Subject: Re: Introduction to Reflixive Sociology - some of my questions
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 95 11:46:52 MST
From: "Alan Smart" <asmart-AT-acs.ucalgary.ca>


Just a brief comment on the relationship between economy of
practices and rational choice (which raises a great many other
important questions).  I think that one of the critical things
that attention to the economy of practices and conversions
between different forms of capital is precisely that we are
forced to consider the constraints of "form": preferences and
strategy necessarily lose their unidimensional character.  By
this I mean, e.g. that maximizing activities can fail to achieve
their end if the etiquette of a field is not considered,
converting money to symbolic capital can leave you ridiculed as
an uncultured nouveau riche.
	I think though that a claim could be made that at various
points Bourdieu writes in a way that is consistent with rational
choice models.
Alan Smart