Bourdieu and Social Work

Invited to labour or participate: intra- and inter-generational distinctions and the role of capital in children’s invited participation

“…The Alvari, facilitated by a participation worker from the Local Democracy Unit (LDU), meet four or five times a year in five local areas of Tampere. Following Bourdieu (1986; and Emirbayer & Williams (2005), we engaged in a circular process of identifying the attitudes and social and cultural resources mobilised in different practices; exploring different key actors' relationships to these, and to wider distributions of resources; and, focusing on what might be considered as capital, enabling the influence of child and adult 'representatives' within these structures. When analyzing the data we have aimed to neutralise and analyse the power of dominant discourse, to see behind that (Bourdieu, 1999) and to question apparently accepted symbolic legitimacy or value flowing from different capitals.…”

How to reach the top? Fields, forms of capital, and strategies in accessing leadership positions in France among descendants of migrants from Turkey

“…Through subversion strategies, the newcomers aim to transpose the rules of the game and the valued forms of capital in the field, hence altering the system of domination within the field to their advantage (Bourdieu 1993). Emirbayer and Williams (2005), however, have noted that in order for the game to function within the field, all players should agree on the rules of the game, and these are set initially by the dominant group. This makes subversion strategies more difficult to adopt, and thus newcomers to the field are more inclined to adapt, conserve, and reproduce the existing system.…”

Potential and Possibility: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Social Change with Incarcerated Patients

“…Several authors have linked Bourdieu to both social work theory and practice (Emirbayer and Williams 2005;Finn and Jacobson 2003;Fram 2004;Garrett 2007). Emirbayer and Williams (2005) state that Bourdieu ''provided a new relational approach to the study of fields of domination and struggle, a new way of thinking about how power operates within social life'' (p. 689).…”

“…Emirbayer and Williams (2005) state that Bourdieu ''provided a new relational approach to the study of fields of domination and struggle, a new way of thinking about how power operates within social life'' (p. 689). Garrett (2007) remarks that ''Bourdieu's theorization and his nagging insistence on the relevance and sheer stickiness of social structure provides a useful counterweight'' to the tendency to privilege ''the role of individual agency'' within social work discourse (p. 372).…”