ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Bourdieu’s critique of contemporary society—particularly of neoliberalism and globalization—and his views on how to resist. While the Algerian experience marked a turning point in Bourdieu’s career which we will discuss shortly, it is important to realise that Bourdieu’s early philosophical training oriented him in a particular way towards the major debates in French intellectual life in the years to come. A conspicuous feature of the institutional context of Bourdieu’s education was its elitist status, including the lycees attended, enrolment at the Ecole Normale Superior, the study of philosophy which for long had occupied in France the highest rung of the ladder of academic prestige, and the taking of an Agrege, considered to be the best guarantee of material security for the French academic. A close look at Bourdieu’s theory of practice and the related theory of the symbolic reveals the critical intent of his intellectual project.
