Open AccessPractice as Presence: Reading Bourdieu Against the Grain
Author(s) -
Ron Cadieux
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of anthropology at mcmaster
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0707-3771
DOI - 10.15173/nexus.v7i1.85
Subject(s) - habitus , inscribed figure , improvisation , practice theory , sociology , epistemology , construct (python library) , reading (process) , action (physics) , social practice , subject (documents) , linguistics , philosophy , cultural capital , social science , computer science , mathematics , art , physics , geometry , quantum mechanics , performance art , library science , visual arts , art history , programming language
This paper presents a critique of Pierre Bourdieu's Outline of a Theory of Practice (1986) using some of the deconstructive strategies associated with the work of Jacques Derrida. It is argued that the derivative nature of theoretical accounts of practice extends to all manifestations of social action. Bourdieu cannot provide an account of the subject's reflection upon his activity without slipping into the language of the rule. The habitus, as a symbolic construct, extends the domain of signification infinitely: there is no strategy or improvisation which is not inscribed in this play of representations. As such, practice can never serve as a ground for discourse.