Pierre Bourdieu's Theory and its Sociological Uses

Of all the French sociologists of the twentieth century, Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) is, without a doubt, the most renowned and controversial. His prolific work has profoundly marked the intellectual field in France and abroad. While pioneering an original theory of the social world which is based on key concepts such as habitus, symbolic violence and field, Pierre Bourdieu endeavours brings to light the reality of social relations in order to efficiently analyse them. This book presents three pincipal dimensions of Pierre Bourdieu's work: his epistemological reflection on the craft of a sociologist, the elaboration of his principle concepts of analysis through the study of specific domanis (education and culture) and finally his theory of social space. Each of the chapters presents works of authors who pursued Pierre Bourdieu's line of thought or were inspired by it. It is by focusing on the contributions and the critical aspects of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology tat the importance and the nature of his intellectual influence today can be appreciated.