PRACTICAL REASON

In this new volume Pierre Bourdieu -- one of the foremost social thinkers of our
time -- clarifies and elaborates the most fundamental characteristics of his th
eoretical approach. Bourdieu's theory is both a relational philosophy of science
dedicated to revealing the objective relations which shape and underpin social
life, and a philosophy of action which takes account of agentsa' dispositions as
well as the structured situations in which they act. This philosophy of action
is condensed in a small number of key concepts -- habitus, field, capital -- and
it is defined by the two--way relationship between the objective structures of
social fields and the incorporated structures of the habitus.