Analysing the work of Schutz, Gurwitsch, Merleau-Ponty and Bourdieu, this book considers the historical development of competing philosophies of social science. It examines the relations between phenomenology, Gestalt psychology and empirical social science in the first half of the twentieth century and then explores the way in which Bourdieu responded to this legacy by advocating a form of reflexive social-scientific investigation, which would remain faithful to primary experience without disowning accumulated intellectualism. The book asks whether the Bourdieu 'paradigm' retains value beyond the French conditions of its production. It offers an analysis of the development of Bourdieu's thought and practice which constitutes an invitation to readers generally to reassess the value of the western tradition of the social function of the detached intellectual for mass democratic societies. -- .

This book seeks to offer a chronological account of the development of Pierre Bourdieu's thinking. It is intended to guide readers towards and through the original texts and attempts to represent the French meaning of Bourdieu, hence the concentration on the French chronology.

"The political and academic worlds are fractured by two competing discourses: the universalism of human rights and cultural relativism. This fracture is represented by the deep separation of cultural analysis and theories of international politics. Derek Robbins in a brilliant interrogation of European thinkers from Montesquieu to Pierre Bourdieu seeks to replace cultural relativism with cultural relationism as a step towards reconciling Enlightenment universalism and anthropological insistence on cultural difference. Inter alia he reflects on the tensions between political and social science and takes up the challenge from Raymond Aron to construct a sociology of international relations. A dazzling achievement." - Bryan S. Turner, The Graduate Center, CUNY Through historical studies of some of the work of Montesquieu, Comte, Durkheim, Boas, Morgenthau, Aron and Bourdieu, Derek Robbins examines the changing and competing conceptualisations of the political and the social in the Western European intellectual tradition. He suggests that we are now experiencing a new 'dissociation of sensibility' in which political thought and its consequences in action have become divorced from social and cultural experience. Developing further the ideas of Bourdieu which he has presented in books and articles over the last twenty years, Robbins argues that we need to integrate the recognition of cultural difference with the practice of international politics by accepting that the 'field' of international political discourse is a social construct which is contingent on encounters between diverse cultures. 'Everything is relative' (Comte) and 'everything is social' (Bourdieu), not least international politics.

Pierre Bourdieu is on the leading socialologists of the present day and this book provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date description of Bourdieu's key concepts, some previously unavailable to English readers. It demonstrates why Bourdieu's ideas remain central in contemporary sociology and it trades their connections with wider social thought. An accessible and readable imtroduction to Bourdieu's work, this book places him in intellectual and historical context, and shows how Bourdieu is best understood as a cultural analyst. It traces his development from his early work on education to his relationship to cultural sociology and cultural studies. The Book also gives detailed examples, drawn from Bourdieu's own work, to show how he makes sense of contemporary culture. Derek Robbins wrote the first full-length introduction to Bourdieu's work in English in 1991. This new book is the product of mature reflection on the relevance and importance of Bourdieu's thought.