Thinking with Bourdieu: Illusio

Claire Birkenshaw

“If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game.” (Leonard Cohen, 2016)

Happy New Year! Set any New Year resolutions? I have. At the heart of my New Year resolutions for 2024 is the improvement of my ‘cultural capital’ portfolio in terms of “volume” and “composition” (Threadgold, 2018, p.45). I am motivated to seek out the connections between different forms of cultural capital and to think about how cultural capital may reflect theoretical concepts either in its production, or its activation. For example, I am intrigued by the way in which some of Taylor Swift’s lyrics convey Bourdieusian theory as she attempts to activate and bring into play different forms of ‘capital’ during her struggle of playing the ‘game’: “I’m about to play my ace” (Swift, Martin and Schuster, 2016). In effect, my resolutions reflect a ‘drive’, or “social libido” (Threadgold, 2020, p.29, original emphasis), for self-improvement. In Bourdieusian terms, social libido can be thought of as illusio.   

Illusio is an “orientation towards things in the world” (Threadgold, 2020, p.29); it is “to be invested, [and] taken in by [a given social] game [and] that what happens in it matters, that its stakes are important and worth pursuing” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, p.116). Importantly, illusio helps to foster meaning and purpose to life (Threadgold, 2018). Furthermore, through “social magic” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, p.117) institutions are able to conjure up “just about anything as interest, and as a realistic interest” (ibid.). In effect, “each field [such as education] calls forth and gives life to a specific form of interest, a specific illusio” (ibid.) connected to a particular form of recognition: qualifications, certificates, honours, promotion etc. Thus, in operation at any one time then, is a whole array of illusio. In terms of education, for example, each subject brings into life its own illusio. However, the strength of specific subject illusio may vary within each player and between players. As Atkinson (2020) points out, some may play the game passionately while others are dispassionate or disinterested. Additionally, intensity of illusio is not a constant state, and may fluctuate over time. For some players, a specific form of illusio may wither to the point of ataraxy – a state of being “unmoved” or “untroubled” by the game: a sense of “this game makes no difference to me” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, p.116). It is possible that for some players, a recognition materialises that a particularly ‘game’ is no longer worth playing – it is not worth the time and effort because, realistically, there is no chance of success – resulting in the cessation of a specific illusio. This may be connected to a sense of ‘people like us’ do not succeed even after following ‘the rules of the game’ just like the successful other players. If this is the case, individual illusio may be affected by different forms of prejudice and discrimination, eventually leading to withdrawal and self-exclusion.

Threadgold (2018, p.35) posits that illusio is a Bourdieusian thinking tool often overlooked when, in fact, it should be regarded as a “pivotal” concept because it helps to “understand what social struggles are about” in different, “less functional, deterministic” ways. Furthermore, consideration of illusio aids the analysis of individual “motivations, orientation and the intensity to which these things are experienced” (Threadgold, 2020, p.30). As Threadgold (ibid.) reminds us, “the success or failure of these investments has emotional consequences.” Perhaps then, consideration should be given to the state of illusio for persistent absentees. This may shed light on their reason for absence, or ataraxy, from school.

References

Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Cohen, L. (2016) You Want it Darker. New York: Columbia Records.

Swift, T., Martin, M. and Schuster, K.J. (2016) New Romantics. Nashville: Big Machine Records.

Threadgold, S. (2018) Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles. Abingdon: Routledge.  

Threadgold, S. (2020) Bourdieu and Affect. Towards a Theory of Affective Affinities. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Suggested citation:

Birkenshaw, C. (2024) Thinking with Bourdieu: Illusio. Altered States of Academia, 1 January [Online blog]. Available from:< https://alteredstatesofacademia.blog/2024/01/01/thinking-with-bourdieu-illusio/> [Accessed ?].