Joe's cultural capital

In my own pathway to understanding Bourdieu's theories, I miscomprehended scholastic illusion at one point, especially in the case of Joe.

Joe's places a lot of value on traditional ways of learning, and the attainment of academic qualifications. What I realize that he is now valuing is one of the types of cultural capital, that is, institutionalized cultural capital. Through attaining more of institutionalized cultural capital, he will be pursuing the pathway he wishes to take (astronomer), by investing in that form of capital.

I've read somewhere else - somebody calls this human capital. Attainment of quals. A simplified, and unsatisfactory take on things, now that I am 'getting' what Bourdieu is talking about.

One question - what chapter do I start writing now that I only have the literature review, methodology, and three data chapters to begin? !!

Something I thought I should add

Take the following example out of Bourdieu, 2001. A man who dressed up as a woman . . . .
‘The more I was treated as a woman, the more woman I became. I adapted willy-nilly. If I was assumed to be incompetent at reversing cars, or opening bottles, oddly incompetent I felt myself becoming. If a case was thought too heavy for me, I found it so myself” (Morris, 1974, pp. 165-166) (p. 61).

Therefore, if a woman is believed to be incompetent of doing something, or not given the chance to do it, or if someone else is always there to do it, they’re not going to do it. This relates to the three boys who commented that girls may do ‘it’ (computers) later, because they don’t need to now, cause there’s others to do it, or they don’t see any point in doing it now, and it is likely they will realize they need to do it later.

From Bourdieu

1986, p. 54

“if the best measure of cultural capital is undoubtedly the amount of time devoted to acquiring it, this is because the transformation of economic capital into cultural capital presupposes an expenditure of time that is made possible by possession of economic capital. More precisely, it is because the cultural capital that is effectively transmitted within the family itself depends not only on the quantity of cultural capital, itself accumulated by spending time, that the domestic group possess, but also on the usable time (particularly in the form of the mother’s free time) available to it (by virtue of its economic capital, which enables it to purchase the time of others) to ensure the transmission of this capital and to delay entry into the labor market through prolonged schooling, a credit which pays off, if at all, only in the very long term"

I am vindicated! This sounds like my definitions of expertise! These kids have their cultural capital from being a computer expert, due to the amount of time they have been able to spend on the computer, which is a direct result of the economic capital of their families. Thus, I reiterate, "this is because the transformation of economic capital into cultural capital presupposes an expenditure of time that is made possible by possession of economic capital". Yes.

I haven't read these notes on 'The Forms of Capital' for a year at least.

Addiction

Typically, addition is seen as a negative state of mind, and can be considered mental, physical or both, where the relevant capital in the field is the “fix”. The dehumanizing affect on agents can be linked to the hysteresis of the habitus, which is where the agent’s perception does not reflect current reality, but of a past one. The “fix” is the only capital in the constricted field.

The social field that my research focuses is on teenagers’ addiction to computer use. In my qualitative/ethnographic study, I have 8 case studies of teenagers aged 13 – 16 (5 males, 3 females). The 3 females denied being addicted, though two of them joked about it; 1 admitted that he was addicted; the other 3 did not mention addiction.

From my 8 case studies, I can confidently say that one of the forms of capital in this field is mastery, i.e. “making it [the computer] do what I want it to do”. One disposition found with each of the 8 participants is that of spending many, many hours experimenting on their computer. Each family demonstrates their level of wealth (symbolic capital) through owning 1 or more home computers – arguably one modern day indicator of Western wealth. In almost every instance, the participant has exclusive use of a computer. Each teenager has unlimited dial-up or broadband access to the Internet. The return on these investments (by the agents and their families) is the gain of further expertise of the participant whose habitus continues to pursue mastery of their computer. All these aspects contribute to giving the habitus the unrestricted opportunity to spend countless hours using the computer, which in turn could be viewed as having a level of addiction.

As the field of computer use is always changing and developing, so the habitus of these participants responds to changes in the field, which also requires time. This would suggest that hysteresis is not applicable in this field. Therefore, these participants are not addicted because they are simply using strategies the habitus has presented as advantageous.

Revised Title

Teenage Technological Experts: Examining Youth Culture, Gender and Expertise

New Themes and Questions

The streamlined and simplified themes and questions . . . .

Theme 1: This field of expertise
Research Question: In the field of out-of-school technological expertise, how is expertise obtained, constructed, understood and performed by teenagers?

Theme 2: The cultural capital of the participants
Research Question: How has cultural capital led these teenagers to develop their expertise, especially in regard to the gendering of technology and expertise?

Theme 3: The habitus of youth culture
Research Question: How does the habitus of youth culture challenge and/or agree with traditional/adult notions of learning and leisure?

So is this description of my study kosher?

My participants are 8 teenagers who use computers at home for leisure in an expert capacity. I'm looking at how they think they learn, their construction of expertise, and my big thing is constructing definitions of expertise in this space, arguing that children view computer expertise differently to how adults (or have traditionally viewed) view expertise. I am also examining gendered relations within this field of gaining expertise within a traditionally masculine field of technology.

2006 Goals

I aim to submit 4 papers this year (3 from my data chapters) to various journals, and submit the actual thesis in December.

I hope to apply for jobs this year that will begin in January 2007 as part-time or full-time lecturing.