Key concepts of
Pierre Bourdieu
Theory of
practice, their definitions and examples:
1.
Cultural
capital
Bourdieu developed the concept of cultural capital
in the late 1960s when studying the French educational system.
Cultural capital comprises the social assets of a
person (education, intellect, style of speech, style of dress, etc.) that
promote social mobility in stratified society.
Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital was heavily
influenced by the theories of Karl Marx.
Sharing similar forms of cultural capital with
others creates a sense of collective identity and group position i.e. the
identity of “people like us”.
There are certain forms of cultural capital which
are valued over others, and can help or hinder one’s social mobility just as
much as income or wealth.
Bourdieu noticed that middle-class students tended
to persist through school, while working-class students had higher dropout
rates. This happens because schools operated based on the culture of the
dominant class, and expected all students to be knowledgeable of it. They might
not be viewed as favorable by teachers; they might not understand materials or
assignments that were based on the dominant culture. Thus they might opt out of
education themselves.
He further had gave three forms of cultural capital
namely: 1) Embodied 2) Objectified 3) Institutionalized.
2.
Habitus
Habitus refers to the physical embodiment of
cultural capital. It is the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions
that we posses due to our life experiences.
Bourdieu often used sports metaphors “feel for the
game” when talking about the habitus.
He further said that in the right situations, our
habitus allows us to successfully navigate social environment. It also extends
to our “taste” for cultural objects such as art, food, and clothing.
Bourdieu often noted, that habitus was so ingrained
that people often mistook the feel for the game as natural instead of
culturally developed.
In one of his major works, Distinction, Bourdieu
links French citizens’ tastes in art to their social class positions,
forcefully arguing that aesthetic sensibilities are shaped by the culturally
ingrained habitus. This often leads to
justifying social inequality, because it is believed that some people are
naturally disposed to the finer things in life while others are not.
3.
Field
Bourdieu understood the social world as being
divided up into a variety of distinct arenas or “fields” of practice like art,
education, religion, law etc., each with their own unique set of rules,
knowledge, and forms of capital.
Each field has its own set of positions and
practices, as well as its struggles for position as people mobilize their
capital to stake claims within a particular social domain.
Much like a baseball or football field, social
fields are places where people struggle for position and play to win.
4.
Symbolic
power
Power is seldom exercised as overt physical force.
According to Bourdieu, symbolic power is an invisible power which is
misrecognized as such and thereby recognizes as legitimate.
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