A feel for books: A Bourdieusian approach on embodied reading promotion practices for babies

Abstract

This article offers a Bourdieusian analysis of reading promotion practices aimed at babies. Drawing on ethnographic work, it explores how embodied interactions with books, spatial regulations, and ideals of motherhood intersect in these practices. Using the concepts of habitus and cultural capital, the study reveals how classed norms are inscribed in everyday engagements with books. By focusing on adult interpretations of babies’ book-related behavior, the study highlights how symbolic distinctions are drawn even in the earliest stages of life, and how these distinctions are tied to broader structures of class and cultural legitimacy.