The Sixth Sense : Finding Bourdieu

Well, I only discovered my theoretical framework of analysis while drafting Chapter Three of the thesis. It was tucked away in a 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 I am hardly aware of, I need, and 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 B tends to write long convoluted sentences, which gain layer upon layer as he developed his conceptual tools. He preferred to call 'em 'relational conceptual approaches,' to underscore that they should not be misunderstood 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 meander on this ramble, 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 Bourdieu's 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, first thing. While it contains the bare bones of each concept and may be helpful to the complete newbie I was, I appeared to be turning off in a slightly different path of demystification. The signposting may turn into a handbook type of publication.  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. It takes place in Chicago between Loïc Wacquant and Pierre Bourdieu. The paper is titled Towards a Reflexive Sociology.

This blog post is dated March 2024, a few days after thesis submission.