Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 12:22:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Patrick Scott <scott931-AT-uidaho.edu>
Subject: Re: The State Nobility




On Sun, 27 Apr 1997, Jon Beasley-Murray wrote:

> I just finished Bourdieu's _The State Nobility_, and have a couple of 
> questions and comments.

Thanks for posting them; it makes me want to look at the book myself!

> 1. I would like to hear what others think of this book, as I haven't heard
> much discussion of it.  I like it a lot, and think it is perhaps his most
> ambitious work, certainly for a while, especially in so far as he is
> trying to discuss the working of the general "field of power."  Still,
> most of the first section is rehashed stuff (mostly from _Home
> Academicus_) and the middle parts (concerning the relations between the
> grandes ecoles and the field of power) are among the most "French"
> analyses he's done, by which I mean that they are only uneasily
> transposable to other national contexts, with distinct and different 
> civil service structures.

There's a section in "An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology" where Bourdieu
addresses the "rehash" level in his works.  As he reconsiders certain
points, he sometimes arrives at the same or slightly different conclusions
which depend on his angle of the day--a historical development that can be
static or dynamic, depending on the topic, his inclinations, and
contemporary approaches to certain topics. At least, that's the way I
remember his explanation of the repetition.

As for transposability, did Bourdieu claim that the field he illustrated
within France was capable of being used as a model for all state-level
societies?  This would seem a bit odd to me, as the understanding of a
field would seem to rely upon the specific positions within it--positions
that should vary from nation to nation. 

-Pat
scott931-AT-uidaho.edu



 

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