Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 10:53:38 +0100
From: Carsten Sestoft <sestoft-AT-coco.ihi.ku.dk>
Subject: RE: Field


Sergio wrote:

>Aren't Bourdieu's concepts of "habitus" and "field" rather analytical
>tools fashioned with the aim of explaining/describing social phenomena?
>I get the impression that these concepts are too often reified, and then
>I worry that we might be mixing up our spontaneous theories of the
>social world (that include entities like "persons", "society",
>"culture", which are rich in metaphor and associations) with the
>rational techniques devised in order to explain it. As I see it, our
>rational explanations are motivated by our immediate ("spontaneous")
>concerns, and hence it is natural that they should overlap in our
>practical understanding; but even so I think it is necessary to keep
>them appart because this "break" enhances explanative power, and ensuing
>knowledge thereby optimises our way around immediate concerns. "Habitus"
>is not the same as "person", and "field" not the same as "society" or
>"institution" or ..., although the former analytical concepts in end
>effect do alter our understanding (and the practical consequences) of
>the latter terms, arising originally from these motivations but turning
>against them, "breaking" with them, in order to come back to them with
>an altered understanding (a "conversion of world view"). I guess that
>"society in itself" *is* already "in the abstract" (the term itself a
>historical contingency), that "field" is a tool for relationally
>constructing adequate explanations of social *phenomena*, and that it
>involves an understanding of "historical contingencies" and of the logic
>of practices. Is this right?

Well, I agree completely with you -- this is what Bourdieu is trying to say
in the first chapter of Homo academicus and many other places.

Best wishes
Carsten Sestoft


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