Professor David James' presentation to the Sheffield Institute of Education Seminar, Sheffield Hallam University 14 October 2015

1. ThereThere’’s no such things no such thing
asas ‘‘Bourdieu LiteBourdieu Lite’’
Sheffield Hallam University 14th
October 2015
David James
Cardiff University

2.  Bourdieu’s concepts are now very widely
used
 But great variability in ‘depth in use’
 Why?
 Apparent similarity of concepts with other
perspectives
 Misrecognition of ‘misrecognition’?
 Tensions between a Bourdieusian
perspective and educational values
Some key pointsSome key points

3. A little learning is a dang’rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
(Pope An Essay on Criticism 1711)
Some verseSome verse

4.  Justice is mostly about parity of participation;
 Injustice commonly produced by barriers to
participation – economic (distributive) or status
(recognition).
 Fraser’s misrecognition refers to a lack recognition
and to status inequality, preventing people from
full participation ‘as peers in social life’.
 Struggles over distribution and recognition are
played out within a political dimension which tells
us ‘who is included, who is excluded’, especially
on a global scale
Misrecogntion: Nancy FraserMisrecogntion: Nancy Fraser

5. No!
Yes!
Field for
Bourdieu?

6.  A particular meaning of knowledge, as practical
sense and as habitus:
 Knowledge = connaissance
 Recognition = reconnaissance
 Misrecognition = meconnaissance
Misrecognition: how practices are made ‘…invisible
through a displacement of understanding and a
reconstrual as part of other aspects of the habitus
that “go without saying”’ (Mahar et al, 1990, p. 19)
So misrecognition is habitual ‘mis-attribution’.
 This is an everyday process.
Misrecognition: PierreMisrecognition: Pierre
BourdieuBourdieu

7. How do people know their
place, and what
stories and explanations do
they have by
which to explain it?

8. Who does he
think he is?


9. A lovely image!

10. Everyday misrecognition exploited forEveryday misrecognition exploited for
profit - something for nothing?profit - something for nothing?

11.  Individuals are all different
 Those with talent, who work hard, can do well in
education
 They get the best jobs
 The educational generation of social inequality is
a ‘malfunction’ or an aberrant feature of an
otherwise benign process
Common-sense thinking (andCommon-sense thinking (and
some socio-economicsome socio-economic
perspectives)perspectives)

12. ‘Misrecognition of the social determinants
of the educational career – and therefore of
the social trajectory it helps to determine –
gives the educational certificate the value
of a natural right and makes the
educational system one of the fundamental
agencies of the maintenance of the social
order’
(Bourdieu, 1984, p. 387)
The classic case ofThe classic case of
misrecognition for Bourdieumisrecognition for Bourdieu

14.  Investigated a cross-section of against-the-
grain examples of school choice, where
families deliberately chose ordinary and low-
performing secondary schools for their
children
 We interviewed parents and children in 125
households in London and two other cities in
England
 Examples of overall findings
 See Reay, Crozier and James, 2011& 2013
The projectThe project Identity, EducationalIdentity, Educational
Choice and the White UrbanChoice and the White Urban
Middle ClassesMiddle Classes

15.  Example A: The identification and avoidance
of a common misrecognition. Parents
deciding not to be ‘mainstream choosers’.
The educational project is conceived in ways
that takes it well beyond the idea of choice
prevalent in neoliberal, marketising policy;
 Example B: The certainty of trajectory based
on the imputation of brightness. A double
hermeneutic and a mutual affinity between
the needs of schools and those of middle
class families.
MisrecognitionMisrecognition in ourin our
analysisanalysis

16.  Soft reflexivity is easy (Cf. Woolgar)
 Serious reflexivity is likely to be uncomfortable –
even painful
 Beyond this, four areas of tension between the
general values and goals of educational
endeavour, and a Bourdieusian approach:
◦ Interest and proximity
◦ The unit of analysis
◦ Compass and scale
◦ Tenor – e.g optimism versus pessimism
IsIs ‘‘Bourdieu LiteBourdieu Lite’’ produced byproduced by
discomfort?discomfort?