Bourdieu, Pierre

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'''Pierre Bourdieu''' (August 1, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was a [[France|French]] [[sociology|sociologist]] whose work employed methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines, from [[philosophy]] and literary theory to sociology and [[anthropology]]. Best known for his book ''Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste'', in which he tried to connect [[aesthetics|aesthetic]] judgements to positions in social space. The most notable aspects of Bourdieu's theory is about the development of methodologies, combining both theory and empirical data that attempt to dissolve some of the most troublesome problems in theory and research and trying to reconcile such difficulties as how to understand the subject within objective structures (in the process, trying to reconcile [[structuralism]] with agency). Bourdieu also pioneered methodological frameworks and terminologies, such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of" habitus," "field," and "symbolic violence." Bourdieu's work emphasized the role of practice and embodiment in social dynamics. Hiss work builds upon theories of [[phenomenology|phenomenologists]] such as [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]] and [[Edmund Husserl]] as well as philosophers of science like [[Georges Canguilhem]] and [[Gaston Bachelard]], and the sociology of [[Max Weber]], [[Karl Marx]], and [[Emile Durkheim]] among others. A notable influence on Bourdieu was [[Blaise Pascal]] after whom Bourdieu titled the book ''Pascalian Meditations''.
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'''Pierre Bourdieu''' (August 1, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was a [[France|French]] [[sociology|sociologist]] whose work employed methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines, from [[philosophy]] and [[literature|literary]] theory, to sociology and [[anthropology]]. The most notable aspects of Bourdieu's theory concern the development of methodologies, combining both theory and empirical data that attempt to dissolve some of the most troublesome problems in theory and research and trying to reconcile such difficulties as how to understand the subject within objective structures (in the process, trying to reconcile [[structuralism]] with agency). Bourdieu also pioneered methodological frameworks and terminologies, such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of "habitus," "field," and "symbolic violence." Bourdieu's work emphasized the role of practice and embodiment in social dynamics. Bourdieu was an avid political activist, and a staunch opponent of modern forms of [[globalization]]. He saw sociology as a weapon against social oppression and injustice, commenting that "sociology is a combat sport insofar as it is used to defend against the domination of symbolic systems and the imposition of distorting categories of thought." In this way, Bourdieu used the weapons of the intellect to uncover mechanisms, heretofore unknown, that continue the separation and inequalities of different social groups, in his struggle for a better world for all.
 
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Bourdieu was an avid political activist, and a staunch opponent of modern forms of [[globalization]]. He saw sociology as a weapon against social oppression and injustice. He commented that "sociology is a combat sport insofar as it is used to defend against the domination of symbolic systems and the imposition of distorting categories of thought."
 
 
 
 
==Biography==
 
==Biography==
'''Pierre Bourdieu''' was born on August 1, 1930 in Denguin, (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) in [[France]], where his grandfather was a sharecropper and his father was a postman and later, a postmaster. He married Marie-Claire Brizard in 1962 and had three sons.
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'''Pierre Bourdieu''' was born on August 1, 1930, in Denguin, (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) in [[France]], where his grandfather was a sharecropper and his father was a postman and later, a postmaster. He married Marie-Claire Brizard in 1962, and had three sons.
  
Bourdieu studied [[philosophy]] in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure. After achieving his ''agrégation'', he worked as a teacher for a year. During the [[Algerian War of Independence]] in 1958-1962, and while serving in the French army, he undertook [[ethnography|ethnographic]] research, laying the groundwork for his [[sociology|sociological]] reputation.  
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Bourdieu studied [[philosophy]] in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure. After achieving his ''agrégation,'' he worked as a teacher for a year. During the [[Algerian War of Independence]] in 1958-1962, and while serving in the French army, he undertook [[ethnography|ethnographic]] research, laying the groundwork for his [[sociology|sociological]] reputation.  
  
 
From 1964 on, Bourdieu held the position of Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, in the VIe section, the future Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and from 1981, the Chair of Sociology at the Collège de France (held before him by [[Raymond Aron]], [[Maurice Halbwachs]], and [[Marcel Mauss]]). In 1968, he took over the Centre de Sociologie Européenne that Aron had founded, the research center that he directed until his death.  
 
From 1964 on, Bourdieu held the position of Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, in the VIe section, the future Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and from 1981, the Chair of Sociology at the Collège de France (held before him by [[Raymond Aron]], [[Maurice Halbwachs]], and [[Marcel Mauss]]). In 1968, he took over the Centre de Sociologie Européenne that Aron had founded, the research center that he directed until his death.  
  
In 1975, he launched the interdisciplinary journal ''Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales'', with which he sought to transform the accepted canons of sociological production while buttressing the scientific rigor of sociology. In 1993 he was honored with the ''Médaille d'or du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique'' (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique|CNRS). In 1996, he received the Goffman Prize from the [[University of California at Berkeley]]* and in 2002 the Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
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In 1975, he launched the interdisciplinary journal ''Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales,'' with which he sought to transform the accepted canons of sociological production while buttressing the scientific rigor of sociology. In 1993, he was honored with the ''Médaille d'or du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique'' (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique|CNRS). In 1996, he received the Goffman Prize from the [[University of California at Berkeley]] and in 2002, the [[Huxley Medal]] of the [[Royal Anthropological Institute]].
  
 
==Work==
 
==Work==
Bourdieu's contributions to [[social theory]] were both empirical and theoretical. His key terms were [[Pierre Bourdieu#Habitus|habitus]], [[Pierre Bourdieu#Field|field]], and [[Pierre Bourdieu#Symbolic capital and symbolic violence|symbolic violence]]. He extended the idea of [[capital]] to categories such as social capital, cultural capital, and symbolic capital. For Bourdieu, an individual occupies a position in their "social space" and is defined not by [[social class]], but by the amount of all kinds of capital they possess, and by the relative amounts symbolic, social, economic, and cultural capital account for.  
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Bourdieu's contributions to [[social theory]] were both empirical and theoretical. His work builds upon theories of [[phenomenology|phenomenologists]] such as [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]] and [[Edmund Husserl]], as well as philosophers of science like [[Georges Canguilhem]] and [[Gaston Bachelard]], and the sociology of [[Max Weber]], [[Karl Marx]], and [[Emile Durkheim]], among others. A notable influence on Bourdieu was [[Blaise Pascal]] after whom Bourdieu titled the book ''Pascalian Meditations''. He is well known for his book, ''Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste,'' in which he tried to connect [[aesthetics|aesthetic]] judgments to positions in social space.
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His key terms were [[Pierre Bourdieu#Habitus|habitus]], [[Pierre Bourdieu#Field|field]], and [[Pierre Bourdieu#Symbolic capital and symbolic violence|symbolic violence]]. He extended the idea of [[capital]] to categories such as social capital, cultural capital, and symbolic capital. For Bourdieu, an individual occupies a position in their "social space" and is defined not by [[social class]], but by the amount of all kinds of capital they possess, and by the relative amounts symbolic, social, economic, and cultural capital account for.  
  
He was also known as a politically engaged and active [[social science|social scientist]], who felt uncomfortable in the role of the intellectual, supporting workers against the influences of political elites and [[neoliberalism|neoliberal]] [[capitalism]]. He was even considered the left's enemy of itself: the French Socialist party used to talk of ''la gauche bourdieusienne'', their enemies on the left.  
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He was also known as a politically engaged and active [[social science|social scientist]], who felt uncomfortable in the role of the intellectual, supporting workers against the influences of political elites and [[neoliberalism|neoliberal]] [[capitalism]]. He was even considered the left's enemy of itself: the French Socialist party used to talk of ''la gauche bourdieusienne,'' their enemies on the left.  
  
 
Some examples of his empirical results include:
 
Some examples of his empirical results include:
*showing that despite the apparent freedom of choice in the [[arts]], people's artistic preferences (e.g. classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly correlate with their social position
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*showing that despite the apparent freedom of choice in the [[arts]], people's artistic preferences (for example, classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly correlate with their social position
*showing that subtleties of [[language]] such as accent, [[grammar]], spelling, and style — all part of cultural capital — are a major factor in [[social mobility]] (e.g. getting a higher paid, higher [[social status|status]] job).
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*showing that subtleties of [[language]] such as accent, [[grammar]], spelling, and style—all part of cultural capital—are a major factor in [[social mobility]] (for example, getting a higher paid, higher [[social status|status]] job).
  
Bourdieu's work emphasized how social classes, especially the ruling and intellectual classes, reproduce themselves even under the pretence that society fosters social mobility - particularly through [[education]].
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Bourdieu's work emphasized how social classes, especially the ruling and intellectual classes, reproduce themselves even under the pretense that society fosters social mobility--particularly through [[education]].
  
Bourdieu was an extraordinarily prolific author of hundreds of articles and three dozen books, nearly all of which are now available in English. His style is dense in English translation, but he was considered an elegant and incisive writer both in France and in neighbouring [[Europe]]an countries other than England.
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Bourdieu was an extraordinarily prolific author of hundreds of articles and three dozen books, nearly all of which are now available in English. His style is dense in English translation, but he was considered an elegant and incisive writer both in France and in neighboring [[Europe]]an countries other than England.
  
===Bourdieu's theory of power and practice===
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===Theory of power and practice===
At the center of Bourdieu's sociological work is a logic of practice that emphasizes the importance of the body and practices within the social world. Bourdieu stressed that mechanisms of social domination and reproduction were primarily focused on bodily know-how and competent practices in the social world. Bourdieu fiercely opposed Rational Action Theory as grounded in a misunderstanding of how social agents operate. Social agents do not, according to Bourdieu, continuously calculate according to explicit rational and economic criteria. Rather, social agents operate according to bodily know-how and practical dispositions. Social agents operate according to their "feel for the game" (the "feel" being, roughly, habitus, and the "game" being the field).
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At the center of Bourdieu's sociological work is a logic of practice that emphasizes the importance of the body and practices within the social world. Bourdieu stressed that mechanisms of social domination and reproduction were primarily focused on bodily know-how and competent practices in the social world. Bourdieu fiercely opposed [[Rational Action Theory]] as grounded in a misunderstanding of how social agents operate. Social agents do not, according to Bourdieu, continuously calculate according to explicit rational and economic criteria. Rather, social agents operate according to bodily know-how and practical dispositions. Social agents operate according to their "feel for the game" (the "feel" being, roughly, habitus, and the "game" being the field).
  
 
===Field===
 
===Field===
Bourdieu shared [[Max Weber|Weber]]'s view that society, contrary to traditional [[Marxism]], cannot be analyzed simply in terms of economic classes and ideologies. Much of his work concerns the independent role of educational and cultural factors. Instead of analyzing societies in terms of [[social class|classes]], Bourdieu uses the concept of ''field'': a social arena in which people manoeuvre and struggle in pursuit of desirable resources. A field is a system of social positions (e.g. a profession such as the law) structured internally in terms of power relationships (e.g. consider the power differential between [[judge]]s and [[lawyer]]s). More specifically, a field is a social arena of struggle over the appropriation of certain species of [[capital]].  
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Bourdieu shared [[Max Weber|Weber]]'s view that society, contrary to traditional [[Marxism]], cannot be analyzed simply in terms of economic classes and ideologies. Much of his work concerns the independent role of educational and cultural factors. Instead of analyzing societies in terms of [[social class|classes]], Bourdieu uses the concept of ''field:'' A social arena in which people maneuver and struggle in pursuit of desirable resources. A field is a system of social positions (for example, a profession such as the law) structured internally in terms of power relationships (consider the power differential between [[judge]]s and [[lawyer]]s). More specifically, a field is a social arena of struggle over the appropriation of certain species of [[capital]].
  
The field of power is peculiar in that it exists "horizontally" through all of the fields and the struggles within it control the "exchange rate" of the forms of cultural, symbolic, or physical [[capital]] between the fields themselves. A field is constituted by the relational differences in position of social agents, and the boundaries of a field is demarcated by where its effects end. Different fields can be either autonomous or interrelated (e.g. the separation of power between judiciary and legislature) and more complex societies have more fields. Fields are constructed according to underlying ''nomos'', the "law" that governs practices within a field. The principles underlying one field are often irreducible to those underlying another, as in the noted disparity between the nomos of the [[aesthetics|aesthetic]] field that values cultural capital and in some sense discourages economic capital, and that of the [[economics|economic]] field which values economic capital. Agents subscribe to or participate in a particular field not by way of explicit contract, but by their practical acknowledgement of the stakes. The acknowledgement of the stakes of the field and the acquiring of interests and investments prescribed by the field is termed ''illusio''.
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The field of power is peculiar in that it exists "horizontally" through all of the fields and the struggles within it control the "exchange rate" of the forms of cultural, symbolic, or physical [[capital]] between the fields themselves. A field is constituted by the relational differences in position of social agents, and the boundaries of a field are demarcated by where its effects end. Different fields can be either autonomous or interrelated (e.g. the separation of power between judiciary and legislature) and more complex societies have more fields. Fields are constructed according to underlying ''nomos,'' the "law" that governs practices within a field. The principles underlying one field are often irreducible to those underlying another, as in the noted disparity between the nomos of the [[aesthetics|aesthetic]] field that values cultural capital and in some sense discourages economic capital, and that of the [[economics|economic]] field which values economic capital. Agents subscribe to or participate in a particular field not by way of explicit contract, but by their practical acknowledgement of the stakes. The acknowledgement of the stakes of the field and the acquiring of interests and investments prescribed by the field is termed ''illusio''.
  
 
===Habitus===
 
===Habitus===
Bourdieu's influential concept of ''habitus'' was developed to resolve the paradox of the human sciences: objectifying the subjective. It can be defined as a system of dispositions: lasting, acquired schemes of [[perception]], [[thought]], and action. The individual agent develops these dispositions in response to the objective conditions they encounter, but they remain subjective things. In this way Bourdieu theorized the inculcation of objective [[social structure]]s into the subjective, mental experience of agents.  
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Bourdieu's influential concept of ''habitus'' was developed to resolve the paradox of the human sciences: Objectifying the subjective. It can be defined as a system of dispositions: Lasting, acquired schemes of [[perception]], [[thought]], and action, in Bourdieu's words, "appreciation, and action that result from the institution of the social in the body" (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992 :127). This connection between the objective and subjective is grounded in the physical body:
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<blockquote>At the center of the notion of habitus is the corporeal scheme—the structure and capacities of our body—through which we learn by assimilating or modifying habits and dispositions. Through these bodily capacities and orientations agents are able to, in turn, engage with the world of others. This is a matter of the body because what is incorporated are motor skills and socially learned postural and gestural sets that create distinct forms of motility and perception (Lande 2005). </blockquote>
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The individual agent develops these dispositions in response to the objective conditions they encounter, but they remain subjective things. In this way Bourdieu theorized the inculcation of objective [[social structure]]s into the subjective, mental experience of agents.
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Having thereby absorbed objective social structure into a personal set of [[cognition|cognitive]] and somatic dispositions, and the subjective structures of action of the agent then being commensurate with the objective structures of the social field, ''doxa'' emerge. ''Doxa'' are the fundamental, deep-founded, unthought [[belief]]s, taken as self-evident, that inform an agent's actions and thoughts within a particular field. ''Doxa'' tends to favor the particular social arrangement of the field, thus privileging the dominant and taking their position of dominance as self-evident and universally favorable. Therefore, the categories of understanding and perception that constitute a ''habitus,'' being congruous with the objective organization of the field, tend to reproduce the very structures of the field. Bourdieu thus saw ''habitus'' as the key to social reproduction, because it is central to generating and regulating the practices that make up social life.
  
Having thereby absorbed objective social structure into a personal set of [[cognition|cognitive]] and somatic dispositions, and the subjective structures of action of the agent then being commensurate with the objective structures of the social field, ''doxa'' emerge. ''Doxa'' are the fundamental, deep-founded, unthought [[belief]]s, taken as self-evident, that inform an agent's actions and thoughts within a particular field. ''Doxa'' tends to favor the particular social arrangement of the field, thus privileging the dominant and taking their position of dominance as self-evident and universally favorable. Therefore, the categories of understanding and perception that constitute a ''habitus'', being congruous with the objective organization of the field, tend to reproduce the very structures of the field. Bourdieu thus sees ''habitus'' as the key to social reproduction, because it is central to generating and regulating the practices that make up social life.
 
 
 
 
===Symbolic capital and symbolic violence===
 
===Symbolic capital and symbolic violence===
Bourdieu sees symbolic capital (e.g. prestige, honor, the right to be listened to) as a crucial source of power. Symbolic capital is any species of [[capital]] that is perceived through socially inculcated classificatory schemes. When a holder of symbolic capital uses the power this confers against an agent who holds less, and seeks thereby to alter their actions, they exercise "symbolic violence." Symbolic violence is fundamentally the imposition of categories of [[thought]] and [[perception]] upon dominated social agents who then take the social order to be desirable.  Symbolic violence is in some senses much more powerful than physical violence in that it is embedded in the very modes of action and structures of cognition of individuals, and imposes the vision of the legitimacy of the social order.
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Bourdieu saw symbolic capital (things such as prestige, honor, the right to be listened to) as a crucial source of power. Symbolic capital is any species of [[capital]] that is perceived through socially inculcated classificatory schemes. When a holder of symbolic capital uses the power, this confers against an agent who holds less, and seeks thereby to alter their actions, they exercise "symbolic violence." Symbolic violence is fundamentally the imposition of categories of [[thought]] and [[perception]] upon dominated social agents who then take the social order to be desirable.  Symbolic violence is in some senses more powerful than physical violence, in that it is embedded in the very modes of action and structures of cognition of individuals and imposes the vision of the legitimacy of the social order.
  
In his theoretical writings, Bourdieu employs some terminology of [[economics]] to analyze the processes of social and cultural reproduction, of how the various forms of capital tend to transfer from one generation to the next. For Bourdieu, [[education]] represents the key example of this process. Educational success, according to Bourdieu, entails a whole range of cultural behavior, extending to ostensibly non-academic features like gait or accent. Privileged children have learned this behavior, as have their teachers. Children of unprivileged backgrounds have not. The children of privilege therefore fit the pattern of their teachers' expectations with apparent ease; they are "docile." The unprivileged are found to be "difficult," to present "challenges." Yet both behave as their upbringing dictates. Bourdieu regards this ease, or natural abilitydistinctionas in fact the product of a great social labor, largely on the part of the parents. It equips their children with the dispositions of manner as well as thought which enhttp://www.encyclopediaproject.net/mw/skins/common/images/button_link.png
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In his theoretical writings, Bourdieu employed some [[economics|economic]] terminology to analyze the processes of social and cultural reproduction, of how the various forms of capital tend to transfer from one generation to the next. For Bourdieu, [[education]] represents the key example of this process. Educational success, according to Bourdieu, entails a wide range of cultural behavior, extending to ostensibly non-academic features like gait or accent. Privileged children have learned this behavior, as have their teachers. Children of unprivileged backgrounds have not. The children of privilege, therefore, fit the pattern of their teachers' expectations with apparent ease; they are "docile." The unprivileged are found to be "difficult," to present "challenges." Yet both behave as their upbringing dictates. Bourdieu regards this ease, or natural ability&mdash;distinction&mdash;as in fact the product of a great social labor, largely on the part of the parents. It equips their children with the dispositions of manner as well as thought which ensure they are able to succeed within the educational system and can then reproduce their parents' [[social class|class]] position in the wider social system.
Internal linksure they are able to succeed within the educational system and can then reproduce their parents' [[social class|class]] position in the wider social system.
 
  
Cultural capital (e.g. competencies, skills, qualifications) can also be a source of misrecognition and symbolic violence. Therefore working class children can come to see the educational success of their middle-class peers as always legitimate, seeing what is often class-based inequality as instead the result of hard work or even "natural" ability. A key part of this process is the transformation of people's symbolic or economic [[inheritance]] (e.g. accent or [[property]]) into cultural capital (e.g. [[university]] qualifications)- a process which the logic of the cultural fields impedes but cannot prevent.  is one method of transmission for symbolic violence.
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Cultural capital (for example, competencies, skills, qualifications) can also be a source of misrecognition and symbolic violence. Therefore, working class children can come to see the educational success of their middle-class peers as always legitimate, seeing what is often class-based inequality as instead the result of hard work or even "natural" ability. A key part of this process is the transformation of people's symbolic or economic [[inheritance]] (e.g. accent or [[property]]) into cultural capital (e.g. [[university]] qualifications--a process which the logic of the cultural fields impedes but cannot prevent.  
  
 
===Reflexivity===
 
===Reflexivity===
Bourdieu insisted on the importance of a reflexive [[sociology]] in which sociologists must at all times conduct their research with conscious attention to the effects of their own position, their own set of internalized structures, and how these are likely to distort or prejudice their objectivity. The sociologist, according to Bourdieu, must engage in a "sociology of sociology" so as not to unwittingly attribute the object of observation the characteristics of the subject. One must be cognizant of their own social positions within a field and recognize the conditions that both structure and make possible discourses, theories, and observations. A sociologist, therefore, must be aware of his or her own stakes and interests in the academic or sociological field and render explicit the conditions and structures of understanding that are implicitly imbued in his or her practices within those fields.  
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Bourdieu insisted on the importance of a reflexive [[sociology]], in which sociologists must at all times conduct their research with conscious attention to the effects of their own position, their own set of internalized structures, and how these are likely to distort or prejudice their objectivity. The sociologist, according to Bourdieu, must engage in a "sociology of sociology" so as not to unwittingly attribute the object of observation the characteristics of the subject. One must be cognizant of their own social positions within a field and recognize the conditions that both structure and make possible discourses, theories, and observations. A sociologist, therefore, must be aware of his or her own stakes and interests in the academic or sociological field and render explicit the conditions and structures of understanding that are implicitly imbued in his or her practices within those fields.  
  
Bourdieu's conception of reflexivity, however, is not singular or narcissistic, but must involve the contribution of the entire sociological field. Sociological reflexivity is a collective endeavor, spanning the entire field and its participants, aimed at exposing the socially conditioned unthought structures that underlay the formulation of theories and perceptions of the social world.
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Bourdieu's conception of reflexivity, however, is not singular or narcissistic, but must involve the contribution of the entire sociological field. Sociological reflexivity is a collective endeavor, spanning the entire field and its participants, aimed at exposing the socially conditioned, subconscious structures that underlay the formulation of theories and perceptions of the social world.
  
 
Bourdieu asserted that there are specific social conditions of existence of a scientific field. Bourdieu's ideal scientific field is one that persistently designates upon its participants an interest or investment in objectivity.
 
Bourdieu asserted that there are specific social conditions of existence of a scientific field. Bourdieu's ideal scientific field is one that persistently designates upon its participants an interest or investment in objectivity.
  
 
==Critique==
 
==Critique==
The concept of habitus is foundational to Bourdieu’s theory of social research. Bourdieu combined a [[structuralism|structuralist]] framework with close attention to subjectivity in social context. A key relationship in bridging objectivism and subjectivism in social research, for Bourdieu, is that between habitus and field via practices. To study the subjective-objective nature of social practices, the researcher may take on the perspectives of both research subject and observer in kind of double participant observation, which combines the objective study of the world with reflexive knowledge of the subject(s) of the study. The double objectification in his method is described by Jenkins (1992:50):
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The concept of ''habitus'' is foundational to Bourdieu’s theory of social research. Bourdieu combined a [[structuralism|structuralist]] framework with close attention to subjectivity in social context. A key relationship in bridging objectivism and subjectivism in social research, for Bourdieu, is that between [[habitus]] and field via practices. To study the subjective-objective nature of social practices, the researcher may take on the perspectives of both research subject and observer in kind of double participant observation, which combines the objective study of the world with reflexive knowledge of the subject(s) of the study. The double objectification in his method is described by Jenkins (1992:50):
<blockquote>''First, there is the work done in the act of observation and the objectification or distortion of social reality which it is likely to produce. Second, there is an awareness of that distortion and of the observer as a competent social actor in his/her own right.''</blockquote>   
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<blockquote>First, there is the work done in the act of observation and the objectification or distortion of social reality which it is likely to produce. Second, there is an awareness of that distortion and of the observer as a competent social actor in his/her own right.</blockquote>   
  
A problem with the conceptualization of habitus can be seen to enter in Bourdieu’s view of social life. In Bourdieu's focus on practices and habitus, they are neither objectively [[determinism|determined]] nor products of [[free will]]. Habitus are cultural structures that exist in people’s bodies and minds. Fields are sets of relations in the world. Through practices, fields condition habitus and habitus inform fields. Practices mediate between the inside and outside. But, habitus cannot be directly observed, and habitus are conditioned structures.  
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A problem with the conceptualization of ''habitus'' can be seen to enter in Bourdieu’s view of social life. In Bourdieu's focus on practices and ''habitus,'' they are neither objectively [[determinism|determined]] nor products of [[free will]]. ''Habitus'' are cultural structures that exist in people’s bodies and minds. Fields are sets of relations in the world. Through practices, fields condition ''habitus'' and ''habitus'' inform fields. Practices mediate between the inside and outside. But, ''habitus'' cannot be directly observed.  
  
In Bourdieu's theory, agency is not directly observable in practices or in the habitus, but only in the experience of subjectivity. Hence, some argue that Bourdieu’s project could be said to retain an objectivist bias from structuralism. Further, some critics charge that Bourdieu's habitus governs so much of an individual's social makeup that it significantly limits the concept of human agency. In Bourdieu's references to habitus it sometimes seems as if so much of an individual's disposition is predetermined by the social habitus that such pre-dispositions cannot be altered or left behind.
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In Bourdieu's theory, agency is not directly observable in practices or in the ''habitus,'' but only in the experience of subjectivity. Hence, some argue that Bourdieu’s project could be said to retain an objectivist bias from structuralism. Further, some critics charge that Bourdieu's ''habitus'' governs so much of an individual's social makeup that it significantly limits the concept of human agency. In Bourdieu's references to habitus it sometimes seems as if so much of an individual's disposition is predetermined by the social habitus that such pre-dispositions cannot be altered or left behind.
  
 
==Legacy==
 
==Legacy==
Pierre Bourdieu's obituary in ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper in the United Kingdom said Bourdieu "was, for many, the leading intellectual of present-day France... a thinker in the same rank as [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]], [[Roland Barthes|Barthes]] and [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]]."  
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Pierre Bourdieu's obituary in ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper in the United Kingdom said Bourdieu "was, for many, the leading intellectual of present-day France… a thinker in the same rank as [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]], [[Roland Barthes|Barthes]] and [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]]."  
  
His works have been translated into two dozen languages and have had an impact on the whole gamut of disciplines in the [[social science]]s and the [[humanities]]. Several works of his are considered classics, not only in [[sociology]], but also in [[anthropology]], [[education]], and cultural studies. ''Distinction:A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste'' was named as one of the twentieth century's ten most important works of sociology by the International Sociological Association. His book ''Outline of a Theory of Practice'' is among the most cited in the world. ''The Rules of Art'' has impacted the fields of sociology, [[history]], [[literature]], and [[aesthetics]].
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His works have been translated into two dozen languages and have had an impact on the whole gamut of disciplines in the [[social science]]s and the [[humanities]]. Several works of his are considered classics, not only in [[sociology]], but also in [[anthropology]], [[education]], and cultural studies. ''Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste'' was named as one of the twentieth century's ten most important works of sociology by the [[International Sociological Association]]. His book, ''Outline of a Theory of Practice'' is among the most cited in the world. ''The Rules of Art'' has impacted the fields of sociology, [[history]], [[literature]], and [[aesthetics]].
  
In France, Bourdieu was not seen as an "ivory tower" academic or "cloistered don," but as a passionate activist for those he believed subordinated by society. ''The Guardian'' reported that "[In 2003] a documentary film about Pierre Bourdieu &mdash; ''Sociology is a Combat Sport'' &mdash; became an unexpected hit in Paris. Its very title stressed how much of a politically engaged intellectual Bourdieu was, taking on the mantle of [[Emile Zola]] and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] in French public life, and slugging it out with politicians because he thought that was what people like him should do."
+
In France, Bourdieu was not seen as an "ivory tower" academic or "cloistered don," but as a passionate activist for those he believed subordinated by society. ''The Guardian'' reported that "[In 2003] a documentary film about Pierre Bourdieu&mdash;''Sociology is a Combat Sport''&mdash;became an unexpected hit in Paris. Its very title stressed how much of a politically engaged intellectual Bourdieu was, taking on the mantle of [[Emile Zola]] and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] in French public life, and slugging it out with politicians because he thought that was what people like him should do."
  
Bourdieu's work has continued to be influential, and sociologists such as Loïc Wacquant have persisted to apply his theoretical and methodological principles to subjects such as [[boxing]], employing what Bourdieu termed "participant objectivization," or what Wacquant calls "carnal sociology."
+
Bourdieu's work has continued to be influential, and sociologists such as Loïc Wacquant have persisted to apply his theoretical and methodological principles in what Wacquant calls "carnal sociology." Carnal sociology takes Bourdieu's conception of ''habitus'' as grounded in the body, and focuses on the importance of the body in the production and reproduction of social practices, while simultaneously recognizing the conditions under which the body takes its form.
  
== Bibliography ==
+
== Publications ==
 
Selected works:
 
Selected works:
  
* ''Les héritiers: les étudiants et la culture'' (1964), engl. The Inheritors: French Students and Their Relations to Culture, University of Chicago Press 1979
+
*1970. ''La Reproduction. Éléments pour une théorie du système d'enseignement''. Paris, France: Minuit. English 1990. With Jean-Claude Passeron ''Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture''. London:Sage. ISBN 0803983204
*Algeria 1960: The Disenchantment of the World: The Sense of Honour: The Kabyle House of the World Reversed: Essays, Cambridge Univ Press 1979
+
*1972. ''Esquisse d'une théorie de la pratique, précédé de trois études d'ethnologie kabyle''. English 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice''. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052129164X
* ''[[Esquisse d'une théorie de la pratique, précédé de trois études d'ethnologie kabyle]]'' (1972), engl. Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press 1977
+
*1979. ''La distinction''. English 1987. ''Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Reprint 2002. ISBN 0674212770
* ''[[La distinction]]'' (1979), engl. [[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BOUDIX.html Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Harvard University Press 1987]]
+
*1984. ''Homo Academicus'' Paris, France:Les Éditions de Minuit. English 1988. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804717982
*Homo Academicus, (French Edition) Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1984. (English Edition) Polity press 1990
+
*1987. ''Choses dites''. English 1990. ''In Other Words: Essays toward a Reflective Sociology''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804717257
*Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (Theory, Culture and Society Series), Sage, 1990, with Jean-Claude Passeron (in French: La Reproduction. Éléments pour une théorie du système d'enseignement, Minuit, 1970)
+
*1991. ''The Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804716986
*Choses dites, 1987 - In Other Words: Essays toward a Reflective Sociology, Stanford, 1990
+
*1992. ''The Logic of Practice''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804720118
*The Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger, Polity press 1991
+
*1992. ''An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology'' with Loic Wacquant. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226067416
*The Love of Art: European Art Museums and Their Public, Stanford University Press 1991
+
*1992. ''Les régles de l'art''. English 1996. ''Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804726272
*[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BOULAN.html Language  & Symbolic Power, Harvard University Press 1991], paperback edition, Polity press 1992
+
*1996. ''Photography: A Middle-Brow Art''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804726892
*An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology (with Loic Wacquant), University of Chicago Press and Polity press 1992
+
*1997. ''The Love of Art: European Art Museums and Their Public''. Polity Press. ISBN 0745619142
*Photography: A Middle-Brow Art, Stanford University Press 1996
+
*1998. ''Contre-Feux''. English 2003. ''Fighting Back: Against the Tyranny of the Market''. New Press. ISBN 1565847385
* Les régles de l'art, 1992 - Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field, Stanford University Press 1996
+
*1998. ''Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804733635
*(with Monique De Saint Martin, Jean-Claude Passeron),Academic Discourse: Linguistic Misunderstanding and Professorial Power, Polity Press 1996
+
*1998. ''La domination masculine''. English 2001. ''Masculine Domination''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804738203
*Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action, Stanford University Press 1998
+
*1999. ''The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804738459
* "La domination masculine" (1998), engl. Male Domination, Polity Press 2001
+
*1999. ''On Television''. New Press. ISBN 1565845129
*State nobility. Elite Schools in the Field of Power, Polity press 1998
+
*1999. ''Acts of Resistance: Against the Tyranny of the Market''. New Press. ISBN 1565845234
*Weight of the World. Social Suffering in Contemporary Society, Polity press 1999
+
*2000. ''Pascalian Meditations''. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804733325
*On Television, New Press 1999
+
*2000. ''State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power''. Polity Press. ISBN 0745620280
*Acts of Resistance: Against the Tyranny of the Market, New Press 1999
+
*2002. ''Science de la science et réflexivité''. English 2006.''Science of Science and Reflexivity''. Polity Press. ISBN 074563060X
*Pascalian Meditations, Polity press 2000
+
*2005. ''The Social Structures of the Economy''. Polity Press. ISBN 0745625401
*"Contre-Feux" (1998), engl. Counterfire: Against the Tyranny of the Market, Verso Books 2003
 
* "Science de la science et réflexivité" (2002), engl Science of Science and Reflexivity, Polity press 2004
 
*Interventions politiques (1960-2000). Textes & contextes d’un mode d’intervention politique spécifique, 2002
 
*The Social Structures of the Economy, Polity press 2005
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
*Calhoun, C. et al. (1992) "Pierre Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives." University of Chicago Press.
 
*Lane, J.F. (2000) ''Pierre Bourdieu. A Critical Introduction''.  Pluto Press.
 
*Wacquant, L. (2005) "Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics". Polity Press.
 
*Fowler, Bridget, ''Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory: Critical Investigations'' (London, California and New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997).
 
  
* Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice''. Cambridge University Press.  
+
* Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. ''Outline of a Theory of Practice''. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052129164X
* Elias, Norbert. ''The Civilizing Process''.  
+
* Calhoun, C. et al. 1993. ''Pierre Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226090930
* Jenkins, Richard. 1992. ''Pierre Bourdieu''. London: Routledge.  
+
* Elias, Norbert. 2000. ''The Civilizing Process''. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631221611
* Mauss, Marcel. 1934. "Les Techniques du corps",[http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/mauss_marcel/socio_et_anthropo/6_Techniques_corps/Techniques_corps.html] ''Journal de Psychologie'' 32 (3-4). Reprinted in Mauss, ''Sociologie et anthropologie'', 1936, Paris: PUF.
+
* Fowler, Bridget. 1997. ''Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory: Critical Investigations.'' London: Sage Publications. ISBN 0803976267
* MacLeod, Jay. 1995. ''Ain't No Makin' It''. Colorado: Westview Press, Inc.
+
* Jenkins, Richard. 1992. ''Pierre Bourdieu''. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415285275
 +
* Lande, Brian. 2005. [http://carnalsociology.org/concepts.html Bourdieu's Key Concepts: Habitus, Capital, Field.] Retrieved January 25, 2008.
 +
* Lane, Jeremy F. 2000 ''Pierre Bourdieu. A Critical Introduction''. Pluto Press. ISBN 0745315011
 +
* MacLeod, Jay. 2004. ''Ain't No Makin' It''. Colorado: Westview Press, Inc. ISBN 0813341876
 +
* Mauss, Marcel. 1934. [http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/mauss_marcel/socio_et_anthropo/6_Techniques_corps/Techniques_corps.html "Les Techniques du corps"] ''Journal de Psychologie'' 32 (3-4). Reprinted in Mauss, ''Sociologie et anthropologie'', 1936, Paris: PUF.
 +
* Wacquant, Loic. 2005. "Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics." Polity Press. ISBN 0745634885
  
 
== External links ==
 
== External links ==
Obituaries and biographical material
+
All links retrieved November 23, 2022.
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,640396,00.html Guardian obituary]
 
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bourd.htm Biography at Pegasos]
 
* [http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020218&s=pollitt The Nation remembrance]
 
* [http://www.homme-moderne.org/images/films/pcarles/socio/index.html La sociologie est un sport de combat] French Documentary by [[Pierre Carles]]
 
  
Other resources
+
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,640396,00.html Guardian obituary].
* [http://carnalsociology.org/concepts.html Bourdieu's Key Concepts: Habitus, Capital, Field] Introduction to Bourdieu's key concepts
+
* [http://www.homme-moderne.org/images/films/pcarles/socio/index.html La sociologie est un sport de combat] French Documentary by Pierre Carles.  
* [http://hyperbourdieu.jku.at/ HyperBourdieu@WorldCatalogue] - a multilingual bibliography
+
* [http://www.homme-moderne.org/societe/socio/bourdieu/mort/znet1802.html Comment] on Bourdieu and international crisis.
* [http://www.massey.ac.nz/~nzsrda/bourdieu/home.htm Bourdieu bibliography at Massey University]
 
* [http://les1.man.ac.uk/cric/Pdfs/DP65.pdf "Practice and field: Revising Bourdieusian concepts]
 
* [http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=6913 "End of the Line"] Review of ''Firing Back: Against the Tyranny of the Market'' by critic [[Mark Greif]] in [[The American Prospect]], (November 1, 2003)
 
* [http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/bourdieu/ Bourdieu articles] on [[neo-liberalism]] and globalisation
 
* [http://www.homme-moderne.org/societe/socio/bourdieu/mort/znet1802.html Comment] on Bourdieu and international crisis
 
  
 
{{Credit2|Pierre_Bourdieu|74159902|Habitus|73011311|}}
 
{{Credit2|Pierre_Bourdieu|74159902|Habitus|73011311|}}

Latest revision as of 05:19, 24 November 2022



Pierre Bourdieu (August 1, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was a French sociologist whose work employed methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines, from philosophy and literary theory, to sociology and anthropology. The most notable aspects of Bourdieu's theory concern the development of methodologies, combining both theory and empirical data that attempt to dissolve some of the most troublesome problems in theory and research and trying to reconcile such difficulties as how to understand the subject within objective structures (in the process, trying to reconcile structuralism with agency). Bourdieu also pioneered methodological frameworks and terminologies, such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of "habitus," "field," and "symbolic violence." Bourdieu's work emphasized the role of practice and embodiment in social dynamics. Bourdieu was an avid political activist, and a staunch opponent of modern forms of globalization. He saw sociology as a weapon against social oppression and injustice, commenting that "sociology is a combat sport insofar as it is used to defend against the domination of symbolic systems and the imposition of distorting categories of thought." In this way, Bourdieu used the weapons of the intellect to uncover mechanisms, heretofore unknown, that continue the separation and inequalities of different social groups, in his struggle for a better world for all.

Biography

Pierre Bourdieu was born on August 1, 1930, in Denguin, (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) in France, where his grandfather was a sharecropper and his father was a postman and later, a postmaster. He married Marie-Claire Brizard in 1962, and had three sons.

Bourdieu studied philosophy in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure. After achieving his agrégation, he worked as a teacher for a year. During the Algerian War of Independence in 1958-1962, and while serving in the French army, he undertook ethnographic research, laying the groundwork for his sociological reputation.

From 1964 on, Bourdieu held the position of Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, in the VIe section, the future Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and from 1981, the Chair of Sociology at the Collège de France (held before him by Raymond Aron, Maurice Halbwachs, and Marcel Mauss). In 1968, he took over the Centre de Sociologie Européenne that Aron had founded, the research center that he directed until his death.

In 1975, he launched the interdisciplinary journal Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, with which he sought to transform the accepted canons of sociological production while buttressing the scientific rigor of sociology. In 1993, he was honored with the Médaille d'or du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique|CNRS). In 1996, he received the Goffman Prize from the University of California at Berkeley and in 2002, the Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Work

Bourdieu's contributions to social theory were both empirical and theoretical. His work builds upon theories of phenomenologists such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edmund Husserl, as well as philosophers of science like Georges Canguilhem and Gaston Bachelard, and the sociology of Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim, among others. A notable influence on Bourdieu was Blaise Pascal after whom Bourdieu titled the book Pascalian Meditations. He is well known for his book, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, in which he tried to connect aesthetic judgments to positions in social space.

His key terms were habitus, field, and symbolic violence. He extended the idea of capital to categories such as social capital, cultural capital, and symbolic capital. For Bourdieu, an individual occupies a position in their "social space" and is defined not by social class, but by the amount of all kinds of capital they possess, and by the relative amounts symbolic, social, economic, and cultural capital account for.

He was also known as a politically engaged and active social scientist, who felt uncomfortable in the role of the intellectual, supporting workers against the influences of political elites and neoliberal capitalism. He was even considered the left's enemy of itself: the French Socialist party used to talk of la gauche bourdieusienne, their enemies on the left.

Some examples of his empirical results include:

  • showing that despite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (for example, classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly correlate with their social position
  • showing that subtleties of language such as accent, grammar, spelling, and style—all part of cultural capital—are a major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher paid, higher status job).

Bourdieu's work emphasized how social classes, especially the ruling and intellectual classes, reproduce themselves even under the pretense that society fosters social mobility—particularly through education.

Bourdieu was an extraordinarily prolific author of hundreds of articles and three dozen books, nearly all of which are now available in English. His style is dense in English translation, but he was considered an elegant and incisive writer both in France and in neighboring European countries other than England.

Theory of power and practice

At the center of Bourdieu's sociological work is a logic of practice that emphasizes the importance of the body and practices within the social world. Bourdieu stressed that mechanisms of social domination and reproduction were primarily focused on bodily know-how and competent practices in the social world. Bourdieu fiercely opposed Rational Action Theory as grounded in a misunderstanding of how social agents operate. Social agents do not, according to Bourdieu, continuously calculate according to explicit rational and economic criteria. Rather, social agents operate according to bodily know-how and practical dispositions. Social agents operate according to their "feel for the game" (the "feel" being, roughly, habitus, and the "game" being the field).

Field

Bourdieu shared Weber's view that society, contrary to traditional Marxism, cannot be analyzed simply in terms of economic classes and ideologies. Much of his work concerns the independent role of educational and cultural factors. Instead of analyzing societies in terms of classes, Bourdieu uses the concept of field: A social arena in which people maneuver and struggle in pursuit of desirable resources. A field is a system of social positions (for example, a profession such as the law) structured internally in terms of power relationships (consider the power differential between judges and lawyers). More specifically, a field is a social arena of struggle over the appropriation of certain species of capital.

The field of power is peculiar in that it exists "horizontally" through all of the fields and the struggles within it control the "exchange rate" of the forms of cultural, symbolic, or physical capital between the fields themselves. A field is constituted by the relational differences in position of social agents, and the boundaries of a field are demarcated by where its effects end. Different fields can be either autonomous or interrelated (e.g. the separation of power between judiciary and legislature) and more complex societies have more fields. Fields are constructed according to underlying nomos, the "law" that governs practices within a field. The principles underlying one field are often irreducible to those underlying another, as in the noted disparity between the nomos of the aesthetic field that values cultural capital and in some sense discourages economic capital, and that of the economic field which values economic capital. Agents subscribe to or participate in a particular field not by way of explicit contract, but by their practical acknowledgement of the stakes. The acknowledgement of the stakes of the field and the acquiring of interests and investments prescribed by the field is termed illusio.

Habitus

Bourdieu's influential concept of habitus was developed to resolve the paradox of the human sciences: Objectifying the subjective. It can be defined as a system of dispositions: Lasting, acquired schemes of perception, thought, and action, in Bourdieu's words, "appreciation, and action that result from the institution of the social in the body" (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992 :127). This connection between the objective and subjective is grounded in the physical body:

At the center of the notion of habitus is the corporeal scheme—the structure and capacities of our body—through which we learn by assimilating or modifying habits and dispositions. Through these bodily capacities and orientations agents are able to, in turn, engage with the world of others. This is a matter of the body because what is incorporated are motor skills and socially learned postural and gestural sets that create distinct forms of motility and perception (Lande 2005).

The individual agent develops these dispositions in response to the objective conditions they encounter, but they remain subjective things. In this way Bourdieu theorized the inculcation of objective social structures into the subjective, mental experience of agents.

Having thereby absorbed objective social structure into a personal set of cognitive and somatic dispositions, and the subjective structures of action of the agent then being commensurate with the objective structures of the social field, doxa emerge. Doxa are the fundamental, deep-founded, unthought beliefs, taken as self-evident, that inform an agent's actions and thoughts within a particular field. Doxa tends to favor the particular social arrangement of the field, thus privileging the dominant and taking their position of dominance as self-evident and universally favorable. Therefore, the categories of understanding and perception that constitute a habitus, being congruous with the objective organization of the field, tend to reproduce the very structures of the field. Bourdieu thus saw habitus as the key to social reproduction, because it is central to generating and regulating the practices that make up social life.

Symbolic capital and symbolic violence

Bourdieu saw symbolic capital (things such as prestige, honor, the right to be listened to) as a crucial source of power. Symbolic capital is any species of capital that is perceived through socially inculcated classificatory schemes. When a holder of symbolic capital uses the power, this confers against an agent who holds less, and seeks thereby to alter their actions, they exercise "symbolic violence." Symbolic violence is fundamentally the imposition of categories of thought and perception upon dominated social agents who then take the social order to be desirable. Symbolic violence is in some senses more powerful than physical violence, in that it is embedded in the very modes of action and structures of cognition of individuals and imposes the vision of the legitimacy of the social order.

In his theoretical writings, Bourdieu employed some economic terminology to analyze the processes of social and cultural reproduction, of how the various forms of capital tend to transfer from one generation to the next. For Bourdieu, education represents the key example of this process. Educational success, according to Bourdieu, entails a wide range of cultural behavior, extending to ostensibly non-academic features like gait or accent. Privileged children have learned this behavior, as have their teachers. Children of unprivileged backgrounds have not. The children of privilege, therefore, fit the pattern of their teachers' expectations with apparent ease; they are "docile." The unprivileged are found to be "difficult," to present "challenges." Yet both behave as their upbringing dictates. Bourdieu regards this ease, or natural ability—distinction—as in fact the product of a great social labor, largely on the part of the parents. It equips their children with the dispositions of manner as well as thought which ensure they are able to succeed within the educational system and can then reproduce their parents' class position in the wider social system.

Cultural capital (for example, competencies, skills, qualifications) can also be a source of misrecognition and symbolic violence. Therefore, working class children can come to see the educational success of their middle-class peers as always legitimate, seeing what is often class-based inequality as instead the result of hard work or even "natural" ability. A key part of this process is the transformation of people's symbolic or economic inheritance (e.g. accent or property) into cultural capital (e.g. university qualifications—a process which the logic of the cultural fields impedes but cannot prevent.

Reflexivity

Bourdieu insisted on the importance of a reflexive sociology, in which sociologists must at all times conduct their research with conscious attention to the effects of their own position, their own set of internalized structures, and how these are likely to distort or prejudice their objectivity. The sociologist, according to Bourdieu, must engage in a "sociology of sociology" so as not to unwittingly attribute the object of observation the characteristics of the subject. One must be cognizant of their own social positions within a field and recognize the conditions that both structure and make possible discourses, theories, and observations. A sociologist, therefore, must be aware of his or her own stakes and interests in the academic or sociological field and render explicit the conditions and structures of understanding that are implicitly imbued in his or her practices within those fields.

Bourdieu's conception of reflexivity, however, is not singular or narcissistic, but must involve the contribution of the entire sociological field. Sociological reflexivity is a collective endeavor, spanning the entire field and its participants, aimed at exposing the socially conditioned, subconscious structures that underlay the formulation of theories and perceptions of the social world.

Bourdieu asserted that there are specific social conditions of existence of a scientific field. Bourdieu's ideal scientific field is one that persistently designates upon its participants an interest or investment in objectivity.

Critique

The concept of habitus is foundational to Bourdieu’s theory of social research. Bourdieu combined a structuralist framework with close attention to subjectivity in social context. A key relationship in bridging objectivism and subjectivism in social research, for Bourdieu, is that between habitus and field via practices. To study the subjective-objective nature of social practices, the researcher may take on the perspectives of both research subject and observer in kind of double participant observation, which combines the objective study of the world with reflexive knowledge of the subject(s) of the study. The double objectification in his method is described by Jenkins (1992:50):

First, there is the work done in the act of observation and the objectification or distortion of social reality which it is likely to produce. Second, there is an awareness of that distortion and of the observer as a competent social actor in his/her own right.

A problem with the conceptualization of habitus can be seen to enter in Bourdieu’s view of social life. In Bourdieu's focus on practices and habitus, they are neither objectively determined nor products of free will. Habitus are cultural structures that exist in people’s bodies and minds. Fields are sets of relations in the world. Through practices, fields condition habitus and habitus inform fields. Practices mediate between the inside and outside. But, habitus cannot be directly observed.

In Bourdieu's theory, agency is not directly observable in practices or in the habitus, but only in the experience of subjectivity. Hence, some argue that Bourdieu’s project could be said to retain an objectivist bias from structuralism. Further, some critics charge that Bourdieu's habitus governs so much of an individual's social makeup that it significantly limits the concept of human agency. In Bourdieu's references to habitus it sometimes seems as if so much of an individual's disposition is predetermined by the social habitus that such pre-dispositions cannot be altered or left behind.

Legacy

Pierre Bourdieu's obituary in The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom said Bourdieu "was, for many, the leading intellectual of present-day France… a thinker in the same rank as Foucault, Barthes and Lacan."

His works have been translated into two dozen languages and have had an impact on the whole gamut of disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. Several works of his are considered classics, not only in sociology, but also in anthropology, education, and cultural studies. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste was named as one of the twentieth century's ten most important works of sociology by the International Sociological Association. His book, Outline of a Theory of Practice is among the most cited in the world. The Rules of Art has impacted the fields of sociology, history, literature, and aesthetics.

In France, Bourdieu was not seen as an "ivory tower" academic or "cloistered don," but as a passionate activist for those he believed subordinated by society. The Guardian reported that "[In 2003] a documentary film about Pierre Bourdieu—Sociology is a Combat Sport—became an unexpected hit in Paris. Its very title stressed how much of a politically engaged intellectual Bourdieu was, taking on the mantle of Emile Zola and Jean-Paul Sartre in French public life, and slugging it out with politicians because he thought that was what people like him should do."

Bourdieu's work has continued to be influential, and sociologists such as Loïc Wacquant have persisted to apply his theoretical and methodological principles in what Wacquant calls "carnal sociology." Carnal sociology takes Bourdieu's conception of habitus as grounded in the body, and focuses on the importance of the body in the production and reproduction of social practices, while simultaneously recognizing the conditions under which the body takes its form.

Publications

Selected works:

  • 1970. La Reproduction. Éléments pour une théorie du système d'enseignement. Paris, France: Minuit. English 1990. With Jean-Claude Passeron Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London:Sage. ISBN 0803983204
  • 1972. Esquisse d'une théorie de la pratique, précédé de trois études d'ethnologie kabyle. English 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052129164X
  • 1979. La distinction. English 1987. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Reprint 2002. ISBN 0674212770
  • 1984. Homo Academicus Paris, France:Les Éditions de Minuit. English 1988. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804717982
  • 1987. Choses dites. English 1990. In Other Words: Essays toward a Reflective Sociology. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804717257
  • 1991. The Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804716986
  • 1992. The Logic of Practice. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804720118
  • 1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology with Loic Wacquant. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226067416
  • 1992. Les régles de l'art. English 1996. Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804726272
  • 1996. Photography: A Middle-Brow Art. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804726892
  • 1997. The Love of Art: European Art Museums and Their Public. Polity Press. ISBN 0745619142
  • 1998. Contre-Feux. English 2003. Fighting Back: Against the Tyranny of the Market. New Press. ISBN 1565847385
  • 1998. Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804733635
  • 1998. La domination masculine. English 2001. Masculine Domination. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804738203
  • 1999. The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804738459
  • 1999. On Television. New Press. ISBN 1565845129
  • 1999. Acts of Resistance: Against the Tyranny of the Market. New Press. ISBN 1565845234
  • 2000. Pascalian Meditations. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804733325
  • 2000. State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power. Polity Press. ISBN 0745620280
  • 2002. Science de la science et réflexivité. English 2006.Science of Science and Reflexivity. Polity Press. ISBN 074563060X
  • 2005. The Social Structures of the Economy. Polity Press. ISBN 0745625401

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052129164X
  • Calhoun, C. et al. 1993. Pierre Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226090930
  • Elias, Norbert. 2000. The Civilizing Process. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631221611
  • Fowler, Bridget. 1997. Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory: Critical Investigations. London: Sage Publications. ISBN 0803976267
  • Jenkins, Richard. 1992. Pierre Bourdieu. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415285275
  • Lande, Brian. 2005. Bourdieu's Key Concepts: Habitus, Capital, Field. Retrieved January 25, 2008.
  • Lane, Jeremy F. 2000 Pierre Bourdieu. A Critical Introduction. Pluto Press. ISBN 0745315011
  • MacLeod, Jay. 2004. Ain't No Makin' It. Colorado: Westview Press, Inc. ISBN 0813341876
  • Mauss, Marcel. 1934. "Les Techniques du corps" Journal de Psychologie 32 (3-4). Reprinted in Mauss, Sociologie et anthropologie, 1936, Paris: PUF.
  • Wacquant, Loic. 2005. "Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics." Polity Press. ISBN 0745634885

External links

All links retrieved November 23, 2022.

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