Primers on Bourdieu

March 9, 2015 12:13 PM

I'm interested in becoming more familiar with Bourdieu's ideas of habitas, fields, and forms of capital. I'd like to start with a primer book, or perhaps a collection of essays, that go over his ideas. Can you recommend one that covers these main ideas, frames them in terms of contemporary theorists, and is fairly accessible?
posted by codacorolla to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

Best answer: David Swartz's pretty recent work entitled "Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu" is not bad.
posted by clockzero at 12:42 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology is great.
posted by otio at 12:59 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you're looking for a real "primer" then Understanding Bourdieu by Jennifer Webb, Tony Schirato and Geoff Danaher might fit the bill. It's pitched at undergraduate students.
posted by yoink at 1:05 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology is indeed great, but I would mention that Bourdieu and Wacquant (one of his students, now a very prominent sociologist in his own right) are rather devoted to their...well, they would object to "methodology," so let's just say their way of doing things, so a book written by them about their own work might lack a certain outside perspective that could be valuable in a situation like this.
posted by clockzero at 1:12 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Also, and I hope this isn't unhelpful, but if you want some personal attention to questions like "What the hell does Bourdieu mean by phrases like 'structurated structures that structure structuration?'" then feel free to message me.
posted by clockzero at 1:17 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you're interested in the library & information science perspective on Bourdieu, there's a chapter on him in Critical Theory for Library and Information Science.

Reijo Savolainen was I believe the first person to try to bring in Bourdieu's idea of habitus to LIS research, with respect to everyday life information seeking. Personally, I found myself having to go and read the original Bourdieu to fully understand the concept. I also found Michel de Certeau's discussion of Bourdieu in The Practice of Everyday Life quite helpful.
posted by research monkey at 2:04 PM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Personally, I found myself having to go and read the original Bourdieu to fully understand the concept.

In my opinion, the value of this approach is very significant as an adjunct (heh) to reading summary analyses with someone like Bourdieu.
posted by clockzero at 5:57 PM on March 9, 2015