ABSTRACT
Pierre Bourdieu was born in south-west France in 1930 and died in 2002. He studied at the elite École Normale Supérieure and worked as a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and Collège de France. He is particularly well known for his anthropological study of the Kabyle people in North Africa, which inspired his theory of practice ( Outline of a Theory of Practice (2000a), The Logic of Practice (1999) and Pascalian Meditations (2000b)). He is known for his cultural studies (Distinction (1987)) and his critical studies of the relationship between the education system and power ( Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (Bourdieu & Passeron 1990), Homo Academicus (1988), and The State Nobility (1998a)). Short and precise introductions to Bourdieu: Jenkins (2002) Pierre Bourdieu (Key Sociologists), in which Richard Jenkins, with clarity and insight, gives a critical introduction to Pierre Bourdieu’s work; and Grenfell (2008) Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts , which examines in detail the concepts of field, habitus, capital and symbolic violence/doxa.
