Exam (elaborations)
GY207 Economy, Society and Place - Assessment
- Institution
- London School Of Economics (LSE)
Summative essay for the LSE undergraduate GY207 Economy, Society and Place course. First class grade achieved.
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1. Using Bourdieu’s theory of fields explain how a person’s decision to live in a particular placemight be understood as being more than simply a straightforward economic decision.
Introduction
‘Whereas your occupation used to define your social class, now it is your residential location.’
(Savage, n.d., p. 1) If where you live is a marker of social position, it is critical to understand the
considerations embedded in the decision-making process of the residents choosing to live in a
particular place. This is because the social significance of a location is reflective of the capital
embodied by the social groups that inhabit a location. This essay first gives an account of
Bourdieu’s field theory as it offers an alternative to traditional class theory, allowing us to utilise
economic, cultural and social capital as markers of class difference. Secondly, it will be
demonstrated that both economic and cultural capital influence a person’s decision to live in a
particular place through a case study of people moving into SoHo, New York throughout the
1960s-1980s. Lastly, using Swartz’s (1997) framework, the field of housing in SoHo will be
mapped onto the field of power which is the principal stratifying force that can be applied to
social space in general. The mapping forms the clearest exposition of how class can be defined
by residential location.
Bourdieu’s Field Theory
While the word ‘field’ conjures an image of a physical piece of land, a Bourdieusian field is not
something physical, but rather a metaphor for a space (Swartz, 1997, p. 117) in which
individuals are positioned hierarchically in relation to one another in a constant struggle for
position and advantage. Despite a field not being a physical place, field analysis can be applied
to analyse a physical place so long as a set of forces and interests exist. Residential locations
, carry social signifiers and mark out the habitat of specific social groups (Savage, Bagnall &
Longhurst, 2005, p. 207). Hence as Bourdieu (2005) has done in The Social Structures of the
Economy, housing can be construed as a field where capital and habitus is deployed. Capital
defines one’s position in the field but also enables people to compete for more capital.
Bourdieu’s notion of capital extends beyond that of economic capital to social and cultural
capital. Social capital refers to one’s network and relationships. Cultural capital can be embodied
through one’s thoughts and actions (habitus being a specific way of explaining embodied cultural
capital), objectified in cultural goods like houses, or institutionalised through qualifications. In
analysing a person’s decision to live in a particular location, we must define the broadest range
of factors that shape behaviour rather than limit ourselves to economic factors, as economic
decisions only acquire meaning in relation to other considerations such as culture (Bourdieu &
Wacquant, 1992, p. 98).
The Lofts of SoHo 1960-1980
Undeniably the first group of artists moving into SoHo in the 1960s made an economic decision
to move into the area. SoHo refers to the area South of Houston street in Lower Manhattan, New
York City. At that time, most buildings were occupied by garment manufacturers, machine shops
and warehouses. Being an industrial area, it had relatively low rents compared to Greenwich
Village to the Northwest of Soho. A typical 2100 square feet loft in SoHo cost $50 to $125 per
month. This is compared to the average 610 square feet apartment in New York which cost $78
(Chao, E., & Utgoff, 2006; Shkuda, 2016, p. 49). The artists moving into SoHo had an
abundance of cultural capital being young and college educated, but were not successful at their
craft to support themselves financially. The artists in Lower Manhattan only had 63% of the
overall median income for artists in New York, which was $5200 (Winslow, 1964, p. 23-33).
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