Pierre Bourdieu

It has often been suggested that Australia, and especially higher education (i.e. university) in Australia is meritocratic; that is, Australia and its educational system are believed to be social systems in which ones’ success depends exclusively on their ability and talent, rather than their class, race or gender. Equality in higher education in Australia has been of great debate for a number of years, with many differing aspects as to why and whether or not equality has indeed been achieved.…

Critical discussion of Pierre Bourdeui’s written works: Pierre Bourdieu produced many influential pieces of text throughout his life time, but no three were import to his contribution to anthropology than the three discussed below. Each piece of text contributes a small section to an overarching theory of the development of society Bourdieu is trying to create that explains the reproduction and maintenance of society. The “Outline of a Theory of Practice” (1977) is one of Bourdieu’s…

French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu found that there are certain qualities that are taken for granted by those who have them and are seemingly unattainable to those who do not. For example, some children know to raise their hand often in class and some do not, or lack the confidence to do so. The difference between these children is internal and hidden; the first child has qualities the second child does not. Bourdieu states that the difference is found in the first child’s possession of embodied…

the neoliberal individual as part of defining their version of good-taste and placing emphasis on their own cultural capital. Ideas that suggest the connection between capital and branding obsession become further apparent in this text. Sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus framework becomes clear, the importance of the interactions between the individual (habitus), power relations (competition for forms of capital) and social structure (the field) (Stringfellow et al, 77). Part of enabling a…

In James Loewen’s excerpt “The Land of Opportunity “the author discusses middle-class students not knowing anything about how class structure works or how it is changed over time (Loewen 201). In “Do Schools Kill Creativity,” Sir Kenneth Robinson discusses how we are all born with natural capacities for creativity and the systems of mass education tend to suppress them (). That the present education system we now implement is not the failsafe system we think it is. Both narratives tried to…

The world encompasses many different cultures, which governs way of living. Culture is defined as the characteristics that mutually make up societies or groups of people identified by beliefs, behaviours and customs. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction formed from culture studies created the concept cultural capital. Divided into three types of cultural capital aspects embodied, objectified and institutionalised state all contributing to shaping lifestyles and individuals. Presence,…

Scholars such as Annette Lareau and Jessica McCrory Calarco have identified the role of parent’s transmission of cultural capital onto their children and the impact of such on educational success. While it is possible for first-generation college students to come from a high income family, it is unlikely that their adolescent education parallels that of continuing-generation students. As stated by Dumais, “the acquisition of cultural capital and subsequent access to academic rewards depend upon…

I am currently majoring in computer science engineering. It is a field that is reasonably racially diverse but completely dominated by males. In my Computer Science 205 class, there is a total of 5 girls including myself and 30 males. This creates for an interesting class dynamic that I was not aware of until recently. When you walk into the class, all the female students are sitting on one side and the male students are on the other. This means that unless our teacher picks the groups for us,…

Weekly Reflection Book # 3: On Bourdieu As I continue reading Bourdieu's Language and Symbolic Power, I am able to achieve a better understanding of his vision about the language differences between the bourgeois and the peasants, and how these differences have been sustained, by the dominant classes, to maintain power distinctions. A particular term called my attention, neutralizing distance (p. 85), which is used by Bourdieu to define how the bourgeoisie use their language to maintain…

Exam 1: Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital Bourdieu’s studies resulted in three theories of capital: social, cultural, and symbolic. He also intensely discussed Habitus. Social capital is the value that comes from social networks that allow people to achieve things they couldn 't on their own. Some examples of this is sharing information and resources, providing assistance, and establishing trust. Personally, an example of this is a social group I am a part of. It is a group of about fifty moms who…