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The social emergence of health : a theoretical interpretation and empirical application of Pierre Bourdieu's relational theory of social action in a three-dimensional Canadian field Burnett, Patrick John
Abstract
Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social action has been the inspiration for an array of diverse health studies seeking to better understand the nature of social stratification and its relation to health behaviours and outcomes. While several of his well-known theoretical concepts, such as social capital, cultural capital and habitus, have garnered a great deal of attention in the health research community, the nature of their application has for the most part been limited to deterministic schemas examining relationships between social position and social action. There are as yet no health-related studies that offer a comprehensive theoretical account of Bourdieu’s ‘constructivist structuralism,’ incorporating all of his theoretical conceptions of field, habitus, capital, doxa and time. In light of these theoretical and empirical oversights, I offer a health-relevant re-envisioning of Bourdieu's expansive body of work and examine the implications of his relational framework for health research. Drawing upon a relational exploratory analytic method called multiple correspondence analysis and using original Canadian survey data from Vancouver and Toronto, Canada, I translate my interpretation of Bourdieu’s theoretical principles into a thoroughly Bourdieusian empirical depiction of a health-relevant three-dimensional geometric social space. The visual mapping of social space revealed seven different groupings of individuals whose common attributes and dispositions are socially patterned around health-related behaviours and outcomes, illuminating distinct spaces of social differentiation within which healthy and unhealthy individuals are located.
Item Metadata
| Title |
The social emergence of health : a theoretical interpretation and empirical application of Pierre Bourdieu's relational theory of social action in a three-dimensional Canadian field
|
| Creator | |
| Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
| Date Issued |
2011
|
| Description |
Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social action has been the inspiration for an array of diverse
health studies seeking to better understand the nature of social stratification and its relation to
health behaviours and outcomes. While several of his well-known theoretical concepts, such
as social capital, cultural capital and habitus, have garnered a great deal of attention in the
health research community, the nature of their application has for the most part been limited
to deterministic schemas examining relationships between social position and social action.
There are as yet no health-related studies that offer a comprehensive theoretical account of
Bourdieu’s ‘constructivist structuralism,’ incorporating all of his theoretical conceptions of
field, habitus, capital, doxa and time. In light of these theoretical and empirical oversights, I
offer a health-relevant re-envisioning of Bourdieu's expansive body of work and examine the
implications of his relational framework for health research. Drawing upon a relational
exploratory analytic method called multiple correspondence analysis and using original
Canadian survey data from Vancouver and Toronto, Canada, I translate my interpretation of
Bourdieu’s theoretical principles into a thoroughly Bourdieusian empirical depiction of a
health-relevant three-dimensional geometric social space. The visual mapping of social space
revealed seven different groupings of individuals whose common attributes and dispositions
are socially patterned around health-related behaviours and outcomes, illuminating distinct
spaces of social differentiation within which healthy and unhealthy individuals are located.
|
| Genre | |
| Type | |
| Language |
eng
|
| Date Available |
2011-12-19
|
| Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
|
| Rights |
Attribution 3.0 Unported
|
| DOI |
10.14288/1.0072453
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| URI | |
| Degree | |
| Program | |
| Affiliation | |
| Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
|
| Graduation Date |
2012-05
|
| Campus | |
| Scholarly Level |
Graduate
|
| Rights URI | |
| Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
Attribution 3.0 Unported