From sociological fictions to social fictions: some Bourdieusian reflections on the concepts of 'institutional habitus' and 'family habitus'

Author: Atkinson, Will

Source: British Journal of Sociology of Education, Volume 32, Number 3, May 2011 , pp. 331-347(17)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This paper expresses serious reservations regarding the increasingly popular Bourdieu-inspired notions of 'institutional habitus' and 'family habitus' in education research. Although sympathetic to the overall theoretical approach and persuaded of the veracity and importance of the empirical findings they are used to illuminate, it argues that, from a Bourdieusian point of view, they actually present several difficulties that threaten not only to overstretch and reduce the explanatory power of the French thinker's concepts but to stifle analysis of the kinds of struggles and complexities that both he and, somewhat contradictorily, the researchers in question spotlight. Bourdieu had his own ways of making sense of the themes raised, and although there is indeed a need to push him further than he went, to say what he did not and to emphasise what he would not, this has to be guided by consistent logic and not simply pragmatic empiricism.

Keywords: Bourdieu; doxa; expectations; family habitus; institutional habitus

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2011.559337

Affiliations: 1: School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TY, UK

Publication date: 2011-05-01

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