Bourdieu, Pierre (1930–2002)

Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist and anthropologist whose substantial and influential body of work traversed disciplines and international boundaries. Born in a remote village in southwestern France and influenced by his experiences in military service in Algeria, Bourdieu's early anthropological works focused on the conflict between tradition and modernization. Breaking with the subjectivism of theorists such as Jean-Paul Sartre but also critiquing the determinist assumptions of structuralism, these studies reveal the beginnings of an approach to social theory focused on practice and reflexivity for which he would later be known. They also demonstrate Bourdieu's desire to investigate the sociopolitical issues of the day, a focus that continued throughout his life and made him a prolific and varied author. In addition to ethnologies of Algeria ...