Pierre Bourdieu

Pierre-Félix Bourdieu (August 1, 1930 - January 23, 2002) was one of the best known French sociologists. He was born in Denguin[?]. From 1962 to 1983 he was married to Marie-Claire Brizard.

Bourdieu studied philosophy in Paris at the École Normale Supérieure[?]. He worked as a teacher. Afterwards (1958-1960) he did research in Algeria, laying the groundwork for his sociological reputation. Since 1981, Bourdieu held a chair at the Collège de France[?]. In 1993 he was honored with the "Médaille d'or du Centre National Recherche Scientifique".

His work was grounded in the everyday life and can be seen as cultural sociology[?]. He coined the terms habitus, field, and extended Karl Marx's term capital into categories of economic capital[?], social capital, symbolic capital[?] and cultural capital.

He was also known as a politically interested and active leftist intellectual, working against the influences of political elites[?] and neoliberal capitalism.

Bourdieu's work

• La distinction (1979)
• Homo Academicus (1984)
• La Noblesse d'État (1989)
• La Misère du monde (1993)