectory, in particular the fundamental meaning he attributes to social action, there is an overview of the theory of social practices Bourdieu developed in the course of almost 40 years as one of the leading social scientists of all times. A comment is then introduced about the core concepts of habitus, forms of capital and field. Finally, the last section offers insights about his cultural theory of power and defends its relevance. The case of the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) is used to illustrate possible analytical routes to test the explanatory utility of his framework. The article suggests that the sociological theory of Bourdieu received a problematic reception in the English speaking world and proposes a reading scheme to understand his theory of social practices.
266 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that whites' residential and social hypersegregation of whites from blacks furthers a socialization process referred to as white habitus, which limits whites' chances of developing meaningful relationships with blacks and other minorities.
Abstract: Residential and social hypersegregation of whites from blacks furthers a socialization process we refer to as “white habitus.” “White habitus” geographically and psychologically limits whites' chances of developing meaningful relationships with blacks and other minorities. Using data from the 1997 Survey of College Students' Social Attitudes and the 1998 Detroit Area Study on White Racial Ideology to make our case, we show that geographically, whites' segregated lifestyles psychologically leads them to develop positive views about themselves and negative views about racial others. First, we document the high levels of whites' residential and social segregation. Next, we examine how whites interpret their own self-segregation. Finally, we examine how whites' segregation shapes racial expressions, attitudes, cognitions, and even a sense of aesthetics as illustrated by whites' views on the subject of interracial marriage.
227 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that London Fashion Week (LFW) is a materialization of the field of fashion, making visible the boundaries, relational positions, capital and habitus at play in the field, reproducing critical divisions within it.
Abstract: This article, based on two studies of the fashion industry examines one of its key institutions, London Fashion Week (LFW). Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, we argue that this event is a materialization of the field of fashion.We examine how LFW renders visible the boundaries, relational positions, capital and habitus at play in the field, reproducing critical divisions within it.As well as making visible the field, LFW is a ceremony of consecration within it that contributes to its reproduction. The central aim of this article is to develop an empirically grounded sense of field, reconciling this macro-structural concept with embodied and situated reality.
210 citations
TL;DR: For example, this paper found that children's cultural activities have a positive effect on teachers' evaluation of students' language arts and mathematics skills, but only for low-socioeconomic status (SES) students.
197 citations
TL;DR: While feminist sociology has succeeded in being recognized as a legitimate field of sociological research (yet mainly as a limited field within the broader discipline), its core objective is not to be recognized.
Abstract: While feminist sociology has succeeded in being recognized as a legitimate field of sociological research (yet mainly as a limited field within the broader discipline), its core objective - namely,...
169 citations
Abstract: Recent policy shifts in higher education impact on the diversity of student experiences, one such trend is an increase in the number of students staying in their parental home for the duration of their studies. This has implications for students’ experiences of university life, particularly non-academic aspects. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice and habitus, this papers explores how young people go about fitting in to ‘being a student’, and how predispositions to university life influence these practices. Residential status emerges as a key demarcating factor in how successfully students feel they adapt to being at university. Though related to class, this cannot be explained solely by the socio-economic background of students living at home, but rather reflects both practical problems faced by these students as well as difficulties in incorporating a student habitus while living at home.
167 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe Royal Ballet dancers' perceptions of their bodies, of ageing, of injury and of their careers, drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and cultural capital in their investigation of embodiment.
Abstract: Ballet is, for reasons that are unclear, a neglected topic in the sociology of the body. Our article works on three levels: firstly, as an account of ex-dancers’‘lived experience’ of embodiment; secondly, as an application of Bourdieu’s theoretical schema; and thirdly, as a philosophically grounded critique of radical social constructionist views of the body.We describe Royal Ballet dancers’ perceptions of their bodies, of ageing, of injury and of their careers.We draw on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and cultural capital in our investigation of embodiment. Ageing and injury are potential epiphanies that encourage dancers to reflect on their embodied habitus and their career. We argue that the decline in a dancer’s physical capital undermines radical social constructionist views.This study, although set within the narrow field of dance, illuminates the broader relationships between the body, self, and society.
145 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that workers who have more educational attainments than needed for their jobs will be less satisfied with their jobs, be more politically liberal, and be less likely to endorse an effort-based achievement ideology.
Abstract: The study of education-occupation mismatch, once central to the sociological investigation of the labor market, has been largely abandoned. While labor economists and scholars in other nations continue to investigate overqualification, it has been more than two decades since its last sociological assessment in the United States. Drawing on previous work and guided by Bourdieu's concept of habitus, I hypothesize that workers who have more educational attainments than needed for their jobs will be less satisfied with their jobs, be more politically liberal, and be less likely to endorse an effort-based achievement ideology. Using the 1972-2002 General Social Survey, I find that overqualification has increased substantially, that the expected effects are generally found, and that these effects remain relatively stable over time. I discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the persistence of existing stratification hierarchies.
141 citations
TL;DR: Although Bourdieu is often seen as a theorist who will have no truck with Freudian psychoanalytic theory, he seemed to recognize in the last decade of his life (1930-2002) that psychoanalysis was intrinsic to his own project as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Although Bourdieu is often seen as “a theorist who will have no truck with Freudian psychoanalytic theory,” he seemed to recognize in the last decade of his life (1930-2002) that psychoanalysis was intrinsic to his own project.2 The pressure of the Freudian tradition was first revealed in his writing by the recurrence of the words “unconscious” – used both as adjective and as noun – and “misrecognition” (meconaissance), a concept that received its most powerful formulation in the writing of Lacan.3 Bourdieu’s oeuvre accumulated a growing and ever more elaborate psychoanalytic vocabulary. His writing includes the following terms, all of them mainly associated with the Freudian tradition: projection, reality principle, libido, ego-splitting, negation (denegation), compromise formation, anamnesis, return of the repressed, and collective phantasy; in his “Autoanalyse” (published in German in 2002 and in French in 2004), he uses the phrases “disavowal, in the Freudian sense” and “community of the unconscious.”4 But Bourdieu’s relationship to this tradition was not untroubled. The conditions in which Freudian concepts appear in Bourdieu’s work can be understood partly in terms of the psychoanalytic concept of Verneinung or (de)negation. In his earliest studies of hysterics, Freud already recognized a particular kind of resistance to the deepest layers of repressed material in which the patient disavows memories “even in reproducing them.”5 Freud specified the process of Verneinung in a later paper: “the content of the repressed image or idea can make its way into consciousness, on condition that it is negated”; denegation involves “already a lifting of the repression, though not, of course, an acceptance of what is repressed.” The “intellectual function is separated from the affective process.” This allows the ideational aspect of the repression to be undone, accepted intellectually by the subject, and named, while at the same time the condemning affective judgment is retained. The subject still refuses to recognize the denegated object as an intrinsic part of herself.6 In some writings, especially the earlier ones, Bourdieu rejects psychoanalysis outright. In Outline of a Theory of Practice, for example, psychoanalysis is reduced to a
TL;DR: The overall aim of as mentioned in this paper was to produce an ethnography of ballet as a social practice, drawing upon their fieldwork at the Royal Ballet (London) where they conducted 20 in-depth interviews with 20 dancers.
Abstract: The overall aim of our research was to produce an ethnography of ballet as a social practice. We draw upon our fieldwork at the Royal Ballet (London) where we conducted 20 in-depth interviews with ...
TL;DR: This paper explored how individual competences and dispositions acquired from a certain family and class background pre-condition rural working-class men for the rigors of firefighting and investigated how the primary habitus of self-described "country boys" transforms into the specific habitus for wildland firefighters.
Abstract: Why do individuals seek out high-risk occupations when safer ways of earning a living are available? How do they become acclimated to the dangers of their profession? This article addresses these questions by examining how individuals become wildland firefighters. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic data I collected while serving as a wildland firefighter employed by the US Forest Service, I explore how individual competences and dispositions acquired from a certain family and class background pre-condition rural working-class men for the rigors of firefighting. In Bourdieu’s terms, I investigate how the primary habitus of self-described ‘country boys’ transforms into the specific habitus of wildland firefighters. Answers pertaining to why young men join firecrews and how they become seasoned to the hazards of wildfire are found not by examining processes of organizational socialization alone but by analyzing how processes of organizational socialization are specified extensions of earlier processes of socia...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adopt a relational view of public relations as a profession defined by its relationships to explain the nature of power in public relations, and use Bourdieu's framework of fields, structures, habitus and capital.
TL;DR: An analysis informed by Bourdieusian and interactionist social theory of the accounts of 25 British women who consented to surgery in obstetrics and gynaecology demonstrates the weakness of the consent process as a safeguard of autonomy.
TL;DR: The authors explored the processes through which they negotiated gendered physicality within the context of physical education and found that the notion of regulated liberties rather than resistance captured girls' more subtle negotiations of gendered power relations as well as the ambiguities most girls experienced.
Abstract: This paper draws on data from a year‐long ethnographic study of a group of 12‐ to 13‐year‐old girls that explored the processes through which they negotiated gendered physicality within the context of physical education. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and social fields and McNay’s extension of his work underpin a discussion of three contexts where girls experience and process understandings of gendered physicality: football and curriculum; home/school; and (hetero)sexuality. Girls’ identification of inequitable practices, modifications of behaviours with regard to perceived norms, and reflections on inconsistencies within and across social fields indicated the susceptibility of the gendered habitus to subversions. The notion of regulated liberties rather than resistance captures girls’ more subtle negotiations of gendered power relations as well as the ambiguities most girls experienced. Implications for teaching include creating space for critical inquiry, incorporating inclusive practices, recognizing g...
TL;DR: This paper presented a theoretical and empirical analysis of the public service ethos under municipal government restructuring using Bourdieu's theory of practice, which suggests, first, that public service is fundamentally different from private service.
Abstract: This article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the public service ethos under municipal government restructuring. Using Bourdieu’s theory of practice, it suggests, first, that public...
TL;DR: This article explored the factors motivating widening participation students to enrol in higher education, the nature of their experiences, and the extent to which higher education represents an attempt at social repositioning.
Abstract: The drive to widen access and participation in higher education is rapidly transforming the sector. Despite this, through an interplay of social, cultural and gender‐related factors, students from ‘widening participation’ backgrounds can all too frequently become, within their own institutions, ‘outcasts on the inside’: formally accepted by the university without ever acquiring, still less embodying, the traditional social and cultural advantages bestowed by HE. Thus, the irony of widening participation would seem to be that by entering higher education an already disadvantaged educational habitus should be reinforced not transformed. Based on a three‐year ethnographic study, this paper explores the factors motivating widening participation students to enrol in higher education, the nature of their experiences, and the extent to which higher education represents an attempt at social repositioning.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the complex legitimation processes that shape student poss(abilities and that are situated in the space of the PE class and discuss the symbolic violence that works against each student by positioning them as 'less able' or 'unable' despite their ability.
Abstract: This paper provides two vignettes that draw on data from projects that interrogate how a student can be positioned by practices within physical education (PE) and directed by the PE teacher in relation to their valued or legitimated ability. Through the use of Pierre Bourdieu's conceptual tools of field, habitus and capital we investigate the complex legitimation processes that shape student poss(abilities) and that are situated in the space of the PE class. The first vignette is from the perspective of a student and draws on data from interviews, a journal, questionnaires and photos of her PE experiences in upper primary and lower secondary school. The second vignette focuses on teacher practices and his constitution of the field of a PE class highlighting the significance of teacher perspectives of ‘ability’ in informing assessment in senior secondary PE. Using these examples we discuss the symbolic violence that works against each student by positioning them as ‘less able’ or ‘unable’ despite their par...
TL;DR: The findings suggest that both participants and authorities adopted a narrow perspective on IT as a production tool to support business-related skills such as word processing and spreadsheets, which were believed to broaden access to employment opportunities.
Abstract: In this ethnographic study, I examine the discourses that social agents enact as they increase their awareness of information technology (IT) and the digital divide. The social agents in this study are authorities in the municipal government and African-American adults taking part in a community technology initiative in an urban, working-class neighborhood. The findings suggest that both participants and authorities adopted a narrow perspective on IT as a production tool to support business-related skills such as word processing and spreadsheets, which were believed to broaden access to employment opportunities. Despite the rapid growth in Internet-based applications and services as a justifying discourse of the authorities who create and manage the community technology training program, computer networking was not an important part of the program curriculum. The habitus is used as a theoretical lens for explaining the prevailing perceptions of IT as a production-oriented tool, why these perceptions reflect the social milieu of urban working-class communities, and how these perceptions engender discourses that may unwittingly reinforce social inequities that structure the digital divide.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the role of public and patient participation in primary health care organizations in the UK and argue that despite major national initiatives to extend participation in health services, the role for participation in decision making remains underdeveloped.
Abstract: This article uses theoretical approaches to the discussion of power in order to consider the role of public and patient participation in primary health care organizations in the UK. There is considerable evidence to suggest that, despite major national initiatives to extend participation in health services, the role of participation in decision making remains underdeveloped. The primary purpose of this article is to understand how and why this should be the case. Using findings from qualitative research that explored approaches taken by the dominant professional groups on primary care groups (PCGs) to involving patients and the public, we consider how these approaches reflect the exercise of different forms and levels of power. The explanation combines Lukes' categorization of three forms of power with Bourdieu's dynamic conceptualization of the relations of habitus and field. It is argued that the models observed represent different opportunities for the operation of power with implications for the role that participation can play.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors utilize Pierre Bourdieu's formula of habitus, capital and field to frame professional football players' social practices, with specific emphasis on their engagement (or lack of engagement) with educational discourses.
Abstract: There exists an apparent paradox between the continuing significance and growing glamorization of the professional game on a global scale and the increasingly unstable labour market conditions affecting professional football players at the national level – in this case, the Scottish professional football field. In this paper, we utilize Pierre Bourdieu's formula of habitus, capital and field to frame professional footballers' social practices – with specific emphasis on their engagement (or lack of engagement) with educational discourses. We also employ Bourdieu's concept of strategy to consider the ways in which footballers' identities might be reformulated within rather than outside the boundaries of the professional football field. Empirically, data generated from an in-depth qualitative study of two Scottish professional football clubs are presented. The paper concludes that, despite the increased awareness and availability of educational opportunities, players' engagement with educational discourses ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of the hegemonic triumvirate (HT), a powerful system of reality construction resulting from the interrelation of dominant ideologies, habitus, and discourses.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce the concept of “the hegemonic triumvirate” (HT)—a powerful system of “reality” construction resulting from the interrelation of dominant ideologies, habitus, and discourses Then, after analyzing HT's components and some of their interrelations within the contexts of sport and physical education (PE), we examine some of the myths and fallacies of the HT in sport We also unveil the vicious cycle of HT and PE and explain some of its reasons and implications Lastly, we propose viable critical pedagogical alternatives for teachers, teacher educators, coaches, and others interested in contesting HT and promoting universal dignity though PE and sport
TL;DR: In this paper, an interview survey of 509 individuals was conducted in a predominantly Chinese-speaking neighbourhood, a Punjabi-speaking area and an English-speaking neighborhood in Vancouver, Canada, and the results of the survey are critically interpreted in light of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus.
Abstract: It is often implied in academic and public debate that non-immigrants and immigrants of various origin harbour different attitudes towards work. To examine whether these differences relate to men and women’s origin, labour market status, and length of time living at the place of settlement, an interview survey of 509 individuals was conducted in a predominantly Chinese-speaking neighbourhood, a Punjabi-speaking area and an English-speaking neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada. The results of the survey are critically interpreted in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Although the study reveals origin-based differences in work attitudes, the article rejects the cultural essentialism that could be used to explain differences in economic performance.
TL;DR: This paper aims to explore the contradictions of CRM systems and their use in call centres and in doing so contribute to the literature on critical information systems research by invoking a critical perspective.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use Bourdieu's concept of habitus to examine human animal relationships within capitalist agricultural systems and examine some of the national and international social networks that contribute to human animal relationship in capitalistic farming.
Abstract: In this paper we use Bourdieu's concept of habitus to examine human animal relationships
within capitalist agricultural systems. In the first part of the paper we examine how Bourdieu's ideas
have been used by academics to provide insights into the ways that livestock affect and are affected
by farming practice. In the second part we build on these conceptual, empirical, and policy insights by
examining some of the national and international social networks that contribute to human animal
relationships in capitalistic farming.We focus on a case study of Welsh livestock and, in particular, the
historic and contemporary roles that breed societies play in the imagination of farm animals and
the creation of capitals in agriculture.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on the findings of a yearlong ethnographic study carried out in one British school of architecture that sought to excavate what really goes on in the design jury.
Abstract: There can be little argument that the design jury features as a key symbolic event in the education of the architect. However, whilst the centrality of the design jury as a site for learning disciplinary skills, beliefs and values is now widely acknowledged, there continues to be considerable disagreement about what is learnt and how. While critical pedagogues argue that the design jury is a critic-centred event that coerces students into conforming to hegemonic notions of habitus, those who promote reflective practice see it as a student-centred event in which a critical dialogue with experts supports students' construction and reconstruction of their own habitus. This article, inspired by Michel Foucault's writings on the analytics of power, reports on the findings of a yearlong ethnographic study carried out in one British school of architecture that sought to excavate ‘what really goes on’ in the design jury.
TL;DR: In this paper, a group of one-year postgraduate certificate in education secondary trainee teachers during their initial teacher education and training in England were examined, and the Lacanian concepts of the symbolic, imaginary and real were used to help explain how trainee teacher articulate resonance and dissonance during their field experiences, particularly in relation to ontological concerns.
Abstract: This article is based on research with a group of one‐year Postgraduate Certificate in Education secondary trainee teachers during their initial teacher education and training in England. It considers tensions between trainees’ prior experiences and conceptions of teaching and their training programme. In doing so, it seeks to examine how a trainee’s dispositions as revealed through practice in various contexts are reflective of Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’. Associated with this, the paper also examines how particular forms of pre‐existing cultural capital and manifestations of biographical identity also pre‐dispose trainees to form affinities and disaffinities within particular fields. Lacanian concepts of the symbolic, imaginary and real are used to help explain how trainee teachers articulate resonance and dissonance during their field experiences, particularly in relation to ontological concerns of securing a professional stable sense of self.
TL;DR: According to Bourdieu, the ''collective intellectual'' resembles the sports team in terms of the spirit which drives it (in this case the ''scientific spirit', in the sense that Bachelard used the ter...
Abstract: According to Bourdieu, the `collective intellectual' resembles the sports team in terms of the spirit which drives it (in this case the `scientific spirit', in the sense that Bachelard used the ter...
TL;DR: In this article, the importance of maintaining a focus on class and gender inequalities in mothers' experiences of employment and motherhood is highlighted. But, although these women all used terms such as 'flexibility' and 'juggling' in describing their work, the experience of that work was crucially influenced by their histories and current positioning.
Abstract: This paper proposes that there is a need to push beyond the popular discourses of 'flexibility' and 'work-life balance'. Developing a feminist-Bourdieuian approach and drawing on three illustrative case studies from my interview research with 27 mothers in the UK, I show the importance of maintaining a focus on class and gender inequalities. In the first part of the paper the concepts of capitals, dependencies and habitus which shaped, and were shaped by, this interview research are discussed. An analysis of three women's accounts of their experiences across work and family life is then used to illustrate that although these women all used terms such as 'flexibility' and 'juggling' in describing their work, the experience of that work was crucially influenced by their histories and current positioning. Tracing each of these women's trajectories from school, attention is focused on the influence of differential access to capitals and relations of dependency in the emergence of their dispositions toward work. Overall, the paper points to the significance of examining the classed and gendered dimensions of women's experiences of employment and motherhood.