Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 20:58:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: George Free <aw570-AT-freenet.toronto.on.ca>
Subject: Re: Sociology or epistemology ?


On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Eric Fertain wrote:

> The next point is what are the uses of Pierre Bourdieu in the English
> speaking world or rather american academic world ? Is he another french
> "post-modern" thinker that can be use to legitimate political positions
> in the american context ? there is a "foucaldization process" whith
> Bourdieu now in america,  no ? 
> Can you made for the french reader a sociological analysis to the
> reception of Pierre Bourdieu in each country an specialy in America ?
> 
	The beginings of such an analysis can be found in Loic Wacquant's 
excellent introduction to An Invitation to Reflexive sociology (1992).
	Wacquant writes:
	Thus, to simplify greatly, the assimilation of Bourdieu's writings
in the English-speaking world has so far proceeded around three main
nodes, each anchored by one of his major books. Specialists in education
gather around Reproduction inEducation... , anthropologist concentrate on
Bourdieu's ethnographies.... in Outline of A Theory of Practice, while
sociologists of culture, aesthetics, and class fasten on Distinction. Each
group of interpreters typically ignores the others, so that few have
discerned the organic connections, theoretical and substantive, that link
Bourdieu's wide-ranging inquirries into these and other domains. As a
result, despite the recent flurry of translations and the now-extensive
and fast-profliferating secondary literature that has burgeoned around his
writings, Bourdieu remains something of an intellectual enigma. p. 4-5. 

	I don't think Bourdieu will suffer the same "postmodern" fate as
Foucault in America. Postmodernism is largely the product of literary
critics and those sociologists who criticise "positivist" sociology in the
name of some kind of literary-philosophical view of sociological
interpretation. While aspects of Foucault's work lend itself to this,
Bourdieu's work is far more resistant. Most "anti-positivist,"
"postmodern" types tend to view Bourdieu's approach as reductionist; in 
other words they see in it another version of "positivism"... Thus they 
continue with the perrenial philosophical critique of social science.
	That said, I have run across some attempts to read Bourdieu in a 
postmodern style, but I don't think its catching on or becoming fadish. 	That said, there is some effort to tur
Does this correspond with others' views?
	Hopefully, the reception of Bourdieu's work will reinforce the
healthy trend in literary-cultural studies towards a socio-historical
interpretation of cultural products. There is some evidence that it is. 

George Free

Toronto Canada
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