The basic theoretical position

Cheleen Mahar

Richard Harker

Chris Wilkes

pp. 1-25

in: Richard Harker, Cheleen Mahar, Chris Wilkes (eds), An introduction to the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1990

Abstract

The contribution which Pierre Bourdieu has made to the social sciences has been in his attempt to construct a general theory of practice. This has been established through the creation of a method with which we may grasp the many levels of practical life, using an economic metaphor. Taken as a whole, his work provides novel and often persuasive alternatives for dealing with some of the major problems which beset the work of contemporary Anglo-American social scientists. In particular such problems are due to the (apparently) irreconcilable perspectives of objectivism and subjectivism. The intention of Bourdieu's work can be seen to transcend this opposition between two conceptions of scientific knowledge and to transform them into a dialectical relationship between structure and agency.^l

Cited authors

Bourdieu Pierre