The Last Straw: A Bourdieusian Analysis of Motherhood, Mental Health, and Institutional Violence in Tyler Perry's 2025 Film, Straw

The compiled volume Childhood with Bourdieu, published in the Palgrave series ‘Studies in Childhood and Youth’, sets out to contribute to the literature in the field of sociology of childhood, pursuing the genuinely sociological concern of relating ‘private troubles’ and ‘public issues’. The introduction by the book's editors laying out Bourdieu's main concepts is followed by nine chapters written by authors from a variety of different backgrounds. This purposeful mix is one of the great strengths of this collection, as the array of perspectives makes for an interesting and inspiring read. That the chapter authors read and commented on each other's writings, as opposed to only the editors commenting, makes it an example of a rather rare collaborative, and more than usually equitable, working style. The studies presented in these chapters cover different corners of the world and explore a broad range of themes related to children and young people such as early childhood education, children's support networks, the commuting trajectories of adolescents and welfare services for children. The case studies focus narrowly on the application of Bourdieu's concepts in an affirmative manner, that is their usefulness is confirmed as opposed to being discussed or examined. Three chapters of the collection present themselves as particularly worthwhile reading: Brooker's exploration of UK government policy aimed at alleviating inequality by means of targeted intervention, and of possible reasons for the reproduction of inequality in spite of them, is one of these. Her special interests are differences in cultural capital and their relationship with inequality. She also raises important questions about measuring cultural capital adequately, taking a stance in favour of ethnographic approaches. Another study deserving particular mentioning is Vuorisalo and Alanen's microscopic view of power relationships among preschool children in Finland, focussing on child–child and child–teacher interaction. Conversation is considered as both a relevant practice and as a particular type of capital which, combined, contribute significantly to structuring the social hierarchy in the setting. The authors suggest that this has repercussions on the habitus the children develop and a knock-on effect on how they will navigate life beyond and after the preschool. The merit of this chapter is that it makes existing power relationships visible among children who do not normally receive much attention. André and Hilgers’ chapter on children working in artisanal mining in sub-Saharan Africa asks how children are conceptualised in development discourses, whether these understandings are sensitive in the respective specific environment, and what kind of repercussions these conceptualisations have on the ground. The main theoretical concept supporting the analysis of mechanisms of domination is symbolic violence. The relevance of this chapter lies in its contributions to discussions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it can certainly enrich. That Bourdieu's complex theoretical framework and its main concepts are well explained makes the book accessible to readers who have little or no prior knowledge of this particular sociological theory. However, a perhaps inevitable limitation of a compiled volume in this format is the partial overlaps and repetitions, as extensive explanations are provided in the introduction and then again by chapter authors, although with slight variations. This might have been prevented by including a separate section setting out theoretical concepts, to which chapter authors then referred. A by-product of this strategy would have been that authors had more space at their disposal for presenting their data material and developing their arguments. Notwithstanding this criticism, this collection of articles is long overdue, since the writings of Reay and Connolly have already demonstrated that Bourdieu's concepts can be useful analytical tools to achieve a better understanding of children's lifeworlds and lived experiences. The content of some of the chapters is particularly relevant for those working with children and young people, and two of the chapters should be particularly appealing to the staff of NGOs operating in the context of childhood and development. However, the overall writing style and wording confirm that academics are the main target audience. The book will appeal to scholars with a primary interest in Bourdieu and the theoretical framework he developed, as well as those seeking to explore the broader circumstances in which children and young people live and interact. It is worth mentioning that in spite of the book's title suggesting a narrow focus on childhood, it can speak to scholars in both childhood and youth studies. Postgraduate students intending to use Bourdieu's concepts to frame their first major pieces of empirical work will find excellent examples in some of the chapters of how to intertwine data material and theoretical concepts in a lively, readable manner, as well as helpful indications for further reading.

On Pierre Bourdieu<i>Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture.</i>Pierre Bourdieu , Jean-Claude Passeron , Richard Nice<i>Outline of a Theory of Practice.</i>Pierre Bourdieu , Richard Nice

The purpose of the article is to uncover the potential of symbolic violence in the religious sphere on the basis of an analysis of P. Bourdieu's social space concept. The achievement of the goal involves solutions for the following tasks: a) to determine the peculiarities of the rivalry of religious relations subjects for domination in the religious field; b) to find out the impact specifics of the symbolic resource depending on the religious interests and needs of individuals. The theoretical basis of the study is based on P. Bourdieu's concept of social space, which is built around the triad "field" – "capital" – "habitus". The basis of symbolic violence in the religious field is, on the one hand, the competition for monopoly on symbolic capital, on the other, the laity's demand for religious needs and the supply of capital by religious instances – individuals or instituts. Religious habitus determines the nature, form and effectiveness of strategies that may involve religious authorities to the activities distribution for the satisfaction of their own religious interests. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is the understanding of the rivalry of agents of the religious field for the possession of symbolic capital as a struggle for recognition by other entities, as well as by laity as consumers of religious services. Social recognition is seen as a vital need of individuals, rooted in the intersubjective conditions of their activity and dependent on the approving reactions of an entourage. Within the religious field, symbolic violence unfolds depending on the individuals' or instituts' position in the structure of the religious power distribution, as well as the nature of competition for the monopoly on the production and disposal of religious capital. Religious capital acts as a tool of domination, which allows to commit symbolic violence in the religious sphere by imposing senses, meanings, norms, rules. Consequently, practices of symbolic violence function in the form of introducing into the habitus of individuals perceptions of the social world based on religious values. The rivalry of participants in the struggle for monopoly ownership of symbolic capital in the religious field of – a "church", a "prophet" and a "sorcerer" – is accompanied by the establishment of religious pluralism and a free "religions market".

In this paper, we draw on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of ‘misrecognition’, ‘condescension’ and ‘consent and complicity’ to demonstrate how domination and violence are reproduced in everyday interactions, social practices, institutional processes and dispositions. Importantly, this constitutes symbolic violence, which removes the victim's agency and voice. Indeed, we argue that as symbolic violence is impervious, insidious and invisible, it also simultaneously legitimises and sustains other forms of violence as well. Understanding symbolic violence together with traditional discourses of violence is important because it provides a richer insight into the ‘workings’ of violence, and provides new ways of conceptualising violence across a number of social fields and new strategies for intervention. Symbolic violence is a valuable tool for understanding contentious debates on the disclosure of violence, women leaving or staying in abusive relationships or returning to their abusers. While we focus only on violence against women, we recognise that the gendered nature of violence produces its own sets of vulnerabilities against men and marginalised groups, such as LGBT. The paper draws on empirical research conducted in Sweden in 2003. Sweden is an interesting case study because despite its progressive gender equality policies, there has been no marked decrease in violence towards women by men.

In a society with such strong patriarchal power it is not uncommon to cause a variety of gender polemics. Starting from the distinction of rights between men and women. Different job opportunities between men and women. Until domestic affairs are left entirely to women. These actions ultimately lead women to face symbolic violence. Symbolic violence is the result or form of gender discrimination and the perpetuation of patriarchal culture. The problem of symbolic violence is raised in the mass media, one of which is the novel Kim Ji-yeong born in 1982 by Cho Nam-joo. The Novel depicts a series of symbolic violent polemics received by women as a child, mother, wife, and employee in the company. This study uses a qualitative research approach by analyzing the discourse of symbolic violence obtained through the texts in the novel. In line with Pierre Bourdieu's concept of power domination, the analysis focused on the aspect of language that represented symbolic violence. The results explain that symbolic violence occurs because of the dominance of power from the parties who have higher capital.

The use of Pierre Bourdieu's distinction concepts in scientific articles studying food and eating: A narrative review

Durkheim's classical theory of suicide rates being a negative index of social solidarity downplays the salience of gendered concerns in suicide. But gendered inequalities have had a negative impact: worldwide significantly more men than women perpetrate fatal suicides. Drawing on narratives of 52 fatal suicides in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, this article suggests that Bourdieu's concepts of 'symbolic violence' and 'masculine domination' provide a more appropriate framework for understanding this paradox. I show that the thwarting of investments in dominant masculine positions have been the major precursor to suicides by men. Men tended to take their own lives as a means of escape. By contrast, women perpetrated suicide to protest against the miserable consequences of being dominated by men. However, contra the assumption of Bourdieu's concept of 'habitus', the narrators of suicide stories did reflect critically upon gender constructs.

This paper explores two significant concepts of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological framework: ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘misrecognition’. Symbolic violence’ refers to the imposition of systems of meaning and value that serve the interests of the dominant groups in society, leading to cultural and social domination where the dominated individuals or classes internalise these norms as legitimate Misrecognition’ highlights how societies perpetuate inequalities and preserve power structures by disguising them as normal or legitimate. The paper aims to provide illustrative examples of mechanisms that reproduce the status quo and examine the role of translation in countering the inequality produced by symbolic violence. Examples from education, gender, and family contexts demonstrate the interrelation between Bourdieu's concepts and offer insights into the reproduction and maintenance of power and social hierarchies.

There are various processes in daily life, such as invisible violence, structural, symbolic or normalised violence, which sustain the domination of one group against another. Pierre Bourdieu, from the analysis of power and domination and their social reproduction in modern societies, introduced the concept of symbolic power and violence. Symbolic power is the power to impose on the minds the idea of ​​world and social order and the social divisions based on race, religion, ethnicity or gender are legitimate and natural. Symbolic violence is realized through cognitive structures, which are our legitimate and natural assumptions, perception, thought and action frames shared by all members of our social world. Thus, symbolic violence encompasses all acts of domination and subjugation and hierarchies, which are also acts of cognition and recognition. The domination of women was realized by the establishment of a patriarchal society and state order. Without resorting to direct violence, it is seen that the codes related to the social world play an active role in sustaining symbolic violence against women, symbolic patriarchal power and domination through common perception frameworks such as education system and religion. In this article, the anthropological and sociological development of the phenomenon of honour as a form of symbolic violence normalizing the sexual control of women, and honour killings as a form of direct violence against women in the context of Turkey are examined.

Forced migrant women experience high levels of violence across their journeys and violence can be characterised as having three overarching forms: structural, symbolic, and interpersonal. It is important to understand the intersecting nature of gendered forms of symbolic, structural and interpersonal violence, and their impact on the mental health of forced migrant women in order to develop holistic IPV and resettlement programs and interventions. This article adopts an ecological framework of violence and qualitative methods with mental health service providers and survivors of IPV to understand the intersections of different forms of violence and their impact on mental health as they relate to the lived experiences of Arabic-speaking forced migrant survivors currently residing in Melbourne, Australia. Our research has three key findings: (1) that forced migrant women living in Melbourne, Australia experience intersecting forms of violence during resettlement (2) Structural and symbolic violence against forced migrant women persists regardless of marital status (3) Autonomy and independence plays a vital role in the mental health and wellbeing of forced migrant women. Our findings reveal that structural and symbolic violence increase the risk of IPV for forced migrant women during resettlement and that even when forced migrant women leave IPV situations, structural and symbolic violence persist and exacerbate mental ill-health. This article also reveals the importance autonomy and independence in both the perpetration of violence and in healing and recovery.

When language is used in communication events, there also as an ideological distiction and a desire to dominate each other among its users. Because language is never separated from ideological motives, including domination motives. Domination occurs due to the existence of a strong group as the dominating party and a weak group as the dominated party with language as an instrument to achieve it. Symbolic violence marked by language forms that represent language crimes is a realization of the practice of domination. Through symbolic violence, the dominant party imposes its ideological influence on the dominant group. The practice of domination through symbolic violence can be found in the dialogue text of the antagonist in the film Better Days《少年的你》by Derek Tsang which is used as a data source. The patterned language forms used by the antagonist to attack the main character are used as data. After the data is identified and classified, it is analyzed through a qualitative approach using the concept of Bourdieu's theory of symbolic violence. The results of the analysis are presented through a descriptive method to obtain a detailed and concrete picture of the practice of domination of antagonist characters through symbolic violence. The results of the analysis show that symbolic violence, which represents the practice of domination, is realized through forms of language that have functioned as the language of punishment, the language of intimidation, the language of prohibition, the language of accusation, the language of insults, and language of command. Cultural capital (attitudes and lifestyles) is the most dominant capital that represents the attitudes and behavior of antagonists to produce and reproduce texts to legitimize their domination. Based on the frequency of occurrence, forbidden language is the most productive form of language, and accusation language is the language form with the least frequency of occurrence.

When language is used in communication events, there also as an ideological distiction and a desire to dominate each other among its users. Because language is never separated from ideological motives, including domination motives. Domination occurs due to the existence of a strong group as the dominating party and a weak group as the dominated party with language as an instrument to achieve it. Symbolic violence marked by language forms that represent language crimes is a realization of the practice of domination. Through symbolic violence, the dominant party imposes its ideological influence on the dominant group. The practice of domination through symbolic violence can be found in the dialogue text of the antagonist in the film Better Days《少年的你》by Derek Tsang which is used as a data source. The patterned language forms used by the antagonist to attack the main character are used as data. After the data is identified and classified, it is analyzed through a qualitative approach using the concept of Bourdieu's theory of symbolic violence. The results of the analysis are presented through a descriptive method to obtain a detailed and concrete picture of the practice of domination of antagonist characters through symbolic violence. The results of the analysis show that symbolic violence, which represents the practice of domination, is realized through forms of language that have functioned as the language of punishment, the language of intimidation, the language of prohibition, the language of accusation, the language of insults, and language of command. Cultural capital (attitudes and lifestyles) is the most dominant capital that represents the attitudes and behavior of antagonists to produce and reproduce texts to legitimize their domination. Based on the frequency of occurrence, forbidden language is the most productive form of language, and accusation language is the language form with the least frequency of occurrence.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the effectiveness of Pierre Bourdieu's sociological theory and encourage more holistic use of his concepts of habitus, capital, field, and symbolic violence in leisure research. We briefly review the manner in which leisure researchers have utilized Bourdieu's work. Second, we apply Bourdieu's notions of habitus, capital, field, and symbolic violence to understand inequitable participation in hunting activities in American society. We conclude by offering recent issues in recreational hunting and recommendations for practitioners based on interpretations of Bourdieu's concepts.

This article theoretically discusses Arlie Hochschild's (1983, 1998) concept of the ‘real’ and ‘false’ self (1983: 194) and how this holds together her model about how it is we manage our emotions. Hochschild draws on ideas about surface acting, deep acting and authenticity to support her theory of emotion management. In this discussion I argue that these ideas undermine the clarity of the theoretical model Hochschild tries to develop to explain emotion management. The first aim here is to demonstrate that this concept of the real and false self acts as an unnecessary conceptual linchpin making Hochschild's ideas about emotion management opaque. The second aim in this article is to theoretically engage with Pierre Bourdieu's (1984, 1990) concept of habitus as a way of overcoming Hochschild's idea of the real and false self.

This article examines the discursive construction and application of concepts of sustainable communities in relation to planning for housing in rural England, highlighting the role of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and the (now abolished) regional planning bodies. The paper draws on Lukes' 'third dimension' of power (language use) and Bourdieu's concept of 'symbolic violence'. It suggests that an 'unholy alliance' of rural elites and urban interests have wielded discursive power to define 'sustainability' on their own terms, which exacerbates the unaffordability of rural housing, leading to social injustice and spatial exclusion.