Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory: Critical Investigations / Edition 1

by Bridget Fowler

Overview

This is the first comprehensive description of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of culture and habitus. Within the wider intellectual context of Bourdieu's work, this book provides a systematic reading of his assessment of the role of ‘cultural capital' in the production and consumption of symbolic goods.

Bridget Fowler outlines the key critical debates that inform Bourdieu's work. She introduces his recent treatment of the rules of art, explains the importance of his concept of capital - economic and social, symbolic and cultural - and defines such key terms as habitus, practice and strategy, legitimate culture, popular art and distinction.

The book focuses particularly on Bourdieu's account of the nature of capit

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803976252
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/08/1997
Series:	Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society , #48
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

PART ONE: INTERPRETATIVE STUDIES
Situating Bourdieu
Cultural Theory and Sociological Perspectives
Bourdieu's Cultural Theory
Bourdieu, Postmodernism, Modernity
The Historical Genesis of Bourdieu's Cultural Theory
PART TWO: CRITICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Bourdieu and Modern Art
The Case of Impressionism
The Popular and the Middlebrow
Bourdieu, the Popular and the Periphery
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

‘This book acknowledges the relative lack of interest in, or the fairly selective reception of, the work of Bourdieu in the Anglo-American world, especially with regard to his sociology of culture. The book is therefore an attempt to introduce Bourdieu's analysis of cultural phenomena (in particular of literature and painting), as well as an invitation to remedy the virtual absence of any critical debate regarding

some of his more antagonistic claims. The author portrays Bourdieu's theory as comprehensive and sophisticated, less idealistic in its reserved attitude towards French post structuralism than it is truly

synthetic in its formulation of classical social theory in the wake of late capitalism. The monograph's inclusion in the series Theory, Culture & Society reflects this concern with the resurgence of interest in

cultural theory within the contemporary domains of social science and of the humanities in general' - Pragmatics

From the Publisher