Practice Theory (Post-Modernism) Flashcards
1
Q
What is Practice Theory?
A
- How social beings make & transform the world
- Dynamic relationship between social Structure and human Agency
- Practice theory is a theory of how social beings, with their diverse motives and their diverse intentions, make and transform the world in which they live. It is a dialectic (debate) between social Structure and human Agency working back and forth in a dynamic relationship.*
2
Q
How or why is Practice Theory used?
A
- by Bourdieu
- explains the relationship(s) between human action/agency and social structure (system)
- Practice theory “seeks to explain the relationship(s) that obtain between human action, on the one hand, and some global entity which we call ‘the system’ on the other.” The approach seeks to resolve the antinomy (contridiction) between traditional structuralist approaches and approaches such as methodological individualism which attempted to explain all social phenomena in terms of individual actions.*
3
Q
Where was Practice Theory first cited?
A
Bourdieu
1972
Outline of a Theory of Practice
4
Q
What is Habitus?
A
- orignally defined by Mauss
- aspects of culture anchored in practices
- subjective
- Mauss defined habitus as those aspects of culture that are anchored in the body or daily practices of individuals, groups, societies, and nations. It includes the totality of learned habits, bodily skills, styles, tastes, and other non-discursive knowledges that might be said to “go without saying” for a specific group. Habitus = Subjective.*
5
Q
How or why is Habitus used?
A
- body of knowledge
- collates meaningful but implicit behaviour
- As a body of knowledge that collates the meaningful behaviour of people in other cultures that can only be understood by themselves within the implicit, unarticulated assumptions on which their behaviour is based.*
6
Q
Where was Habitus cited?
A
Mauss
1934
Les Techniques du corps
Bourdieu
1972
Outline of a Theory of Practice
7
Q
What is Habitus often compared to?
A
As part of the triage of Field / Habitus / Doxa Ideology
8
Q
What is Doxa?
A
- what is taken for granted
- “goes without syaing”
- experience by which world appears self-evident
- Denotes what is taken for granted in any particular society. The Doxa is the experience by which “the natural and social world appears as self-evident”, that which “goes without saying”.*
9
Q
What is Doxa often compared to?
A
As part of the triage of Field / Habitus / Doxa
10
Q
What is Field often compared to?
A
As part of the triage of Field / Habitus / Doxa
11
Q
How or why is Doxa used?
A
- Common belief which gives raise to common behaviour
- *
- It is a socially accepted misconception, that if you do not score as high as someone else then you are obviously not as smart as they are. Therefore people tend to partake in common practices to make themselves feel better. For example, the students who feel inferior due to popular belief that they are not as smart as the students who score higher than them, may experiment with drugs to ease the insecurities they face. Bourdieu believes that Doxa is more than common belief. He believes that it also has the potential to arise common action.*
12
Q
Where was Doxa first cited?
A
Bourdieu
1972
Outline of a Theory of Practice
13
Q
What are the problems/limitations of Doxa?
A
- believes social order is naturally occuring
- disregards creation of social order by political argumentation
- Adam Smith of the University of Chicago observes in his article “The limitations of doxa: agency and subjectivity from an archaeological point of view”, “Bourdieu consigns the practices of the denizens of ancient societies to the realm of doxa, their lives cast as routines predicated upon the mis-recognition of social orders as natural ways of life, rather than political products.” This calls to attention that the notion of social order as naturally occurring is misperceived, disregarding its creation by political argumentation.*
14
Q
What is Field?
A
- Autonomous
- Objective
- Connected social relations
- Arts, Education, Politics, Law and Economy
- Fields are relatively autonomous from the wider social structure (or space, in his terminology), in which people relate and struggle through a complex of connected social relations (both direct and indirect). Among the main fields in modern societies, Bourdieu cited the arts, education, politics, law and economy. Field = Objective.*
15
Q
How or why is Field used?
A
- by Bourdieu
- Analyse society and its structured social spaces
- Bourdieu shared Weber’s view that society cannot be analysed simply in terms of economic classes and ideologies. Much of his work concerns the role of educational and cultural factors. Instead of analysing societies solely in terms of classes, Bourdieu uses the concept of field: a structured social space with its own rules, schemes of domination, legitimate opinions and so on.*
