Abstract
People tend to think and behave in particular patterns in accordance with their social categories (such as class, gender, race and region). Willis (1997) observed the regularities of social practices and attempted to discover how and why working class kids get working class jobs in the UK. The similar phenomenon has also emerged in China, in the form of sharply different attitudes towards education in a higher education expansion age. In the countryside, there is a resurgent belief that education is useless. Rural children, the heavily disadvantaged in the Chinese context, tend to drop out early and become migrant labourers (Fu and Li, 2010; Tan 2001), whereas in the city, there are anxious parents and overburdened children participating in various extra courses to acquire special skills and a placement in the best schools (Short and Sun, 2003). Yet there are neither conductors organizing their actions, nor regulations demanding their conformance. Out of curiosity, we would ask such a question: ‘How can behaviours be regulated without being the product of obedience of rules’? That is the starting point of all Bourdieu’s thinking (1984). To explain the regularities and uncover the mechanism, Bourdieu built a theoretical system that ‘may be the most comprehensive and elegant since Talcott Parsons’s’ (DiMaggio, 1979, p. 1460). Central to his social theory is the notion of habitus.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adams, M. (2006) ‘Hybridizing habitus and reflexivity: Towards an understanding of contemporary identity’, Sociology, 40(3): 511–528.
Alexander, J. (1994) Fin de Siele Social Theory. London: Verso.
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction. R. Nice (trans.) Cambridge: Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (1988) Homo Academicus. P. Collier (trans.). Cambridge: Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (1989) ‘Social space and symbolic power’, Sociological Theory, 7(1): 14–25.
Bourdieu, P. (1990a) In Other Words: Essays towards a Reflexive Sociology. M. Adamson (trans.) Cambridge: Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (1990b) The Logic of Practice. R. Nice (trans.) Cambridge: Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (1992) ‘Social space and genesis of “classes’” in P. Bourdieu (Eds), Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity, pp. 227–251.
Bourdieu, P. (1997) ‘The forms of capital’ in A. H. Halsey et al. (Eds), Education: Culture, Economy and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 241–258.
Bourdieu, P. (1998) Practice Reason. Cambridge: Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (2002) ‘Habitus’ in J. Hiller and Rooksby, E. (Eds), Habitus: A Sense of Place. Aldershot: Ashdate, pp. 131–157.
Bourdieu, P. (2003) ‘Participant objectivation’, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 9(2): 281–294.
Bourdieu, P. (2004) Science of Science and Reflexivity. R. Nice (trans). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bourdieu, P. and J. C. Passeron (1977) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, R. Nice (trans.) London. Sage.
Bourdieu, P. and L. Wacquant (1989) ‘Toward a reflexive sociology: A workshop with Piene Bourdieu’, Sociological Theory, 7(1): 26–63.
Bourdieu, P. and L. Wacquant (1992) Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Craib, I. (1992) Anthony Giddens. London: Routledge.
Crossley, N. (1999) ‘Fish, field, habitus and madness: The first wave mental health users movement in Great Britain’, British Journal of Sociology, 50(4): 647–670.
Crossley, N. (2001) The Social Body: Habit, Identity and Desire. London: Sage.
Crossley, N. (2003) ‘From reproduction to transformation: Social movement fields and the radical habitus’, Theory, Culture & Society, 20(6): 43–68.
DiMaggio, P. (1979) ‘On Piene Bourdieu’, American Journal of Sociology, 84(6): 1460–1474.
Fu, T. and H. Li. (2010) ‘Thoughts on the resurgent belief that education is useless in rural area’, Modern Primary and Secondary Education (in Chinese), 8(1): 4–6.
Grenfell, M. (2008) ‘Methodological principles’, in M. Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Durham, NC: Acumen, pp. 219–228.
IN RULED. (2012). Education for Rural Transformation: Skills, Jobs, Food and Green Future to Combat Poverty (p. 53). Beijing, China: UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (INRULED). Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/ERP/2013/link_publications/Overview.pdf
Jenkins, R. (1982) ‘Pierre Bourdieu and the reproduction of determinism’, Sociology, 16(2): 270–281.
IN RULED. (1992). Pierre Bourdieu. London: Routledge.
Lareau, A. (2003) Unequal Childhoods. London: University of California Press.
Lehmann, W. (2007) ‘I just didn’t feel like I fit in: The role of habitus in university drop-out decisions’, Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 37(2): 89–110.
Li, H. (2013) ‘Rural students’ experiences in a Chinese elite university: Capital, habitus and practices’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34(5-6): 829–847.
Lizardo, O. (2004) ‘The cognitive origins of Bourdieu’s habitus’, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 34(4): 375–401.
Maton, K. (2008) ‘Habitus’ in M. Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Durham, NC: Acumen, pp. 49–66.
McNay L. (1999) ‘Gender, habitus and the field’, Theory Culture and Society, 16(1): 95–117.
Nash, R. (1999) ‘Bourdieu on education and social and cultural reproduction’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11(4): 431–447.
Reay D. (1995) ‘They employ cleaners to do that: Habitus in the primary classroom’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 16(3): 353–371.
Reay D. (2004) ‘It’s all becoming a habitus: Beyond the habitual: Habitual Use of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus in educational research’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25(4): 431–444.
Sayer, A. (2005) The Moral Significance of Class. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Short, S. and R. Sun (2003) ‘Grandmothers, formal care and educational advantage in China’ in Inequality across Societies: Families, Schools and Persisting Stratification, Research in the Sociology of Education, 14: 7–31.
Sullivan, A. (2002) ‘Bourdieu and education: How useful is Bourdieu’s theory for researchers?’ The Netherlands’ Journal of Social Sciences, 38(2): 144–166.
Tan, Y. (2001) ‘Analysis on the causes of rural junior middle school dropout’, Liaoning Education Research (in Chinese) 2(1): 12–14.
Thomson, J. B. (1991) ‘Introduction’ in Language and Symbolic Power. P. Bourdieu O. B. Thomson ed. G. Raymond & M. Adamson trans.) Cambridge: Polity.
Thomson, P. (2008) ‘Field’ in R. Stone (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Durham, NC: Acumen, pp. 67–81.
Wacquant, L. (2008) ‘Pierre Bourdieu’ in R. Stone (Ed.), Key Sociological Thinkers (2nd edition). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 261–277.
Whyte, M. K. (2010). One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequalities in Contemporary China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Willis, P. (1997) Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. Parnborough: Saxon House.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 He Li
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Li, H. (2015). Moving to the City: Educational Trajectories of Rural Chinese Students in an Elite University. In: Costa, C., Murphy, M. (eds) Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137496928_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137496928_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-55464-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49692-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)