1. Dr. Ciaran Burke c.burke@derby.ac.uk
Pierre Bourdieu
Dr. Ciaran Burke

2. Thinking tools Field: Social context for habitus and capital
Le champ or Le pre?
Fields have:
Inner logic or “common sense” – doxa
Rules
All fields are located within the field of power
Field
Capital
Habitus

3. Thinking tools
Dynamic nature of field is illustrated through the process of hysteresis:
“[T]he structural lag between opportunities and the dispositions to grasp them which is the cause of missed opportunities” (Bourdieu, 1977: 83)
Field
Capital
Habitus

4. Thinking tools
“[T]he hysteresis effect means that the holders of the devalued diplomas become, in a sense, accomplices in their own mystification, since by a typical effect of allodoxia, they bestow a value on their devalued diplomas which is not objectively acknowledged.” (Bourdieu, 1984: 82).
Field
Capital
Habitus

5. Understanding the Market
Meritocracy
Frustration
Working Class graduates
You go to School, then University, then a Masters and then you get a job. Is that how it’s going to be?”(Steve)
I thought I could go into marketing or HR because I did part of that in the last year of uni … they were asking for two years’ experience. I was like, I’m only out of university, and no one’s giving me a break, it was just like… (Sarah)

6. Understanding the Market
“University only gets you so far” (Phil)
“I think having that job (extra-curricular spin-off company) was definitely important for my degree, especially if you’re hoping to go into professional life afterwards” (Lindsey)
Education is not enough
A range of capitals
Middle Class graduates

7. Mechanisms of reproduction
Within any system of reproduction, there needs to be a mechanism to allow this to continue
Within Bourdieu’s theoretical project a central cog in this machine is “symbolic violence”
‘[s]ymbolic violence, to put it as tersely and simply as possible, is the violence which is exercised upon a social agent with his or her complicity’ (emphasis in original, Bourdieu, 1992: 167).

8. Mechanisms of reproduction
Agents are aware that the social structure is based on disadvantage but accept it as being so, failing to understand that a violent act is occurring.
It is through the process of symbolic violence, self-regulation and opting out of various activities and situations, that we can locate the genesis of the oft-referenced “not for the likes of us” (Bourdieu, 1984: 471).

9. Symbolic violence and education
The educational system is seen as a central site for facilitating symbolic violence:
Unwritten rules
Language used
Subjects taught
Design of buildings (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1990).
Symbolic violence also influences future attitudes and pathways in education:
Connolly (2000) reporting on primary school students in Northern Ireland opting out of sitting the 11+
Reay et al. (2005) whether students go to university and where they study
Furlong and Cartmel (2005) trends in working class graduates expecting to earn less than average graduate income.

10. Symbolic violence = glass ceiling?
Typically symbolic violence acts on the dominated group (working class) to the advantage of the dominant group (middle class)
Equally such convictions on “how things are” can be damaging to members of the dominant group in the right conditions
Bourdieu (1992) uses the example of masculinity and emotions
In the context of higher education this ”inverted symbolic violence” (Burke, 2015) can manifest itself when navigating the graduate labour market

11. Symbolic violence = glass ceiling?
In previous research I observed a group “Entitled Middle Class”:
Very successful in (higher) education
Good understanding of how to play the game
Through a sense of entitlement expected the “game to come to them”
The result was graduates in non-graduate jobs because they were waiting for a suitable job to arise.

12. Symbolic violence = glass ceiling?
I didn’t really care. I just thought, “I’m going to try and do what I want to do anyway.” It didn’t count for anything. It was kind of a talk and stuff, but, I think, in my own mind, I knew the direction I wanted to go in. (Jonny)
I’ve been a waitress since I was 19. It was my first “job” job. I got a job in the [4 star] hotel, and I worked in [up-market restaurant] (Hannah)
Rather than a glass ceiling, they stand atop a concrete floor.
Other applications?

13. Durable not eternal
Bourdieu discusses what he terms the ‘trajectory effect’ (1984: 111):
majority of a social group are likely to follow a certain trajectory, similar to each other and previous generations
a small percentage of this group, dominant or dominated, will follow a contrasting path.
Bourdieu is keen to remind us that ‘[habitus] is durable but not eternal!’ (1992: 133).
Bourdieu argues that the habitus can change through a significant change of influence.
However, he is careful to immediate interject that this kind of change or influence is highly unlikely.

14. Durable not eternal
Habitus can change through “out-of-environment-experiences” (Burke, 2015).
Previous research observed Strategic Working Class:
Low levels of educational expectations
Poor understanding of navigating social space
Upon graduation they entered and continued to have a non-graduate job
However when they had a significant encounter with an individual:
Increased levels of expectations
Strong understanding of (context specific ) social space

15. Durable not eternal
Alongside habitus, shifts in capital can lead to social mobility
Previous research observed Converted Working Class:
Low levels of educational expectations
Poor understanding of navigating social space
Upon graduation they entered a non-graduate job
However they had a one time exchange of a high level of capital which they exchanged for a graduate job.
Once this capital was used:
Their low levels of expectations returned
They were stuck in a job that they did not enjoy but couldn’t move vertically or horizontally

16. The pain of social mobility
Friedman (2015) builds on Bourdieu’s work to consider the cleft habitus or habitus clive – when it is split over two fields
Ingram and Abrahams (2016) offer a much more nuanced reading of the cleft habitus.
Here they consider the relationship between ”old” and “new” habitus and the consequences on the self:
Abandoned habitus – the original habitus is overwritten by the new, the individual manages to pass as middle class however they are a stranger in their natal communities.
Reconfirmed habitus – the conditions which would form the new habitus are rejected by the old habitus to be reconfirmed. It can result in social reproduction and symbolic violence.

17. The pain of social mobility
Reconciled habitus – when the habitus recognizes, accepts and navigates two fields or field positions. This can have positive effects for the individual.
Destabilized habitus – when two fields or field positions pull the habitus in two directions and the habitus is unable to balance the demands.

18. Bourdieu: critiques French theory belongs in France
Bourdieu is too difficult to read
Bourdieu’s main theoretical publication was in 1977
Bourdieu focuses too much on structure
Jenkins (1992) considers Bourdieu’s theoretical project “a failure”
Bourdieu does not consider the role of agency – primarily through the absence of reflexivity

19. Conclusion
Bourdieu is the final author working within the late modern era
His point, to paraphrase Kant, we can live in a late modern time without being late modern
For Bourdieu, structures still play a leading role in practice.
To help us think about his project he provides “thinking tools”:
Habitus
Capital
Field
He is open to a number of critiques namely the structural nature of his work
Bourdieu accounts for some of these critiques
There are a number of contemporary applications attempting to “save Bourdieu from himself”