Abstract:
Fortement influencé par les théories sociologiques de Pierre Bourdieu, le jeune auteur,
Olivier Adam a consacré une grande part de son oeuvre à dépeindre la société actuelle française qui
souffre des plaies telles que l’écart de classes, le désespoir envers le futur, le conflit du centre et de la marge, une mobilité sociale de plus en plus difficile à concrétiser et la continuité du phénomène de la reproduction sociale.
Ce travail a pour objectif d’analyser, par le biais de la sociologie de Pierre Bourdieu, la manière dont
le romancier traite les éléments tels que les stratégies adoptées par les agents sociaux ayant des positions
variées dans la hiérarchie sociale, la relation entre le lieu de vie, le statut social des parents, le rôle
prépondérant de l’école sélective, l’attitude doxique des couches inférieures à l’égard des classes
dominantes et la serviabilité de l’Etat envers ces dernières qui contribuent à la durabilité de ce cycle.
Cet écrit se veut également une lumière projetée sur l’image qu’a peinte l’écrivain socialiste des
conséquences de ce phénomène social qui ne sont que l’échec de la mobilité sociale et la non-réalisation de la méritocratie, tant promises par les gouvernements.
— الیویه ادام نویسنده جوان فرانسوی که به وضوح تحت تاثیر نظریات جامعه شناختی پییر بوردیو است، بخش چشمگیری از اثار خود را به ترسیم
جامعه کنونی فرانسه اختصاص داده است ک ه ا ز زخمهایی چو ن شکا ف میان طبقات گوناگو ن اجتماع، ناامیدی به اینده، تعارضات میان قشر حاکم و به حاشیه راند هشدگان، دو ر از دستر س بودن روزافزون تحق ق ارزوی تحرک اجتماعی و نی ز استمرار ناخوشایند پدیده بازتولید اجتماعی رنج میبرد. ادام ، به واسطه شخصیتهای پرشماری که خلق کرده، گرو ههای مختلف جامعه را به تصویر کشیده و نیم نگاهی به رو شهایی انداخته است که برخی از انها برای حفظ یا افزایش هر یک از سرمایه های چهارگانه خود، اعم از سرمایه نمادین، مالی، علمی و اجتماعی ، به کار میگیرند. مهمترین و رایجترین این تدابیر در روزگار معاصر سرمایهگ ذاری تحصیلی است که نویسنده ب ه تفصیل در رما نهای خود بدا ن پرداخته است . اثاری از ادام همچون کناره ها، صخره ها، در پناه هیچ ، رنج بی حاصل، یک دست بدمینتون و بادهای مخالف که در این نوشتار مورد مطالعه قرار گرفتهاند، تصویری از رویکرد منفعلانه اقشار تحت سلطه ، شیوه های به کارگرفته شده توسط طب قه حاکم، و نیز تابعیت محض حاکمیت ا ز این طبقه ، در عد م تحقق ارزوی دور تحرک اجتماعی و برابری فرصتها که دولتها وعده ان را ب هکرات در طی دهه های اخیر داده اند، را پیش روی خواننده قرار میدهند .
Olivier Adam, the young French author has been clearly influenced by
sociological theories of Pierre Bourdieu who has done numerous researches on social hierarchy, social
distance between different classes, role of school in forming a noble elite, and the obstacles against
social mobility. Oliver Adam has devoted a great part of his works to representation of the actual French
society who suffers from social gap, disappointment for the future, conflict between those in power and
marginalized people, destroyed families, generation gap, racism and xenophobia, increasing futility of
wishing for social mobility, the persistence of the actual established order and the unpleasant repetition
of the phenomenon of social reproduction.
By creating so many characters, describing so many public spaces and narrating private and
professional lives of a large number of fictive personalities, Adam has pictured different social groups
to briefly investigate the methods used by these people to maintain their four types of capital: symbolic,
financial, cultural and social.
Among strategies such as biologic investment, social investment, symbolic investment, economic
investment and cultural investment, it is the last one which is the most popular among a large variety of
social fractions to achieve their goals.
The author cites the examples for some of these strategies. As an instance of biologic investment, he
mentions a grandmother who has given birth to seven children herself but advises her son to be moderate
in having children. Caroline or other children from rich families do not have many siblings while Xing,
a Chinese immigrant girl, lives in a large family. The prophylactic strategies are adopted, mostly by
opulent people, in order to live healthy and long lives. That is why Paul’s father, a member of working
class in A Game of Badminton, dies immediately after his retirement, having no chance to enjoy it. As
an instance of symbolic investment which includes creating social links and relations, Paul’s brother
participates in any demonstration which is organized for any reason every now and then, possibly in an
attempt to make a pleasant appearance on behalf of his family and to find new friends sharing the same
ideas in order to form a network of people who may support his ambitions someday. As an instance of
inheritance strategies, it is in Headwinds that the writer mentions the case of Alex who inherits his
father's driving school, unlike Paul who prefers to quit the region and devote his life to writing.
The study of the phenomenon of “social
reproduction” through the sociology of Pierre
Bourdieu on Olivier Adam's works*
Ali ABBASSI**/Mahdi DEHGHANI***
Abbassi A; Dehghani M— Extended abstract: T he s tu dy o f the p henomen on of “s oc ial rep rod ucti on” t hr oug h t he s ociol og y … | 3
Meanwhile, heritage becomes a controversial issue between the two brothers in The Edges. Paul, as a socialist is against the direct transmission of parents' properties to their descendants, believing that it stabilizes the social reproduction, whereas the elder brother finds it totally normal for the children to take possession of what is left behind after parents pass away. This is the way in which the author clarifies his position about the disastrous contribution of transmitted wealth to the next generation.
The relationships among parameters such as place of living, parents' social and professional rank, and educational status of an individual which can highly influence his professional and, consequently, social destiny, play significant roles in the novelist's analyses of his society. Having chosen a suburb of French capital as the study area, Adam tries to expose the local hierarchy and show the evident influences of familial situation on the educational condition of children born in these different atmospheres and, accordingly, their destiny.
The arbitrary character of the system of education results in evaluation and selection based on familial conditions and social class rather that the learning progress and results. That is the reason why this sociologist believes, as the novelist shows, the educational institution is the school of the dominant rather than an organization whose purpose is to accelerate social mobility and promote equal opportunities.
The writer has reflected on the passive attitude of the dominated groups in his stories – theorized by Bourdieu by the term “doxa” – helping the continuity of the domination of the upper class. In addition, by characterizing the principal character of several books, the novelist questions the myth of progress based on merit. In fact, one of the commitments of the capitalism is actualizing the possibility of success according to diligence, intelligence and merits. Though, as the writer emphasizes in his different novels, today’s world has nothing in common with such a promised utopia.
Moreover, the methods used by the dominant group, and also the absolute conformity of the government with this group, have played considerable roles in preventing the materialization of dreams such as social mobility or equal opportunities, despite being frequently promised by the governments during last decades.
By enumerating the destinies of some of Paul’s friends who could not even leave the region to make a better life and change the conditions in which they were born and lived, in The Edges, the narrator shows the depth of fatal consequences of social reproduction and illusory hopes for social mobility. The graph which Pierre Bourdieu has included in his Practical Reasons has been modified here by the names of the children who succeeded to go out of their suburb to find a better life, and the ones who remained there due to lack of opportunities, which proves the profound gap between hopes and reality.
Incapable of realizing the targets for which the authorities have aimed during so many years, the only thing that governments can do is resorting to modification of the value of the diplomas to make the unemployed educated study more and postpone the future.
Adam's works, such as The Edges, Cliffs, Sheltered by Nothing, Wasted Sorrow, A Game of Badminton and Headwinds which are studied in this article, shed light on the interactions between different layers of the society and the function of an educational system with a biased look towards various groups of the society. It also reveals the complicity of this organization with the government to strengthen the privileged group and to facilitate the continuity of the phenomenon of social reproduction.
Machine summary:
Ce travail a pour objectif d'analyser, par le biais de la sociologie de Pierre Bourdieu, la manière dont le romancier traite les éléments tels que les stratégies adoptées par les agents sociaux ayant des positions variées dans la hiérarchie sociale, la relation entre le lieu de vie, le statut social des parents, le rôle prépondérant de l'école sélective, l'attitude doxique des couches inférieures à l'égard des classes dominantes et la serviabilité de l'Etat envers ces dernières qui contribuent à la durabilité de ce cycle.
INTRODUCTION LES romans d'Adam comme Les Lisières, Falaises, À l'abri de rien, Peine perdue, Une partie de badminton et Des vents contraires qui sont étudiés dans cet écrit, constituent le tableau qu'a peint l'auteur banlieusard de l'interaction des différentes fractions de la société, les mécanismes utilisés par les agents sociaux pour maintenir ou améliorer leur position, le fonctionnement d'un système d'enseignement arbitraire, la soumission des classes dominées vis-à-vis de ceux qui possèdent abondamment les capitaux et la collaboration de ces derniers avec l'État pour renforcer, comme attestent d'immenses recherches de Pierre Bourdieu, la domination des classes supérieures et faire perdurer la reproduction sociale.
Il présente cette zone urbaine comme l'extrême inférieure des couches sociales en bordure de la grande ville et raconte comment le sort de ceux qui sont nés dans cette extrémité est, avant même leur naissance, déterminé par l'ordre imposé aux catégories dominées et par le système scolaire qui a pour vocation de maintenir cette structure discriminatoire : « Fabrice avait été le seul à pousser jusqu'au lycée.