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Using Bourdieu’s concept of doxa to illuminate classed practices in an English fee-paying school

Using Bourdieu’s concept of doxa to illuminate classed practices in an English fee-paying school
Using Bourdieu’s concept of doxa to illuminate classed practices in an English fee-paying school
Especially in research on the ‘classed practice’ of educational decision-making, it is striking how the Bourdieuian concepts of habitus and capital have dominated. With a tendency to focus on the middle-classes’ ability to accumulate and deploy cultural capital, less attention has been given to the role of the institution and its place in the field. We are given a flavour of how classed practices are played out within the state sector, but as far as the fee-paying sector is concerned, we know very little. This paper draws from interviews and field notes taken from time spent within the sixth-form of an independent school. I argue that the school and parents are engaged in the production, display and consumption of cultural capital. Moreover, through Bourdieu’s notion of ‘doxa’ we gain an understanding of how the school and parents are engaged in a very particular classed practice.
bourdieu, cultural capital, doxa, institution
0142-5692
507-525
Davey, Gayna
688b1d43-7c50-4edb-a893-7f7f0a05e249
Davey, Gayna
688b1d43-7c50-4edb-a893-7f7f0a05e249

Davey, Gayna (2012) Using Bourdieu’s concept of doxa to illuminate classed practices in an English fee-paying school. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33 (4), 507-525. (doi:10.1080/01425692.2012.662823).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Especially in research on the ‘classed practice’ of educational decision-making, it is striking how the Bourdieuian concepts of habitus and capital have dominated. With a tendency to focus on the middle-classes’ ability to accumulate and deploy cultural capital, less attention has been given to the role of the institution and its place in the field. We are given a flavour of how classed practices are played out within the state sector, but as far as the fee-paying sector is concerned, we know very little. This paper draws from interviews and field notes taken from time spent within the sixth-form of an independent school. I argue that the school and parents are engaged in the production, display and consumption of cultural capital. Moreover, through Bourdieu’s notion of ‘doxa’ we gain an understanding of how the school and parents are engaged in a very particular classed practice.

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Published date: 2012
Keywords: bourdieu, cultural capital, doxa, institution

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Local EPrints ID: 184049
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/184049
ISSN: 0142-5692
PURE UUID: 8bda4128-7433-410c-a1ad-954ab330a5b1

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Date deposited: 10 May 2011 15:42
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 03:06

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Author: Gayna Davey

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