ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of his scholarly endeavours, Bourdieu’s conception of society has integrated ‘the economic dimension’ as a central element. The ‘economic order’ was for him an object of empirical study, but it was also a permanent source of theoretical reflection, which could be transferred to other domains, such as education and culture. Even though his work is closely connected to, sometimes directly inspired by, economics, he develops a separate and autonomous set of analytical tools, which in return may be used to renew the analysis of economic realities, provided they are applied with a clear awareness of contexts and historical conditions. We begin by presenting the genesis of Bourdieu’s sociology and its main concepts to show how Bourdieu contributed to the empirical knowledge of the economic field. Then we present its basic theoretical points as regards the economic field.
