Pierre Bourdieu & Loic Wacquant - An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology
Chapter One - Toward a Social Praxeology: The Structure and Logic of Bourdieu’s Sociology
(Wacquant)
● Bourdieu sought to jettison a bunch of dichotomies that are recognised in social science
■ objective/subjective
■ structure/agency
■ micro/macro-analysis
○ but in order to understand his work it must be examined as a whole, and
not compartmentalized
1. Beyond the Antimony of Social Physics and Social Phenomenology
● For B, sociology must uncover buried structures that constitute the social universe, and
the mechanisms that ensure their reproduction or transformation
○ structures exist in two forms:
■ the objectivity of the first order - the distribution of
material resources, means of appropriation of goods/values etc (social physics
e.g. structuralism)
● analysis on this axis reveals the
determinate relations within which people produce their existence,
explains regularities and conformity
● BUT without a principle of the
generation of regularities, it slips from the model to reality; its structures
are seen as autonomous, acting agents
○ a scholastic vision of
practice is imposed upon agents
○ individuals/groups are
seen as props of a mechanically determined system
■ objectivity of the second order - systems of
classification; mental and bodily schemata that function as templates for the
practical activities of social agents
(subjectivism/constructivism/ethnomethodology/rational choice)
● consciousness/interpretations of agents
also constitute the reality of the social world - individuals have practical
knowledge of the world
○ mundane knowledge,
subjective meaning and practical competency play a role in the
production of society
● BUT this approach cannot account for
the resilience or rejection of certain objective configurations
○ nor can it explain
according to what principles social reality is produced - i.e. the
categories that agents use in its construction
■ a science of society must account for both
Chapter One - Toward a Social Praxeology: The Structure and Logic of Bourdieu’s Sociology
(Wacquant)
● Bourdieu sought to jettison a bunch of dichotomies that are recognised in social science
■ objective/subjective
■ structure/agency
■ micro/macro-analysis
○ but in order to understand his work it must be examined as a whole, and
not compartmentalized
1. Beyond the Antimony of Social Physics and Social Phenomenology
● For B, sociology must uncover buried structures that constitute the social universe, and
the mechanisms that ensure their reproduction or transformation
○ structures exist in two forms:
■ the objectivity of the first order - the distribution of
material resources, means of appropriation of goods/values etc (social physics
e.g. structuralism)
● analysis on this axis reveals the
determinate relations within which people produce their existence,
explains regularities and conformity
● BUT without a principle of the
generation of regularities, it slips from the model to reality; its structures
are seen as autonomous, acting agents
○ a scholastic vision of
practice is imposed upon agents
○ individuals/groups are
seen as props of a mechanically determined system
■ objectivity of the second order - systems of
classification; mental and bodily schemata that function as templates for the
practical activities of social agents
(subjectivism/constructivism/ethnomethodology/rational choice)
● consciousness/interpretations of agents
also constitute the reality of the social world - individuals have practical
knowledge of the world
○ mundane knowledge,
subjective meaning and practical competency play a role in the
production of society
● BUT this approach cannot account for
the resilience or rejection of certain objective configurations
○ nor can it explain
according to what principles social reality is produced - i.e. the
categories that agents use in its construction
■ a science of society must account for both
