ABSTRACT
This chapter comprises four main sections and offers a positive appraisal of Bourdieu’s approach in the light of various applications and criticisms of his work. The first section gives a very brief outline of the influence of Bourdieu in a range of academic fields; for example, education, cultural studies and art. It focuses on the way his conceptual tools emerged and were employed. It then lists in a fairly systematic way what I have termed ‘misuses’ of Bourdieu; briefly, a range of academic strategies which misinterpret or misapply Bourdieu, and the consequences of each. The third section sketches out the key stages in any Bourdieusian approach to empirical analyses. The aim here is to consider the essential features of theory and practice in Bourdieusian methodology against which various applications may be compared. The chapter is built around an intention to think ‘with’ Bourdieu. However, the last section aims to extend this approach. Rather than insist on a Bourdieusian orthodoxy, the discussion concludes with a consideration of some of the issues involved in adopting such a method.
