Bridget Fowler is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology (University of Glasgow). She is particularly interested in social theory, Marxist-feminism and the sociology of culture. Her publications include – amongst others - The Alienated Reader (1991)
This festschrift commemorates the legacy of UK-based Portuguese sociologist Hermínio Martins (193... more This festschrift commemorates the legacy of UK-based Portuguese sociologist Hermínio Martins (1934-2015). It introduces Martins’ wide-ranging contributions to the social sciences, encompassing seminal works in the fields of philosophy and social theory, historical and political sociology, studies of science and technology, and Luso-Brazilian studies, among others. The book features an in-depth interview with Martins, short memoirs, and twelve chapters addressing topics that were central to his intellectual and political interests. Among those that stand out are his critique of Thomas Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, his work on the significance of time in social theory and the interweaving of techno-scientific developments and socio-cultural transformations, including the impact of communication and digital technologies, and of market-led eugenics. Other themes covered are Martins’ work on patrimonialism and social development in Portugal and Brazil, and his analysis of the state of the social sciences in Portugal, which reflects his highly critical appraisal of the ongoing marketization andneoliberalization of academic life and institutions worldwide.
This might be subtitled ’From the romance of the couple to the romance of work’. In these collect... more This might be subtitled ’From the romance of the couple to the romance of work’. In these collected studies of teen and pre-teen girls’ worlds from the early 70s to the late 80s, McRobbie shows a close understanding of the culture and the social reality of young girls, not least important being their growing occupational aspirations. McRobbie was the first to demonstrate the significant absence of female subcultural studies in the post-war work of British sociologists and she has done pioneering work in constructing the parameters of young girls’ subcultures. This book covers a number of themes: the mechanisms by which the pursuit of femininity in working-class girls’ friendships creates their underachievement ; the new phenomenon of the 80s of the unemployed, single teenage mother on the dole; the significance of a feminist understanding for issues in methodology. Especially well-sustained are her studies in the culture of the young girls’ magazines (Jackie, Mizz, Just Seventeen, Smash Hits). She sees these are
It opens with Lovell's elegant comparison of Bourdieu and Butler on gender divisions. She arg... more It opens with Lovell's elegant comparison of Bourdieu and Butler on gender divisions. She argues that what distinguishes Bourdieu's sociology from feminist theorists of difference is his stress on the durability of the bodily disposition, yet this theory cannot allow for the self-surveillance of the body. However, poststructuralist gender theories such as Butler's lead to an equally erroneous over-flexibility of female agency. Thus if Butler's deconstructionism, like an Ovidian metamorphosis of souls, fails to take account of the embeddedness of structures in things, Bourdieu's habitus, because of its inflexiblecharacter is incapable of accounting for phenomena such as military 'passing', the pride of working-class women in their physical labour and even the phenomena of the 'lucid outsiders' such as Virginia Woolf.
Presses universitaires de Liège eBooks, Oct 25, 2017
Je me propose d’explorer ici les questions de classe et de culture à la lumière du livre de Pierr... more Je me propose d’explorer ici les questions de classe et de culture à la lumière du livre de Pierre Bourdieu, Un Art moyen. Essai sur les usages sociaux de la photographie, publié en collaboration avec Luc Boltanski, Jean-Claude Chamboredon et Robert Castel. Le monde de la photo, dont les auteurs de ce livre proposent une exploration fascinante, apparaît comme un monde coupé en deux. D’un côté, le culte domestique : une production photographique, profondément conventionnelle, de l’univers fami..
... Susan Tennery, Ann and Philip Nicolson, Rob and Kirstie Maslen, Mike Gonzalez, Mary-Ellen Bro... more ... Susan Tennery, Ann and Philip Nicolson, Rob and Kirstie Maslen, Mike Gonzalez, Mary-Ellen Browne, Scott and Kirsten Meikle, Ruth and Chris Madigan, Gill Scott, Mary Dottridge, Emmanuelle Guibé, Stephen White, Hélène Lipstadt, Georgia Giannakopoulou, David Frisby ...
My concern in this chapter is to start an exploratory analysis of the newspaper obituaries of aca... more My concern in this chapter is to start an exploratory analysis of the newspaper obituaries of academics. The ways of seeing such documents of life are many and varied. My own formative approach to this aspect of the media was indebted in part to John Eldridge, particularly for his sensitive understanding of the power-soaked nature of mass communications. But in dissecting obituaries I argue that we need other theoretical resources as well. Here I have drawn particularly on Halbwachs as the theorist of social memory and Bourdieu as the theorist of distinction and canon formation, reinforcing the approach taken in my earlier book on obituaries (Fowler 2007). Further, to address academics’ obituaries I argue that we need to understand Bourdieu’s Homo Academicus and The State Nobility as responses to Kant and Mannheim. This theoretical paving of the way is then followed by a content analysis of contemporary academics’ obituaries, highlighting the unusual character of these obituaries as an unreciprocated gift exchange. Under Bourdieu’s auspices, as it were, we note that these are fields whose actors have relatively privileged social origins but also troubles, springing either from the wider geopolitical clashes of power or from the field itself. I conclude by noting that many of these obituaries signal the dangers to intellectual autonomy within current university structures.
... For what Bourdieu's Distinction shows is precisely that “one man's meat is ... more ... For what Bourdieu's Distinction shows is precisely that “one man's meat is another man's poison” in art. ... Even by the late 1960s, a consecrated modernist work like Mondrian's Boogy-Woogy still left large swathes of the public completely cold, not least the 1960s lovers of the ...
This review article takes up certain key issues that are at stake in the valuable collection of e... more This review article takes up certain key issues that are at stake in the valuable collection of essays edited by Lovell. It considers critically the argument that the adoption of Fraser's perspectival dualism implies regression to a base—superstructure theory of the social. It assesses the advantages of extending the dualism of redistribution and recognition to include also the need for participatory parity in the post-Westphalian political order. It raises again the question of whether Honneth is sociologically more forceful than Fraser in arguing that material inequality is merely a facet of a more profound disrespect (lack of recognition). Lovell's assessment of Honneth's `recognition monism' is commended in that it resurrects an earlier critique of structural-functionalism to make a helpful distinction between social integration and (non-normative) system integration. She addresses these issues in terms of a wider critical realism concerned with disaggregating those social relations which are more causally generative from others: an approach which permits illuminating debates over the degree to which patriarchy and heteronormativity are contingent or necessary to late capitalism. Lovell also introduces Bourdieu into the debate, and especially his conceptions of misrecognition and symbolic violence. Finally, Sayer's vigorous arguments about the moral significance of distribution and class are considered as contributing to the current ethical turn. The article ends with an attempt to defend Bourdieu, whom Sayer sees both as a profound sociologist of class but also a theorist oriented too exclusively to agents' egoistic search for strategic advantage. The author concludes that although Fraser's perspectival trinity (or dualism) approach seems preferable to Honneth's monism, this should not obscure the empirical interweaving of deficiencies of distribution and of recognition in social reality. Indeed, new studies show the far-reaching consequences of this. In those societies where maldistribution is most marked, exposure to certain psychosocial risks such as low status (recognition) and low social capital literally incorporate stress, via biological pathways. Hence unequal health outcomes of a surprising range can also be detected.
... From 1988, his writings include brief gender analyses, identifying the exclusions of women fr... more ... From 1988, his writings include brief gender analyses, identifying the exclusions of women from ... Distinction, dazzling in its shuttling between opposed perspectives on culture, serves to expose the ... The text pinpoints the post-1970s' pre-eminence of the academic disciplines of ...
This festschrift commemorates the legacy of UK-based Portuguese sociologist Hermínio Martins (193... more This festschrift commemorates the legacy of UK-based Portuguese sociologist Hermínio Martins (1934-2015). It introduces Martins’ wide-ranging contributions to the social sciences, encompassing seminal works in the fields of philosophy and social theory, historical and political sociology, studies of science and technology, and Luso-Brazilian studies, among others. The book features an in-depth interview with Martins, short memoirs, and twelve chapters addressing topics that were central to his intellectual and political interests. Among those that stand out are his critique of Thomas Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, his work on the significance of time in social theory and the interweaving of techno-scientific developments and socio-cultural transformations, including the impact of communication and digital technologies, and of market-led eugenics. Other themes covered are Martins’ work on patrimonialism and social development in Portugal and Brazil, and his analysis of the state of the social sciences in Portugal, which reflects his highly critical appraisal of the ongoing marketization andneoliberalization of academic life and institutions worldwide.
This might be subtitled ’From the romance of the couple to the romance of work’. In these collect... more This might be subtitled ’From the romance of the couple to the romance of work’. In these collected studies of teen and pre-teen girls’ worlds from the early 70s to the late 80s, McRobbie shows a close understanding of the culture and the social reality of young girls, not least important being their growing occupational aspirations. McRobbie was the first to demonstrate the significant absence of female subcultural studies in the post-war work of British sociologists and she has done pioneering work in constructing the parameters of young girls’ subcultures. This book covers a number of themes: the mechanisms by which the pursuit of femininity in working-class girls’ friendships creates their underachievement ; the new phenomenon of the 80s of the unemployed, single teenage mother on the dole; the significance of a feminist understanding for issues in methodology. Especially well-sustained are her studies in the culture of the young girls’ magazines (Jackie, Mizz, Just Seventeen, Smash Hits). She sees these are
It opens with Lovell's elegant comparison of Bourdieu and Butler on gender divisions. She arg... more It opens with Lovell's elegant comparison of Bourdieu and Butler on gender divisions. She argues that what distinguishes Bourdieu's sociology from feminist theorists of difference is his stress on the durability of the bodily disposition, yet this theory cannot allow for the self-surveillance of the body. However, poststructuralist gender theories such as Butler's lead to an equally erroneous over-flexibility of female agency. Thus if Butler's deconstructionism, like an Ovidian metamorphosis of souls, fails to take account of the embeddedness of structures in things, Bourdieu's habitus, because of its inflexiblecharacter is incapable of accounting for phenomena such as military 'passing', the pride of working-class women in their physical labour and even the phenomena of the 'lucid outsiders' such as Virginia Woolf.
Presses universitaires de Liège eBooks, Oct 25, 2017
Je me propose d’explorer ici les questions de classe et de culture à la lumière du livre de Pierr... more Je me propose d’explorer ici les questions de classe et de culture à la lumière du livre de Pierre Bourdieu, Un Art moyen. Essai sur les usages sociaux de la photographie, publié en collaboration avec Luc Boltanski, Jean-Claude Chamboredon et Robert Castel. Le monde de la photo, dont les auteurs de ce livre proposent une exploration fascinante, apparaît comme un monde coupé en deux. D’un côté, le culte domestique : une production photographique, profondément conventionnelle, de l’univers fami..
... Susan Tennery, Ann and Philip Nicolson, Rob and Kirstie Maslen, Mike Gonzalez, Mary-Ellen Bro... more ... Susan Tennery, Ann and Philip Nicolson, Rob and Kirstie Maslen, Mike Gonzalez, Mary-Ellen Browne, Scott and Kirsten Meikle, Ruth and Chris Madigan, Gill Scott, Mary Dottridge, Emmanuelle Guibé, Stephen White, Hélène Lipstadt, Georgia Giannakopoulou, David Frisby ...
My concern in this chapter is to start an exploratory analysis of the newspaper obituaries of aca... more My concern in this chapter is to start an exploratory analysis of the newspaper obituaries of academics. The ways of seeing such documents of life are many and varied. My own formative approach to this aspect of the media was indebted in part to John Eldridge, particularly for his sensitive understanding of the power-soaked nature of mass communications. But in dissecting obituaries I argue that we need other theoretical resources as well. Here I have drawn particularly on Halbwachs as the theorist of social memory and Bourdieu as the theorist of distinction and canon formation, reinforcing the approach taken in my earlier book on obituaries (Fowler 2007). Further, to address academics’ obituaries I argue that we need to understand Bourdieu’s Homo Academicus and The State Nobility as responses to Kant and Mannheim. This theoretical paving of the way is then followed by a content analysis of contemporary academics’ obituaries, highlighting the unusual character of these obituaries as an unreciprocated gift exchange. Under Bourdieu’s auspices, as it were, we note that these are fields whose actors have relatively privileged social origins but also troubles, springing either from the wider geopolitical clashes of power or from the field itself. I conclude by noting that many of these obituaries signal the dangers to intellectual autonomy within current university structures.
... For what Bourdieu's Distinction shows is precisely that “one man's meat is ... more ... For what Bourdieu's Distinction shows is precisely that “one man's meat is another man's poison” in art. ... Even by the late 1960s, a consecrated modernist work like Mondrian's Boogy-Woogy still left large swathes of the public completely cold, not least the 1960s lovers of the ...
This review article takes up certain key issues that are at stake in the valuable collection of e... more This review article takes up certain key issues that are at stake in the valuable collection of essays edited by Lovell. It considers critically the argument that the adoption of Fraser's perspectival dualism implies regression to a base—superstructure theory of the social. It assesses the advantages of extending the dualism of redistribution and recognition to include also the need for participatory parity in the post-Westphalian political order. It raises again the question of whether Honneth is sociologically more forceful than Fraser in arguing that material inequality is merely a facet of a more profound disrespect (lack of recognition). Lovell's assessment of Honneth's `recognition monism' is commended in that it resurrects an earlier critique of structural-functionalism to make a helpful distinction between social integration and (non-normative) system integration. She addresses these issues in terms of a wider critical realism concerned with disaggregating those social relations which are more causally generative from others: an approach which permits illuminating debates over the degree to which patriarchy and heteronormativity are contingent or necessary to late capitalism. Lovell also introduces Bourdieu into the debate, and especially his conceptions of misrecognition and symbolic violence. Finally, Sayer's vigorous arguments about the moral significance of distribution and class are considered as contributing to the current ethical turn. The article ends with an attempt to defend Bourdieu, whom Sayer sees both as a profound sociologist of class but also a theorist oriented too exclusively to agents' egoistic search for strategic advantage. The author concludes that although Fraser's perspectival trinity (or dualism) approach seems preferable to Honneth's monism, this should not obscure the empirical interweaving of deficiencies of distribution and of recognition in social reality. Indeed, new studies show the far-reaching consequences of this. In those societies where maldistribution is most marked, exposure to certain psychosocial risks such as low status (recognition) and low social capital literally incorporate stress, via biological pathways. Hence unequal health outcomes of a surprising range can also be detected.
... From 1988, his writings include brief gender analyses, identifying the exclusions of women fr... more ... From 1988, his writings include brief gender analyses, identifying the exclusions of women from ... Distinction, dazzling in its shuttling between opposed perspectives on culture, serves to expose the ... The text pinpoints the post-1970s' pre-eminence of the academic disciplines of ...
The article investigates critically recent assumptions that professional women are en route to eq... more The article investigates critically recent assumptions that professional women are en route to equality with professional men by assessing the field of architecture as a case study. It addresses the poorer completion rates for women architectural students, together with the lower proportions of professionally registered and promoted women architects. The article explores, in particular, Bourdieu's theories of gender divisions and higher professions as an explanatory grid for understanding these phenomena, deploying especially two late works, Masculine Domination (2001) and The State Nobility (1996). It is argued that the extended Bourdieusian theory of practice illuminates the interview data gathered from women architects, especially through its emphasis on a disposition to naturalise domination. While Bourdieu's position is not without weaknesses, this theory sheds light on the difficulties women practitioners are found to face empirically, especially in combining architecture and parenting.
Uploads
Books by Bridget Fowler
Papers by Bridget Fowler