The lifeworld of the university student: habitus and social class

BUFTON, S. (2003). The lifeworld of the university student: habitus and social class. Journal of phenomenological psychology, 34 (2), 207-234.

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Abstract

Phenomenological psychology has typically avoided the "importation" of such concepts as social class from sociology. Within the epoche, such terminology is bracketed on the grounds that it brings with it excess theoretical baggage and threatens the return to experience in itself. Yet, in uncovering the lifeworld of university students who—in what in Britain is still predominantly a preserve of the privileged—come from relatively economically disadvantaged homes, "class" or some cognate concept is found to be necessary to capture the range of modes of alienation and disjunction experienced. Following Casey's discussion of the way in which Bourdieu's notion of habitus relates to Merleau-Ponty's description of the interpenetration of the natural and the cultural in the lived body, social class is shown to bring together students' accounts of their multi-faceted sense that "University is not for the likes of us"—encompassing issues of identity, sociality, and spatio-temporal dislocation.

Item Type:	Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Sheffield Institute of Education
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1163/156916203322847146
Page Range:	207-234
Depositing User:	Ann Betterton
Date Deposited:	12 Dec 2008
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 23:30
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/146

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