Confined in their governmental ivory towers, their actions largely dictated by public opinion polls, politicians and state officials are all too often oblivious to the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. These persons, who often experience so much hardship in their lives, have few ways to make themselves heard and are obliged either to protest outside official frameworks or remain locked in the silence of their despair. . Under the direction of Pierre Bourdieu, France’s foremost sociologist, a team of 22 researchers spent three years studying and analyzing the new forces of social suffering that characterize contemporary societies—the daily suffering of those denied the means of acquiring a socially dignified existence and of those poorly adjusted to the rapidly changing conditions of their lives. Social workers, teachers, policemen, factory workers, white-collar clerks, farmers, artisans, shopkeepers—no one seems to be immune from the frustrations of today’s life, not to speak of the institutions of the family, work, and education. . The book can be read like a series of short stories, which include: a steel worker who was laid off after 20 years and now struggles to support his family on unemployment benefits and a part-time job; a trade unionist who finds his goals undermined by the changing nature of work; a family from Algeria living in a housing tract on the outskirts of Paris who must cope with pervasive forms of racism; and a schoolteacher confronted with urban violence. Reading these stories enables one to register these people’s lives and the forms of social suffering that infuse them. . The original publication of this book was a major social and political event in France, where it topped the best-seller list and triggered a widespread public debate on inequality, politics, and civic solidarity. It offers not only a distinctive method for analyzing social life, but another way of practicing politics.

Over the last three decades, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has produced one of the most imaginative and subtle bodies of social theory and research of the post war era. Yet, despite the influence of his work, no single introduction to his wide-ranging "oeuvre" is available. This book, intended for an English-speaking audience, offers a systematic and accessible overview, providing interpretive keys to the internal logic of Bourdieu's work by explicating thematic and methodological principles underlying his work. The structure of Bourdieu's theory of knowledge, practice, and society is first dissected by Loï c Wacquant; he then collaborates with Bourdieu in a dialogue in which they discuss central concepts of Bourdieu's work, confront the main objections and criticisms his work has met, and outline Bourdieu's views of the relation of sociology to philosophy, economics, history, and politics. The final section captures Bourdieu in action in the seminar room as he addresses the topic of how to practice the craft of reflexive sociology. Throughout, they stress Bourdieu's emphasis on reflexivity--his inclusion of a theory of intellectual practice as an integral component of a theory of society--and on method--particularly his manner of posing problems that permits a transfer of knowledge from one area of inquiry into another. Amplified by notes and an extensive bibliography, this synthetic view is essential reading for both students and advanced scholars. Pierre Bourdieu is Professor of Sociology at the Collè ge de France. Loï c J. D. Wacquant is a Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows, Harvard University.

No judgement of taste is innocent - we are all snobs. Pierre Bourdieu's "Distinction" brilliantly illuminates the social pretentions of the middle classes in the modern world, focusing on the tastes and preferences of the French bourgeoisie. First published in 1979, the book is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind. In the course of everyday life, we constantly choose between what we find aesthetically pleasing, and what we consider tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu demonstrates that our different aesthetic choices are all distinctions - that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes. This fascinating work argues that the social world functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement.

《文化与权力》是在西方社会学界，特别是布尔迪厄研究领域享有盛誉的著作。布尔迪厄是当今世界最具影响力的社会理论家之一，他的著作对于20世纪90年代以来的汉语学界产生着越来越大的影响。但是对于不熟悉法国思想文化语境的中国学者而言，解读布尔迪厄却不是一件容易的事情。作为对布尔迪厄著作的综合的，批判性的检讨，本书围绕布尔迪厄理论的一个核心主题——文化与权力之间的关系展开，对布尔迪厄社会学的基本概念进行了清楚的界定与梳理，并通过详细的材料令人信眼地呈现了布尔迪厄的社会理论的学术渊源，分析了布尔迪厄如何综合了从涂尔干、马克思、韦伯以来的西方社会学理论和实践，并受到萨特、列维-斯特劳斯和阿尔都塞等思想家的影响。

布迪厄是近40年来在西方学术界中被人们引用最多的当代法国著名人类学家、社会学家和思想家。他从20世纪60年代起，就积极从事人文社会科学理论和方法论的革新，试图打破西方传统的主客二元对立的固定思考模式，创建了“建构的结构主义”的独特思想风格和理论研究新视野。他的著作极其丰富而艰深。本书作者以深入浅出和流畅的文体，系统地说明和分析布迪厄社会理论的基本脉络、主要概念及其对于当代社会问题的批判性探索成果，分别重点地说明其中最关键的“文化再生产”、“生存心态”、“场域”、“资本”及“语言象征性权力”等范畴，并就现代社会学校教育文化特权的再生产、权力正当化、生活风格及文化品味等当代消费社会的中心问题，做了详尽的分析，不但有助于推动我国人文社会科学各系学生、研究生及教师进一步深入研究布迪厄的社会理论，而且也有助于进一步了解当代西方社会的基本问题。

《区分》通过各种社会统计调查和时尚采样，揭示出各种所谓文化品位、生活趣味等文化消费其实是各阶级内部各阶层相互斗争的场域，反映的是社会的区分与差异，而这种种文化消费又再生产了这种区分与差异。 本书告诉我们，任何趣味都不是自然的、纯粹的，都是习性、资本和场域相互作用的产物。趣味是一种对人的阶级分类，而这一分类的构成、标示和维持，掩盖了社会不平等的根源，使不平等具有了某种合法的外衣。 本书是布尔迪厄这位二十世纪极具影响力的法国思想家对社会的最深刻的批判，他的洞察颠覆了人们的日常观念，极具穿透力。