MattJimF Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 From Wikipedia -Bourdieu's theory of power and practice'Bourdieu shared Weber's view that society' date=' contrary to traditional Marxism, cannot be analyzed simply in terms of economic classes and ideologies. Much of his work concerns the independent role of educational and cultural factors. Instead of analyzing societies in terms of classes, Bourdieu uses the concept of field: a social arena in which people manoeuvre and struggle in pursuit of desirable resources. A field is a system of social positions, structured internally in terms of power relationships. Different fields can be quite autonomous and more complex societies have more fields.In his theoretical writings, Bourdieu employs the terminology of economics to analyze the process of social reproduction, of how social and linguistic capital tend to transfer from one generation to the next. For Bourdieu, education represents the paradigmatic example of this process. Educational success, according to Bourdieu, entails a whole range of cultural behaviors, extending to ostensibly non-academic features like gait or accent. Privileged children have learned this behaviour, as have their teachers. Children of unprivileged backgrounds have not. The children of privilege fit into the world of educational expectations with apparent 'ease'. The unprivileged are found to be 'difficult', to present 'challenges'. Yet both behave as their upbringing dictates. Bourdieu regards this 'ease', or 'natural' ability as in fact the product of a great social labour on the part of the parents. It equips their children with the dispositions of manner as well as thought which ensure they are able to succeed within the educational system and can then reproduce their class position in the wider social system.Bourdieu sees the legitimation of cultural capital as crucial to its effectiveness as a source of power. It is seen as symbolic violence, violence which is exercised upon a social agent with his or her complicity. What this means is that people come to experience systems of meaning (culture) as legitimate; there is a process of misunderstanding or misrecognition of what is really going on. So it comes that working class children see it as legitimate that their middle-class peers have more success in the educational system as based on their objective performance. A key part of this process is the transformation of people's cultural habits or economic positions into symbolic capital that has legitimacy and is seen as real. Symbolic capital is nothing more than economic or cultural capital which is acknowledged and recognized and then tends to reinforce the power relations which constitute the structure of social space.Habitus can be defined as a system of dispositions: durably acquired schemes of perception, thought and action, engendered by objective conditions but tending to persist even after an alteration of those conditions. Bourdieu sees habitus as the key to reproduction because it is what actually generates the regular practices that make up social life. It is the product of social conditioning and so links actual behavior to class structure.Bourdieu insists on the importance of a reflexive sociology in which sociologists must at all times conduct their research with conscious attention to the effects of their own position, and in particular their own set of internalized structures.Bourdieu's sociology in general can be characterized as an investigation of the pre-reflexive conditions that generate certain beliefs and practices that are generated in capitalist systems.'I was just asking whethar or not people agreed with his concept?[/quote']Don't lie:cultural bias in education system? - 24-03-2006 15:30(title)discuss.. (body)Now where is Bourdieu mentioned??The above post was a creation of a drunk Mattjimf' date=' failure to reply to said thread may be due to annoyance, shame or forgettfulness*[/size']*delete as appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie Posted March 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 i thought that many of the people on the boards were at uni. No i dont have an essay, the topic is of interest to me. The wikipedia quote is decent and explains the topic well (regardless of whethar or not someone takes sociology). Wikipedia is a good site for explaining many things in a general way. Im not passing anything off as my own, I clearly explained that the info was from wikipedia. Could you please tell me what you meant when u said that i was passing wikipedias quote off as my own salsadecacahuette? god kill me please for trying to start a debate. Cheers ollie.mattjim- my initial question to do with cultural bias was just a prod to see what folk had to say on the matter. If i had gotten enough relevant responses then i would have introduced bourdieus idea (as i clearly did when connie asked what the question meant). At no point am i guilty of trying to steal his ideas. Perhaps a clearer definition of what i meant by culture is required?Apologies to kielan for not responding earlier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie Posted March 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 IShe reels this line off then walks away shaking her tight arse and really believing she 'got one' on you and proved her worth with her trying-hard-not-to-sound-bitchy retort.Are you sayin that i have a tight arse bryn? thanks. ollie x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryn Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Are you sayin that i have a tight arse bryn? thanks. ollie xIts doubtful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Ollie def. states 'From Wikipedia' at the start! He's just looking for a few opinions, that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larsen B Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Ollie def. states 'From Wikipedia' at the start! He's just looking for a few opinions' date=' that's all.[/quote']I whole-heartedly agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryn Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Ollie def. states 'From Wikipedia' at the start! He's just looking for a few opinions' date=' that's all.[/quote']That doesn't detract from the absence of substance in the first post, the wikipedia quote and the university trash-talk. I wonder if they study people who are naively forced into further education on the basis of social / class convention as opposed to actual ability? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Isn't that everyone nowadays??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryn Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 Isn't that everyone nowadays???I can never decide. I have intelligent friends who aren't at uni; there are lots of rich-boy no-hopers in the same halls as me. One guy next door went to Gordonstone (sp?) and has' date=' like his two brothers, dropped out in his first year. I am surprised that this guy can read he's so stupid. How ever these people slip through the net..But then again, is it that same old cultural bias in the education system? Note - I'm not sure if it is and can't be bothered reading that quote again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incredibledisc Posted March 30, 2006 Report Share Posted March 30, 2006 I can never decide. I have intelligent friends who aren't at uni; there are lots of rich-boy no-hopers in the same halls as me. One guy next door went to Gordonstone (sp?) and has' date=' like his two brothers, dropped out in his first year. I am surprised that this guy can read he's so stupid. How ever these people slip through the net..But then again, is it that same old cultural bias in the education system? Note - I'm not sure if it is and can't be bothered reading that quote again.Straight answer from someone who knows - yes there is a cultural bias. So called "good schools" will have better staff retention rates (i.e. less teachers off on stress leave or quitting 'cos they can't stand it any more) less disruption caused by pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, better resources and so forth. They have supportive parents who generally spend money on private tutors rather than smack which can't hurt. This divide is reinforced by the parents who can afford it moving their kids to the "better" schools to ensure they get the quality of education they expect for their Council Tax money. Also, the "good schools" find it remarkably easier to kick out supposedly problem pupils who then get sent to the "bad" schools because no-one else will take them and the pupil is able to excercise their "right" to an education - the same goes for pupils who have significant emotional, behavioural or learning difficulties. Thanks to the Exectutive's policy of "Social inclusion" these kids are dumped into the comprehensive system where they can't cope and then proceed to fuck up the chances of all the other "normal" kids by disrupting lessons. Anyone who happened to glance at the Scotman's rundown on the top schools in Scotland last week should be able to see this pretty easily. Look who came top in Aberdeen for exam passes at SG and Higher - was it Northfield, St Machar and Torry et al? Was it fuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Whilst in total agreement with the above post, I'm wondering (but not very deeply, as I haven't had any breakfast!), if it's more about social bias rather than cultural? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salsadecacahuete Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 i never took standard grades and i'm at aberdeen uni. i also never took highers. i'm also not from torry. there is no point to this reply... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie Posted March 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 That doesn't detract from the absence of substance in the first post' date=' the wikipedia quote and the university trash-talk. I wonder if they study people who are naively forced into further education on the basis of social / class convention as opposed to actual ability?[/quote']why do u think theres an absense of substance? cheers, ollie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryn Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Whilst in total agreement with the above post' date=' I'm wondering (but not very deeply, as I haven't had any breakfast!), if it's more about social bias rather than cultural?[/quote']Thats what I was thinking. Doesn't 'cultural' suggest ethnicity issues as opposed to 'class'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incredibledisc Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Thats what I was thinking. Doesn't 'cultural' suggest ethnicity issues as opposed to 'class'?Yeah, if you want to put it like that. The answer is still yes though. The entire curriculum is skewed towards the English speaking, white British experience. While this is understandable up to a point - we do after all live in a country that is predominantly white and British. However, this does completey disadvantage anyone who falls outside that definition. While I would love to provide multicultural resources for all pupils its not really practical (I'm not equipped to do multi-lingual teaching) so some pupils will always miss out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jake Wifebeater Posted March 31, 2006 Report Share Posted March 31, 2006 Ollie, I graduated with honours in Sociology from Aberdeen Uni 5 years ago. It was a fucking doddle so you'll have no bother. However, the usefulness of this degree has amounted to the square root of fuck all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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