Jeremy F. Lane - Bourdieus Politics: Problems and Possiblities

Bourdieus Politics

Bourdieus academic work and his political interventions have always proved controversial, with reactions varying from passionate advocacy to savage critique. In the last decade of his career, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu became involved in a series of high-profile political interventions, defending the cause of striking students and workers, speaking out in the name of illegal immigrants, the homeless and the unemployed, and challenging the incursion of the market into the field of artistic and intellectual production.

This new study presents the first sustained critical analysis of the political implications of Bourdieus sociology. Through a close reading of the political speeches and pronouncements of his later years, Jeremy F. Lane provides a detailed exposition both of Bourdieus critique of neo-liberalism and of his own political position. Bourdieus theory of politics is also brought into critical dialogue with the work of a range of other commentators of a broadly Marxist or post-Marxist orientation who have also intervened in such debates theorists such as Stuart Hall, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Judith Butler, Slavoj iek and Jacques Rancire.

The first sustained analysis of Bourdieus politics will seek to assess the validity of his claims as to the distinctiveness and superiority of his own field theory as a tool of political analysis. It will be of great use to students and researchers in sociology, social theory, cultural studies, French studies and political science.

Jeremy F. Lane is Senior Lecturer in the Department of French at the University of Nottingham. He has published widely on all aspects of the work of Pierre Bourdieu, most notably Pierre Bourdieu: A Critical Introduction.

Routledge Advances in Sociology

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First published 2006
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2006 Jeremy F. Lane

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ISBN10: 0-415-36320-9 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-01357-3 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-36320-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-01357-1 (ebk)

The writing of this book was greatly facilitated by the encouragement and advice I received from a range of colleagues and friends. I should particularly like to thank Susan Brook and Jon Beasley-Murray for the friendship, hospitality and intellectual stimulation they have provided over the past few years. I am grateful to the participants in the Sociology of Culture Reading Group at Nottingham University Alan Aldridge, Meryl Aldridge, Joseph Burridge, Roger Cox, Christian Karner, David Parker, Nick Stevenson and Claire Tinker for inviting me to join their stimulating discussions on areas of social theory, which I would not have explored without their encouragement. I should also like to thank both my colleagues in the French Department at Nottingham University and the AHRC for providing the teaching cover and financial support necessary to allow me to bring this project to completion. Final thanks go to the editors of the journals French Cultural Studies and Paragraph for allowing me to reproduce, in chapters 1 and 2, materials that first appeared, in modified form, as Neo-liberalism as imposition and invasion: problems in Bourdieus politics,