ABSTRACT
Having looked at anorexia as a career, this career can now be situated not only in time but also within a particular social space. Its social topology can be uncovered and pieced together: having analysed ‘what they do’, we can look at how this fits into a social space; having analysed their ‘trajectory’, we can look at the ‘network structure’ in which it takes place ‘as just so many investments and moves in social space’ (Bourdieu 2000a, 304). More precisely, and to pursue this travel metaphor, my analysis will focus on the kind of ‘ticket’ necessary for such a journey, in other words, the social conditions of possibility which are necessary, although not sufficient in and of themselves (in other words, ‘What social characteristics make the anorexic activity described above possible?’). I will highlight these characteristics by linking the career with the specific features of the recruitment of anorexics both as they appear in my investigation and as they have been identified in the epidemiology1 – anorexics are predominantly female, adolescent and from a middle-or upper-class background – with particular focus on the variables of class and gender.2 Positioning the anorexia career within the social space does not mean analysing the anorexics’ family socialization nor is my aim to identify, within a set of individuals sharing the same social characteristics, those more likely to engage in such a career. Rather, my intention is to analyse which features, within the combinations of social characteristics defining the recruitment of anorexics on a structural level, can act as conditions allowing that career to take place.
