Socialization as the Practice of Social Reproduction in the Work of Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu
Socialization as the Practice of Social Reproduction in the Work of Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu

Summary/Abstract: The objective of the paper is establishing the basis for sociological explanation of socialization through developing the interpretation of socialization as the practice of social reproduction. In the author’s opinion, contemporary practice (action) approach provides the most fruitful conceptual solutions to the problem. The research is, therefore, based on the analysis of two of the most significant theoretical conceptions of the approach: Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration and Pierre Bourdieu’s generative structuralism. The analysis shows that conceptualizing of the socialization as the practice of social reproduction has many advantages. As first, the concept appears as the mediating and productive principle of social (structural) and individual, which is the necessary condition for interpreting socialization. The interpretation of socialization as the form of social reproduction enables, then, the analysis of structural constraints of practice (the conservativity of the domestic domain, the reproduction of status quo, the class character of socialization), as well as the opportunities for change (transformation). Further on, such a conceptualization, since it connects the structural characteristics of the system and the dispositions of the individual, enables the placing of socialization practice into the social and historical context. Finally, the interpretation of socialization as social reproduction insists on individual (child’s) activity in self-reproduction and the reproduction of the system. The mentioned arguments, with some additional ones, lead to the conclusion that establishing such an interpretation of socialization practice presents the significant move towards its sociological explanation, in which is the great contribution of A. Giddens’ and P. Bourdieu’s conceptual solutions.

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