Global Inequalities - Bourdieu (mid 1900s) Flashcards
He believes social issues revolve around
Capital
Types of capital
Economic: money and property
Social: network or relationships
Cultural: education, knowledge, manners
Social worlds
Differentiation in fields in society
Fields
Particular settings where there are rules of social practise based upon capital e.g. Family
Capital distribution and transaction
The differences and similarities between people in terms of their different types of capital
Cultural capital (3)
Objective: things you have or haven’t done
Institutionalised: education, work, etc.
Embodied: exclusivity, boundary between you and mainstream
Social reproduction model
Through transmission of different kinds of capital, social reproduction occurs
All forms of capital are
Traded during interactions
Characteristics of capital
Result of labour, value depends on rarity, needs to grow through trading and investment, one form can be traded for another
Habitus
Based on social background, the way in which an individual interacts with and view their social world
Karl Maton’s argument
The habitus and social field form a relationship based upon functionality or not, if the two do not match then this creates uncomfortable situations for an individual
Wendy Bottero’s argument
Bourdieu’s theory is relevant because success in many jobs now relies more on social and cultural relationships than economic factors
Study from Diane Reay
Study on reasoning for students’ higher education choices, found that class influenced choices in that working class students were more likely to base their choices upon financial reasons such as travel costs, also habitus based reasons such as feeling like they wouldn’t fit in there were factors
