Illusio, Social Gravity and Social Magic: Purpose, Motivation and Aspiration

Chapter One focusses on underutilized concepts of illusio, social gravity and social alchemy/magic to consider everyday affective notions such as aspirations and orientations as key to thinking about how everyday processes of embodied meaning making are central to the affective economies that create and replicate inequalities. The chapter argues that Bourdieu’s concepts of social magic and social gravity are relations of affective affinity, unequal moments are settings heavy with the hierarchical transmission of affects. Illusio is especially useful for considering economies of intensity, motivation and purpose.