Sociology Is a Martial Art. Political Writings by Pierre Bourdieu

Sociology Is a Martial Art
Political Writings by Pierre Bourdieu
Edited by Gisèle Sapiro
The New Press
2010

Praise for the work of Pierre Bourdieu:
Bourdieu once again selects the right targets and, as always, has much to say that is incisive and enlightening.
—Noam Chomsky

Bourdieu has developed one of the most powerful and heuristically promising approaches to human reality.
—Paul Rabinow


Présentation de l'éditeur
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL: AN ESSENTIAL COLLECTION OF POLITICAL ESSAYS, INTERVIEWS, AND LECTURES BY THE PIONEERING FRENCH SOCIOLOGIST, IN THE TRADITION OF THE BESTSELLING THE CHOMSKY-FOUCAULT DEBATE

The most convincing embodiment of the politically active intellectual since Jean-Paul Sartre or Michel Foucault.
—The Times (London)
Pierre Bourdieu was one of the most influential intellectuals of our times, a leading dissident sociologist who “assumed a public role in the tradition of Émile Zola and Jean-Paul Sartre” (New York Times). A 2007 Times of London survey of the most cited authors in the humanities ranked Bourdieu second only to Michel Foucault, ahead of every other noted thinker of the past century. Bourdieu’s writings helped inspire the mass movements against neoliberalism and globalization, and his books have been translated into dozens of languages, decisively shaping the way the world
thinks about the changes wrought by the new global economy.

Sociology Is a Martial Art is an accessible survey of this seminal thinker’s most influential writings. It includes the full text of his short books Acts of Resistance, Firing Back, and On Television, in addition to key articles, interviews, and speeches, all of which introduce the reader to Bourdieu’s innovative approach to sociology as a mode of political intervention. Edited and with an introduction by noted French sociologist Gisèle Sapiro, Sociology Is a Martial Art will become this generation’s indispensable introduction to Bourdieu’s work.

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) was one of the most influential social scientists of the twentieth century. A professor of sociology at the Collège de France, he is the author of thirty-six books, including Distinction, named one of the twentieth century’s ten most important works of sociology. Gisèle Sapiro is a sociologist at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). She is a former student of Pierre Bourdieu and lives in Paris.