‘Where the biological predominates’: Habitus, reflexivity and capital accrual within the field of batten disease

TY - CHAP

T1 - ‘Where the biological predominates’

T2 - Habitus, reflexivity and capital accrual within the field of batten disease

AU - Scambler, Sasha

AU - Newton, Paul

PY - 2016/1/1

Y1 - 2016/1/1

N2 - Much of the empirical work within the sociological study of chronic disabling conditions developed, explicitly or implicitly, as a challenge to the dominance of biomedicine. Alongside the work of disability theorists in reincorporating the body into the study of disability (see for example, Lock et al, 2005; Thomas, 2004; Williams, 1999), this chapter addresses the need to re-evaluate the, often negatively portrayed, contribution of biology and biomedicine to the study of chronic disabling conditions. We draw on Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus to chart the overwhelming impact of the biological on the lifeworld of those living with rare, chronically disabling degenerative conditions and their families. The theoretical framework provided by Bourdieu is used to present data from a recent empirical study to advance the view that for those living with such conditions, the biological can causally ‘swamp’ the psychological and the social in an extended and pervasive assault on the lifeworld.

AB - Much of the empirical work within the sociological study of chronic disabling conditions developed, explicitly or implicitly, as a challenge to the dominance of biomedicine. Alongside the work of disability theorists in reincorporating the body into the study of disability (see for example, Lock et al, 2005; Thomas, 2004; Williams, 1999), this chapter addresses the need to re-evaluate the, often negatively portrayed, contribution of biology and biomedicine to the study of chronic disabling conditions. We draw on Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus to chart the overwhelming impact of the biological on the lifeworld of those living with rare, chronically disabling degenerative conditions and their families. The theoretical framework provided by Bourdieu is used to present data from a recent empirical study to advance the view that for those living with such conditions, the biological can causally ‘swamp’ the psychological and the social in an extended and pervasive assault on the lifeworld.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85015070703&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1057/9780230297432_5

DO - 10.1057/9780230297432_5

M3 - Chapter

AN - SCOPUS:85015070703

SN - 9780230222700

SP - 77

EP - 105

BT - New Directions in the Sociology of Chronic and Disabling Conditions: Assaults on the Lifeworld

PB - BFI Publishing/Palgrave Macmillan

ER -