Habitus, Capital and Field

Habitus
• “systems of durable, transposable dispositions,
structures predisposed to operate as structuring
structures, that is, as principles which generate
and organize practices and representations that
can be objectively adapted to their outcomes
without presupposing a conscious aiming at
ends or an express mastery of the operations
necessary in order to attain them” (Bourdieu
1990: 52).
Habitus
Types of Capital Basic Distinction Mayor Currency Indicators

Economic Monetary success Money Economic status

Versus failure

Social Member versus Social contacts Membership

non-member and connections

Cultural Recognition versus Prestige knowledge Reputation,

Indifference education

Anheier, Gerhards and Romo (1995)

States of Cultural Capital Indicators of Cultural Capital

Incorporated Social and technical knowledge and skills

Perceptions, values and behaviors

Objectivized Books, technical tools, pieces of arts

Institutionalized Educational degrees, status ascription,

Professional titles

Abel, T (2000: 51)

Field
• “…a network or a configuration, of objective relations
between positions. (These positions are) objectively
defined, in their existence and in the determination they
impose upon their occupants, agents or institutions, by
their present and potential situation in the structure of
the distribution of species of power (or capital) whose
possession commands access to the specific profits that
are at stake in the field, as well as by their objective
relations to other positions (domination, subordination,
homology etc.)” (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992: 94)
World System Analysis
World Systems Analysis
• Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible
introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered
thirty years ago to understanding the history and development of
the modern world.
• Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has
become a widely utilized methodology within the historical
social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions
of globalization. Now, for the first time in one volume,
Wallerstein offers a succinct summary of world-systems analysis
and a clear outline of the modern world-system, describing the
structures of knowledge upon which it is based, its mechanisms,
and its future.
World Systems Analysis
• World-system as a social reality comprised of
interconnected nations, firms, households,
classes, and identity groups of all kinds. He
identifies and highlights the significance of the
key moments in the evolution of the modern
world-system: the development of a capitalist
world-economy in the sixteenth-century.
World System Analysis
• Core

• Semi-periphery

• Periphery
Core Countries
• are the industrialized capitalist countries on
which periphery countries and semi-periphery
countries depend. Core countries control and
benefit from the global market. They are
usually recognized as wealthy nations with a
wide variety of resources and are in a favorable
location compared to other states. They have
strong state institutions, a powerful military
and powerful global political alliances.
 Semi periphery
• are the industrializing,
mostly capitalist countries which are positioned
between the periphery and core countries. Semi-
periphery countries have organizational
characteristics of both core countries and periphery
countries and are often geographically located
between core and peripheral regions as well as
between two or more competing core regions. Semi-
periphery regions play a major role in mediating
economic, political, and social activities that link
core and peripheral areas.
Periphery
• are those that are less developed than the semi-
periphery and core countries. These countries
usually receive a disproportionately small share
of global wealth. They have weak state
institutions and are dependent on – according
to some, exploited by – more developed
countries. These countries are usually behind
because of obstacles such as lack of
technology, unstable government, and poor
education and health systems.
Habitus, Capital and Field and World
Systems Analysis

Field:
Core/S.P./P
Cultural Capital:
Educational
Attainment

Economic
Capital:
Socio-Economic
Status
Social Capital:
Socialization