The Sixth Sense : Finding Bourdieu

 Well, I only discovered my theoretical framework of analysis into Chapter Three. It was tucked away in an insignificant reference by Akhil Gupta in his key article Blurred Boundaries on everyday practices of postcolonial bureaucrats:

Research on the state, with its focus on large-scale structures, epochal events, major policies, and "important" people (Evans et al. 1985; Skocpol 1979), has failed to illuminate the quotidian practices (Bourdieu 1977) of bureaucrats that tell us about the effects of the state on the everyday lives of rural people. (Gupta,1995 p. 376)

I am convinced that there is a God of Sixth Sense that guides me unconsciously to things that I am hardly aware of, that I need, and that are invisible.  What possessed me to look up Pierre Bourdieu remains a mystery. I ordered an Outline of a Theory of Practice and never looked back since. It wasn't easy to get a grip on the stuff as Pierre tends to be write long convoluted sentences which gain layers as he developed his conceptual tools: habitus, doxa and illusio. He preferred to call em 'relational conceptual approaches' making sure no one misunderstood them as being static concepts.

From a rich textured pile of oral history interviewee research, I undertook a Bourdieusian Exploration into Schooling-in-Wartime in Northern Sri Lanka. This is my doctoral thesis which I submitted end Feb 24 and is heavily flawed no doubt. They (the panel) will pick holes in it especially on the question on the transferability of his concepts located in French societal structures and thinking, to postcolonial Northern Sri Lanka.  What is important to me is that this introduction to Bourdieu evolved into a deeply immersive experience, from which I am not quite ready to emerge and may never will. Unhindered by the deadline of a thesis and unfettered by the need to keep my personal peeves and opinions (which I have written into and carved out of the thesis to be saved in cubbyholes) to myself.   

This blog arises from the realisation in the research experience that understanding Bourdieu's approach is as important as getting to grips with his theoretical tools of analysis. 'The theoretical concepts and approaches of Pierre Bourdieu, I found, both directed the exploration, as well as introduced another way of investigating what I was seeking to find' (thesis-quote, mine). 

In the next posts I will go on about where I feel the Start flag is waved on this hike and it is a long one. There are no real short-cuts,  but to cut through bramble and preamble, some signposting and stiles could save time, befuddlement and even abandonment. First, this is hard work and only those who do not quail at spending hours reading, re-reading and making notes at which you will stare blankly at times, will survive. I found, I thought, Bourdieu's theory of practice in Chapter Three. After Chapter Six which had met with my supervisor's 'each chapter is getting better and better and I like what you've done there,' yet unconvinced that I had got there yet, with the final chapter to go, I decided to delve, to dig deep. In two weeks I had an entire folder on his concepts, the diverse viewpoints and a section on critique i would not have time to do justice to in the thesis. 

I had read Grenfell's Key Concepts book first thing. While it contains the bare bones of each concept and may be helpful to the complete newbie as I was, I felt the path I was taking was a different one. The signposting would be a publication I may be allowed to write which lead to the diverse pieces of intricate thinking, critique and philosophising of Bourdieu's sociological approach.  I would then explain the concepts within the overall thinking as clearly as humanly possible in a Bourdieusian universe and link to what I consider the best demystifying piece published in Q&A dialogue: the Chicago Workshop as it is called between that fiercely formidable and indispensable Loic Wacquant and Pierre Bourdieu. The publication is titled Towards a Reflexive Sociology and I can recall from memory that pages 40-43 were referenced across the thesis as containing the key clarifications of field and illusio.