Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
Gardening Taste: Theoretical Concepts
and Framework
Introduction
One of the central questions underpinning this topic is: is the garden a site where
identities of class and gender are played out? This chapter sets up the main theoretical
framework for my empirical findings around questions of class and gender. The theories
and concepts laid out here inform the whole topic, but most especially they under-gird
the analysis of my empirical findings in chapters 6 and 7 which examine class, gender
and gardening, sections of my argument about the lifestyle gardening media in chapter
5 and my empirical findings on lifestyle consumption in chapter 8.
I begin with a discussion of the continued efficacy of Bourdieu's concepts for
thinking about contemporary social class. In particular, I draw on Bourdieu's theories
of habitus, field and forms of capital (1977, 1986), his approach to taste and aesthetics
(1986, 1990b) and his theory of symbolic violence (1990a). Arguing that Bourdieu's
theories hold 'explanatory power' (Skeggs 1997; Fowler 1994) for understanding
contemporary class relations, I discuss the kinds of insights Bourdieu's concepts
generate for my analysis of ordinary gardening. The predictive power of Bourdieu's
work mitigates against current claims that the 'consumption as social distinction'
approach is waning and that class is a less relevant social division for studies of
consumption (Warde 2002, 12). Rather, I argue for the continued explanatory power
of Bourdieu's metaphors of capital in relation to practices of cultural distinction.
Some theorists argue however, that class is no longer a stable and singular site
of identification in contemporary culture. Rather, it is argued, the present climate
is characterised by shifting forms of identification (Chaney 1996). While I accept
that class can never describe identity without other crosscutting variables such as
gender, race or sexuality, I want to argue for the continued importance of class both
as a descriptor of subjective relations and as a relevant tool for cultural analysis.
The chapter then turns to review selected examples of literature, many of which
are empirical studies, which argue for the continued salience of class. This section
examines lifestyle and class difference (Savage et al. 1992; Walkerdine et al. 2001,
Wynne 1990); work on classed boundaries of belonging and identification (Savage
et al. 2000; Southerton 2002); and work on identity, taste, (dis) identification and
the inequality of lived subjective locations of class and gender (Skeggs 1997). I
take the findings from these research projects to my own analysis of class, ordinary
gardening and the media of the late 1990s.
Bourdieu's model has less to say about other social variables which cross-cut
class and he has faced up to criticism for situating gender and race as secondary to his
 
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