Pierre Bourdieu is arguably the most influential sociologist of the
twentieth century, especially since the once common criticisms of his
determinism and reproductionism have receded. Now, however, his
intellectual enterprise faces a new set of challenges unearthed by
decades of sympathetic research: how to conceive the relationship
between society and place, particularly in an increasingly global world;
how to recognize the individual as a product of multiple forces and
pressures; how to make sense of family relations and gender domination;
and, ultimately, how to grasp how we each come to be the unique beings
we are.
This book tackles these challenges head on, starting from the
philosophical core of Bourdieu's sociology and taking in hints and
suggestions across his corpus, to propose a range of novel concepts and
arguments. In the process it outlines a new way of looking at the world
to complement Bourdieu's own - one in which the focus is on the multiple
social structures shaping individuals' everyday lives, not the multiple
individuals comprising a single social structure.