Field theory

FIELD THEORY

Field

• Place of focus and habituated action that shape social positions

• movement through the field via trading capitals

Position

• Your place on the field ( within a social structure)

• What you do and what you think is based on your position on the field

Disposition

• Your location on the field likely aligns to the orientation to the field and how you think

• Position matches disposition of other places on the field

Doxa- in every field

• Unquestioned beliefs/rules of the way things work within a society

• Relation to Bourdieu: doxa operates to take for granted/misrecognize the overall field of power and production of social inequalities

Nomos

• Principle division within any field, the dividing line and organizing rules of division
  - fairness and unfairness

• Ex: principle division of film is between commerce and art

Homology

• Association in positions across different fields

• You can positon yourself and tastes within a field

• Relation to Bourdieu: illustrates alignment between habitus and larger social strucutre

“Art for Art’s Sake”

• The idea of making art as an investment in cultural capital, not for economic gain

“Interest in Disinterestedness/ Loser Wins”

• Idea people show disinterest in economic gain when making art/ trying to gain cultural capital- Signifying artistically pure intentions

• Those with economic capital are not afraid of risking it for cultural capital

“Autonomous Pole” and “Heteronomous Pole,”

• Autonomous: can pursue activities for own intrinsic values, gets to define their own reality

• Heteronomous: involves external motivations, influence beyond your field and based on popular taste

• Relation to Bourdieu: illustrates tension between cultural pursuits for own sake vs those driven by external influences ( economic gain)

Limitations of Field Theory

• Too many fields

• Borders- how do find where the field effects stop

• Inter-field connections

• Change in the field- bordieu dwells too much on the reproductive aspects of fields and not their change. but it has potential for change at any time

READING findings

• Fields as sports field
  - Has known rules and positions and boundaries

• Fields as sci fic force fields

• Boundaries- barriers between what happens inside and outside the field where certain habits seem normative within field and weird outside

• Fields as force fields (physics)

• Field made up of opposing forces, working like a Magnetic field with positions determined by relatiohosp to four poles (different boundaries)