File spoon-archives/bourdieu.archive/bourdieu_2002/bourdieu.0208, message 35


Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 12:02:34 +0100
Subject: Re: bourdieu - education - mathematics
From: John Evans <jevans-AT-eircom.net>



Not globalisation, not economism, but neoliberalism!

Here it is:

UTOPIA OF ENDLESS EXPLOITATION

The essence of neoliberalism

http://mondediplo.com/1998/12/08bourdieu

Best Wishes

John Evans

PS Not from the horse's mouth, but interesting, is Margaret Brown on the
National Numeracy Strategy in the UK. PDF autodownload at
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/education/research/
Brown_BERA99_ValuesNNS.doc.pdf

> From: John Evans <jevans-AT-eircom.net>
> Reply-To: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 10:01:17 +0100
> To: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Subject: Re: bourdieu - education - mathematics
> 
> Hi Andy
> 
> I cannot put my hand just now on an interview or article concerning
> economism or globalisation (or similar) in which Bourdieu remarks that
> mathematics is increasing used as an instrument of symbolic violence by
> elites to put forward arguments that are (as it were) unanswerable, because
> phrased in mathematical form. "Sorry folks, its not just my opinion - look
> at the maths/look at the graph....". Can anyone help with the reference?
> 
> More helpfully (I hope):
> 
> You could check out the following:
> Practical Reason (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998),
> p. 28 - mathematics as *the* form of excellence used to rank students
> p. 78 - illusio in the mathematical field
> 
> The State Nobility (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996) examines how  elite
> schools ensure the legitimate inheritance of high positions in the
> scientific and aesthetic fields.  See also Bourdieu and Passeron,
> Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (London: Sage, 1977), p. 50,
> n. 44, p. 176, pp. 164 - 165 etc. The theoretical character of instruction
> as a filter to distinguish (say) the technician from the engineer (maths is
> often used to do this in scientific subjects such as engineering etc).
> 
> Practical Reason, p. 137 - the scientific mode as one of the fundamental
> modes of constructing reality. An ethical/political programme of working to
> universalise the conditions of access to such fundamental modes is set out.
> Also, presumably, such modes are to be contrasted with the cultural
> arbitrary (see the Preface to Reproduction in Education..)
> 
> Homo Academicus - for the (high, aristocratic) position of mathematics in
> the hierarchy of university subjects.
> 
> "Structuralism and Theory of Sociological Knowledge", Social Research 35,
> no. 4 (Winter), cited in P. Bourdieu and Loc J. D. Wacquant, An Invitation
> to Reflexive Sociology, p. 222 - this is a nod in the direction of his study
> of mathematics as a normalien. The origins of the homology of social
> positions, tastes, etc. mediated by habitus (claimed by Bourdieu) probably
> lie here. An attempt to explain homology turns up in Practical Reason, p. 6.
> The style of the lay-out of  Reproduction in Education... is very like a
> geometry (Descartes?).
> 
> The State Nobility, pp. 119 - 120 - very interesting discussion of the
> symbolic dimension of a title (educational credential) and and the technical
> dimension.
> 
> Best Wishes
> 
> Dr John Evans
> Dublin
> 
> 
> 
>> From: Andrew Noyes <Andrew.Noyes-AT-nottingham.ac.uk>
>> Reply-To: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>> Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 08:55:44 +0100
>> To: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>> Subject: bourdieu - education - mathematics
>> 
>> Could anyone direct me to any writing by Bourdieu that considers the
>> role of mathematics in education and society.
>> 
>> If you could I would be very grateful
>> Thanks 
>> 
>> Andy Noyes
>> 
>> Andrew Noyes
>> Centre for the Study of Mathematics Education
>> School of Education
>> The Dearing Building
>> Jubilee Campus
>> Wollaton Road
>> Nottingham
>> NG8 1BB
>> 
>> tel:        +44 (0) 115 9514470
>> email:    andrew.noyes-AT-nottingham.ac.uk
>> web:     http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/education
>> 
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> 
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