Bourdieu's class theory: the scientist as a revolutionary. Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu main ideas in sociology
BOURDIER, PIERRE(Bourdieu, Pierre) (b. 1930), French sociologist and social philosopher. Born August 1, 1930 in Denzin (dep. Atlantic Pyrenees). In 1955 he graduated from the Higher Pedagogical School (Ecole normale superieure) in Paris with a degree in philosophy. Bourdieu studied with Althusser and Foucault.
For some time he taught philosophy at the Lyceum in Moulin. In 1958 he left to work in Algeria, where he continued teaching and began his sociological research. Here his first works were published: Sociology of Algeria (1961), Labor and workers in Algeria(1964). In 1964 he returned to Paris, where he became director of the Higher Practical Research School (Ecole pratique des hautes etudes). In 1975 he founded the Center for European Sociology and the authoritative journal Scientific Works in the Social Sciences (Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales). In 1981 he was elected a full member of the French Academy.
Bourdieu's scientific works have been translated into all European languages.
The theory of sociality that Bourdieu developed in the course of his ethnological studies seeks to explain the emergence of meaning in terms of the structures of practice itself, while bypassing the study of its genesis in objectivist or intellectualist categories. By its very structure, such a theory of practice reflects the effect of alienation that it produces by objectifying practice and opposing theoretical reflection on practice to its immediate experience. The term "habitus" introduced by Bourdieu describes the embodiment of cultural and social norms in the subject's bodily schemas. Being the result of accumulated experience, habitus structures the expectations and ways of seeing that the subject develops to master the situations that arise in the course of his activity. Social and symbolic structures are inextricably linked with each other, since the world is always the world interpreted in terms of culture.
The meaning that this or that subject has in mind connects the actor with his action, and therefore has a constitutive meaning for symbolically structured opinions about the social world, but the phenomenological or hermeneutic clarification of this world does not yet explain the logic of differences between forms of action and forms of perception, characteristic of certain social "actors". Therefore, theorists come closer to understanding the logic of practice when they (a) systematically analyze the experience, perceptions, and actions of actors using the tools of empirical social research, (b) link structural typology to the constructed fields of the material conditions of life, and, finally, (c) establish a system of relationships between the structures of objective life relations and subjective schemes of action, on the one hand, and the schemes of expectations and interpretations that the actors have, on the other hand. This understanding is achieved through the initial refraining from judgments ("epochs") about direct life experience. This understanding surpasses the possibilities of the hermeneutic reconstruction of meaning, since it is based on comparative analysis relations between objective and subjective, material and symbolic structures. Thus, a model arises that connects structures of life relations, forms of activity and patterns of perception that are subordinate to a single logic; all these structures merge into a single constructed totality of social space.
In fundamental work Distinction. Social criticism of judgment (La Distinction. Critique social du jugement, 1979) Bourdieu applies the described methodology to the development of the theory of modern society. In this theory, social inequality is explained on the basis of material and symbolic differences in life and experience, differences that are reflected in the anticipations of the future characteristic of certain classes and their corresponding strategies for the reproduction of social actors; differences, manifested in the constant competition between social groups and determining the dynamics of the social world. In constructing this model, Bourdieu uses the concept of capital, which he borrows from Marx, although he does not share his dialectical understanding of history. Unlike Marx, Bourdieu is skeptical of the objectivist approach, whose supporters believe in the resolution of social contradictions by the very development of society; this belief, according to Bourdieu, leads to a limited concept of politics. His theory of practice aims to link scientific analysis with awareness of the possibilities of political action.
Any way of seeing the social world indicates the position in social space occupied by the observer. Therefore, any vision inevitably bears the imprint of perspective and specificity. Nevertheless, scientific objectification is able to create a model of social space and the logic of its reproduction. The theory of social space, to a certain extent, has enlightening potential, because, thanks to it, implicit premises become apparent, and social differences are firmly linked with the belief in their legitimacy. Therefore, the task of intellectuals is to identify these relationships and return to those who are deprived of political speech the power of the word - the power that can lead to changes in the symbolic construction of reality and, thereby, to a change in real action. Serving this goal explains Bourdieu's numerous speeches on topical political, social, economic and cultural issues.
Other publications of the scientist - practical meaning (Le sens pratique, 1980), Questions of sociology (Questions de sociology, 1980), Homo academicus (Homo academicus, 1984).
Pierre Bourdieu(Fr. Pierre Bourdieu, August 1, 1930, France - January 23, 2002, Paris, France) - French sociologist, ethnologist, philosopher and political publicist, one of the most influential sociologists of the twentieth century. He is the author of thirty-five books and four hundred articles, which are highly regarded both in terms of theoretical and empirical research. At the same time, his work has been subjected to various criticisms, mainly for a deterministic vision of the social.
Since 1981 - Professor of Sociology at the College de France. In the 1990s, Pierre Bourdieu played a prominent role in the social and political life of France.
Bourdieu studied primarily the mechanisms of reproduction of social hierarchies. He emphasized the importance of cultural and symbolic factors of reproduction and criticized Marxist concepts of the primacy of the economy. According to Bourdieu, the capacity of agents in positions of power to impose their cultural and symbolic practices plays a key role in the reproduction of social relations of domination. Bourdieu introduced the concept of symbolic violence as coercion to recognize various forms of domination and ignorance of its mechanisms. Symbolic violence legitimizes social forms of domination.
According to Bourdieu, the social world in modern society is divided into special social areas - "social fields". The differentiation of social activity has led, in particular, to the formation of the field of art and the field of politics as certain types of activity. The fields have comparative autonomy in relation to society as a whole. Fields have their own hierarchy and dynamics due to the competitive struggle of social agents for a dominant position. Here Bourdieu's analysis coincides with the Marxist tradition in terms of the importance of struggle and conflict in the functioning of society. But for Bourdieu, conflicts are not reduced to conflicts between social classes, but unfold in a symbolic dimension in different social fields.
The nature of the social is determined by the difference that gives rise to social hierarchies. Following Pascal, Bourdieu believed that a person is driven primarily by a thirst for recognition of his human dignity; recognition is exclusively social in nature.
Bourdieu developed a theory of action centered on "habitus" - a concept that had a great influence on the social sciences. According to Bourdieu's theory, a small number of attitudes received as a result of socialization allows social agents to implement action strategies. These strategies are adapted to the needs of the social world, but are not realized by the agents.
Bourdieu's research is centered around key concepts: habitus as the principle of action of agents, the field as a space of fundamental social struggle, capital as a resource in the social field, symbolic violence as the main mechanism for asserting domination. All these concepts introduced and developed by Bourdieu are widely used in sociology and social anthropology.
Biography
Pierre Bourdieu, the only child in the family, was born in 1930 in the southwest of France in Dangen, a small village in the historical region of Béarn, in the western part of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques department. His father, a native of the small peasantry, was a sharecropper, and then worked as a postman, without leaving the rural environment. Bourdieu's mother was of a similar social background, although somewhat higher, her ancestors were small proprietors.
Studies
From 1941 to 1947, Bourdieu was an intern at the Lycée Louis-Bartoux in the town of Pau, he studied excellently. He was noticed by one of the teachers, a graduate of the Higher Normal School, who advised him to enroll in preparatory courses in the humanities at the elite Lycée Louis the Great in Paris in 1948.
In 1951, Bourdieu was admitted to the Higher Normal School, where Jacques Derrida and Louis Marin studied with him. In the post-war period in French philosophy, the phenomenological existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre had the greatest authority, which had a certain influence on Bourdieu and many representatives of his generation. Bourdieu, according to his memoirs, very early read "Being and Nothingness" by Sartre, a little later - the works of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He studied Bourdieu and the works of the young Karl Marx.
Pierre Bourdieu(1930-2002) - French sociologist, philosopher, culturologist, author "philosophy of action". Sociology for him was social typology. The central ideas of his theoretical concept are social space, field, cultural and social capital, habitus. In his opinion, the place and role of the agent in this space predetermines economic capital, which can act in different types how cultural and social capital as well as symbolic capital, usually called prestige, reputation, name etc.
According to the theory of P. Bourdieu, this is not so much a structure as the result of active actions of “agents” or “actors” of the process. Actor - is a subject with immanent inner activity. The set of such actors is weight, or what can be shaped and what is shaped—leaders, the state, parties, bosses, and so on. The introduction of the “actor” (or, as a variant of the “agent”, action), according to Bourdieu, emphasizes the modern role and new understanding of the mass, which through its activity influences the result of social change.
Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu(1930-2002) is a contemporary French sociologist. Bourdieu calls his teaching "philosophy of action" because the concept of action is central to it.
Bourdieu's central problem is the relationship between cognition and action, which in research becomes the relationship between subject and object. He believes that all attempts at direct understanding mean the absolute position of the I of the observer and that objectification through structural analysis brings the alien closer, although outwardly it moves it away. The goal of knowledge for Bourdieu is understanding through objectification. Thus, the pre-logical logic of practical actions, such as rituals, cannot be understood by “getting used to” an observer burdened with rational logic, but will become more “tangible” when distanced and objectified.
Next to the phenomenological and objectivist methods of theoretical knowledge of the social world, he puts praxeological knowledge. Its purpose is not to discover objective structures as such, but "structured structures that are capable of acting as structuring structures". The concept of "double structuring" is the basis of Bourdieu's sociology, the essence of which is that social reality is structured, firstly, by social relations that are objectified in the distribution of various capitals, both tangible and intangible, and, secondly, people's ideas about social structures and the surrounding world as a whole, having a reverse effect on the primary structuring.
Bourdieu's notion of practice is defined by the dialectic of objective structures and deeply internalized structures ("rootedness" in culture), and deeply internalized structures cannot be fully explained in terms of objective structures, but conversely, objective structures cannot be deduced from the intentions of those acting in them.
Bourdieu's action is not directly determined by economic conditions. The actions of actors, according to Bourdieu, are motivated by interests, but the concept of interest itself is complex and ambiguous. It can be understood broadly - as an indication that any ultimate goal of an action can be considered as an interest if the actor pursues it to the detriment of someone else's interests. A narrower understanding of interest refers to the concepts of prestige, wealth or power. Bourdieu prefers this interpretation. For Bourdieu, the concept of "interest" denotes the desire for dominance, and he presents social life as a constant struggle for dominance over others. He is convinced of the unconscious nature of the attraction to dominance, although he gives many examples of “strategies” for moving towards dominance that look like purposeful and conscious actions (for example, the desire to invest in “educational capital” in order to ultimately receive economic profit).
The specificity of Bourdieu's analysis of the desire for dominance is the description of the types and forms of its implementation. To do this, he introduces two concepts - economic capital and cultural capital. The first of these concepts is straightforward: the rich are omnipotent. Giving culture the status of capital means that culture, like economic capital, brings benefits that are not limited to economic enrichment, even if it also takes place (for example, the concept of "profitability of a diploma"). Culture is, according to Bourdieu, "symbolic capital".
He sees economic conditions more as a "privilege" that allows the rich to do what is not available to the masses, who therefore feel deprived. Bourdieu speaks of the doubling of goods through their symbolic existence along with their economic existence (similar to the "doubling of the world" through concepts). In modern society, the ruling class dominates not only due to economic capital, but also symbolic; according to Bourdieu, intellectuals belong to the ruling class along with entrepreneurs. Signs of distinction (for example, titles, dress, language) through the conceptual association of "marked" in this way create at the same time differences between groups. The day's dominant symbolic capital represents the capital of trust, credit. Symbolic capital, like economic capital, gives power: "Power to effect the recognition of power."
The sociological concept of Bourdieu
There are scientists whose work is very difficult to limit the rigid framework of some theoretical direction. The outstanding French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (born in 1930), who created a special sociological "Bourdieu school", undoubtedly belongs to such scientists. Bourdieu's research is actually interdisciplinary in nature, which is facilitated by the fundamental philosophical education he received (Bourdieu's teachers were L. Althusser and M. Foucault).
The sociological concept of Bourdieu integrates theoretical and empirical sociology. He advocates practical thought as opposed to abstract "objective" theorizing, criticizes the claims of some sociologists to take a dedicated position "above the fight" and from there to give a theoretical explanation of real social processes. It is no coincidence that one of the main works of Bourdieu is entitled by him "Practical Sense".
Bourdieu's integrated approach requires the introduction of the concept of "agent" instead of "subject" or "individual". Thus, Bourdieu emphasizes the activity, independence of agents, who "are not automata, fine-tuned like clockwork in accordance with the laws of mechanics, which they do not know." Agents choose life strategies, in accordance with certain goals, but not directed by someone else's will.
The central concept of P. Bourdieu's sociology is the so-called habitus - "systems of stable and portable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles that generate and organize practices and ideas that can be objectively adapted to their purpose, however, they do not imply a conscious focus on it and the indispensable mastery of the necessary operations to achieve it. Of course, this definition cannot be called easy (the above passage gives a good idea of P. Bourdieu's style).
The most important achievement of P. Bourdieu is his theory of social space. According to Bourdieu, “First of all, sociology is a social topology. Thus, it is possible to depict the social world in the form of a multidimensional space built according to the principles of differentiation and distribution, formed by a set of active properties in the universe under consideration, i.e. properties capable of giving its owner strength and power in this universe. Agents and groups of agents are thus defined by their relative positions in this space."
In turn, the social space can be divided into different fields: political, economic, academic, etc. The total social capital that an individual has at his disposal is made up of his capitals in various fields. At the same time, social capital is capable of converting from one form to another, for example, a graduate of a prestigious university easily finds a well-paid job, and a successful entrepreneur can secure his election as a deputy.
P. Bourdieu pays great influence to the political applications of his theory, as well as to questions of “sociology”, professional qualities and citizenship of sociologists: “I would like sociologists to be always and in everything at the height of the enormous historical responsibility that fell to their lot, and that they always involve in their actions not only their moral authority, but also their intellectual competence.”
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
BELARUSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
Sociology of politics by Pierre Bourdieu
2nd year students
departments of sociology
distance learning
Anishchenko Yu.Yu.
Scientific adviser:
PhD in Philosophy
Associate Professor Grishchenko Zhanna Mikhailovna
MINSK 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction. Positioning of Pierre Bourdieu in modern sociology
Chapter 1. The sociology of politics by Pierre Bourdieu is an independent sociological discipline
1.1 The main methodological criteria for the formation of an independent sociological discipline
1.2 Subject, object and categorical apparatus of the sociology of politics
1.3 Subject, object and categorical apparatus of the sociology of politics by Pierre Bourdieu
Chapter 2. Political laws of Pierre Bourdieu
2.1. Delegation and political fetishism
2. 2 Public opinion does not exist
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction. Positioning of Pierre Bourdieu in modern
sociology
Pierre Bourdieu is a French sociologist, philosopher, culturologist - undoubtedly one of the most significant figures in modern sociology. He was born in a village on the border with Spain, in the family of a postal official. After graduating from the Higher Pedagogical School in 1955, he taught philosophy at the Lycée Moulin, in 1958 he left for Algeria, where he continued teaching and began sociological research. From Algiers he moved to Lille, and then to Paris, where in 1964 he became research director at the Higher Practical Research School. In 1975, he founded and headed the Center for European Sociology, as well as the journal "Scholarly Works in the Social Sciences", which, along with the French Journal of Sociology, is considered the leading sociological publication in France. In 1981 he was elected a full member of the French Academy and became head of the department of sociology at the College de France. His life is an attempt to combine the career of a sociologist and an intellectual practitioner.
His work evolved from philosophy to anthropology and then to sociology. The central ideas of his theoretical concept are social space, field, cultural and social capital, habitus. The ethical side of the doctrine and the desire to build a fair society based on republican values are of great importance. Many scholars note the enormous contribution of Bourdieu to the understanding of society. Bourdieu is characterized by a deep disregard for interdisciplinary divisions, which impose restrictions on the subject of research and on the methods used. His research combines approaches and techniques from the fields of anthropology, history, linguistics, political science, philosophy, aesthetics, which he applies to the study of such diverse sociological objects as: the peasantry, the arts, unemployment, the educational system, law, science, literature, marriage and family unions, classes, religion, politics, sports, language, housing, intellectuals and state "top".
The sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu is built around three main categories: "field" - "capital" - "habitus"; and includes many interrelated concepts that make it possible to refer to the analysis of a wide variety of social phenomena. The origin and formation of this approach, called "genetic structuralism", should be considered in the context of the intellectual and social situation in France, which determined the possibilities for the formation of Pierre Bourdieu as a scientist. During his student years in the social sciences, at first philosophy reigned supreme, and then anthropology received the greatest authority. Despite the fact that it was in France that sociology first became a university discipline and had a strong academic tradition, as a course of study at that time it was not properly developed and was considered a non-prestigious specialization. P. Bourdieu explains his choice in favor of sociology by the desire for seriousness and rigor, the desire to solve not abstract cognitive problems, but to analyze a really existing society and its real problems by means of social sciences. The departure of P. Bourdieu from philosophy was influenced, among other things, by the works of M. Merleau-Ponty "Humanism and Terror" (1947) and "The Adventures of Dialectics" (1955), in which an attempt was made to apply universal philosophical categories to the analysis of contemporary political phenomena.
In the fifties and sixties of the 20th century, three trends were most widely spread in French philosophy: phenomenological-existentialism, structuralism and Marxism. Many sociologists find inspiration for Bourdieu in the writings of K. Marx, M. Weber, E. Durkheim and E. Cassirer. Bourdieu was interested in many philosophical and sociological currents of the 20th century, but none completely satisfied him. In the book Pascal's Reflections, he consistently revealed his attitude to modern areas of philosophy and sociology, described the intellectual atmosphere in France in the middle of the 20th century, analyzed the similarities and differences of his position with the views of L. Althusser, L. Wittgenstein, G. Garfinkel, I. Hoffmann, J. Deleuze, E. Cassirer, K. Levi-strauss, T. Parsons, J.-P. Sartre, M. Foucault, J. Habermas and others. Deep assimilation, gap and overcoming - these are the main mechanisms that led Pierre Bourdieu to the formation of his own "synthetic" direction, later called "genetic structuralism". “With the help of structuralism, I want to say that in the social world itself, and not only in symbolism, language, myths, etc., there are objective structures that are independent of the consciousness and will of agents, capable of directing and suppressing their practices and ideas. With the help of constructivism, I want to show that there is a social genesis, on the one hand, of patterns of perception, thought and action, which are the constituent parts of what I call fields or groups, and what are usually called social classes.
The works of Pierre Bourdieu - 26 monographs and dozens of articles on the methodology of social cognition, the stratification of society, the sociology of power and politics, education, art and popular culture, ethnographic studies - have been translated into all European languages. By the strength of the impact, Pierre Bourdieu is compared with J.P. Sartre and is considered the greatest sociologist of our time.
Chapter 1. The sociology of politics by Pierre Bourdieu is an independent
sociological discipline
1.1 The main methodological criteria for the formation
independent sociological discipline
Special sociological disciplines are theories that are theoretical generalizations that explain the qualitative specifics of the development and functioning of a variety of social phenomena. Each special sociological theory has its own object and subject of study, its own approach to the study of this subject.
The formation and formation of an independent sociological discipline, a special theory means:
Discovery, formulation of specific patterns of development and functioning of a group of homogeneous phenomena and processes;
Opening social mechanisms functioning of these phenomena and processes;
Development for the studied object (phenomenon, process, group, and so on) of its own system of categorical-conceptual apparatus, such a system that does not contradict the laws of development and functioning of the object as part of the whole.
Special theories are characterized by a high level of abstraction and allow one and the same object, one or another social community to be considered from a certain point of view, to single out one or another “section” of the object being studied, its “level”, “side” of interest to the sociologist.
Special sociological disciplines are characterized by:
a) establishing objective relationships between the studied subject area and the integrity of the social system in the past, present and future;
b) identification of specific, characteristic for this subject area of internal connections and patterns.
Independent disciplines have broad interdisciplinary links with other branches of social science and other sciences. They are focused on the management and planning of social processes, usually in the short term and in special, private areas. public life. Sociology of group behavior, social mobility, sociology of the family, politics, sports, labor, economics, and so on - each of the identified varieties of sociological knowledge has its own layer of theoretical and empirical research. Therefore, each discipline has its own theoretical base and its own empirical material, corresponding to a certain region, collected and processed according to a certain methodology.
Thus, an independent sociological discipline is a concept that explains the functioning and development of particular social processes; the field of sociological knowledge, which has as its subject the study of the independent spheres of social life of certain types of social activity and social communities, the laws of their development and functioning.
1.2 Subject, object and categorical apparatus of sociology
politicians
For the sociology of politics, as an independent sociological discipline, it has its own subject, object, and conceptual and categorical apparatus. The sociology of politics is characterized by a focus on the study of power, analysis of political processes from the standpoint of their perception and reflection in the minds and behavior of people. Zh. T. Toshchenko expressed this approach in "Political Sociology" as follows: how deeply, seriously, thoroughly people perceive political processes, how they relate to them and how much they intend to promote or resist them - gives the sociology of politics a qualitative certainty and distinguishes it from other political sciences.
Pierre Bourdieu
Sociology of politics
Introduction to Social Analysis by Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (b. 1930) is one of the greatest French sociologists of our time. His professional biography developed as a gradual ascent to the heights of the sociological Olympus, to his wide recognition by the scientific community and the formation of a separate sociological trend called the "Bourdieu school".
After graduating in 1955 from the Higher Pedagogical School (Ecole normale superieure) majoring in philosophy (Bourdieu's teachers were Althusser and Foucault), he began teaching philosophy at the lyceum in the small town of Moulin, but in 1958 he left for Algeria, where he continued teaching and began research as a sociologist. It is to Algeria, Algerian workers and small entrepreneurs that his first published sociological works are devoted: "Sociology of Algeria" (1961), "Labor and workers in Algeria"(1964). This was followed by a move, first to Lille, and then to Paris, where in 1964 Bourdieu became research director at the Higher Practical Research School (Ecole pratique de hautesétudes). In 1975 he founded and headed the Center for European Sociology, which has extensive international scientific contacts and programs, as well as the journal "Scholarly Works in the Social Sciences" (“Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales”), which is currently, along with the French sociological journal ("Revue française de sociologie"), one of the leading sociological journals in France.
The most important step towards recognition of the merits of Pierre Bourdieu was his election in 1981 as a full member of the French Academy and his receipt of the honorary post of head of the department of sociology at the College de France. Currently, Bourdieu is the author of 26 monographs and dozens of articles published in major scientific journals in France and other countries. His works are translated into all European languages and have a wide resonance in the international scientific community.
General characteristics of the sociological concept of P. Bourdieu
The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu is deeply critical and reflective. His dialectical and sometimes paradoxical thinking is aimed at criticizing not only the social or political reality of the period being lived through, but also sociology itself as a tool for understanding the social world. That is why the sociology of sociology occupies a large place in the works of Bourdieu. Starting with his first books: "The Sociology of Algeria" ( Sociologie de l "Algerie")(1961) "Pedagogical attitude and communication" ( "Rappof pédagogique et Communication") (1965),"The craft of a sociologist" ( "Le Métier de sociologue")(1968) and ending with one and the last - "Answers" ("Reponses")(1992), Pierre Bourdieu constantly analyzes the ontological and social status of sociology in modern society, freedom and predestination in choosing the subject and object of research, independence and political engagement of sociologists.
Drawing the attention of sociologists to the need to apply sociological analysis to sociology itself as one of the areas of the social universe, subject to the same laws as any other area, Bourdieu notes that the activity of a sociologist is guided not only by the goals of cognition, but also by the struggle for one's own position in the scientific community. environment. “A large part of orthodox sociological writings,” he writes, “owe their immediate social success to the fact that they responded to a dominant order, often reduced to an order for tools for the rationalization of governance and domination, or a commission for the ‘scientific’ legitimization of the spontaneous sociology of the dominant.”
Bourdieu is characterized by a deep disregard for interdisciplinary division, which imposes restrictions both on the subject of research and on the methods used. His research combines approaches and techniques from the field of anthropology, history, linguistics, political sciences, philosophy, aesthetics, which he fruitfully applies to the study of such diverse sociological objects as: the peasantry, art, unemployment, the education system, law, science, literature, marriage. - kindred unions, classes, religion, politics, sports, language, housing, intellectuals and the state "top", etc.
When a distinction is drawn between empirical sociology and theoretical sociology, it is usually said that empirical sociology studies real facts and phenomena interpreted within the framework of an abstract model, which is theoretical sociology.
Empirical sociology, based on concrete data, a priori integrated into the social reality it observes, while theoretical sociology in its reasoning tries to take a certain objective “super-reflexive” position, located, as it were, above society. Such a division into empirical and theoretical sociology is absolutely inapplicable to the work of Bourdieu. Rejecting the "non-practical" strategy of theoretical research not involved in social life as "observation of the observer", the author builds his works as a person whose interests are invested in the reality he studies. Therefore, the main thing for Bourdieu is to fix the result produced by the situation of observation on the observation itself. This means a decisive break with the tradition that the theorist "has nothing to do with social reality except to explain it."
The departure from such a “non-invested in social life” strategy of research means, firstly, the explication of the fact that a sociologist cannot occupy a certain unique, distinguished position from which he “sees everything” and whose entire interest is reduced only to a sociological explanation; secondly, the sociologist must move from an external (theoretical) and disinterested understanding of the practices of agents to a practical and directly interested understanding.
“The sociologist opposes the doxosophist by calling into question things that seem obvious ... This deeply shocks the doxosophists, who see a political bias in the fact of refusing to submit, deeply political, expressed in unconscious acceptance common places in the Aristotelian sense of the word: concepts or theses, which are argued, but which are not disputed.
The logic of Bourdieu's research is fundamentally opposed to pure theorizing: as a "practical" sociologist and social critic, he advocates practical thought as opposed to "pure" thought or "theoretical theory." He repeatedly emphasizes in his books that theoretical definitions have no value in themselves unless they can be made to work in empirical research.
Dialectics of the social agent
Introducing agent in contrast to the subject and the individual, Bourdieu seeks to disassociate himself from the structuralist and phenomenological approaches to the study of social reality. He emphasizes that the concept of "subject" is used in widespread ideas about "models", "structures", "rules", when the researcher, as it were, takes an objectivist point of view, seeing in the subject a puppet controlled by the structure, and deprives him of his own activity. . In this case, the subject is considered as one who implements a conscious purposeful practice, obeying a certain rule. Bourdieu's agents, on the other hand, "are not automata tuned like clockwork in accordance with the laws of mechanics, which they do not know." Agents carry out strategies - peculiar systems of practice, driven by a goal, but not consciously directed by this goal. Bourdieu proposes as a basis for explaining the practice of agents not a theoretical concept constructed in order to present this practice as “reasonable” or, even worse, “rational”, but describes the very logic of practice through such phenomena as practical feeling, habitus, strategies. behavior.
One of the basic concepts of Pierre Bourdieu's sociological concept is the concept of habitus, which allows him to overcome the limitations and superficiality of the structural approach and the excessive psychologism of the phenomenological one. Habitus - it is a system of dispositions that generates and structures the agent's practice and representations. It allows the agent to spontaneously navigate the social space and respond more or less adequately to events and situations. Behind this is a huge amount of work on education and upbringing in the process of socialization of the individual, on the assimilation of not only explicit, but also implicit principles of behavior in certain life situations. The interiorization of such life experience, often remaining unconscious, leads to the formation of the agent's readiness and inclination to respond, speak, feel, think in a certain way, and not in another way. Habitus, therefore, “is the product of the characterological structures of a certain class of conditions of existence, i.e., economic and social necessity and family ties, or, more precisely, purely family manifestations of this external necessity (in the form of a division of labor between the sexes, surrounding objects, types of consumption, relations between parents, prohibitions, worries, moral lessons, conflicts, taste, etc.)”.
