The Logic of Practice

Pierre Bourdieu

Published by Stanford University Press 1990

The Logic of Practice

Pierre Bourdieu

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503621749

Overview
Contents

About this book

Our usual representations of the opposition between the "civilized" and the "primitive" derive from willfully ignoring the relationship of distance our social science sets up between the observer and the observed. In fact, the author argues, the relationship between the anthropologist and his object of study is a particular instance of the relationship between knowing and doing, interpreting and using, symbolic mastery and practical mastery—or between logical logic, armed with all the accumulated instruments of objectification, and the universally pre-logical logic of practice. In this, his fullest statement of a theory of practice, Bourdieu both sets out what might be involved in incorporating one's own standpoint into an investigation and develops his understanding of the powers inherent in the second member of many oppositional pairs—that is, he explicates how the practical concerns of daily life condition the transmission and functioning of social or cultural forms. The first part of the book, "Critique of Theoretical Reason," covers more general questions, such as the objectivization of the generic relationship between social scientific observers and their objects of study, the need to overcome the gulf between subjectivism and objectivism, the interplay between structure and practice (a phenomenon Bourdieu describes via his concept of the habitus), the place of the body, the manipulation of time, varieties of symbolic capital, and modes of domination. The second part of the book, "Practical Logics," develops detailed case studies based on Bourdieu's ethnographic fieldwork in Algeria. These examples touch on kinship patterns, the social construction of domestic space, social categories of perception and classification, and ritualized actions and exchanges. This book develops in full detail the theoretical positions sketched in Bourdieu's Outline of a Theory of Practice. It will be especially useful to readers seeking to grasp the subtle concepts central to Bourdieu's theory, to theorists interested in his points of departure from structuralism (especially fom Lévi-Strauss), and to critics eager to understand what role his theory gives to human agency. It also reveals Bourdieu to be an anthropological theorist of considerable originality and power.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
BOOK I Critique of Theoretical Reason
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
1 Objectification Objectified Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
2 The Imaginary Anthropology of Subjectivism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
3 Structures, Habitus, Practices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
4 Belief and the Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
5 The Logic of Practice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
6 The Work of Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
7 Symbolic Capital Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
8 Modes of Domination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
9 The Objectivity of the Subjective Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
BOOK II Practical Logics
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
1 Land and Matrimonial Strategies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
2 The Social Uses of Kinship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
3 Irresistible Analogy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Appendix The Kabyle House or the World Reversed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	284
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	320
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	330

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 340
Keywords: Philosophy -- Social Theory; Sociology -- Theory and Methods

eBook

Published: January 21, 2022
ISBN: 9781503621749