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Introduction
This study provides new possibilities for research using Bernard Lahire’s theoretical-methodological approach to sociological portraits. This includes the important analytical dimension of the place of origin in their formation. The objective is to develop a theoretical-methodological framework that can provide a better understanding of why students from lower-income backgrounds tend to persist in higher education courses in management. This framework will take into account various dimensions involved in their trajectories, such as family, work, education, leisure, sociability, and place of origin.
Understand the formation of individual dispositions and their contexts, influences, and transferability in diverse practices, Lahire proposed the use of sociological portraits. These portraits are theoretical-methodological devices that analyze different instances of a person’s life (family, school, work, friends, health, sports, leisure, and cultural activities). Through this approach, Lahire analyzed dispositional variations within a group (interindividual) and individuals themselves (intraindividual) (Boaes; Oliveira; Assis, 2019; Lopes, 2012).
The study emphasizes the potential of sociological portraits to shed light on the symbolic, cultural, and institutional difficulties that impact persistence in higher education. In particular, the relevance of including the place of origin (periphery, city center, urban, rural) in the portraits is highlighted. This is especially important as students from lower-income backgrounds often face challenges related to low school longevity. Additionally, the dilemmas of persistence in higher education are more strongly felt by residents in cities outside the center or in rural areas. Therefore, including the place of origin in the portraits can help in analyzing school trajectories and their influence on movements (Barbosa, 2015; Lima Junior; Massi, 2015; Silva, 2017; Ariño; Dalvan, 2018).
Regarding the concept of place, it is a subjective-objective dimension that is uniquely appropriated by each individual in relation to a particular location (such as a neighborhood or street). It is objective because it considers the material structures of the location, while it is also subjective because it encompasses symbolic meanings, lived experiences, and individual actions. Therefore, place refers to both a symbolic and material relationship with a portion of space (Carlos, 2007; Queiroz, 2015), which, according to Milton Santos (1988, p. 25), arises from human action on space, mediated by both natural and artificial objects.
Despite public and private investments aimed at democratizing access to higher education in Brazil, persistence remains a significant obstacle. While there has been progress in admitting students from different social backgrounds, the history of economic, cultural, and educational inequalities has created competition for places in courses, which tends to favor individuals who are better positioned in terms of finances, family background, and education (Bertero, 2006; Fontele; Crisóstomo, 2016).
Despite accessible admission conditions and public policies aimed at increasing access to higher education in Brazil, dropout rates in management courses remain a challenge (Cunha et al., 2015), even though the course holds national relevance in terms of enrollment and types of training (Bertero, 2006; Souza; Gonçalves; Souza, 2017). One of the main reasons for dropout is the need to continue working, as work is crucial for supporting the student’s ongoing education. Discouragement resulting from the mismatch between expectations about university life and the reality of Brazilian higher education can also contribute to dropout rates (Cunha et al., 2015).
Costa, Bispo, and Pereira (2018) conducted empirical research on the factors influencing dropout rates and retention of students in management undergraduate programs. The study followed 1202 first-year students at a Brazilian Federal University from 2004 to 2009 and continued until 2013. Survival analysis was used to analyze the data. The study found that the number of semesters, student grades, gender, and the existence of failure or dropouts per course were significant factors affecting program completion time and the risk of dropping out. However, variables such as age, marital status, race, and high school background did not have an impact on graduation time and dropout rates.
In the research conducted by Sousa and Moreira (2017), public policies were found to be crucial for low-income Brazilian students to continue studying management. These students use strategies to ensure the continuity of their education, such as choosing courses that qualify them for entry into the job market, prioritizing quality training, and choosing institutions that are geographically accessible in terms of available transportation. Above all, low-income students tend to reflect and plan their entry into higher education in advance, considering financial, family, and emotional factors (Sousa; Moreira, 2017).
The research gap in investigating diverse social groups in management undergraduate courses is a theoretical-empirical concern, particularly regarding the structural and social conditions that affect academic trajectories and contribute to retention in higher education. It is crucial to understand the factors that drive young people from popular or socially vulnerable backgrounds to pursue higher education despite the unfavorable conditions that often impede their progress (Felicetti, 2014; Darwich; Garcia, 2019; Mendes, 2020).
The dispositional heritage of individuals in Bernard Lahire
The concept of habitus is central to Lahire’s ideas on dispositional heritage, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s work on this concept. Habitus refers to the symbolic schemes that shape individuals’ practices and experiences, re-enacting past experiences in the present. It is a subjective matrix that develops through the actions of individuals, often in non-conscious or unintentional ways (Bourdieu, 1975, 1996). However, Lahire criticizes Bourdieu’s homogenizing conception of habitus, arguing that it is too systematic and unifying. Lahire suggests that the Bourdiesian conception of habitus is better suited to fairly homogeneous societies with stable and coherent socialization systems (Lahire, 2002, 2015, 2019). For Lahire (2004, p. 318)
The argument I develop in L’Homm pluriel is that if we define habitus as a homogeneous system of general, permanent dispositions, transferable systems from one situation to another, from one domain of practices to another, then fewer and fewer agents in our societies will be definable from such a concept. This type of definition is more suitable for societies that are quite homogeneous, demographically fragile, with relatively small geographic extension, which offers fairly stable and coherent socialization schemes for their members. (our translation).
It can be said Lahire shifts his analytical lens regarding the individual in comparison to Bourdieu: he migrates to look at dispositional assets and no longer at habitus. This does not mean that Lahire ignores the Bourdiesian approach to understanding social reality, but he argues that the microsociological lens allows us to understand the singularities deposited (incorporated, internalized) of the social in individuals (Lahire, 2002). The idea of habitus, for Lahire (2004), restricts the hypothesis of the existence of local dispositions or those linked to specific objects or domains.
Furthermore, for Lahire (2017), macro and microsociological approaches are not exclusive, but denote particular levels of understanding, allowing articulations and combinations suitable for each researcher. Above all, for Lahire, starting from the concept of habitus means moving towards an ideal-typical notion of a subject inserted in an internally coherent social class. Therefore, the adoption of dispositional assets refers to the non-presupposition and identification of a generating and coherent principle that identifies and characterizes spheres of socialization (Lahire, 1997, 2017).
According to Lahire, dispositions have a genesis, are observable in behaviors, attitudes, and practices, are incorporated products of past socialization, and are “a way of seeing, feeling, or acting that flexibly adjusts to different situations,” but they can be inhibited or transformed if they do not adjust or adapt to a situation. Unlike competencies or capacities and appetence (passion), dispositions refer to situations in which there is a tendency, inclination, or propensity (Lahire, 2017).
Lahire sheds light on individuals’ dispositional patrimonies, which give meaning to actors’ practices and feelings, activated as a result of different properties present in the context. Furthermore, as a plural actor (Lahire, 2005), the individual is characterized by an incorporated past - an inheritance inherited from Bourdieu - in their actions in the present, loaded with the “heritage” of dispositional patrimony (Machado, 2019).
The microsociological approach proposed by Lahire focuses on analyzing dispositional variations within and between individuals, which helps to understand different inclinations in specific situations. Lahire emphasizes that the transferability of dispositions can only be activated in specific conditions, where there are similarities between the activation context and where the dispositions were originally incorporated. In contrast, Bourdieu considers the transferability of dispositions to be analogical, from one context to another, something transcontextual (Bourdieu, 1996; Lahire, 2005). As a counterpoint to Bourdieu, we can highlight this passage from Lahire (2002, p. 31-32)
[…] what we experience with our parents, at school, in college, with friends, with coworkers, with members of the same political, religious, or cultural association, is not necessarily accumulable and synthesizable in a simple manner [...] it can be thought - and empirically observed - that all these experiences are not systematically coherent, homogeneous, or entirely compatible, and yet, we are their carriers. (our translation).
By studying intra-individual and inter-individual variations in dispositions, Lahire’s approach aims to highlight the complexity and diversity of individuals and groups. This approach recognizes that individuals’ dispositions are not fixed and unchanging, but rather flexible and adaptable to different situations. Moreover, Lahire’s approach emphasizes the importance of context in the activation and transferability of dispositions, acknowledging that different contexts can activate different dispositions in the same individual (Lahire, 2005, 2017, 2019).
Overall, Lahire’s microsociological approach offers a more nuanced and dynamic understanding of dispositions and their role in shaping individuals’ behaviors and experiences, taking into account both intra- and inter-individual variations and the importance of context in their activation and transferability.
Bernard Lahire and the sociological portraits
The use of biographies as a methodological tool aims to understand the relationship between the individual and society. Junqueira (2019) suggests that biographies help to uncover how an individual expresses the influence of society in their lives, and how their life trajectory is shaped by external social forces. Similarly, Lahire (2017) argues that sociological biographies allow for the reconstruction of an individual’s socialization experiences and the effects of these experiences on their dispositions. Contrary to the idea that sociological biographies isolate the individual, Lahire (2017) posits that they are precise tools for observing the social relations between individuals and groups. Through the meticulous reconstruction of an individual’s social connections and experiences, sociological biographies can provide insight into the social structures and the internal marks left by individuals (Lahire, 1997).
Lahire’s (2004) theoretical-methodological tool, the sociological portrait, is used to reconstruct an individual’s dispositional heritage. This device is significant for two reasons. First Lahire aims to counteract macro-sociological analyses that present greater simplifications and abstractions about subjects situated in large groups of analysis, by adopting a micro-sociological perspective that emphasizes the socialization of the individual. Second, the sociological portrait establishes a sociological approach to individuality, which is important for understanding the connection between dominant cultures and classes at the individual level (Lahire, 1997; Lima Junior; Massi, 2015).
Sociological portraits are based on a theory of practices that considers the contextual and plural genesis of dispositions. In this sense, portraits enhance individual reflexivity and emphasize the plurality of practices at the individual level. Portraits aim to represent how dispositions are formed and are present in the different social roles that people occupy. Dispositions are products of past and present socializations that can be activated or inhibited in the same or different contexts of practice, reflecting the regularity and intensity with which they occur and are incorporated by individuals (Lahire, 1997, 2005; Boaes; Oliveira; Assis, 2019; Junqueira, 2019).
As a biographical tool, sociological portraits are characteristic of Sociology itself in explaining what people do, say, and think, and why they do so (Junqueira, 2019). Thus, portraits reconstruct experiences to understand them, enabling the problematization of the course of life and not just the explanation of social positions occupied by individuals in certain spaces. Lahire is particularly interested in the intensity of each experience in an individual’s socialization, as well as those that have marked their trajectory the most and those that have had the highest number of repetitions. According to Lahire, the social is impregnated in the lived experience that is incorporated by individuals (Junqueira, 2019).
Sociological portraits are constructed through semi-directed biographical interviews that may include varied and non-sequential contents (Lopes, 2012). These interviews should take place at different moments during the study and should not follow a specific thematic sequence. The pauses between the researcher’s encounters with the participant highlight the necessary moments of reflexivity for the interviewee about their own biography. Moreover, spacing allows the participant to move beyond a preconceived narrative about themselves, in order to avoid the construction of a heroic or successful story. The researcher, on the other hand, must be able to deepen their questioning and get to the heart of the social rooted in biographies (Lahire, 2002, 2004).
Lima Junior and Massi (2015, p. 572) argue that sociological portraits do not claim to know everything about a subject but rather “objectify subjectivity, identifying the marks of the social in the individual, establishing a bridge between macro-sociological and micro-sociological contexts.” Lahire aims to establish a relationship between the micro, macro, individual, and social through portraits, highlighting dispositional contradictions and variations in such a way that illuminates the heterogeneity of dispositional heritage (Lima Junior; Massi, 2015).
According to Junqueira (2019), in the dispositionalist current, the subject is not separate from the environment in which they interact or from the conditions that circumscribe their interactions. Society and social relations are intertwined in processes of socialization. Therefore, the subject is observed within their networks of social relations and the scope of their socialization. Biography and social history are mutually conditioned, and one can only understand an individual by situating them within the specific period of society in which they live. Conversely, a society is understood through the experiences and interactions of its individuals.
Moving on to the next point, we would like to present a proposal for a research instrument that enables a more in-depth understanding of the factors that contribute to the persistence of young people from low-income backgrounds in undergraduate management programs, taking into account the various dimensions involved in their trajectories. To achieve this goal, we propose to adapt the structure of sociological portraits to incorporate the dimension of place in the analysis.
We believe that studying the impact of place on the educational trajectories of students from low-income backgrounds is crucial to understanding their experiences and challenges. By incorporating the dimension of place into sociological portraits, we can examine how the social, economic, and cultural aspects of their environment affect their dispositions and practices. This, in turn, can help us understand how students negotiate their place within the educational system and how they navigate the barriers that they face.
To operationalize this proposal, we suggest conducting semi-directed biographical interviews with students from low-income backgrounds in management undergraduate programs. These interviews should take place at different stages of their educational trajectories, and the questions should explore how their experiences in different places have shaped their dispositions, practices, and aspirations. Additionally, we propose conducting a spatial analysis of the students’ trajectories, which involves mapping the places where they have lived, studied, and worked, and analyzing how these places have influenced their educational experiences.
Overall, we believe that incorporating the dimension of place into sociological portraits can provide a comprehensive understanding of the educational trajectories of students from low-income backgrounds in management programs. This research instrument can contribute to the development of policies and interventions that address the challenges faced by these students and promote their academic success.
The place of origin: adopted concept and characteristics
In this study, the concept of place encompasses various dimensions such as everyday life, lived experience, symbolic or cultural aspects, materiality, and immateriality. The place is shaped by people’s daily lives and their hierarchical relationships and dialogues with the external environment and the actions of the state, as well as internal horizontalities such as neighborhood relations (Carlos, 2007; Queiroz, 2015). The appropriation of space, both symbolic and material, is intertwined with external reality and is influenced by political and economic practices that operate on larger scales. This makes the terrain where social practices are lived and where everyday life is situated, the practiced space (Santos, 1988; Ferreira, 2000; Callai, 2004; Carlos, 2007; Suess; Ribeiro, 2017).
According to Carlos (2007), there is a global aspect to the local, which preserves particularities while redefining content. It is through the lens of place that one can observe ways of living, inhabiting, using, and consuming, as well as processes of space appropriation and culture, including traditions, codes, habits, and language, that are grasped by memory, bodies, and senses (Callai, 2004; Carlos, 2007).
The concept of place encompasses both the internal and external aspects of a space (Santos, 1988). The historical redefinition by external observers and the redefinition of meaning by natives point to the interrelationships between the internal and external factors that shape a sense of place (Carlos, 2007). Places, whether a neighborhood, square, or street, are symbols of an individual’s belonging to a space. As people walk through a city, they identify with their neighborhood, carrying their own subjectivities, feelings, experiences, identities, and meanings. Each person has their own way of appropriating a place, and it is a multiple construction for groups and individuals. The physical, social, and symbolic borders of a place also play a role in shaping an individual’s socialization. Places influence how people see, act, and relate to others, and impact their trajectories and social practices. The relationship between individuals and a place is complex and multifaceted. Moreover, the social peculiarities of peripheral places can create barriers that limit the flow between the internal and external and reinforce the natives’ social conditions (Callai, 2004; Carlos, 2007; Suess; Ribeiro, 2017).
In this context, there are diverse ways in which people develop bonds with a particular place. Affectivity, experiences, social relationships, a sense of collectivity, and the formation of territorial identity are some common types of connections with the place. These connections help to organize daily life and contribute to shaping social interactions, as well as individual choices and perspectives about themselves and others.
In Magnani’s view (2005), many studies that relate youth and the city tend to consider the latter as an undifferentiated scenario of flows and fragments. On the other hand, the author argues that space is not limited to a local inscription but to multiple appropriations by young people in the city (street, neighborhood, region, etc.). “A city is a place of resistance, for Magnani when groups appropriate spaces, create new forms of sociability in ‘non-places,’ modify the ‘architecture of the place,’ an attempt to resemantize the city through the production of spaces loaded with meanings [...]” (Pimentel, 2012, p. 38).
The concept of “youth circuits” proposed by Magnani (2005) sheds light on the mobility of young people in urban spaces. The author analyzes various aspects such as their movements, relationships, behaviors, institutions, and urban equipment, focusing on sociability, permanence, and regularity. By doing so, he aims to establish a connection between social actors and the places where they interact, considering their particularities such as belonging, values, symbols, and choices. In this context, the place is not viewed as a mere backdrop but rather as a product of the social practices of its agents, which also influence their practices, thus constituting a visible guarantee of their insertion in space (Magnani, 2005, p. 17).
According to Pimentel’s (2012) analysis, individuals construct their life paths through daily practices that enable them to resignify imposed structures, produce new knowledge, and share different logic. In peripheral spaces, such as neighborhoods, everyday practices acquire new meanings. The streets in these neighborhoods reflect particular ways of life in the city, progressively defining the places that individuals construct, appropriate, and re-appropriate according to their uses and the meanings they attribute.
Sociological portraits: proposal for the structure of the research script
In the context of sociological portraits, they are constructed through a series of biographical interviews aimed at understanding how individual dispositions are incorporated into different social roles within spaces of practice. These portraits serve as a social exercise, presenting the individual’s interactions with different social contexts, actors, and their experiences. Therefore, they represent a social analysis of the individual’s dispositions and their variations, acquisitions, activations, or inhibitions in the contexts they have experienced (Silva, 2018).
To understand the persistence of students from popular backgrounds in higher education, an interview guide is proposed that integrates the dimensions of sociological portrait investigation (family, school, work, friends, leisure and cultural activities, etc.), with questions oriented towards the analysis of the place of origin of these young people. This guide is inspired by the works of Ferreira (2020), Silva (2018), Gomes et al. (2014), Reis (2014), and Ruskowski (2012), which focused on different publics and did not address the dimension of place in their analyses, making this guide unique in the context of dispositionalist studies.
To reinforce the theoretical and scientific relevance of this study in the field of dispositionalist theories, we were concerned with highlighting the need to consolidate a data collection instrument for research that uses dispositional heritage as analytical lenses. To this end, it is exemplified by some Brazilian research - mostly doctoral theses -limited to the theme or investigating related contexts, seeking to understand the structure of the scripts used by the authors. Thus, Table 1 summarizes the data found.
Table 1 Examples of Brazilian research that uses Bernard Lahire’s dispositional theory in the thematic context investigated
| Year of publication | Nature of work | Authorship | Authorship | Interview script dimensions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Doctoral thesis | Luciana Massi | Student-institution relationship: the case of the undergraduate degree at the Institute of Chemistry at UNESP/ Araraquara | It analyzes aspects related to the history of the Institute, institutional issues, and the relationship of the subjects investigated with the Institute, considering perceptions about elements of its work |
| 2013 | Doctoral thesis | Frederico Assis Cardoso | What did they do (and what did we do) to us? Case study of the school trajectories of students in the basic literacy cycle (CBA) in Minas Gerais | It prepares an instrument with twelve questions covering school memories, school monitoring, memories regarding the school curriculum, perception about school trajectory, influences on school trajectory, and social position of the family (social class). It complements the interview script with a quantitative questionnaire (objective questions) regarding sociodemographic data, household data, fertility, education (of the subject, father, and mother), family data, cultural, and leisure data. |
| 2014 | Doctoral thesis | Carmen Lucia Tozzi Mendonça Conti | Educational trajectories of postgraduate students at UNIFRAN in distance learning | It does not present the interview script applied, it only indicates the study from which the structure and dimensions investigated in the instrument were extracted (Muzzeti, 1997). |
| 2017 | Doctoral thesis | Francini Scheid Martins | Institutional and intellectual affiliation of quota students in high-demand and socially selective courses at the Federal University of Santa Catarina | It analyzes four dimensions: 1) meanings and their relation to the undergraduate course; 2) institutional affiliation (relationships and coexistence, discrimination, financial maintenance, obtaining resources and information from the university; 3) intellectual affiliation (academic demands and participation in activities, study-work balance, perception of performance; 4) future (expectations, insertion in the world of work, career development). |
| 2019 | Masters dissertation | Ricardo Gaumann Pfitscher | Dispositions and strategies in the transitions of traditional course students at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul | It analyzes six contexts: 1) childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (life trajectory); 2) family (affective, reflective, and material relationships); 3) school (relationships with the institution, teachers, colleagues, subjects, and school system); 4) social life; 5) university (entrance exam, admission, impressions, adaptation, coping strategies, languages, course emphasis); 6) professional field (training and future perspectives). It carries out a quantitative stage, where it seeks to know about leisure activities, studies and entertainment; family; professional situations; and opinions on institutional programs. |
| 2020 | Doctoral thesis | Patrícia Angélica Ferreira | Sociological portraits of five women: from basic education to master’s degree | It analyzes demographic issues (age, housing status, education, marital status, type of housing, family income), family, educational and professional issues. |
| 2020 | Scientific article | Célia Elizabete Caragnato, Ricardo Gausmann Pfitscher, Soares | Student transitions to and in higher education: a theoretical-methodological proposal from dispositional sociology | The study proposes a theoretical-methodological perspective for investigating educational transitions, emphasizing the following dimensions for analysis: 1) changes over time (in student and social trajectories in the short, medium and long terms); 2) contexts (places of educational socialization and extracurricular spaces); 3) contradictions (experiences in critical, uncomfortable moments of precarious insertion or exclusion - submission, conciliation, activation or ruptures); 4) reflexivity (rationalizations, questions and criticisms - reactive, adaptive or transformative strategies in the face of events. |
Source: Developed by the authors (2024).
In view of the presentation of Table 1, despite the studies constructing instruments consistent with the analytical dimensions indicated by Bernard Lahire, it is highlighted the spectrum of dimensions still appears to be wide with regard, fatefully, to the questions and considerations that will help researchers when conducting interviews with the investigated subjects.
According to Cottineau’s (2020) interpretation of Lahire’s work, the concept of “place” encompasses both the domestic space and the geographical location of the residence, revealing the economic and social inequalities inherited by parents and reproduced among their children. Lahire’s research with primary school children and their families conducted in 1997 shows that living conditions are determined by the parents’ - and grandparents’ - capital, which are accessible to the family materially and spatially.
In this work, the concept of place adopted for the construction of sociological portraits contributes to a broader understanding of the layers of the place of residence from Lahire’s perspective. Therefore, when asking questions about place, it is important to consider external forces, such as social, cultural, economic, global, national, and regional, which influence the place of origin, as well as the intersection and mutual influences of the place of origin with other spheres of life, such as professional and educational environments. Additionally, the place is not only a physical location, but also a space that is subjectively appropriated by individuals through their bodies, senses, and modes of use. Table 2 proposes a structure for the construction of sociological portraits of young people from popular backgrounds in order to understand their persistence in management undergraduate courses. The structure should integrate both the objective and subjective aspects of the places of origin of these individuals.
Table 2 Dimensions, categories, and questioning of sociological portraits
| Dimension | Categories | Questioning - semi-structured script |
|---|---|---|
| Social, educational, and labor trajectory | Participant | • Profile information: age, marital status, and any other information the interviewee would like to share. |
| • Tell me about your life story, starting from childhood. | ||
| What is your city of birth and residence? Which places have you lived? How was your childhood? Where were you born, and where did you spend your early childhood? | ||
| Family | • Tell me about your family. | |
| What is your family composition? How is your relationship with your parents and siblings? What is the education level of your parents? What means of subsistence did/does your family have? Do you remember any significant episodes with people? What striking characteristics do you believe your family possesses? | ||
| Education | • How was the education you received? | |
| Did you receive any encouragement, participation, or collaboration from your family to study? How was your study routine? How do/did you perceive your relationship with teachers and classmates? How do you perceive your social and school conditions in the academic environment? | ||
| • What motivated you to study Management? | ||
| What choices and reasons led you to choose the management course? What expectations were created? Did your family influence your decision? What frustrations did you perceive? | ||
| • What motivates you/gives you strength/makes you stay in school? | ||
| What characteristics of the course and the educational institution do you consider fundamental for your stay in the course? What are your strategies to keep studying? How was the process of adaptation to university life? Did you receive any encouragement, participation, or collaboration from your family? What is your relationship with professors and colleagues like? What family and other environmental characteristics do you observe that you carry in your trajectory as a student? | ||
| Work | • Tell me about your professional life. | |
| What have been your work experiences? What led you to work in this place? What is your current and previous professional activity before college or other education? What is your approximate individual income? What were your influences to work in the field? | ||
| • What does work mean to you? | ||
| What do you take into account when deciding to stay or change jobs? What are the motivations and justifications for working? What are your life inspirations for entering the professional world? | ||
| Networks and socialities | • Tell me about your leisure activities. | |
| What leisure activities do you usually engage in? Did your family have any influence on these leisure activities? How did you come to enjoy these activities? | ||
| • Tell me about your friendships. | ||
| What are your friends like? (characteristics, interests, etc.) Where do your friends live? If you could highlight, what traits/expressions/behaviors of your friends did you learn and reproduce in other environments?) | ||
| • Tell me about memorable episodes with friends. | ||
| What memories and/or experiences were/are memorable for you? | ||
| • Tell me about your music and cultural preferences. | ||
| Did your family have any influence on your preferences? What are your favorite activities? (TV, cinema, theater, bars, clubs, gym, etc.) | ||
| Place of origin of the individual | Objective aspects | • Tell me about the place where you live. |
| What are the material aspects that characterize your place of origin (street, neighborhood)? What material references from your place of origin do you bring up when experiencing situations in other places? What is the structure like (basic sanitation, paving, lighting, houses, streets, community leaders, social projects etc.)? | ||
| • How do you see your permanence in this place? | ||
| What factors reinforce your staying or leaving your place of origin? What factors could influence a possible return (in the future) to your place of origin? | ||
| Subjective aspects | • Tell me about factors that symbolize/represent your place of origin. | |
| What symbolic references/memories of your place of origin do you recall when experiencing situations in other places? What childhood, adolescence, and youth memories do you have of the place? What artifacts (social practices/discourses, symbols, meanings) represent your place of origin? | ||
| • Tell me about your relationship with your place of origin. | ||
| What are the relationships with and between neighbors like? What negative and positive aspects are perceived about the place? What is the importance of the place in your academic trajectory? How did your place of origin contribute to the formation of your identity? What aspects of the culture of the place do you highlight? | ||
| Internal-external crossings | • Tell me about how you see your place of origin when you are away from it. | |
| How/What do you present/highlight about your place of origin to people outside of it? When you are in another place, what aspects of your place of origin contribute to your practice? (contribute to the activities you perform or to solving problems, etc.) When you have the opportunity to spend some time in another place, like traveling, what thoughts come to mind when you return? What situations of pride in belonging to the place do you highlight? What situations of shame in belonging to the place do you consider? What situations of embarrassment suffered for belonging to the place do you emphasize? | ||
| • Tell me about how your place of origin influences your behavior. | ||
| What characteristics of your place of origin do you perceive in your behavior in the professional environment? What characteristics of your place of origin do you perceive in your behavior in the educational environment? What characteristics of your place of origin do you perceive in your behavior in the religious environment, if you attend one? What characteristics of your place of origin do you perceive in your behavior in relationships with coworkers, school/university peers, and the religious environment? What behaviors have been/incorporated and reproduced in your place of origin? | ||
| • Tell me about how your place of origin influences your behaviors, situations, and memories in the academic space (educational institution). | ||
| What situations/memories of your place are triggered when learning in the educational environment? What tastes and habits have been incorporated from other places in the educational environment? What tastes and habits acquired in your place of origin have been reproduced in the educational environment? |
Source: Developed by the authors based on Ferreira (2000), Ferreira (2020), Callai (2004), Carlos (1996), Gomes et al. (2014) and Silva (2018).
As the construction of sociological portraits follows a specific structure (Lopes, 2012), it is important to provide clarification on the proposed strategies for data collection and analysis in this research.
Recommendation for data collection and analysis strategy in the research
As per Lopes (2012), the following procedures should be followed:
Develop a semi-directive biographical interview guide that is appropriate for the research objectives and covers the different areas of the interviewees’ lives, as previously presented in the project.
Conduct two to three interview sessions with time gaps between them to enable both the interviewer and interviewee to reflect on the progress of the interviews.
Transcribe the interviews.
Transform the interviews into a first-person narrative that flows seamlessly and continuously without any silences, interjections, or other distractions.
Start constructing the portrait, which should not only be descriptive but also interpretive.
Title the portraits to clarify the interpretive thread of the account, with a summary paragraph that outlines the journey, followed by a detailed body of events. This systematic approach enables three possible readings of the portraits: by title, by summary, and by the main body.
Davet and Venera (2021) support Lopes’ (2012) approach to systematizing the data collection process for constructing sociological portraits by suggesting the following steps for the researcher:
The researcher should aim to capture the effects of socialization on the interviewees, including influences from family, school, religious, political, and cultural institutions.
Once the spheres of socialization have been identified, the research grid (interview script) should be organized into narrative dimensions of social activities. These dimensions follow a chronological structure: i) Family (from childhood to present); ii) School (from early education to the highest level achieved); iii) Work (reconstructing the entire professional path); iv) Sociability (covering childhood friendships to current relationships); v) Leisure-culture (encompassing past and present cultural and leisure practices); and vi) Body (addressing food preferences and sports practices over time). However, these dimensions should be partially guided by the research objectives.
After initial adjustments to the research grid, the researcher should proceed with questioning the interviewee about facts, people they have interacted with, and places they have frequented.
The researcher should inquire about the interviewee’s shared social, public, affective, and professional relationships.
Throughout the interviews, the researcher should remain attentive to possible discomforts, difficulties, family pressures, professional dreams, and other expressions in the interviewees’ narratives. This attentive posture helps the researcher to perceive the individuals’ relationships with the experiences and challenges that marked their trajectory, and capture similarities with the narratives of other interviewed subjects.
Dias and Gauche (2021) have confirmed previous research by outlining some data collection strategies presented in 14 theses analyzed under the lens of sociological portraits in Education and Teaching areas, published between 2011 and 2020. Starting from the selection of interviewees, they opted for individuals who were relatively close to the researchers but excluded those who were too close or unknown. As interviews are the primary technique for constructing sociological portraits, researchers can organize them thematically to allow interviewees to reflect on their trajectory in a multifaceted way, making connections, and detailing situations that occurred in different spheres of life (Lopes, 2012). One important consideration is being attentive to the selection of questions that the interviewee wants to answer, which helps them to construct and describe characters and events. Additionally, interviewers should have the ability to ask questions about things that interviewees may not ask themselves or for which they do not have pre-existing answers. This helps deepen the portraits and make them more genuinely sociological, rather than just self-portraits. It is important to note that interviewees may not always be aware of their practices or actions, so researchers must transcend what interviewees know about themselves (Lima Junior; Massi, 2015).
Lessa (2019) and Closs (2009) have made valuable contributions to the use of sociological portraits as a methodological strategy in biographical research. Lessa’s work involved the development of sociological portraits, while Closs adopted the life history method in her biographical research. Both researchers provide useful insights for data collection and analysis in this area. Regarding data collection, Closs (2009) suggests that the researcher should not establish a chronology of events during the interview process, leaving the interviewee free to express their narrative. It is up to the researcher to listen carefully to the biographical narratives, avoiding interference. This strategy is useful in establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and the researched, as well as for gaining an initial contextual understanding of the biographical people for constructing sociological portraits. In a second moment, the researcher can make inquiries about specific interests regarding the heard stories, since the interview script structure presents defined socialization dimensions for analysis (family, school, work, leisure, etc.), thus presupposing objective questioning.
In this work, the proposed interview script follows the guidance of Closs (2009), where a broad statement or question is made for each socializing dimension, and complementary inquiries serve as a basis for researcher intervention, directed towards the interests of this research. All subsequent interviews follow the same operational principle.
Lessa (2019) suggests asking interviewees about situations in which they did not exhibit usual behavior as a way to identify contexts in which dispositions were contradictory. The author also suggests carrying out documentary collections, such as photos, videos, and personal documents, throughout the interactions with the interviewees as a complement to the interviews.
The interviews were mostly conducted in the homes and workplaces of the participants, and ethnographic notes were taken on the contact with the interviewee, the interview location, and the interviewing process, as well as behavioral observations and access to the participants’ intellectual productions or recommended materials during fieldwork.
Simultaneously with data collection, the interviews were transcribed, which is an important process for the researcher to revisit the content of the interviews, observe gaps in the dialogues, and weave new paths for future interviews based on various readings of the collected and transcribed material (Closs, 2009). Throughout this process of interviews and transcriptions, the author can explore relevant experiences and meanings of the dialogues by highlighting sections of the narratives in light of the research objectives and theoretical framework used (Closs, 2009).
Regarding the data analysis for the construction of sociological portraits, the authors follow Silva’s (2017) method. The transcribed content of the interviews is organized following predetermined socializing dimensions. Then, the author constructs individual portraits for each interviewee. The portraits begin with a brief presentation of the participant’s trajectory, followed by the reconstruction of each socializing context (family, childhood, school, work, etc.).
Through (re)readings of the organized material, Silva (2017) identifies individual and shared dispositions among the researched individuals. The author objectifies and explains these terms and redefines them with each reading of the material. Subsequently, the author presents the identified dispositions at the individual and shared levels and associates them with the research participants’ trajectories and modes of action.
In a later phase of transcription, the narratives were organized into narrative axes titled with the interviewees’ names and surnames. The author did not present a conclusion about the narrated content but finalized it with a recapitulation of the analyzed points that gave indications of the dispositions inferred by the researchers and the contexts in which they were inhibited or activated (Dias; Gauche, 2021).
After presenting the research instrument developed and the proposed data collection and analysis strategies, the author discusses the final considerations in this work.
Final considerations
This study aimed to develop a theoretical and methodological framework, inspired by Bernard Lahire’s sociological portraits, which incorporates the factor of place of origin in analyzing student persistence in management undergraduate courses. The study underscores the importance of ensuring conditions for student persistence in higher education institutions in Brazil, where there is a demand for policies that provide opportunities for expansion and access to higher education. The improvement in completion rates in Brazilian higher education highlights the relevance of analyzing academic trajectories and directing attention to persistence in the course.
The researchers chose sociological portraits as a tool to understand the specificities of academic trajectories and conditions for persistence in the management undergraduate course for young people from popular backgrounds, as this approach capture the unique materialities and subjectivities of each individual. This approach aligns with the interest of researchers, managers, and social movements in Brazil for some time, as it is necessary to reflect on and understand the minimum conditions for students not to drop out of the course.
This study contributes to the discussion of student persistence from a dispositionalist theoretical perspective, which sheds light on the symbolic and cultural dimensions of persistence by combining theoretical contributions from sociology and geography. It also proposes a new methodological perspective by adding the analysis of the place of origin in the construction of sociological portraits. The study also proposes a research instrument that systematizes and guides possible analytical dimensions that can support the construction of sociological portraits within the theme addressed, while leading the interviewer through accessory questions.
The study highlights the importance of directly observing the place of origin of young people from popular backgrounds studying management, as it reinforces the presence of place in the constitution of youthful biographies and its influence on the persistence of young people in higher education. It sheds light on the diversity of experiences within popular environments and the particular ways in which these places are objectively and subjectively appropriated. It also contributes to the understanding of the urban spatialities and mobilities of youth, considering both intra- and inter-place dynamics, both symbolic and material, as well as their influences on their higher education formation.
Overall, this study is an initial effort to propose discussions and possibilities for reflections on the theme, instigating new research paths in the light of interdisciplinarity between different fields of knowledge. It reinforces the need for dialogues and new perspectives to identify and understand phenomena in management undergraduate courses and contributes to the set of research that seeks to understand the reality and dynamics of Brazilian social groups from more popular contexts in their interaction contexts.
