File spoon-archives/bourdieu.archive/bourdieu_1996/96-01-02.102, message 6


Date: Tue, 21 Nov 1995 20:59:07 -0700
From: Sarah Busse <busse-AT-cicero.spc.uchicago.edu>
Subject: Re: Bourdieu's Standards


At 07:05 PM 11/21/95 -0500, Jeffrey Feldman wrote:

>In his own context, therefore, (Distinction is about France)
>Bourdieu couches habitus within a class framework.  You must
>find the framework--or standards--if you choose to introduce
>habitus into a different context.  
>

In my own (admittedly limited) reading of Bourdieu, I understood his class
framework of habitus to be universal.  If I may take context to mean
specific societies, then habitus is based on class in any society.  

For example, it seems to me that describing the habitus of a particular
class is as applicable to American society as to France.    There is
certainly a trend in American society to deny the existence of "class" as
class is perceived in Europe, but Bourdieu's discussion of the intersection
of cultural and economic capital is very relevant to American society (among
others).    His discussion of habitus and class opens many possibilites for
research on American society.  

If however, we take "context" to mean other fields of study, then the
concept of habitus might be robust enough to carry over into an abstract
plane without the class framework, which would be interesting. 


-------------------
Sarah Busse
Dept of Sociology
University of Chicago
busse-AT-cicero.spc.uchicago.edu



   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005