The Oxford Handbook of Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre Bourdieu was arguably the most important social theorist of the twentieth century. A French sociologist, he produced during his lifetime scores of empirical studies that laid the foundation for a rich theoretical program. These included studies of French colonialism in Algeria, the education system in France, new forms of state power, and the rise of autonomous artistic and scientific fields. Bourdieu’s research program was grounded in concepts such as habitus, field, forms of capital, and symbolic domination. Although most of these concepts have long historical legacies, Bourdieu elaborated conjoined them in an entirely originzal way, This Handbook assesses Pierred Bourdieu’s legacy from the standpoint of the early twenty-first century. It brings together a diverse array of contributors who consider how Bourdieu has advanced research and thinking in a variety of fields and areas. In particular, it considers how Bourdieu’s work has been appropriated for study in various regions of the world; how scholars have used Bourdieu to understand emergent transnational phenomena; how Bourdieu’s ideas have reshaped various disciplines and subfields; the ways in which Bourdieu’s concepts are embedded in long-standing theoretical traditions and debates; and the many ways in which Bourdieu’s research has generated entirely new fields and objects of study.