Session Information
Contribution
This paper is one of a series of practical applications of the theoretical approach of Pierre Bourdieu to specific socio-cultural and educational contexts. (See Hardy and Grenfell 2003 and Hardy and Grenfell 2007). The paper explores the relationships between education, society and women's artistic activities in Britain between the 1930s and the 1950s. This period is chosen in order to span the Second World War since this was a time of significant change in society, in the educational and artistic opportunities available to women. The paper presents an empirical study of the field of women's art education and is based on the socio-cultural characteristics of a group of about 100 successful women artists and the informal groups and art societies to which they belonged in the first part of the twentieth century. The research undertaken for this paper maps the field structure of this group of women artists in terms of their formal and informal educational experiences and how these structure and are structured by both the wider social space of the time and by the formal and informal networks to which they belonged.The paper also represents an example of the application of the methodological approach of the French educationalist, philospher and sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu to a particular time - the time before and after the Second world war, a particular context - art education, a specific place - Britain and to particular people - women artists. The nature and structure of this field of women's education is considered in terms of three distinct levels of analyses derived from Bourdieu's methodology and theory of practice (Bourdieu 1993): Each level is discussed in its turn: firstly, the artists themselves and their charactersitics; secondly, their social networks (art societies) and educational institutions (schools and art schools) and the wider social and educational space of the time (See also Grenfell and Hardy 2003). Individual's educational and artistic habitus is considered in terms of its constituent symbolic capital: that is, qualifications, family influences, attitudes and dispositions, social connections and cultural participation. (Bourdieu 1996/92). The field structures which result are highlighted in order to examine the processes, products and operations of education and art education for women in that time and place. To this end, the papere also briefly addresses the products of this educational field - paintings and sculpture through an examination of specific art works in terms of style, technique, composition and choice of subject, and their relationships to individual artist's field positions. Finally, the paper offers some reflections on this sociological approach to women's art education in a war torn Britain.The paper is based on the theoretical approach of Pierre Bourdieu and uses his thinking tools - symbolic capital, habitus and field to explore the structure of one particular educational and cultural field - the field of women's art education in a time of war during the 30's to 50s.This paper continues and extends the practical applications of Bourdieu's theory of knowledge to a new context - the artisitc education of women. Networks of knowledge production, in this case art societies and art schools, are mapped in relation to both the indivdual participants' habitus and the socio-political space within which they lived and worked - the field. The result is a mapping of the field of women's artistic production in relation to British socio-cultural setting and the wider European context..Bourdieu, P (1971a/67) 'Systems of education and systems of thought', in M F D Young (Ed.) Knowledge and Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education. London: Macmillan. Bourdieu, P (with Passeron, J-C) (1977a/70) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (trans. R. Nice). London: Sage, first published as La Reproduction. Eléments pour une théorie du système d'enseignement. Paris: Editions de Minuit. Bourdieu, P (1996/92) The Rules of Art (trans. S. Emanuel). Oxford: Polity Press, first published as Les règles de l'art. Genèse et structure du champ littéraire. Paris: Seuil. Bourdieu, P (1993) The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. Oxford: Polity Press. Grenfell M and Hardy C (2003) Field Manoeuvres: Bourdieu and the Young British Artists, in Space and Culture, Vol 6, no1, February 2003, pp 19-34, Sage Publications Hardy C and Grenfell M (2007) Art Rules, Oxford: Berg Publications Either 'Space and Culture' or International Journal of Aesthetics Education
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.