Little Room for Capacitation: Rethinking Bourdieu on Pedagogic Action as Symbolic Violence

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• Megan Watkins , Associate Professor in the School of Education and the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University
• Thursday 04 February 2016, 10:00-12:00
• GS4, Faculty of Education, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PQ.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ann Waterman.

In Bourdieu’s early work on education, he declares that ‘All pedagogic action (PA) is objectively symbolic violence insofar as it is the imposition of a cultural arbitrary by an arbitrary power’. This paper rethinks Bourdieu’s proposition. It questions whether all PA is symbolic violence and the very notion of a cultural arbitrary upon which this view is based. His concept of PA leaves little room for capacitation wherein, rather than a cultural arbitrary, certain skills have an inherent use value equipping individuals with capacities that are a means for social transformation. A reconceptualization of pedagogy as enabling allows for a reconfiguration of field as a domain of social action not just a domain of reproduction and distinction.

This talk is part of the Education, Equality and Development (EED) Group Seminars series.

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• GS4, Faculty of Education, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PQ
• All Faculty of Education Seminars
• Education, Equality and Development (EED) Group Seminars
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