Exploring the value of Bourdieu's framework in the context of institutional change

This article examines the usefulness of the theoretical framework of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in relation to institutional change through data gathered in some initial interviews at Emerston University, a previously white, English‐medium, South African institution. This exploration is based on Bourdieu's concept of a social space as a field, and analyses the different forms of power for which agents are competing, taking into account their social trajectory and disposition through the notion of habitus. The context for this study is a foundation programme at Emerston, an academic development initiative that has a complex social history, one that is intertwined with the agendas of industry and influences from the political realm. Bourdieu's theoretical tools appear to be effective in revealing the dynamics of the social space of higher education, and providing a socio‐historical contextualisation of the struggles working to conserve or transform the structure of the field.