Sociogenesis of artistic vocation. Habitus and cultural capital in students of art schools
Author: Uboldi, Anna , a.uboldi2@campus.unimib.it
Department: Sociology and Social Research
University: Milano Bicocca, Italy
Year of completion: 2016
Language of dissertation: Italian
Keywords:
habitus
, aspirations
, art school
, learner identity
Areas of Research:
Arts
, Education
, Youth
Abstract
This research explores the educational experiences by means of a qualitative perspective with in-depth interviews and focus groups to young pupils and their parents. The research takes place in, private and public, secondary art schools in Milan. I define art in the space of educational choices, in a Bourdieusian perspective. Young pupils’ choice to study the plastic art represents the primary interest in my research. The artistic pathway is problematized as atypical, an against the grain experience characterized by both manual and intellectual dimensions. I study the meanings of this choice, educational dispositions and attitudes of the students, and their parents, as well as the ambitions on the future. I investigate the school choice, learner identity and the creative aspiration as classed concepts by means of cultural capital tool. I consider how the cultural capital acts in contemporary Italian society. Thus, I problematize the cultural capital definition looking at new emergent forms and dimensions. I intend to consider how the educational and professional projects of students are linked to class identity and to neoliberal order. I study the class differences in the way in which students orient themselves towards creative educational routes and professional futures. I examine how the reflexive capacity to aspire is a class cultural resource. In sum, I explore the role of secondary art school to reproduce the social differences in terms of educational and professional aspirations. Finally, I problematize the link between individualization and reproduction social processes looking at contemporary youth condition.
