4.Tuesday 10th June 2025 11:30-13:00 BST Room A5.04 in the IOE
Theoretical Sensitivity: inspired by Pierre Bourdieu
"“Logic is the unconscious of a society that has invented logic.” (Bourdieu, (2000. Pascalian Meditations, Kindle. 3824)"
“The unanalysed element in every theoretical analysis (whether subjectivist or objectivist) is the theorist’s subjective relation to the social world and the objective (social) relation presupposed by this subjective relation. Intellectualism is, so to speak, an ‘intellectualocentrism’ in which the observer’s relation to the social world, and therefore the social relation which makes observation possible, is made the basis of the practice analysed, through the representations constructed to account for it (roles, models, etc.). This projection of a non-objectified theoretical relationships into the practice that one is trying to objectify is at the root of a set of interlined scientific errors (so that it would already be a considerable step forward if all would-be scientific discourse on the social world were preceded by a sign meaning ‘everything takes place as if …’, which, functioning in the same way as quantifiers in logic, would constantly recall the epistemological status of such discourse).” ((The Logic of Practice. 29)
[cf: suppose you look at it like this]
Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist and anthropologist, whose work has been very influential in social and educational research generally. His early work involved the anthropological study of the Kabyle society in Algeria from which he developed social and philosophical theory, which was further developed in survey research in France. Bourdieu's writing often makes very difficult reading and you should not expect to get a good grasp of it quickly, but the concepts that he develops are potentially very powerful in shaping the way in which we may think about the world and are certainly worth putting in an effort. Perhaps partly because the work is so complex it is frequently trivialised, particularly in educational research; this is also the case with the work of Michel Foucault (see resources page).
'And another effect of the scholastic illusion is seen when people describe resistance to domination in the language of consciousness – as does the whole Marxist tradition and also the feminist theorists who, giving way to habits of thought, expect political liberation to come from the ‘raising of consciousness’ – ignoring the extraordinary inertia which results from the inscription of social structures in bodies, for lack of a dispositional theory of practices. While making things explicit can help, only a thoroughgoing process of countertraining, involving repeated exercises, can, like an athlete’s training, durably transform habitus. Pierre Bourdieu,' Pascalian Meditations (p.172).
The categories 'habitus' and 'field' are, I think, particularly worthy of attention.
The article by Diane Reay provides an introduction to Bourdieu's concept habitus, which she then applies in her analysis of fieldwork data in two primary schools. This paper is criticised in the Report by Tooley & Darby, which, in turn, is challenged by the paper by Roy Nash. Nash explores the historical development of the concept, habitus, though does not mention Norbert Elias, whose work was influential for Bourdieu.
“… the class struggle is fundamentally a struggle for classification, insofar as it is by making classifications that we make classes: by getting people to believe, for instance, that differences exist, we help to make them exist, and the political struggle is a struggle to make things visible … and to make people believe that what we make visible really exists.”
Catherine Hakim, inspired by Bourdieu's concept of capital, proposes the existence of 'erotic capital. However, she seems to have begun her article with the assumption that 'erotic capital' is a reality. How might she have explored her research interest without this assumption? In what way(s) would this (not) have been a better approach? How might this issue relate to Mol & Law's article (see session 5)?
Hakim's six elements of "erotic capital':
1. beauty 2. sexual attractiveness 3. social skills 4. liveliness 5. social presentation 6. sexual competence
“Logic is the unconscious of a society that has invented logic.” (3824)Preliminary Reading
Additional Reading
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice. Cambridge, Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (1996). The Rules of Art: Genesis and structure of the literary firld. Cambridge, Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2000 (1997)). Pascalian Meditations. Cambridge, Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (2015). Habitus and Field: General Sociology, Volume 2, Lectures at the Coll ège de France 1982-83.Bourdieu, P. (2021). Forms of Capital: General sociology, volume 3, Lectures at the Collège de France 1983-84. Cambridge. Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (2022). Principles of Vision. Cambridge, General Sociology, Volume 4. Lectures at the Collège de France 1982-83. Cambridge. Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (2023). Politics and Sociology. General Sociology, Volume 5. Lectures at the Collège de France 1985-6. Cambridge. Polity.
Elias, N. (2000 [1939, 1968]). The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and psychogenetic investigations. Oxford, Blackwell.Hakim, C. (2010). "Erotic Capital." European Sociological Review 26(5): 499-518.
Ikegami, E. (1995). The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific individualism and the making of modern Japan. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
Ikegami, E. (2005). Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic networks and the political origins of Japanese culture. Cambridge, |CUP.
Lahire, B. (2011). The Plural Actor. Cambridge, Polity.
Lahire, B. (2019). This is Not Just a Painting: An inquiry into art, domination, magic and the sacred. Cambridge, Polity.
Activity
Comment on this extract from Bourdieu (1996)
The discourse on the work is not a simple side-effect, designed to encourage its apprehension and appreciation, but a moment which is part of the production of the work, of its meaning and its value.
We need only cite Marcel Duchamp once more:
Q: To come back to your ready-mades, I thought that R. Mutt, the signature on The Fountain, was the manufacturer’s name. But in the article by Rosalind Krauss, I read: R. Mutt, is a pun on the German Armut, or poverty. Poverty would completely change the meaning of The Fountain.
A: Rosalind Krauss? The redhead? It isn’t that at all. You can deny it. Mutt comes from Mott Works, the name of a big firm that makes sanitary equipment. But Mott was too close, so I made it Mutt, because there was a comic strip in the papers in those days, Mutt and Jeff, everyone knew it. So right from the start there was a resonance. Mutt was a fat little guy and Jeff was tall and thin … I wanted a different name. And I added Richard … Richard is a good name for a loo! You see, it’s the opposite of poverty … But not even that, just R.: R. Mutt.
Q: What possible interpretation is there of the Bicycle Wheel? Should one see it as the integration into the work of art? Or as a fundamental point of departure, like. The Chinese who invented the wheel?
A: That machine has no intention, except to get rid of the appearance of a work of art. It was a whim. I didn’t call it a ‘work of art’. I wanted to throw off the desire to create works of art […]
Q: What about the geometry book left out in the weather? Can one say that it is the idea of integrating time and space? And with a pun on ‘géometrie dans l’espace’ and ‘temps’, the rain and sun that transform the book?
A: No, no more than the idea of integrating movement into sculpture. It was a joke. A pure joke. To denigrate the solemnity of a book of principles.
Bourdieu (1996). pp. 170-1)