From: "Pam Stello" <stello-AT-socrates.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: a bit of everything plus a question - is habitus reproduced mimetically?
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 08:29:11 -0700


I agree with Anja that the commodification of the genius person in
eighteenth century England should be addressed as "individualization." I
think it is what Focault was writing about as the "author function." He
believed that the commodification of the individual author marked "the
individualization in the history of ideas, knowledge, literature,
philosophy, and the sciences" (1984: 101)

In terms of habitus and genius, Anja's post raised a question for me.
My thought is that the "genius person" as a commodity was
first discoursed in eighteenth century England with a performance that
signifies (a lack of) genius. This discourse became a discursive formation,
or a symbolic economy, in the context of fields as the institutional
development of western societies. As a discursive formation the symbolic
economy works systemically, individual scientific geniuses, as well as movie
stars, CEO's, etc. are each discoursed with a performance that signifies (a
lack of) genius in respective fields. In terms of how a habitus can change
with historical change, Bourdieu believed that practices and perceptions
were not a product of the habitus as such, rather a product of the relation
between the habitus and the balance of captial in fields. As Bourdieu
argues, the balance of relations within each field are defined by the
different forms of capital active in each in relation to the other fields.
The question Anja's post raises: As new individuals (names, images)
are discoursed with a performance that signifies (a lack of) genius in
respective fields, does this change not also create changes in the relations
between the habitus and the balance of capital/struggles in each field, and
thereby change the valued practices and perceptions in each field, depending
on the relations between fields?

I am thinking of this question in terms of the changing role of women in
science in the U.S. Could changes in the discoursing of individuals with
"genius" performances in popular cultural fields, like film, effect changes
in the relations between the balance of capital and habitus in the
scientific fields, and thereby change perceptions in those fields?

Pam
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anja Weiß" <anja.weiss-AT-unibw-muenchen.de>
To: <bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 2:10 AM
Subject: Re: a bit of everything plus a question - is habitus reproduced
mimetically?


> I also liked Iva's ideas and Pam's response.
>
> However I think that the historical process which Pam describes (e.g.
> genius turning from a moment of inspiration to a commodity of/in a
> person) should better be addressed under the header of
> "individualization". Even though the concept of habitus refers to a
> "body-person" it does not necessarily refer to the individualized
> subject typical of late modernity. As far as I know Bourdieu developed
> the concept in his first work "Outline of a Theory of Practice" (1977)
> which deals with the not yet commodified Kabyle society.
>
> The question of historical change remains important, however. One of the
> main arguments against Bourdieu in German discourse concerns the
> "determinism" of the "habitus". I find that critizism to simple.
> Bourdieu emphasizes that the habitus is a result of social practice and
> that it adapts to social practice. Bourdieu focuses on primary
> socialization when explaining the habitus. Then a change of habitus
> would be very slow in long-lived societies.
>
> We need to elaborate more on how a habitus can change with historical
> change. Possibly the problem can be solved, if we agree that the habitus
> is rather stable, but that it is just a broad perspective on the world
> that can be applied to many different situations. So it is possible that
> a girl who grew up in a farm in the 1920ies can apply her habitus
> successfully to factory work in the 1950ies. Historical change then
> would be difficult only for specific habitus groups who have become
> genuinely marginal (such as unqualified strong and unfriendly males in a
> post-modern service economy). In "Misre du monde" a number of cases are
> explored in which the habitus of sons and fathers diverges so strongly
> that it causes "misre".
>
> Best regards
> Anja
>
> --
> Dr. Anja Wei
> DFG-Projekt
> Hochqualifizierte
> Migrant/innen.
> Highly qualified migrants.
> Zur Transnationalisierung sozialer Lagen.                   The
> transnationalisation of social inequality.
>
>
> fon:       *49-(0)89-6004-4516/-3139
> fax:       *49-(0)89-6004-3138
> e-mail:   anja.weiss-AT-gmx.de
> mail:      Universitt der Bundeswehr Mnchen
>              Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultt, D-85577 Neubiberg
> privat:    Rosenheimer Str. 42, 81669 Mnchen
> http://www.rz.unibw-muenchen.de/~s51bppcn/
>
>
>
> **********************************************************************
> Contributions: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Commands: majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Requests: bourdieu-approval-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>




**********************************************************************
Contributions: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Commands: majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Requests: bourdieu-approval-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu