Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 20:15:26 -0500
From: Bob <suannschafer-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: in defense of habitus


>Dear Bob
>
>Maybe you should read Bourdieu before commenting on his work...?

Dear Sigmund, perhaps you should consider the meaning of habitus, 
before making such assumptions ...

>1) What do you mean by "pomo jargon"? There are few contemporary social
>theorists more hostile to "pomo" than Bourdieu. He ranted and railed
>against scholars who would construct theories out of their armchairs and
>insisted that theory must be build up from pain-staking empirical work. He
>also insisted that the constructs that derived from such an empirical
>enterprise triangulate local representations, actual practices, and the
>scholar's intellectual "toolkit" so that they be as objective as possible.
>To push objectivity even further, Bourdieu insisted that the scholar's own
>social position be critically examined, so unintentional bias will not
>creep in.

In the process of enlightening me, perhaps you would care to offer 
some bibliography to substantiate your claims above ...

>3) As for the actual concept of habitus: There are legitimate
>epistemological grounds for challenging the concept. However, challenging
>his coinage of a new use (and no, it does not correspond to any concept
>used by anyone before, Mead or no Mead) is what good social science is
>about: uncovering social dynamics and giving names to them.

Thank you for your observation of what constitutes "good social science"

>Bourdieu would
>have been happy to use a term that would be readily available, but at the
>time none was forthcoming.

LOL

Assuming you are a good social scientist, and considering the concept 
of habitus, as well as "the scholar's own ... unintentional bias," 
how you presume to know what PB would have been happy to use?

>Cognitive scientists have begun to use terms
>such as schemas and scripts that begin to approach what B. had in mind, but
>they are poor substitutes for what he had in mind. Habitus (to offer my
>definition) are enduring cognitive structures that offer directions for how
>to behave and what to expect in certain social situations.

IC ... is there a consensus surrounding this definition?

Respectfully yours,

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