The Logic of Practices in Pierre Bourdieu

Abstract

This work proposes a comparative critical approach to the terms in which Pierre Bourdieu formulates, on one hand, the theory of practices and, on the other, those implicit in what he calls 'public position taking', a theory of social change. The question that guides the article is: to what degree is the logic of practices contained in the theory of action that the author develops and defends in his scientific works consistent with that enunciated in his public interventions when referring to conditions and mechanisms for change? The analysis leads to a consideration of an important difference between the terms in which Bourdieu analyses and explains social practices, and those he uses when depicting the conditions under which social change is possible.keywords: political commitment ✦ role of the intellectual ✦ social agent ✦ theory of change ✦ theory of practices The present work critically compares the logic of practices as formulated, on one hand, in the theory of action developed by Pierre Bourdieu in his scientific works, and on the other, in the theory of change implicit in his public 'position taking'. 1 It is possible to indicate an important difference between the logic postulated by his theory when it analyses and explains social practices (economic, religious, academic, artistic, etc.) and the logic he uses when delineating the conditions under which social change is not only conceivable but also possible.

Gender, Field, and Habitus: How Gendered Dispositions Reproduce Fields of Cultural Production

“…Huppatz () develops this insight to argue that a gendered original habitus draws women into occupational fields like social work, nursing, and hairstyling by motivating women to enter these fields, and signaling to gatekeepers that they are “malleable.” As field members develop an appropriate specific habitus, they acquire insiders’ dispositions and learn to navigate the field. The continual acting out of these dispositions also reproduces the fields’ structure and logics of practice (Costa ). Habitus and field thus exist in a reciprocal relationship (Bourdieu ).…”

The Agency/Structure Dilemma: A Coordination Solution

“…Giddens' solution, consisting in the embedment of routine activities in time‐space and physical bodies, has its strengths (Urry, 1997). Bourdieu (Costa, 2006) and, even more markedly, Giddens (New, 1994) bridged the agency/structure gap by the dialectical interplay of agency and social structures in the transfigurations and transformations of social forms. At the same time, they avoided the problem of transitions, when a “liquefaction” of structures occurs.…”

Who Do We Think They Are? Transformations in Feminist Knowledge Production Regarding Men Who Have Used Violence in Their Heterosexual Relationships in Canada

“…It becomes part of one's habitus to continually reinvent one's relationship to, and position in, the world. A further opportunity for generativity is presented by Ricardo Costa (2006) who contends that, while the conditioning of the field "precedes and structures the habitus" (p. 878), the habitus does not reproduce the field but rather produces representations of the field. I would add the further point that fields produce a variety of habitus, which then produce representations of a variety of fields -all of which overlap and interact.…”

“…The seeming inconsistency between Bourdieu's work on the academy, which focuses on how the field is necessarily reproduced, and his work on social transformation which explores how the necessity for reproduction could be disrupted by those seeking social change/justice, is also investigated by Costa (2006). Costa argues that between these two, Bourdieu shifts from an analysis based on articulating position-taking and interest-based struggles, to a focus on solidarity and generosity, conversion, authenticity and (good) will.…”

“…Including in the discussion the idea that no field generates a homogenous habitus (and that each habitus exists within intersecting fields) seems to go a long way toward addressing Alexander's concerns regarding how oppositional or radical activism/scholarship can exist when the habitus is so strongly associated with social reproduction. Adding the understanding that reflexivity is based in habit (Crossley, 2001) and can be incorporated into habit (Sweetman 2003) and that the habitus creates imperfect representations of the field (Costa 2006) helps us to further understand opportunities for radical work. Bourdieu (1990) himself argues that the habitus has an, … infinite yet strictly limited generative capacity [that] is difficult to understand only so long as one remains locked in the usual antinomies -which the concept of the habitus aims to transcend -of determinism and freedom, conditioning and creativity, consciousness and the unconscious or the individual and society.…”