1st Edition

Bourdieu's Theory of Social Fields Concepts and Applications

Edited By Mathieu Hilgers, Eric Mangez Copyright 2015
308 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

308 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

308 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Bourdieu’s theory of social fields is one of his key contributions to social sciences and humanities. However, it has never been subjected to genuine critical examination. This book fills that gap and offers a clear and wide-ranging introduction to the theory. It includes a critical discussion of its methodology and relevance in different subject areas in the social sciences and humanities.... Read more

Introduction to Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Social Fields Mathieu Hilgers and Eric Mangez  Part I: Theoretical Investigations  1.Was Bourdieu a Field Theorist? John Levi Martin and Forest Gregg  2.The Limits of the Field: Elements for a Theory of the Social Differentiation of Activities Bernard Lahire  3. The Field: a Leibnizian Perspective in Sociology Louis Pinto Part II: Education, Culture And Organization  4. Collective Agents in the School Field: Positions, Dispositions and Position-taking, in Educational and Vocational Guidance Géraldine André and Mathieu Hilgers  5.The Literary Field between the State and the Market Gisele Sapiro  6. A Heuristic Tool: On the Use of the Concept of the Field in Two Studies of Culture Julien Duval  Part III: The State And Public Policy  7.The Field of Power and the Relative Autonomy of Social Fields. The Case of Belgium Eric Mangez and Georges Liénard  8. The Fields of Public Policy Vincent Dubois  9.Field Theory and Organizational Power: Four Modes of Influence among Public Policy "Think Tanks" Thomas Medvetz  10. Crafting the Neoliberal State Workfare, Prisonfare and Social Insecurity Loïc Wacquant Afterword: Theory of Fields in the Postcolonial Age Mathieu Hilgers and Eric Mangez

Biography

Mathieu Hilgers is Associate Professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles (Anthropology) and has been visiting researcher in many universities, more recently at Harvard University and University of London (Goldsmiths). His research focuses on the relationship between urbanization, capitalism and state building and discusses theory on globalization, social class and neoliberalism. He has published more than 45 papers in scientific journals and books some of which specifically discuss the work of Bourdieu. His most recent book is Une Ethnographie à l’échelle de la ville (Paris, Karthala, 2009)

Eric Mangez is Professor of Sociology at the University of Louvain (UCL), Belgium, where he teaches sociological theory, research method, and political sociology. He has published several papers and books that exploit Bourdieu’s field theory. He is author of Réformer les contenus d’enseignement. Une sociologie du curriculum (Paris: PUF, 2008) and co-editor of the World Yearbook of Education 2014.