In Search Of Respect Flashcards
What is habitus?
Introduced by Marcel Mauss and developed by Pierre Bourdieu, it’s a system of structuring dispositions which is constituted in practice.
Part of Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory
What is Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory?
The idea that social identity is produced by agents according to difference or distinction from the ‘other’.
First observed in how poor children resisted school, were then channel led into marginal roles in society, and those that saw success has to reject their ethnic identity. Documents how teachers unconsciously give out subliminal class and cultural messages to hierarchise their students.
Can be applied to how violence that plagued the inner city is resistance to mainstream white culture, which pushes them into marginalisation.
What is structural/institutional violence?
When social structures or institutions deny people of their basic needs, and this causes suffering
What is cultural capital?
What is social capital?
Cultural - the accepted knowledge which helps to navigate a specific social environment
Social - the relationships and connections an individual has to increase status
Weapons of the weak?
Part of James Scott’s resistance theory, describes the mundane, unnoticeable ways in which oppressed people resist and carve agency in their lives (i.e. Stealing at work, poaching, sabotage)
Internalisation?
Quote example?
The process of embedding a certain belief into one’s mind
Primo: ‘I don’t blame where I’m at right now on nobody else but myself’
Historical context?
Decade after Nixon introduced the ‘war on drugs’, initiating politics of fear
Reagan privatised huge parts of the economy from 1982-86
What is the “culture of terror”?
Term coined by Michael Taussig, explains how fear is created both inside and out of the neighbourhood, born out of occasions of extreme violence, racist stereotypes, and media
What is culture of poverty? Criticisms?
Oscar Lewis has declared in ‘La Vida’ that these Puerto Rican migrants are victims of a ‘culture of poverty’ (1966).
Bourgois is part of the scholars who put focus on structures to avoid ‘blame the victim’ tendencies.
Furthermore, he rejects the notion that the poor have been badly socialised and do not share mainstream values, arguing that they still pursue the ‘American Dream’
What does he explain in the first chapter about his theoretical approach?
Takes both the structurally centred Political Economy Theory and the actor centres Cultural Production Theory
What is a Jibaro?
Low class Puerto Ricans who farm the land. By up keeping this identity, and the power structures associated with it, migrants are rejecting mainstream Western culture, but can then be vulnerable to alienation and isolation.
What is Max Weber known for?
Relevance? What theory acknowledged this?
Theorist known for stressing the agency of individuals, “Weberian social action” refers to an act which considers the actions and reactions of individuals
Informants are not completely powerless! They’re not merely chess pieces, as political economy might suggest
This is why Bourgois uses cultural production theory
What other theorists use agency in their arguments?
Frederik Barth
History of drug selling?
The kilo price of coccaine dropped fivefold during the 1980s from $80,000 to $15,000
How many Puerto Ricans in US?
How many in east Harlem?
36% of island-born Puerto Ricans lived in mainland USA in the 1990s
One third of east Harlem is Puerto Rican
Quote informant on social capital?
“The only way you can survive in this world is to be connected, or to be connected dirty” -Caeser
What shows Candy as strong? Is she characteristic of the Puerto Rican archetypes?
She shot Felix, husband and previous owner of the day room, sold it to Ray for $3000
No, she challenges Jibaro masculinity. When her husband was in jail she took control, was one of two women working for Ray, reversed patriarchy, boyfriend Primo not happy -> beat her
How do informants try to ‘go legit’?
Ray tried to open up a legitimate ‘bodega’. Caeser and Primo were very enthusiastic, cleaned the building, killed rats. Eventually closed down due to failed health inspections. Ray doesn’t have a driver’s license or ID.
Primo has an office job but is called ‘illiterate’ by his ‘prejudiced’ boss Gloria. He is not allowed to answer the phone because of his Puerto Rican Accent.
“I really wanna work legal”
Why is there violence towards women? Example?
Candy was beaten at least three times a night, every day from 13 to 21
Attempt to reassert their grandfathers autocratic control, as now some women are earning the money. E.g. Candy works weekend nights, earns more than Primo, results in physical violence
What is significant of mafia
Legacy of the Italian mafia is a reminder that violence and crime are profitable, and reject capitalism
Why do Bourgois’ informants find it hard to pursue the ‘immigrants dream’?
Structure: Between 1950 and 1990 factory jobs in New York decreases threefold, woke FIRE (Finance, Real Estate, and Insurance) sectors have increased. This office work is feminised.
Recession in 1990.
Caeser speaks of physically abusing a boy with cerebral palsy, how does Bourgois respond?
Difficult situation. Thinks about the structures that make this violence necessary.
How are dealers socialised?
Most blame their peer group at school. For example Primo was an apprentice of an older peer group, stealing a radio from a car was seen as a rite of passage, Primo then belonged to the group.
Gang rapes…
Considered “training” for the girl, show of masculinity, Bourgois worried about his representation of the poor and powerless
Effect of 1980s coccaine-crack epidemic on children?
Increased neglect, just under half of addicts were women, mothers thought to have lost their sense of familial duty,
Ethnography details
Philippe Bourgois
In Search Of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
East Harlem, New York, USA
1985-1990, during “war on drugs” policy in US, after globalisation + migration in Puerto Rico
