Acquiring an economic habitus : the role of calculation in learning ‘the rules of the game'

Abstract

Pierre Bourdieu’s classical sociology and the actor network based ‘economization’ literature are often considered contradictory, despite some agreement on the constructed nature of economic man. Through an examination of the field of publishing, we argue that Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is a useful contribution to the literature on economization, aiding an understanding of how those new to a field gradually learn its calculations and the material devices that construct their position and functioning within it. We argue that Bourdieu’s theory, appropriately stated, sheds light on the tacit assessments made by market agents alongside their involvement in network-based calculative mechanisms, and allows studies of markets to deal with some persistent criticisms of the economization programme.