Date: Mon, 04 Nov 1996 10:08:08 +0100
From: Paul Bayer <pbayer-AT-ibm.net>
Subject: Re: Habitus and Culture Change


George Free wrote:

>         Actually, you could say that Bourdieu's approach is a result of
> his empirical work in the study of traditional society (the Kabyle in
> Algeria).
>         It is important I think to remember the anthropological roots of
> Bourdieu's work. In effect, what he has done is apply anthropological
> methods to the study of modern society--leading him to question some of
> the structuralist biases inherent in anthropology.... and thus creating a
> more general anthropology (science of man).

Hi George,

your remark seems to be a more biographic one. You are right, that the
works who leaded Bourdieu to take his questions were the studies in
Algeria and in Bearn. These studies have demonstrated for him, that a
similar (anthropologic) approach should be possible when investigating
the modern society. Without question there is an anthropologic root
within Bourdieus work.
	But I insist, that for developping his approach, Bourdieu had to study
modern society, that Bourdieu wanted to develop his approach in order to
study modern society. In fact this was his work of the past 30 years.
Without doubts there was a substantial evolvement, enlargement and
strengthening of his concepts within this period.
	It's also true, that Bourdieu regards the separations between different
social sciences (like sociology, history, anthropology) as superfluous
and harmful, that he wants to organize a reciprocal enrichment of these
sciences under the roof of a modernized social science ("science of
man") without these separations.

>         Also, while highly critical of "theoreticist theory," Bourdieu is
> also interested in identifying the invariants in his theory of practice.
> He refers to a "general science of the economy of practices," for
> example, and seeks to identify the invariants of the structure and
> functioning of social fields.

	You are right also with this remark. Identifying the invariants in
their concepts is an interest of nearly all scientist. But Bourdieu
remains critical and sees the danger that someone could take his
concepts and "construct" a "theoreticist" theory. Obviously Bourdieu
himself is working to better outline and explaine the more general
concepts of his approach. That seems to be the target of his last book
"Raisons Practiques, Sur la Theorie de l'Action" -- 1994. There is also
a growing debate between scientists and philosophers over the general
importance and applicability of his concepts (for example in "Critique"
of august/september 1995). But Bourdieu remains cautious in theorizing
his concepts and insists on the reciprocity between sociological
concepts and sociological field work. 

regards, 
Paul Bayer

Munic, Germany
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