A Four-Step Process to Studying the Field through the City of London

Abstract

This paper introduces a four-step process to studying field that, in unpacking the field of finance and the City of London, offers a theoretical and methodological resource of Bourdieu's field analysis. The task of identifying and exploring the field is concerned with how social relations are positioned within a spatial metaphor that leads to a conceptual vision of a social reality (Harquinet et al., 2012). Developing on this, this paper presents a visual construction of a social space that, in the context of urban analysis, lends itself directly to mapping a conceptual visualisation of a social space in order to both explore and evaluate the underlying and hidden framework of action that constructs and shapes social experience.This piece is my first submission from my doctoral thesis which I am hoping to get published. It is taken from my first empirical chapter, using a range of non-participant observation, photographic representation and in-depth interview analysis. The primary focus of this chapter however is on the first two, using Bourdieu's field analysis as a lens to unpack my argument. As my first submission any positive or constructive feedback would be most appreciated.