Bourdieu's Field Theory Research Articles

A study on the applicability of P. Bourdieu's field and habitus theory to the school and the teachers

A study on the applicability of P. Bourdieu's field and habitus theory to the school and the teachers

Cultural Uniqueness and Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism

Aesthetic cosmopolitanism is conceptualized here as a cultural condition in which late modern ethno-national cultural uniqueness is associated with contemporary cultural forms like film and pop-rock music, and as such it is produced from within the national framework. The social production of aesthetic cosmopolitanism is analyzed through elaborations on Bourdieu's field theory, as an outcome of the intersection of and interplay between global fields of art and fields of national culture. A sociological explanation for the emergence of aesthetic cosmopolitanism is proposed. It focuses on claims by social sectors within national contexts for status and recognition of their own contemporary cultural uniqueness.

‘Inhabiting’ the translator's Habitus: Antjie Krog as translator

Drawing on the Bourdieusian concept of habitus and its applicability in the field of translation, this article discusses Antjie Krog's profile in the practice of translation in South Africa. Bourdieu's conceptualisation of the relationship between the initiating activities of translators and the structures which constrain and enable them has proved useful for addressing the reproductive or transformative potential of acts of translation within particular socio‐historical contexts. The impact of the translator (ie. Krog) and the complex of networks in which she operates – the production and reproduction of textual and discursive practices in (the) literary system(s) in particular – form the basis of this study. Within the frameworks of Bourdieu's cultural field theory and polysystem theory (considering the differences between, in my view, semi‐compatible frameworks), my contention is that Krog's profile as translator is informed by her position as canonised poet and renowned writer in South Africa and internationally. To what extent her habitus as translator differs from or corresponds with her habitus as writer is therefore addressed, in addition to the position her translations as cultural products in a cultural repertoire hold within the Afrikaans and English literary systems (or fields) in South Africa respectively.

The making of the global gambling industry: An application and extension of field theory

The past two decades have seen a global convergence from gambling prohibition to legalization, but also a divergence regarding how new gambling industries are structured and regulated. This article compares two cases of casino legalization exhibiting different and, given conventional understandings of the two countries, unexpected outcomes. In the United States, ethnic entrepreneurs (Indian tribes) were granted a monopoly on casinos in California; in South Africa, the new ANC government legalized a competitive, corporate casino industry. Through explaining these disparate industry structurings, two arguments are advanced. First, Bourdieu's field theory best describes the interests and strategies of industry “players” as they attempted to shape policy. Second, Bourdieu neglects the independent role of institutions in mediating between field-level dynamics and concrete regulatory outcomes. In California, Tribes converted economic into political capital through a public election. In South Africa, the ANC used a centralized commission to implement corporate gambling over public opposition, in essence converting political into economic capital. By viewing policy domains as “dramaturgical prisms” whose sign–production tools and audiences facilitate certain but not other capital conversion projects, I both explain unexpected regulatory outcomes and synthesize field and political process theories.

News Media as a “Journalistic Field”: What Bourdieu Adds to New Institutionalism, and Vice Versa

Bourdieu's field theory and the new institutionalism of Cook and Sparrow are similar in that they call for a new unit of analysis for journalism studies: between the individual news organization and the society as a whole, the “mezzo-level” interorganizational and professional environment of the field/institution. Bourdieu's focus on competition and difference, rooted in processes of cultural and economic class distinctions both among audiences and cultural producers, supplements the new institutionalist emphasis on homogeneity; moreover, Bourdieu's emphasis on a professional or intellectual autonomy (however limited) of journalists as a collective body, elided in new institutionalist accounts, remains an essential element of any thorough media analysis. Conversely, new institutionalists' greater attention to the state as a partially autonomous influence on the journalistic field helps fill a crucial gap in Bourdieu's model. Both approaches could be improved by adopting a broader view and analyzing effects on news content and form of variations in national journalistic fields (and field configurations)—in particular the organizational/spatial ecology of journalistic competition, and the cultural inertia of professional traditions rooted in contingent historical processes of field formation.

TheiemotoSystem and the Avant-Gardes in the Japanese Artistic Field: Bourdieu's Field Theory in Comparative Perspective

The conceptual framework of ‘field’ proposed by Pierre Bourdieu and his model of the literary and artistic fields in nineteenth-century France are widely applied to studies of the development of the literary and artistic fields in other regions and the fields of other cultural practices. These researches, while showing similarities to Bourdieu's model, reveal the distinct forms of nomos which those different fields developed through localised contingencies. In other words, their findings highlight the cultural specificity of the cases on which Bourdieu's field theory is based. The main purpose of this paper is to argue that the field theory can be beneficially applied to cross-cultural cases provided that its culturally specific elements are clearly identified. For this purpose, I focus on one particular aspect associated with the nomos of Bourdieu's model – the orientation toward autonomy – to argue for its cultural specificity, which becomes clearer when it is compared to a distinct case of the artistic field in early-twentieth-century Japan. My case study shows that the Japanese artistic field did not develop the same form of autonomy as Bourdieu's model, but it also discloses the processes in which a certain form of nomos was shaped through the struggles between the artistic field and other fields.

Change in the field—changing the field: Bourdieu and the methodological practice of educational research

Bourdieu's social theory offers a way of understanding some of the most important features of the field of educational research, while also providing educational researchers with a rich conceptual apparatus for their practice. This article addresses both of these methodological themes and the connections between them. We begin by outlining some key trends in educational research, mainly in Britain, over recent decades in terms of Bourdieu's Field Theory. Special attention is given to the relative positioning of researchers and the formation of an ‘avant‐garde’. We refer to the impact of educational policy and attacks on educational research, with attendant effects on the field, and on the formation and legitimacy of knowledge about educational processes. This analysis is followed by an example taken from a contemporary research project in which principles derived from Bourdieu's approach have been adopted in framing methodology. We give particular attention to the terms of the programme in which the project forms a part, and key aspects of it such as ‘user engagement’. Both methodological justifications and consequences are discussed, as well as tensions with dominant expectations of research processes and outcomes. Finally, we argue that, following Bourdieu's own public strategies of sociopolitical action, educational research methodology that is radically reflexive has the capacity to found a critically effective discourse with practical consequences.

Fields and networks: correspondence analysis and social network analysis in the framework of field theory

Pierre Bourdieu advocated relational thinking and a relational methodology. Nevertheless, he rejected social network analysis as a suitable technique for analyzing fields and he prescribed correspondence analysis. There are no fundamental technical differences between the two methods: social network analysis can produce spatial diagrams that are very similar to correspondence maps. Bourdieu's problem with network analysis concerns the kind of relations that should be analyzed: objective relations instead of the interpersonal relations usually studied in social network analysis. This paper discusses the differences between the two types of relations and it argues that interpersonal relations mediate and transform the effect of objective relations. Network analysis is needed for investigating this process, which may help to further integrate Bourdieu's field theory and theory of practice.