Bourdieu the ethnographer: Grounding the habitus of the ‘far-right’ voter
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00108367231154165 |
| Author | Emma Mc Cluskey |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00108367231154165
Cooperation and Conflict
2024, Vol. 59(1) 23 –46
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/00108367231154165
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Bourdieu the ethnographer:
Grounding the habitus of the
‘far-right’ voter
Emma Mc Cluskey
Abstract
This article pushes the work of Bourdieu to more ethnographic directions within international
social sciences, particularly studies of everyday (in)security. Thematically, it looks at how
transformations in global politics towards increased xenophobia and the normalisation of ‘far-
right’ politics can be examined through mobilising ‘Bourdieu the ethnographer’ (Blommaert,
2005). Using the example of Sweden, and an ethnography of everyday life around a refugee
resettlement facility in 2013 and 2014, the article argues that Bourdieu the ethnographer
provides important conceptual tools for understanding the way in which logics of (in)security
shifted ever further into everyday life. This thus offers an interesting way to think about the
normalisation of far-right and xenophobic politics more broadly. Through conducting this
specific type of Bourdieu-inspired ethnography, the article empirically grounds the ‘habitus’ of
the so-called ‘far-right’ voter. Taking seriously the temporal dimension of habitus, Bourdieu the
ethnographer orients analysis towards transformation, evolution and flux, allowing ‘far-right’
to be conceived relationally. In the Swedish case, we are thus able to trace the shift from a
‘welcoming’ to an ‘exclusionary’ type of politics.
Keywords
Bourdieu, critical security studies, ethnography, methodology, xenophobia
Prologue
The barbecue to welcome the new Syrian residents of Oreby took place on the village
green on an icy February evening. Most of the village turned out for the occasion, never
shy to relay to me, a foreign researcher, at the pleasure Oreby-dwellers took in showing
solidarity to fellow humans fleeing a war zone. The chair of the resident’s association
even learnt a few words of Arabic and was eager to share his knowledge with his fellow
villagers.
Corresponding author:
Emma Mc Cluskey, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW, UK.
Email: e.mccluskey@westminster.ac.uk
1154165CAC0010.1177/00108367231154165Cooperation and ConflictMc Cluskey
research-article2023
Article
24 Cooperation and Conflict 59(1)
Around a year and a half later, Oreby had turned on the Syrians. I was sitting on a
bench on the same green with Susanne, the kind woman from the Swedish Church. This
time it wasn’t snowing, and the Syrians were no longer seen as saintly sufferers: ‘I want
you to write this down’, Susanne urged me, ‘So that outsiders can read about how much
of a burden we are under here’. For Susanne, who fashioned herself as speaking for the
entire village, if not nation, drastic measures were needed to stop more Syrians arriving.
Not only for the supposed drain they placed on schools, healthcare and other public
services, but also to protect the Syrians already here from the backlash which would
certainly ensue if a harder line was not taken.
Introduction
This article pushes the work of Bourdieu to more ethnographic directions within interna-
tional social sciences, particularly studies of everyday (in)security. Thematically, it looks
at how transformations in global politics towards increased xenophobia and the normali-
sation of ‘far-right’ politics can be examined through mobilising ‘Bourdieu the ethnog-
rapher’ (Blommaert, 2005). Using the example of Sweden, and an ethnography of
everyday life around a refugee resettlement facility in 2013 and 2014, the article argues
that Bourdieu the ethnographer provides important conceptual tools for understanding
the way in which logics of (in)security shifted ever further into everyday life. This thus
offers an interesting way to think about the normalisation of far-right and xenophobic
politics more broadly.
Through conducting this specific type of Bourdieu-inspired ethnography, the article
empirically grounds the ‘habitus’ of the so-called ‘far-right’ voter. Taking seriously the
temporal dimension of habitus, Bourdieu the ethnographer orients analysis towards
transformation, evolution and flux, allowing ‘far-right’ to be conceived relationally. In
the Swedish case, we are thus able to trace the shift from a ‘welcoming’ to an ‘exclusion-
ary’ type of politics which took place around the refugee centre. Lived (in)security as a
limit-making practice is shown to be both situated and emergent, avoiding essentialising
or depoliticising explanations of xenophobia and far-right politics.
The article proceeds in the following way. First, it introduces my ethnographic
research in a small village in southern Sweden, situating the normalisation of far-right
logics which took place there as speaking to the wider phenomenon of the mainstreaming
of previously marginalised extreme right and xenophobic politics across Europe over the
last decade. Next, I introduce the instrumentarium of Bourdieu the ethnographer, namely,
the ethnographic grounding of habitus, to de-essentialise the image of a far-right life-
world as pre-constituted or centred around certain identity markers. The second half of
the article anchors the transformations that took place in the Swedish story around
Bourdieu’s own thinking on an ethnographic understanding of ‘habitus’. This is most
vividly demonstrated in the scholar’s reflections on his early fieldwork in Kabyle, and
also woven into his work on his native farming community of Bearn, the French educa-
tional system and his research within the sociology of art and cultural fields. Finally, the
article reaches out to both linguistic ethnography (LE) and Bourdieu’s own discussions
on reflexivity to re-invigorate discussions about the effect of our own situatedness as
researchers in the production of knowledge within international politics.
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