Between Young Children and Adults: Practical Logic in Families’ Lives

Abstract

Bourdieu devotes little attention to childhood in his empirical Studies, and inscribes it in a theoretical conception of socialisation.¹ It seems that for him, the younger the child, the more strongly the structure of the social world is internalised, shaping the future social trajectory of the adult (Bourdieu 1977). This is evident in Distinction (1984), where Bourdieu highlights the importance of early childhood in the constitution of dispositions in relation to the position of the family in the social space. I would like to show that this conception of socialisation can be developed, through considering my empirical work concerning family practices in the field of early childhood education and using Bourdieu’s theory of practice. His large and consistent theoretical concern contrasts a practical logic engaged in by individuals acting in the midst of a situation with a theoretical logic that considers social practices from a distance as objects of thought. Articulating the empirical research study and the theoretical thinking is a necessity in Bourdieu’s idea of sociological research. In contrast to the division of labour, which is also a division of power, between ‘theoricism’ and ‘methodologism’, between the ‘great theorists’ who are not concerned about facts and avoid fieldwork, and the empiricists who lean toward the illusion that the facts speak by and for themselves, Bourdieu argues that research must be at the same time empirically and theoretically grounded, including an explanation of the philosophical anthropology that it involves.