Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Bourdieu symbolic violence'

THE DEBATES CONCERNING IDEOLOGY AND DISCOURSE HAVE A RICH AND COMPLICATED HISTORY. MOVING FROM THIS HISTORY, THIS THESIS AIMS TO INVESTIGATE HOW PIERRE BOURDIEU, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SOCIOLOGISTS IN EUROPE, CAN BE READ ON THE DEBATES CONCERNING IDEOLOGY AND DISCOURSE.ALTHOUGH THE TERM IDEOLOGY IS NOT PARTICULARLY CENTRAL TO BOURDIEU'
S WORK, WE ASSERT THAT HIS CONCEPTUAL WORLD TELLS US A STORY WHICH IS PERTINENT TO THE ONES IN IDEOLOGY AND DISCOURSE DEBATES.MOVING FROM THIS AXIS, WE SHED LIGHT UPON BOURDIEU'
S CONCEPTS SUCH AS HABITUS, DOXA, FIELD, SYMBOLIC POWER AND SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE. WE EXAMINE BOTH THE ANATOMY OF THE CONCEPTS MENTIONED AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER.WE SHOW THAT HOW THESE CONCEPTS CAN BE OPERATIONAL FROM THE ANGLE OF THE DEBATES ON IDEOLOGY AND DISCOURSE. IN OUR STUDY, WE ARGUE THAT BOURDIEU'
S CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK EXTENDS THE SOCIOLOGICAL DIMENSION OF THE DEBATES CONCERNING IDEOLOGY AND DISCOURSE AND PIERRE BOURDIEU CAN BE READ WITH THE OTHER MONUMENTAL NAMES, FROM MARX TO FOUCAULT, IN THE HISTORY OF THE DEBATES.

Cette recherche se présente comme une contribution à une philosophie sociale de la violence abordée sous l’angle des rapports entre violences et identités. Elle propose une réflexion descriptive et normative sur les enjeux contemporains que nous adressent les conflits identitaires violents et la multiplication des théâtres de guerre et de massacres qui mettent les identités à feu et à sang. Pour étudier ces enjeux, nous avons choisi de confronter la sociologie critique de Pierre Bourdieu et la philosophie de Axel Honneth. Sur cette question, la sociologie de Bourdieu fournit de précieuses ressources théoriques non seulement pour comprendre le pouvoir de la violence symbolique sur la construction sociale des identités, mais aussi pour déterminer les formes contemporaines de souffrances susceptibles de révéler le franchissement d’un seuil de violence extrême et l’effondrement des identités qui en résulte. Or, le concept normatif de reconnaissance, qui est au centre de la théorie de Honneth, permet de dégager non seulement les potentiels de résistance et de révolte qui se logent dans ces expériences négatives, mais aussi le pouvoir qu’ont les luttes pour la reconnaissance de conjurer ou réparer les effets dévastateurs de la violence sur la constitution des identités : ses analyses sur la réification interrogent, par exemple, les mécanismes de neutralisation empathique qui sont à l’œuvre dans les situations où l’humain semble réduit à une simple chose. Si notre enquête trouve son point de départ dans une commune vulnérabilité des sujets humains à différentes formes de violences, qui sont autant de blessures infligées à l’identité, c’est aussi le potentiel politique d’émancipation de la violence, à la fois sur les groupes en lutte et les ordres sociaux, qui fait l’objet de notre étude. Certaines formes de violences contestataires portent en effet des demandes de justice et de dignité qui en font des conflits de reconnaissance orientés vers l’émancipation. Cette recherche se donne ainsi pour horizon de penser le problème de la justification des violences dans la perspective ouverte par la grammaire morale des conflits sociaux
This thesis is conceived as a contribution to the social philosophy of violence, focusing on the specific interplay between violence and identity. It offers a descriptive and normative reflection on the questions raised by modern-day, violent identity-based conflicts and the multiplication of wars and massacres where identities are brutalised. These questions are explored using two distinct models, Pierre Bourdieu’s critical sociology and Axel Honneth’s philosophy. Indeed, Bourdieu offers resources to understand the power of symbolic violence, that is to say constraints applied by social forces, over the social construction of identities. Bourdieu’s sociology also assists the examination of modern forms of social suffering, which may entail a collapse of identities and experiences of extreme violence. The normative concept of recognition, which Honneth puts at the centre of his theory, then allows for a consideration of the potential for revolt and resistance nested in these negative experiences, as well as of the ability of struggles for recognition to offset or repair the devastating effects of violence on identity formation. Honneth’s analyses of reification investigate the mechanisms of neutralisation of empathy operating when human beings seem to be reduced to mere things. Although this study is grounded in the shared vulnerability of human beings subjected to different forms of violence which inflict damage to their identities, it also explores the political power of violence, both in groups involved in struggles and in the social order. Some forms of violent protest carry with them demands for justice and dignity, and can therefore be conceptualised as recognition struggles aiming at emancipation. This thesis therefore recasts the question of the justification of violence, building on the perspectives opened by the moral grammar of social conflicts

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) war ein französischer Ethnologe und Soziologe, der von 1981 bis 2001 einen Lehrstuhl für Soziologie am Collège de France innehatte. Sein zentrales Erkenntnisinteresse richtete Bourdieu auf die Beständigkeit der sozialen Verhältnisse, deren zentralen Mechanismus er im Phänomen der symbolischen Gewalt fand. Bourdieu beschreibt dabei, wie in der sozialen Praxis über Akte des Klassifizierens Herrschafts- und Machtverhältnisse konstituiert und perpetuiert werden. Als Beispiel schlechthin für die symbolische Gewalt benennt Bourdieu die „Männliche Herrschaft“. Die Rezeption dieses Konzepts ist in der deutschsprachigen Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung bis heute jedoch eher zurückhaltend.

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) war ein französischer Ethnologe und Soziologe, der von 1981 bis 2001 einen Lehrstuhl für Soziologie am Collège de France innehatte. Sein zentrales Erkenntnisinteresse richtete Bourdieu auf die Beständigkeit der sozialen Verhältnisse, deren zentralen Mechanismus er im Phänomen der symbolischen Gewalt fand. Bourdieu beschreibt dabei, wie in der sozialen Praxis über Akte des Klassifizierens Herrschafts- und Machtverhältnisse konstituiert und perpetuiert werden. Als Beispiel schlechthin für die symbolische Gewalt benennt Bourdieu die „Männliche Herrschaft“. Die Rezeption dieses Konzepts ist in der deutschsprachigen Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung bis heute jedoch eher zurückhaltend.

Using the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service in 1994 as its major case study, this thesis hypothesises that, although this inquiry had a far reaching impact on both the personal and working lives of police officers in the organisation itself, it proved ineffectual in its attempt to control corruption. It argues that corruption, and the subsequent inquiries into this corruption, can be seen to have a cyclic nature and the failure of such inquiries has a long and international history. It contends that the nature of the public inquiry itself can be seen to contribute to the continuation of the cycle of corruption. Clearly, putting an end to corruption requires more than the investigation, public exposure and punishment of a few corrupt police, followed by a generalised tightening of the chain of command. Instead, this thesis demonstrates that the problem is primarily an organisational one and it is important to look at management reforms. This thesis contends that the cycle of corruption involves the nature of police work; the catalyst that triggers the inquiry; the inquiry itself and the issue of the report; and the police and community responses. An examination of all these factors is crucial to understanding the cycle’s dynamics. The final report of the Wood Royal Commission was in 1996 and this thesis specifically analyses the cycle of corruption in relation to the response of the police executive to this inquiry. It shows how the police response focused on the tactical crisis response central to operational policing — in this case appeasing official censure and community fears. As little more than a public relations exercise, senior management strategically addressed the specific recommendations of the report rather than creatively considering the implications exposed during the inquiry. The idea that corruption is a symptom of an ineffective system and not simply a slackening of effective control by senior management was never considered. In the aftermath of the Wood Royal Commission there was much discussion about ‘police culture’ being ‘a culture of corruption’. The forgotten casualties of the inquiry has been individual police officers, many of whom see policing as a vocation. This thesis has allowed many voices to be heard and used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse a wide range of information and data, which included personal interviews with serving police officers and members of external organisations, as well as printed material from Royal Commission Reports, Hansard and other government documents, internal Police Service documents and media reports.It has used Bourdieu’s theoretical approach which allows an analysis of the complex relationships involved between police officers as individuals who operate within the wider networks of a specific organisation and the way the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu’s theory also facilitates analysis of the interactions of this network with the wider community, putting in context the responses of both the police service and the community. The connection with the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu constructs an understanding of the ‘nature of the game’ of policing and the shaping of the individual within police culture, giving insight into the source of moral dilemmas, personal beliefs and personal behaviour. As the current management system of command and control is at the heart of this response, this thesis has also analysed the assumptions inherent in this management philosophy, considering both necessary operational strengths as well as organisational weaknesses. A central theme of the thesis is that open dialogue will reduce the incidence of corruption and risk within policing institutions. This thesis argues that there must be an integrative approach to reform — accountable, active leadership combined with critically constructed practical approaches that tackle the complexity of the dynamics embedded in the ‘nature of the game’ of policing itself.

Doctor of Philosophy
Using the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service in 1994 as its major case study, this thesis hypothesises that, although this inquiry had a far reaching impact on both the personal and working lives of police officers in the organisation itself, it proved ineffectual in its attempt to control corruption. It argues that corruption, and the subsequent inquiries into this corruption, can be seen to have a cyclic nature and the failure of such inquiries has a long and international history. It contends that the nature of the public inquiry itself can be seen to contribute to the continuation of the cycle of corruption. Clearly, putting an end to corruption requires more than the investigation, public exposure and punishment of a few corrupt police, followed by a generalised tightening of the chain of command. Instead, this thesis demonstrates that the problem is primarily an organisational one and it is important to look at management reforms. This thesis contends that the cycle of corruption involves the nature of police work; the catalyst that triggers the inquiry; the inquiry itself and the issue of the report; and the police and community responses. An examination of all these factors is crucial to understanding the cycle’s dynamics. The final report of the Wood Royal Commission was in 1996 and this thesis specifically analyses the cycle of corruption in relation to the response of the police executive to this inquiry. It shows how the police response focused on the tactical crisis response central to operational policing — in this case appeasing official censure and community fears. As little more than a public relations exercise, senior management strategically addressed the specific recommendations of the report rather than creatively considering the implications exposed during the inquiry. The idea that corruption is a symptom of an ineffective system and not simply a slackening of effective control by senior management was never considered. In the aftermath of the Wood Royal Commission there was much discussion about ‘police culture’ being ‘a culture of corruption’. The forgotten casualties of the inquiry has been individual police officers, many of whom see policing as a vocation. This thesis has allowed many voices to be heard and used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse a wide range of information and data, which included personal interviews with serving police officers and members of external organisations, as well as printed material from Royal Commission Reports, Hansard and other government documents, internal Police Service documents and media reports.It has used Bourdieu’s theoretical approach which allows an analysis of the complex relationships involved between police officers as individuals who operate within the wider networks of a specific organisation and the way the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu’s theory also facilitates analysis of the interactions of this network with the wider community, putting in context the responses of both the police service and the community. The connection with the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu constructs an understanding of the ‘nature of the game’ of policing and the shaping of the individual within police culture, giving insight into the source of moral dilemmas, personal beliefs and personal behaviour. As the current management system of command and control is at the heart of this response, this thesis has also analysed the assumptions inherent in this management philosophy, considering both necessary operational strengths as well as organisational weaknesses. A central theme of the thesis is that open dialogue will reduce the incidence of corruption and risk within policing institutions. This thesis argues that there must be an integrative approach to reform — accountable, active leadership combined with critically constructed practical approaches that tackle the complexity of the dynamics embedded in the ‘nature of the game’ of policing itself.

O eixo principal que estrutura este trabalho é, num sentido amplo, a busca pelo entendimento dos modos de dominação característicos das sociedades modernas. É nessa direção que retomamos a clássica noção de ideologia cunhada em seu teor crítico pela obra de Karl Marx , pois ela aponta, no interior das sociedades capitalistas, para o processo social de produção de ideias, valores e representações cuja função é ocultar e legitimar as divisões de uma determinada ordem social. Nosso objetivo é acompanhar os desdobramentos desse debate na cena francesa do século XX, elegendo duas importantes contribuições: uma fornecida pelo filósofo Claude Lefort, outra, pelo sociólogo Pierre Bourdieu. Embora situados em campos disciplinares diferentes, os trabalhos de Lefort e Bourdieu confluem em direção a uma reformulação das bases a partir das quais os fenômenos ideológicos são tratados, ampliando as perspectivas de análise e lançando uma nova luz sobre eles. Tecida por uma relação crítica com o marxismo, a trajetória lefortiana permite acompanhar o trabalho histórico de um pensamento que busca apreender o surgimento, a especificidade, as formas e as transformações da ideologia nas sociedades modernas. Os trabalhos de Bourdieu, por sua vez, desvelam e caracterizam o modo de dominação moderno concebido enquanto violência simbólica, fenômeno baseado no acordo objetivamente orquestrado entre as estruturas sociais objetivas e as estruturas cognitivas dos agentes. Envolvendo e ultrapassando a noção de ideologia, a violência simbólica é operante na medida em que os agentes participam da dominação e conferem a ela um reconhecimento baseado no desconhecimento dos mecanismos pelos quais a ordem social se produz, reproduz e se legitima. Situando suas heranças e distanciamentos perante a tradição inaugurada por Marx, buscamos refletir sobre o alcance das concepções que esses dois pensadores nos legaram: ideologia enquanto recusa da historicidade, do conflito e da indeterminação constitutiva do político, em Lefort, e enquanto conjunto de práticas e estilos de vida fundados na dominação simbólica, em Bourdieu.
This work is structured, in a broad sense, as an attempt to understand the modes of domination characteristic of modern societies. It is in this perspective that we take into account the classical notion of ideology, as it was critically developed by Karl Marx. This term points out the social process of production of ideas, values and representations within capitalist societies, whose function consists in hiding and legitimizing the divisions of a social order. Our aim is to follow the developments of this debate in the French philosophical scene of the twentieth century, choosing two important contributions in particular: one provided by the philosopher Claude Lefort, another by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Although located in different fields, Bourdieu and Lefort\'s works converge towards a reformulation of the bases from which the ideological phenomena are conceived, by enlarging the analytical perspectives and casting a new light on them. In a constant critical relationship with the Marxism, the lefortian trajectory allows us to follow the historical movement of a thought, which seeks to apprehend the rise as well as the specificities, forms and transformations of ideology in modern societies. The work of Bourdieu, in turn, unveils and characterizes the modern way of domination conceived as a symbolic violence; it is a phenomenon based on the agreement objectively orchestrated between social structures and the cognitive structures of agents. Involving and overcoming the notion of ideology, the concept of symbolic violence becomes effective when the agents participate in the domination. They give it a recognition based on ignorance of the mechanisms by which social order is produced, reproduced and legitimized. Considering the heritages and distances of the two thinkers with reference to a tradition inaugurated by Marx, we try to reflect on the scope of the main concepts that they leaved us: ideology as a refusal of historicity, of conflict and of political indeterminacy in Lefort, and as a set of practices and styles of life grounded in symbolic domination in Bourdieu.

Bruhner, C. Det händer även män! En kvantitativ studie om myter och normer kring män som utsatts för sexuellt våld. Examensarbete på magisternivå i Kriminologi 15 högskolepoäng. Malmö högskola: Fakulteten för hälsa och samhälle, institutionen för Kriminologi, 2013.Män som utsatts för sexuellt våld är ett fenomen som får ytterst lite uppmärksamhet inom samhällsvetenskaplig forskning. Ämnet är outforskat och har en klar brist på framförallt kvantitativ data. Syftet med denna studie var att testa de myter som normen om mäns utsatthet bygger på, huruvida de bekräftas eller inte, på ett större urval. Detta för att belysa ett existerande problem samt för att kunna urskilja variabler som påverkar attityden till normen. Myterna som testades konstruerades med tidigare forskning som underlag och mynnade ut i fyra myter; definitioner av det sexuella våldet mot män – präglas av grovt våld, hot och berusning av en manlig, homosexuell förrövare. De efterföljande konsekvenserna och sanktionerna – männen bemöts med negativa sociala sanktioner och med stark misstro, reagerar inte starkt på händelsen och anmäler inte. Synen på maskulinitet – män ska vara fysiskt och psykiskt starka, heterosexuella samt kunna värja sig och därför kan de heller inte bli våldtagna. Karakteristika om den utsatte i form av ”brist på manlighet” – en utsatt man är svag fysiskt och psykiskt, homosexuell och får oftast skylla sig själv för att ha blivit utsatt. Dessa myter testades genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning med 160 svarande studenter. Respondenterna förkastade i stort sett alla normer, i synnerlighet offerbeskyllningen och synen på maskulinitet – de två myter som visade sig ha mest inverkan på synen till ämnet i stort. Studien visade att om man har en syn på maskulinitet som ligger nära den stereotypiska normen, är man också mer benägen att hålla med om myterna. Studien visade också att de bakgrundsvariablerna som påverkade synen på myterna mest var religiositet, invandrarbakgrund samt ålder. Äldre respondenter med invandrarbakgrund och som var aktivt troende påvisade tendenser till att bekräfta myterna i större utsträckning. Dessa resultat har i studien analyserats med hjälp av Bourdieus begreppsapparat om symboliskt kapital mellan dominerande och dominerade.
Bruhner, C. It also happens to men! A Quantitative study about myths and norms regarding the sexual violence towards men. Project for a one year master degree in Criminology 15 hp. Malmö University: Faculty of health and society, Department of Criminology, 2013.Men who suffered from sexual violence are a phenomenon which gets extremely little attention in the research of social science. It is unexplored and in an almost desperate need of data, particularly quantitative data. The aim of this study was to test the myths which lay the ground for the norms about the sexual violence against men on a grander sample to see if they are confirmed or rejected. The myths that were tested are based on previous research and resulted in four different myths; definitions of the sexual violence against men – characterized by severe violence, threats and intoxication by a male homosexual perpetrator. The subsequent consequences and sanctions – the victimized men are met with negative social sanctions and strong distrust, do not react strongly to the incident and do not report to the police. Perception of masculinity – men are supposed to be physically and psychically strong, heterosexual and have the ability to defend themselves and can therefore not be raped. Characterisations about the victim in form of a lack of masculinity – a victimized man are physically and psychically weak, homosexual and are often blamed for the rape himself. These myths were tested through a quantitative survey which 160 students replied. The respondents rejected largely all of the myths, particularly the blaming of the victim and the perception of masculinities – the two myths that showed most impact on the attitude towards the subject as a whole. The study showed that if you have a view on masculinity close to the stereotypical norm, you are also more likely to confirm the myths about the sexual violence against men. The study also showed that older individuals, actively religious people and people of other origin than Swedish tend to be more prone to confirm the myths. The results are analysed throughout Bourdieu’s concepts about symbolic capital between dominant and dominated.

The aim of this thesis was to understand the role played by experiential learning in professional Rugby Union. Furthermore, to understand how performance information is utilised by coaches and athletes in every day practice. The thesis employed an ethnographic research method, utilising extensive participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. The thesis draws significantly on the theoretical tools of Scho??n, Bourdieu and Foucault. The key results and findings were that coaches used performance related information as a technology of self , and inculcated a hegemonic ideology. Furthermore, power relations were found and manifested inside the coach / athlete relation that reinforced the coaches spatial and temporal dominance. These dominant power relations were legitimised through the omnipresent ideology, and thus reproduced by the players and coaches. While evidence of experiential learning was documented, particularly with the academy players, the social location of practice marginalised the value of experiential learning in the coaching process. This was because performance information and the use of video based reflection were consistently used as tools of coaching authority, discipline and symbolic violence.

This research is a result of a nine week field study during spring 2012, with the purpose of highlighting the stories of Dalit women in Madhya Pradesh, India. Together with a fellow student at Södertörn University, I investigated the Garima Campaign, an ActionAid project working with Dalit women forced to endure the illegal practice of manual scavenging, the manual removal of human excreta from dry toilets. This research was funded by a Minor Field Study scholarship provided by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). In this paper I investigate how these oppressed women may change their life situation and self-image through participation in a group of peers striving towards the same goal, asking the questions: how do they narrate their former life as manual scavengers, what is it that persuaded them to join the campaign, and what kind of attitudes did they encounter from other members of society? Following this, focus is on communication and how it can contribute to improving the life conditions of people of low social status. The theories used for this purpose are intersectionality and empowerment, as well as Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and symbolic violence. The data was drawn from interviews with female former manual scavengers, supported by observations of their life situation and on other background material. The results of this study corroborate the findings of much of the previous work in this field, especially in relation to the treatment of manual scavengers by the rest of society. However, there seemed to have been three major arguments that finally convinced the women to quit working as manual scavengers. The first one related to their feeling of dignity. The second one dealt with them being aware of their human rights, which supports the argument that awareness may lead to change. The third argument was an important pathos argument, and consisted of the fact that their children were mistreated in school and that the women did not want their children to feel bad about their social situation. In the Garima campaign the women are allowed to do things taboo for Indian women, especially for Dalit ones, like disturbing the existing system and standing up for their rights by kicking up a fuss. The campaign opened up a new arena in which they did not only work to abolish manual scavenging practices, but also worked to attack the caste system on the grass-roots level. In informing others, convincing them to stop the practice, the self-confidence of the women was strengthened further, as individuals and as a group.

The thesis inquires into the entanglement between the unsettlement of the Greek model of social reproduction that heavily relies on self-regulated property ownership and the emergence of vigilant violence on behalf of local property owners against undocumented migrants in the relegated neighborhood of Ksiladika in Thessaloniki’s West End. It probes the extent to which incidents of vigilant violence can be used as indicators of the structural deficiencies in the Greek housing system and property paradigm. 
 First, the thesis points to the distinct historic trajectory of the Greek housing system and property regime that is carved by a strategy of minimal involvement of state authority since the end of the Greek Civil War (1949). In contrast to the (North) European paradigm, the Greek model of social reproduction is marked by a normalized laissez-faire attitude in the domain of housing and by the hypertrophy of the family institution that emerged as a substitute system of social protection vis- a-vis the atrophy of administration. The thesis then points to a political discourse investing in the figure of the householder, sketched as the ‘normal’ Greek subject par excellence, within which self- government connects up with the imperatives of good government, in times when access to housing has become scarce and social insecurity widespread. 
 I focus my study on the neighborhood of Ksiladika in Thessaloniki, where as of late a vigilant campaign of evictions of undocumented migrant squatters on behalf of local property holders was launched. I suggest that this campaign of vigilance is not an act of ‘pure racism’ but is linked with the unsettlement of the Greek model of social reproduction, the scarcity of outright homeownership as a resource of symbolic and material value and the particularity of Ksiladika, that is at once a stigmatized neighborhood and a land of promise. 
 I rely on data collected through micro-ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with local property holders in Ksiladika. I use the conceptual tools of social space, field of power and symbolic power found in the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant, as heuristic tools to identify the significance of property and home ownership in shaping perceptions of local property holders towards their neighborhood and in defining their actions. I present my empirical findings clarifying the diversity of choices, expectations and actions of different actors, active in this propertied field of power in the studied area. 
 The thesis draws to an end by using the findings from Ksiladika to contribute to a discussion that revolves around Wacquant’s three basic theses on the emergence of advanced urban marginality as an effect of the neoliberal state crafting on a global scale. First, I argue that in regions where the social state was inexistent, the implementation of neoliberal policies did not happen in a way identical to what can be observed in the North and do not entail a reengineering of the state. Then I suggest that Wacquant's schematization of a Janus-like Centaur state that performs liberalism for those at the top of the social scale and punitive paternalism for those at the social bottom immured in precarity does not hold, due to the expanding zone of precarity. Eventually, I suggest that neoliberal governing is not attained merely by the penal apparatus of the neoliberal Leviathan, but via a governing through subjects who internalize the postulates of the entrepreneurial ideology mediated through homeownership in times when the resource is scarce.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:23:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ernesto Luiz Marques Nunes.pdf: 1470127 bytes, checksum: a37a27b81b05f309cf8656c2bbd2ec41 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-17
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
This dissertation aims to investigate the vegan activism who are vegans, how vegan groups and collectives are formed, how they work and spread their cause - in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo. The initial working hypothesis is that the vegan activism is a form of social change, taking into account the questions that make the consumption of products and services that involve the use of animals. The study begins with a characterization of various aspects of vegetarianism - including veganism - considering in this analysis some key concepts of Pierre Bourdieu s theoretical approach, including some his concepts as habitus, taste, symbolic violence and lifestyles. Beyond Bourdieu's reference in the field of social sciences, three other authors, philosophers Peter Singer and Tom Regan and a lawyer, Gary Francione, are presented as theoretical thinker that contribute with some concepts - sentience, speciesism, animal welfare, among others - that serve of theoretical and practical reference to the action of vegans, on which I present a panel of its organization, operation and dissemination of ideas, analyzing their contributions to social change. I adopted a methodology that combines various techniques of quantitative and qualitative profile, as in-depth personal interviews, the online survey, interview by email only with open questions, ethnographic observation and virtual ethnography. A total of 230 vegetarians were interviewed to understand the vegetarian origins, considering the various types of vegetarians (lacto vegetarianism, egg vegetarianism, lacto egg vegetarianism and strict vegetarian or vegan), the differences between the regime and vegetarian eating habits, the main reasons for becoming vegetarian - health, religion, ecology, economics, ethics - as well as pointing out the profile, the characteristics of the lifestyle and the symbolic violence suffered by vegetarians in their daily lives. In this sense, the dissertation is inserted in the field of social sciences, particularly focused on anthropology of consumption, on appropriations and on uses
Esta dissertação de mestrado tem como objetivo investigar o ativismo vegano como se constitui, como se organizam os grupos e coletivos que o formam, como atuam e difundem sua causa na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. A hipótese inicial de trabalho é a de que o ativismo vegano representa uma forma de transformação social, levando em conta o questionamento que fazem do consumo de produtos e serviços que envolvem a utilização de animais. O estudo inicia com uma caracterização das várias vertentes do vegetarianismo entre as quais o veganismo , considerando em sua análise alguns conceitos-chave da abordagem teórica presente na obra de Pierre Bourdieu, como habitus, gosto, violência simbólica e estilos de vida. Além de Bourdieu, referência no campo das Ciências Sociais, três outros autores, os filósofos Peter Singer e Tom Regan, e o jurista Gary Francione, são apresentados como teóricos que contribuem com conceitos senciência, especismo, bem-estarismo, entre outros que servem de referência teórica e prática à ação dos veganos, sobre os quais apresento um painel de sua organização, atuação e difusão de ideias, analisando, por fim, sua contribuição para possíveis transformações sociais. Foi adotada uma estratégia metodológica que combina diversas técnicas de perfil qualitativo e quantitativo, como a entrevista em profundidade presencial, o questionário on line, a entrevista por e-mail somente com questões abertas, a observação etnográfica e a etnografia virtual. No total foram entrevistados 230 vegetarianos para dar conta de apresentar as origens vegetarianas do ativismo vegano, a partir do detalhamento dos diversos tipos de vegetarianismos (lactovegetarianismo, ovovegetarianismo, ovolactovegetarianismo e o vegetarianismo estrito ou vegano) existentes, as diferenças entre regime e prática alimentar vegetarianos, as principais motivações para tornar-se vegetariano saúde, religião, ecologia, economia, ética , além de apontar o perfil, as características do estilo de vida e as violências simbólicas sofridas por eles em seu dia a dia. Nesse sentido, a dissertação insere-se no campo das Ciências Sociais, particularmente voltada para uma antropologia dos estudos do consumo, das apropriações e dos usos

Legal practice heavily depends on the construction and evaluation of narrative accounts. The ability to legitimately narrate a series of events is a source of power that is unequally distributed in the courtroom. Grounded by a detailed empirical analysis of the court transcripts from R. v. Ghomeshi (2016), this dissertation investigates the relations of power and taken-for-granted assumptions that condition struggles over narrative construction in the sexual assault trial. The project contributes to feminist critiques of sexual assault trials by mobilizing the work of Pierre Bourdieu, which has been largely overlooked in feminist socio-legal scholarship, and by showing how the concepts of narrative capital and what I term configurational power can help us examine narrative power structures. Briefly, narrative capital refers to the speaking positions and properties that bestow authority on one’s narrative practices. The term configurational power refers to the ability to legitimately organize a set of events and experiences into a narrative whole. Through consideration of the conditions and premises that structure who can narrate, in what manner and with what legitimacy, we can better understand the factors contributing to the discrediting of certain testimonies in the courtroom. Analysing the court transcripts revealed several techniques through which the lawyers exercised configurational power and narrative domination over the complainants during the trial: disconnecting and interrupting the complainants’ accounts; highlighting the complainants’ position as unknowing characters; configuring inconsistencies in their accounts; and controlling the narrative ending. Unequal distributions of configurational power constituted a relation of domination that existed as self-evidently legitimate, a form of domination that Bourdieu refers to as symbolic violence. The standards of legal impartiality, autonomy, and objectivity, as well as cultural stock stories about sexual assault and law’s taken-for-granted view of reliable memory, were enacted in the courtroom narrative practices and contributed to the reproduction of this symbolic violence. The unequal relations of narrative capital and configurational power in the courtroom limited the complainants’ ability to narrate their victimization and allowed the defence lawyers to create narrative twists during cross-examination that framed the complainants as manipulative women and upended their claims of victimhood. Through this dissertation, I critically analyze the relations of domination that both condition and were reproduced in the courtroom practices of narrative telling and interpretation.

This thesis explores the everyday experiences with unemployment and job searching practices in a so-called work club in Northern England. A work club is a place, often a community initiative, where jobseekers who are finding it difficult to look for work independently can go to for support and assistance. These initiatives are encouraged to be set up by volunteers by the UK Department for Work and Pensions and its Jobcentre Plus and are aimed at reducing unemployment levels by helping people apply for jobs. Specifically, the thesis focuses on contemporary job searching practices and asks what Banterby SC work club, the fictional name of the field work location, can tell us about how neoliberal ideologies influence both these job searching practices as well as the way we think about the relationship between employment and citizenship. Work clubs have only received scant academic attention, and this study shows how more in-depth explorations can provide us with some valuable insights. Specifically, because doing so helps us to look beyond policy formulations, framings and imperatives to the implications of neoliberal ideologies in peoples everyday lives. The study uses an iterative inductive ethnographic approach, focusing on one single site field work location, encompassing two hundred hours of field work, during which at least 96 jobseekers have visited the premises of the work club. The study s approach to doing ethnographic fieldwork was based on viewing participant observation as hanging out ; that is, more than merely being somewhere, but rather as engaging and being active in an informal fashion, something that the flexible and unstructured nature of the field work location suited very well. Through this ethnographic, in-depth exploration, then, I do not only explore the observations and findings as offered by some of the previous scholars exploring work clubs, but also seek to connect the findings to Bourdieu s theories of symbolic power/violence as a theoretical framework, which allows us to explore the wider implications of neoliberal governmentalities imposed on jobseekers that influence their everyday practices. This study extends not only our knowledge of the lived experiences of unemployment, but also provides a contemporary insight into work clubs, and how Banterby SC work club has proven to be a valuable site of knowledge about everyday experiences with neoliberal governmentalities toward unemployment and job searching practices. It also extends the application of a symbolic power/violence lens by bringing it together with Foucault s neoliberal governmentalities. Specifically, the study argues that neoliberal governmentalities influencing job searching and unemployment practices are a form of symbolic violence. This approach helps us to problematise job searching practices at work clubs in order to argue for increased critical attention on these sites. Furthermore, the study uncovers the extent to which a welfare system gearing towards a digital by default administration disadvantages many jobseekers who are finding it difficult to work with computers and navigate the internet. The study also addresses and explores to what extent compliance with symbolic power/violence is also shared by staff and volunteers of third sector organisations whose main goal it is to alleviate the burden of unemployment by assisting jobseekers to fulfil their job searching obligations as asked of them by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Jobcentre Plus. Finally, the study calls for more beneficiary-centred voluntary sector research, and proposes a new methodological model for exploring voluntary action and organizations, arguing for a more integrated analysis of the experiences of various actors.

Intimate partner abuse and control is one of the most common forms of violence against women, and is considered an international problem of social, political, legal and human rights significance. Yet few studies have attempted to understand this problem from the perspective of male perpetrators. This gap is addressed by conducting in-depth interviews with 16 able-bodied men of white European ancestry born and educated in New Zealand or Australia, who have been physically violent and/or emotionally, intellectually, sexually or financially controlling of a live-in female partner. This thesis extends and deepens the dominant ways of thinking about men’s intimate partner abuse by utilising a new theoretical framework compatible with contemporary feminist scholarship. A synthesis of Connell’s theory of masculinities and Bourdieu’s field theory is utilised for the purpose of exploring more nuanced, complex understandings of manliness and men’s relationships with men, women and social structures. Through such an analysis, this thesis finds that men’s perpetration of power and control over women is driven by a need to avoid the stigma of appearing weak. As a consequence, their desire and ability to show love, care and empathy is suppressed in favour of a presumed honourable manliness, and their female partners are used as weapons in the pursuit of symbolic capital in the form of recognition, prestige and acceptance from real and/or imagined men. This research also uncovers the complex interplay between masculine practices and particular social contexts. For example, the norms of practice encountered from those in authority, such as teachers, sports coaches, police, court judges and workplace management, influences the decision making of the men in this study, to use, or not to use, physical violence, psychological abuse and structural control. The principal conclusion is that there is a repertoire of paradoxical masculinities and contradictory social messages available to the men in this study. But gender policing by other men, complicit women and those in authority provides little room for legitimate complexity in masculine practices. Perpetrators in this study reconcile these conflicts of interest by generally avoiding subordinated masculinity and possible ostracism, and instead practicing more heroic hegemonic masculinities by abusing and controlling women and particular other men. This thesis concludes that for intimate partner abuse and control to cease, changes in power structures have to occur at all levels of society.

For six decades, consumer researchers have relied heavily on Goffman's (1963) seminal work on stigma, often limiting themselves to a one-dimensional treatment of it as a static variable that determines the behaviour of homogenous groups. Such views, however, stand at odds with wider paradigm shifts away from modernity, and with feminist considerations about intersectionality. Most importantly, the dearth of studies examining the interplay between structural macro-dynamics and micro-level experiences has meant that rapid changes in societal attitudes have received insufficient attention. Considering the rise of minority portrayals in the past few years and importance of the media in dispersing and ameliorating stigma, there is a need to understand how media experiences differ across generations, sociocultural categories, and individual life-courses. Focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other (LGBTQ+) individuals, and building on Bauman's (2000) concept of liquid modernity as well as Bourdieu's (1994) theory of practice, this thesis explores how stigma experiences of two generations of LGBTQ+ consumers have changed, how this relates to their experiences of LGBTQ+ media portrayals, as well as what this tells us about how (marginalised) consumers navigate their lives and particularly the fragmentation of identity politics through (media) consumption. I followed an intersectional phenomenological enquiry, employing a meaning-based model of media experience that contributes to the literature by extending Mick and Buhl's (1992) work to account for considerations of intersectionality and intertextuality. Life story- and subsequent media experience interviews were analysed individually and across cases. The sample consisted of eight LGBTQ+ members of the Boomer- and ten of the Millennial generation. This study develops a theoretical framework of stigma as viscous instead of static: in constant flux due to the dynamic interplay between the doxic attitudes in social fields, as well as individual embodied dispositions, the stigma habitus. This provides a richer understanding of how it is enacted in consumer culture, enabling a critical analysis of the dialectic relationship between individuals and their environment. Through this framework, my study challenges generational accounts of difference, which are found to be too simplistic to account for diverging (media) experiences. Instead, it is the dialectic between context and (stigma) habitus that shapes dynamic experiences. For participants facing high levels of stigma viscosity, for example, LGBTQ+ portrayals seemed particularly important and experiences revolved around social acceptance. Moreover, lived experiences, as well as doxic beliefs about media, advertising, and a text's 'author' formed an intertextual frame of reference used to evaluate portrayals' authenticity and harmfulness. Importantly, participants' preference for or rejection of 'radical' vs heteronormative portrayals was shaped by tastes that have become naturalised in their habitus, with disparate doxic beliefs generating reflexive guilt and ambivalence. My findings suggest that stigma amelioration may ultimately lead to symbolic violence within the LGBTQ+ community against those who do not adhere to accepted consumption standards. This study also has implications for consumers more broadly as changes in viscosity affect consumption practices. Adhering to a critical approach, I describe a range of recommendations for practitioners and reflexive practices I engaged in following this study.

This thesis explores the way social and spatial relations produce social order. It does this through an examination of the women's refuge. The women's refuge is a particularly appropriate case to examine this relationship. While many other social institutions share the purpose of transforming populations, the refuge intensifies this process. This is because the refuge is about producing 'independent women' in a setting that is not purpose built, within a period of three months. Thus, the process of transformation is intensified socially, because it is compressed temporally and spatially. This thesis proposes a conceptual framework that is informed by Bourdieu and the theorists of 'the interaction order' - Goffman, Garfinkel and Sacks - and a case study using a number of qualitative methods to investigate this process. It does this by comparing the way the notions of 'independence', 'empowerment' and 'home' are embedded in daily practices of three examples of the refuge, in operation in urban Southeast Queensland. This provides a means to formulate a comprehensive picture about the production of the 'refuge culture', and the social and spatial relations that construct social order in this kind of social organisation. There are two reasons why this kind of investigation is important. Firstly, this investigation makes a substantive contribution to the study of the women's refuge. Existing literature about the women's refuge does not clearly describe the way this social world is produced and the way 'independent women' are constructed. This study does this by examining the social and spatial relations of this setting and the rhetoric that accompanies it. Furthermore, this case study examines three different refuge models in order to understand the way social order is produced and how social and spatial relations contribute to this process. This provides an opportunity to explore different versions of 'independence' and explain why one refuge model is more likely to produce 'independent women' in keeping with feminist rationale. Secondly, conceptually and methodologically, the contribution of this thesis is made possible by exploring the relevance of concepts proposed by Bourdieu to the issues of social and spatial relations and the way they construct social order. These concepts are operationalised and applied to theories of 'the interaction order' - proposed by Goffman, Garfinkel and Sacks - in order to understand the women's refuge. This research approach offers a framework to capture the everyday experience of the refuge by focusing on the way social actors sustain daily action. The methods used to do this are participant observation, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. The application of this method of social inquiry means that it is possible to comprehend the process of transformation, the way this is operationalised on a daily basis, and the set of relations that produce the ordered social world of the refuge. Furthermore, the application of this method of social inquiry provides a way to further comprehend the mechanisms that produce social order in social institutions intent on transforming populations in transition. This investigation makes substantive theoretical and methodological contributions to the disciplines of sociology and design. In relation to the sociological study of social organisations, this study demonstrates the importance of using a particular method of social inquiry to uncover the relationship between social and spatial orders in the construction of social order. In relation to design, this investigation demonstrates the way spatial organisation is intertwined with aspects of social and cultural organisation. Collectively, the findings presented in this study demonstrate the reflexive relationship between social and spatial orders and the construction of social institutions. This is managed by describing the relationships that produce the social institution of the women's refuge and the way these facilitate the transformation of a population in transition. This study concludes by discussing the significance of these findings in relation to theories and policies about the refuge, and the benefit of future research of this kind in the investigation of social organisations intent on producing transformation.

This sociological study explores the past and current higher education (HE) experience of educationalists at Gaza’s universities and how this experience may be evolving in the shifting socio-political context in the Arab World. The thesis is motivated by three questions: 1. What are the perspectives of academic staff in the Faculties of Education at Gaza’s universities on their own past HE experiences? 2. What are the perspectives of students and their lecturers (academic staff) in the Faculties of Education at Gaza’s universities on students’ current HE experiences? 3. How do educationalists in the Faculties of Education at Gaza’s universities perceive the shifting socio-political context in the Arab World, and what current or future impact do they think it will have on the education context at Gaza’s universities? To examine these questions, I conducted an inductive qualitative study. Using 36 in-depth, semi- structured interviews which lasted between (90-300 min), I collected data from educationalists (15 academic staff; 21 students) at two of Gaza’s universities. Due to difficulties of access to the Gaza Strip, the participants were interviewed via Skype from Cambridge. Informed by the literature review, and triangulated with other research activities, such as reviewing participants’ CVs, browsing universities websites, and keeping a reflective journal, a thematic analysis was conducted on the interview data. Theoretically, although this study has benefited from conceptual insights, such as those found in Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and in Pierre Bourdieu’s work on symbolic violence, it is a micro-level study, which is mainly data driven. The findings of this research show that in the past, educationalists were relatively more passive in terms of shaping their HE experiences, despite efforts to become resilient. In the present, students and their lecturers continue to face challenges that impact negatively on their participation and everyday life at Gaza’s universities. However, how the HE experience will evolve out of this context in the future is uncertain. The Arab Spring revolutions have had an influence on Gaza HE institutions’ campuses as they have triggered more awareness of students’ grievances and discontent. Because of some political and educational barriers, however, students’ voices are a cacophony; they remain split between “compliance” and resistance (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 471; Swartz, 2013, p. 39). Previously, Sara Roy (1995) rightly indicated a structure of “de-development” in the Gaza Strip (p.110). The findings from this research show that the impact of occupation and of the changes in the Arab World on the educational context in Gaza are more complex than previously thought. There is a simultaneous process of construction and destruction that is both external and internal to educationalists and which undermines academic work at Gaza’s universities. Based on this, the study concludes by explaining six implications of this complex structure for academic practice at Gaza’s universities, offering nine policy recommendations for HE reform, and highlighting six areas for future research.

To understand the persistence of wartime rape that the DRC has experienced during the sixteen years old civil war, this study undertakes a critical analysis of the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ as proposed by Bourdieu. I have suggested that this concept [symbolic violence] as developed by Bourdieu needs other dimensions of definition in order to be applied to other social crises outside the western world. Shaping a link between wartime rape and its symbolic dimensions enables us to clearly articulate that the symbolic order brought through the practice of wartime rape by perpetrators does not remain unchallenged by the dominated who are direct and indirect victims of wartime rape. For this purpose, data were collected from ordinary community members, community leaders; a doctor and nurse form Panzi Hospital, an army General, a lawyer and some NGOs members working in the area of study (Kamanyola)through in-depth interviews. Observation and document analysis have also been used in the process of data collection. As a result the study found that wartime rape, at first, is a threat that perpetrators use to impose their own symbolic power upon males from the enemy groups through the rape of females from the same enemy groups. Therefore, this physical attack [war rape] against females impacts the victims as individuals, the community and the whole nation. This helps to suggest that physical violence is also symbolic violence. This is rendered possible through social and cultural patriarchal norms shared by both victims and perpetrators. As a result, family and community ties as well as marriage – as constitutive elements of the community’s symbolic order – are directly fractured by wartime rape. Forcing women to be economically unproductive was another strategy to undermine community ties which were built through community-based activities. Secondly, the strategic use of war rape comes to counter the idea of symbolic violence as being just soft or an invisible violence but under some circumstances a symbolic violence might produce physical harm.Thirdly, the study found that, patriarchy as the dominant social and cultural order is resisted by the dominated (women respondents in majority) now that it is associated to wartime rape. Because of this, I proposed that symbolic orders are not always taken for granted; they maybe resisted by the dominated. Based on the findings, this research report advocates for a more gender inclusive policy to encourage women to participate in the making of decisions which concern their lives as main victims of wartime rape in DRC generally and in Kamanyola in particular.

The Problems of Protest and the Persistence of Domination: Social Movement Theory and Bourdieu’s Economy of Practice is a normative intervention into social movement theory and debates about social movement goals, strategies and tactics. The project asks: what normative implications derive from incorporating Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological framework into social movement research? My core arguments are that Bourdieu’s framework has the potential to sensitize activists and analysts to the tension between conformity and failure and that escaping radical/reformist debates requires working through this tension. The dissertation intervenes in social movement theory from within the critical theory tradition by refusing to separate empirical and normative questions. I develop my argument using two strategies. First, I undertake a close reading of Bourdieu’s most important works and the debates they have provoked. Second I apply the conceptual tools this close reading offers to reconsider the logic behind two key social movement theory concepts: collective identity and repertoires of contention. Following a general introduction and literature review, I undertake a close consideration of habitus and an argument for how attention to the suffering produced by symbolic power constitutes grounds for normative justice claims. I then consider how collective identity formation in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer mobilization indicates the presence of symbolic violence, primarily in the form of epistemic violence. Next I argue that the nature of neoliberal symbolic power creates political antinomies for representation and affinity-based segments of the alterglobalization movement. Finally I argue that Bourdieu needs to be balanced by Nietzsche and that an orientation toward ‘overcoming’ offers a way out of the tension between conformity and failure. My findings point to the need for more sophisticated instruments for understanding the relationship between objective interests and subjective perception, impositions of, and challenges to, ‘logical consensus’, and strategies for counter-training and other mechanisms to support activists in resisting symbolic violence.
Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-01-29 14:14:16.699

This thesis provides a critical framework and a set of methodological tools for analysing animal protection law and policy issues. These tools support the generation of law reform strategies that are responsive to the social and economic conditions of the 21st century. The thesis adopts Australia’s animal protection regime as a case example. Within this field of legal discourse, animal protection is defined according to an operative opposition between ‘animal cruelty’ and ‘animal welfare’. While, as discrete concepts, animal cruelty and animal welfare (hereafter cruelty-welfare) may be important and useful, the cruelty-welfare opposition not only structures the field, but underlies a classificatory dynamic by which the relations of power that maintain the status quo are reproduced. Such circumstances constitute what French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu refers to as ‘symbolic violence’. The recognition of these dynamics, and the apparent intractability of the status quo, suggests that a new analytical pathway is needed. It is against this background that the thesis tests whether violence offers a useful alternative frame of analysis. The response to the thesis question is developed using a cross-disciplinary method that combines legal analysis with aspects of political philosophy and anthropological theory. It develops and applies a method within a framework by which animal protection law is understood in terms of symbolic violence. It adopts Bourdieu’s method for the analysis of a ‘field’ and his concept of ‘habitus’ and combines these methodological tools with political philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s notion of the anthropological machine. It also draws on Alan Norrie’s arguments about legal individualism under the influence of neoliberalism. Australia’s animal protection regime is reconfigured as a Bourdieusian field. The analysis of habitus is informed by a notion of interdependence based on Agamben’s anthropological machine. It is via this unique combination of Bourdieu’s analytical tools and Agamben’s notion of the anthropological machine, along with insights about legal individualism drawn from Alan Norrie’s work, that the concept of violence is extended beyond its use by other animal protection legal theorists. The methodology supports the generation of law reform strategies and provides fresh insights as to why effective law reform in the area of animal protection law is so difficult. The notion of the anthropological machine is used to reconfigure the classificatory dynamics that take place at the human-animal boundary, within animal protection as an area of criminal law. It focuses on the necessity test that lies at the heart of the offence of animal cruelty, and how the classificatory dynamics that underlie the cruelty-welfare opposition have implications not only for animal cruelty defendants but for other marginalised participants within this field. It is in this vein that, in its deployment of the concept of violence, the thesis situates the interests of animals and humans within the animal protection field as interdependent, rather than parallel, realms of inquiry. Construing Agamben in this way facilitates the extension of Bourdieu’s concept of field to the circumstances of animal use in the 21st century. The methodology outlined above is tested in three case studies, presented as a triptych: 1. Whistleblowing in the interests of animal protection within the pork industry; 2. A critique of Queensland’s new ‘serious animal cruelty’ offence; and 3. The potential and limits of law reform relating to animal use industries in Australia, using the greyhound racing industry as a case example.

This study explores the manner in which Anne Michaels uses figurative language, particularly metaphor, in her poetry and prose. In her first novel, Fugitive Pieces, and in certain of her poems, Michaels demonstrates the powers of language to destroy and to recuperate. For her, metaphor is not simply a literary device; it is an essential mechanism in the creation of an authentic story or poem. Moreover, in contrast to other figurative language such as euphemism, which she feels can be used to conceal the truth and make moral that which is immoral, metaphor in her view can be used to gain access to the truth and is therefore moral. Thus, as this study demonstrates, Michaels proposes as well as utilises the moral power of language. The ideas of four language theorists provide the basis of this study, and prove highly useful in application to Michaels’s work. With the aid of Certeau and Bourdieu, we examine Michaels’s participation in and literary presentation of the relationship of domination and subordination in which people seem to interact and which takes place partly through language. In the light of Ricoeur’s explication of the precise functions of metaphor, we discuss Fugitive Pieces as a novel whose engagement with the topic of the Holocaust in intensely emotive and figurative language makes it controversial in terms of what may or may not constitute the appropriate manner of Holocaust literary representation. Klemperer’s meticulous, first-hand study of the Nazis’ use of the German language during the period of the Third Reich proves illuminating in our exploration of the works of Michaels that feature themes of oppression and dispossession. In certain of her poems, Michaels stands in for real people and speaks in their voices. This is also a form of metaphor, this study suggests, as for the duration of each poem Michaels requires us to imagine that she is the real-life person who expresses him- or herself in the first person singular, which she patently is not. We could see this as appropriation and misrepresentation of those people’s lives and thoughts; however, with the aid of the notion of empathic identification we learn that Michaels’s approach is always empathic – she imaginatively places herself in various situations and people’s positions without ever losing her sense of individuality and separate identity, and her portrayal of their stories is always respectful and carefully considered.
Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2011.
English
unrestricted