An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology Pierre Bourdieu and Loic Wacquant

In Part I, Loic Wacquant provides a clear and systematic account of the main themes of Bourdieu’s work, outlining his conception of knowledge, his theory of practice and his distinctive methods of analysis. Part II takes the form of an extended dialogue in which Bourdieu and Wacquant discuss the key concepts of Bourdieu’s work, confront some criticisms and objections, and develop Bourdieu’s views on the relations between sociology, philosophy, history and politics.

In Part III Bourdieu displays his sociological approach in practice: beginning with the practical demands of research, he moves, step by step, to a formulation of the principles of sociological reason.

Supplemented by an extensive and up-to-date bibliography, this book will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand Bourdieu’s unique and outstanding contribution to contemporary social thought.

"This book originates in my encounter with a group of doctoral students in sociology, anthropology, and political science at the University of Chicago who had organized, under the guidance of Loic Wacquant, a semester-long seminar on my work. When I came to Chicago in the Spring of 1988,1 was given in advance a long list of questions, observations, and objections at once meticulous, precise, and well grounded, and we discussed "toe-to-toe," in an atmosphere of great kindness, what are in my eyes the most fundamental issues of my research. The game of question and answer then continued and expanded in the form of interviews and dialogues held, over several months, in Chicago and Paris, with an always equally demanding and penetrating Loic Wacquant."