Bourdieu's Model Research Articles

Building women's social capital in Late Antique Egypt: business owners and civic administrators

Women as a social category have been the subject of numerous recent studies considering their lived experience in the Late Antique and Byzantine Mediterranean. However, their representation in the narrative sources continues to shape modern reconstructions of women's agency within their social and economic contexts, often with unsatisfactory results. Building on the twentieth-century sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's model of social capital, this article will use the documentary papyri from Egypt to suggest a paradigm in which the agency of individual women can be viewed and incorporated into micro-historical narratives of the patriarchal society of Late Antiquity.

What cultural hierarchy? Cultural tastes, status and inequality.

Research on cultural stratification often draws on Bourdieu's misrecognition model to interpret socioeconomic gradients in cultural tastes and participation. In this model, an assumed cultural hierarchy leads individuals to adopt cultural tastes and behaviours whose status is congruent with that of their socioeconomic position (SEP). Yet, this assumed cultural hierarchy remains opaque. In this paper, we derive and test three empirical implications of the cultural hierarchy: (1) cultural activities have different status (recognition); (2) individuals in high and low SEPs have similar perceptions of the status of cultural activities (necessary condition for misrecognition); and (3) individuals prefer and engage in cultural activities whose status matches that of their SEP (status congruence). We collected survey data in Denmark and find that cultural activities differ in terms of perceived status (e.g., opera has higher perceived status than flea market), status perceptions are similar in high- and low-SEP groups and individuals prefer activities whose status matches that of their SEP. These results are consistent with the idea that a cultural hierarchy exists that sustains SEP gradients in cultural tastes and participation.

Distinctions in the making: A theoretical discussion of youth and cultural capital.

The aim of this paper is to address the dynamics of contemporary cultural capital by interrogating what counts for young people as valuable cultural resources. Considerable support is given in later scholarship for Bourdieu's model of the social space, as the overall volume of economic and cultural capital combined is regularly found to be the most important axis of opposition, just as in Bourdieu's work Distinction. Yet, while Bourdieu found the second axis to be structured by an opposition between those with cultural rather than economic capital, and vice versa, many later studies instead find oppositions between the young and the old to structure the second axis. Up till now, this finding has not been adequately addressed. In this paper, we hold that considering age-related inequalities offers a powerful way of interpreting recent developments in order to understand the changing stakes of cultural capital, and also their interaction with the intensification of inequalities in economic capital. After a theoretical clarification of the relationship between cultural capital and youth, we will synthesise research on young people and explore the significance of youthful cultural consumption. We will pragmatically focus on the 15-30years old and put a particular accent on Norwegian studies in our review, as they are the most sophisticated in this genre. Four areas are explored: the restricted role of classical culture; the appeal of popular culture; digital distinctions, and moral-political positions as markers of distinction.

Is there a model for symbolic revolution? Bourdieu’s theory in Manet and a comparison with a case study: the Generation of 1914 in Spain

The courses that Bourdieu dedicates to Manet help to better understand the link between cultural production, political position and social trajectory. Nevertheless, Bourdieu does not always fully clarify his position. In this article, first we will clarify what Bourdieu considers to be a model for symbolic revolutions. To do so, Manet's courses are revisited and their links with Bourdieu’s work in general and, more specifically, with his sociology of philosophy are made explicit. After that, we will examine Bourdieu's assertions about scholasticism or academicism in the sociology of culture, its importance in symbolic revolutions, and how his proposal encourages a specific view on the history of cultural productions, especially the philosophical ones. Then, Bourdieu's model of symbolic revolution will be tested by comparing it with a study with statistical treatment of data in a different and significant historical context: the Generation of ‘14 in Spain. Finally, we will propose some nuances and developments to Bourdieu's model based on the conclusions of that study.

‘Bestseller’ is no longer a rude word: negotiating the art/commerce balance by Czech fiction publishers

In this paper, I focus on how major fiction publishers renegotiate the art/commerce balance in the contemporary Czech literary field and I discuss their strategies in terms of conservative and progressive variants of rules of art and rules of commerce. I show that Czech publishers face many similar challenges known from the global literary field: they feel the field is getting faster, tighter, and more money-driven. Their responses still may be specific given the differences in historical development and culture they act within. In these conditions, new aspects of shifting literary rules may emerge. Thus, the paper contributes to the discussion on the shifting and blending rules in literary fields nowadays. The study is based on Bourdieu's theoretical model of the literary field and works with 24 semi-structured interviews with publishing professionals from houses that produce fiction of various types – highbrow, commercial, Czech, and translated – and that are of sizes from small to mid-sized to large. The research was conducted from 2010-16.

Women entrepreneurs in tourism in a time of a life event crisis

Female entrepreneurship drives tourism development in resource-scarce destinations but little is known about why local women engage in business and what determines their success in a time of a life event crisis. This knowledge is important as it can support policies on regional regeneration and poverty alleviation. This study draws upon the Bourdieu's model of practice with its notions of capital, agents, field, and habitus to examine the experiences of women running tourism enterprises in a destination with the legacy of an anthropogenic environmental disaster, the Aral Sea region. Semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs in Uzbekistan (n = 18) and Kazakhstan (n = 15) showcase prevalence of the necessity-based and extrinsic motivations in a time of crisis. Interviews also demonstrate the importance of social capital women entrepreneurs built with such agents of entrepreneurial practice as family, friends, policymakers, employees, and competitors. The original contribution of the study is in revealing how local cultural traditions reinforce various types of capital, strengthen the field of knowledge, and shape habitus of women entrepreneurs in critical times. Another original contribution is in highlighting how the experience of past life event crises has aided in psychological coping of women tourism entrepreneurs during COVID-19.

Place of alcohol in the 'wellness toolkits' of midlife women in different social classes: A qualitative study in South Australia.

In this article, we explore how women in different social classes had differential access to resources and services to enhance their 'wellness'-resulting in classed roles in alcohol consumption. We analyse data from a qualitative study on alcohol by midlife women in South Australia and employ the analogy of a 'toolkit' in order to understand the structural patterning of 'wellness tools'. Bourdieu's relational model of class guides our exploration of women's inequitable opportunities for wellness. Higher social class women had 'choices' facilitated by bulging wellness toolkits, such as yoga, exercise and healthy eating regimens-alcohol consumption was not essential to promoting 'wellness' and did not have an important place in their toolkits. Middle-class women had less well-stocked toolkits and consumed alcohol in a 'compensation approach' with other wellness tools. Alcohol consumption received positive recognition and was a legitimised form of enjoyment, fun and socialising, which needed counterbalancing with healthy activities. Working-class women had sparse toolkits-other than alcohol-which was a tool for dealing with life's difficulties. Their focus was less on 'promoting wellness' and more on 'managing challenging circumstances'. Our social class-based analysis is nestled within the sociology of consumption and sociological critiques of the wellness industry.

The structure of food taste in 21st century Britain

This paper draws on the concepts and tools of Pierre Bourdieu to construct a comprehensive model of the contemporary British "food space." It uses multiple correspondence analysis to unearth a space structured in two key dimensions revolving around the lean and the rich. A host of supplementary variables are available to examine the relationship, or homology, between food tastes and broader alimentary dispositions, including orientations toward shopping, ethics and cooking. Indicators of social position reveal the structuring of the space by economic and cultural capital as well as gender, but also, updating and nuancing Bourdieu's own model for 1970s' France, by age, region, ethnicity and religion. Finally, the paper examines the relationship between position in the food space and physical, mental and existential wellbeing, demonstrating that orientation toward the less healthy and the less rich, corresponding with few resources, is, in some cases, accompanied by not only hunger and deprivation but profound worry and misery.

Women University Presidents: Leadership Within Bourdieu's Model of Cultural Capital

Twenty‐four of 157 U.S. public research universities, within the Carnegie Classification of Doctoral Universities: Higher and Highest Research, are led by women presidents. Using Bourdieu's model of cultural capital as a theoretical framework, eight of the women presidents were interviewed to identify their experiences negotiating a patriarchal culture of leadership. Findings of the narrative study indicated that women presidents navigate in three spheres: Becoming a Member, Leading as a Member, and Staying a Member. The findings from the narrative study show the success of women presidents, and ways they navigate within the lens of gender.

Social Power and Power Over Space: How the Bourgeoisie Reproduces itself in the City

AbstractUrban sociology has long ignored districts of wealth and privilege in cities because they harbor few ‘social problems’ and the class background of sociologists has not inclined them to venture there. In France after 1968, the continued attraction of Marxism and the sulfurous reputation of sociology conspired to make such investigation difficult. Pierre Bourdieu pioneered it with his landmark book on the bourgeoisie, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. This essay reports on two decades of research extending Bourdieu's model of social space to study the territories and strategies of the French high bourgeoisie and aristocracy. The dominant class lives in reserved upscale districts and this seclusion, resulting from the elective spatial aggregation of familial dynasties, is a fundamental characteristic of the group. Segregative isolation is strengthened by specific institutions, such as society balls and social clubs, entrusted with effecting class closure and perpetuation. But, in the greater Paris region, the best districts also attract businesses (corporate headquarters, luxury firms), and thus employment that prompts the established bourgeoisie to migrate westwards in an endless search for social exclusivity. In addition to their Paris homes, upper‐class dynasties possess family properties (a castle or a large manor house) in the provincial hinterland that serve as a basis for paternalistic forms of sociability, linking them to the local lower class via such institutions as riding to hounds. Spaces reserved by and for the high bourgeoisie are major vectors of social reproduction and, along with family and elite schools, help to train heirs suited to safeguarding and valorizing their inherited assets.

Chaebol Affect: Emotional Capital and the Interiority of Wealth in Im Sang-soo's The Housemaid and The Taste of Money

This article examines the affective relationship between currency and human interiority in Im Sang-soo's films about wealth, The Housemaid (2010) and The Taste of Money (2012). Drawing on feminist critiques of Bourdieu's model of capital as well as emotional capital, it argues that these films give value to emotions and affects in convertible terms. In the process, they complicate questions of motherhood and matriarchal desire in Korean cinema, which were previously defined by familial notions of patriarchy, not in economic terms. By interiorizing the corporate chaebol structure in domestic settings, the films reimagine emotional capital as integrally related to other forms of capital.

Social space and cultural class divisions: the forms of capital and contemporary lifestyle differentiation.

In this article, we address whether and how contemporary social classes are marked by distinct lifestyles. We assess the model of the social space, a novel approach to class analysis pioneered by Bourdieu's Distinction. Although pivotal in Bourdieu's work, this model is too often overlooked in later research, making its contemporary relevance difficult to assess. We redress this by using the social space as a framework through which to study the cultural manifestation of class divisions in lifestyle differences in contemporary Norwegian society. Through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) of unusually rich survey data, we reveal a structure strikingly similar to the model in Distinction, with a primary dimension of the volume of capital, and a secondary dimension of the composition of capital. While avoiding the substantialist fallacy of predefined notions of 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' tastes, we explore how 168 lifestyle items map onto this social space. This reveals distinct classed lifestyles according to both dimensions of the social space. The lifestyles of the upper classes are distinctly demanding in terms of resources. Among those rich in economic capital, this manifests itself in a lifestyle which involves a quest for excitement, and which is bodily oriented and expensive. For their counterparts rich in cultural capital, a more ascetic and intellectually oriented lifestyle manifests itself, demanding of resources in the sense of requiring symbolic mastery, combining a taste for canonized, legitimate culture with more cosmopolitan and 'popular' items. In contrast to many studies' descriptions of the lower classes as 'disengaged' and 'inactive', we find evidence of distinct tastes on their part. Our analysis thus affirms the validity of Bourdieu's model of social class and the contention that classes tend to take the form of status groups. We challenge dominant positions in cultural stratification research, while questioning the aptness of the metaphor of the 'omnivore', as well as recent analyses of 'emerging cultural capital'.

A Study on the Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and Conducting Social Research with Gypsy / Roma Groups

In social science discourse, the dichotomy between agency and structure tends to dominate debates pertaining to identity construction. When complex social facts are viewed through a simplistic prism of either individual activities or dominant structural impacts is likely to lead to a conclusion, - particularly when the subjects of research are members of communities at risk of vulnerability which are merely two-dimensional; omitting essential elements and interplays of circumstances, agency and structures which can rapidly shift dependent on both personal and external contexts and stressors. In this article, we discuss ways of utilising Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical model to explore the potential for creating a more nuanced theory of identity construction in the context of case studies focused on Gypsy/Roma(ni) people, whose identities depend both on internal identifications and those of the (dominant) groups with whom they live. We also aim to consider how in two widely contrasting international contexts – that of Roma people in Turkey and Gypsy/Traveller communities in the UK – use of Bourdieuian analysis provides appropriate tools that enable an analysis of daily living and the associated sense of active agency of these populations without minimising or excluding the structural effects which impact them. This approach enables a nuanced relational approach to understanding Gypsy/Roma(ni) groups’ identity construction in its entirety, whilst taking account of the specific geographical context in which the populations reside.

Literature and Law: Consensus and the Art of Disagreement

Literary and legal judgments require, formulate, and defend, but also retain an urge to disrupt, a consensus of like-minded people. This essay studies the aesthetic of taste in literature and the jury system in law to show how consensus works, and at what cost. Using Pierre Bourdieu's model of social “fields” competing for authority, it argues that consensus must be won within a dissensus that it can never quite quell. Concord emerges from discord, which remains unruly. This dynamic energizes theories of taste (Burke, Hume, Scarry), which derive social and moral relevance from the sensory immediacy of art, and the jury system, which theatrically forges agreement out of judicial dispute. Jane Austen provides examples of irony in the service of critical taste; the O.J. Simpson criminal trial illustrates the tribulations of reaching a unanimous verdict, which it displays to a disputatious public.

Class and Cuisine in Contemporary Britain: the Social Space, the Space of Food and Their Homology

Thirty-five years ago Pierre Bourdieu asserted that food preferences, as much as any other element of culture, are distributed within a space of difference more or less homologous with the social space of class positions. Plumbing data on annual spends on all manner of food items, he detected two key oppositions – a taste for the light versus a taste for the heavy on the one hand and a taste for rich foods versus a taste for healthy and exotic foods on the other – and located their generative principles in differences of volume of capital and composition of capital respectively. Deploying a correspondence analysis of similar data using the 2010 Living Costs and Food Survey, supplemented by data from the 2008 British Social Attitudes survey and the 2003 Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion Survey, we seek to examine whether comparable differences in expenditure and preferences are observable in contemporary Britain and, consequently, to illuminate the current structure of the food space and its homology with class. Ultimately, we conclude that Bourdieu's general model is essentially transposable from 1960s France to the UK at the dawn of the 21st century, though we put additional emphasis on the ethical dimension of food consumption, and reflect on the prevalent instances of symbolic violence it underpins.

Modes of consumption: From ‘what’ to ‘how’ in cultural stratification research

In sociological debates about cultural stratification, a matter of dispute is whether Bourdieu's model of class-structured lifestyle differences has relevance for understanding contemporary social inequalities. According to Bourdieu's critics, the emergence and increasing pervasiveness of the cultural omnivore have made this model outdated. This article argues that the notion of the cultural omnivore has led stratification research into an unfortunate cul-de-sac, characterised typically by unfruitful discussions about whether simplistic recasts of old maps fit current cultural terrains. The article makes the point that empirically investigating how people appropriate goods is at least as important as investigating what they prefer, consume or engage in. More specifically, liking the same things does not necessarily indicate similar tastes, as a given object can be appropriated in different ways. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 46 individuals located within different positions in the local class structure of the city of Stavanger in Norway, the analysis points to clear differences between ways of appropriating goods. Four distinct modes of consumption are identified: the intellectual mode, the luxurious mode, the educational mode and the practical mode. These modes of consumption are structured along class lines, i.e. consistent with the homology thesis.

How students experience and navigate transitions in undergraduate medical education: an application of Bourdieu's theoretical model.

Using Bourdieu's theoretical model as a lens for analysis, we sought to understand how students experience the undergraduate medical education (UME) milieu, focusing on how they navigate transitions from the preclinical phase, to the major clinical year (MCY), and to the preparation for residency phase. Twenty-two medical students participated in this longitudinal case study. Students had similar preclinical and post-MCY experiences but different MCY experiences (rotational vs. longitudinal tracks). We interviewed students every 6months in the preclinical phase, mid-way through MCY, and 7-8months before graduation (101 total interviews). We inductively created codes, iteratively revised codes to best-fit the data, and thematically clustered codes into Bourdieu-informed categories: field (social structures), capital (resources) and habitus (dispositions). We found that students acclimated to shifts in the UME field as they moved through medical school: from medical school itself to the health system and back. To successfully navigate transitions, students learned to secure capital as medical knowledge and social connections in the preclinical and preparation for residency phases, and as reputable patient care and being noticed in the clinical phase. To obtain capital, and be well-positioned for the next phase of training, students consistently relied on dispositions of initiative and flexibility. In summary, students experience the complex context of medical school through a series of transitions. Efforts to improve UME would be well-served by greater awareness of the social structures (field) that students encounter, the resources to which they afford value (capital), and the dispositions which aid acquisition of these resources (habitus).

Inequality and 21-year-olds' negotiation of uncertain transitions to employment: a Bourdieusian approach

Faced with uncertainty, how do young people navigate the transition from school to work? Applying Bourdieu's concept of habitus to the ‘fields’ of education and employment, I argue that past experience, family background and unequal access to economic, social and symbolic forms of capital differentiate their transitions. Drawing on the tenth wave of the Australian longitudinal Life Chances Study, we found that all of the twenty-five 21-year-olds interviewed expressed uncertainty when discussing their futures. However, those from high-income backgrounds with access to strong social, economic and cultural resources were better able to manage the risks arising from uncertainty than their counterparts from low-income backgrounds. The following article seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of young people's experiences at age 21 through the application of Bourdieu's conceptual framework. The interviewees’ habitus and cultivation of varying forms of capital tend towards social reproduction, yet also reveal opportunities for those considered ‘disadvantaged’ to mobilise their cultural resources. Bourdieu's model of the field, and its component conceptual tools, provide an explanatory frame to make sense of the seemingly incoherent paths that young people trace between education and employment.

Family (and) culture: The effect of cultural capital within the family on the cultural participation of adolescents

Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction states that cultural capital is passed down from generation to generation through the habitus formed within the family of origin. This cultural capital presents itself in three different states: as embodied (dispositions and practices), institutionalized (educational qualifications), and objectified (cultural goods). In this scheme, the presence of all three forms of cultural capital in the family can be assumed to have an impact on the cultural participation patterns of adolescents. This article focuses on the cultural participation patterns of adolescents, in the forms of art and heritage participation and attending pop or rock concerts. Using data from the “Cultural Participation Survey 2003–2004”, a multilevel model is constructed—with the presence of the three forms of cultural capital in the family as family-level effects and the educational position, age, and gender of the adolescent as individual-level effects. We find support for Bourdieu's reproduction model for art and heritage participation, but the educational level and gender of the adolescents are also found to be important. We also find significant effects of familial cultural capital on attending pop and rock concerts, which indicates that cultural reproduction mechanisms also, although to a lesser extent, structure participation in these activities.

Beyond Cultural Competency: Skill, Reflexivity, and Structure in Successful Tribal Health Care

As notions of cultural competency have risen to prominence in health care, some of our most powerful models and strategies come from successful tribal health care. In this chapter, we deconstruct notions of cultural competency, rebuilding this important aspect of medical practice under Bourdieu's model of reflexivity (1986). We outline a critical discourse of cultural competency based on a processual (and distinctively anthropological) model. In promoting several specific strategies for culturally competent care, we point to the assumptions regarding the boundedness and neutrality of culture within biomedical practice as well as the authority and power structures through which competency is determined. We offer two case studies: one, an examination of a community-based ambulatory care practice; the second, a consideration of both practitioners' and institutions' use of cultural capital in addressing the community they serve. We promote a reflexive form of culturally competent care that goes beyond "cookbook" uses of cultural capital to move toward an engaged and structurally flexible approach, one that allows the blending of biomedical paradigms with patient culture and history.