On Pierre Bourdieu

Peeps,

Chatting on IRC today, Pierre Bourdieu came up; the leading French
intellectual, perhaps the dean of sociology worldwide, and the most
implacable left critic of globalization in Europe, Bourdieu is also
one of the most generally accessible French intellectuals in recent
years. He was especially fiercesome when it came to defending France's
version of those who in the US are called "illegal aliens" or
"undocumented workers" -- amnesty for whom really could be the* key
progressive issue in Texas and California -- and who were called *les
sans papiers* in France.

He was one of the chief intellectual supporters of the radical French
farmer Jose Bove'.

I've read and learned a lot from Bourdieu, and I commend his stuff to
any of you who are so inclined: --

P.B., Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action 
  Poorly titled, in my view, but a collection of very
  interesting essays, including many of Bourdieu's 
  chief interests

P.B., Acts of Resistance: Against the Tyranny of the Market
  Another collection of (shorter) pieces, most of which appeared in
  popular European media, most of which concern antiglobalization

P.B., Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste
  Something I've not yet read carefully; someone who knows of my
  interest in the ideological function of subjective, first-person
  avowals of taste or aesthetic judgment -- e.g. "I don't care for rap
  music" and the like -- suggested this book, which is really
  concerned with taste as an expression of social status or social
  capital; very interesting stuff.

Bourdieu also has two books on the ideology and discursive practices
of the university, which are also worth looking at if you're
interested in that stuff.

Anyone who criticized the faux-socialist Lionel Jospin and called
television a "symbolic instrument of oppression" is worth paying
*some* attention to.

I've also heard good things about a French documentary about Bourdieu,
Sociology in the Combat Zone -- prolly worth viewing if you can find
it.

Kendall Clark