SOC104: Sociology

of Culture
Lecture 9: Analyzing Social Interactions
Introduction
• In addition to analyzing symbolic forms,
cultural sociologists analyze how meaning-
making takes place during social
interactions
• How are shared cultural forms –
categories, boundaries, schemas, frames,
evaluations, commensurations, discursive
fields, codes, narratives, genres,
materiality, and icons – expressed,
internalised, and altered in processes of
interaction?
• Shared norms of interaction are
themselves cultural forms that can be
transferred between different local settings
Habitus
• Concept developed by the French
sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)
• Describes how individuals are shaped by
their upbringing and experience
• Habitus = the pre-conscious patterning of
our attitudes and attachments – including
tastes, identities, and skills – by taken-for-
granted practices
• Bourdieu believed social agents do not
base their actions on ‘rational choice’ or
economic self-interest but an implicit
sense of ‘how things are’ and ‘how to
behave’
Habitus
• Habitus refers to the instinctive ways of acting and thinking internalized by
each member of a society
• For Bourdieu, “habitus” is ‘a system of lasting, transposable dispositions
which, integrating past experiences, functions at every moment as a matrix
of perception, appreciation, and actions and makes possible the
achievement of infinitely diversified tasks, thanks to analogical transfers of
schemes permitting the solution of similarly shaped problems’ (1977: 82–3)
• E.g., you learn habits of focus and concentration at school you can apply at
work; if you learn to be polite to your grandmother at home you will
probably give up your seat to an old woman on the metro
• Habitus is established less by conscious learning and more by subconscious
practice (through habit and familiarity, we internalize certain ways of
making sense of the world)
The Kabyle House
• Bourdieu conducted ethnographic research among the Kabyle, a Berber-
speaking people in North-eastern Algeria, from 1956-60
• This is where he developed his concept of habitus
• An example is his analysis of the traditional houses of the Kablye people
• The Kabyle house was organised around the opposition of hearth/stable
and weaving loom wall/door wall
• These embody a set of opposed qualities, e.g. fire/water, cooked/raw,
high/low, light/dark, male/female, culture/nature
• These oppositions structured the way people looked at the world as well as
their everyday social practices
Kabyle House
‘The dark, nocturnal, lower part of the house, the place
for things that are damp, green, or raw – jars of water
placed on the benches on either side of the stable
entrance or next to the wall of darkness, wood, green
fodder – and also the place for natural beings – oxen and
cows, donkeys and mules – natural activities – sleep,
sexual intercourse, childbirth, and also death – is
opposed, as nature to culture, to the light-filled, noble,
upper part: this is the place for human beings and
especially the guest, for fire and objects made with fire,
such as the lamp, kitchen utensils, the rifle – a symbol of
the male point of honour (nif) which protects female
honour (hurma) – and the loom, the symbol of all
protection; and it is also the site of the two specifically
cultural activities performed within the house, weaving
and cooking’ (Bourdieu, 1979: 135-6)
• The symbolic organisation of the house is
reflected in social customs
• An honoured guest is invited to sit in
front of the weaving loom; it was an
insult to seat a guest against the ‘wall of
darkness’
• A newly-wed bride was seated in front of
the loom to be shown off; a sick person’s
bed was placed next to the ‘wall of
darkness’
• Washing the dead took place at the
entrance to the stable
Habitus
• The built environment of the house
encodes a cultural system of meanings
which shapes social practice, reinforces
social hierarchies, and helps reproduce
social values
• E.g., men being superior to women
• Habitus renders large portions of social life
immune to critical debate and conscious
choice, creating a ‘common sense’ world
which is both timeless and deeply familiar
• Divisions and differences in life chances
based on class, age, and gender are
naturalised and taken for granted
Habitus
• Habitus is a structure of cultural
oppositions and assumptions embedded
in social settings
• Not just the physical settings of buildings
or cities, but personal possessions,
routines of everyday life, lifestyles etc.
• They embed the principle distinctions,
worldview and traditions of a culture
• These frame the meaning of everyday
activities and cue their performance
Flexibility of Habitus
• Habitus can be flexible: ways of thinking learned through custom and
practices are transferable to new contexts and new situations
• E.g. many young people obsess about every detail of their favorite
celebrities or video games
• Their habits of attention to detail can be transferred to mastery of the
detail of some quite different realm, like job hunting or government
policies
• Again, through practicing sports, young people can learn
competitiveness or teamwork, etc.
Habitus & Class
• For Bourdieu, habitus links personal dispositions
with broader social structures, especially social
class
• If people experience the same social conditions,
these will generate similar everyday practices…
• …which will mean they develop shared dispositions
(attitudes, tastes, lifestyles)
• As a result, people in different class positions will
develop a different habitus
• E.g. digital nomads v. small-town business owners
• Tastes are not simply individual or natural but are
socially conditioned and play a key role in
maintaining class distinctions
Distinction
• Bourdieu introduces the concept of cultural capital, which refers
to non-economic assets such as education, skills, and cultural
knowledge
• The upper classes tend to have more cultural capital, which
enables them to develop an ‘aesthetic disposition’ — the ability to
appreciate art, literature, and cultural objects in a detached,
intellectual manner
• Working-class people, on the other hand, are more inclined to
favor practical or functional tastes, focusing on objects that serve a
purpose, or to enjoy entertainment that is emotional and physical
• Class habitus influences aesthetic preferences, such as in visual
arts and music
• It also shapes personal lifestyle, such as food, entertaining,
clothing, cosmetics and beauty standards, and sports (skiing)
• The upper classes use their refined tastes as a way to distinguish
themselves from lower classes, reinforcing their social status
• Annette Lareau (2012) produced an
influential study of class differences
in child-rearing
• It applied Bourdieu’s insights to
show how upper-middle-class
parents engaged in ‘concerted
cultivation’ of their kids
• Scheduling organized activities and
lessons
• Mediating institutional contexts
• This ultimately instills taken-for-
granted skills for later success.
Cultural Repertoires
• The idea of cultural repertoires is important for understanding the wide
variation in even a single individual’s meaning-making, and their capacities
for change
• Ann Swidler argues that we should understand culture as a repertoire of
elements from which individuals may select according to circumstances
• E.g., the cultural repertoire around aging – the same people can use
different ideas in different situations (wise elder, ‘as young as you feel’
adventurer, helpless old person)
• The culture repertoire is the aggregate of options utilized by
a group of people, and by the individual members of the
group, for the organization of life (self-presentation, identity,
etc.)
Cultural Repertoires
• National identities are cultural
repertoires encompassing a variety
of symbolic elements which are
used differently at different times
(Spillman)
• E.g., in different times the UAE can
emphasise tradition or innovation
• Meaning-making is influenced by
people’s ingrained habits and
practices
• But their use of cultural elements is
flexible and depends on the context
Idiocultures
• Small, tight-knit groups like sports teams may possess
‘idiocultures’ of shared symbols and norms which
develop from their shared experience.
• Members recognize that they share experiences,
symbols, and norms and can expect other members to
understand them, even though outsiders may not.
• One study of restaurant kitchens shows how chefs and
kitchen workers form tight-knit work groups and
frequently characterize themselves as ‘family’ (Fine,
1996)
• Their closeness is expressed in nicknames, slang,
memories, and jokes which distinguish them from
outsiders
• Other examples?
Subcultures
• The idioculture of a single restaurant kitchen nests in a
broader restaurant subculture
• Workers who took a job in a new kitchen would lose
the shared memories, nicknames, and jokes they
might have enjoyed in their former workplace…
• But they would recognize categories, symbols, norms,
values, and rituals characteristic of the broader
occupational subculture of restaurants.
• Members of a subculture may not interact with each
other directly like members of an idioculture, but they
share a distinct set of experiences which provide them
with a shared symbolic language
• Sociologists have often been especially interested in
youth or musical subcultures, which tend to define
themselves by opposition to the mainstream
• More recent examples of subcultures are online
Group Styles and Scenes
• Group styles refer to how people interact within a group – what it takes
to be a member in ‘good standing’
• Three cultural features of groups shape people’s interaction (Eliasoph &
Lichterman, 2003)
• Symbolic boundaries marking insiders from outsiders.
• Shared understandings of their group bonds (what brings them together)
• Normative ways of speaking which influence their interaction
• Lichterman and Eliasoph suggest that aside from clearly bounded
groups, there are different ‘scenes’
• Scene styles can also be analyzed in terms of boundaries, bonds, and
speech norms.
• In any organization, there may be multiple ‘scenes’ with multiple ‘styles’
Example - Glee
• Archetypal high-school groups defined by different
‘scene styles’ (jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, glee club)
• Appearance and participation in shared activities mark
boundaries between groups (dress, physical
appearance)
• Shared activities and events mark group bonds (singing
competition, playing American football, cheerleading,
quizzes)
• Normative ways of speaking reflect shared values
which shape their interactions (winning at all costs or
personal appearance v. community and personal
growth; ritual humiliation of outsiders by jocks)
• Can you identify different ‘scene styles’ in the
university? In a large company?
Performance
• The situations we encounter are not always small-scale, face-to-face interactions
• We also interact in anonymous settings and on a larger scale than face-to-face
groups and scenes
• For example, large-scale interaction takes place in political campaigns, mass
pilgrimages, protest demonstrations, and major sporting events like the
Olympics or the World Cup.
• Jeffrey Alexander defines performance as ‘the social process by which actors,
individually or in concert, display for others the meaning of their social
situation.’
• When performance works, audiences experience what Alexander terms ‘fusion’,
emotional connection, understanding, and a sense of authenticity.
• However, fusion is difficult to achieve, especially in complex societies including
many different peoples
Factors which can lead to
successful or unsuccessful
performance
Collective representations (background symbols and
scripts)
• Shared cultural codes (global cooperation and
competition in the Olympics)
• Clear and accessible symbols (the Olympic torch and
rings, the images of national teams)
Actors
• Participants in the ceremony (torchbearers, flagbearers,
speakers, teams, and other performers) - these should
seem natural and absorbed in the shared moment.
Audiences/Observers
• Do different audiences identify and engage with the
performance, rather than remaining simply observers?
Factors which can lead to
successful or unsuccessful
performance
Means of symbolic production
• Appropriate places, times, props, costumes, etc. (countries hosting the
Olympics devote significant resources to producing a good show)
Performance organization
• Performance must be well organized (Olympic hosts often hire leading
directors and producers to ensure a successful performance in their
opening and closing ceremonies)
Social power
• Who can produce, distribute and evaluate performance?
• Are scripts censored by political authorities? Are producers starved of
resources? Are there limitations on who may perform or attend?