Wednesday, April 11th

1
Bourdieu I Social Space, Symbolic Space, and
Habitus

• Wednesday, April 11th
• Instructor Sarah Whetstone

2
Modern Life Abstract Systems and Heightened
Risks

• Large systems make life seem predictable and
  secure (air travel, communications technology,
  running water, systematic production of goods).
• But they also make life more impersonal
  Trusting in systems doesnt give us the same
  feeling of security as trusting in people. And
  our lives are more dominated by systems these
  days.
• At the same time, we are faced with a number of
  low probability, high consequence risks and
  dangers in the modern world. Examples?

3
How does living in a hostile world full of
risk, danger, and impersonal systems change our
personal relationships?
4
Transformation of Intimacy

• We are closer than we think in a globalizing
  world.
• Every cup of coffee contains within it the whole
  history of Western imperialism (244). Our local
  experience is increasingly connected to the
  global.
• New technologies in modern life make it possible
  to be connected like never before.
• More than ever, we seek out trust in these
  times-- Trust becomes a project, a mutual
  process of self-discolusure (245).
• To enter into a trusting relationships, An
  individual must find his or her identity (246).
• Modernity is a project of reflexivity
  self-reflection and self-change.
• Emphasis on deep romantic love, soul mates,
  therapy to fix trust issues, etc.
• Giddens take on the meaning of modernity is not
  as bleak as, say, Webers iron cage or Marxs
  monster of capitalism

5
Giddens Radicalized Modernity

• Modernity as the juggernaut
• Modernity is a complex puzzle
• dislocation and increased global integration
• powerlessness and empowerment
• appropriation and loss
• Modernity makes possible new opportunities for
  self-construction, intimacy, and trust
  Reflexivity is a requirement in the modern world.
• Political change is possible and necessary,
  locally and globally

6
Pierre Bourdieu (1930 2002)

• Attempts to overcome the false divides of
  sociology
• Objective/subjective
• Structure/action
• Similar to Giddens, but more concerned with
  connecting theory with the empirical world
• Genetic Structuralism a sociology that uses
  the intellectual resources of structural
  analysis, but approaches structures in terms of
  the ways in which they are produced and
  reproduced in action (261).
• Conceptual Solution Habitus

7
Encyclopedia of Bourdieu Essential Concepts

• Field a social space comprised of different
  positions structured by access to different
  levels of capital
• Capital (not Marxs capital!) material or
  non-material resources that confer social power
  to the carrier (there are four types). Follows a
  definite distribution.
• Positions (social positions) all the possible
  places one could occupy in a particular field
• Position-takings (practices) the process of
  signaling your position through the use of
  symbols (dress, style, manner of speech, beverage
  choice, political views)
• Dispositions (habitus) systems of
  dispositions (tendencies or preferences) that are
  shaped by an actors experience in her position,
  and are enacted through practices
• Game a metaphor for doing social life. We
  develop a feel for the game mentally and
  physically, and can anticipate how to improvise
  based on past experience.

8
The Social World is Relational

• Relational tastes and practices are organized
  by actors positions relative to each other in a
  social field
• Social Space a space of relative social
  positions, organized by the distribution of
  capital in a field
• Teacher, construction worker, CEO, fisherman
• Symbolic Space differences between practices
  associated with distinct social positions
  (practices are distributed)
• Drinking wine v. beer, watching tennis v. NASCAR,
  voting conservative v. liberal, wearing suits v.
  scrubs

9
The Forms of Capital

• Economic Capital access to income, wealth or
  property
• Cultural Capital prestige associated with
  specialized knowledge. Symbolic, not tangible.
• Social Capital our social connections to others
  and the benefits those connections confer
• Symbolic Capital capability of actors to use
  certain practices symbolically to defend or
  maintain their positions in social space
• Capital is partially transferable Cashing in
  social capital for a job that increases your
  economic capital

10
Cultural Capital in The Wire

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v8sRLjapmyHc
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vuhlW6SRu5rAfeature
  related

11
Positions , Practices, and the Distribution of
Capital in the Economic Field
12
Positions, Practices, and the Distribution of
Capital
Bourdieu!
Total Capital
Cultural Capital
Cultural Capital -
Economic Capital -
Economic Capital
Total Capital -
13
Group Work Linking Structure and Practice in a
Field

• In your small groups, pick a field, and map some
  of the positions in that field.
• What kinds of capital do you need to occupy
  certain positions, and why?
• What are some of the practices (or
  position-takings) associated with the positions
  you identified?