SECTION C - BOURDIEU Flashcards
He explored…?
the ways in which the transmission of certain capitals in the education system produced hierarchies
1990 quote
“a kind of transforming machine that leads us to ‘reproduce’ the social conditions of our own production, but in a relatively unpredictable way”
Economic capital
Karl Marx’s point of focus; the financial wealth which “may be institutionalised in the form of property rights”
Cultural capital
has the potential to be converted into economic capital and “institutionalised in the form of educational qualifications”)
Social capital
(“which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalised in the form of nobility”
Bourdieu’s different states of capital
1986
the embodied state, the objectified state and the institutionalised state
Concept of fields and habitus
Child develops “social fields” that result in the formation of a “habitus” - takes into account their personal history; a set of dispositions which are acquired throughout their lifetime
The embodied state
Cultural capital, in its fundamental state, is linked to the body and presupposes embodiment.
Individual acquires this capital, often unknowingly, to its own self-improvement.
E.G. more economic worth = opportunities for early domestic education by giving it a positive value (a gain in time, a head start)
lack of wealth and other potential conversions in cultural capital = a negative value (wasted time, and doubly so because more time must be spent correcting its effects).
The objectified state
Concerns physical objects the child can acquire/have access to: e.g. books, instruments
Can aid them in schooling, benefitted by a larger economic capital.
The institutionalised state
Of particular interest when looking at social reproduction!
The qualifications the student receives from institutions (e.g. GCSEs). Legitimisation of this state to facilitate the conversion of cultural capital into economic capital. - results in hierarchies. ISSUE in the transferability of qualification for migrants.
Social mobility is dependent on…?
the social systems reproduced in schooling.
