File spoon-archives/bourdieu.archive/bourdieu_1997/bourdieu.9711, message 6


Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 09:57:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Cynthia Andruske <cynthia-AT-unixg.ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: Giddens and Bourdieu, feminist critiques of Bourdieu


Hi Paula,
Do you have the citation for the 1997 book that Bourdieu has written on
women? Is it in English or German?
Thank you.
Cynthia Andruske
doctoral student
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C.

On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Paula Villa wrote:

> Dear Kelly
>
> I'm glad about your questions since they open a discussion that has
> been somewhat abscent on this list. Too bad I don't have much time to
> go into depth on this myself...
>
> but I also find your question stunning: what is androcentric about
> the notion of Habitus in your opinion? Working with Bourdieu from a
> feminist perspective, I can think about a variety of androcentric
> aspects in his work - some of which are actually intensively
> discussed in german women's studies -, but i can not follow your
> statement. Would you spell it out? I'm really curious.
>
> As to your question on feminist critical work on Bourdieu, I can only
> offer some german scholars - as I assume you do not read german,  I'm
> afraid I won't be of help concerning concete articles and/or
> material. But I can try to sum up the debates:
>
> First, the main critique - I fully subscribe - is that Bourdieu
> simply focusses on class, leaving gender somewhat out of the
> systematical analysis. Although he does deal with gender (such as in
> some parts of his analysis of the kabylian society and in parts of
> 'Die feinen Unterschiede'...i don't know the title in english; the
> 'main opus' :-) ), his ways of dealing with it falls quite far
> behind what has been done in decades of women's studies concerning
> the intersection of class and gender. On the other hand, his
> conceptual notions of habitus, symbolic capital and symbolic
> violence/domination are of great use for a feminist framewrok, IMO.
> In my work for example, I use 'him' that way in order to discuss the
> embodiment of class and gender.
>
> Another important debate we have here is concerning the notion of
> agency (*the* old debate when it comes to Bourdieu, I know...). In
> the context of feminist theory, this is a crucial question. Since
> Bourdieu does not analyse thoroughly the ambivalent and contradictory
> effects of 'double socialization' on women (class and gender), he
> cannot 'see' the  - at least potentially - creative, critical and
> even subversive aspects of subjectivity that recent feminist theorists
> have pointed out (Braidotti, Alcoff, de Lauretis). Maybe this is a
> quite 'german' rooted line of feminist criticism because it draws on
> the tradition of critical theory and marxism/psychoanalysis
> (Becker-Schmidt).
>
> Finally, there is a discussion whether Bourdieu is able to grasp the
> 'real' social changes that have marked the last decades - especially
> concerning the institutionalization of affirmative action concerning
> women. This again links to the german debate on 'individualization'
> started by Beck some years ago.
>
> Ah, I shouldn't forget to mention that Bourdieu has increasingly
> become aware of the 'feminist' issue. 'La domination masculine' is a
> brillant text and has recently been translated into german. It's been
> published in a recent book all about Bourdieu and women's studies
> (Krais/D=F6lling 1997).
>
> I hope this is of use to you and look forward to your comments and
> ideas.
>
> Paula
>
> PS: Giddens is not much of a deal in feminist work over here. There
> are some articles etc., but he hasn't had such an impact as Bourdieu (so far).
> **************
> NEW EMAIL ADRESS!
> Paula-Irene Villa
> Paula.F.Villa-AT-ruhr-uni-bochum.de
>
> Language speaks us
> ****************
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