Contemporary Sociological Theory

• Pierre Bourdieu


  - French sociologist and social theorist

  focuses on:

  - how structure, culture, and individual agency interact to reproduce social institutions

  - how social inequality gets reproduced at the level of practical activity
• 3 Things that Contribute to Social Reproduction


  1. Habitus

  2. Capital

  3. Field
• Habitus


  a social actors way of being in the world

  - is produced via socialization in early childhood
• 2 Components of Habitus


  *1. Presentation

  - bodily behaviour

  - physicality

  - style of speaking and vocabulary

  2. Subjective Experience

  - spontaneous judgement

  - aesthetic taste (what kinds of things a person likes)

  - evaluation

  - assessment of importance
• Habitus and Class


  - professional classes:reproduces a habitus that's reserved, demur, controlled outwardly, unemotional

  - working classes:reproduce a habitus that's more sociable, straight-forward, and emotionally expressive
• Annette Lareau's Study of Class and Parenting Stye


  - Working Class Parenting

  - Middle Class Parenting
• Working Class Parenting


  - natural growth

  - lots of opportunities to engage in exploratory learning

  - parental involvement = authoritative
• Middle Class Parenting


  - concerted cultivation

  - systematic organization of child's time and activities

  - lots of opportunities to practice learning via instruction

  - invitations to participate in family decision making
• Field


  an area of social activity
• Field Logic


  - every field has it's own unspoken...

  - What is/isn't acceptable?

  - What are the "rules of the game?"

  -.... is determined by people who are powerful within a given field
• Capital


  describes the value that capitalists invest in ownership of the means of production

  - people use this to position themselves within various field hierarchies
• 3 Types of Capital


  1. Economic Capital

  2. Social Capital

  3. Cultural Capital

  - someone who "know what they're talking about"

  Ex:University degrees, professional honours and awards
• The Influence of Habitus, Capital and Field on Education


  middle class kids arrive at school with the habitus (way of being) and capital (knowledge and skills) necessary to succeed in the field (classroom)
• How does Capital affect Education?


  - those with power (economic and cultural capital) organize the field in a way that their own habitus/capital configurations will be associated with "success"

  - while schools have the appearance of a meritocracy, it's just favorable to middle class families

  - therefore, being "academically successful" is easier for middle class students than working class students
• Inequalities of Reaching Upward Social Mobility in Education


  - sometimes, talent and/or hard work really does produce upward social mobility

  - but in order to succeed, those who don't possess the habitus needed for the field, have to work twice as hard to achieve the same goal