Falling in and out of love: With and beyond Bourdieu on individual enchantment and disenchantment

Abstract

This paper engages with the theme of individual disenchantment, that is, the process of falling out of love with something that once gave pleasure and purpose. Drawing on the conceptual tools of Pierre Bourdieu, it sketches the process by which individuals become ‘enchanted’ with the stakes of different fields, the phenomenology of enchantment and disenchantment and several ideal typical modes of genesis of disenchantment. Attention is given to intra-field dynamics but also, going beyond Bourdieu, inter-field dynamics too. The final section considers the epistemological consequences of constructing trans-field objects of inquiry.