Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action - Hardcover

Bourdieu, Pierre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745616240 ISBN 13: 9780745616247

Publisher: Polity, 1998

Synopsis

This work by Pierre Bourdieu develops the anthropological theory which has formed the basis of his scientific research. It examines a number of key philosophical questions, and places them in a new light.

About this title

Review:

"This is a powerful and archetypal sociology. No aspect of human action or belief escapes demystification." -- BSA Network

From the Back Cover:

In this new volume Pierre Bourdieu - one of the foremost social thinkers of our time - clarifies and elaborates the most fundamental characteristics of his theoretical approach.

Bourdieu's theory is both a relational philosophy of science dedicated to revealing the objective relations which shape and underpin social life, and a philosophy of action which takes account of agents' dispositions as well as the structured situations in which they act. This philosophy of action is condensed in a small number of key concepts - habitus, field, capital - and it is defined by the two-way relationship between the objective structures of social fields and the incorporated structures of the habitus.

The key concepts and assumptions of Bourdieu's approach are exemplified in this volume through a variety of concrete analyses, from a discussion of the formation of the modern state to an account of the family as a site of social reproduction, from an analysis of the economy of symbolic goods to a reflection on the social conditions of political morality.

An excellent and accessible introduction to the work of Bourdieu, Practical Reason will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, politics and philosophy, and throughout the social sciences and humanities generally.

About this edition

• Publisher: Polity
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0745616240
• ISBN 13: 9780745616247
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 168