Bourdieu's Theory Research Articles

Familias, retornos educativos y clases sociales. Valorización de capital cultural y estrategias escolares de clase media y clase trabajadora en Córdoba (Argentina)

Este texto analiza las estrategias de inversión y valorización del capital cultural en familias de clases media y trabajadora. Desde la teoría de la práctica de Pierre Bourdieu, y utilizando metodología que combina técnicas multivariadas (ACM) y entrevistas en profundidad, realizamos un análisis comparado de las apuestas escolares de las posiciones intermedias del espacio social de Gran Córdoba (Argentina). El objetivo es complejizar el análisis sobre las recientes dinámicas de desigualdad social, y desplazar la mirada desde la noción de retornos educativos hacia las lógicas de inversión, las disposiciones prácticas y los modos de reproducción social de las familias.

Women's leadership as a symbolic act of reproduction: A case Study in the Soloman Islands

Literature on women's leadership over the last three decades suggests that women's leadership perspectives have been predominantly influenced by either Euro-centric patriarchal views or those of women in economically developed countries. These are significantly different from an economically developing Pacific Island like the Solomon Islands, in particular, its Santa Isabel Island.The literature, therefore, overlooks the impacts women's indigenous culture may have in order to understand their leadership beliefs and practices. Bourdieu (1977b) argues that people's practices are embodied within their cultures, forming habitus through their past and present experiences, both consciously and unconsciously. I argue that women leaders' leadership beliefs and practices cannot be fully understood without considering these social and cultural norms operating in their specific cultures. My thesis explores the impact of the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture on women's formed leadership beliefs and practices. The main research question therefore is:How do women leaders' leadership beliefs and practices form in the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture? Sub questions arising from this are:In what ways does the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture influence women leaders' beliefs and practices?To what extent does the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture contribute to the formation of women leaders' cultural leadership beliefs and practices?How do women leaders practice leadership in the Santa Isabel matrilineal '¨culture?My research was undertaken using a case study methodology, linked with Bourdieu's (1977b) habitus as a lens for exploring women leaders' leadership practices in Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands context through using interviews, informal observations and focus groups. The findings were generated through Bourdieu's (1977b) habitus theory for capturing an in-depth understanding of how women leaders' leadership beliefs and practices were formed. Key findings demonstrated that women leaders' leadership beliefs and practices were influenced by their matrilineal culture and early learning experiences in Santa Isabel. The study also revealed that these women leaders used leadership practices appropriate for their context. As a result, they formed leadership beliefs and practices that demonstrated a symbolic act of reproduction of their cultural habitus that reflected their existing leadership thinking.The study has contributed to the research field by recognising the impact of cultural embodiment, the habitus and social reproduction of the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture on women's leadership beliefs and practices. It fills a critical gap in understanding women's leadership as a symbolic act of reproduction of their cultural beliefs and practices which has been overlooked in women's leadership literature.

Different Histories, Different Narratives: ICT Uses As “Habitus”?

History forms narratives, narratives form media uses? The present paper formulates a theoretical proposal, that of considering the uses of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly social media, as habitus , inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's Field Theory. My thesis draws on research conducted on the professional network LinkedIn. It examines the way two discussion groups, held by Greek and French migrants respectively, use this platform. The comparative approach raises the question of habitus as praxis related to situated and ideologically charged socio-historical representations of migration. The online discursive practices of each group suggest the existence of an illusio common to their members regarding the relevance and the objective of the discussions. Different forms (eidos) of illusio seem to operate as different symbolic capitals that shape the groups. Following Pierre Bourdieu's theory, my ultimate assumption is that these divergences are related to the positions that Greece and France hold within the international migration field. For informations about the copyright protection, see : https://iafor.org/iafor-publications-and-license-agreement/

Jay Gatsby, Failed Intellectual: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Trope for Social Stratification

Abstract This article explores F. Scott Fitzgerald's drawing of the character Jay Gatsby in conjunction with Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the habitus. It seeks to explain why Jay Gatsby has failed at his attempt to maintain wealth, love interest, and even his life. It describes the social and economic realities that make up the conditions of class status and character behavior that lead to Gatsby's lack of survival. The article argues that the social structures and relevant practices of economic status in literature and everyday life are products of inculcated sociopolitical structures and substructures. Characters like Jay Gatsby are governed by, and sealed within, an unchanging class structure regardless of upward mobility. Much in the fashion of Bourdieu's habitus, Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby plays out his failure though the author's own unconsciously inculcated disposition. Gatsby cannot help but fail. Fitzgerald renders the class habitus through ideologically based cultural goods in the form of physical bodies and the trappings of wealth, showing these through the leitmotif of the American Dream. As such, Bourdieu's theory of the habitus and the social economy of cultural goods is deeply written in the discourse of Jay Gatsby's conflict just as surely as it reveals Fitzgerald's own struggle with class status.

Review: Teaching Stravinsky: Nadia Boulanger and the Consecration of a Modernist Icon, by Kimberly A. Francis

Teaching Stravinsky: Nadia Boulanger and the Consecration of a Modernist Icon , by Kimberly A. Francis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. xxiii, 266 pp. The teasingly ambiguous title of Kimberly Francis's book gives us some clues as to the part played by Nadia Boulanger in Stravinsky's career. Boulanger was a champion of Stravinsky's music, both as the teacher of her own students and in what would now be termed public engagement, and she taught his younger son Soulima from 1929. But Francis also makes the bolder claim that “For all intents and purposes, [Boulanger] taught [Igor Stravinsky] how to view his own music; her analysis opened his eyes to his work. She helped him articulate his voice and the mechanisms underlying his ‘technique.’ She also taught him about presentation, the direct relationship between the score's appearance and its legacy” (p. 248). While Robert Craft considered Boulanger simply to be “a prodigious proof-reader” (quoted p. 9), Francis instead provides “a feminist account of Boulanger's professional interactions with Stravinsky, his family, and his music” (p. 9). She follows Suzanne Cusick and others in her wish to shed light on “woman's work and the culturally feminine so that they cease to be marginalized and devalued, but might be re-interpreted as important elements of musical culture” (quoted p. 9). Francis chooses to view the Boulanger-Stravinsky relationship through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu's theory, referencing particularly the concepts of cultural capital, consecration, and agency. Yet the theoretical framework is handled with a light touch after the introduction: Boulanger's …

Pierre Bourdieu's Theory of Practice offers nurses a framework to uncover embodied knowledge of patients living with disabilities or illnesses: A discussion paper.

To discuss how Bourdieu's theory of practice can be used by nurse researchers to better uncover the embodied knowledge of patients living with disability and illness. Bourdieu's theory of practice has been used in social and healthcare researches. This theory emphasizes that an individual's everyday practices are not always explicit and mediated by language, but instead an individual's everyday practices are often are tacit and embodied. Discussion paper. Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL and SCOPUS were searched for concepts from Bourdieu's theory that was used to understand embodied knowledge of patients living with disability and illness. The literature search included articles from 2003 - 2017. Nurse researchers should use Bourdieu's theory of practice to uncover the embodied knowledge of patients living with disability and illness, and nurse researchers should translate these discoveries into policy recommendations and improved evidence-based best practice. The practice of nursing should incorporate an understanding of embodied knowledge to support disabled and ill patients as these patients modify "everyday practices" in the light of their disabilities and illnesses. Bourdieu's theory enriches nursing because the theory allows for consideration of both the objective and the subjective through the conceptualization of capital, habitus and field. Uncovering individuals embodied knowledge is critical to implement best practices that assist patients as they adapt to bodily changes during disability and illness.

Local cultural vicissitudes in regional tourism development: A case of Zhuhai

This study describes the multi-dimensional cultural impacts of tourism development in Zhuhai. In terms of material, behavioural and spiritual cultural changes, the results reveal the factors and causes of local cultural vicissitudes through a survey of local residents and interviews with stakeholders from the government, practitioners and the locals. Based on Pierre Bourdieu's cultural vicissitudes theory, the study proposes a conceptual framework in order to explain the relationship between political power, tourism development, foreign cultural break-in and local cultural changes. The framework was modified based on the empirical results in Zhuhai. A number of recommendations for cultural preservation and tourism development are provided in response to the observed roles, power and resource allocation among social groups.

A Conceptual Approach to Unveil Traditional Homegardens as Fields of Social Practice

Disciplines and approaches concerned with people environment relations have contributed to legitimate traditional ecological knowledge, nowadays endorsed in the international scientificpolicy agenda as an important driver for management and conservation of biological resources. However, there is still a need to further understand how people internalize worldviews, knowledge, and practices regarding environmental management. In this sense, traditional homegardens are a suitable scenery to unravel such processes. Grounded on Bourdieu's theory of practice, this paper unveils homegardens as fields of social practice. The homegarden field is embedded within the household field, further influenced by the community field. The three of them make up the 'array of fields' where homegardening develops by means of social interactions, informing and informed by the habitus (schemes of perception, appreciation, and action, produced by particular social environments that shape agent's own sense of the world and his/her place in it). Both, inputs (e.g. land, plants, labor, and knowledge) and outputs (e.g. increased knowledge, homegarden produce, homegarden functions and derived benefits) are here approached as homegarden's capitals. According to the theory of practice, such capitals are unequally distributed across agents, and it is such inequality that impulses them to generate, maintain, increase and/or transform homegarden capitals.

Film “Tanda Tanya”: Suatu Gagasan Merealisasikan Multikulturalisme

This article is an essay that provides a cultural analysis of the movie "Tanda Tanya" by director HanungBramantyo with a linguistic anthropological perspective. Through the theory of Bourdieu (1992), the film is studied and dissected through symbolic capital that is played in every plot, scene, and picture contested in the film. On the basis of plot analysis, the film promotes an idea, multiculturalism which not only allowed at an idealistic level but also into a material practice.

What Do We Know and Not Know about Choice of Medium of Education in South-East Wales?

It is widely assumed that as a result of school choice, Welsh-medium schools in south-east Wales largely cater for students from privileged, middle-class backgrounds. The main aim of this article is to examine whether evidence supports this assumption. While it is difficult to determine whether Welsh-medium schools are elite educational institutions or not, it is evident based on data on free school meals (an indicator of household poverty) ratios of schools, that Welsh-medium schools have on average lower proportion of students from the poorest households compared to English-medium schools in south-east Wales. This article also aims to explain how the context (the circumstances in which decisions are made) and process (how decisions are made) of school choice contribute towards the trends with regards to the social composition of Welsh-medium and English-medium schools in south-east Wales. This article argues that by drawing on both Rational Choice Theory and Bourdieu's Cultural Reproduction Theory (two theoretical frameworks that have been influential on school choice research), researchers will be able to gain a better understanding of the process underlying choice of medium of education.

Intimate relationships and mobility intentions of Thai international students in Chinese universities: A gendered analysis

AbstractAlthough extant research has found family critical in understanding international student mobility, studies focusing on the role of intimate relationships, such as marriage or romantic relationships, are few in number and typically with a backdrop of the Global South‐to‐North mobility pattern. Based on data collected among Thai nationals studying in Chinese universities, intimate relationships are found in this study to pull partners across borders towards each other. This general trend nevertheless hides a stark disparity between genders in the sense that people are attracted by intimate relationships and in their mobility intentions. Contrary to popular belief, women in this study are less attached to their intimate relationships. Instead, they strategically plan on going to places where better chances for self‐realisation exist. By examining Thai female international students' cross‐cultural experiences and real‐life situations, we suggest that their compatriot intimate relationships often fail them because more than their share of household chores are stuck with them, even when they study abroad. Female international students in this article are neither willingly docile nor overtly rebellious, rather, they practically manoeuvre and cope according to their transnational circumstances and capabilities. The implication of these more mobile female international students on gender relationships is also discussed in light of Bourdieu's practice theory. Results in this study contribute to the understanding of international student mobility by focusing on intimate relationships and by incorporating a gendered and critical perspective.

Managing Autonomy: Analyzing Arts Management and Artistic Autonomy through the Theory of Justification

ABSTRACTArts management has commonly been analyzed as a microcosm of the art field, in which struggles between artistic, economic, administrative, and societal considerations are constantly being fought. Using the field theory of Bourdieu, scholars have attempted to uncover levels of functional differentiation within arts organizations, and interpreted differentiation between artistic considerations and economic and administrative considerations as a core element in defining the artistic autonomy of such organizations. In this article, I present an alternative approach to the interpretation of artistic autonomy in arts management. Through the stories of three artistic directors and the way in which they run their theatres, I aim to show the theory of justification (developed by Boltanski and Thévenot) and shed new light on the interpretation of arts management, as well as on the understanding of artistic autonomy more generally.

Roy Cape's labour of love: theorising work ethics through musical biography

AbstractWhile the recent scholarship on labour in cultural industries has drawn attention to the conditions and experiences of ‘creative’ workers, few publications have addressed the ethical values informing their work. In contrast to the widespread assumption that the commercialisation of culture in this era has led to the curtailing of moral values, this article argues that artistic work has never ceased to be informed by moral values, albeit not universal ones. I draw on recent theoretical considerations raised by Mark Banks concerning Alasdair MacIntyre's and Pierre Bourdieu's theories on work ethics within the problematics of creative and cultural industries. I provide an ethnographically grounded case study that extends the presentation of Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand. The analysis offered suggests how the relationship between what MacIntyre calls the ‘internal and external goods' of a practice requires considerable historical and ethnographic contextualisation. I argue for a pragmatic and experience-centred approach to work ethics in the context of the broader discussion of creative labour.

(Re-)construing Space as Capital: Contributions from a Study with Local Entrepreneurs

ABSTRACT Taking as reference the approaches adopted by Bourdieu (2010) and Jacobs (2011), the focus of this article is to present the findings of a research effort designed to investigate the relationships between the constructs Space and Social Dynamics. In this sense, it seeks to investigate in which manner did the relationships among different social agents - emphasizing the roles played by local entrepreneurs - which, upon mobilizing different capitals - economic, social, cultural and symbolic (BOURDIEU, 2010) - shape and are shaped by specific configurations, creators of socio-spatial dynamics that are diversity-enablers to a greater or lesser extent (JACOBS, 2011). For this purpose, an investigation inspired on the Grounded was undertaken, involving documentary analysis, direct observation and 41 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, dwellers, passers-by and opinion leaders inserted into the dynamics of an important peripheral street in the city of Sete Lagoas/MG. Notable findings include the relevance of studies that draw more systematic considerations, extrapolating economic, social, cultural and symbolic capitals (BOURDIEU, 2010), allocating a greater importance to spatial capital, usually relegated to a secondary plane not only in Bourdieu's Theory of Practical Action as well as in classical studies into Economics and Geography (SANTOS, 2012). Another of this study's significant findings is that the subjects personified in the different types of entrepreneurs identified - Traditional, Modern and Bricoleurs - do not emerge nor act in a socio-spatial void, nor are independent from each other. Quite the opposite, they are a part of a community social ecology (HANNAN; FREEMAN, 1984), rife with dispute, collaboration and intentional and unconscious synergies, in which space, in addition to technological-economical forces, plays a relevant role.

Climate state: Science-state struggles and the formation of climate science in the US from the 1930s to 1960s.

This article has two aims: first, to understand the co-production of climate science and the state, and second, to provide a test case for Pierre Bourdieu's field theory. To these ends, the article reconstructs the historical formation of a US climate science field, with an analytic focus on inter-field dynamics and heterogeneous networking practices. Drawing from primary- and secondary-source materials, the historical analysis focuses on relations between scientists and state actors from the 1930s to the 1960s. The account shows how actors with positions linking scientific and bureaucratic fields constructed critical nodes and 'hinges' that co-produced war-making and state expansion on the one hand, and a relatively autonomous climate science field on the other. The analysis explains the emergence of climate science by focusing on the WWII-era transformation of meteorology and oceanography into distinct disciplines, the emergence of 'basic' research as a central principle of post-war government, and the formation of a climate science field by the 1960s centered on computerized modeling and populated by an interdisciplinary scientific elite. The article concludes by indicating how these processes led to the subsequent development of climate change as a science-state conundrum that has reorganized the climate science field in recent decades.

“Her” Photographer: The Roanoke Live-Shot Murders and Visual Communication's Place in the Newsroom

This study analyzed coverage of the shootings of two journalists in Virginia in 2015. Coverage of journalism by journalists, or metajournalistic discourse, makes it possible to examine the way an interpretive community represents and reproduces professional norms. Working with the framework of Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, the analysis considers the way journalistic specialists maintain their identity, professional boundaries, and hierarchal relationships. This analysis focuses on how visual journalism, in particular, is presented to the news audience. Based on our findings, we argue that coverage of the Roanoke live-shot murders provides insight into the way journalism maintains its authority by highlighting affect and diminishing its constructed dimension.

Lifestyle Inequalities: Explaining Socioeconomic Differences in Preventive Practices of Clinically Overweight Women After Menopause.

Excess weight and menopause are two major factors increasing aging women's vulnerability to chronic diseases. However, social position and socioeconomic status have also been identified as major determinants influencing both health behaviors and the development of such diseases. This study focuses on the socioeconomic variations of behavioral risk factors of chronic diseases in aging women. By drawing on Bourdieu's sociocultural theory of practice, 40 semistructured interviews were conducted to investigate preventive health practices of clinically overweight, postmenopausal women from contrasting socioeconomic classes living in Canada. Findings emphasize class-based differences with respect to long-term health and preventive practices according to three major themes: priority to long-term time horizons, attention given to risk factors of diseases, and control over future health. Health care providers should strive to work in concert with all subgroups of women to better understand their values, worldviews, and needs to decrease health inequalities after menopause.

Women, weight, poverty and menopause: understanding health practices in a context of chronic disease prevention

Socioeconomic inequalities in health persist despite major investments in illness prevention campaigns and universal healthcare systems. In this context, the increased risks of chronic diseases of specific sub-groups of vulnerable populations should be further investigated. The objective of this qualitative study is to examine the interaction between socioeconomic status (SES) and body weight in order to understand underprivileged women's increased vulnerability to chronic diseases after menopause. By drawing specifically on Pierre Bourdieu's sociocultural theory of practice, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted from May to December of 2013 to investigate the health practices of clinically overweight, postmenopausal women living an underprivileged life in Canada. Findings emphasise that poor life conditions undermine personal investment in preventive health and weight loss, showing the importance for policy makers to bring stronger consideration on upstream determinants of health.

White Skin as a Social and Cultural Capital in Asia and Its Economic Markets

This paper analyses the beauty standards in Southeast Asia regarding the whiteness of people's skin and how it affects the local markets. This paper starts with is a brief introduction to the capital theories, social and cultural capitals as defined by Pierre Bourdieu. The history of the colonialism and nationalism in Southeast Asia is explored, referring to the European influence that the colonisers had over the colonised. The relationship between skin colour, social positioning and pale skin as a form of capital referring to Bourdieu's theories is also studied, concluding with a brief analysis of the whitening products within the skin care sector in the Asian beauty markets and its implications on the economy. An empirical analysis is made through an interview with a white-skinned expat in Thailand, whose testimonies confirm the main thesis of the study that a white skin in Asia has a significant influence on the success one may have in every aspect of the life as it works as an important asset to have in order to be more likely to have opportunities offered.

Pengembangan Ekonomi Islam di Pesantren Jawa Timur

This article aims to elaborate the value of local pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Islamic economic development. The pesantren�s Islamic economics is assessed by using the Pierre Bourdieu's social practice theory of social action, namely (Habitus x Capital) + Ranah = Practice. In the theory of social practice, internalization of social values, interpreted as social capital in realizing the behaviour of Islamic economics (economic behaviour). The transformation of the value of local wisdom, believed to be able to inspire all the actions and social roles of individuals in the economic field by promoting the three basic pillars, among others: 1) ownership (al-milkiyah) according to sharia, 2) ownership use (tasharruffi al-milkiyah) and 3) distribution of community wealth (taui 'al-tsarwah baina al-nas) through mechanisms according to the system: shari'a, ai-ashlu fial-afdl' al-taqajyudu bi al-hukm al-syar'.