Table of Contents

Contributors.

Introduction: Symbolic Power and Democratic Practice.

1 Pointers on Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics.

(Loïc Wacquant).

2 From the King's House to the Reason of State: A Model of the Genesis of the Bureaucratic Field.

(Pierre Bourdieu).

3 The Mystery of Ministry: From Particular Wills to the General Will.

(Pierre Bourdieu).

4 Scholarship with Commitment: On the Political Engagements of Pierre Bourdieu.

(Franck Popupeau and Thierry Discepolo).

5 Ancien Régime Ballots: A Double Historicization of Electoral Practices.

(Olivier Christin).

6 Making the People Speak: On the Social Uses of and Reactions to Opinion Polls.

(Patrick Champagne).

7 Symbolic Power in the Rule of the "State Nobility".

(Loïc Wacquant).

8 The Making and Breaking of the Czechoslovak Political Field.

(Gil Eyal).

9 The Cunning of Imperialist Reason.

(Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant).

Key Writings of Pierre Bourdieu on Democratic Politics.

Index

About the Author

Loïc Wacquant is Professor of Sociology at the University of California-Berkeley and Researcher at the Centre de sociologie européenne-Paris.

Reviews

"Many were surprised during the 1990s by Pierre Bourdieu’s increasingly open and direct engagement in democratic politics. The present collection helps to explain the intellectual roots of this engagement – which lie deep in Bourdieu’s theory – as well as its significance. Both Bourdieu’s contributions to political understanding and this book’s contributions to understanding Bourdieu are of enduring value."
Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council

"Can Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology contribute anything distinctive to our understanding of democratic politics? This scintillating volume answers with a resounding ‘yes,’ as the contributors tease out the as-yet-unappreciated political implications of the French sociologist’s signature concepts."
Nancy Fraser, New School for Social Research