Bourdieu and the psychosocial / Open lecture 2: Will Atkinson

Outline of a theory of ‘work-life balance’: developing field theory to accommodate critical moments and radical ruptures at the intersection of class, family and work

As part of a three-day Bourdieu workshop, this lecture presents a new theoretical model of the ‘family-employment-leisure’ nexus, moving beyond the common idea of ‘work-life balance’.

Drawing on comparative research in the US, Germany, and Sweden, it critiques existing frameworks, engages with Bourdieu’s sociology, and introduces new concepts to explain how desires, dispositions, and situations are shaped across multiple social fields.