Pierre Bourdieu: Sociology as a "World Vision"

This chapter seeks to provide a general introduction to Bourdieu's work and its context. Bourdieu argues that sociology offers a fartruer vision of the world than does "philosophy" especially given the latter'stendency to indulge in grandiose "prophetic" and "metaphysical" posturing. But for all this, "science" is never neutral in Bourdieu's view, there arealways interests at stake, whether they are the interests of truth or power.Thus the sociologist only produces the "truth" because he has an interest orinvestment in truth. In his works Distinction and Homo Academicus all artistic,intellectual and educational enterprise become primarily the means ofreinforcing social distinction and positions within institutional hierarchies.All social interaction is, in the end, reduced to relations betweendominators and dominated. To aspire to be educated is ultimately no morethan to aspire to a more elevated position in the social hierarchy. Anyresistance to the status quo becomes no more than the consequence of socialmisplacement, the inability, for whatever reason, to find one's "natural" andsocially preordained niche in the social body. But for all the limitations of Bourdieu's point of view, I would like to draw attention to what is perhaps the moststriking and valuable aspect of Bourdieu's work, namely his ability to apply"very abstract schemas to very concrete things", and his ability to detectthe mundane everyday world of concrete objects and practices in the most"noble" and "elevated" systems of thought. It is the interplay betweenthe humdrum monotony of everyday social interaction and the most abstract offerings of "high culture" that traverses all of Bourdieu's work that makes itone of the most fascinating and enlightening reflections on the relationbetween the social world and its cultural institutions to emerge in recentyears