Summary
Pierre Bourdieu's "The Logic of Practice" argues that social scientific observation is not neutral but a specific instance of the broader relationship between knowing and doing, logical logic, and the pre-logical logic of practice. The book explicates how the practical concerns of daily life condition the transmission and functioning of social and cultural forms. Bourdieu seeks to overcome the gulf between subjectivism and objectivism by objectifying the relationship between observer and observed, and by understanding the powers inherent in practical mastery over symbolic mastery.
The book develops theoretical positions from "Outline of a Theory of Practice," examining the interplay between structure and practice through the concept of habitus. It explores kinship patterns, the social construction of domestic space, social categories of perception and classification, and ritualized actions and exchanges based on ethnographic fieldwork in Algeria. Readers gain insight into Bourdieu's departure from structuralism, his view on human agency, and his nuanced concepts central to his theory.
Key concepts
- Habitus — A concept describing the interplay between structure and practice.
- Symbolic capital — A form of capital, distinct from economic or social capital.
- Objectivization of the generic relationship — Making the observer's relationship to their object of study explicit.
- Pre-logical logic of practice — The universally inherent logic that guides practical action in daily life.
- Social categories of perception and classification — The ways in which societies categorize and perceive their world.
From the book
Description: Our usual representations of the opposition between the "civilized" and the "primitive" derive from willfully ignoring the relationship of distance our social science sets up between the observer and the observed. In fact, the author argues, the relationship between the anthropologist and his object of study is a particular instance of the relationship between knowing and doing, interpreting and using, symbolic mastery and practical masteryor between logical logic, armed with all the accumulated instruments of objectification, and the universally pre-logical logic of practice. In this, his fullest statement of a theory of practice, Bourdieu both sets out what might be involved in incorporating one's own standpoint into an investigation and develops his understanding of the…
Snippet: This book develops in full detail the theoretical positions sketched in Bourdieu's Outline of a Theory of Practice.