Cultural Boarding Bodies Status Style and Symbolic Capital Pierre Bourdieu Philosopher historian anthropologist 1930 2002 1970s 90s wrote and lectured about sport and social class thought about sport and how the body in sport expresses largely unconscious and unquestioned formations such as social class gender and nationality The snowboarding body is a symbol of status a system of social marking and a site of distinctions A Riddle A father and son have a car accident and are both badly hurt They are both taken to separate hospitals When the boy is taken in for an operation the surgeon says I can not do the surgery because this is my son How is this possible Bourdieu Habitus everyday practices dispositions appreciations tastes inculcate a specific orientation onto the body embodiment embodied internalized Novice and core boarders styles of participation performativity Capital Field These three generate practices the cultural boarding body in action Terms Habitus a set of acquired schemes of dispositions perceptions and appreciations that shape our practices and give them meaning It takes time to embody cultural knowledge which then informs decisions and actions that we make Capital different forms of power held by social agents Cultural capital Field a system of social positions occupied by individuals or institutions doing the same activity Often privilege different forms of capital over others and have their own practices for accessing capital Practice generated by habitus field and capital They re make the world which makes them Capital different forms of power held by people institutions agents Power examples economic wealth cultural artistic taste linguistic vocabulary and pronunciation social social connections academic degrees qualifications corporeal physical attractiveness symbolic also called distinction prestige Symbolic power Snowboarders may gain distinction prestige symbolic capital through commitment physical prowess risk taking Margins http www graysontrays com blog Field structured but also highly fragmented system of social systems and power relations every class and its factions have distinct tastes or preferences for cultural goods and consumption Taste unites and separates these classes or groups Thorpe p 117 Practice distinctions in the snowboarding body including use of various kinds of capital From Thorpe Different tastes and styles create divisions in the snowboarding population Language Snowboarding language is becoming increasingly technical and obscure While cultural identity can be imitated only those with high cultural knowledge recognize the difference between a Kasserroll a switch ally oop mc twist and a corked backside five Dress up on the hill there are few things that distinguish the hardcore rippers from the weekend warriors It used to be clothes it used to be style and it used to be easy But now with everyone looking the part you are forced to use more nontraditional means 129 Commitment Members cannot buy their way into the core of the culture 133 From Thorpe Different tastes and styles create divisions in the snowboarding population Physical Prowess The pursuit of boarding experience and competence is at the core of the snowboarding value system 134 Risk taking accounts construct professional riders as heroes for risking physican injury and tolerating pain Philippa claimed I ve broken stuff in my back and I ve broken my ankle and bad strains and I ve blown my knee out But I have been quite lucky I ve been injury free really 135 Some problems with Bourdieu s ideas about distinction capital practice Reduces all activities to struggles for distinction with reference to social stratification Do individuals seek legitimacy through signs objects styles with fierce dedication that is actually a rhetoric of despair Louis Althusser Is the sporting field itself a mere means toward achieving the larger goal of winning distinction prestige and status within the broad societal context Seems to sanction stereotyping and racial profiling Think about Race is a key component in the socialization process What race am I How do I know what race I am Who told me What other races are there Are races really all that different and easily distinguishable Apartheid South Africa In a lot of ways race affects how sports affect us and vice a versa Aescton and Jacek On distinction practice field extreme sports participants are said to have come from the margins of society to initiate sporting and cultural revolutions in the US and across the globe Kyle Kusz Revolt of the White Athlete 2007 p 2 This cultural shift moved whiteness from being economically and socially normative privileged and valued to seeming alternative different and underprivileged a new variant of contemporary cultural racism in which Whites are shown to be economically unprivileged socially marginalized pioneers and or revolting against mainstream American ideals alternative music trouble with the law grunge clothing etc Kusz argues that culturally this sensibility then serves to re gain white normativity and dominance Perhaps sport thought of as wholly separate and distinct from the realm of politics is precisely one of the best cultural vehicles for promoting its reactionary politics while not seeming to be ideological at all Kusz How do we change our habitus The snowboarding body A site of distinction dress lingo race performative embodied culture White Wash 1 Main issues of the film 2 How is it applicable to the cultural study of snowboarding 3 Ideas about race and cultural studies from the experts in the film 4 Lifestyle Capital Embodiment Habitus Field Practice Fun Nature Liminal Clips 20 11 surfing in Ghana Why did they stop surfing along the coast of west Africa but today we kind of think that blacks can t swim 21 00 interviewing kids in the city I don t know any black people that surf 27 00 Endless summer Ghana sequence and thinking about how would our culture be different if they had told us that 45 00 the schools and integration