Theorizing Rural Transformation Through Bourdieuian Lenses: Trumping Dominant Models With Sustainable Indigenous Practices

• Main Author: Joseph Seyram Agbenyega
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kathmandu University 2014-09-01
• Series: Journal of Education and Research
• Subjects: Bourdieu; Communities; Education; Rural; Transformation
• Online Access: http://kusoed.edu.np/journal/index.php/je/article/view/112
• ISSN: 2091-0118; 2091-2560

Education for rural transformation requires a critical analysis and appraisal ofpolicies and education programmes, and skills development that can lead to thecreation of sustainable jobs for rural people. This paper will examine and analyzehow inclusion or exclusion manifests for rural people, and will do so with PierreBourdieu’s socio-critical theoretical framework that provides a three pronged(Habitus, Capital and Field), but unified approach that can be utilized to theorizeeducation for rural transformation. Bourdieu draws our attention to three interactiveways of conceptualizing and understanding inclusion, exclusion, marginalization,disadvantage and transformation via:1) the objective, physical, outright rejection incommunity due to the ways individuals are positioned and named in that community(field); 2) overt or covert denial of social, economic and cultural goods (capital),and 3) the inside subjective world, the space of thought, mind, attitudes, idea andinteriority, which Bourdieu referred to as habitus (Bourdieu, 1990, 1996, 1998 &1999). The paper provides a socio-critical framework for educators of how to workwith rural people to enhance their living standards.