Religious Tastes and Styles as Markers of Class Belonging: A Bourdieuian Perspective on Pentecostalism in South America

Studies on the relationship between social class and religion tend to highlight the demographic dimension of class, but neglect its symbolic dimension. By addressing the symbolic dimensions through a Bourdieuian approach, this article contends that religious tastes and styles can be employed as class markers within the sphere of religion. A case study on Argentinean Pentecostalism and in-depth analysis of a lower and middle class church illustrate how symbolic class differences are cultivated in the form of distinctive religious styles. While the lower class church displays a style marked by emotional expressiveness and the search for life improvement through spiritual practices, the middle class church performs a sober and calm style of Pentecostalism. The study highlights the role of styles in the reproduction of class boundaries, while shedding a critical light on the importance of tastes

To speak with the other's voice: reducing asymmetry and social distance in mental health care admission interviews

The aim of this article is to examine the case of adoption of characteristic features of the interlocutor's ‘voice’ in mental health care admission interviews at a public hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We observed ethnographically that ‘speaking with the Other's voice’ is a strategy adopted by psychoanalysts to achieve clinical goals, though they overlook its wider implications and contradictions as it involves both professionals and patients. We will argue that patients adopt bureaucratic and psychiatric terms in order to decrease asymmetry and reorient the activity conducted between the professional and the client. On the other hand, professionals tend to consider social class, age, ethnicity or religion when adopting the patient's voice in an attempt to decrease social distance. These strategies are employed to accomplish different goals during the interview: to the patient, it is a way to show competence in the activity of medical consultation, indexing the highly valued voices of state institutions and psychiatric knowledge; to the professional, it is a strategy to achieve clinical goals by decreasing social distance and enhancing transference. Analysis will show the unequal distribution of voicing options for participants: while patients attempt to reduce asymmetry despite social distance, psychotherapists try to decrease social distance but maintain asymmetry. In conclusion, wider implications will be discussed for intergroup communication between professionals and clients.Fil: Bonnin, Juan Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro de Estudios E Investigaciones Laborales; Argentin