Shifting Fields: Japanese University Students’ Habitus During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the authors utilize sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s “thinking tools” of capital, field, and habitus as part of a framework to examine Japanese university classes and the experiences and viewpoints of students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual academic environment resulting from the crisis produced institutional changes in Japanese universities that dramatically altered the experiences of students. The limitation of students’ interactions to briefly realized virtual classroom relationships with peers, the constraints placed upon university-affiliated extracurricular activities, as well as the unforeseen consequences of online instruction in multiple classes created a new environment with new expectations that in some cases ran counter to Japanese cultural norms in academia. Drawing on previous research and qualitative data collected from several universities, we use symbolic interactionism as a methodology to detail how students as social agents negotiated these new environments. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Karen Monkman, Ann Frkovich, and Amira Proweller;individual chapters, the contributors.