Dear members,

Please find attached the details of the next Bourdieu study group event: ‘On the Street Where you Live’: Bourdieusian analysis of socio-spatial hierarchy.

Booking is not yet open and I have decided to open booking at the end of September as most people will then have their academic timetables and I will be unavailable to deal with bookings and inquiries over the summer as I’m completing my thesis. 

I’m informing members of this event early as we have already received an enormous amount of requests to book on it.  There will only be 30 places available therefore early booking is recommended as we anticipate this to be a popular event. Once booking is open at the end of September I will circulate it to members on this list first then place it on our other media outlets.

I look forward to seeing many of you there as well as informing members (after the summer) of some very exciting plans the study group is currently working on.


‘On the Street Where you Live’: Bourdieusian analysis of socio-spatial hierarchy.

Tuesday 2nd December 2014, London

Key Note Speakers:  Dr Paul Watt (Birkbeck) (Waiting confirmation) Dr Michaela Benson (Goldsmith) Dr Tracey Jensen (UEL) and Stephen Crossley (Durham)

The relations between the social world and urban space have been of interest to sociologists since the Chicago School’s human ecology tradition. In today’s globalised world, urbanisation is increasingly manifesting itself in people’s everyday lives, expressed through the diverse social, cultural and political space in which class, cultural and gender differences are continuously produced, contested and reworked. The move towards austerity in UK government’s fiscal policy, the weakening of state planning for urban growth and changes in residences from state property to private property has resulted in escalating house prices and the gentrification of traditionally ‘no go’ areas for the middle-class.  Social divisions and sociocultural relationships are becoming ever more spatially generated. 

In Distinction (Bourdieu, 1984) survey data was gathered in Paris, Lille and an unspecified agricultural town. However, Distinction focused on social class and the spatial dispositions in relation to the 'cosmopolitan metropolis' habitus of Paris – as major global city – was unexplored (Butler, 2002). Nevertheless, Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of distinction as a relation of social differences is useful in analysing socio-spatial hierarchy of neighbourhoods as well as the wider processes of segregation along preconceived lines of ‘race’, ethnicity, religion or social class. 

Over the last decade urban studies have increasingly drawn on Bourdieusian theory to examine the practices and trajectories of individuals and classes in an urban setting. This event will bring together participants for discussion and debates on socio-spatial stratification on an increasingly middle-class city as well as social exclusion of  the inner-city working classes and the usefulness of Bourdieu’s theory in analysing these issues. 


Timetable 


9.15-9.45 Registration and Refreshments 
9.45.10.00 Introduction 
10.00-11.15 Key Note: Dr Michaela Benson (Goldsmith) The middle classes, global property markets and the (im)possibility of Ethical residential choices 
11.15-11.30 Comfort Break 
11.30-13.00 Panel Key Notes: Dr Tracey Jensen (UEL) and Stephen Crossley (Durham)
13.00-14.00 Lunch 
14.00-15.15 Key Note:– Dr Paul Watt (Birkbeck)waiting a response to invitation 
15.15-15.45 Refreshment Break 
15.45-16.45 Workshop Discussions 

•	Workshop One: Dr Michaela Benson
•	Workshop Two:  Dr Paul Watt 
•	Workshop Three: Dr Tracey Jensen and  Stephen Crossley 

16.45-17.00 Closing Remarks 

This event costs £25 for BSA student members, £30 for BSA-members and £40 for non BSA members. 

Refreshments and lunch are included 

Early booking is recommended as we anticipate this to be a popular event. There will be 30 places available. 

The event will take place at the BSA meeting room in Imperial Wharf London 

For more info about the BSA Bourdieu Study Group: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/studygroups/bourdieu.aspx