ABSTRACT
Pierre Bourdieu’s work on the conceptualization of social practices is commonly associated with habitus and its relationship with field and forms of capital. Yet – and although popular – these are not the only concepts in his toolkit that allow us to understand and apprehend practices both theoretically and methodologically as social phenomena conveying a sense of identity. Taking the criticisms of Bourdieu’s work seriously – especially the claim that Bourdieu’s work takes a rather deterministic view of the social order – this chapter aims to challenge such assumptions by engaging in a closer reading of Bourdieu’s work, especially regarding the empirical understanding of change. The chapter elaborates on the use of doxa and hysteresis in combination with reflexivity; these are research tools that have not yet gained the deserved prominence among Bourdieuian researchers, most likely because these constructs were less salient in Bourdieu’s own writing. Yet, such concepts provide a lens through which the process of change can be explained. In this vein, this chapter will look at how the combination of reflexive research practices with the concepts of doxa and hysteresis in the background allow the researchers to dig deeper into how change is perceived and enacted, while using the context of scholarly practices supported by the participatory web as an example.
