Pierre Bourdieu and culture

Pierre Bourdieu’s work on culture, whether cultural practices and their relationship to social space, literature, art or education, gives rise to very intense reflections and discussions. On the occasion of the publication of the course on Manet, the Life of Ideas brings together works devoted to Bourdieu, sociologist of culture or inspired by him, whether to extend his theses or discuss them.

The original contributions to this file deal with four main aspects, in relation to Pierre Bourdieu’s analyzes of culture: the field of art, that of education, translation and its contribution to the formation of symbolic capital and finally the social space as it emerges through the analysis of tastes and cultural practices.

Art and Literature

The sociologist Olivier Roueff (“ The greatness of Manet », March 18) delivers a reflexive analysis of the sociological work of Pierre Bourdieu as it develops in the format “ course » given to the Collège de France. The subject of Pierre Bourdieu’s last course was the figure of Manet, “ nomothete » for Bourdieu, equal to Flaubert and Beethoven, operator of a symbolic revolution in the field of painting. We will also find an account of the same book by the historian Philippe Saunier (“ Bourdieu the heresiarch », March 19).

And also, on the Life of ideas :

– “ News from P. Bourdieu », by Bernard Lahire (review by Pierre Bourdieu & Roger Chartier, The Sociologist and the Historianwith a preface by Roger Chartier, Marseille, Agone, INA and Reasons for Action, 2010)

– “ Bourdieu the undisciplined », by Claire Ducournau (review by Jean-Pierre Martin (edited by), Bourdieu and literature, followed by an interview with Pierre BourdieuCécile Defaut editions, Nantes, 2010)

– In the lineage of Rules of the art : “ Mallarmé sociologist of the Republic of Letters », by Ariel Suhamy (review by Pascal Durand, Mallarmé, from the sense of forms to the sense of formalitiesThreshold, Liber collection, 2008)

– “ Who listens to what ? », by Martin Guerpin. Review of Proceedings of social science research on musical tastes.

Education

The field of education is one of the main objects on which Bourdieu focused, with Jean-Claude Passeron in particular. His work on The State Nobility Or Reproduction have had a lasting impact on the social sciences in France and abroad. The sociologist Ugo Palheta, whose work focuses on vocational high schools, reveals the imprint of Pierre Bourdieu’s approach in that of Muriel Darmon studying preparatory classes (“ Time for ‘preparations’ », March 24).

And also, on the Life of ideas :

– “ United States: the denial of inequality “. Interview with Shamus Khan, by Pauline Peretz

– “ A never ending story ? Social inequalities persist in higher education », by A. Allouch. Review of Acts

– “ Social diversity at school: a family affair ? », by Elise Tenret. Review of Acts

– “ School, social elevator ? », by Ugo Palheta

– “ Classroom tactics in vocational high school », by Christian Baudelot.

Tastes and cultural practices

It is perhaps above all through an analysis of social space based on its symbolic or statutory elements that Pierre Bourdieu’s work on culture has had the greatest impact on their discipline – and well beyond. With The DistinctionPierre Bourdieu produced an innovative analysis (both in method and content) of social stratification. This continues to be discussed and can be the subject of relational appropriations which reveal the relevance of this theory, even beyond the empirical results to which it is attached and which are necessarily dated. In an interview conducted by Nicolas Duvoux and Igor Martinache (“ Classes and culture “), the sociologist Philippe Coulangeon returns to what he calls The metamorphoses of distinction. Finally, in a review of the work co-edited by Julien Duval and Philippe Coulangeon, The distinction. Thirty years later (“ Does cultural capital still classify ? », March 21), Igor Martinache evaluates the abundant posterity of this work.

Translation and intellectual space

For several years, Gisèle Sapiro has been thinking about the question of translation in the European intellectual space. In an interview with Lucie Campos (“ Geopolitics of translation “), it shows the effects of the crossing between academic and editorial fields, the conditions and obstacles of translation in the European human and social sciences space.

In addition to these aspects, the Life of ideas published analyzes of Pierre Bourdieu’s contribution to social theory and the epistemology of the social sciences ; interviews with figures of French and American sociology for whom Bourdieu was or remained a central and seminal reference and finally controversies on the relationship of Bourdieu (and those who are linked to his approach) to subjectivity and institutions academics.

Philosophy / Epistemology / Interdisciplinarity

– “ The political ontology of Pierre Bourdieu », by Olivier Chassaing (review by C. Gautier, The Force of the Social. Philosophical investigation into the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu’s practicesDeer)

– “ Bourdieusian meditations », by Cécile Lavergne

– “ Spinozism and social sciences », by Cécile Nicco

– “ Observing the work: the fields before the theory, by Nicolas Renahy. The last part of this report makes Bourdieu an essential and implicit reference for understanding the reciprocal contributions of ethnography and history.

Interviews

– “ Power is becoming more and more knowledgeable “. Interview with Luc Boltanski

– “ The social making of an individual “. Interview with Bernard Lahire

– “ Rediscover the meaning of social life “. Interview with Michèle Lamont

Controversies

– “ Sociology of journalism », by Erik Neveu

– “ Critique of academic reason », by Thierry Pech.