Pierre Bourdieu 19302002 Basic Facts Born August 1 1930 in Denguin Pyr n esAtlantiques France Grandfather was a sharecropper and father was a postman later postmaster Married Marie Claire Brizard in 1962 Had three sons French sociologist Died January 23 2002 in Paris France Academic Career Studied philosophy in Paris at the cole Normale Sup rieure He worked as a teacher for a year Established sociological reputation with ethnographic research while in French Army during Algerian War of Independence 1958 62 1964 Director of Studies at the cole Pratique des Hautes tudes 1968 until death headed Centre de Sociologie Europ enne a research center founded by Aron 1975 edited sociological journal Actes de la recherche en sciences sociale with Luc Boltanski 1981 until retirement Chair of Sociology at Coll ge de France position formerly held by Raymond Aron et al Awards 1993 received Medaille d or du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS 1996 received Goffman prize from UC Berkeley 2002 received Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Influences Gaston Bachelard Georges Canguilhem Emile Durkheim Norbert Elias Edmund Husserl Maurice MerleauPonty Claude L viStrauss Blaise Pascal Ferdinand De Sassure Karl Marx Max Weber Thornstein Veblen Marcel Mauss Ludwig Wittgenstein Influences Cont d From Weber importance of domination and symbolic systems in social life social orders which he would transform into a theory of fields From Marx concept of capital with respect to social activity not just economics From Durkheim deterministic style From Mauss and L vi Strauss structuralist style and the tendency of social structures to reproduce themselves From Merleau Ponty and Husserl focus on the body action and practical dispositions manifested in his theory of habitus Major Works Outline of a Theory of Practice 1977 Distinction A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste 1984 Homo Academicus 1988 The Logic of Practice 1990 Language and Symbolic Power 1991 Free Exchange 1995 The State Nobility 1996 The Rules of Art 1996 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action 1998 Firing Back Against the Tyranny of the Market 2003 Foci Main interests power symbolic violence academia the relationship between historical structures and subjective agents development of methodologies and language and how it connects to power Other key ideas cultural capital field habitus illusio reflexivity social capital and symbolic capital Overview of Bourdieu s Work work amounts to cultural sociology or theory of practice Focused on empirical investigation theorist label is too confining habitus field and Cultural capital commonplace in major sociological journals Shares intellectual roots with poststructuralist or postmodernist Foucault Lacan and Derrida More of a social theorist language is used by particular actors for particular ends Connection between structure and action Uses conceptual tools to explain process of social life in concrete settings Trained as an anthropologist and within structuralist tradition Bourdieu s Work Cont d Politically engaged and had no affiliation supported work against influence of political elites and neoliberal capitalism but also considered an enemy of French left First published studies fieldwork in Algeria Accepted by English language sociologists by end of 1970s Criticized theoretical theory work more concerned with developing ideas or concepts rather than using them to understand the world Remained active in research projects and was subject of documentary La sociologie est un sport de combat Sociology is a Combat Sport Cont d Work emphasized how social classes esp ruling and intellectual classes preserve social privileges across generations despite the false idea of equality of opportunity and high social mobility achieved through education For him sociology was about exposing the latent structures that influence actions and combating symbolic violence Produced hundreds of articles and three dozen books translated into two dozen languages Legacy Impacted several disciplines other than sociology works were considered classics in not only sociology but anthropology education and cultural studies Not seen as an ivory tower academic but a passionate activist for those he thought to be subordinated by society Influenced sociologists such as Lo c Wacquant who applied Bourdieu s theory participant objectivization to boxing and Michel de Certeau Most quoted living sociologist including 7 000 web pages Methodology Based on theoretical model in Distinction Emphasizes need for empirical data and its inseparability from the theoretical Focus on practical examples and case studies to show how theoretical applies to real world Use range of observation and measurement methods quantitative and qualitative statistical and ethnographic macrosociological and microsociological which are meaningless oppositions or indistinct in their usefulness all are necessary and linked to each other Methodology cont d Models of societies must be based on structures and habitus rather than particularities and manifest differences between two societies Habitus loose guidelines framework tastes which influence social agents within a social position to be covered in more detail later Though basing model on structures of one society may appear ethnocentric this technique will produce models more accurate and universally applicable than looking at differences between unique aspects of culture which tends to such evils as racism and chauvinism Ex urged Japanese to apply his model of 1970s French society to contemporary Japanese society rather than focusing on peculiar customs or roles in each society Methodology cont d Habitus and structure apply across time and culture but positions and practices do not therefore focusing on the latter causes errors and dated research but the former generates a universal model Warns against looking at practices in isolation from their influences structure and habitus and attempting to compare between systems Ex Golf in France and Japan seem to be the same game but may serve different roles and be practiced by different social positions classes At the same time two other practices which may seem different may actually serve similar roles Social Space Social Space Positions and practices arrayed on graph and in social space on one hand y axis according to capital volume the total accumulation of social capital On the other hand positions and practices arrayed by relative weight of