video: Lennart Rosenlund, Social, mental and spatial structures -- a Bourdieusian approach to study the city

 Lennart Rosenlund, Social, mental and spatial structures -- a Bourdieusian approach to study the city 
CRESC Annual Conference, Sept 2011, Manchester UK 

 Abstract: This is based on findings from an empirical study of an urban community that has undergone profound and rapid process of social change, Stavanger. In the 1970s it was a poor sleepy small town in the periphery of Norway. Nowadays it is its oil capital and the most affluent city. The presentation summarises Pierre Bourdieu's theory and methods developed in Distinction. This includes two forms of capital (cultural and economic), habitus, social fields and spaces and is theoretically guided by Geometric Data Analysis (GDA). The approach is then applied to examine the history and the contemporary particulars of the local social space, which unveils the potent mechanisms of social differentiation in this community. The space of lifestyles is examined. This represents divisions within a universe of finely differentiated sets of beliefs, practices, symbols and strategies, all products of differentiated habituses. The inhabitants' perceptions of the various residential areas are examined, showing that they have "practical knowledge" about their community; they "know their place" where they fit in and where they don't. They tend to favour areas where their own sorts (social positions and lifestyle configurations) are prevalent and they reject those where they are few and where they would not be welcomed. The comparison of two spaces construct representing two different universes of social reality shows that they are governed by the same principles of differentiation: volume and compositions of capital. The validity of these findings and the impact they may have on the spatial organisation of the city is examined and discussed.

Brief Biography
Lennart Rosenlund (Dr. Philos.) is a professor at University of Stavanger, Norway. He teaches sociology of culture and the methodology of the social sciences. Social and cultural change and processes of social differentiation are his areas of research. He takes a particular interest in the application of Geometric Data Analysis (correspondence analysis and related methods) in the social sciences. He has among other things undertaken/participated in large scale research projects on middle sized Nordic cities (Stavanger, Aalborg).

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voir également : Lennart Rosenlund,Exploring the City with Bourdieu.Applying Pierre Bourdieu's theories and methods to study the community. Foreword by Loïc Wacquant, VDM Verlag, 2009