LHolt_embodied social capital.pdf (293.8 kB)
Embodied social capital and geographic perspectives: performing the habitus
This paper reopens debates of geographic theorizations and conceptualizations of
social capital. I argue that human geographers have tended to underplay the analytic value of
social capital, by equating the concept with dominant policy interpretations. It is contended that
geographers could more explicitly contribute to pervasive critical social science accounts. With
this in mind, an embodied perspective of social capital is constructed. This synthesizes Bourdieu’s
capitals and performative theorizations of identity, to progress the concept of social capital in four
key ways. First, this theorization more fully reconnects embodied differences to broader socioeconomic
processes. Second, an exploration of how embodied social differences can emerge directly
from the political-economy and/or via broader operations of power is facilitated. Third, a path is
charted through the endurance of embodied inequalities and the potential for social transformation.
Finally, embodied social capital can advance social science conceptualizations of the spatiality of
social capital, by illuminating the importance of broader sociospatial contexts and relations to the
embodiment of social capital within individuals.
Funding
This work was supported by the EPSRC.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Geography and Environment
Citation
HOLT, L., 2008. Embodied social capital and geographic perspectives: performing the habitus. Progress in Human Geography, 32 (2), pp.227-246.Publisher
© SAGE PublicationsVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2008Notes
This article was published in the journal, Progress in Human Geography [© SAGE Publications] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0309132507087648ISSN
0309-1325Publisher version
Language
- en