Connecting Bourdieu’s Field Theory with Cultural Criminology

• In Event: Roundtable: Putting Bourdieu to Theoretical Work for Criminology--Exploring Potentialities, Challenges and Limits

Abstract

When trying to explain why some people commit crimes while most do not, criminological theory has had a problem with linking agency and structure. A promising solution came in Jock Young’s version of cultural criminology, which integrated Merton’s strain theory with Katz’ account of the emotional rewards in criminal acts. Young claimed the core emotion behind different crimes would be a structurally caused experience of humiliation. Linking individual agency and structural conditions through emotions certainly advances the understanding, but Young did not show how this linking was effectuated. Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory may contribute with a better grasp on how structural conditions influence the social agents’ perception of the world. Yhe paper explores how this argument may be supported with regard to empirical cases and also the limits of an approach that combines fields and emotions.

Author

• Annick Prieur, Aalborg University