Responding to the 'Weight of the World': Unveiling the 'Feeling' Bourdieu in Social Work. (2nd August 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Responding to the 'Weight of the World': Unveiling the 'Feeling' Bourdieu in Social Work. (2nd August 2021)
- Main Title:
- Responding to the 'Weight of the World': Unveiling the 'Feeling' Bourdieu in Social Work
- Authors:
- Houston, Stan
Swords, Calvin - Abstract:
- Abstract: The world continues to lurch from crisis to crisis. Amidst environmental decline, growing disparities in wealth and social dislocation, a minority of the world's population ironically prosper while the silent majority struggle to maintain basic standards of economic and social well-being. Social workers are compelled to respond to societal issues such as these but need theories to make sense of disparities in lived experience and life outcomes. Responding to this necessity, some social work scholars have drawn on Pierre Bourdieu's meta-theory to explain social injustice and guide anti-oppressive practice. While this growing corpus of work is encouraging, further critical appraisal of Bourdieu's work is required. In this article, we identify a gap in Bourdieu's meta-theory: the relative inattention to human affect and how it connects with his formative concepts of 'habitus', 'field' and 'capital'. This focus on human affect is salutary given its centrality in social work practice. To address this gap, we proffer some tentative thoughts about the nature of 'affective habitus', 'affective fields' and 'affective capital'. The implications of these enriched concepts for social work are finally considered. Abstract : This article builds on the application of Pierre Bourdieu's ideas for social work. It highlights a gap in Bourdieu's work: his lack of attention to emotion. This gap is addressed by applying emotional considerations to his lead concepts of habitus, field andAbstract: The world continues to lurch from crisis to crisis. Amidst environmental decline, growing disparities in wealth and social dislocation, a minority of the world's population ironically prosper while the silent majority struggle to maintain basic standards of economic and social well-being. Social workers are compelled to respond to societal issues such as these but need theories to make sense of disparities in lived experience and life outcomes. Responding to this necessity, some social work scholars have drawn on Pierre Bourdieu's meta-theory to explain social injustice and guide anti-oppressive practice. While this growing corpus of work is encouraging, further critical appraisal of Bourdieu's work is required. In this article, we identify a gap in Bourdieu's meta-theory: the relative inattention to human affect and how it connects with his formative concepts of 'habitus', 'field' and 'capital'. This focus on human affect is salutary given its centrality in social work practice. To address this gap, we proffer some tentative thoughts about the nature of 'affective habitus', 'affective fields' and 'affective capital'. The implications of these enriched concepts for social work are finally considered. Abstract : This article builds on the application of Pierre Bourdieu's ideas for social work. It highlights a gap in Bourdieu's work: his lack of attention to emotion. This gap is addressed by applying emotional considerations to his lead concepts of habitus, field and capital. The implications for social work are then considered. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- British journal of social work. Volume 52:Number 4(2022)
- Journal:
- British journal of social work
- Issue:
- Volume 52:Number 4(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 52, Issue 4 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 52
- Issue:
- 4
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0052-0004-0000
- Page Start:
- 1934
- Page End:
- 1951
- Publication Date:
- 2021-08-02
- Subjects:
- anti-oppressive practice -- Bourdieu -- emotion
Social service -- Periodicals
Social workers -- Periodicals
361 - Journal URLs:
- http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/ ↗
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1093/bjsw/bcab161 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0045-3102
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 2324.790000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22113.xml