Showing papers on "Habitus published in 2013"

Houses and Households: A Comparative Study

Abstract: 1 * Introduction.- 2 * A Comparative Method.- 3 * Household Social Reproduction and the Canonical Communication of Habitus.- 4 * Indexical and Social Boundary Communication.- 5 * A Macroregional Approach.- 6 * Conclusion.- Appendixes.- References.

Out with the Old, In with the New? Habitus and Social Mobility at Selective Colleges

Abstract: Sociologists have long recognized that cultural differences help explain the perpetuation of inequality by invisibly limiting access to elite cultural norms. However, there has been little investig...

Habit and Habitus

Abstract: This article compares the concept of habitus, as formulated in the work of Mauss and Bourdieu, with the concept of habit, as formulated in the work of Merleau-Ponty and Dewey. The rationale for this, on one level, is to seek to clarify these concepts and any distinction that there may be between them – though the article notes the wide variety of uses of both concepts and suggests that these negate the possibility of any definitive definitions or contrasts. More centrally, however, the purpose of the comparison is to draw out a number of important issues and debates which, it is argued, further work must address if the concepts of habit and habitus are to continue to prove useful and illuminating in social science.

The Chameleon Habitus: Exploring Local Students’ Negotiations of Multiple Fields:

Abstract: This study utilises an innovative creative method of plasticine modelling to explore the identities of local students (those who live in their family home) at the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. Students created models representing their identity, which were used as a springboard for in-depth discussion. Through drawing upon Bourdieusian theory this article attempts to shed new sociological light on the subject of local student experiences. In much of the literature this is presented as problematic and it is often argued that local students either 'miss out' on the conventional university experience or that they are stuck between two worlds. This paper, however, presents a more complex picture of local students' experiences of inhabiting local and university spaces. The data is analysed through a Bourdieusian lens in which the university and local worlds are seen as fields of struggle, this allows for a nuanced understanding of how students conceptualise their positions and dispositions in relation to both fields. The findings indicate that living at home can be both problematic and of benefit to the working-class students in particular. Despite being immersed within two somewhat contradictory fields they can sometimes develop various strategies to enable them to overcome any internal conflict. In this article we draw uniquely upon Bhabha's concept of a third space to expand upon Bourdieusian theory, arguing that a 'cleft habitus' is not always negative and can be a resource for some in their attempts to negotiate new fields.

Refugees in higher education: boundaries of belonging and recognition, stigma and exclusion

Abstract: For highly educated refugee professionals who flee to the UK gaining, a university qualification is one of the key strategies which can be used to re-establish a professional identity and find employment, and yet little is known about their experiences in higher education. This article utilises Bourdieu’s framework of field, capital and habitus to conceptualise what happens to this group of migrants as they move across social space, 10 and as they enter and move through university. By juxtaposing four case studies it draws out the diversity and commonalities in experience, and how pre- and post-migratory experiences shape the encounter with higher education. The article serves as a reminder against over-generalising or universalising the needs of refugee students. It underlines the affective dimension of being a refugee and the material realities of global inequality and 15 forced migration which shape and mark refugee habitus.

Disability, sport and men's narratives of health: a qualitative study.

Abstract: Objective:Very little research has been conducted that examines men, sport, masculinities, and disability in the context of health. Readdressing this absence, this article examines the health narratives told by spinal injured men and the work narrativesdoon, in, and for them.Methods:In-depth life history interviews and fieldwork observations with men (n!17) who sustained a spinal injury through playing sport and are now disabled were conducted. Qualitative data were analyzed using a dialogical narrative analysis.Results:Stories told about health characterized a style of embodied actions choices that anticipated a certain type of narrative, that is, an emergent narrative. The men’s narrative habitus, fashioned through the process rehabilitation, predisposed them to be interpellated to care about health. To uphold hegemonic masculinities the men also did not care too much about health. The analysis also reveals the work narratives do on, in, and for health behavior, masculine identities, resilience, leisure time physical activity, and body-self relationships. Implications for health promotion work are highlighted. Conclusions:The article advances knowledge by revealing the emergent narrative of health. It reveals too for the first time the way certain contexts and masculine identities create a new subject of health that cares about doing health work, but not too much. Building on the theoretical knowledge advanced here, this article contributes to practical understandings of men’s health and disability by highlighting the potential of narrative for changing human lives and behavior.

‘Sticky Subjects’ or ‘Cosmopolitan Creatives’? Social Class, Place and Urban Young People’s Aspirations for Work in the Knowledge Economy

Abstract: Aspirations have been a key target of education policy, situated as central to meeting the needs of the ‘knowledge economy’. In the UK, there have been calls to raise young people’s aspirations for careers in the creative industries—identified as emblematic of the new economic order and a key growth sector. Yet, the sector is socially and spatially restricted, characterised by unclear entry routes, exclusionary working practices and uneven geographical concentration. This paper draws on research with young people (aged 14–16 years) living in three urban areas of deindustrialisation in England to examine the geography of young people’s aspirations for careers in the creative industries. The concept of place-specific habitus is used to problematise asocial and aspatial discourses of aspiration and to illuminate how social class and place powerfully and complexly interrelate to shape young people’s opportunities for social and geographical mobility through and for work in the knowledge economy.

Moral Habitus and Status Negotiation in a Marginalized Working-Class Neighborhood

Abstract: Examinations of the moral and ethical dimensions in identity construction are scant in consumer research. This ethnography of a trailer-park neighborhood investigates how different moral dispositions shape low-income, working-class residents' consumption practices and status negotiations. Drawing from Bourdieu's conceptualization of habitus and cultural capital, the authors extend this theory by foregrounding the moral aspects of habitus and demonstrate how morally oriented worldviews are enacted through consumption practices and social evaluations within everyday communities. The study reveals five moral identities that shape the residents' social construction of status within the microcultural context of a trailer park. These findings point to the multiplicity and richness of social-class-based dispositions as well as the importance of studying micro-level contexts to better understand macrodynamics.

Positioning person brands in established organizational fields

Abstract: This paper inductively develops an extension to brand positioning theory to understand how individuals seeking work in established organizational fields can effectively position themselves. It does so by analyzing qualitative data on the practices of people in one job category (fashion models) in an established organizational field (fashion), examining them through the lens of concepts adapted from work by Pierre Bourdieu. Four brand positioning practices are identified as relevant for models vying for work in the fashion field: crafting a portfolio, cultivating and demonstrating upward affiliations, complying with occupation-specific behavioral expectations, and conveying field-conforming tastes. Drawing on Bourdieu, we argue more generally that person brand positioning within established organizational fields happens through processes that help to portray a person as having field-specific social and cultural capital that allows them to “stand out,” while acquiring the habitus that allows them to comply with field- and occupation-specific expectations in order to “fit in.” Standing out and fitting in have parallels with—but are not identical to—the processes of establishing and reinforcing points of differentiation and points of parity for product brands. Our study implies that scholars interested in person branding should further develop theories that illuminate variations in brand positioning practices between products and persons. It also suggests that people building person brands should be sensitized to the valued forms of capital and normative expectations in their field that enable them to stand out while fitting in.

Newsroom ethnography in a field perspective

Abstract: The reflexive sociology of Pierre Bourdieu offers a promising analytical framework for extending the insights offered by the classical tradition of ethnographic newsroom studies. On a methodological level, Bourdieu’s analytical framework has the potential to help us address one of the key questions in ethnographic research: how should we theorise and empirically investigate context? The question is, not least, practical in nature. When it comes to newsroom ethnography, one of the traditional problems concerns the ‘invisibility’ of certain structures such as the political economy of everyday news work which guides journalist practice. By employing the analytical concepts of ‘journalistic field’, ‘news habitus’ and ‘newsroom capital’, reflexive sociology offers a research strategy for simultaneously studying journalistic practices and the structures that enable and constrain them. A case study of Danish news values is used as a vehicle for presenting Bourdieu’s field theory, which is discussed in relation t...

Street habitus: gangs, territorialism and social change in Glasgow

Abstract: The relationship between youth ‘gangs’ and territory – understood as a monopolistic control over geographical space, exercised for economic gain – is a longstanding focus of gang scholarship, and remains central to criminological definitions of youth ‘gangs’ to this day. In this article, I re-assess this relationship in the context of an ethnographic study of youth ‘gangs’ and territorial space in Glasgow. Employing Bourdieu's concept of habitus in a spatial context, I argue that territorialism and gang behaviour should be understood as distinct – if linked – phenomenon, connected with the lived experiences of limited spatial autonomy in the post-industrial city. This analytical separation enables ‘gang’ behaviour to be understood beyond the traditional criminological gaze, incorporating sociological theories of space, class and identity.

Decolonizing Bourdieu Colonial and Postcolonial Theory in Pierre Bourdieu’s Early Work

Abstract: While new scholarship on Pierre Bourdieu has recovered his early work on Algeria, this essay excavates his early thoughts on colonialism. Contrary to received wisdom, Bourdieu did in fact offer a t...

The Role of HRD in CSR, Sustainability, and Ethics A Relational Model

Abstract: This article proposes a theoretical model linking human resource development (HRD), corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate sustainability (CS), and business ethics. The model development was informed by Pierre Bourdieu’s relational theory of power and practice, and by Norbert Elias’ and Michel Foucault’s theories of power and knowledge. The model suggests that CSR, CS, and ethics are parts of the same organizational subsystem, shaped by a complex interaction between human capital, individual moral development, habitus (mindsets, dispositions), organizational practices and culture, and external situational factors. The generative mechanism, or motor, driving the development and change of organizational culture, consists of power relationships that are shaped by specific figurations of various types of human capital (social, cultural, economic, and symbolic). HRD can influence this system by engaging in culture change efforts, ethics and CS-/CSR-related education and training on all levels of the ...

Fully Unconscious and Prone to Habit: The Characteristics of Agency in the Structure and Agency Dialectic

Abstract: While the human agent must have the capacity for reflexivity, intentionality and consciousness, the same agent must also be affected by the social world in which she lives: herein lies the essence of the structure and agency dialectic. This paper argues that while some realists are in principle committed to a dialectical relationship between structure and agency, there is some dissonance between this commitment and the concepts of agency that they develop. I highlight the exclusion of the unconscious and habit from realist notions of agency and argue that this oversight serves to unbalance the dialectic between structure and agency thereby leading to the over-empowerment of agency. The concepts of agency developed by Margaret Archer, Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu are discussed in this paper. Archer's concept of agency is argued to focus exclusively on reflexivity whilst neglecting to include the unconscious and habit. Giddens is shown to develop a much improved concept of agency, which includes the unconscious, however, his rejection of the independent causal powers of structure and agency problematises his commitment to the dialectic. A much improved approach to theorising agency, developed within a critical realist framework, is offered drawing on Bourdieu's concept of habitus. The paper concludes with a discussion of gender, and considers how the unconscious and habit can help to better understand the myriad ways in which gender functions in society.

The rise and decline of national habitus: Dutch cycling culture and the shaping of national similarity

Abstract: Why are things different on the other side of national borders and how can this be explained sociologically? Using as its point of departure Dutch cycling culture, a paradigmatic example of non-state-led national similarity, this article explores these questions. The first section introduces Norbert Elias' concept of 'national habitus', using this notion to critique comparative sociology and argue for a more processual approach to national comparison. The second section discusses four processes that have contributed to increasing similarity within nations: growing interdependence within nations; increasing density of networks and institutions; vertical diffusion of styles and standards; and the development of national we-feelings. Together, these processes have contributed to the development of national habitus: increasing similarities within nations and increasing differences between people living in different countries. These processes reached their apex in the second half of the 20th century. The third section explores how these processes have diminished since the 1960s, leading to increasing variations within countries and growing similarities between comparable groups in different countries. Both the rise and decline of national habitus are illustrated by changes in Dutch cycling culture. Particularly important is the breakdown of trickle down as a result of the rise of the egalitarian informal ethos. This analysis poses new challenges for sociologists: first, concerning comparative research; second, concerning the diffusion of styles and standards; and, third, concerning the consequences of the decline of national habitus for social inequality, as evidenced by the growing rift between 'locals' and (bike-loving) 'cosmopolitans'.

Well-founded social fictions: a defence of the concepts of institutional and familial habitus

Abstract: This article engages with Atkinson’s recent criticisms of concepts of collective habitus, such as ‘institutional’ and ‘familial’ habitus, in order to defend their conceptual utility and theoretical coherence. In so doing we promote a flexible understanding of habitus as both an individual and a collective concept. By retaining this flexibility (which we argue is in keeping with the spirit of Bourdieuian philosophy) we allow for a consideration of the ways in which the individual habitus relates to the collective. We argue that, through recognition of the complexity of the interrelated habitus of individuals, collective notions go beyond individualist accounts that perceive only the relational aspects of the individual with the social field. Our approach allows us to consider social actors in relation to each other and as constitutive of fields rather than as mere individuals plotted in social space. These arguments will be woven through our responses to what Atkinson calls the three fatal flaws of institutional and familial habitus: namely, homogenisation, anthropomorphism, and substantialism.

Bourdieu and an Update of Health Lifestyle Theory

Abstract: The purpose of this chapter is to update health lifestyle theory and in the process illustrate the importance of Pierre Bourdieu’s contributions to sociological research on this topic. Bourdieu never published work on health or medical sociology, yet many of his ideas, especially his concepts of habitus and various forms of capital (e.g., social, cultural), are increasingly utilized to provide theoretical models in health-related research (see, for example, Abel and Frohlich 2011; Carpiano 2006; Christensen 2011; Cockerham 2005, 2007, 2010; Williams 1995). The merit of his perspective is that it fully (perhaps overly in some instances) acknowledges the important role structure has in shaping and often determining human social behavior, including lifestyles. This return to a more structurally-aware approach comes decades after the demise of structural-functionalism and the ascendancy of agency-oriented theories in health sociology and sociology generally (Cockerham 2013; Mouzelis 2008; Smelser 1997).

Could a Subaltern Manage? Identity Work and Habitus in a Colonial Workplace

Abstract: How did historically marginalized groups learn to become professional managers? This paper studies the identity work of a manager in a colonial work setting, focusing specifically on the aspirational quality of professional identity, and on the forms of subordination enmeshed in organizational work, through a close reading of an autobiography. Beyond Punjab describes the career of Prakash Tandon in the multinational Lever Brothers India. He eventually became its first Indian Chief Executive and a respected public figure. Studies of such colonial work settings can seem indebted to existing research within postcolonial studies in management. But I argue that the dominant attention of postcolonial studies in management has not been on identity work and practices, but the historical enduring force of representations. Therefore this paper offers a complementary engagement, developing Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus for a fuller understanding of how managerial identity was constituted in colonial work setting...

Brown bodies, racialisation and physical education

Abstract: This article explores how school physical education (PE) can both reinforce stereotyped notions of the brown body as inherently physical while also allowing young people to gain educational success. Drawing on a critical ethnographic study of Māori and Pasifika (Pacific Island) youth in PE in New Zealand, the article explores how the academic status of PE, and its alignment with sport, positions the brown bodies of these youth in problematic and stereotypical ways. While PE may reinforce racialised stereotypes, it is also a space of recognition and achievement for youth. Bourdieu's notions of capital, field and habitus provide insight into how such contradictions potentially offer social transformation while simultaneously reproducing social status.

‘Knowing your place in the world’: how place and culture support and obstruct educational aims

Abstract: There is increasing international interest in learning outside the classroom; place-based education is one manifestation of this. In this article, some conceptualisations of place are considered and attention drawn to alignments with habitus at micro, meso and macro levels. I develop a concept of cultural density as an explanatory tool to theorise how place and culture intersect to support some educational aims and interfere with others within a cross-sectional research study of a place-based curriculum centred on three schools located in the Southwest of England. Cultural density refers to the nature, thickness and dominance of habitus and norms of practice in places. Reflecting on the interface between how young people come to ‘know their place in the world’ and learning opportunities, careful alignment of purpose, pedagogy and place considering past, present and future is argued as a means of maximising the opportunities afforded by learning outside the classroom.

The Nature of Social Science Research

Abstract: Despite enormous social and political changes in the way that Australian women and men engage with the labour market, the caring occupations remain largely feminised. Researchers continue to find that caring and femininity remain culturally linked in Australian society, theorising that gendered meanings are strong explanators for why female workers seek caring related employment in over-representative numbers. Kate Huppatz (2010), while concurring with the importance of gender, queried whether the research focus on gender was obscuring other differences between women in their motivation to pursue this type of work. She asked: Is class also a significant factor in the analysis of women’s participation in the paid caring field? Using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as her theoretical frame on social class, Huppatz interviewed thirty-nine Australian women working or studying in the fields of nursing and social work, asking each to self-identify as either working class or middle class. Huppatz chose these particular professions as both are seen as middle class caring occupations. Her results indicate that class location is associated with differing motivations for undertaking caring work. For the middle class participants, the primary motivation was caring, and these respondents reported that their families were generally supportive of their chosen field of study or work. The women from working class backgrounds, while also citing a strong interest in caring as an occupation, were also motivated by employment stability, relatively high salaries and professional job social status. Moreover, many of these women reported that their families had not understood their career or study decisions. Huppatz concludes that ‘[E]conomic motivations, class identities and aspirations are therefore as significant as gender in these women’s career choices’ (130: 2010). KEY TERMS axiology descriptive research empirical data epistemology explanatory research exploratory research method methodology ontology paradigm quantitative– qualitative debate research question scientifi c method social aggregates social meanings social patterns social theory standpoint triangulation 1

The habitus of digital “strangers” in higher education

Abstract: This is the accepted version of the following article: Czerniewicz, L. & Brown, C. 2012. The habitus of digital "strangers" in higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology. 44(1): 44-53., which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01281.x.

Dispositions of elite-level Australian rugby coaches towards Game Sense: characteristics of their coaching habitus

Abstract: Bourdieu's analytic concept of habitus has provided a valuable means of theorising coach development but is yet to be operationalised in empirical research. This article redresses this oversight by drawing on a larger study that inquired into how the ‘coaching habitus’ of elite-level Australian and New Zealand rugby coaches structured their interpretation and use of the Game Sense approach to coaching to illustrate how habitus can be operationalised. It focuses on the identification of characteristics of the individual coaching habitus of four elite-level Australian rugby coaches and how they shape their interpretation and use of Game Sense. Drawing on suggestions made by Lau, we identify the characteristics of four individual ‘coaching habitus’ by examining their views on: (1) the characteristics of good coaches; (2) characteristics of great rugby players and how to develop them; and (3) their dispositions towards innovation in coaching.

The digital divide in Europe

Abstract: Sociologist Theodor Geiger’s work on social inequalities argues that social strata and individual action and perception correlate, outlined as the concept of mentality. Mentality is a psychic predisposition, an immediate imprint on a person by their social world and the experiences made in and radiating from it (Geiger, 1932/1972, p. 77). That is, social position and mentality do not necessarily refer to each other, but there are status-typical mentalities. Accordingly, there is a cover ratio between external structures and individual psyche, which suggests that similar objective characteristics promote the development of similar subjective characteristics. Thus, Geiger thinks in categorical defined inequalities, without leaving aside questions of lifestyle and inner conditions. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1979/1982) follows a similar principle, when he defines classspecific cultural forms and from this develops his concept of habitus. Using correspondence analysis, Bourdieu verified the existence of classspecific patterns of taste by clustering preferences in music, cooking, art, literature, and so on. As the habitus incorporates both the impact of external conditions and individual practices, the concept represents a link between social structure and individual way of life. Geiger’s concept of mentality as well as Bourdieu’s concept of habitus can be useful to explain different practices in everyday life. Drawing on these concepts, this chapter suggests that people’s incorporation of digital media into their everyday lives does not happen independent of the constraints and advantages of their existing surroundings; rather, the Internet is just one component of people’s lives in which numerous social factors interact with each other.

Informal peer critique and the negotiation of habitus in a design studio

Abstract: Critique is considered to be a central feature of design education, serving as both a structural mechanism that provides regular feedback, and a high stakes assessment tool. This study utilizes informal peer critique as a natural extension of this existing form, engaging the practice community in reflection-in-action due to the natural physical co-location of the studio environment. The purpose of this study is to gain greater understanding of the pedagogical role of informal critique in shaping design thinking and judgment, as seen through the framing of Bourdieu's habitus. The methodology of this study is informed by a critical theory perspective, and uses a combination of interview, observation, and stimulated recall in the process of data collection. Divergent viewpoints on the role of informal v. formal spaces, objectivity v. subjectivity of critique, and differences between professor and peer feedback are addressed. Additionally, beliefs about critique on the individual and group level are analysed as critical elements of an evolving habitus, supported by or developed in response to the culture inscribed by the pedagogy and design studio. This form of critique reveals tacit design thinking and conceptions of design, and outlines the co- construction of habitus by individual students and the design pedagogy.

Putting Bourdieu to work for class analysis: reflections on some recent contributions.

Abstract: Recent developments in class analysis, particularly associated with so-called 'cultural class analysis'; have seen the works of Pierre Bourdieu take centre stage. Apart from the general influence of 'habitus' and 'cultural capital', some scholars have tried to reconstruct class analysis with concepts drawn from Bourdieu. This involves a theoretical reorientation, away from the conventional concerns of class analysis with property and market relations, towards an emphasis on the multiple forms of capital. Despite the significant potential of these developments, such a reorientation dismisses or neglects the relations of power and domination founded in the economic institutions of capitalism as a crucial element of what class is. Through a critique of some recent attempts by British authors to develop a 'Bourdieusian' class theory, the paper reasserts the centrality of the relations of power and domination that used to be the domain of class analysis. The paper suggests some elements central to a reworked class analysis that benefits from the power of Bourdieu's ideas while retaining a perspective on the fundamentals of class relations in capitalism.

Bourdieu and Social Movements: Considering Identity Movements in Terms of Field, Capital and Habitus

Abstract: This article examines the explanatory capacity of Pierre Bourdieu's work in relation to social movements and, in particular, identity movements. It aims to provide a theoretical framework drawing on Bourdieu's central concepts of field, capital and habitus. These concepts are viewed as providing a theoretical toolkit that can be applied to convincingly explain aspects of social movements that social movement theories, such as political process theory, resource mobilization theory and framing, acknowledge, but are not able to explain within a single theoretical framework. Identity movements are approached here in a way that relates them to the position agents/movements occupy in social spaces, resources and cultural competence. This enables us to consider identity movements from a new perspective that explains, for instance, the interrelatedness of class and identity movements.