Challenging the field: Bourdieu and men’s health

Abstract

This paper considers how understandings of health promotion with men may be assisted by engagement with Bourdieu's theoretical work. The paper outlines leading concepts within Bourdieu's work on 'field' 'habitus' and 'capital', considers subsequent critical debates among gender, feminist and sociological theorists around structure and agency, and links these to discussions within men's health. A particular focus concerns structural disruption of, and movement of social actors between, 'fields' such as family, work and leisure settings. The paper examines, through Bourdieu's critical legacy, whether such disruption establishes conditions for transformative reflexivity among men in relation to previously held dispositions (habitus), including those inflected by masculinities, that affect men's health practices. Recent work within Bourdieu's heritage potentially facilitates a re-framing of understandings of men's health practices. The paper specifically explores masculine ambivalence within accounts of reflexivity, identities, and practice, and considers how social and symbolic ('masculine') capital are in play. Implications of Bourdieu's leading concepts for theorising settings-focused approaches to men's health promotion are exemplified with reference to a men's health project in a football stadium leisure setting. The paper considers benefits and challenges of applying gendered critical insights drawing on Bourdieu's work to men's health promotion, and discusses emerging theoretical dilemmas. words

‘I put pressure on myself to keep that body’: ‘Health’-related body work, masculinities and embodied identity

“…A range of theoretical perspectives have explored masculinity, health and body behaviours, including the interactionist tradition (Atkinson and Monaghan, 2014), Norbert Elias's figurational approach (Atkinson, 2007), phenomenological perspectives (Drummond, 2005) and, most recently in this journal, a Bourdieusian approach (Robinson and Robertson, 2014). This article aims to contribute to developing a Deleuzian approach to theorising the body in relation to masculinity and health through the concepts of affect and assemblage.…”

Intersections of US Military Culture, Hegemonic Masculinity, and Health Care Among Injured Male Service Members

“…In the analysis of these data, we focused on the construct of hegemonic masculinity (Connell 1995; Connell and Messerschmidt 2005; Courtenay 2000a) and used Bourdieu’s theory of practice as an analytical framework. We did not consider “masculinity” as a field unto itself (Robinson and Robertson 2014), but rather a phenomenon that is constructed within the field of military culture.…”

Hysteresis, social congestion and debt: towards a sociology of mental health disorders in undergraduates

“…Sociological analyses of the rise of mental illness in the undergraduate population and the possible connections with widening participation are, however, notably absent from this discussion. Whilst Bourdieu's work has been insightful for understanding academic adaptation his work has only recently been applied in sociology of health (Collyer et al, 2015;Robinson and Robertson, 2014) and rarely extended to discussions about mental disorder (Pinxten and Leivens, 2014) As a novel departure, this paper suggests a Bourdieusian framework for theorising and studying the rise of mental illness in the undergraduate population and draws connections between capital, educational change and individual psychological malaise. I posit that widening participation has extended educational opportunities but has also provided the context for a state of hysteresis (Bourdieu, 1977) to emerge.…”