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Social structure and social process
Pierre bourdieu habitus theory
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As a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher, Pierre Bourdieu focuses on the role of practice and embodiment in social dynamics of power relations in life, which opposes Western traditions. He conceptualizes the notions of habitus and field, which disclose the construction in human society, which, according to him, should not be understood as applying a set of rules. Echoing Michel Foucault and Michel de Certeau, Bourdieu intents to analyze the interrelationship between social structure and social practice. His arguments are around a reconciliation of both external power generated from social structure and internal power produced by subjective individuality. Bourdieu transforms Max Weber’s notion of domination and social orders into his theory of fields, defining field as a setting in which agents and their social positions are located, a system of social positions that are structured in terms of power relationships. Fields, so to speak, “provide themselves with agents equipped with the habitus needed to make them work”(1980, 67). Bourdieu thereby claims that society can be seen as the sum of social objective relationships in the conditions of economic production and that it is the social agent should be emphasized in society. Bourdieu, although retaining structuralist concepts of social structures, argues that the reproduction of social structure is not constrained by the logic of social structure. Bourdieu describes habitus as the theory of the mode of the generation of practices. Habitus, according to Bourdieu, which is a “product of history” structured based on a set of acquired dispositions, is constituted in practice and is always “oriented towards practical functions”(1980, 52-54). That is, habitus ... ... middle of paper ... ...uses construct practical space that organizes social relations ; Calendars structure practical time that organizes social works. System of classification, as embodiment of social order thereby subsumes subjective experiences and naturalizes “its own arbitrariness”(1977, 164). Doxa, the state of this naturalization, through censorship and exclusion, preserves a “universe of that which is taken for granted”(1977, 170) Bourdieu further argues that practices involve “a logic made to dispense with concepts”(1977, 116) but should not be described as logical processes. It is, instead of abstract logic, but body movements and actual practice should be analyzed with an investigation on the connection between body movements and classificatory system. The “language of the body”, according to Bourdieu, is more ambiguous to be analyzed than linguistic schemes(1977, 120).
One of Bourdieu’s central arguments is that what we refer to as “capital” is actually the collective product of four sub-types of capital: economic, social, symbolic, and cultural. Although these different types of capital are distinct categories, they intersect to create the more mainstream idea of capital. Similarly, Hill Collins and Bilge break down the broad idea of power into smaller components in order to examine how power operates, and how its tied to
The goal of the anthropologist is to come to understand the beliefs and behaviours of the cultures around them, without judgement. When one scrutinizes Western rituals, we often have difficulty seeing the strangeness of our own culture. To understand those around us, we must first be able to understand ourselves. In this paper, I will attempt to critically summarize and analyze Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”.
Among the books discussed over the duration of the course, the most recurrent theme has been the dominance of power relationships and the construction of institutions driven by power. The framework for these socially ingrained power relationships that has been transformed over time has been laid out by Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish. According to Foucault, power is everywhere, dispersed in institutions and spread through discourses. The state functions on a number of dispositions which are hierarchical, naturalized and are the modes of power for the power elite. The result of this social and economic control is observed in nations and across nations through the beauty myth, the prison system, the creation of informal systems or the overarching cultural hegemony and attempted reform of the non-western world. The key to the success of this has been through the misrecognition of the constructed systems of power which are instated through very fundamental mediums that they are not questioned. These structures of control by the state are adopted and reproduced from the base of the familiar, through arrangements and dispositions that pose themselves as natural, as they are embodied and programmed in the play of language, in common sense, and in all what is socially taken for granted. In this essay I will examine these above mentioned structures of the power and how these models are used to discipline individuals and states.
In the Chapter 3 of “The Reality of Social Construction”, Dave Elder-Vass examines the academic views about culture and rules. He calls cultural realism the view according to which culture and rules exist independently of people. In this chapter, the author explains the reason why he does not agree with the academic view of culture.
Three thinkers form the foundations of modern-day sociological thinking. Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. Each developed different theoretical approaches to help us understand the way societies function, and how we are determined by society. This essay will focus on the contrasts and similarities of Durkheim and Weber’s thought of how we are determined by society. It will then go on to argue that Weber provides us with the best account of modern life.
Debord uses the term 'cultural theory' to denote the common ground between class and society. It could b...
Social order derives from an interpretation of a net of relations, symbols and social codes. It creates 'a sense of how individuals all fit together in shared spaces' (Silva, 2009, p. 308), and thus relies on encoding of human behaviour in physical spaces as well as among various individuals. In any society, people must acquire knowledge of how to relate to one another and their environment. Order is then established by a normalisation and standardisation of this knowledge. This essay will examine two views on social order, applied to social sciences, and embodied in everyday life. It will compare and contrast a Canadian sociologist, Erving Goffman, and a French philosopher, Michel Foucault. Through an analysis of these two figures, the text will present different ways of looking at social ordering and individuals' place in a human society. Firstly, it will be shown how Goffman and Foucault approach the subject of social order, finding patterns of behaviour in micro and macro-social realities. Secondly, the essay will explore Goffman's and Foucault's views on underlying characteristics of social order, one drawing on performances, and the other on a reinforced adaptation. Finally, it will be argued that each theorist comments on a perception of the self, and its authenticity as a result of social ordering. In conclusion, it will be clear that order is a set of linked social structures, which cannot be reduced to one single theory.
...its members to adhere to it could be established that it does in fact hold a huge influence over the way and nature we use our body. Culture through its system of symbols, that are structurally formed, through habitus, serves to teach us how to behave in order to become a fully fledged member of our given society. These symbols are further reinforced through the intuitions of family and education, the media, fashion and perceived societal norms. This affects the many ways in which we use our body, from the technique of walking through to sleeping, whilst also helping us to classify our social identity of gender and age. It is only through learning, continual practice and adhering to constant self control of one’s self, that we are able to do this successfully making every action we make a taken for granted “gymnastic art, perfected in our own day” (Mauss 1934:456).
Swartz, D (1997) Culture and power, the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. London: The University of Chicago Press.
Third, institutions consist of a new type of power, so that all individual relations constitute a power relationship. (Foucault, “Truth and Juridical Forms” 82-83) A relationship of power may be described as a mode of action that acts upon an individual’s actions through which the behavior of an active subject is able to inscribe itself. (Foucault, “The Subject and Power” 342) Institutions work through an authority network of individuals, and power is employed and exercised by individuals through a netlike organization. “Not only do individuals circulate between its threads; they are always in the position of simultaneously undergoing and exercising this power.
“The various disciplines that make up the arts and sciences are the cultural frames in terms of which attitudes are formed and lives conducted. The interpretive study of culture represents an attempt to come to terms with the diversity of the ways human beings construct their lives in the act of leading them.”
...eu, P 1989, ‘Space and symbolic power’, Sociological theory, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 14-25, viewed 28 June 2014, .
Newman, David. Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press, 1997.
Another theory that is considered while interrogating the natural practice of society is the post structuralism view. It is not an important topic to be discussed as it relates to Cultural Studies. The post structuralism view questions the natural belief and makes it a bigger issue to be discussed and arises many questions for people. The post structuralism view tries to undo all we know and confuse us and fill out head with questions about what we already know from belief and practice within society. It creates a more interesting thought to our minds because it twists what we have thought naturally and forces us to interrogate more into the meaning we thought it actually was.