Sociological analysis and socio-political change: juxtaposing elements of the work of Bourdieu, Passeron and Lyotard

I examine the development of Bourdieu’s thinking in its historical context. Of course, by taking this historical approach I am tacitly myself taking a position on the status of social scientific explanation which can be situated with reference to the conflicting positions of Bourdieu and Passeron. In the process, I shall also attempt to advance a position which benefits from the philosophical insights in the work of Jean-François Lyotard. I shall suggest that Bourdieu responded to the critiques of sociology which were current at the time of the ‘May events’ of 1968, particularly those of Althusser and his followers, that the discipline was an instrument of bourgeois political domination, by adapting his ‘objective’ social anthropological analyses of Algerian social organisation so that they might become the bases for participative, subjective, socio-political action.

Citation:
Robbins, D. (2011) ‘Sociological analysis and socio-political change. Juxtaposing elements of the work of Bourdieu, Passeron and Lyotard’ in Benson, M. and Munro, R. (eds.) Sociological routes and political roots: critical essays. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 117-134. [Sociological Review Monograph Series].