Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis essay employs Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice and the methodology of Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to extend the mapping of the dynamic relations between class and culture presented in Bourdieu's Distinction to encompass urban space, drawing on data from a multi‐method research project on the city of Porto, Portugal. We present a detailed analysis of the formation and structure of local social space and show its relevance for the study of the (re)production of urban lifestyles. Differences in the volume and composition of the capital of city residents are identified and shown to underpin the relations between social positions, dispositions and position takings in various realms of cultural consumption. Meaningful configurations of 'lifestyle modalities' have clear roots in the city's social space, which in Portugal, as in France, can be interpreted in terms of distinction, pretension and necessity.

This paper draws on a multidisciplinary study of state policy, housing provision, and the social question in Porto, Portugal, over the past half century, combining ethnography, in-depth interviews, and a survey of local families. It examines the trajectory of one of the city's largest and most notorious public housing estates to map out how transformations in its social composition and in the mix of state action have affected how residents deal with the disparaging public image attached to their place of residence. Against analytical simplification, we spotlight responses to territorial stigmatization that muddle the 'exit–voice' or 'conformity–rejection' dichotomies and reveal the social parameters that determine the symbolic boundaries, sociability patterns, and daily face-to-face interactions found in this housing estate. Strategies of 'subsistence sociability' and 'focused avoidance' have enabled local families to cope with the spatial taint hovering over their bairro while avoiding both the high costs of exit and the uncertain investment in collective action.