The Possibilities of Change in a World of Constraint
Individual and Social Transformation in the Work of Pierre Bourdieu
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v41i1.002Keywords:
Pierre Bourdieu, change, habitus, prophets, social reproductionAbstract
In this essay I will suggest that the work of Pierre Bourdieu, a scholar whose work seldom focused on religion, offers tools for thinking about personal and social change that can aid us in understanding religious conversion and deconversion. In Bourdieu we find ways to conceptualize change that are materially grounded and embodied. As a post-structuralist, Bourdieu refuses to reduce individual change and stasis to the machinations of hardened social structures that stand apart from human activity. At the same time, Bourdieu is a social theorist who—in acknowledging the statistical regularities that demonstrate the reproduction of social inequalities—also avoids simplistic conceptions of human subjectivity that imagines autonomous individuals who possess some magical spark of free will to stand outside all external compulsions and rationally choose their life trajectories. For those interested in mapping the possibilities of change in a world of constraint, Bourdieu offers some useful starting points.
References
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Bourdieu, Pierre. 1973. “Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction.” In Knowledge, Education, and Social Change, edited by Richard Brown, 71–112. London: Tavistock.
———. 1974. “The School as a Conservative Force: Scholastic and Structural Inequalities.” In Contemporary Research in The Sociology of Education, edited by John Eggleston, 32–46. London: Methuen.
———. 1977a. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. New York: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1977b. “Symbolic Power.” In Identity and Structure: Issues in the Sociology of Education, edited by Dennis Gleason, 112–119. Dimiffield, UK: Nefferton.
———. 1981. “Men and Machines.” In Advances in Social Theory and Methodology: Toward an Integration of Micro- and Macro-Sociologies, edited by K. Knorr-Cetina and A.V. Cicourel. Boston: Routledge.
———. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
———. 1985. “Social Space and the Genesis of Groups.” Theory and Society 14:723–44.
———.1987. “Legitimation and Structured Interests in Weber’s Sociology of Religion.” In Max Weber, Rationality, and Modernity, edited by Scott Lash and Sam Whimster, 119-136. London: Allen and Unwin.
———. 1989. “Social Space and Symbolic Power.” Sociological Theory 7:14–25.
———. 1991. “The Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field.” In Comparative Social Research. A Research Annual. Religious Institutions, edited by Craig Calhoun, 1–44. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.
———. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
———. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production. New York: Columbia University Press.
———. 2000. Pascalian Meditations. Translated by Richard Nice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
———. 2007 Sketch for a Self-Analysis. Translated by Richard Nice. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Terry Eagleton. 1992. “Doxa and Common Life.” New Left Review 191:111–121.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc J.D. Wacquant.1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Butler, Judith.1997. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge.
Dews, C. L., Barney and Carolyn Celeste Law, eds. 1995. This Fine Place so far from Home: Voices of Academics from the Working Class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
DiMaggio, Paul. 1979. “Review Essay: On Pierre Bourdieu.” American Journal of Sociology 84:1460–474.
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Rambo, Lewis. 1993. Understanding Religious Conversion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Reed-Danahay, Deborah. 2005. Locating Bourdieu. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Rey, Terry. 2007. Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy. London: Equinox.
Rothenberg, Molly Anne. 2010. The Excessive Subject: A New Theory of Social Change. Malden, Mass.: Polity Press.
Swartz, David.1996. “Bridging the Study of Culture and Religion: Pierre Bourdieu’s Political Economy of Power.” Sociology of Religion 57:71–85.
Swidler, Ann. 2001. Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tokarczyk, Michelle M., and Elizabeth A. Fay, eds. 1993. Working-Class Women in the Academy: Laborers in the Knowledge Factory. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Urban, Hugh. 2003. “Sacred Capital: Pierre Bourdieu and the Study of Religion.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 15:354–89.
Verter, Bradford. 2003. “Spiritual Capital: Theorizing Religion with Bourdieu against Bourdieu.” Sociological Theory 21:150–74.
Wallace, A.F.C. 1956. “Revitalization Movements.” American Anthropologist 58:264–81.
———. 1957. “Mazeway Disintegration: The Individual’s Perception of Socio-Cultural Disorganization.” Human Organization 16: 23–27.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1973. “Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction.” In Knowledge, Education, and Social Change, edited by Richard Brown, 71–112. London: Tavistock.
———. 1974. “The School as a Conservative Force: Scholastic and Structural Inequalities.” In Contemporary Research in The Sociology of Education, edited by John Eggleston, 32–46. London: Methuen.
———. 1977a. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. New York: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1977b. “Symbolic Power.” In Identity and Structure: Issues in the Sociology of Education, edited by Dennis Gleason, 112–119. Dimiffield, UK: Nefferton.
———. 1981. “Men and Machines.” In Advances in Social Theory and Methodology: Toward an Integration of Micro- and Macro-Sociologies, edited by K. Knorr-Cetina and A.V. Cicourel. Boston: Routledge.
———. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
———. 1985. “Social Space and the Genesis of Groups.” Theory and Society 14:723–44.
———.1987. “Legitimation and Structured Interests in Weber’s Sociology of Religion.” In Max Weber, Rationality, and Modernity, edited by Scott Lash and Sam Whimster, 119-136. London: Allen and Unwin.
———. 1989. “Social Space and Symbolic Power.” Sociological Theory 7:14–25.
———. 1991. “The Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field.” In Comparative Social Research. A Research Annual. Religious Institutions, edited by Craig Calhoun, 1–44. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.
———. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
———. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production. New York: Columbia University Press.
———. 2000. Pascalian Meditations. Translated by Richard Nice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
———. 2007 Sketch for a Self-Analysis. Translated by Richard Nice. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Terry Eagleton. 1992. “Doxa and Common Life.” New Left Review 191:111–121.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc J.D. Wacquant.1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Butler, Judith.1997. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge.
Dews, C. L., Barney and Carolyn Celeste Law, eds. 1995. This Fine Place so far from Home: Voices of Academics from the Working Class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
DiMaggio, Paul. 1979. “Review Essay: On Pierre Bourdieu.” American Journal of Sociology 84:1460–474.
Gooren, Henri. 2010. Religious Conversion and Disaffiliation: Tracing Patterns of Change in Faith Practices. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Grimes, Michael D. and Joan M. Morris. 1997. Caught in the Middle: Contradictions in the Lives of Sociologists from Working-Class Backgrounds. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
hooks, bell. 2000. Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York: Routledge.
Jenkins, Richard. 1992. Pierre Bourdieu. London: Routledge.
Lubrano, Alfred. 2004. Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Lydon, John, with Keith Zimmerman. 1994. Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Jews. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Machalek, Richard, and David Snow. 1993. “Conversion to New Religious Movements.” In The Handbook of Sects and Cults in America, Part B, edited by David Bromley and Jeffrey Hadden, 53–74. Greenwich, Conn: JAI Press.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1964. On Religion. Introduced by Reinhold Niebuhr. New York: Schocken.
McCloud, Sean. 2007. Divine Hierarchies: Class in American Religion and Religious Studies. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Rambo, Lewis. 1993. Understanding Religious Conversion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Reed-Danahay, Deborah. 2005. Locating Bourdieu. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Rey, Terry. 2007. Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy. London: Equinox.
Rothenberg, Molly Anne. 2010. The Excessive Subject: A New Theory of Social Change. Malden, Mass.: Polity Press.
Swartz, David.1996. “Bridging the Study of Culture and Religion: Pierre Bourdieu’s Political Economy of Power.” Sociology of Religion 57:71–85.
Swidler, Ann. 2001. Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tokarczyk, Michelle M., and Elizabeth A. Fay, eds. 1993. Working-Class Women in the Academy: Laborers in the Knowledge Factory. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Urban, Hugh. 2003. “Sacred Capital: Pierre Bourdieu and the Study of Religion.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 15:354–89.
Verter, Bradford. 2003. “Spiritual Capital: Theorizing Religion with Bourdieu against Bourdieu.” Sociological Theory 21:150–74.
Wallace, A.F.C. 1956. “Revitalization Movements.” American Anthropologist 58:264–81.
———. 1957. “Mazeway Disintegration: The Individual’s Perception of Socio-Cultural Disorganization.” Human Organization 16: 23–27.
Published
2012-03-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
McCloud, S. (2012). The Possibilities of Change in a World of Constraint: Individual and Social Transformation in the Work of Pierre Bourdieu. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 41(1), 2-8. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v41i1.002
