Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 10:53:08 -0600
From: Deborah Kilgore <kilgore-AT-unix.tamu.edu>
Subject: Research methods (was: Bourdieu-The Rules of Art)




"J.F.Myles" wrote:
> 
> what specifically do you want to know? i have just completed a phd at
> lancaster university which compares the art fields in manchester and
> london. i used qualitative methods which sets up a distinct series of
> methodological problems before one can begin to say that field data is
> being generated. measuring capital levels and 'fixing' cultural
> intermediaries of various types in the first, objectifying move of the
> field approach is difficult. start with bourdieu's comments on the
> field approach in an invitation to reflexive sociology, decide if you
> are using quantitative or qualitative methodology, each presents a
> series of distinct epistemological problems for the field approach.
> john
> 

don't tease us!  how did you mitigate these problems?  

i am studying an educational effort within a women's prison with
bourdieu's habitus/field/capital as a framework, and use a combination
of my own qualitative inquiry and the quantitative work of others to
explain the logic of the prison and its impact on the learning process
and the participants.  

it seems to me that Bourdieu sets us up to be eclectic in our research
methods, as the _strict_ allegiance to any one will be problematic --
see Logic of Practice for example, for his indictment of both
subjectivism and objectivism to the extreme.  i think rather we must be
rigorous as B. certainly is, but not closed to varieties of research
approaches.

on the other hand, i do not know that B. is helpful in the arguments
that occur within a paradigm.  for example, some interpretivists like
myself are of the more "objective" variety, accounting for our
intervention in participants' lives but trying not to insinuate
ourselves fully.  others are more autobiographical; the two camps can't
stand each others' approaches...


***********************
Deborah Kilgore     
Texas A&M University
Fue tan bello vivir cuando vivias!
How lovely it was to live while you lived!
- Pablo Neruda, from "Final"
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