Over the past twenty years, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has imposed himself as one of the major contemporary theorists in the social science. Although he confessed that he did not expect his theoretical system – which was produced in a specific intellectual and empirical context – to attain a large audience outside of France, a growing number of social scientists are currently engaging with his work. Because of its ambition and scope, Bourdieu’s intellectual project has triggered a massive amount of discussions, interpretations and criticisms. For this reason, starting from Bourdieu’s sociology is an interesting locus from which to explore key debates in the social sciences, from classical but still pertinent questions to contemporary issues.
This course aims at presenting Bourdieu’s work, alongside some of the main reactions and developments it generated. It will begin with a thorough introduction of his key concepts (among them: habitus, illusio, capital, and field). Since Bourdieu himself addresses key strands of classical social theory, we will explore his sociology of domination in relation to: the French school of sociology (Durkheim, Mauss), Structuralism (mainly Lévi-Strauss), Marxism and Phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty). Inasmuch as it is possible the concepts and the theory will never be studied for themselves but always in action, that is they will not be studied for the sake of a mere intellectual discussion but, following Weber, to provide the tools of a “concrete science of empirical reality”.
The main goal of this course is to put Bourdieu to work: in addition to an outline of his theory, an emphasis will be placed on empirical cases in order to provide tools for conducting social research. From the initial presentation of the theory, we will then move on to tackling general questions (ie. shall sociologists – still – pay attention the social properties of the people they study?). We will examine some of Bourdieu’s analyses, and assess their contemporary relevance (consumption). We will investigate new fields of research (globalization, gender) and read in depth some works that resort to some of his concepts (urban marginality). This second part, longer than the first one, will be systematically based on extensive readings of Bourdieu’s critics, colleagues, and more or less distant proponents of his theories. This will include texts by L. Boltanski, Ph. Bourgois, R. Brubaker, Y. Dezalay, J. Karabel, B. Latour, M. Pattillo-McCoy, L. Wacquant, among others.
