Body socialization

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Body socialization describes the process of adaptation to and appropriation of societal social norms ( socialization ) by people, which happens through and through the human body . The interaction of human bodies and the human body itself play a role in various sociological theories. Body socialization receives special attention in the area of body sociology .

Body and socialization

The sociologist Robert Gugutzer writes about the role of the human body in socialization: “The human body is a thoroughly social phenomenon: Whatever people do with their body, what attitude they have towards and what knowledge they have about it, is shaped by the Culture, society and epoch in which these body practices, ideas and evaluations occur. "

According to Gugutzer, the human body is not a “natural” product of biology , but a “social phenomenon” which is formed through socialization.

The body is particularly fundamental for social science analysis because, according to sociologist Thomas Alkemeyer, "the movement of the body (...) can be understood as the smallest unit of social science analysis" .

Taking stock of the current debate about body socialization

The sociologist Uwe H. Bittlingmayer sums up the current debate about and about body socialization and socialized bodies : “[That] (…) in recent years there have been increasing body-theoretical studies that either deal with sociological classics (above all Norbert Elias , Michel Foucault , Pierre Bourdieu , Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel ), the more recent gender theory by Judith Butler and Nancy Fraser or, finally, dealing with the social anthropological studies by Helmuth Plessner , Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann for an understanding try to find out which social standardization processes, normative forms of manipulation and performative leeway current individual corporeality is experiencing. "

Thomas Alkemeyer sums up the description of the movement of the body and the interaction of bodies within a body-related (socialization) debate: “From a historical-anthropological and (body) sociological perspective, the social modeling of movement is not just a mechanization ( Marcel Mauss , Leontjew ), standardization and regulation ( Simmel ), but also as a civilization (Elias) and discipline (Foucault) have been described. "

Transfer of social structures through the socialization of bodies

According to the French sociologist Marcel Mauss, “social motor skills” develop through interaction, which can be used to identify class and social group. The body is shaped and shaped “through material culture” such as techniques, tools and actions.

According to Mauss, the socialization of the physical posture affects the psyche , motor skills and points of view. The sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu describes body socialization in his habitus theory . Bourdieu writes of a "silent pedagogy" about which socialization takes place in secret. He describes how "via silent, gestural and physical processes (...) implicit attitudes, values, cosmologies are not explicitly made the subject of learning or socialization processes, but are implicitly transferred" .

With this “more or less silent and implicit physical pedagogy” it is possible, according to Bourdieu, to “teach a complete cosmology, ethics, metaphysics and politics (...)” by socializing the body and its interactions . He assumes that bodies are formed through interaction. The "loaf (...) is a kind of reminder"

The body thus plays a fundamental role in Bourdieu's concept of structure mediation (his habitus theory), since "In Bourdieu's sociology (...) the physical dimension of socialization processes (...) [is] the focus."

Social inequality reproduced through body socialization

Both contributions to current gender theory and Pierre Bourdieu's habitus theory explicitly address the reproduction of social inequality through body socialization. Pierre Bourdieu describes social class-specific body concepts; the gender debate deals with the extent to which bodies are socialized in a gender or gender -specific manner.

Reproduction of (social) class-specific body concepts

Pierre Bourdieu assumes that social structuring structures are absorbed through the body and thus manifested. According to Bourdieu, social structures and explicitly social inequality are passed on through the socialization of the body .

Uwe H. Bittlingmayer writes that Bourdieu "On the basis of data from the sixties and seventies (...) [could] show that the mastered class favors a body concept related to strength" , Bittlingmayer further states that " Bourdieu's inequality-oriented body sociology, which assumes a strong domination-theoretic as well as probabilistic connection between the position of a social actor and his body concepts ”assumes that inequality is not only expressed in different body concepts, but is also reproduced through them.

According to the sociologist Paula-Irene Villa , “(...) the physical level of our socio-structural localization, for example in inequalities such as class and gender, is essential for us to develop a“ social sense ”(Pierre Bourdieu), a kind of intuitive feeling for ours social position in the social fabric. "

Other sociologists also emphasize the role of certain body concepts in the transmission of socialization patterns. For example, [Thomas Alkemeyer | Alkemeyer] writes about disciplining and reproducing body images in the Third Reich: "Body images and metaphors tie sensuality and emotionality into political processes and are suitable for activating unconscious meaning" . According to him, "the cult of the athletically trained male body" was honored in the Nazi regime in order to " evoke moods and longings" in the sense of the regime .

Social structures (patterns of thought, perception and action) are thus both manifested through the human body and its metaphors and reproduced through the interaction of socialized bodies.

Gender and gender specific body socialization

In the gender debate, gender-specific body socialization plays an important role because, as sports scientist Jürgen Baur states, “gender is one of the first and undoubtedly one of the fundamental biosocial differentiation categories” and “life courses and body careers are also interpreted in a gender-typical way” . So there is a gender-specific body socialization.

According to the sociologist Regine Gildemeister , the perception and interaction of bodies is fundamental for the transmission of (gender) structures . These writes Gildemeister that "In everyday life, (...) [the] Identification of the other as" female "or" male "not on physiology, hormones and / or chromosomes recourse but to Presentation Services and interpretations of these representations in interaction" is based (see also doing gender ).

This thesis of the role of body interaction in socialization is also supported by Bourdieu, who, as the sociologist Uwe H. Bittlingmayer states, assumes that the body “is not simply there in the sense of an unproblematic existence, a physical body in the space-time structure, but physical expression, physical form, posture, dimensions etc. are ” .

Criticism of Bourdieu's concept of body socialization

Pierre Bourdieu's concept of body socialization and the transmission of social structures in his habitus theory are criticized. The philosopher and sociologist Stephen Turner states that body socialization in the sense of Bourdieu does not answer important questions for socialization research.

He asks “How do presuppositions or practice get implanted, if this is the right methaphor- how do they get wherever they go in a person, and where do they go? (...) and in what Form are the sent? ” (Translation: “ How are patterns and practices accepted, if that is the right metaphor, how do they get into a person, wherever that may be, and where do they go there? (...) and in what form are they transmitted? " )

Turner also assumes logical inconsistency, as he is of the opinion that the hidden transmission ("silent pedagogy") of first names and patterns described by Bourdieu is not possible without translating them into overt behavior. According to Turner, this interaction must take place beyond being hidden, since the transmission of patterns is based on mutual perception.

Neurobiological aspects of body socialization

According to Robert Schmidt, the discussion about body socialization is receiving new impulses from current findings from neurobiology . He argues that the considerations put forward by Bourdieu on unconscious socialization through body interaction, i.e. unconscious interaction, are underpinned by current research results on mirror neurons .

See also

literature

  • Stach, A. (2013). Practicing a critical look at the female body - the program Germany's next Top Model and its importance for the body socialization of young women and men. In body • gender • affect (pp. 117-135). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  • Nestvogel, R. (2000). Female body socialization from an intercultural perspective. Schuhmacher-Chilla, Doris (Ed.), 34-64.
  • Preuss-Lausitz, U. (1998). Body socialization and modernization: friendship and cooperation between boys and girls. In between dramatization and individualization (pp. 109-123). VS publishing house for social sciences.
  • Rudlof, M. (1997). The production of masculinity: On the emotional and physical socialization of the boy in modern times. Ethnologica, 22, 53-60.
  • Preuss-Lausitz, U. (1987). Body and politics. On the historical change in body socialization in the 20th century. german youth, H, 7-8.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Gugutzer: body cult and beauty mania - against the spirit of the times. In the Federal Center for Political Education (Ed.): From Politics and Contemporary History . 18/2007, p. 4 ( online ).
  2. ^ Thomas Alkemeyer: Movement as a cultural technique. In Gerold Becker, Anne Frommann, Hermann Giesecke et al. (Eds.): New collection. Volume 43, Issue 3, p. 349.
  3. ↑ a b c Uwe H. Bittlingmayer: Unequally socialized bodies: Social determinants of the physicality of 10-11 year old children. In: Journal for Socialization Research and Educational Sociology. Volume 28, 2008, issue 2, p. 56.
  4. ^ Thomas Alkemeyer: Movement as a cultural technique. In: Gerold Becker, Anne Frommann, Hermann Giesecke et al. (Ed.): New collection. Volume 43, Issue 3, p. 340.
  5. ↑ a b Marcel Mauss: The techniques of the body. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989. (Ed.): Sociology and Anthropology 2. First published in Journal de Psychologie Normale et Pathologique. Volume 32, Issue 3-4, 1935
  6. ↑ a b Bourdieu: Social sense. Critique of theoretical reason - Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-51828-666-8 , p. 128, published in French 1980.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Robert Schmidt: Mute transmission. On the praxeology of socialization mediation processes. In: Journal for Political and European Sciences. Volume 28, 2008 issue 2, p. 123ff.
  8. ↑ Pierre Bourdieu: The subtle differences. Critique of Social Judgment. Frankfurt am Main / New York 1997, p. 739.
  9. ^ Paula-Irene Villa: The body as a cultural staging and status symbol. In: Federal Center for Political Education (Ed.): From Politics and Contemporary History. 18/2007, p. 23 ( online )
  10. ↑ a b c Thomas Aklemeyer: Upright and flexible: a political history of the body cult. In: Federal Center for Political Education (Ed.): From Politics and Contemporary History. 18/2007, p. 9ff. ( online )
  11. ↑ Jürgen Baur: About the gender-typical socialization of the body. In: Journal for Socialization Research and Educational Sociology. Volume 8, 1988, p. 152ff.
  12. ^ Regine Gildemeister: Social construction of gender. ( online ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note .; PDF; 86 kB). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.telse.kiel-ist-meine-jacke.de
  13. ^ A b Stephen Turner: The Social Theory of Practices: Tacit Knowledge and Presuppositions. Polity Press, Oxford 1994, b: p. 44.