Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts

Key Concepts

by Michael James Grenfell

The French social philosopher Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) is now recognised as one of the major thinkers of the twentieth century. In a career of over fifty years, Bourdieu studied a wide range of education, culture, art, politics, economics, literature, law, and philosophy. Throughout these studies, Bourdieu developed a highly specialised series of concepts that he referred to as his "thinking tools", which were used to uncover the workings of contemporary society. "Pierre Key Concepts" takes a selection of his most important concepts and examines them in detail. Each chapter deals with an individual concept and are written so as to be of immediate use to the student with little or no previous knowledge of Bourdieu. At the same time, each chapter also develops various dimensions around each concept to make the coverage of interest to the more experienced reader.

Genres: Sociology, Philosophy, Social Science, Academic

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains the concepts which Pierre Bourdieu uses across his books. The authors first define a concept, and follow this up with the context wherein Bourdieu used it, why, how, and what this means in a larger context.
Bourdieu gets quoted on each concept, but the authors also demonstrate the concepts with their own examples.
In conclusion, this is a must-have if you are planning to tackle Bourdieu, who, however great a thinker he was, is terrible at defining and redefining concepts. This book will make sure you truly understand each concept.

[Emilie Dunn]

this took me two months to get through i can only imagine how long it will take me to read bourdieu’s own work

[Cynthia James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prior to this, I tried reading Outline of a Theory of Practice (1970) - I couldn't finish it. I was led to this book by a Bourdieu study group on Facebook, and I'm forever grateful.

The book has five parts and 15 chapters, written by multiple authors. Each chapter is dedicated to the discussion of an individual key concept. The first part deals with Bourdieu's biography and how his personal life trajectories have impacted the development of his theory of practice. The second part discusses his field theory, and how it attempts to transcend subjectivity and objectivity through discussions of 'thinking tools' such as habitus and field. Part 3 explores Bourdieu's field mechanism through concepts of social class, capital, doxa, and hysteresis. Analysis of key concepts continue in Part 4 which deals with the notions of interest, conatus, suffering/symbolic violence, and reflexivity.

The final part (Part 5) explains how Bourdieu's thinking tools or key concepts have been/can be put into practice, through discussions of methodology, social space, and politics. The book concludes with a summary of all the five parts.

For those who are new to Bourdieu, who would want to start reading but are overwhelmed by his vast ouevre, or who - like me - have tried to read Bourdieu's work in the original (translated) version but failed miserably, this book is a perfect place to start (or restart). Although the editor emphasises time and time again that the key concepts should be understood integratively rather than separately as individual ideas, as a total noob I find the focussed analysis of each concept as individual concept to be very helpful. It helps me to familiarise myself with the most fundamental knowledge of Bourdieu and his main ideas, before I plunge into another attempt to read his writings.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally an excellent introduction; there're just several draw backs. Firstly, fire your copy editor: there were about 10 errors in syntax, misspelled or missing words, etc across the book. Secondly, the methodology section, which aims to prompt practitioners (Educators, social workers, researchers, etc) to reflect critically on their role and avoid unnecessary social harm felt a bit of a dud. The book as a whole was an excellent summary of how habitus works in a field, instilling social actors with not just economic but social capital and how such capital-infused actors risk perpetuating symbolic violence on those from subjugated classes. However, such advice seems limited to either being 'aware' of such violence and attempting to avoid it, or b) creating an intellectual class focussed on propagating that awareness. Yet surely that only replicates Bourdieu's issue with the French state as it is?

[Isaberu · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a 'Bourdieu beginner' I learnt a lot from this book and it seemed really comprehensive and well thought out. I particularly like the practical section at the end to apply Bourdieusian sociology to your research (which is what it's meant to be used for, not just for theoretical discussions). I wish the language would have been more accessible though, I feel like a lot of it was explained in an unnecessarily complex way, presupposing a knowledge of Latin and French expressions used in academic writing for example.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book lacked the depth of detail I was looking for and have decided to just go to the source material! The author would several times quote a passage of Bourdieu and say that it was inexplicably obtuse and then explain it in simpler terms, but I found the quoted passage perfectly clear and erudite. I guess a book like this is for high school/undergraduate level reading to get a very broad sense of what is happening but nothing more than that.

[Cassey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful ito thinking through concepts and their application to my work.

[Rpt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reader of Bourdieu's work. Give an overview of his life and most of his key concepts.

[Jen]

HM479.B68 P544 2014, SSAH