Synopses & Reviews
Power is the central organizing principle of all social life, from culture and education to stratification and taste. And there is no more prominent name in the analysis of power than that of noted sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Throughout his career, Bourdieu challenged the commonly held view that symbolic power—the power to dominate—is solely symbolic. He emphasized that symbolic power helps create and maintain social hierarchies, which form the very bedrock of political life. By the time of his death in 2002, Bourdieu had become a leading public intellectual, and his argument about the more subtle and influential ways that cultural resources and symbolic categories prevail in power arrangements and practices had gained broad recognition. In
Symbolic Power, Politics, and Intellectuals, David L. Swartz delves deeply into Bourdieus work to show how central—but often overlooked—power and politics are to an understanding of sociology. Arguing that power and politics stand at the core of Bourdieus sociology, Swartz illuminates Bourdieus political project for the social sciences, as well as Bourdieus own political activism, explaining how sociology is not just science but also a crucial form of political engagement.
Review
'This beautifully written and lucidly argued study is the most persuasive account of Bourdieu's work yet to be published. Lane illuminates much that can puzzle a foreign readership by expertly situating Bourdieu within a French context. At the same time he points to those aspects of Bourdieu's writing which are of particular relevance to contemporary debates on questions of citizenship and globalization. He gives a fascinating account of Bourdieu's astonishingly prescient analyses of the impact of the expansion of higher education, the influence of the mass media, the growth of the culture industries, and the changing nature of political and social elites, not just in France, but in the western world.' --Professor Jill Forbes, Queen Mary and Westfield, University of London
Review
"Symbolic Power, Politics, and Intellectuals represents a major step forward in the ongoing task of coming to terms with the legacy of Pierre Bourdieu. David Swartz makes a compelling case that Bourdieu has much to offer both the field of political sociology and the study of power.”
Review
“In Symbolic Power, Politics, and Intellectuals, David Swartz makes a convincing case that the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu is indispensable for understanding politics. Swartz helpfully outlines Bourdieus distinctive contribution to the study of power, the political field, and the state, and offers a rich account of Bourdieus view on the relationship between politics and sociology. Evenhanded and exceptionally clear, Symbolic Power, Politics, and Intellectuals should be on the reading list of every sociologist concerned with poetical life."
Synopsis
This study of the work of the influential French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu places his work firmly in the context of developments both in the French post-war intellectual field an din post-war French society as a whole. Set against the background of rapid change and upheaval that has characterised post-war French society, culture and politics, Bourdieu's work can be seen as offering a peculiarly perceptive analysis of France's problematic transition to an era of late capitalism. Proceeding thematically, this study traces the development of Bourdieu's thought, elucidating the relationship between the anthropological and sociological aspects of his work, examining his debt to Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty and Bachelard, and highlighting his antagonistic relationship with a series of contemporary intellectual figures and movements - Barthes, Lefebvre, Touraine, Sartre, Fanon, Foucault, Derrida, structuralism and post-structuralism.
Synopsis
A new major critical introduction to Bourdieu, looking at the full range of his work in its historical and intellectual context.
Synopsis
... brilliantly original ... brings cultural and post-colonial theory to bear on a wide range of authors with great skill and sensitivity.' Terry Eagleton
About the Author
John A Walker recently retired as Reader in Art and Design History at Middlesex University. The author of a number of books on art theory and aspects of popular culture, his other Pluto press titles include Cultural Offensive: America's Impact on British Art since 1945, and Art and Outrage: Provocation, Controversy and the Avant Garde.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Reading Bourdieu as a Political Sociologist
Chapter 2. Forms of Power in Bourdieu’s Sociology
Chapter 3. Capitals and Fields of Power
Chapter 4. For a Sociology of Symbolic Power
Chapter 5. Bourdieu’s Analysis of the State
Chapter 6. For an Intellectual Politics of Symbolic Power
Chapter 7. Critical Sociologist and Public Intellectual
Chapter 8. For Democratic Politics
References
Index