Mini Tutorial Field Theory Pierre Bourdieu

A video learning aid discussing the field and doxa

[myconsciousflow]

Credits and References


Image., Pierre Bourdieu: Wikipedia, Creative Commons
Video Stock Clips © Canva Freeware
Photography (non—stock) © Vivienne Eggers
Script and Narration © Vivienne Eggers
Music Soundtrack © Vivienne (Tobassa) Eggers May 2021





VIDEO END NOTES

1. (Bourdieu Pierre, 1977)
2. (Mahar C. et al., 1990)
3. (van Maanen H., 2009)
4. (Power Elaine., 1999, p. 48)
5. (ibid., p. 50) (Then and Now, 2019)
6. (Mahar C. et al., 1990, p. 16) (Smith A., 2001) (Butler A., 2019)
7. (Blackburn S., 2008)
8. (Bourdieu Pierre, 1977, p. 167)
9. (Mahar C. et al., 1990, p. 16)
10. (Bourdieu P., 1985)
11. (Bourdieu Pierre., 1990)
12. (Bourdieu Pierre., 1990, p. 16)
13. (Lakomski G., 1984)
14. (Deer Cecile., 2012)
15. (Waltorp K., 2015)




References
Blackburn S. (2008). The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (2 rev. ed.). UK Print ISBN-13: 9780199541430: Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu P. (1985). The Social Space and the Genesis of Groups. Theory and Society, 14(6), 723-744.
Bourdieu Pierre. (1990). The Logic of Practice (Vol. Paper: 9780804720113). (Nice T., Ed.) CA: Standford University Press.
Deer Cecile. (2012). Part III Field Mechanisms. In (Grenfell M, Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts (pp. 114-125). Oxford: Acumen Publishing.
Lakomski G. (1984). On Agency and Structure: Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron's Theory of Symbolic Violence. Curriculum Inquiry, 14(2), 151-163.
Lovell Terry. (2003). Resisting with Authority: Historical Specificity, Agency and the Performative Self. Theory Culture and Society, 20(1), 1-17.
Mahar C. et al. (1990). The Basic Theoretical Position. In H. R. (eds), An Introduction to the Work of Pierre Bourdieu: The Practice of Theory (pp. 1-25). Houndmills: MacMillan.
O'Hara D. (2000). Capitalism and Culture: Bourdieu's Field Theory. American Studies, 45(1), 45-43.
Power Elaine. (1999). An Introduction to Pierre Bourdieu's Key Theoretical Concepts. Journal for the Study of Food and Society, 3(1), 48-52.
Smith A. (2001, October). The Limitations of Doxa: Agency and Subjectivity from an Archaeological Point of View. Journal of Social Archaeology, 1(2), 155-171.
van Maanen H. (2009). Pierre Bourdieu's Grand Theory of the Artistic Field. In How to Study Art Worlds: On the Societal Functioning of Aesthetic Values (pp. 53-81). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Waltorp K. (2015, May 13). Keeping cool, staying virtuous: Social media and the composite habitus of young Muslim women in Copenhagen. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 31(58), 49-67.

[myconsciousflow]

TRANSCRIPT
Narrated
Version: Wednesday 12th May 2021



[TRANSITION SLIDES– TUTORIAL HEADER-YOUTUBE LEADER PAGE]
Social Anthropology Theory
A Teaching Aid
May 2021


[SLIDE THREE – VIDEO WITH VOICE OVER]
Introduction (Ref 1) (00:04)

Every person has a “sense of reality” — the way we perceive our world.

This view is formed by objective structures found in our society, and by subjective agency within individuals.

[SLIDE FOUR – VIDEO WITH VOICE OVER]
Doxa and the Field (00:18)

We make connections between social and mental structures.

This mindset is “Doxa”.


[SLIDE FIVE – TRANSITION SLIDE]
Topic Statement (00:22)

In this tutorial, we will overview Field Theory founded by Pierre Bourdieu and examine the concept of The Field and Doxa as a mechanism for structure and agency.


[SLIDE SIX – TRANSITION SLIDE]
Learning Objects (00:30)

Our Learning Objectives ask:

What is Field Theory?
What is meant by the Field?
What is Doxa in relation to the field?





[SLIDE SEVEN – VIDEO WITH VOICE OVER]
The Field (ref 2) (00:40)

The field is any structural frame containing people, or agents who hold inter-relating positions, and struggle for symbolic capital or prestige.


[SLIDE EIGHT – VIDEO WITH VOICE OVER]
Fields (00:48)

Fields might be social groups, workplaces, or institutions.

The Field defines social networks of practice.


[SLIDE NINE – TRANSITION]
Features (ref 3) (00:53)

When entering fields, an individual personifies three constructs:

Habitus
Capital
And Doxa


[SLIDE TEN – VIDEO]
Habitus (ref 4) (01:04)

Habitus comprises individual dispositions.

They represent resources the individual has.



[SLIDE ELEVEN – VIDEO]
Capital (ref 5) (01:11)

Capital, may be

economic —
as wealth

social —
as resources gained from interaction; and

cultural or symbolic —
as values, and status.
Capital evolves as a process.

[SLIDE TWELVE – VIDEO]
Doxa (ref 6) (01:23)

And the unconscious rules of the field, are Doxa, or the belief systems and conformity to power structures and codes.

[SLIDE THIRTEEN – TRANSITION]
Doxa Definition (ref 7) (ref 8) (01:30)

Doxa means “common beliefs or popular opinions”.

In Field Theory, it also refers to what is not seen nor acted on due to conditioned familiarity.

Bourdieu described Doxa as "what is taken for granted in any particular society".

[SLIDE FOURTEEN – VIDEO]
Doxa Explained (ref 9) (01:46)

A person enters the field with habitus, capital and personal doxa that includes illusio—a belief that practicing is worthwhile.

Every field contains the shared illusio of symbolic capital as reward. Shared doxa surrounds activities that are so routinely carried out, they become unoticeable and lose agency.

Doxa ensures fields organize complicity under either explicit power structures or implicit codes.

[SLIDE FIFTEEN – VIDEO]
Meta-fields (02:18)

As social practice — the individual will self-evaluate and be evaluated.

Categorization reinforces field power relations and doxa.

In the meta field of society, many fields have their own set of structures and doxa that produces and reinforces the worldview.

In the meta field of society, many fields have their own set of structures and doxa that produces and reinforces the worldview.

[SLIDE SIXTEEN – VIDEO]
Subjective Worldviews (02:27)

A person entering with personal habitus, capital and doxa may assume that the field doxa is the same.

People who fail to recognise that socially constructed worldviews are subjective, accept Doxa as natural.

Bourdieu distinguishes:

“Doxa sets limits on social mobility within the social space, …


[SLIDE SEVENTEEN – VIDEO]
Bourdieu’s View (ref 10) (ref 11) (02:45)

through limits imposed on the agency of each individual.”


[SLIDE EIGHTEEN – VIDEO]
Social Norms (02:50)

Doxa is found where social behaviours are so normalised and embedded in routine practice, that we overlook discernment.

Without agency social inequalities arise.

The unspoken rules in a field are the social norms of Doxa, …

(ref11)

[SLIDE NINETEEN – TRANSITION]
Social Norms Quote (ref 12) (03:06)

where we may be complicit to inequality.
—we think, “that is the way it is”

Bourdieu referred to “the naturalisation of its own arbitrariness”.


[SLIDE TWENTY – VIDEO]
Field Example (ref 13) (ref 14) (03:18)

An example of stratified expression of Doxa is racism.

Institutional structures impose power, while people who have fostered racist values, assume white privilege.

This scenario shows doxa determines the societal field while influencing an individual’s habitus and capital accumulation.

The effects are bi-directional, as field and habitus return influence on doxa in a reproducing cycle.

In summary,

Doxa social determinism projects the objective and subjective influencers of Structure and Agency,

(ref 13)





[SLIDE TWENTY-ONE – TRANSITION]
Summary (ref 15) (03:49)

…
to shape a sense of reality within a field of society.

Structures are “the recurrent, patterned arrangements, which influence or limit choices and opportunities available.

Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently, and to make their own free choices”.


[SLIDE TWENTY-TWO – TRANSITION]
Interstitial- Review (04:08)



[SLIDE TWENTY-THREE – TRANSITION]
Summation One (04:10)

Revising our learning objectives, we overview the field and doxa:


[SLIDE TWENTY-FOUR – TRANSITION]
Field Summation (04:13)

Field
Frames of societal networks are entered into by a person who brings doxa and "Habitus"—
personal resources, and cultural collateral—that includes capital.


[SLIDE TWENTY-FIVE – TRANSITION]
Rules of Doxa Summation (04:23)

And Doxa as: Subconscious rules of the field, formed by objective and subjective, either explicit or unseen phenomena— that influence sense of reality.


[SLIDE TWENTY-SIX – VIDEO]
Linked - Summation Four (04:33)

Each field has its own doxa which integrally links structure and positioned agents in relationships and struggles for power.


[SLIDE TWENTY-SEVEN – TRANSITION]
Power Relations (04:41)

And Doxa embeds the power relations in the field through patterns of structure, codes and agency.



[SLIDE TWENTY-EIGHT – TRANSITION]
Key Points Reviewed (04:47)

Key points we related to doxa in the field are:

Structures
Social Norms
Social Inequality; and
Agency

[SLIDE TWENTY-NINE – TRANSITION]
Structures (04:53)


Structures
Are Reproducing patterns within the field that objectively or subjectively enable or restrict opportunities, and individual freedoms.

[SLIDE THIRTY – TRANSITION]
Social Norms (05:01)


Social Norms—
Unspoken behavioural codes existing and uniquely brought into the field by an individual as habitus and with capital.

Codes influence perceptions to accept things as they are.


[SLIDE THIRTY-ONE – TRANSITION]
Social Inequality (05:15)


Social Inequality—
Field categorizations such as race, gender, religion, and class stratification.
When individuals fail to see codes that are non-arbitrary, social inequalities may arise.


[SLIDE THIRTY-TWO – TRANSITION]
Agency (05:28)


Agency—
The capability of a person to act of their own free will.
Acting requires discernment of arbitrary rules, between active intention and habitual oversight.



[SLIDE THIRTY-THREE — TRANSITION]
Interstitial – Practice (05:39)



[SLIDE THIRTY-FOUR — TRANSITION]
Activity One (05:41)

These two activities are provided for deeper learning.

Just press pause to go through them.


[SLIDE THIRTY-FIVE — WORKSHEET]
Activity Two (05:46)

And a quick worksheet

Again, just press pause to review.


[SLIDE THIRTY-SIX— TRANSITION]
References (05:50)

And that is the end of my mini teaching tutorial on Bourdieu’s Field Theory.

Kiaora.