Reading Socio-Spatial Interplay - Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i ...

R E A D I N G S O C I O - S P A T I A L I N T E R P L A Y P A R T 1Bourdieu describes habitus both as generative principles behind classifiablepractices and as a system of classification. The orthogonal diagram of socialspace that was presented in Bourdieu’s Distinction, showing the differentsocial classes’ distinguishable practices in France in the 70s, is an abstractrepresentation of social space (at a certain place and at a certain time), inmany ways similar to a map made to represent physical space. The diagramconsists of three superimposed layers (in the first editions of the book thediagram actually consisted of three transparent sheets): 155 The first representsthe space of social conditions (or the distribution of material and culturalcapital). The second represents the space of lifestyles (or distribution ofpractices). Finally, in between these two layers (which in themselves aresimpler diagrams), a third layer was inserted, representing the theoreticalspace of habitus (by its ideals such as for instance “aristocratic asceticism”for teachers). As a system of classification, the distinction between differenttypical groups of practices then can be said to work at two different levels:1) On an analytical level, the systematics in opus operatum (the productwhich here is the differentiated practices) are identified and explained as theproduct of modus operandi (the general, inherent orderliness reflecting thesystem of production behind the practices). Bourdieu intended not only toproduce a map of the former, but to understand the latter; the diagrammaticillustration of the former was a step in his theorizing on the latter.2) The system of classification also works on a practical level, affecting theindividual practices constituting the system. In the individual production ofself or identity (through practices), the practices of individual social beings,according to Bourdieu, refer to individual perceptions (related to e.g. socialconstructions) of the same kind of classification systems. What we actuallydo in situations when we, pragmatically seen, can choose freely (in terms offor instance recreation activities, buying things, eating and drinking), isrelated to judgments of taste. These again are, according to Bourdieu, relatedto considerations of with whom (which group values) we identify, and fromwhom (which group values) we distinguish ourselves.Is it possible to discern groups of individuals by their habitus?The illustrative clarity of Bourdieu’s diagrams of social space, space oflifestyles and the distribution of differentiated habitus ‘negotiating’ betweenthe two, is in danger of blurring the complexity of his theoretical model,giving the shallow reader simplified ideas. In my investigation of urbantransformation, constituted by differentiated practices and related to changing155 Pierre Bourdieu 1979: La Distinction, Minuit, Paris: pp.140-141.76