Introduction : Bourdieu and the literary field

Pierre Bourdieu’s range as a thinker was extremely wide, and it would be misleading to present him primarily as a literary theorist. Trained as a philosopher, he became the leading French sociologist of his generation, and brought under the spotlight of his ‘critical sociology’ a whole series of institutional and discursive universes (education, art, linguistics, public administration, politics, philosophy, journalism, economics and others). Far from representing an intellectual dispersal, these manifold objects of enquiry allowed him to develop and refine a comprehensive theory of social process and power-relations based on distinctive concepts such as ‘field’, ‘habitus’, variously conceived notions of ‘capital’, and ‘illusio’ (all these concepts and others will be explicated and assessed in this issue). Yet Bourdieu’s analyses were scarcely ever received as neutral descriptions within the fields which he analysed. Bourdieu’s abiding agenda was to show how the discursive presuppositions and institutional logics at work in such fields carried but also masked certain social logics that a ‘critical sociology’ could disclose. Coupled with the inveterately combative drive seldom absent from Bourdieu’s objectifying analyses—and even setting aside the misprisions to which an external analyst is inevitably subject—this helps explain the resistance which his work recurrently provoked. In this respect, Bourdieu’s forays into the world of literary studies and his reception therein can be seen as part of a wider pattern

The habitus and the critique of the present. A Wittgensteinian reading of Bourdieu’s social theory

I tackle some major criticisms addressed to Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus by foregrounding its affinities with Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notion of rule-following. To this end, I first clarify the character of the habitus as a theoretical device, and then elucidate what features of Wittgenstein’s analysis Bourdieu found of interest from a methodological viewpoint. To vindicate this reading, I contend that Wittgenstein’s discussion of rule-following was meant to unearth the internal connection between rules and the performative activities whereby rules are brought into life. By portraying rules as tools that allow agents to stabilize and renegotiate practices, I illustrate the active role social agents play in the production of shared accounts of practices. I conclude by showing that, if viewed through this prism, the habitus proves to be meant to provide guidance on how social theory helps historicize and denaturalize the social world

Η δύναμη του δικαίου: στοιχεία για μια κοινωνιολογία του νομικού πεδίου

[Δε διατίθεται περίληψη / no abstract available

As Ciências Sociais e a Filosofia

By taking Philosophy and its history as object, Sociology can contribute to the efforts of Philosophy to free itself from the constraints that determine it. Philosophy tends to resolve the antinomy of historicity and truth by updating past works through commentary. This presupposes more or less complete denial of historicity. Such refusal is common to the three ways of explicitly dealing with such antinomy: the primal revelation (Heidegger), the retrospective construction of past philosophies as theoretical possibilities (Kant), and the Dialectics which transcends and conserves (Hegel). A genuine social history that relocated philosophy in the field of cultural production and in the social field as a whole would make it possible to understand philosophies and their succession as something other than the "philosophizing philosophy of history" and, at the same time, would enable present-day philosophers to free themselves from the established "un-thought" inscribed into their heritage.Tomando la Filosofía y su historia como objeto, la Sociología puede ofrecer una contribución a lo esfuerzo de aquella asignatura para se libertar de los limites que la determinan. La Filosofía tiende a solucionar la antinomia de la historicidad y de la verdad procediendo, a través de lo comentario, a una actualización de las obras pasadas, lo cual supone una negación mas o menos completa de la historicidad. Las tres maneras de tratar explícitamente esta antinomia — la revelación originaria (Heidegger), la construcción retrospectiva de las filosofías pasadas como posibilidades teóricas (Kant) y la dialéctica que sobrepasa y preserva (Hegel) — tienen en común la recusa de la historia. Una verdadera historia social, la cual reposicionaría la filosofía en el campo de la producción cultural y en el campo social en su conjunto, permitiría comprender las filosofías y su sucesión mas allá de la "filosofía filosofante de la historia", a la vez que permitiría a los filósofos del presente se liberaren de lo impensado instituido lo cual está inscripto en su herencia.Tomando a Filosofia e sua história por objeto, a Sociologia pode oferecer uma contribuição ao esforço desta disciplina para se liberar dos limites que a determinam. A Filosofia tende a solucionar a antinomia da historicidade e da verdade procedendo, por meio do comentário, a uma atualização das obras passadas, o que supõe uma negação mais ou menos completa da historicidade. As três maneiras de tratar explicitamente esta antinomia – a revelação originária (Heidegger), a construção retrospectiva das filosofias passadas como possibilidades teóricas (Kant) e a dialética que ultrapassa e conserva (Hegel) – têm em comum a recusa da história. Uma verdadeira história social, que recolocasse a Filosofia no campo da produção cultural e no campo social em seu conjunto, permitiria compreender as filosofias e sua sucessão para além da "filosofia filosofante da história", ao mesmo tempo em que permitiria aos filósofos do presente liberar-se do impensado instituído que está inscrito em sua herança