Undoing Common Ground: Argumentation in Self-Help Books

Doxa have been central in theories of rhetorical persuasiveness since ancient times. Modern self-help books systematically undermine doxa in order to persuade readers to alter their behavior and their view of themselves. This paper investigates the method by which two best-selling self-help authors undo doxa. It finds that they use one type of doxa, generalized patterns of reasoning (topoi koinoi) to subvert another type of doxa, specific cultural or personal beliefs

From isovists to visibility graphs: a methodology for the analysis of architectural space

An isovist, or viewshed, is the area in a spatial environment directly visible from a location within the space. Here we show how a set of isovists can be used to generate a graph of mutual visibility between locations. We demonstrate that this graph can also be constructed without reference to isovists and that we are in fact invoking the more general concept of a visibility graph. Using the visibility graph, we can extend both isovist and current graph-based analyses of architectural space to form a new methodology for the investigation of configurational relationships. The measurement of local and global characteristics of the graph, for each vertex or for the system as a whole, is of interest from an architectural perspective, allowing us to describe a configuration with reference to accessibility and visibility, to compare from location to location within a system, and to compare systems with different geometries. Finally we show that visibility graph properties may be closely related to manifestations of spatial perception, such as way-finding, movement, and space use

The Truth about Parmenides\u27 Doxa

In a recent article in this journal, Néstor-Luis Cordero has offered an interesting account of how scholars may have been misreading Parmenides\u27 poem for centuries, as well as some provocative suggestions on how to correct that misreading. He calls into question the prevalent notion of the Doxa as Parmenides\u27 account of the phenomenal world, and he challenges the standard arrangement of the fragments that assigns lines featuring \u27physical\u27 topics to that portion of the poem. The \u27Doxa of Parmenides\u27, if that phrase is understood to imply that Parmenides himself embraced doxai of any kind is, Cordero claims, an imaginary fusion, like Centaurs or Sirens, of two independently legitimate notions. [excerpt

Judgment and Thought in the Theaetetus

Translators have rendered doxa as opinion , belief , and judgment , among other renderings. All three translations are subject to criticism. We analyze doxa as prompted by a present perception or by a past perception registered and resuscitated. There is also a doxa prompted by a Form, or complex of Forms

Kickboxing with Bourdieu: Heterodoxy, hysteresis and the disruption of “race thinking”

This article deploys Bourdieu’s conceptualization of habitus to examine how fighters at a Muay Thai/Kickboxing gym in East London challenge their taken-for-granted thinking about race (their racial doxa). I argue that through training to fight, people experience “hysteresis” as they find themselves within situations where their habitus – and relatedly their doxa – no longer adequately guides them. This results in a questioning of racial doxa that previously went unquestioned, which Bourdieu refers to as ‘heterodoxy’; an alternative to doxa. This article subsequently offers empirically informed theoretical insights by establishing a relationship between habitus, race and racism. It argues that the reproduction of racist thought and action is not inevitable, as people find ways to break habitual practices in their everyday life

<i>Rehabilitation doxa</i> and practitioner judgment. An analysis of symbolic violence on health care provision in the Scottish prison system

This paper presents an analysis of the symbolic conditions which govern health care provision in the Scottish prison system. The paper considers the wider context of Scottish prisons, where health care provision follows a similar structure both in juvenile and adult prisons. Our intention is to provoke a debate about the doxa (Bourdieu, 1977), which underlies decision making in respect of health care in prison, in a political environment where pragmatism, allied to the ‘pathologisation’ of social policies, health and criminal justice has been a hegemonic force.<br/

Parcerias entre os/as professores/as e a comunidade: formação contínua de professores/as para o desenvolvimento nas escolas da educação sexual participativa e orientada para a ação

Participatory action-research constituted by teachers (N=86) from 16 schools was carried out. It was aimed at investigating how teachers’ conceptions and practices change during in-service teacher training so as to create adequate conditions in the school and implement a sexual education project based on the Democratic Health Education Paradigm with the use of information and communication technology. The research techniques selected were aimed towards the triangulation of those techniques and conclusions between the researcher and teachers. Considering its participative dimension, the results of this investigation have implications in terms of teacher training and the organisation and management of the curricula.Foi realizada uma investigação-ação participativa envolvendo professores/as (N = 86) de 16 escolas. Esta investigação visou pesquisar como é que as concepções e práticas dos/as professores/as mudaram durante a formação contínua, de modo a criar as condições adequadas na escola para implementar um projeto de educação sexual baseado no paradigma de Educação para a Saúde Democrática, com o uso de tecnologias de informação e comunicação. As técnicas de pesquisa selecionadas visaram a triangulação dessas técnicas e das conclusões entre a pesquisadora e professores/as. Dada a sua dimensão participativa, os resultados desta investigação têm implicações em termos da formação de professores/as e da organização e gestão dos currículos

Civil disobedience in a distorted public sphere

Rawls’s notion of civil disobedience, which still dominates the literature on this subject, comprises at least these three characteristics: it involves breaking the law, is non-violent and public. But implicit in this notion is a certain tension: it shows pessisimism about the proper functioning of the public sphere as earlier normal appeals have failed, but it also displays a certain optimism about its proper functioning as it assumes that civil disobedience may be effective. In my paper I argue that Rawls cannot explain how civil disobedience may be effective as a public appeal for social justice because he does not fully understand what it means for civil disobedience to be public in relation to the public sphere. His analysis would require an additional notion of publicity which, as I argue, is the notion of hermeneutical publicity. From a Bourdieusian perspective I then make a case for the claim that public spheres always suffer from hermeneutic invisibility. This may explain why non-violent appeals for social justice fail as dialogical practices. Finally I suggest how we nevertheless could understand that civil disobedience can be effective as a dialogical practice

Using Bourdieu in Critical Mediatization Research: Communicational Doxa and Osmotic Pressures in the Field of UN Organizations

This article develops a Bourdieusian approach to mediatization. It is argued that the Bourdieusian theories of doxa and fields can make valuable contributions to a critical perspective on mediatization, one that moves beyond the divides between institutionalist, social-constructivist and materialist understandings (e.g., Bourdieu, 1972/1977). Mediatization is here seen as the historically growing dependence on media technologies and institutions within diverse social fields and settings. In order to establish the link between mediatization and Bourdieu’s theories (ibid.), the article introduces the concept of communicational doxa, which refers to the taken for granted communicational conventions and demands that regulate the inclusion of membership within a particular field. The article also shows how communicational doxa can be applied as an analytical concept. Findings from qualitative fieldwork carried out among highly mobile and skilled professionals within the field of UN organizations in Geneva, show how the autonomy of social agents is negotiated in relation to an increasingly mediatized communicational doxa

Applying to higher education: comparisons of independent and state schools

This paper reports on research into the ways that schools engage in university application processes. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from 1400 Year 13 students from 18 independent and state schools in England and 15 in-depth interviews were carried out with school teacher higher education (HE) advisors. The analysis compares independent and state schools with respect to: the types of higher education institutions (HEIs) that students applied for; the way the HE application process was managed in their schools; and how teacher advisors explained and managed the processes and outcomes for their students. Informed by Bourdieu's relational sociology, our discussion focuses on how schools in the two sectors mobilise different forms of capital in the competitive processes of university application. We also use the notion of doxa to explore how these micro-institutional processes and teacher advice relate to observed differences between state and independent sector students' HE destinations