Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) was a French sociologist and anthropologist whose work examined how power operates in society through culture, education, and social institutions. He developed a theoretical framework that sought to explain how social position is reproduced across generations and across fields of activity.

Central to Bourdieu’s theory are the concepts of habitus, capital, and field. Habitus refers to durable, transposable dispositions shaped by past experiences and social conditions, guiding perception and action. Capital is multidimensional, comprising economic, cultural, social, and symbolic resources that confer advantages within specific fields. A field is a relatively autonomous social arena with its own rules and power relations, such as education, art, or politics. Bourdieu also emphasized doxa, or taken-for-granted beliefs, and symbolic power, the capacity to impose meanings that legitimize existing hierarchies.

Key works include Outline of a Theory of Practice (1972), which develops his approach to agency and structure; Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1979/1984), which argues that tastes reflect social position; Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (with Jean-Claude Passeron, 1970), on how schooling reproduces social inequality; The Logic of Practice (1990); and Homo Academicus (1984). His research spanned education, culture, religion, and the arts, and he was influential across sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies.

Bourdieu’s legacy lies in providing a rigorous, empirical account of how power operates through everyday practices and cultural forms. His work remains widely cited and contested, with debates centered on questions of structure versus agency and the explanatory reach of his concepts.