From: "RICHARD FANTASIA" <RFANTASI-AT-ernestine.smith.edu>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 14:53:28 EDT
Subject: Re: nationalism and the political field?


> Date:          Sat, 23 Nov 1996 04:25:40 +0100
> From:          Dirk Jacobs <d.j.a.jacobs-AT-fsw.ruu.nl>
> Subject:       nationalism and the political field?
> To:            bourdieu-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
> Reply-to:      bourdieu-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU

> Dear collegues,
> 
> I`m currently working on a PhD-research project concerning parliamentary
> debate over voting rights for foreign residents (denizens) in the
> Netherlands and Belgium. In function of that project I would like to ask the
> following questions:
> 
> 1) Concerning nationalism and ethnicity...
>          Bourdieu has not written on national minorities nor on ethnicity as
> such, but has published some interesting related work on regionalism (Actes
> de La Recherce en Sciences Sociales, 1980 (35) 63-72) and on group formation
> (Theory and Society, 1985 (14) 723-744). 
>         HAS ANYBODY TRIED TO RELATE BOURDIEU`S IDEAS TO ISSUES OF
> NATIONALITY AND ETHNICITY?
> 
> 2) Concerning political sociology and the political field...
>         If I`m not mistaken Bourdieu has nowhere given a clear definition of
> the political field nor a clear framework in order to study political debates. 
>         DID ANYBODY MANAGE TO DEFINE AND ANALYTICALLY USE THE CONCEPT OF THE
> POLITICAL FIELD IN EMPIRICALLY STUDYING POLiTICAL DEBATES? WHAT COULD BE THE
> USEFULNESS OF BOURDIEU`s CONCEPT OF `FIELD` for POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY or
> POLICY STUDIES?
> 
> sincerely,
> 
> Dirk Jacobs, M.A. (sociology)
> 
> 
> **********************************
> 
> Dirk Jacobs 
> Universiteit Utrecht
> Algemene Sociale Wetenschappen
> Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen
> Postbus 80140
> 3508 Tc Utrecht
> Nederland
> 
> tel 0031-30-2539081 (kantoor)
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>     0031-30-2539280
> e-mail d.j.a.jacobs-AT-fsw.ruu.nl
> homepage: http://huizen.dds.nl/~beleg
> licentiaatsthesis op internet: http://www.dma.be/p/bewoner/utreg
> 
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Dear Dirk Jacobs:

A key work of sociology employing Bourdieu's approach to reconceptualize nationalism 
is Rogers Brubaker, "NATIONALISM REFRAMED: nationhood and the national
question in the New Europe" (Cambridge U. Press, 1996); and see 
Brubaker's earlier book "CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONHOOD IN FRANCE AND 
GERMANY" (Harvard U. Press, 1992).

In response to your query about Bourdieu providing a "definition" of 
the political field: I doubt if you'll find what you're looking for 
because the "definition" of a field is, ultimately, the logic of the 
social relations that constitute it  (and that change that it 
undergoes with respect to that logic), and this is only discovered 
through empirical/theoretical analysis. In other words, the parameters 
or boundaries of a field can not really by "defined" aprior (paradoxically,
 we can only fully figure out what the object of our  analysis is after we
 have thoroughly investigated it). Having said this, let me suggest  Bourdieu's
  book "La noblesse d'etat",  a work that  will probably comes closest to what 
you are seeking. 

Cheers,

Rick Fantasia
Dept. of Sociology
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
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