The Logic of Practice,   ISBN:9780804720113

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Bourdieu followed a strange organization for this book. The first part is an exposition of his theoretical / philosophical suppositions. The second part is an application of his ideas as applied to anthropology. Anthropologists may find passages in the second part to be brilliant (I have heard some praise Bourdieu's analysis of home-building in small villages in northern Africa). Since I am one of those many "cross-over" readers who read Bourdieu and try to assimilate his ideas into other academic disciplines, I found the second part dull, especially since it dealt with the anthropological analysis of an obscure community of "non-western" people living in northern Africa. To get a flavor of Bourdieu qua working sociologist, a book like Distinction, or Homo Academicus is much more readable and relevant.

On the other hand, the first part of the book contains what I consider the "meat". In part one, Bourdieu attempts to present, in its fullest and most abstact expression, a philosophical system which gives impetus to his work as a sociologist, as an analyst of "practice". In part One we find the "objective-subjective" arguments, habitus, doxa, and all sorts of reference to strange concepts like "structured structuring structures" of the mind. (I wonder what that is?) One noteworthy part of Part One is Bourdieu's discussion of the body, the body's relation to the habitus etc and how people use their bodies as a function of the habitus. Missing, however, are in depth discussions of language, symbolic power, fields, or the idea of cultural capital which make some of Bourdieu's other writings so interesting to non-anthropologists.

One last note: if you are familiar with "Outline of a Theory of Practice" you will find that this book bears a strong resemblance to the aforementioned. This book, in fact, appears to be Bourdieu's effort, 20 years after the publication of "Outline" to revisit the same material, address some of the original objections and challenges made to "Outline" and otherwise refine the expression of his ideas. If you are looking for a document that captures in one place the current state of affairs of Bourdieu's philosophical/anthropological program, look to this document rather than the "outline" since much Bourdieu's ideas are more completely and currently expressed here. Also, if Bourdieu is a new writer to you, this is a very poor first Bourdieu book to read, however. Everything that is wrong with Bourdieu's writing style is exponentially exagerated in this text. Once you are used to Bourdieu's style and ideas, however, this book can become an invaluable resource.