G. Carter Bentley

G. Carter Bentley’s practice theory is a popular approach in understanding how ethnicity is constructed and ethnic identity is maintained. Here we shift from boundaries to focus on people’s patterns of experiences, both objective and subjective. Bentley draws on Bordieu’s concepts of "habitus" and "practice". Bordieu argues that the objective conditions, mediated by systems of symbolic representations, generate in different persons dispositions to act in different ways (Bentley 1987: 28) Habitus compromises "…a set of generative schemes that produce practices and representations that are regular without reference to overt rules and that are goal directed without requiring conscious selection of goals or mastery of methods achieving them." (as quoted in Bentley, Ibid.,). Hence habits become a mechanic way of being, acting and thinking, developed through 1) social practices, 2) shared experiences, 3) experimentation and 4) comprehension of those relationships or difference at both the conscious and unconscious levels. There is constant interplay between these levels (collectively and individually).

Practice is a concept linked to the Marxist tradition of emphasizing power relations. This is connected to ethnic identity in that to look at experiences people go through we have to distinguish between the different domains of experience and social practice. Analysis of different domains will tell us how they influence people’s perception of the world, of their place in society as members of a group. Because this process involves interrelationships, it is important to focus on the experience of interaction. Secondly, there must be an analysis of discourses by the state (i.e. laws, policies etc.) and how they are articulated, and how the discourses of leaders of ethnic groups find resonance by their group. Both these levels of analysis help us understand ethnicity as an ideology and how ethnic identity cannot be kept separate from experience and social practice.

Bentley: ethnicity and practice

Bentley demonstrates the relationship between patterns of practice and sensations of ethnic affinity by the example of a Marano woman who has struggled with a sense of ambivalent ethnicity: "…a feeling that she is neither here nor there but instead limited in a system [Philippine social context] of categorical identities" (Bentley 1987: 29). Soraya’s experience illustrates the value of the theory of practice. Sensations of ethnic affinity are founded on common life experience and of the preconscious habitus it generates that gives members of an ethnic group their sense of being familiar to each other (Bentley 1987: 33).