...Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu is a well known French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher whose work has greatly influenced the people of his time and still continues to do so today. He worked during the 1970s and 1980s studying and analyzing the idea of power within a comprehensive “theory of society”. With many years of conducting his own research, he came up with a theory of his own to identify individuals and their relationship with society and their status with power. Bourdieu sought to connect his theoretical ideas with his own life experiences to best relate his work with people of society in his time. While doing so, he managed to create a different set of key concepts to carefully break down and explain how he believes that our social system is made up and why. Although he has many revolutionary concepts, my paper will mainly focus on three of them: habitus, capital, and field. Born in Denguin, a small village located in Southern France on August 1, 1930, Pierre Felix Bourdieu was born to a working class family. Growing up, he was greatly influenced by his father to pursue the best education possible that his country could offer; because of this, Bourdieu ended up getting accepted to one of the best and most prestigious universities in France--the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. This is where he studied philosophy under Louis Althusser a famous Marxist thinker. After finishing school and receiving his doctorate, Bourdieu went to Algeria in 1958...
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...Pierre Bourdieu and the Distinctive Body Nadeem Fayaz For Pierre Bourdieu, the “natural body” is transformed into a “distinctive body”. A minority of people are able to profit from the use of their natural bodies, though the majority of people can only use their bodies for profit through projecting a distinctive body. To achieve this higher level of distinction perhaps is to treat the body as “a 'thing' separate from the self, a machine, to be tuned and serviced and improved wherever possible."[1] Though to treat the body as a machine, perhaps makes problematic the notion of the body as 'natural' because it is no longer just a biological entity, but a socially constructed product and ultimately, to gain distinction, a 'body for others.' The body for others “is the visible manifestation of the person, of the 'idea it wants to give of itself', its 'character', i.e. its values and capacities."[2] This manifestation of the body is influenced by the person's 'taste', social field and 'habitus'. Bourdieu defines taste as an incorporated principle of classification which governs all forms of incorporation, choosing and modifying everything that the body ingests and digests and assimilates, physiologically and psychologically.[3] Taste is thus determined by class, according to Bourdieu. This is significant because "People develop preferences for what is available to them."[4] These preferences are formed from a mixture of economic, social and cultural 'capitals'...
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...MUD08243876 Differences in cultural capital mark the differences between the classes” Pierre Bourdieu How do class, gender, sexuality or race work in relation to taste today? Using at least two key theorists discussed on the course, explain how ideas of taste are presented in any two media texts. The concept of good taste and class has always been a sensitive subject for those perceived as lacking enough taste or class to fit in the higher echelons of society. Historically, taste. class and it’s symbols have always been defined by the social elite. It was been incredibly difficult for outsiders to gain access to the knowledge that ensured the ruling class were in a position to define taste for the rest of the population. There has however always been a drive in the lower classes to earn acceptance and even entry to the higher class of society. This drive has been a major factor to the success of capitalism, giving birth to mass production and economic well fare. Renowned french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu theorised on cultural, social and symbolic values in order to analyze what constituted taste and class. (Swartz, David. 1997) Bourdieu believed that if one possessed a great deal of cultural capital (knowledge of the arts, language or artistic flair) one would be perceived as a higher class than someone without the same knowledge. Bourdieu argues that all members of society exist in a multidimensional social space:...
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...conducted in South Africa in 2004 and 2007. We report on the differences between male and females students access to and use of ICTs for learning. In particular we note that whilst equal opportunities do largely exist for both genders, there are subtle differences in terms of female students practical access and sense of personal agency. Findings about use are complicated with male students using ICTs more frequently particularly in the sciences disciplines and for activities such as information seeking and communication (in contrast to research elsewhere). In order to try and better understand our findings we explore four different theoretical perspectives namely; Bourdieu’s notion of habitus; Feminist Standpoint Theory; Critical Information Systems Theory; and Expectations States Theory. We then suggest using Bourdieu’s notion of habitus as we believe it offers us the most flexibility whilst enabling a gender focus to be maintained,. Introduction Research findings about gender differences and ICT access and use are complex and contradictory. While only a decade ago researchers were united about gender difference with regards to ICT access and use, recent discussions about gender divides are less emphatic, but more varied. Although more studies are now reporting no gap between men and women with regards to ICT use in education (Rice and Katz 2003; Pejout 2004; Wasserman and Richmond-Abbott 2005), others are noting that differences continue to exist, but more subtly than was...
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...experience are identified, all centred on the idea of unemployment as a space of sociability. The case study elaborates on and qualifies research inspired by Bourdieu on methodological and theoretical grounds. It demonstrates the need to qualify statistical patterns emerging from MCA with refined qualitative material and indicates specific ways in which social and cultural capitals interact with the economic sphere in a particularly severe economic crisis. # 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper puts forward an analysis of the experience of economic and social crisis in an industrialised context in Northwest Portugal, the Ave Valley region. Based on theoretical and methodological references provided by the sociological work of Bourdieu, the main practical and symbolic properties of the transformation of the region’s economic activity are explored. In an industrial context that is historically defined around working-class labour, these...
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...Analyse the importance of poverty as an explanation of social class differences in educational achievement Introduction Sociologists have argued that social class differences in educational achievement can be explained in terms of 4 not necessarily mutually exclusive kinds of theory: IQ theory; theories emphasising social class differences in material circumstances; theories emphasising social class differences in subcultural attitudes and values; and theories emphasising the importance of within school labelling processes. Sociologists tend to be critical of IQ theory for several reasons and point out that there is good evidence to show that social class is a major determinant of educational success even independently of measured differences in IQ. I shall therefore concentrate upon the three more sociological approaches and in each case it may be argued that the factors which may disadvantage working class students in general are especially likely to disadvantage those working class students who experience poverty. However before analysing the possible effects of poverty on educational achievement some preliminary investigation of the nature and extent of poverty in the UK is first necessary and for these purposes we must first distinguish between absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is said to occur when individuals lack the money necessary to ensure their basis physical survival whereas relative poverty exists where individuals have insufficient money to...
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...representación, los vínculos entre élites, democracia y cambio social y las teorías de la estructura de poder. En este artículo también se estudia hasta qué grado la introducción de una nueva metodología de investigación por parte de la teoría de la dominación de clase de Domhoff abrió una nueva perspectiva en los estudios sobre las élites. Finalmente, se presentan una estrategia de investigación para las élites y dos conclusiones principales. Palabras clave: Élites políticas - cambio social - estructura de poder - representación. Abstract Scholarly studies of elites and political elites have a vibrant recent history. My aim here is to provide a selective summary of that history, focusing on the importance of social distinction and the theories of power structure as a theoretical background for understanding the influence of political elites in social change. Since new insights and concerns have emerged in this field, the organization of this essay is not entirely chronological. Even though I may have ignored many relevant contributions,...
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...In sociology, the iron cage is a term coined by Max Weber for the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The "iron cage" thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as "the polar night of icy darkness".[1] The original German term is stahlhartes Gehäuse; this was translated into "iron cage", an expression made familiar to English language speakers by Talcott Parsons in his 1930 translation of Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.[2] This translation has recently been questioned by certain sociologists and interpreted instead as the "shell as hard as steel".[2][3] Weber wrote: “ | In Baxter’s view the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the 'saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment.' But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage."[4] | ” | Weber became concerned with social actions and the subjective meaning that humans attach to their actions and interaction within specific social contexts. He also believed in idealism, which is the belief that we only know things because of the meanings that we apply to them. This led to his interest in power and authority in terms of bureaucracy and rationalization. Rationalization and bureaucracy[edit] Weber states, “the course of development involves… the bringing in of calculation...
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...teachers and head teachers, documentary analysis of the school records and observation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of study were used. The researcher used Tables, charts and Pearson’s correlation to describe and analyze quantitative data while qualitative data was analyzed on the basis of themes. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between the parents’ level of education, income and occupation with pupil’s educational performance. Fathers’ education was significant at 0.804 while mothers’ educational level was significant at 0.641. Parent’s level of income was significant at 0.875 and Parents’ occupation was significant at 0.757. These findings are consistent with the concept of social reproduction by Pierre Bourdieu (1986), Annet Lareau (2003) and Randall Collins. The researcher concluded that parent’ low socioeconomic status impacted negatively on pupils’ performance, through denying the children access to resources which are readily available to children from higher socio economic status. He recommended that parents should continue to improve on their education levels through adult education programs. Secondly, children from low socioeconomic backgrounds should try to persevere through financial hardships and remain in school because schooling eventually has a redeeming effect on their poor plight. Lastly...
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...everyday local experiences and the ‘moral life-worlds’ of the people. They introduce significant conflicts all over the world. To treat these profound ontological changes simply as myth relies on a superficial and unhistorical understanding of ‘globalization’, the misunderstandings of neoliberal globalism. The study of globalization and globality, cosmopolitanization and cosmopolitanism constitutes a revolution in the social sciences (Beck, 2000a, 2002a; Cheah and Robbins, 1998; Gilroy, 1993; Shaw, 2000; Therborn, 2000; Urry, 2000). Of course, the new interest in cosmopolitanism has been critically associated with those elite Western individuals who were the fullest expression of European bourgeois capitalism and colonial empires. But we need Theory, Culture &...
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...GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND DIPLOMACY STUDENT GUIDELINE NOTES GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY MODULE Paste the notes here… Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. Political economy originated in moral philosophy (e.g. Adam Smith was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow), it developed in the 18th century as the study of the economies of states — polities, hence political economy. In late nineteenth century, the term "political economy" was generally replaced by the term economics, used by those seeking to place the study of economy upon mathematical and axiomatic bases, rather than the structural relationships of production and consumption (cf. marginalism, Alfred Marshall). History of the term Originally, political economy meant the study of the conditions under which production was organized in the nation-states. The phrase économie politique (translated in English as political economy) first appeared in France in 1615 with the well known book by Antoyne de Montchrétien: Traicté de l’oeconomie politique. French physiocrats, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx were some of the exponents of political economy. In 1805, Thomas Malthus became England's first professor of political economy, at the East India Company College, Haileybury, Hertfordshire. The world's first professorship in political economy was established...
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...Terese Wilhelmsen Master’s thesis PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF CHILDREN Exploring how intergenerational transfer of habitus frame boys and girls opportunity to generate and negotiate physical activity within their everyday life. NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management Department of Sociology and Political Science Master’s thesis in Sport Science Trondheim, January 2012 Terese Wilhelmsen PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF CHILDREN Exploring how intergenerational transfer of habitus frame boys and girls opportunity to generate and negotiate physical activity within their everyday life. Master in Sport Science Department of Sociology and Political Science Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU Trondheim, Norway. 1 ABSTRACT Several indicators of social background and gender expectations are found to have an important impact on children’s physical activity patterns, yet few studies have explored intergenerational transfer of habitus through the use of triangulation of methods. The aim of this study is to explore how intergenerational transfer of habitus frames children’s opportunit to generate and negotiate physical activity in their everyday life. This is done by examining the relationship between children’s physical activity pattern’s and: parental capital, parental perception of gender appropriate...
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...The Ecology of Family Life Report of research conducted by The Social Issues Research Centre 2008 The Social Issues Research Centre 28 St Clements Street Oxford OX4 1AB UK +44 1865 262255 group@sirc.org The ecology of family life Contents 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................................4 1.1 Family and childhood: a paradigmatic review ....................................................................................................................................4 1.2 Space and time in family life...................................................................................................................................................................4 1.3 Pennies and pounds: the socioeconomic relations of families and children in the present.......................................................4 1.4 Theoretical framework.............................................................................................................................................................................5 1.5 Defining consumption ..............................................................................................................................................................................5 1.6 Methodology and sources of data ...........................................................................................
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...L Department of Linguistics Campus Box 295 University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, CO 80309-0295 kira.hall@colorado.edu A B S T R A C T The field of language and sexuality has gained importance within socioculturally oriented linguistic scholarship. Much current work in this area emphasizes identity as one key aspect of sexuality. However, recent critiques of identity-based research advocate instead a desire-centered view of sexuality. Such an approach artificially restricts the scope of the field by overlooking the close relationship between identity and desire. This connection emerges clearly in queer linguistics, an approach to language and sexuality that incorporates insights from feminist, queer, and sociolinguistic theories to analyze sexuality as a broad sociocultural phenomenon. These intellectual approaches have shown that research on identity, sexual or otherwise, is most productive when the concept is understood as the outcome of intersubjectively negotiated practices and ideologies. To this end, an analytic framework for the semiotic study of social intersubjectivity is presented. (Sexuality, feminism, identity, desire, queer linguistics.)* I N T R O D U C T I O N Within the past decade the field of language and sexuality has emerged as an important area of research within sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and socially oriented discourse analysis. To be sure, research on a wide variety of sexual topics had been conducted within disparate...
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...William & Mary Law Review Volume 45 | Issue 4 Article 5 A Pattern-Oriented Approach to Fair Use Michael J. Madison Repository Citation Michael J. Madison, A Pattern-Oriented Approach to Fair Use, 45 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1525 (2004), http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol45/iss4/5 Copyright c 2004 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr A PATTERN-ORIENTED APPROACH TO FAIR USE MICHAEL J. MADISON* ABSTRACT More than 150 years into development of the doctrineof "fairuse" in American copyright law, there is no end to legislative,judicial, and academic efforts to rationalizethe doctrine. Its codification in the 1976 CopyrightAct appearsto have contributedto its fragmentation, rather than to its coherence. As did much of copyright law, fair use originated as a judicially unacknowledged effort via the law to validate certain favored practicesand patterns.In the main, it has continued to be applied as such, though too often courts mask their implicit validation of these patterns in the now-conventional "caseby-case" application of the statutoryfair use "factors"to the defendant's use of the copyrighted work in question. A more explicit acknowledgment of the role of these patterns in fair use analysis would be consistent with fair use, copyright policy, and tradition. Importantly, such an acknowledgment would help to bridge the often difficult conceptual gap between fair use...
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