Bourdieu, Chapters 1, 3, and 4: in 3 parts

Part 1: Introducing Pierre Bourdieu

With empirical research and opposing intellectual viewpoints, French social scientist Pierre Bourdieu theorizes regarding culture, power, stratification or class, and social knowledge. The book we are using highlights Bourdieu's principal conceptual interweavings, (p.6).

Culture Power and Reproduction

He offers a genetic theory of groups that explains how systems of domination/heirarchy persist and perpetuate over time.

The Agency/Structure Problem

He unites the individual and society (micro and macro) into a structural theory connecting action (the individual or agency) to culture, structure, and power. From this stems his key concept of habitus.

Fields of Power

Practices occur in structured areas of conflict called fields.

Sociology as Socioanalysis

The sociologist's role is to tap into the social unconscious of society, exposing underlying interests that bind individuals and groups into unequal power relations.

For a Reflexive Practice of Social Science

Socioanalysis requires a systematic and rigorous self-critical practice of social science.

Sociology as Politics

Bourdieu posits his work as political intervention against the intelligentsia as carriers of universal cultural values freed from economic and political determinants.

Career

Bourdieu is a cultural and social outsider to the French intellectual elite.

Writing Style

Bourdieu's very style flies in the face of the French elite and the taken-for-granted world. How refreshing!

Part 2: Chapter 3 Bourdieu's Meta-theory of Sociological Knowledge

The Subjective/Objective Antinomy

Bourdieu opposes the subjective/objective modes of knowledge, preferring integration into a general science of practices.

The Relational Method

Preferring to break with objectivism and subjectivism, Bourdieu describes a relational or structuralist foundation to all scientific thought. Like geometry with lines and points defined relationally, so should social science do the same rather than consider individuals in isolation.

Part 3: Chapter 4 Bourdieu's Political Economy of Symbolic Power

Beyond Structuralist Marxism

Bourdieu develops a political economy of symbolic power that includes a theory of symbolic interest, a theory of power as capital, and a theory of symbolic violence and capital.

A Sociology of Symbolic Interests

All cultural production, in a political economy of culture, (including science), is reward-oriented for investment and profit.

There can be as many interests as there are institutionalized arenas of conflict over valued resources. Interest is whatever motivates action toward consequences that matter. Thus intellectual objectivity or disinterest is nil.

Power as Capital

Capital extends to all forms of power. Individuals and groups draw upon cultural, social, and symbolic resources to ameliorate their position in the social order.

Cultural capital has three forms:

1. 
   
   acquired through socialization by the individual


2. 
   
   objects that require special abilities to use (art, music, etc.)


3. 
   
   institutionalized through the educational system.

In spite of autonomy, culture is subordinate to economy (the starving artist).

A Theory of Symbolic Violence and Capital

Symbolic systems

1. 
   
   perform three functions: cognition, communication, and social differentiation.


2. 
   
   order the social world


3. 
   
   codes channeling deep meanings shared by members of a culture


4. 
   
   serve as instruments of domination.

Bourdieu thus combines structuralist and constructionist perspectives. Binary symbolic distinctions correlate with social distinctions turning symbolic classifications into social hierarchy. The power of domination through legitimation cements class hierarchy.

Symbolic violence intellectualizes the power struggle and legitimizes it through sociological explanation. Mis-recognition, false conscious, or denial is the mental state that perpetuates symbolic violence.

Symbolic capital is power that is perceived as legitimate need for recognition, deference, obedience, or the services of others. Many such practices would not be performed if they were recognized for what they are: self-serving.

Symbolic capital is the legitimation of power relations through symbolic forms. It is accumulated like material capital and can be exchanged for material capital.

Symbolic labor is specialized producers in the arenas of culture such as religion where there are symbolic producers.

Cultural producers (artists, writers, teachers, journalists, etc.) legitimate social order by producing symbolic capital through symbolic labor.

Bourdieu's work is the study of the political economy of forms of symbolic capital.

Bourdieu Fields of Struggle for Power, Part 2

Field Homologies

Within fields entities have structural and functional homologies, or resemblances within differences. Dominance and subordination co-exist as counter-axis holding each other in place, which seems to be co-dependency.

French education and the Catholic church are homologous. The educational system legitimizes the unequal distribution of cultural capital, like the church, p. 130.

Bourdieu parallels economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital and position in the various fields. Those who dominate, are in control across the strata. Those who are dominated, tend to be so consistently. Struggles in cultural fields produce cultural distinctions that are social distinctions: what is in and what is out. Thus the resultant homologous relations between fields.

The legitimacy of social class and inequality results from structural correspondence between fields, (p. 134).

Finally, Bourdieu supports two historic trends:

1. the increasing autonomy of cultural fields from the economy and polity


2. the ultimate dominance of the economic field, (p. 135), (which seems to be taking place right before our eyes).

In chapter 9, Bourdieu explains the capacity for political alliance between intellectuals and workers [this should be interesting]. Apparently both intellectuals and workers are in subordinate positions, though in different fields.

Status group co-membership, network ties, and common world views help explain reciprocal relationship between groups.

The Field of Power: Economic Capital versus Cultural Capital

The field of power is the principal field, conflict is fundamental to all social life, and essential to all social interaction is the struggle for power (p. 136), with two hierarchies at work:

1. economic capital (income, wealth, and property)


2. cultural capital (knowledge, culture, and education credentials).

The wider the gap in asset structure of these types of capital, the greater the power struggle for domination (p. 137).

Cultural fields vary in autonomy from economic and political authority (p. 140). Bourdieu poses a structural analysis expressing the deep structure of all social and political conflict.

Toward a General Science of Practices: A Research Program

[habitus) (capital)] + field = practice

is the equation summarizing Bourdieu's model.

Applying this model to our study, Bourdieu necessitates three steps for research:

1. 
   
   Relate the particular field of practices to the broader field of power.


2. 
   
   Identify the structure of objective relations between the opposing positions occupied by individuals or groups as they compete for intellectual or artistic legitimation.


3. 
   
   Analyze the class habitus brought by agents to their respective positions and the social trajectory they pursue within the field of struggle.

This would constitute Bourdieu's research method.

Bourdieu, Chapter 6, Intro Statements

In Chapter 6 of Culture and Power, The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, David Swartz discusses Bourdieu's context of fields (champs).

This will be Part 1 (114-129) to this chapter followed by an entry tomorrow with part 2 (129-142).

The concept of field reacts against positivism in that the boundaries are not definitely drawn, (p. 119). As opposed to reductionism and vulgar materialism, through the lens of field the effects of background and environment on individual behavior are perceived. Finally, field rejects cultural idealism.

With the concept of field, Bourdieu emphasizes social conflict rather than consensus (institutions), p. 120. Boundaries are not clearly defined. The broadest possible range of factors to explain behavior are exhibited through the concept of field (p. 121). Thus, a social scientist must not hasten to narrow the range of their investigation. The researcher must not yield to institutional pressure to limit their scope, producing symbolic effects lacking objectivity, p.122.

Fields are:

• arenas of struggle for control over valued resources (i.e., capital as objects of struggle, functioning as "social relation of power").
• centered around forms of capital such as economic, cultural, scientific, or religious.
• in relation to real life areas: such as the intellectual field (culture), economic field (business), science, religion.
• varied as the types of capital
• (p. 123) structured spaces of dominant and subordinate positions based on types and amounts of capital, and unequal distribution of relevant capitals.
• occupied by dominant conservative established actors (orthodoxy) and new subversive subhordinates (heresy)
• of these two opposing strategies dialectically aligned one generating the other (124), and a third which is (conservation), succession, (subversion).
• deeply structured with specific forms of struggle called doxa. (Rules of the game.)
• structured by their internal mechanisms of development, interconnected and independent from external factors, p. 126.
  
• an analysis shifting attention away from the particularistic characteristics of individuals and groups and toward the struggles and dynamics of arenas of social life that shape their behavior (129).

As a way of bringing this discussion to life, here are two Youtube videos for perusal with application of the concept of field. Note the actors, the conflicts, arenas of social life and interaction. In each example, identify orthodoxy, succession, and heresy or subversion. Also note the capital, various types and fields. Enjoy.

• WW2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6omQ5JjjLsE&feature=related

• religion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ope-1Zb5t-k&feature=related


Tomorrow: Part 2.

from Bauman to Bourdieu via Fresh Air

Last night Terri Gross interviewed Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone and New York Times journalist Paul Tough regarding Canada's project in Harlem and Tough's book about the same, Geoffrey Canada: 'Whatever It Takes' To Teach Kids.

Terri Gross, in the interview, pointed out that Canada, over the course of his work in Harlem of about 30 years, had drastically changed his strategy. 

He explained that over a dozen years ago, he felt his intensive program of working with a smaller number of children was failing. He said to solve the problem, he expanded his program to include 8,000 children in Harlem.

Terri again pointed out that it was unusual to fail and then expand instead of fail and shrink.

Canada explained that the small number of students he was helping at first, were not succeeding because when they went home from school they had to face the gang culture which beat them up physically for thinking they could better themselves.

Canada said he needed to expand his program to include whole neighborhoods and change the very culture, so students could go home from school and feel safe. 

Canada made a very important point of how essential it is for him to actually change the culture in the neighborhoods so that his school programs will succeed.

Needless to say, this discussion, in light of our class, was fascinating.

His school programs begin with the parents, and then follow this students all the way up until they have graduated from college. In his Harlem schools, there are clinics, social workers, medical staff, and psychiatrists. Every need of the students is supported at school.

Canada, and Tough, feel this expanded program is successful. Obama wants to replicate the program in other cities.

A side note: Canada thinks that teaching to the test to pass No Child Left Behind mandates is what needs to be done. He wishes more teachers would teach to the test. He doesn't care if the test is culturally different from where the students are coming from (culturally). He says they must learn that culture anyway to succeed in college, so teach to the test and learn early how to succeed in college. The goal is a complete education with a college degree and a job that will elevate the children out of the gang neighborhoods where they have come from.

A FEW COMMENTS ON BOURDIEU:

p. 93. Bourdieu labels symbolic labor as well as symbolic power and symbolic capital. "Indeed, Bourdieu's sociological project is a study of the political economy of the various forms of symbolic capital. He focuses much of his work on the symbolic producers who specialize in creating symbolic power... he also thinks of his sociology as an instrument of struggle against the various forms of symbolic violence." (p. 94).

Perhaps the most interesting example I have personally witnessed was with a friend of mine in college, Loki Lincoln. Loki was from an obscure tribe in Southern Sudan. His father was the chief of the tribe with many wives. However, Loki was the firstborn son in his group of about 40 siblings. After Sudan became independent many years before, missionaries stayed on to promote education and health care. There were still missionaries in the area years later when Loki was born and growing up.

 A group of nuns in Loki's area requested that Loki attend school. Loki would become the first to learn to read in his tribe, or what his father called, "The White Man's Secret." This was no small event for this tribe, and certainly the chief. As a matter of fact, Loki's dad did not readily give his consent to the nuns to teach his son the White Man's Secret.

His dad thought long and hard about what would happen if Loki learned to read. It would change the tribe forever. Their tradition was oral passed on through tribal elders and not read in books. Their language had never been written down. The chief feared a Pandora's Box if Loki went to school.

In the end Loki attended the school of the nuns. He learned about the outside world. Eventually, he won a scholarship (also secured through the nuns) to go to college in the United States. The first born son was not taking over as the chief. He was getting an education to go back to Sudan (perhaps) and take his place in the greater society of Sudan.

This is what Loki's dad was afraid of. He regretted his decision but it was too late.

From Consumer to Citizen

Consuming Life by Zygmunt Bauman consumed my weekend. Upon reflection, it seems to me that Bauman uses a wide swathe to paint the big picture of the human community of global modernity, or what he terms liquid modernity.

Indeed, (p. 45) consumption as a way of life and road to happiness (latest car, clothes, house) in the west contrasts sharply with the traditional life I experienced when I lived in West Africa for a year, where relationships defined the person. Materialism was simply the urgency of rebuilding one's hut for the rainy season for real shelter, not the latest look. When Bokasa of RCA ordered his people to paint their huts like the civilization of France, the village folk did everything they could to scrape together the means to white-wash their huts, but this was not to keep up with the neighbors. They were not interested other than to escape the wrath of the emperor. A great night out in that venue was not Hollywood or Broadway but around the campfire sharing songs, stories and dance. No money or profit were involved. The new dawn came the next day when the sun came up, not according to a shopping trip schedule and purchasing new things.

The never-ending task of (p. 60) consumers is a daunting, uphill task, a never-ending path of earn, spend/consume, discard. The consumer becomes the consumed in this treadmill of work and consumption. The consumer is consumed by the process; the consumer is the product to be owned and controlled by the institutional entities that are at the forefront of this machine (government, business, religion - from the writings of Rick Warren himself: The Purpose Drive Life).

More importantly, however, is that this process leaves roadkill and that is as the consumer becomes the consumed, their health, relationships, inner soul, are destroyed. They are simply a cog in the grand machine. (p. 124). They become the failed consumers when they are no longer able to earn, purchase, and discard as expected. They are the throw-aways of society. Except they are not really thrown away. The discards are no longer considered people, true, but that makes them vulnerable to be used for even more evil purposes such as human traffiking, which is on the rise.

The case of the Lawrence King empire of Omaha which involved business, government, and the press, is a good example. King used a credit union as a cover, went into what was Boys/Girls Town to secure orphans (throw-aways) and made them available to higher ups in business and government for use in whatever manner. Thus the throw-aways become "useful" to the controlling machine in a less than human manner.

As an educator, the bigger picture of the failure of leadership to treat humanity humanely is an opportunity to provide a different type of opportunity for learners, wherever possible. Apathy, (p. 148) or not being responsive to the evils of the greater culture, is missing the opportunity to deal with the social realities of our society with the opportunities afforded in a classroom. A classroom need not be simply a breeding ground for the consumer society. Rather, each individual can be afforded opportunity for self-realization, self-management, and cooperative group engagement in learning.

Bauman mentions the Holocaust. Within the Holocaust, were the leaders who stood up to the Nazi machine and worked with others to save lives. 

If, indeed, modern liquidity is a modern holocaust, than those who see what is happening must stand up against the machine to save lives.

(p. 149) Democracy must be brought back to its original meaning. People must go from being consumers to citizens. Students must be recognized as life-long learners rather than as test scores (No Child Left Behind). 

I can't wait to read the next Bauman book.

Welcome!

Welcome to the L2 Class Culture Blog!

We are looking at culture from many points of view, beginning with the history of the actual word culture.

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